Collateral desire- His to protect, mine to desire
Elian Lanchester doesn’t need a bodyguard, he needs the world to stay out of his way. Cold, calculated, and impossible to touch, the tech billionaire has built an empire with his brain and burned bridges with his bite. But when a stalker’s threats become dangerously real, his board forces him to get a bodyguard. Unfortunately, they send Dax Reyes, a man Elian hates genuinely.
Back in military university, Elian was the guy everyone idolised because of his riches while Dax was a scholarship student who swore to be a ruthless dedicated soldier.
Dax is rugged, discreet and unshakably disciplined. The ex-military bodyguard is everything Elian despises and everything he can’t stop watching. Dax isn’t intimidated by Elian’s wealth or his venom. He’s unbothered in the face of provocation, even when the tension burning between them threatens to set the house on fire.
But Dax has secrets of his own. He has a family, a past and a line he swore never to cross. When one kiss turns into something that can no longer be denied, Elian and Dax find themselves on the edge of something real and terrifying. Then a bullet changes everything.
Desire turns to devastation. Lies twist into betrayal and just when Elian thinks he’s been used and discarded, he discovers the truth was never what it seemed.
Now, it's a race against the silence they've both used as an armor. And this time, loving each other might be the most dangerous thing of all.
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Chapter: CHAPTER FOURDax PovThe silence between us had shifted into something brutal. It didn’t sit politely in the air. It sslow, corrosive and scraping under my skin like sandpaper dragged across bone. There was no comfort in it. No relief. Just a vast, aching absence where words should have lived.We hadn’t really spoken since the press event. Not in a real way. Not in even the way Elian and I had come to understand talking to ourselves in… through insults disguised as questions, through charged silences that said more than most people dared. That had all stopped.Elian stopped throwing his barbed remarks like darts meant to kill. I stopped pretending I wasn’t watching his every move like a man tracking fault lines, trying to predict where the earthquake would split next. We became two tectonic plates drifting toward disaster. Close. Quiet. Unstoppable.I sat in the den, cleaning my Glock for the third time. My hands moved on instinct, field-stripping the metal like it might offer clarity. The repetit
Last Updated: 2025-07-24
Chapter: CHAPTER THREEDax PovWe had gotten home about two hours earlier. The city lights continued to shine outside my blinds, bathing the walls in soft amber rhythms. Yet I was not sleeping. I hadn't even tried. I lay there in darkness, still clothed, head on one arm, staring up at the ceiling as if it owed me something.Elian just simply existed in his own orbit, dragging all things around him, sucking it into his dirty, blinding gravity. And somehow I was being sucked in.Tonight was going to be simple. Get him to the press conference. Stand alongside him and guard the exits but Elian had never been a simple man. He flirted with the other CEO, the one who was his competition, some slick guy with roving hands and eyes that were trouble written everywhere. Elian knew exactly what he was doing. He was trying to get under my skin.I wonder what he would think about that gesture when he finds out I am married.When I recognized that suspicious-looking guest approaching with something glinting in his coat po
Last Updated: 2025-07-24
Chapter: CHAPTER TWOElian's PovI woke up pissed.There was no real reason, except maybe the fact that I hadn’t slept. My mind had been a warzone, memories, regrets, and the ghost of Dax’s voice echoing in places it had no business reaching. By the time the first hint of dawn bled through the blinds, I was already bracing for a day I knew I’d hate.Dragging myself out of bed, I moved through the hallway barefoot, shirtless, and already reaching for the aspirin in the cabinet I kept above the sink. But something stopped me cold.Coffee.The smell hit me hard. Strong. Rich. Freshly brewed. My stomach turned not because I didn’t want it, but because it was impossible.I lived alone.I stepped into the kitchen and immediately I saw him, my mind went back to factory mode. Dax. He was leaning against my counter like he owned the place, sleeves rolled up, two mugs on the granite island, steam curling from both like this was a fucking Sunday morning in suburbia.My jaw locked.The kitchen was mine. Sacred. Priva
Last Updated: 2025-07-24
Chapter: CHAPTER ONEElian's Pov“I am not hiring a damn babysitter Francine. I said what I said.” My voice sliced through the tension of the board room before I even took a seat. It felt like my neck was on a damn chopping block.The late evening sun bled orange through the windows of Lancaster Industries, casting long shadows across the room and making my glare all the more scary.Boardroom silence should feel like a cool exhale but the calmness that filled this one was the calmness before a stormy decision was made. The board members flinched as Francine calmly folded her hands across the glossy mahogany table. She was the only person in the room who had learned how to stand her ground when I was on one of my rampages."You’re not hiring a babysitter," she repeated slowly, like she was speaking to a troubled child. "You’re hiring a bodyguard. There’s been a second death threat on you and this one included a detailed description of your route to work. And they knew what tie you wore last Friday."My li
Last Updated: 2025-07-24
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