Gabe McIntosh is a former military sniper who now operates Tosh Industries, a security company that specializes in covert operations. He is hired to protect Natalie Udall, a strong, stubborn and trained woman who worked in black ops for the CIA, until forced to resign. Protecting her would not be hard if she didn't fight him the entire time. With Natalie, Gabe may break his own rules.

Natalie Udall is a former CIA agent who has been forced to resign. Natalie went against orders when she not only discovered a mole within the agency but also other weaknesses. She sacrificed her career in order to keep the remaining members of her team alive. Due to the nature of her work, her knowledge makes someone in the CIA uncomfortable. The CIA wants to make sure she is not, nor does she plan to give Intel on the CIA to anyone outside the agency.

Gabe needs to convince Natalie she is in danger. Natalie is writing it off and not taking the danger to herself seriously enough. Reports of her former team members suffering fatalities under freak circumstances has Gabe looking to get Natalie secluded as soon as possible. However, she is proving to be difficult, claiming that she doesn't need protection, she can protect herself.

When Natalie wakes up in a secluded cabin, alone, and wearing different clothing, her every instinct is to get away from the man that has been hired to protect her. Natalie is not used to having to look to someone else for her own protection. Since her mother's murder at the hands of her father, she has made her life about never needing anything from anyone. But her reaction to him has her wanting to run more than anything else.

From the moment Gabe meets Natalie, he is attracted to her. The close quarters of the small cabin prove to hinder both their restraint and before long, they both give in to their attraction and Gabe's first rule is broken. When their location is compromised, Gabe decides that the only other place she would be safe was in his personal home.

MINE is book three in the Holton Woods series. It works as a standalone book but there are characters from previous books that pop in and out. This is the first book I have read from the series and didn't have any trouble following along. HelenKay Dimon does a nice job of providing enough backstory for the read to follow along with feeling lost or out of the loop. I am tempted to go back and read the books prior to this one now!

I really enjoyed MINE. The characters are strong, and the story include some drama and suspense. I really enjoyed these characters and following along as their relationship goes from just sex to something more. The ending was a bit anti-climactic, but I don't feel like it took anything away from the story itself. This is the first book that I have read from HelenKay Dimon, and I can not wait to see what else she has released.

Book Summary

Praised for her “hot and bold”(Kirkus Reviews) romances of erotic intrigue, the author of Only and Mercy now delivers her most daring novel yet…

She doesn’t depend on anyone for anything. He intends to make her his completely.

Natalie Udall thought her position at the CIA was secure—until protecting her team earned her an armed escort into certain danger. Natalie can’t stand the idea of being secreted away in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, especially since it means sharing close quarters with the controlling bodyguard enlisted to keep her alive.

Gabe MacIntosh joined the military to support his son, trained as a sniper and dealt with death on a regular basis. Now retired and operating a security firm, his first assignment is to protect a CIA agent on the run. She’s strong willed and difficult—and all Gabe can think about is exerting his domination and stripping her of every expectation she has.

Natalie has no intention of giving in to Gabe’s straightforward demands of dominant sex with no attachments—even though the very idea of giving up control thrills her like nothing ever has…