Fire and Ice by Victoria Paige
Maia Pierce is good at her job as a top agent for a private security firm. But her latest assignment is compromised when a past mission is about to catch up with her. Now the huntress has become the hunted.
Former Navy SEAL Jack McCord thought he had everything he needed in life, until a stunning redhead strides into his office. Money, power, and other women become insignificant when compared to his intense attraction to his brother’s bodyguard.
Despite being in a drug lord’s crosshairs, Maia refuses protection, leaving Jack to take drastic measures to ensure her safety.
Alphas collide.
Passions ignite.
And danger escalates.
Falling in love with Maia hadn’t been in Jack’s plans, but will he lose her before he can make her his?
* Can be read as standalone. Mature Audience only.
- File Name:fire-and-ice-by-victoria-paige.epub
- Original Title:Fire and Ice (Guardians)
- Creator:Paige, Victoria
- Language:en
- Identifier:MOBI-ASIN:B00C5W2FTA
- Date:2013-04-01T21:00:00+00:00
- File Size:348.068 KB
Table of Content
- 1. Contents
- 2. Title Page
- 3. Dedication
- 4. Chapter One
- 5. Chapter Two
- 6. Chapter Three
- 7. Chapter Four
- 8. Chapter Five
- 9. Chapter Six
- 10. Chapter Seven
- 11. Chapter Eight
- 12. Chapter Nine
- 13. Chapter Ten
- 14. Chapter Eleven
- 15. Chapter Twelve
- 16. Chapter Thirteen
- 17. Chapter Fourteen
- 18. Chapter Fifteen
- 19. Chapter Sixteen
- 20. Chapter Seventeen
- 21. Chapter Eighteen
- 22. Chapter Nineteen
- 23. Chapter Twenty
- 24. Chapter Twenty-One
Fire and Ice, Book 1 of the Guardians series, was about 30-year-old Maia Pierce, an agent for Artemis Guardian Services (AIG), AKA "The Guardians", and 39-year-old Jack McCord, a former Navy SEAL and co-owner of McCord Defense Industries MDS), a private security company.
Maia had been given the detail as a bodyguard to Brett McCord, the brother of Jack McCord because her boss felt she had taken too many risks during her last assignment and "needed a lesson" and to take a break from the field.
At their initial meeting, Jack realized he had underestimated Maia's abilities because she was female. Although brief, both made rash assessments of the other and then she took his brother into protective custody. Derek, Jack's business partner, was already familiar with Maia's capabilities since he had worked with her before when he was employed with AIG.
Less than three days later, the safe house was hit, with several agents being injured. The only deaths were the baddies. Maia had taken two shots due to her client bolting in panic. Once "clean up" occurred, Jack let Maia know he wanted to pursue something with her. In turn, Maia let him know that she didn't "date or do relationships", to which he responded that he said nothing about either. He was taken aback when she rejected his overtures. However, he wasn't giving up that easily.
Once the case was over and the bad guys were brought to justice, Maia's job as Brett's bodyguard ended. But five days later, Jack's partner got a call from Maia's boss that caused his face to drain of all color, and Jack to feel a sense of dread. He was told that the Russian mafia, the baddies from her previous assignment, had found Maia and was trying to take her out. Derek and Jack were closer to her location than her team and they were asked to assist in extracting her. Once they located her and were ready to leave Jack, after hearing she planned to stay close so she could help take down the Russian baddies after her, did the only thing he could think of to keep her safe. He drugged and kidnapped her.
After losing his fiancee twelve years earlier, Jack had, at first, succumbed to only one-night stands. However, he got tired of that after a while and decided to do short-term relationships with other women, never wanting to be with one woman for longer than 2-3 months. His last relationship had gone as long as 8 months until the woman started giving him ultimatums that forced him to break things off, mere weeks before he met Maia.
After having only known her for a week or so, Jack was becoming attached in ways he never did with his other hookups. Even though he knew that Maia didn't "do relationships", and they had agreed to only a two-week-long "f*ck-fest", the longer Jack and Maia spent together, the more possessive and jealous he became. He was even getting angry at the risks she was taking with work and "he was frustrated by her willfulness and independence. He wanted her to need him, and not just for sex".
The book was full of angst, drama, intrigue, spiciness, and frustration, just to name a few of the emotions that created the twists and turns in the emotional rollercoaster. It kept the interest of the reader and, as the plot twists moved along at warp speed, it rarely got dull.
However, Jack's character had a serious flaw for the entirety of the story. With his job working with the Defense Department, and with full knowledge of the ins and outs of Maia's job working with the security company, he was well-versed in "it's classified" missions. However, he didn't like that Maia was not telling him everything about her job, even knowing she wasn't able to share the information with him. He was too domineering, too controlling, and always angry with her for "taking too many risks" that her job called for.
Maia's character was strong-willed, bada$$, and definitely no wilting flower. She could handle her own issues and was often caught up in one terrifying situation after another that she managed to get herself out of more often than not, which pissed Jack off to no end.
The secondary characters, most of which have a book of their own in this series, were awesome, with the exception of one or two. The bad guys were...well bad, which made the story that much more enjoyable. The twists and turns were never over the top, but just enough to keep the juices flowing.
Most of the book was written in dual POV, but the closer to the end, the more POVs were added. It started to become confusing the way it darted between 4-5 different people without any warning. The story had its fair share of grammatical errors, sometimes to the point of distracting from the flow of the book, but that didn't take away from how I rated it. I gave the book a 4-star rating, and it will be added to my Keeper for the Shelves collection.
This had great reviews on amazon, and to be honest, it took me over half the book to really get a little interested. There were a lot of people to try and keep up with, and the female was just hit with thing after thing (no spoilers). I skimmed a lot just to get the end. Glad it was a quick read.