Falling in love with the client is bad for business. Sumner's father is a tyrant. No, really. He's the evil Oligarch of planet Aerie. And if Sumner can't get rid of him, he'll destroy their planet and their people. What's a good son to do but hire an assassin? It's bad enough Sex Engineer Paris Cordell's personal AI is flirting with the enemy planet's central computer system. He definitely doesn't need to fall in love with the son and heir to the man he must kill to complete his assignment.

Chance Hesperos is a Spartan, where logic rules and emotion is suppressed. His friends were murdered, and he's out for revenge. Now the UCP has saddled him with a sassy sex engineer guardian who challenges his self-control. Dawn is a Seelie empath who can't help teasing her new partner out of his prejudices and icy calm. She'll protect him with her life and her body, hoping he'll see her as something more than a sex toy and arm candy. The Hive sees emotion as a flaw and sex is nothing more than a procreative act. They'll swarm over humanity, if they can absorb Chance and Dawn into the Hive. Dawn’s passion and Chance’s logic must do more than create sparks. It’s going to take them both to save their lives.

Sometimes, taking a chance means risking more than just your life. Former intelligence officer Chance is insulted at the idea of having a tagalong sex engineer “bodyguard” until they get lost in the Hive, a world of insect-humans. Ex-ranger Dawn, Chance’s bodyguard, only looks like a cute, curly-haired blonde. On her world, she’s survived monsters. This time, the monsters have human faces. They’ll discover a mystery and an awful truth—there are things worse than dying.