The Security Risk

Bianca Rossi has 6.4 million followers, seventeen rehearsed smiles, and a reputation that's currently on fire. The viral video shows her admitting to crimes she never committed, in a voice that sounds exactly like hers, in a face that moves almost like hers — almost. The internet doesn't care about almost. The internet cares about cancellation.

Marcus Chen is the head of security at Scandal Villa. Ex-military, monosyllabic, the kind of man who treats Ethernet cables like emotionally complex relationships and human beings like security risks to be assessed. He has spent three years running surveillance on this villa. He has never once gotten personally involved with a contestant.

Now Diana, the showrunner, has assigned him to Bianca.

His job: trace the deepfake to its source before the next one drops. His problem: the closer he gets to the woman behind the brand, the harder it is to pretend he's just doing his job.

Because Bianca isn't the villain the internet says she is. The deepfake is just the start. Someone is escalating, and the timeline is shrinking, and the scandals stacked against Bianca are only working because she's spent ten years performing a version of herself the world is now using as a weapon. Marcus has the surveillance footage. Bianca has the audience. Together, they have a chance to dismantle the smear campaign live, on broadcast, before the next deepfake destroys her for good. If they can survive the proximity. The hotel-room reviews of security footage. The night they stop pretending the protocol applies.

THE SECURITY RISK is Book 2 in the Scandal Villa series — a BookTok-native, dual-POV, high-heat romance about deepfakes, surveillance, and falling for the man who was hired to watch you. Standalone HEA. Full series available.

Tropes you'll find inside: - Bodyguard romance / grumpy x sunshine - Cancelled influencer heroine - Forbidden workplace / forced proximity - Deepfake scandal & internet harassment plotline - He falls first / monosyllabic hero - Dual POV, present tense, dual-timeline structure - Mediterranean villa setting - High heat (9/10) with surveillance-tech edge - HEA guaranteed

For readers who love grumpy heroes with hidden depths — and stories about reclaiming the narrative when the internet has already decided who you are.