Grounded

The Blueprint Series, Book 2
by Isla Wilde

📖 Free with Kindle Unlimited

Pairing: MF
Heat: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Inferno
Series: The Blueprint Series #2
Tropes: Blue Collar, Found Family, He Falls First, Hurt/Comfort, Protector Romance, Second Chances, Slow Burn

She lost everything to a lie. He spent fourteen months proving the truth. When a data-obsessed electrician shows a disgraced VP the wall of evidence he’s been secretly building, she discovers that someone has been fighting for her all along.

Sloane Winters used to be a VP of finance. Now she’s a disgraced fraud suspect hiding at a women’s shelter, fixing leaky drains and trying to rebuild a life that was destroyed by a billionaire’s lie. She’s done trusting people—especially men who look at her like she’s a puzzle to solve.

Vance Mercer is an electrician who notices everything. Especially the woman who flinches every time her phone buzzes. The one whose timeline doesn’t match the headlines. The one whose innocence he can prove—because he’s been quietly building the evidence for fourteen months, waiting for someone to listen.

When a federal subpoena forces Sloane back into the spotlight, Vance finally shows her what he’s found: a wall of evidence, impossible timestamps, and proof that she was set up by one of the most powerful men in finance. The same man who’s now doing everything possible to keep her silent.

As they work together to build the case that could clear her name, Sloane discovers that Vance’s obsession with data hides a heart that’s been broken before. And Vance learns that some patterns can’t be analyzed—like the way he’d burn down the world for a woman who’s forgotten she deserves to be fought for.

But taking on a billionaire has consequences. And when Sloane’s past comes for her, she’ll have to decide: keep running, or finally let someone catch her?

You’ll love this if you enjoy:

✓ Blue-collar hero with hidden depths
✓ Found family at a women’s shelter
✓ He falls first (14 months of secret pining)
✓ The notebook filled with observations about her
✓ Protective “touch her and die” energy
✓ Second chances and redemption
✓ Hurt/comfort with emotional healing
✓ High heat with praise kink elements

⚠️ Content Warning

This book contains discussion of past trauma, references to psychiatric hospitalization, panic attacks, corporate fraud and gaslighting, media harassment, and a villain who weaponizes mental health stigma. Also features explicit sexual content including praise kink and emotional vulnerability during intimacy. There is on-page recovery and healing, a fiercely supportive found family, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

Reader discretion advised. This book is intended for mature audiences only.

💬 Notable Quotes

“I’ve spent fourteen months watching you survive things that would break most people. You’re not fragile. You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met.”

“I don’t need statistics to convince me. You just need to ask.”

“You grounded me. In every sense of the word.”

📖 Read Chapter One Free

Chapter One: Static

The subpoena arrived on a Tuesday.

Sloane Winters was elbow-deep in a clogged drain when Daphne appeared in the bathroom doorway, waving an envelope like it was on fire.

“This came for you. Hand-delivered.” Daphne’s voice carried that particular edge—the one that meant something had shifted in the carefully constructed equilibrium of their lives. “Sloane. It’s from the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.”

The wrench slipped. Sloane’s knuckles cracked against the pipe, and she swore under her breath before extracting herself from beneath the ancient sink. The Foundation’s plumbing was a constant battle, but it was her battle now. Her penance. Her path back to something resembling a life.

She wiped her hands on her jeans and took the envelope. Heavy cream stock. Official seal. The kind of paper that announced itself before you even opened it.

Three years. Three years since her world had collapsed. Three years since Richard Whitmore had smiled at her across an SEC conference room and told a panel of investigators that Sloane had masterminded the entire fraud scheme. Three years since everyone had believed him.

She tore it open.

You are hereby commanded to appear before the United States District Court…

Her vision blurred. Words swam: testimony, fraud investigation, material witness.

“Sloane?” Daphne’s hand was on her arm now, steadying. “What is it?”

“They’re reopening the case.” Her voice sounded distant, like it belonged to someone else. “They want me to testify.”

The bathroom tiles seemed to tilt beneath her feet. Somewhere in the house, someone was laughing—one of the other residents, living their ordinary Tuesday, unaware that the past had just reached up through the drain and wrapped its fingers around Sloane’s throat.

“That’s good, isn’t it?” Daphne was saying. “That means they’re looking at Whitmore again. That means—”

“It means they want to parade me in front of a jury so his defense team can tear me apart.” Sloane folded the subpoena with precise, mechanical movements. “Again.”

She needed air. She needed space. She needed to not be standing in this cramped bathroom while her carefully rebuilt life crumbled around her.

She pushed past Daphne and walked—didn’t run, wouldn’t run—down the hallway, past the communal kitchen, through the back door into the garden. The February air hit her like a slap, cold and clarifying. She bent over, hands on her knees, and tried to remember how to breathe.

“You’re going to freeze out here.”

The voice came from the shadow of the old oak tree. Sloane’s head snapped up.

A man stood there—tall, broad-shouldered, with dark hair and the kind of watchful stillness that made her immediately wary. He was holding a clipboard and wearing a tool belt, which should have made him look like any other contractor. It didn’t.

“Who are you?” The question came out sharper than she’d intended.

“Vance Mercer.” He stepped forward, and she got a better look at his face—strong jaw, gray eyes that seemed to catalog everything they saw, a mouth set in a neutral line that gave nothing away. “I’m rewiring the east wing. Daphne hired me.”

Right. The electrical work. Sloane vaguely remembered approving the expenditure last week, back when her biggest concern had been whether the ancient fuse box would survive another winter.

“You shouldn’t be out here,” she said, though she wasn’t sure if she meant him or herself.

“Neither should you.” He nodded toward her bare arms, her thin sweater. “It’s thirty-four degrees.”

“I’m aware of the temperature.”

“And yet.” He shrugged out of his jacket—a heavy canvas work coat—and held it out to her.

Sloane stared at it like it might bite her. “I don’t need—”

“You’re shivering.”

She was. She hadn’t noticed until he pointed it out, but now she couldn’t stop—fine tremors running through her whole body that had nothing to do with cold and everything to do with the envelope still clutched in her hand.

“Take the jacket.” His voice was calm, unhurried. Not commanding, exactly, but certain. “I’ll get back to work. You can return it whenever.”

He didn’t wait for her response, just draped the coat over the garden bench beside her and walked away. She watched him go—measured steps, no looking back—and tried to figure out why his simple act of practicality had made her eyes sting.

Probably just the cold.

She picked up the jacket. It smelled like sawdust and clean soap and something faintly metallic. She put it on.

Then she sat on the frozen bench, alone in the winter garden, and read the subpoena three more times, as if the words might rearrange themselves into something survivable.

They didn’t.

…

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🔥 Want an EXCLUSIVE Bonus Chapter?

“The Last Notebook” — A scene TOO HOT for Amazon

Their wedding night at the Foundation house. Vance reveals the second notebook—the one where he documented falling in love with her. Features worship, praise kink, multiple rounds, and the emotional intimacy of finally being home.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is this book part of a series?

Grounded is Book 2 in The Blueprint Series—standalone romances connected by the Foundation house and its residents. Each book features a different couple and can be read in any order. Complete HEA guaranteed!

How spicy is this book?

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 — This is a 5/5 heat level book with multiple explicit scenes. Features praise kink, emotional vulnerability during intimacy, and a hero who worships every inch of his heroine. All scenes feature enthusiastic consent.

Is there a happily ever after?

Absolutely! Sloane and Vance get their HEA complete with wedding in the Foundation garden, the villain sentenced to 32 years in prison, and a nonprofit helping other survivors. No cliffhangers, just two broken people who find their way home to each other.

What’s with the notebooks?

Vance is a data-obsessed electrician who processes the world through observation and analysis. He filled 30+ notebooks documenting Sloane’s case—and couldn’t help adding observations about her laugh, her strength, and the exact moment he fell in love. The notebook reveal is one of the book’s most emotional scenes.

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