Kira Dorsey stands beside the leather examination table while Graham Utterback examines the disputed ledgers. Her throat birthmark flushes under his stern attention, the same attention that turns professional partnership into something far more commanding each time their hands brush.

The more they battle to secure the deed, the tighter the clinic draws them. Graham's controlled presence offers the discipline her yielding nature craves, his fingers hovering near the cabinet that holds both their future and the tools of her correction.

When he locks the outer door and orders her to the table's edge, the air thickens with the promise of what his physician's authority will demand next.