Isla's unyielding commands have kept the protection contract intact until now, when the locked console room forces her controlling energy against Gabriel's quiet defiance in ways the assignment never prepared for. The lithe operative's private fear of abandonment collides with the broad chested man's hidden craving for the structure only she can provide through the discipline she alone can enforce.
Her palm flattens against his lower back over the glowing screens, the penthouse door open in the foyer and the city lights beyond serving as witnesses to the risk. Every correction she enforces tightens the possessive hold that could destroy their credibility, yet the discipline she must deliver grows impossible to delay as his surrender hangs in the balance.
