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Issa arched a brow as she pulled on her surgical mask, her tone infuriatingly cheerful. ‘Admiral’s orders. Can’t argue with command, can you, Sable?’

His fingers curled into a fist before he forced them to relax.

Hewas the freakin’ head honcho.Why had no one consulted with him on the reassignment?

He made a note to speak to the Admiral afterward.

She took her place across from him.

Twas still too damn close because even in the sterile environment, he caught a trace of citrus from her skin.

His lips pressed into a hard line.

‘I assume you’re prepared?’

His growl was stern, unrelenting.

She grinned. ‘Wouldn’t have scrubbed in if I wasn’t. Thoughtful speech, by the way. Very rousing for the interns and junior doctors.’

Ki’Remi inhaled, turning his face toward the fan so the aseptic air cooled his heated vexation.

Issa was everything he couldn’t stand in a surgeon.

Too lighthearted.

Too impulsive.

Too freakin’ untamed in theater.

He glanced at the holo-screens where physicians from all over Pegasi observed via Sysnet, then up to the gallery where his students sat, waiting for him to begin.

Fokk. Fine.

There was nothing to be done now about her presence.

At least she was competent enough for him to trust her to make the right calls most of the time.

A holo scalpel materialized in his gloved hand, presented by the surgical drone.

‘Let’s get this over with.’

Issa, damn her, just winked at him.

Fervor came over him, and he canted his eyes away from her, loathing how she got under his dusky skin.

Detesting that she was here, he took a deep breath to regulate his lust.

Because despite his absolute control over this operating room, she was the only variable he might never reasonably predict.

ISSA

She wondered for the umpteenth time why thefokkshe was still hanging in there, doing this shit, beaming smiles, and spreading sprinkles of sunshine?

When, on most days, veiled by her cheerful mask, she was dead to the world, at least on the inside.

For a power far beyond anything Pegasi had ever seen or imagined had its talons buried deep.

It was sucking the essence of life and clawing into a soul she adored so much that it might as well have been her agony.