Elena Marlowe is the best shoulder specialist in North America, and she does not get emotionally involved with patients. But when she takes on Declan Rourke, captain of the Portland Wolves, his injury is the least complicated thing about him. He has spent twelve years performing invincibility, and she can see through every layer. Day by day, session by session, their professional vocabulary becomes something far more dangerous. When her fingers stop assessing and start choosing, the clinical distance she has maintained for twelve years collapses into a language neither of them can take back. The question is not whether the chemistry will ignite. The question is what they are willing to risk when it does.