Heart Trouble Page 4

  “I know I’ve never wanted something so much,” he said against the corner of her mouth. “Tell me you want it too.”

  No question. “I want this.”

  Sean swiveled with her on his lap, planted his feet on the floor, and cupped her ass in his palms. “Hold on to me.”

  Erin linked her hands behind his neck as he stood, carrying her down the hallway toward her bedroom as if she weighed no more than a sleeping child.

  “Damn, it’s dark in here,” he mumbled as he pushed the door open with his foot.

  “I have to sleep a lot during the day,” she said.

  “Right, I forgot about that.”

  He stretched Erin out across her bed and left her there to part her heavy dark-green curtains, flooding the room with pale blue moonlight.

  “Much better. Now I can see you.” He leaned over her again and kissed her, but before she could wrap her limbs around him and pull him closer, he lifted his head. “Don’t move a muscle. I’ll be right back,” he said, giving her bottom lip a sharp warning nip with his teeth.

  Erin watched him leave the bedroom, her heart beating wildly. She heard him rummaging around in the living room, then walking back down the hall. Desire streaked through her bloodstream like a lit fuse.

  In his right hand he held his gun, strapped inside its holster, which he placed on the nightstand. In his left hand was a strip of three condom packets. She grinned up at him as he tore one off and tossed it on the bed, then dropped the others beside his pistol. An odd juxtaposition, those two items—safety and danger, kind of how she saw Sean.

  He crawled over her, bracing his hands beside her shoulders, pinning her legs between his knees. “I like you much better like this. All soft and natural, sexier and even more beautiful than you think you are.” Her stomach did that fluttery thing again. This time she couldn’t blame it on alcohol. “I bet your male patients love having you work on them, a powerful distraction from their pain.” His fingertips traced a path from her neck to her belly. “A dose of you would feel better than a shot of morphine.”

  He pushed the hem of her tank top up her stomach and pressed his mouth to her fevered skin. She gasped at the contact. “Sean.”

  “If I were lying on a gurney dying, it’d be okay if I could look at you as I go.”

  She laced her hands through his hair before grabbing fistfuls and tugging his face up. “Don’t say things like that,” she said, forcing a scowl.

  He grinned crookedly. “But it’s true.”

  Her hands explored his bunching shoulders, the thick, soft hair that covered his nape, and the flat disks of his nipples, while his mouth found all the secret, sensitive spots on her neck and beneath her ear. He groaned when her blunt nails raked over his rib cage, and Erin loved that she’d made him make that sound.

  Sean sat back on his haunches and lifted the tank top, exposing her breasts. Her nipples were already hard, but under his hungry gaze, they pinched even tighter. “Damn.” She raised her arms for him to strip it over her head. “You could be a lingerie model.”

  Her blush went unseen in the dim light. “Not my style.”

  “No, and I’m glad. I like that you don’t normally flaunt the wares. Makes me grateful that I’m the lucky bastard who gets to see ’em. Maybe even a little greedy,” Sean said as his hands came up to cup her breasts possessively, thumbs brushing back and forth over their peaked tips.

  Erin arched, seeking more of his firm touch, wanting his warm mouth. “Sean, please.”

  He lowered his head, answering her soft plea. As his tongue made lazy circles around her distended nipple, his fingers strummed at its twin. Sean sucked her into the wet heat of his mouth, and she whimpered, feeling her pussy contract and slicken with his hungry tugs. When he pulled away, he blew softly across the damp, puckered flesh. Erin squeezed her thighs together, thrashed her head on the mattress.

  “Like that, huh?” His lips formed the question against the underside of her breast.

  Sean focused his attention on her other nipple, treating it to the same lavish attention. Erin tilted her head to watch this time, wanting to memorize the erotic images. He caught her gaze and bared his teeth, biting down until she cried out at the pinch of pain muddled with a rush of pleasure.

  Her sex throbbed, needy and swollen. Wet. God, she was so wet it was almost embarrassing. She’d read about women who could orgasm from nipple stimulation alone, but in the past she’d always required much more than that to get off. Given the talent in Sean’s lips and tongue and teeth, she was beginning to see the possibility.

  She cupped his cock through his jeans, encouraged by his strangled groan against her skin when she gave him a firm squeeze. He was rigid and thick, long if her hand was a decent measuring device. Fumbling with his zipper, she eased it down.

  He rose up on his hands and knees again, dark hair falling forward across his forehead and cheeks, his expression pained. “Take my cock out,” he said. “I want to feel those talented hands.”

  Erin smiled and slid her hand into his briefs to lift him out. He filled her palm, warm and silky, and so unbelievably hard he felt intimidating. Sean hissed, pushing his hips forward into her grasp as she stroked him. It was almost unfair how soft men’s cocks were. How could skin like silk manage to contain steel?

  She swirled the pad of her thumb across the tight, plump head of his dick, spreading the bead of fluid around. Lifting her hand to her mouth, she sucked her thumb clean while he watched. He tasted salty, musky, intriguing. Erin had never minded going down on a lover when the mood struck, but she wouldn’t say she was overly eager to do it—they’d always acted as if it was more of an entitlement than a gift. Sean’s taste, the almost reverent way he watched her now, made her want to force him to his back and suck him until he lost his ever-lovin’ mind.

  His eyes darkened even further. “Fuck, I think I could come just watching you do that. We might try that some time.” Erin filed that little happy thought away under the heading of “Interesting Possibilities.”

  He scooted backward off the bed, stood, and shucked his jeans and underwear. He knelt between her thighs, reached for her boxers, and stripped them down her legs.

  “So pretty and wet,” he mused. “You know I’ve got to have a taste too.” Erin squirmed restlessly at the thought of his mouth on her pussy. A small, evil smile lifted the corners of his lips as he pushed her thighs apart with his palms. She clutched at double handfuls of her comforter.

  “Ah, I can’t take much more. I’m already halfway there.”

  He nipped and licked at the sensitive skin of her inner thighs, taking his time, easing higher and closer. When he sucked in a deep breath and his nostrils flared, Erin almost lost it right then.

  His thumbs parted her, and he dipped his tongue through her slit, plunged it inside her. Erin’s hips bucked off the mattress. “Christ.” Sean’s warm breath caressed her swollen flesh. Then he lavished attention right where she needed it most, slipping one long finger inside, then another, stretching and filling her.

  “Ohmigod, that’s…um, oh, wow,” she said.

  As soon as the tip of his tongue made a steady assault on her clit, Erin fell headlong into an orgasm so strong it made white spots dance behind her closed eyelids, and her toes curl into the cool down comforter. She moaned until Sean relented from his eager ministrations and placed a sucking kiss below her belly button.

  “You weren’t kidding, were you?” he asked.

  She hoped he didn’t expect an answer to that question, because her brain had melted.

  She blinked open her eyes to watch as he rolled on a condom and settled between her still-quivering thighs. Erin reached for his face, drawing him down for a long, wet kiss. He tasted like her and him and sin and satisfaction.

  When she whimpered, Sean caught the needy sound with his mouth. He lifted his head to watch her face as he pushed into her pussy. Erin forced her eyes to stay open, locked with his.

  “Incredible,” Sean said.
>
  Yes, yes, yes. That and so much more.

  The pleasure was back, spearing through her like a hot lance, resetting her system for another orgasm if she was lucky. Oh, but he was the perfect size. Big enough to cause that delicious stretch and hit all the right spots deep inside, yet not so much to be uncomfortable.

  Erin cried out when he withdrew, then plunged even deeper still, touching off ripples of ecstasy that spread outward. Heat traveled up her chest to bloom in her cheeks. The soles of her feet felt hot and tingly.

  As he thrust into her, she became hyperaware of his ragged breathing, the combined smells of their arousal thick in the air, the feel of his body sliding across hers. And she’d only thought him handsome before. Seeing him so lost in sensation made him look like a sex god above her, taking what he wanted and giving it back tenfold. Sean’s fingertips dug into her hip, but Erin didn’t care if he left bruises. She loved his almost brutal domination of her body.

  With each measured stroke the pleasure grew, bringing her closer to coming again. He opened his eyes and smiled guiltily, as if he’d forgotten she was even in the room. Erin touched his face, and he slowed. He dipped his head to suck her nipple so deeply his cheeks hollowed, and she was there, pitching forward into bliss.

  “Sean.” She dug her nails into his flanks as she rocked under him.

  He moaned deep in his chest and thrust hard once more, then eased off, bumping his hips in short, slow glides until he stilled and rested his weight on his elbows above her.

  He kissed her throat, then withdrew from her body and flopped over onto the mattress beside her. The sounds of their labored breathing calmed, and he reached for her hand, sliding his fingers through hers. It was such an innocent gesture, given the deep carnality of what they’d just shared, but somehow it almost seemed too intimate.

  Sean lifted their linked hands to his mouth and kissed her knuckles, then dropped her hand and scooted off the bed, walking into her bathroom to dispose of the condom.

  She climbed under the sheet on her side of the bed, sexual satiation causing her muscles to feel loose and languid, like warm jelly. Sean joined her and snaked his arm around her waist, spooning her back snug against his chest without bothering to ask if she was a cuddler or not. She grinned despite herself.

  Seeing his enormous menacing gun on her nightstand reminded her of why he was here in the first place, though. Her smile faded as disquiet crept through her again.

  “Sean?”

  “Hmm?” he murmured into her hair.

  She cast a hesitant glance at her bedroom door. He’d left it open on purpose, she was sure of it. “Would you hear someone if they broke in?”

  The band of his arm tightened around her. “Yes. Don’t worry. I’m a light sleeper.”

  Tonight, she might be too.

  Chapter Five

  Sean awoke for the second time Saturday morning, lifting his head to peer at Erin’s alarm clock. It was just after eight. His body told him he wouldn’t be falling back asleep this time.

  He’d awoken earlier when he’d gotten a glaring dose of why she had thick, dark curtains over her bedroom window. After closing them, he’d crawled back into bed to snuggle against her soft warmth. He would’ve drifted back off to sleep, but his greedy dick that pressed into the enticing crack of her perfect ass changed what was on the agenda.

  Instead, he’d roused her with soft kisses to her nape and his hands on her body. One palm had cupped a breast, teasing the pale pink nipple with a circling thumb while he eased his fingers between her silky thighs. She’d murmured groggily, then stretched like a kitten in the sun. Those murmurs turned to moans when he stroked her clit. In seconds, she was wet and pushing her bottom back into his groin. He didn’t need any more encouragement than that.

  Sean had rolled on a condom, then slipped inside her snug heat.

  He’d lifted her leg over his thigh so he could touch her while he slowly worked his hips. His trigger had always been quick in the mornings, so he’d kept the pace lazy until he felt her pussy tighten around his cock and heard her make that sweet little stuttered moan that he now knew signaled her climax. In just a few more short thrusts, he came with her.

  It hadn’t been intense like last night, but it had still been satisfying and no less meaningful.

  Sean knew it wouldn’t take much for him to fall hard for Erin. Hell, he was nearly there already after only one night. He loved the way they pushed each other’s buttons, something that could, and sometimes did, drive two people apart. Instead, it seemed to make them that much hotter for each other. She’d resisted the chemistry between them at first, gave it a valiant fight, but in the end it had been too potent, and damned if he wasn’t thankful for their shared weakness.

  Now he had a feeling the hard part would begin—convincing her to see him again. Apparently, she’d dated some real insecure pricks. Despite the roadblocks she’d thrown up last night, he wanted a chance to get to know her better. To date her, maybe see if they could make something work between them. What she hadn’t realized was he had shitty work schedules too. He had days he was tired and stressed to the max. He dealt with it the best way he knew how and moved on. And the money was not an issue either. He’d prove that to her as well if this thing between them went any further.

  He eased off the bed and pulled on his underwear and jeans. When Erin stirred, he leaned down to kiss the delicate shell of her ear. “It’s still early. Go back to sleep,” he whispered. She hummed a happy, drowsy noise and nestled her head deeper into the pillow. He closed the bedroom door behind him.

  The first order of business was mastering the coffeepot. Once he had it going, he brushed his teeth in her spare bathroom and pulled on a clean T-shirt from his duffel. He found the television remote on the bar in the kitchen and turned on a local news channel, keeping the volume low while he waited for the coffee to brew, its rich, welcomed aroma filling the air of her apartment. Just the smell alone made his brain perk up.

  Sean rummaged through cabinets until he found cups and poured himself one. The other he’d leave out for when Erin awoke. He dumped two spoonfuls of sugar into his and stirred while he took in his surroundings in the light of day.

  With her income, Erin could afford a bigger, more luxurious place. Not that hers was a dump. Far from it. It was a two bedroom, one of which she used as a gym-slash-office judging from what he’d seen inside it last night. The condo’s decor was tasteful yet understated, comfortable. It suited her. She seemed to like soft fabrics in neutral colors, with the exception of the dark curtains over the window in her bedroom. There was nothing garish or tacky to be found.

  It was almost too tidy, too sparse, as if she barely lived here at all. If she read books or magazines, they were tucked away somewhere out of sight. There was no everyday clutter anywhere, not even a pack of gum or a pile of loose change or mail. The only room that showed any signs of life was her bedroom. A brief pang of concern struck him at the thought that she had no life outside the hospital.

  His house wasn’t dirty, but if he was being honest, it could stand some organization. He left DVDs and CDs stacked around his entertainment center, mail piled up on the kitchen table, unwashed glasses in the sink. Sean would rather sandpaper his nuts than deal with laundry. That was why he paid his baby sister to do it.

  Erin’s glass slider opened onto a small patio that overlooked a landscaped courtyard with a large rectangular pool in the middle, surrounded by lounge chairs and wrought-iron tables shaded by colorful umbrellas. He’d smiled to himself last night when he noticed the three plants she had outside, withered and turning brown from lack of attention. She could save human lives, but apparently foliage didn’t stand a chance.

  There were a few framed photographs scattered about the living room. Sean picked up his cup and drew closer to get a better look. There was one of her and Tess in their scrubs at the hospital, arms flung around each other’s shoulders, bright smiles on their faces. Another of Erin and a guy that had to be he
r brother. He looked a bit older, by maybe four or five years, but shared the same striking blue eyes and facial structure. His hair was a darker shade of blond, almost brown. Then there were several photos of an older couple—most likely the parents, because the two siblings were in a few with them, and there were strong resemblances between the four of them.

  Sean wanted to know more. He wanted to know what she was like as a kid, her favorite food, the kind of movies she preferred, what made her want to become a doctor. She couldn’t be more than thirty-one or two, yet she felt like an old soul to him, as if she’d perhaps seen too much already. Could have been that working in the hospital, around life and death day in and day out, had made her seem that way. In that respect, they were a lot alike. He’d experienced a lot of darkness in his profession, enough to make him a bit jaded.

  The thought of work jarred him back to the moment. He sat down at the bar and focused on the television as a news update came on. He turned the volume up a notch when he saw the picture of a young, smiling blonde-haired woman and then a live feed of police and medical vehicles outside an apartment complex, bystanders being held back by uniformed officers and yellow tape. His stomach clenched in apprehension.

  “Fears are that the Riverside Rapist has struck again. A source close to JPD confirms that Courtney Meldon, twenty-six, of Jacksonville was stabbed and sexually assaulted in her apartment sometime last night between the hours of…”

  “Fuck.” Sean muted the TV and snatched up his phone from the end table near the couch where he’d left it last night. No missed calls. Technically, he’d been off duty at midnight, but still… He dialed his partner, Luke.

  “I guess you saw the news,” Luke said when he answered, skipping over the formalities. Sean heard a lot of chatter and traffic noise in the background, like he was on scene.

  “Just now. What’re the details?”

  “I was getting ready to dial you, man. How the goddamned media people find this shit out before us is beyond me. I’m here now. Her apartment’s east of Emerson, about six blocks from where the last victim was attacked. Right now it looks like the same guy, same MO anyway. Pretty blonde, no sign of forced entry. So far no prints and no semen left behind at the scene either, but they’re still processing. A friend of the victim became concerned when she didn’t show up for a yoga class this morning and wasn’t answering her phone, had the superintendent open the door.”