Heart Trouble (2 page)

The bartender hovered, tapping his fingers on the back of the bar while his eyes devoured Erin like she’d been dipped in whipped cream. “What can I get you, sugar?”

“Bourbon, light ice please,” she said, her sweet southern lilt losing most of its warmth, he assumed because of the use of the word sugar, or the blatant leering.

“Can I get you another beer, man?” he asked, squinting at Sean.

Talk about your dye jobs
. The guy’s hair was bleached so pale it glowed.

Sean shook his head. He’d allowed himself one drink, and he’d drunk it so slowly it had warmed in his palm. Alcohol dulled the senses, and he was supposed to be working. Now that Erin had sidled up next to him, he was thankful he’d abstained. He wanted those senses to be sharp, so he’d remember their conversation,
remember her
, even if she walked away from him in five minutes.

The bartender set her drink down, and Sean caught her hand in his, stopping her from paying for it. He tossed a ten on the bar and waved off the change because he wanted the bartender to disappear. She extracted her hand from his grasp, but not before he felt a tingle of awareness travel through him.

“Thanks for the drink.”

“You’re welcome. Bourbon drinker, huh? A woman after my own heart.”

“Oh, I’m not after your heart, Sean.”

His dick stirred at the provocative statement. What the hell was up with him? He’d never had this kind of instant visceral reaction to a woman before in his life. Erin was more potent than the liquor she was sipping. “No? Then what are you after?”

He watched her, curious about what her answer would be. His cock hoped she’d say the use of his body for the night, but his brain wanted to explore things a little further than that.

There was something different about Erin, something that didn’t quite mesh with the sex-kitten outfit. The clothes didn’t suit the girl who wore them. She was smart, quick on her feet. She was flirty, but not in an over-the-top, in-your-face kind of way. She didn’t reek of expensive, overapplied perfume, and there wasn’t a piece of flashy jewelry to be found on her. Her makeup was tasteful and minimalist. Even her nails were bare of polish, trimmed short and neat.

The pulse at the base of her neck beat rapidly too, belying her calm outward demeanor. Why would a woman who looked like her—who could have any guy in the place with one crook of a finger—be nervous talking to him? It didn’t add up.

“I’m not sure yet,” she said. “I’ll answer that after we’ve talked for a bit.”

He grinned to hide a wave of disappointment. “Okay, I guess that’s fair.”

“Married?” she asked.

The directness of her question caught him a little off guard, since they were flirting with each other, but then he knew there were women out there who wouldn’t be deterred by the presence of a wedding band, or the indention left behind by one hidden away in a pocket. Some of them even sought married men out. She wasn’t one of those women. There was no doubt in his mind if he said yes, Erin would spin on her high heels and leave him choking on her dust.

“No. You?”

“Oh, God no,” she said, as if she found the idea repulsive. “Ever been?”

“Got close once. Caught her in bed with our neighbor
and
his brother.”

Erin grimaced. “Ouch.”

“Yeah, it hurt for about a day, until I realized they’d done me a huge favor. How ’bout you? Ever been close?”

“No,” she said, glancing down at the drink she held in her hand.

“How’s that possible?”

“I’m a workaholic.” She tapped her temple with a finger. “Kinda have a hard time shutting down, ya know?”

Sean got that. He suffered from the same affliction. “What do you do?”

Her mouth twitched before she took a sip of her drink. “What do you think I do?”

So they were going to play that game. Well, all right then. Normally he wasn’t into games when it came to women. It turned him off faster than a light switch, no matter how beautiful she was. It would take a hell of a lot more than that for this woman to turn him off.

Sean let his eyes drift over her body again, cataloging every curve and freckle. He’d been good up to this point, keeping his gaze trained on her face like a gentleman should, when he wanted to stare at her chest till his eyes bled.

“Lingerie model?”

She smirked. “Not even close.”

“Mechanic?”

She laughed then, a deeply genuine sound that made him want to feel it with his mouth pressed against her throat. “That’s closer than you might think. What about you?”

He grazed the back of her hand with his fingertips. “Wait a second. You dodged an answer.”

“Did I?” she asked, feigning innocence. “I’d rather ask you questions.”

He sighed and shook his head in frustration. Maybe he had to pass some crazy female test. “I’m a cop.”

Her brows shot up, something like wonder filling her eyes. “Cool! Can I see your badge?”

He reached into his front pocket and pulled it out, then flipped it over in his palm. When she pursed her lips and nodded, he tucked it away.

She leaned closer until their shoulders touched, lowered her voice to a sexy murmur. “Are you wearing a gun right now?”

Good thing the bar didn’t allow smoking inside. He breathed deep, catching her soft scent. She smelled like…honey? He’d be willing to bet she’d taste like it too. Everywhere.

“Yeah, I’m packing.” Christ, was that ever a loaded statement, considering his dick had been half-hard ever since she’d walked up to him.

Her eyes turned smoky. “Oddly, I’m quite turned on by that.”

It was Sean’s turn to laugh out loud at her directness. She sure didn’t pull any punches. He wanted to kiss her right then and there, among other things. “Well, that’s a new one.”

If he wasn’t mistaken, she blushed. “Seriously? A woman has never said the thought of you packing heat is a huge turn-on? What’s wrong with the women you’ve dated?”

For one thing, none of them were anything like you
. He grew somber, studying her incredible smiling face. The desire to get closer to her was palpable, both physically and intellectually. “You want to get out of here? Go grab a cup of coffee someplace quiet, so we can talk some more?”

Her pretty lips parted to reply. Unfortunately, that was when all hell chose to break loose.

Chapter Two

A woman’s piercing scream broke through the din of the bar. People pushed and shoved, trying to get closer to the action or farther away from it. The bar’s staff came out of the woodwork to get the excited horde of partiers under control.

“Somebody please, help us!” a female voice shouted. “
Please!
Oh God, he’s not breathing!”

Erin froze in the commotion, then turned to look for Tess, the shouted plea for medical help like a bucket of ice water dumped over her lust-fogged head. She didn’t have time to analyze that she had indeed been thirsting for more of Sean, the smokin’ hot cop.

Sean grabbed her arm when she started to enter the agitated crowd. “Erin, wait. It’s not safe to go—”

She peeled his fingers from her bicep, flirty vixen persona floating away like smoke. “I’m a doctor.”

His mouth opened in surprise, then closed, an unnamed emotion darkening his features as he stared at her face intently. He must’ve believed her though, because he began pushing his way through the crowd, barking at people to get out of his way as he pulled Erin along behind him.

“Erin!” Tess shouted, kneeling in the chair at their table so she could see over the thick sea of people.

“Let’s go,” Erin ordered with a wave of her hand, her medical training superseding everything else.

They reached the man lying on his back on the floor of the bar. Erin pushed the onlookers back and dropped to her knees, ignoring the biting grit of sand and God only knew what else grinding into her flesh. The tight dress rode farther up her thighs, and she was probably flashing part of her ass, but modesty took a backseat to necessity.

“My name is Erin Taylor. I’m an ER doctor at Baptist Hospital. Get this crowd back now. I need the music off and the lights on, and somebody damn sure better have already called 911!”

A low murmur vibrated through the thick mass of bodies. Staff forced them back, the music died a quick death, and bright halogen lights flashed on, temporarily blinding everyone.

Erin focused on her patient.

The guy looked to be in his early thirties, pale as cotton, and unconscious. When Erin pressed her fingers to his throat, he had no pulse. She immediately started chest compressions.

“Tess, check to see if they have an AED.” Tess scrambled off to do as Erin asked. “Sean?” she said.

“Talk to me, Doc,” he answered, bending down near her shoulder. She found it strangely comforting that he was still close by.

“Get these people out of here. Threaten to shoot them, arrest them, whatever you have to do.”

“Handled,” he said in a stern cop voice.

Behind her, Sean took over, and the shuffling of feet followed among the grumbling of people wanting to watch someone die before their eyes.

Tess came running back. “No AED.”

“It was worth a shot.”

Everything around Erin moved in slow motion as she tried to force life back into the young man. Too young to be lying there dying on the dirty floor of a bar. A pretty girl paced beside them, tears streaking down her ashen cheeks in sooty tracks, her hands clasped together in front of her mouth as she pleaded with God to save…

Erin blocked out the sound of her voice in order to concentrate.

Fate sure had an odd way of fucking with her. One minute she was encapsulated in a bubble of lust, feeling almost high just by breathing the same air as someone else, flirting her ass off like she knew what she was doing. The next minute she was pushing on some stranger’s chest wall hard enough to break his bones. Almost, but not quite. He’d be lucky if he came through this with nothing but a sore sternum or a cracked rib.

“Where is that goddamn ambulance?” she grumbled.

“They’re on the way. Traffic is bad because of the concert at the coliseum,” a staff member said. She’d turned down two free tickets to that concert yesterday, offered by a colleague who’d had friends back out on him unexpectedly.
If only
… She shook off the thought, a foolish waste of energy now.

She glanced up as Tess pressed her fingers to the man’s throat, checking for a pulse, before giving Erin a tiny shake of her head. The pacing girl sobbed harder.

Sweat trickled down Erin’s breastbone and along her spine. Her shoulders and wrists ached from the exertion. Sirens registered through the background noise, the blessed sound of a gurney rolling across the concrete floor of the bar, the paramedics speaking to her.

“Erin?”

Dan Murphy, a paramedic friend, touched her shoulder. She blinked, then let him ease her out of the way so he could take over.

“You did a great job,” Dan said, nodding encouragingly. “We’ll take it from here.”

Had she done a great job? He still wasn’t breathing on his own. He had no pulse. Best she could tell, that spelled failure.

Strong hands helped her to her feet, but she didn’t turn her head to see who it was. Her senses told her it was Sean. One of the paramedics split the front of the man’s T-shirt with a pair of scissors. Another attached leads from the Automated External Defibrillator to his bare skin. They administered oxygen through a handheld mask and bag.

“He’s in V-Tach,” the paramedic said.

Good, that meant they could shock him to try to restart his heart. Erin held her breath as they zapped him once, twice. Then Dan said the sweetest words. “We’ve got a rhythm.”

God.

Erin’s knees went a little weak. She bent forward, squeezed her eyes closed, and said a quick prayer of thanks. It had been a while. Maybe he would remember her.

Someone touched her again. She straightened and opened her eyes. It was the crying girl. She flung her arms around Erin’s neck in a choking hug, sniffing, and thanking her profusely.

When she pulled away, Erin nodded, embarrassed. “Just doing my job. They’re rolling him out. You should go too, so you can give them all his personal information. What’s his name?”

“Henry,” the girl said with a watery smile, waving as she trotted out the door of the bar, following her loved one.

“Henry,” Erin repeated.

“We’re taking him to Memorial because it’s easier to get to with the concert traffic,” Dan said over his shoulder. “You look smokin’ hot by the way,” he added with a cheeky grin.

Erin groaned and wilted a bit. Great, she’d never live the ridiculous outfit down.

“Wow, that was intense,” Tess said, wiping her damp throat with a clean bar towel. She offered one to Erin, but she declined. “You okay, babe?”

Erin moved her head in what she thought might be a nod, adrenaline tightening her muscles until she could barely move, let alone speak. “Could use a drink.”

“It’s on the house, Doc,” the bartender who had waited on her earlier offered.

Sean placed his hand in the small of her back and gave her a gentle push. “Let’s sit down.”

“I’d rather swallow my drink and go home.”

The bouncers were still keeping the doors blocked, so they had some breathing room. Staff members worked at cleaning up any signs of the trauma that had just occurred. Life would go on. In a few minutes the place would be buzzing with renewed energy once again, as if nothing had ever happened. Erin wished she could put it all behind her that fast.

They stopped at the table where she and Tess had been sitting. Sean pushed the drink into her hand, and she turned it up, swallowing it all in one fiery gulp. She set the empty glass down, looked over at him. His badge was now clipped to his belt in plain sight. He smiled but didn’t say anything. Erin stared back, taking him in through a more critical eye than before. He was even better looking in the bright light, if that was at all possible, and his eyes were dark green. She felt a funny fluttery sensation in her stomach when she looked at him, but attributed it to lingering nerves or the punch from the alcohol she’d just swallowed.

“You’re bleeding,” Tess said, gesturing toward her knee. Erin tore her gaze away from Sean’s and glanced down. Blood had caked below her right kneecap and was creeping down her shin in a slow trickle.