Jacked (Trent Brothers #1)(94)

Her fingers brushed over my arm. “Is that when you got these?”

I nodded. “I got the ink on my arms when I gave up drinking. The only person who could throw me a lifeline back then was me. These tats are my lifelines.”

She rested her cheek on my chest and blew out a deep sigh, as if she’d been holding her breath in as long as I’d had. “I know exactly how you feel.”

I felt the jolt when her words passed right though my walls. “You do?”

“More than you know. It’s like no matter how many medical miracles I perform, I’ll never be able to keep people from dying. Everything I do, everything I try is nothing more than a temporary fix. I love what I do, but sometimes it’s discouraging. Some days it feels like for every person I patch up, there’s an endless line of people falling apart, waiting right behind them.”

“Exactly. I put one bad guy away and five more crop up to take his place.” Her finger was still softly tracing my tats, lazily blazing her heat down my arm. “The rope reminds me that what’s inside of me is my first priority. I can’t lose me. I can’t lose my sanity to the ugly. If I do, then I’m done.”

She sighed, nuzzling even deeper. “Maybe I need some rope tattoos.” Her fingers tickled down over my ribs, circling over the tats that ran down the side of my stomach. “What about these? Are they Chinese?”

More like hidden messages to myself scored into my skin. I nodded, answering her.

“What do they mean?”

I felt my muscles tense as I cleared my throat. “That one is ‘Remember’. Second one is ‘Truth’ and then ‘Trust’.”

“And this last one?”

It was the one I had the most difficulty with. “It’s ‘Forgiveness’.”

She rested her lips on my skin, patching another unseen hole. “I’ve had my fair share of breakdowns, too. You got to see my embarrassment firsthand.”

Oh, baby. Don’t go there. My fingers tensed in her hair. It’s just between us, sweetheart.

“I love what I do but sometimes the pressure is… it just builds up and gets to be too much. I see enough gore in one shift to leave most folks scarred for life.”

“I bet you do.”

Her head tilted up. “I bet you do, too. I guess not too many people can relate to what we go through on a daily basis. Most of the people who come into the ER are far from happy and sometimes they yell and scream and add mental abuse to the physical and emotional strain. And you,” she tapped my chest, “you get the added pleasure of them pointing guns at you. Maybe we should go into selling bathroom fixtures or something. Can’t be too much stress in doing that, right?”

She made me laugh. “Could be fun, but now I’m thinking of taking you back in the shower.”

Erin smiled broadly and just like that, she gently bit my nipple for being a smartass. Fuck, that felt good. No… great. That’s it, use your tongue. Heal me, baby.

I ran both hands through her hair. “It takes a special kind of person to do what you do, Doc.”

Erin’s head popped up, grinning. “You like calling me Doc, don’t ya?”

“I do. It fits. Why, does it bother you?”

She seemed unsure. I hauled her up my chest. I was done talking. I needed to kiss her again, to feel that heated connection to this amazing creature who was consuming me like fire.

She drew my top lip into her mouth and then pulled back to study my face. “How would you feel if I called you Cop?”

Her feistiness was such a turn on. I pulled her leg over my body, making her straddle me. I was glad the rest of her came along for the ride. She climbed right on and owned me.

My mind was certainly up for another round; I was just hoping my dick would support the idea. “Cop a feel. Cop a squat.” I pressed my hips up. “You can call me anything you’d like, Doc.”

“Is that so, dear?” She giggled on my lips, showing her newfound dominance by wrapping my head up in her arms.

I palmed her fantastic ass. “No, see now I have to draw the line. You can call me anything but that.”

Erin grinned. “No dear?”

I gave her a squeeze. “Absolutely not, Doc.”

“Never ever?”

“Never f*cking ever.”

“Okay, dear,” she teased.

“Now you’re just looking for trouble.”

She placed a soft kiss on my neck. “No. Not looking. Found.”

The feelings she invoked by just playing with me were enough to take my breath away. I locked my fingers into her hair and held her against my skin, enjoying every second of her attention. And that’s when it hit me—just exactly what I’d been missing, and it wasn’t having a gorgeous, naked woman sprawled out on top of me, although that was definitely a bonus. No, this was very different and very specific, as if a gigantic sign had just lit up in front of me and smacked me in the head, showing me word for word where I’d been going wrong.

I could actually describe it now, put a name and reasons to what I’d been lacking.

Why Nikki and I would never, COULD never work out. She could never understand the stress that came with my job. She could never empathize, not that I needed her to, but the girl had zero compassion.

Erin wasn’t just another naked woman on top of me. She was a kindred spirit, just as jaded, but maybe not quite as ruined.