Erin Nicholas wonders, “Is saving lives sexy?”

Adam Steele is good. Good at using his money to get his way. Money always works-until he realizes he can’t buy his daughter’s way out of her new wheelchair. Three private physical therapists later, he’s almost given up on Emily walking again. Then he meets Dr. Jaden Monroe. And his match.

Jaden doesn’t know the meaning of the word “quit”. But she knows a lot about “fired” after a public blowout with her ex jeopardizes the donation her hospital was counting on. Now the most tempting man she’s ever met has made her just the offer she needs to save the new children’s rehab wing-one million dollars to rehabilitate his daughter. In return she finds herself making Adam rash promises: that his daughter will walk in time to take the lead in the school play. And that he won’t entice her into his bed. No matter what.

But Jaden didn’t anticipate a teen whose injuries are more than physical. Or a man so passionate and devoted-and as tenacious as she is. As Adam wears down her defenses with kiss after kiss, the only thing harder than keeping her promise will be keeping a hold on her heart.

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I think so!  I have always been drawn to stories about heroes like paramedics and firefighters and cops and doctors.  There’s just something about those guys who really do rush into burning buildings, save people from bad guys, and bring people back from the brink of chaos.  I like to write them too.  In my first release, No Matter What, my heroine is a physical therapist.  Something I know well.  I’ve been a practicing PT for over twelve years and do find my profession very inspiring and rewarding.  In my upcoming March release, Just Right, the hero is an emergency trauma surgeon who has spent time in war-torn foreign countries and is now working in one of the busiest ERs in the city.  The heroine is the lead ER nurse.  Her brothers and his friends are all paramedics.  Lots of sexy, charming, heroic guys all over the place!  Not a bad way to spend my time!

What is it about these guys, though, really?  I mean in real life, firefighters get dirty, paramedics get bloody, doctor’s come across all kinds of germs.  They all get sweaty.  There are plenty of other bodily fluids and nasty situations that are less than glamorous.

Still, they’re sexy. They put themselves out there to help people, risking injury—or worse—themselves, every day.  They face natural and man-made disasters.  They are the ones people depend on in the worst of times. And the bulging muscles don’t hurt!

In Just Right Ben is a true hero, especially in Jessica’s eyes.  He saves lives, he’s focused, dedicated and demanding but he’s also a good guy—the son of a missionary, just lost his mom, good friend to her brother and respectful of his co-workers.  Problem is, Ben is realizing that he can’t save everyone.  And those he does, don’t always appreciate it, or go out and do stupid things—get hurt or sick all over again.  Basically what he fixes doesn’t stay fixed.  So he decides he’s done with the whole thing.  He walks out of the ER one day after a particularly bad trauma where they lose three patients.

Worried about his state of mind, Jessica’s brother and their other friends go after Ben.  But he doesn’t want to talk to or listen to any of them.  He’s tired of being a good guy.  He’s ready to be a bad-boy… they seem to be having all the fun, after all.  So they send in the big guns.  Jessica.  A woman who doesn’t take no for an answer— from anyone—who has a secret crush on Ben anyway, and who can really fill out a little black dress.

And it works.  Ben makes a deal with her.  If he lets her take him home before he does something stupid, she agrees to spend the next forty-eight hours with him.  He isn’t stupid—or drunk after all— he’s wanted Jessica for a long time and there’s no one he’d rather be bad with!  Jessica, on the other hand, believes that being a hero is something Ben is, not something he’s chosen.  She’s determined to get him back on the right path.  So, spending forty-eight hours with him seems like a great idea!  Not to mention oh, so tempting.

So, what is it about these heroes?  Even the temporarily fallen ones?  Do you have fantasies of being carried from a burning building in the arms of a strapping fire fighter?  Or being given mouth-to-mouth by a sexy paramedic?  Which uniform makes your heart go pitter patter?  Or are there other hero types out there that really make your heart melt?

Oh, and of course we’re gonna give away some stuff!  Anyone who comments on the blog today will be entered to win a copy of my book No Matter What, a sneak peek of Just Right, and a fun goody bag!

Unfortunately, I don’t have the cover for Just Right finalized yet.  But here’s a peek!

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Coming out in March from Samhain Publishing: ER trauma surgeon, Ben Torres, just wants to have a good time after a lifetime of doing the right thing and putting everyone else first. ER nurse, Jessica Bradford, wants to be a good girl after years of rebelling and thinking only of herself. So, when she’s put in charge of babysitting Ben after he loses his temper, punches a patient in the face and gets suspended from work, Jessica is determined that Ben will live up to the hero she’s had a crush on for months. But Ben the bad boy is even more difficult to resist than the man she’s had on a pedestal and Ben has decided that rules are no longer of interest to him, including the one saying that he can’t seduce Jessica.

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Excerpt from Just Right

Erin Nicholas

March 2010, Samhain Publishing

“So, Ben, good news,” she said, changing the subject and setting out her supplies.

On the table in front of him she put a bottle of water, two white capsules, four orange tablets, a banana, a bottle of Gatorade and a box of condoms.

She paused and looked at the box of condoms for a moment.  So much for changing the subject.

“I guess we took care of the need for these.” She picked the condoms up, prepared to drop them back into her purse.

“Oh, keep ‘em close,” Ben said.

Her head snapped up, but he sat causally, turning the empty beer mug slowly with his one hand, his ankle crossed over his other knee, watching her as if he was testing her.  Jessica decided to pretend she hadn’t heard him.  Or at least that she didn’t know what he meant—or what she wanted him to mean.  Or at least that she didn’t care.

She dropped the box into her purse.  “The good news is,” she went on, twisting open the cap on the bottle of water.  “I’m here to keep you from wrapping your car around a pole, getting a drunk driving citation, losing all your savings at a game…” She glanced over at the pool table, then back at Ben.  “… that you obviously suck at, and from waking up in the morning with a sexually transmitted disease.”

He didn’t even blink.

“These are vitamin B tablets,” she said, indicating the white tablets lying between them. “Really good for hangovers.”  She’d done a lot of studying on the ways to reduce and treat hangovers and had tried most of them herself long before she’d even met Ben Torres.

He didn’t say anything.

She held out the bottle of water to go with the capsules he was ignoring.  Water was the key to treating hangovers.  She was sure Ben knew that.

He ignored the bottle.

She narrowed her eyes.  “I assume that means you’ll be very cooperative and pleasant since I’m doing you such a big favor.”

# # #

Ben couldn’t believe that Sam had sent his sister.  The bastard.

Just when Ben thought Sam Bradford was too laid back, too concerned with having a good time, too self-centered to notice one of his buddies lusting after his older sister, the jerk sent her in to the bar, dressed like she knew how to use all those delicious parts God had given her.

But Ben knew better.  Jessica Bradford was a lot of things: well-respected, dependable, bossy, intelligent, compassionate, fiery and highly moraled.  She was not, however, any of the things Ben wanted tonight.  Like horny.

The real problem was that two months ago Jessica had bent over during a trauma in the ER and he just couldn’t forget the glimpse of red lace he’d seen through the thin material of her pale pink scrub pants.

The petite woman the ER staff affectionately called ‘the little general’, wore bright, frickin’ red thongs.
Sam Bradford was a manipulative SOB.  No man could resist Jessica in this dress, least of all the guy who could get hard in the middle of a trauma looking at her in hospital scrubs.  But Sam was also smart.  He knew Ben wouldn’t turn Jessica down, even when she was trying to do exactly what Sam and the guys had been failing at all night.

Jessica was smart too and seemed pretty smug right now.  She sipped politely from the water bottle she’d brought and waited for Ben to respond.

The woman had brought him ibuprofen, a banana and Gatorade, for God’s sake.  She’d managed to lecture him without even using an impatient tone of voice.  It didn’t take too many minutes around Jessica in the ER to know she liked to have things her way.

She obviously thought she was here because it was the noble thing to do—saving Ben from himself or some self-righteous crap like that—and Jessica definitely struck him as the type that stepped up for noble causes.

Well, she was going to enjoy this one.  He’d make sure of it.

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Thank you for visiting, Ms Nicholas!

To learn more about No Matter What and Just Right, visit Ms Nicholas’ website, or follow her as she blogs for Nine Naughty Novelists