Holy shit. They were going to open for Halestorm. I loved them. Bex was her name. Even that was hot. I clicked on the places that they were going to visit in Florida, seeing The Outrigger named for this weekend. No wonder this place was going to be packed.

I couldn’t wait to meet her—er, them.

Johnny

“Jonathan Gibbons?” I looked up, cringing inwardly at the name. I never, ever went by that. Johnny was it.

“Yes,” I said, standing. “Johnny, please.”

“Johnny. Right this way, I’ll take you in to Dr. Mia.”

I hated that I was here. I didn’t want to be. Every second since I’d left Julia’s house and made it here, filled out the paperwork and waited my turn, I’d wanted to run. The only thing that kept me here was the promise I made to Julia. So here I was, following this young chick down a quiet hallway to a shrink’s office for the first time in my life.

“Go on in, the doctor is waiting for you.” She nodded at a partially open door and continued walking.

I took a deep breath, willing my panic not to bubble to the surface. Before I lost my nerve, I pushed the door open the rest of the way so I could enter. The second my eyes met Dr. Mia’s, I stopped right in my tracks.

Carter and Julia might have neglected to tell me that she was fucking smoking hot. I wanted to turn around and leave so I could drop my phone number at the front desk for Dr. Mia to give me a private session somewhere else.

She was wearing a low cut blouse and a tight pencil skirt. It was perfectly professional, with just enough sexiness to make me want to drop to my knees and lick her until she came. She had a kick ass body, fit and womanly. Her blonde hair was piled on top of her head and fastened with a clip, and she wore glasses. The whole package had me needing to shift away from her, so she didn’t notice I was getting aroused.

“Johnny?” Oh, thank fuck she didn’t call me Jonathan. She held out her hand, a small smile showing me that she had straight white teeth.

“Yes.” I held out my hand, straightening my back and forcing myself to get my shit together. She was a fucking therapist, not a sex toy. But damn that was too bad. I wonder if I could convince her to use this hour to do something else. I’d make it worth her while that was for damn sure.

“Dr. Mia,” she said, dropping her hand from mine. She didn’t seem affected by me, and that sucked. I was used to whatever woman I wanted falling at my feet. “Please, have a seat.”

I sat on a plush chair across from her, my eyes immediately going to her fit legs as she sat and crossed them in front of me. If I looked close enough, I could almost look up her skirt. She cleared her throat, grabbing my attention back to her face.

“Let’s get started. Why don’t you tell me a little about you?”

I sat back and crossed my arms over my chest. Here we go. No matter how much I wanted to use that mouth for other things (like her on her knees in front of me), she wanted me to talk. I didn’t do that. I thought of Julia and sighed.

“I was in prison for two years,” I started. She knew that already, because it was the only real piece of information I’d put on my paperwork.

She smiled, looking down at her sheet and then back to me. “I saw that. For what?”

I should’ve known she was going to ask that. “It’s a long story.”

She looked at the clock next to me. “Well, that’s okay. We have 55 minutes.”

Never mind, I didn’t want to talk about that. “My parents kicked me out when I was eighteen.”

If she minded that I switched topics, she didn’t let it show. She wrote something on her paper, and I fought the urge not to snatch it out of her hand to see what she was writing about me.

“Why are you here today, Johnny?”

“I promised my sister I would come.”

“Oh, yes. Your sister is Julia, right? Carter’s wife?”

“Yes. She’s the only person in this world I do anything for.”

She furrowed her brow. “Why is that?”

“Because no one has ever been there for me, except her.”

“So you have no intention of opening up to me.” Damn, she was good.

I shrugged. “I don’t see the point of it, to be honest. I’ve had a shitty life, Dr. Mia. Nothing I tell you can change that, so I just don’t see the reason to rehash everything. I’d rather just forget.”

“And can you?”

“Can I what?”

“Can you forget what has happened to you? Are you able to move on?”

I thought back to my nightmare, one of the many I had on a regular basis. “Sure,” I lied. “I have a great life, now that I’m out.”

“So tell me about your life currently.” Maybe I would get out of this thing intact, after all.

“I just came here not too long ago from Denver to spend some time with Julia and my new niece. I’m working at a bar called The Outrigger and also helping book talent.”

An eyebrow came up. “Oh really? You have a background in that?”

“In bartending? Yeah.”

“In booking talent.”

She said it like she knew that there was more to it than just what I was saying. “Yeah. I used to play.” I wasn’t going there. No way.

“Used to? Why not now?”

I shook my head. Time to change the subject again. “The manager at the bar’s name is Cal. He’s a good guy and the closest thing to a friend I’ve had in a long time. I’m spending time with my family, and I’m happy.”

“Have a girlfriend back at home?”

“No.”

“Anyone here you’re interested in?”

If you count that I want to bend you over that desk and fuck you senseless, yes. “Not interested in having a relationship.”

Dr. Mia looked at me for so long, I started daydreaming about her standing up and stripping, then dropping to her knees and unbuckling my pants, leaning over with those ruby red lips and leaving a mark on my. . .

“Johnny?” Damn it, she’d asked me something.

“I’m sorry. What?”

She smiled. “Why aren’t you interested in having a relationship?”

I shrugged. “Just not.”

“So, what do you do when a woman wants to date you?” Was she asking for herself? I wanted her to ask me that question. But not about dating. What do you do when a woman wants to suck you off, Johnny? Yeah, that kind of question I wanted to hear, because I had the answer.

“I don’t date.”

“Are you promiscuous?”

I damn near choked. This woman didn’t play. What the hell kind of question was that?

“Look at me, doc.”

She lifted a perfectly sculptured eyebrow. “What is that supposed to mean?”

I sighed in infuriation. “I don’t have a problem attracting the ladies.”

A quick look of annoyance passed over her face before she masked it. “Is this how you deflect the pain you’re hiding?”

“What?” This lady was seriously losing her mind. She needed to stop talking and let me give it to her.

“This.” She indicated me. “The tough guy act. The hard-ass attitude. The not answering a question and acting overly cocky. I don’t believe any of it, Johnny. So why don’t you let me see how close I can get?”

“Close you can get to what?” Anger was coming up, rising through my chest like bile.

“The truth. Since you don’t want to tell me, you tell me how I do with guessing.” She paused, tapping the tip of her pen to her full lips. My fingers itched to throw the paper and pen across the room, strip her naked, and pound her until the only thing that came off of her lips was ‘Johnny give me more.’

She didn’t know me, and she should stop pretending she did. “Go ahead.”

Dr. Mia cleared her throat and then leaned over, so she was looking directly into my eyes. Of course, I had to look at the slight cleavage displayed in front of me. When she began speaking, my eyes snapped back to hers.

“You use sex to forget. You have no desire to have a relationship with anyone because you’ve been burned in the past. I’d say probably starting with your parents. Whatever got you in prison was a hard life, and you probably saw many things you didn’t want to see, not to mention what happened while you were in there. So you escape. Instead of turning to drugs and alcohol—which you might’ve done but don’t do now—you have meaningless sex and refuse to open yourself up to anyone. You’re thirty-six years old and have no idea what you want to do with your life because you feel like it’s over anyway.”