I can hear my father’s voice, screaming at me when I was in high school like it was yesterday.

“You’re a stupid whore, just like your mother! How many times have you spread your legs this week to get what you want?”

“No good man will ever want a whore like you. Especially with those ugly burns on your back. How about you come over here so I can add another one?”

I close my eyes and shake my head, trying my hardest to get his fucking voice out of my brain.

“Alright, man, keep me posted. No, I’m not letting her out of my sight. She’s even going to do a ride-along with me at work tonight.”

DJ grins at me with the phone pressed to his ear and I try to look angry, but it’s impossible when he smiles at me like that. At Dax’s insistence, I took a leave of absence from work. He didn’t like the idea of me being so easily accessible in such a busy hospital, and there’s no way the administration would let DJ and Jackson follow behind me like a rabid guard dog on my shifts. When DJ was called in on his days off for emergencies, I’d go out to Jackson’s cruiser and have coffee with him until DJ came home. I enjoy his friendship and I feel like I’m doing some good by rekindling it again. It’s my way of making up for the shit that went down with Jackson’s cousin and it’s also nice to sit and chat with someone about nothing important. It takes my mind off of what’s happening with my father and what I’m going to do about my relationship with DJ. It’s strange to be friends with men that I have no intention of sleeping with, first Dax and now Jackson. I’ve made Jackson tell me all about his life since we briefly dated. He’s never been married and he likes to joke that he could never find a woman who could live up to my high standards. He’s very close to his family and has been spending a lot of time with his aunt and uncle, doing whatever he can to ease the pain of losing their child. He doesn’t ask about Finnley and I don’t offer any information. Jordan was fucked up in the head from his drug and alcohol addictions, harassing Finnley after she kicked him out of the house and then breaking in one night with the intention of killing her, spreading gasoline all over the first floor of the house before lighting a match. I know it has to be hard for Jackson, wanting to blame someone for what happened. Jordan was his best friend and it must be difficult to recognize the bad in someone when you have so many good memories of them. Unfortunately, no one is to blame for Jordan’s death aside from Jordan himself. He made his choices and he had to die with them.

The nice thing about Jackson is that being friends with him is easy. He has a great sense of humor and he never asks about my father, even though he knows most of the gritty details. We talk about mundane things like the weather, television shows we saw or books we read. We talk about nonsense and for a few hours, I can just be a normal woman without a care in the world. Part of me feels like I’m betraying DJ in some way by having these thoughts. I want to be normal with him. I try to be normal with him. We laugh, we cuddle, we fuck and we do most of the other regular things a normal couple does. I just won’t let him see me naked and he pretends like it isn’t an issue.

DJ ends the call with Dax and shoves his phone in his pocket. He walks over to where I’m leaning against the counter, wraps his hands around my hips and easily lifts me up onto the counter. He kisses my lips and then makes his way across my cheek and down to my neck, nipping my skin with his teeth. I wrap my legs around his hips and my arms around his shoulders, pulling him closer.

“We’ve got about twenty minutes before I need to leave for work. How about an orgasm or two before we hit the road?” he asks with a laugh against my neck.

The bright light from the ceiling fan hanging in the middle of the room and the fact that I’m wearing jeans instead of a skirt make that idea less exciting than it should be.

I place my hands flat on his chest and push him away, sliding down off the counter. Making quick work of his belt buckle, zipper and button, I shove his pants down to his knees, kneeling in front of him as I go.

“I think I can handle that,” I tell him with a smirk as I wrap my hand around his cock and lean forward.

“I meant you, not me,” DJ starts to complain.

He moans loudly in the small kitchen as I take him fully into my mouth. His hands slide through my hair and he clutches it tightly in his fists. I love that he doesn’t push me, he just holds on tight and lets me do all of the work.

I suck his cock as hard as I can, sliding my hand up and down the length as I go, increasing my speed when he starts thrusting his hips. With my hand still pumping him, I pull back to tease him, swirling my tongue around the tip before taking him all the way back into my mouth.

He chants my name in time with the thrusting of his hips. I increase my speed and the pressure of my hand, sliding him so far into my mouth that I feel the head of his cock touch the back of my throat.

“Jesus Christ, Phina,” DJ groans each time I take him that deep.

Bobbing my head up and down his cock, I start twisting my hand each time I slide it up and down his length.

“Fuck, your mouth should be illegal,” DJ moans as his hips start moving faster and faster.

I hum my approval, knowing the vibrations from my voice wrap around his cock and push him right to the edge.

“Baby, I’m going to come. SHIT! FUCK!” he shouts.

He tries to pull back, but I wrap my free hand around him, clutching onto his ass to pull him deeper inside my mouth. I want to taste him on my tongue.