Her eyes narrow. “This isn’t funny. You need to find a sliver of goodness in me to justify what’s happening between us. And the truth is, you’re just like every other guy I’ve dated—you want my body, but you, Jake Matthews, have this nagging conscience. You have a reputation for being a nice guy who does the right thing. And nice guys doing the right thing don’t settle for someone like me.”

I can strip her down, take her apart. We can sort through the pieces. But she needs to decide how to put things back together where they belong and what she no longer needs. I can’t be part of what makes her whole again. People don’t fill voids, even if they create them.

Leaning forward, I ghost my mouth along her jaw to her ear. “Tell me about the videos. I know they’re not porn.” I kiss her earlobe. “I think it’s something very unsexy. Yet…” I kiss her neck “…something tells me it’s going to make my whole damn day.”

She shivers as her shaky hands lay claim to my arms. “Jake …” My name falls breathlessly from her lips.

My hands ascend another inch up her legs as my lips remain idle against her soft flesh. “Tell me, Ave …”

Her fingers curl into my biceps. “Documentaries. I like watching documentaries. Especially the True Facts series by Ze Frank. He shares crazy but mostly true facts about various animals in a Morgan Freeman-like narration. It’s hilarious and completely inappropriate because he often fixates on genital facts, but I laugh myself into a giggle-fit every time.”

And this is why I’m on the road to nowhere with this woman—and with no incentive to rush a single moment. I get to see something I’m sure no human before me has ever truly seen. It’s pretty fucking incredible.

“Real sexy, huh?” Insecurity. I hate the insecurity in her voice.

Wrapping my arms around her waist, I lift her from the counter.

“Jake—”

I silence her with a hard look two seconds before kissing her. With no knowledge of what’s in the back of the laundromat, I walk us toward two vending machines down a small hallway ending in a “staff only” door.

It’s a little dark and a lot cramped, but I don’t need any light or much space to make my point.

Her sundress.

Her sans-panties body.

It’s almost wrong to not do this right here, right now.

I wedge us into the four-foot space between the two machines, pin her back to one of them, and free myself from my jeans. Messy, disheveled, giggles-at-animal-genitalia-jokes Avery has me very hard at the moment. And completely out of my mind.

“Jake, not … here …” Her protest evaporates into the musty air between us as I fill her with every inch of my cock.