Jake Matthews strips me from the inside out, magnifying every self-perpetuating belief that I’ve ever had about my flawed body. I want to shrink. Vanish from his touch.

I want to cry, but I did that yesterday. Jake still called me beautiful.

“Jake …” My voice trembles along with the rest of my body as he sucks and drags his tongue over my other breast.

“Yes, Ave?”

I’m not going to cry today. I don’t need another handbag. Today, I need to be his perfection.

Folding my arms inward, I grab my bra and tear it the rest of the way off. The insecure part of me wants to stand here and wait for his approval, wait for him to tell me what he wants me to do next.

I don’t.

My mouth crashes to his. I don’t taste him. I devour him. My hands claw at his back and shoulders, even my injured fingers bend into his skin, feeling no pain.

“Is that the best you’ve got, Ave?”

He taunts my thoughts.

My tongue battles his. This is my kiss. This is me kissing him.

“You see … the art of sex is all about selfish pleasure.”

I don’t want him to want me. I just simply want him.

“You like what I’m doing … but I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it because I want to taste you … because I want to hear you whimper … because I want to feel you squirm. That gives me pleasure.”

Breaking our connection, I kiss my way down his neck as my fingers curl into his chest before I take his hand and guide it into the front of my exercise shorts. My fingers press over his, using him to give myself selfish pleasure.

“Fuck, Ave …” he rasps with a weakness that is not a Jake I’ve experienced before.

My other hand works the prominent muscles of his back, massaging him. This I know I can do as well as anyone else. I knead each muscle all the way to the inside of his shorts, where he’s not wearing anything underneath. My fingers find all the firm lines of his perfect ass, eliciting a deep groan from him.

My lips pull into another grin along his pec muscles for a brief moment before my teeth sink into them. This sets off a chain reaction. He rocks his erection into my stomach and slides his middle finger inside of me. I clench my hand over his, biting him harder on a soft moan.

“That’s my girl.” He bends his finger inside of me as I lift onto my toes to claim his mouth again because I crave him the way he craved me.