Beneath This Man by Jodi Ellen Malpas (This Man, book 2)

Synopsis from Goodreads:

She knew she was heading towards disaster. Every instinct told her to run, but Jesse Ward was a hard man to escape.

It has been five days’ since Ava O’Shea left Jesse drunk and raging at Lusso – left behind a man who drowned her in his intensity and blindsided her with his touch. Getting over this man was never going to be easy. And now he’s back in her life.

She has questions she needs answering, but her determination to get these answers will give the pleasure-seeking playboy the power to destroy her again. She needs to keep her eyes wide open and caution at the forefront of her mind, an ambitious intention when Jesse Ward is within touching distance. And he plans to be.

He’s dark, he’s broken – Ava knows this, but the only way to find out how dark and how broken is to get beneath the steely exterior of this man.

Melanie's Review:

4.5(ish) STARS

OMG Jesse Ward is definitely a God!!!...a Sex God, that is. This book will have you calling HIS name in bed. Be aware of that because most husbands don't seem to appreciate that...I found that out the hard way. And after reading This Man I thought I couldn't possibly love him more...WRONG!!! Jesse is a very, very complex man!!! He is domineering, possessive, protective, rich, gorgeous, sweet, and loves and needs Ava more than anything.

"He moves himself so he's cradled between my thighs, and I soon feel the wet, slippery head of his morning erection pushing against me. My mind is a jumble of mixed thoughts, but then he rests on his elbows and gazes down at me, like I'm the only thing that exists in his world. Our eyes are fused and saying more than words ever could."

This book continues Ava and Jesse's very complicated relationship. This Man ended with revealing some very crazy things about Jesse. Well, this book won't let you down either...be prepared to learn some more of Jesse's very many secrets. And of course it has lots and lots of hot, hot, hot sex scenes, a sweet love story and lots of drama!!! And you get to see another side of Jesse. He's not just the controlling, beautiful man that we met in book 1, he is also a very vulnerable, tortured man.

"He pulls back and rams back in. 'Jesus!' He stills on a few deep breaths. 'You're mine, and mine alone, baby. Just for my eyes, just for my touch and just for my pleasure. Just mine. Do you understand me?' "

I've seen so many people who are in love with this series but I've also seen some very negative reviews with people saying that this is more of the story of an abusive relationship. While I don't agree with the negative comments, I will say that I can somewhat see where they are coming from. Jesse is extremely controlling and since he's come up with a type of f*ck for every situation...sense f*ck, reminder f*ck, and retribution f*ck...he doesn't really give Ava much chance to have a mind of her own. That is absolutely one thing that bugged me about the book. I'm good with a controlling man, but Ava pretty much never, ever stuck up for herself with him. She always let him have his way and I found that to be quite annoying. So many times I found myself praying that she was going to finally stand up to him, and it never really happened. But it was always known that everything Jesse did was because he loved her so much and always felt the need to protect her, and it's always made clear that she is madly in love with him as well.

"My mark is fading.' he muses to himself as he latches onto my breast, biting and sucking. 'We don't want you forgetting who you belong to, do we?"

The ending of this book is once again A-MA-ZING!!! And I am sooo looking forward to starting book 3, but the thought of not having Jesse in my life after I finish is already making me want to cry.