A/N: This story was originally written for a 500-words-or-less drabble contest in the livejournal community sortofbeautiful. The prompt was "Meet me on your best behavior/Meet me at your worst." If you're a Jake/Bella shipper, then I suggest you go check out the community ASAP! Pretty much the best people you'll ever meet.

Enjoy!

Bella Swan's entire world was made up of three elements; his hands, his lips, his breath. There was nothing else. To survive, she needed nothing else.

This is why her world began to end again as the elements pulled themselves away from her.

"I can't, Bells. I just can't anymore."

"Why the hell not?" She had meant to scream it, but her words came out as something fragile, something less than a whisper. "I thought this was what you wanted."

He shook his head slowly, a sad smile playing his lips. "No, Bella. You still don't get it, do you?" Tears filled her eyes. Stupid, confusing, hormonal wolf. He wanted her, she knew that much. So what was she doing wrong?

"This..." He waved his hand at the bed they now sat on, taking in the rumpled blankets and pillows strewn every which way. "This is great. I do want you like this, just like this, over and over." He grinned. "But that's not all I want, Bella, don't you understand that? It's not the most important thing.

"I want you, Bells. I want the hell out of everything you are. I want everything about you, and more. I want to see you at your best behavior, and I want to…" He dropped his eyes from hers. "I want to love you at your worst. I just want you, honey, and I don't want the rest if I can't have it all. We've been playing that game for too long, and now I'm playing for keeps. You need to make up your mind. I've made up mine."

Bella just stared at him, stunned that he had laid it out so bluntly. She had known it would come to this, of course. Ever since the days in which she had found herself awkwardly batting her eyelashes at him in order to get what she needed, she had known. She had been using him then, and she was using him now, and she had known all along that it would come to this. He had been hinting at it for too long. Ever since Jacob had begun to fix her, she had known she would eventually have to decide it was okay to leave that which could never die, especially to her, in the past.

"I...Jacob, I..." He looked at her eagerly. Every hope was on display, every desire burning in his eyes the way his hands had burned on her skin only moments before. Say it, she demanded of herself. Tell him.

"I can't, Jake. I can't give myself to you--not the way you want me to. Not now. Not yet." Her eyes fluttered closed, waiting for the way her heart would break when he really left this time. When she opened them again she was genuinely surprised to find him still there, waiting for her on the bed, arms open. She crawled into them and wept, and together they waited for the day when she wouldn't be afraid to love him.