Jessica Ashley, our sizzling June 2014 Playmate, proves more than meets the eye. For starters, the busty brunette is a self-proclaimed book fiend who started writing prose at the age of four–four!–and lists modernist erotic masters Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin as her favorites.

Birthplace

Detroit, Michigan

Ambitions

Writing, modeling and more—my plans are fluid

Guilty Pleasure

Modernist erotic novels

Who I Quote

Fritz Scholder: “Whisper questions to the Sphinx at night.”

When we first witnessed ­Ashley on Facebook (she’s since proven herself a social media virtuoso, charming over one million followers on Instagram alone) we were positive the delightfully outspoken siren from suburban Detroit was born to be a Playmate. And when we met her in person, our hunch proved right on the money. As soon as Ashley started modeling at the age of 21, she was hooked. “It’s so exhilarating. I feel I come alive in front of the camera,” she smiles. “I get to be something awesome!” To us and our readers, Ashley is and always was something awesome. And even off camera, her charisma proves unmistakably sensual. “People always think I’m flirting because I’m constantly touching myself and playing with my hair,” she says. “I don’t even realize I’m doing it. I’m just very tactile.”

Since she was chilled to the bone up in Michigan this past winter, for her first Playmate shoot, we flew Jessica to a midcentury-modern Los Angeles mansion designed by John Lautner so she could hit the pool and lap up ­Silver Lake’s sweeping, sun-baked views. The adventurous University of Michigan graduate also proves quite active, listing skydiving, running and having sex (“I love it, and I’m not shy about it”) as a few of her favorite activities. Once the camera started clicking the brown-eyed belle, Jessica’s proved every bit the consummate professional we knew her to be. “I treasure being a June Playmate,” she says, her fingers tangled in her luscious hair. “I love the summer, and posing nude with Playboy in that incredible house is a dream.”

Jessica Ashley is what we in the editorial field call a real page-turner. Brown-haired, with brown eyes and full lips, twentysomething Jessica has got the whole dream girl routine down pat – she’s natural, beautiful, and well-read, too, counting heavyweights like Herman Hesse and Henry Miller as some of her favorite authors. “Miller is so sexy,” says Jessica. “Some of his books were considered dirty in the thirties, just like Playboy was in the fifties. So in that spirit, I think being Miss June is pretty sexy, too.” We came across Jessica on Facebook, and without hesitation, we flew her to California to test for Playmate.

“I thought it would be so wonderful to be a Playmate,” she says. “Playboy editorials are so unique. There’s always a beautiful woman, but they tell a different story every time.” As an English major, Jessica knows that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but as a Playmate, she knows you can and should judge an issue of Playboy by its steamy, dreamy Centerfold. To borrow from Miller’s 1964 Playboy interview, the importance of our work lies in our vision of the world, not in the free use of four-letter words – and our Miss June 2014 is one vision of loveliness you won’t want to pass up. “I want to go to grad school, but right now I’m focusing on my modeling,” says Jessica. “I love to travel, see new places and meet new people. Being a Playmate is a dream.”