Evelyn's POV 

The door slams shut behind me and I take a deep breath since my heart decided it wanted to start malfunctioning. Jax is standing by his suitcase shirtless in his boxers and my eyes scan over his gorgeous torso before urging myself to pretend like I'm looking for something in my purse. Maya is one lucky girl, ugh. 

I can tell he's putting on his sweatpants from my peripheral vision, along with a black sleeveless shirt. What the hell am I even looking for? I shut my purse and closed my eyes for a moment to gather myself, I would get stuck with this beautiful man in this beautiful bed. I take a chance and glance at him again not being able to help myself and my breath gets caught in my throat when I do. 

"Are you done acting like a brat?" Jax's eyes burned as he walked closer to the bed.

I scoffed, glaring at him. I throw my purse on the bed and ignore him, getting ready to walk past him and right into the bathroom until he grabs my arm. 

"Jax, what the hell do you want?" I blared angrily. His pupils flared as he observed me. Maybe I was being over-dramatic but why did he keep bugging me if he was busy texting Maya? He unwrapped his hand from around my arm and looked at the floor as he let go, taking a minute to drop his hand afterward. 

"Fuck that." I hear him mutter under his breath as I'm about to step into the bathroom, he grabs me once again, this time turning me around completely, making me face him.  

"Woah, be careful Maya might not appreciate you gripping me up like this," I say vexingly. He scowls at me and presses his lips into a thin line. Then, he does something that confuses me. He starts laughing. 

Jax lets go of me again, so I take this moment while he's hunched over laughing to kick off my shoes. I frown at him; did that tamarind juice he was drinking have alcohol in it or something? I stand up straight with my hands on my hips, frowning at him with one eyebrow raised. 

"Are you drunk?" I ask.  

He stands up straight now, fixing his posture. The corners of his eyes crease, I try not to smile because his laughter is contagious. He exhales and scans my body from head to toe causing me to cross my arms over my chest and avoid his gaze. 

"You seem really bothered about the whole Maya thing." He accuses, squinting his eyes at me as he takes a couple of steps closer. 

I almost stumble over his suitcase but catch myself before completely falling over, my cheeks burning red. I swallow the excess of saliva in my throat and clench my jaw uncrossing my arms, fearful that he could read my body language. He's a couple of feet away from me but three steps closer and he'll be inches away. 

He takes one step closer. 

"Are you jealous?" He questions. I roll my eyes, flustered. 

"You wish. I just don't think it's polite to be texting her the entire dinner." I say, crossing my arms once again.

He takes a second step closer. 

"I think you are jealous; it's written all over your attitude. I wasn't texting her at dinner, but even if I was... What's it to you?" He smirks.

"You're right it's none of my business," I say flatly, taking a step back. 

He takes the third step, and even though I take a step back, the proximity causes me to trip over my own feet, but he grabs me before I can fall. 

"You're being really clumsy tonight, what's up with you?" He asks, an amused expression on his face. At this point, I'm embarrassed and extremely flustered. His mischievous brown eyes provoking me. I don't know what he's playing at, but I've had enough of the games, we both know they never end in our favor. 

I free myself from his grasp and walk over to my suitcase, I crouch down looking for my pajamas and then I see my bikini, so I grab it instead. I stand back up and ignore his steady gaze, walking past him and shutting the door this time. 

I put on my white bikini because a night swim sounds tempting right about now. Once I change, I open the door and I'm met with the same intense eyes I keep trying to dodge. 

"Where are you going at this time?" He asks, his eyes lingering on my cleavage for half a second.

"I'm going for a jog Jax. Where else would I wear a bikini to?" I say with an overflow of sarcasm. 

"Alone?" He presses, still standing in my way. 

"Can you please step aside? And yes, I wanted to give you and Maya some privacy in case you guys wanted to have phone sex or something." I respond shamelessly. 

His phone rings and we both look toward it on the bed. I laugh, it's Maya.

"See? My timing is impeccable." I walk over to the door as he says my name, ignoring him once more. 

- - - 

It takes me a couple of minutes to find the pool. I'm not even wearing shoes, but I like the feeling of the rough ground below my feet. The pool is oval-shaped, and the lights were on in the water making it glow an aquamarine color. I exhale, relief filling my lungs at just the sight of it.

I slowly stepped into the water; the temperature was not exactly warm but it wasn't freezing either. I put my head under, the turmoil in my head stopping for a moment as I held my breath underwater. I close my eyes and stay there for a second, a hand disrupting my peace.  

I come up for air in a panic as I turn around and see Jax's wet hair and the same gorgeous torso I was studying earlier. 

"What is wrong with you?! I thought I was going to get fucking kidnapped!" I whisper because I'm assuming that everyone in the hotel is sleeping.

He laughs for a moment and his expression morphs into a serious one. I chew on the inside of my bottom lip as he stares at me. Suddenly unable to form words, I wondered to myself what the complexity of my sentiments meant. 

"You've had the brattiest attitude with me since you saw Maya text me," Jax frowns, swimming towards me as I move to the deeper depths of the pool. 

"I don't know what you're talking about," I mutter. 

We're both staying afloat now and his arms flex as they move in a circular motion underwater. 

"I think you know exactly what I'm talking about." He challenges. I turn my back to him and swim past him underwater, I make my way out of the pool and step onto the rough tile surrounding the outside of the pool. 

His eyes examine my legs but flutter quickly to my face, I look down at him as he's in the water. I take a seat on one of the pool chairs outside and wait for him to get out of the water. He did shortly after noticing I wasn't going to speak to him while he was still in the pool. 

I feel his wet shoulder touch mine as he sits next to me, I look up at the stars above us wondering why I can't just transform into one. 

"Talk to me." 

I look at him and his short hair is messily parted down the middle. Mine is just past my shoulder, now a wet mess. 

"Do you believe that everyone overthinks as much as I do? There are so many things I used to be scared to do on my own. In a way I've grown out of that but wow, did it take a lot for me to even get to that point of independence." I say, still looking up at the sky. 

I hear him take a deep breath, a military dog tag hanging around his neck. I had never noticed it before, Jax would never join the military, so I wondered who it belonged to. He catches me staring at it and he absentmindedly brings a hand to it. 

"It was my dad's. He gave it to me not too long ago. Now, regarding your other question... I do, I think it's part of the human condition to overthink. But I also believe that you can drive yourself mad trying to understand everything so just go with the flow. Have faith that things are happening for you, not to you." He explains, now staring at the sky as well. 

I turn my face to study his, impressed by his answer. Feeling lucky that I dodged the Maya topic. 

"And why are you changing the topic? Do you know Maya?" He asks. 

Well, that didn't last long. 

"Wow, look at you. You can't even stop talking about her." I say annoyed, I get up and leave him sitting down by himself. Make my way back up to our room and I hear him calling after me. I was running around the hotel in my bikini, so I hurried to our room with him shortly behind me. 

"Evelyn slow down," He whispers.

I get to the door and open it; he catches it before it slams in his face. I turn around, and he looks angry. 

"I don't know her, and I haven't even been flirting with her I texted her twice. But I don't think that's the important thing here. I think... "

He walks over to me slowly, his jaw clenched when he isn't speaking. 

"I think you are jealous, and I think you're not even trying to hide it. But for some reason, you don't want to admit it, but at least know that I know. You want me to not talk to her? Just say the word and I'll stop talking to her but if you don't tell me what you're thinking, I can't wait around for you forever wondering how you feel about me, Evelyn." He breathes, his voice firm and matter-of-fact. 

Okay, so he went there. Now, this is the part where in life you get two choices; you either face the issue at hand or you miss out on what could be. Frankly, I didn't have a fucking clue what to do. The way he just told it how it is had turned me on ridiculously. But my hormones weren't important right now, he was serious. But what did I feel for him? What would it mean for him and I? What would it mean for Ashton and him?