"So you're admitting it?" I replied, my heart beginning to beat faster.

"I'm not admitting shit," he said, raising his voice. His eyes pierced me, a dark warning that sent a flood of excitement through my body.

"You're not denying it. So that must be an admission."

"You're pushing it, Pepper," he warned.

I knew I was crossing the line, but I couldn’t stop. Not now. Not after everything he put me through since we first met. Not after the mind-blowing kisses we’d had.

"What? Your buttons? Welcome to my world."

He bolted to his feet in the hot tub. "You want to see an effect?" he growled. "Then see it." He reached into his trunks and whipped out his cock. He started stroking himself in a leisurely rhythm, his member quickly turning into an impressive erection in front of me.

I shot to my feet, appalled. "Fuck! I knew it! You were lying earlier."

He shook his head, continuing to stroke himself. "You gave me this idea," he said, smiling. "And it was a good one."

I angrily put my hands on my hips, preparing to get out. "You're unbelievable."

"Guess I do have an effect on you after all," he said smugly. His hand stopped, and he tucked himself back in his trunks as he collapsed back into the hot tub. He pointed to the cabinet on the side with a grin on his face. "Hand me a towel before you leave, would you?"

I had one foot out of the tub when I realized that Jax was just doing this to make me leave. I reached over for a towel and threw it at him before sitting back down in the water with my arms folded across my chest.

"What are you doing?" he asked, setting the towel aside.

I stared at him defiantly. "I'm not letting you kick me out of the hot tub."

"Are you serious? I told you to leave."

"Of course I’m serious. You can’t tell me what to do."

His jaw tightened. "You know what I'm gonna do if you stay. You can't stop me."

I knew I had him pinned as a sweet guy beneath that bad boy veneer. I’d seen it in the small ways he cared about me. I’d felt it in his lips.

"Go ahead," I replied. "I'm calling you on your bluff."

His eyes blazed with the same intensity as they had during our argument over the pyro. "I’m not bluffing, Pepper."

I nodded at his elbows resting on the edge. "Then what are you waiting for? Show me."

"I will," he growled.

I watched in amazement as he yanked his trunks down and his still-erect c**k sprung from its confines. The bulbous tip peeked above the surface of the water as he began to stroke himself.

My pulse leaped. Eyes wide, I sucked in a sharp breath.

He must’ve sensed my discomfort because he smiled. "Better leave," he purred darkly. "You don't want your boss to find out about this."

Unable to look away, I continued watching him, watching as he stroked up and down slowly. My heart beat faster as my ni**les tightened against my bikini. I couldn’t leave, I told myself. I couldn’t let him kick me out. I couldn’t let him win.

I swallowed and lifted my eyes to meet his. "I'm not telling him and neither are you."

His jaw tightened. The pace of his hand increased as his gaze moved to my chest. "You think I'm thinking about you while I do this?" he grunted, staring so hard at my bikini that he could’ve burned a hole in it. "I'm not."

"Oh, you're thinking about me," I countered, knowing that he must be able to see the hardness of my ni**les through the bikini fabric. I stared back, mesmerized by the head of his c**k roiling the surface of the water. My thighs pressed together as a dull throbbing began to form between them. The water seemed to be getting hotter, and combined with the alcohol I’d been drinking, it was getting difficult to think straight.

He shook his head. "I'm thinking about those twins from before."

My heart skipped, remembering the groupies he’d compared me to. "No, you're not."

"I've been thinking about them for a while," he said through gritted teeth, his strokes getting longer and faster. "Next time I'm in New York—"

"You're lying," I shot, the heat of the water and the fire in my body making me touchy.

"The truth hurts, huh?"

"Shut up."

His scorching gaze was fixed to my body, turning me on unbelievably. I could see it in his eyes, in the way he was stroking himself. He was imagining himself inside me.

"I'm gonna give it to them. Rough. Hard." His voice was strained, a raspy snarl barely concealing his desire. "I've wanted to do it ever since I saw them. All this time. All this f**king time."

My breaths came shallow. I could feel it billowing inside me: anger and lust violently clashing together, melding into a destructive torrent of carnal desire.

"You'll be thinking of me, tonight," he growled. "Thinking 'til you're blue."

"You're so frustrating." The words tumbled softly out of my mouth. With Jax pleasuring himself right in front of me and me being already half-naked, the pent-up sexual energy I’d suppressed over the past week was growing dangerously strong, threatening to burst.

"We could end this, Riley," he offered. "I know exactly how you’re feeling—you’re suffering. Let’s cut the bullshit and end this torture for the both of us."

I was vaguely aware of my body shifting so that the jets began to hit against my inner thigh. My body was screaming to be satisfied. Blood was pounding in my ears. It was taking all my strength not to rip off my top and bottom and jump onto his lap.

"No," I said stubbornly.

He licked his lips. "I'm gonna enjoy it. Making you sexually frustrated. All that tension, and no release."

The way his tongue brushed against his lips and the way he teased me with his words ignited the yearning inside me like gasoline poured onto a flame. My fingers curled against the acrylic seat, my need for release so strong it was physically painful. "So what?" I replied, my voice coming weak. "You think I'll have sex with you?"

"It'll keep building," he bit out. "Your stubbornness is gonna lead you to give in to me. I couldn’t have planned something better."

I swallowed hard as the inescapability of his words sank in. "You think you have it all worked out, don’t you?" I struggled.

He began to stroke himself from the base of his penis to the swollen tip, showing me how deep he was imagining himself plunging into me. The visual was so intense I could almost feel it, feel him burrowing inch-by-inch into sensitive, nerve-laden flesh. My toes curled painfully. My heart was beating so fast I could hardly breathe. One by one cracks were spreading throughout the walls I’d built to contain my desire. I’d wanted to prove I could resist. To Jax. To Jen. And most of all to myself. But I couldn’t hold it back any longer. With a final shaky breath, I let it all crumble.

"Then watch me destroy your plans." I slipped my hand into my bathing suit and pressed my fingers to my clit, tending to the ache that threatened to consume me.

"No, stop." His fiery eyes became dark.

I shook my head, my breaths coming back and fast, pleasure coursing through my veins in powerful bursts.