His Hired Girlfriend (15 page)

He stretches his body.
Damn, his neck feels stiff. Apparently, the sofa doesn’t make such
a comfortable bed after all.

He sits up and starts to
massage his aching muscles. He turns his neck left and right as he
groans. Then he turns his neck too far to the right and it cracks,
making a loud noise.

“
Shit!” he mutters at the
sharp pain erupting throughout his body. He stops short when he
sees Alex watching him, a pretty smile on her lips.

“
Good morning, Mr.
McCartney. Good sleep last night?” she asks
sarcastically.

Jay sees the mischievousness in her glowing eyes and
relaxes back. Though his body is still sore, he’ll be damned if
he’d show her his weakness. So he leans back on the sofa, his arms
crossed behind his head. “Yeah, wonderful sleep,” he says, staring
up at the chandelier, watching the color spectra of rainbows
forming as light hits the crystals.

Alex laughs, shaking her
head. “Really? Well, from what I saw just moments before, you don’t
look as though you had a good sleep at all, Jay.”

Jayden narrows his eyes at her. His lips form a thin line
as he says, “Well, that may be—”

“
You know
what?”

“
What?” he asks, eyeing
her now.

“
I’ll sleep on the sofa
tonight. I’m smaller.”

“
Don’t be silly,” he
scoffs, liking the glow of light playing on her person.

“
I’m not being silly. I used to sleep on the floor with just
a thin mattress when I fruit-picked at the farm,” she says,
watching the muscle of his arms. She suddenly wonders what it feels
like under her touch. Would it be hard and smooth as she suspects
it would be?

“
What was it like?
Fruit-picking?” he asks, sitting up.

“
Hard work,” she comments. Now she can see his seminude
chest where it is exposed beneath his white nightshirt. Smooth,
hard, muscular chest. She swallows and shivers.

“
You’ve been working hard
all your life, haven’t you?”

Alex shrugs her shoulders,
casting her eyes down to look at her small hands instead. Gosh,
what is she doing? Wanting to touch a gay man? Jay’d think she’s a
loon.

“
Nothing to it,” she says.
“It was rather fun at times. The fresh air, the warm sun, the sweet
smells of ripe strawberries.”

“
Sounds heavenly,” he
comments, watching her, wondering if her hair would be soft under
his fingers as he imagines it to be.

“
Kind of,” she chuckles.
“So, like, I was just wondering—”

“
Hmm?”

“
Do I get to go on a tour about New York or anything? I mean
come on, this is my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Can I please go
sightseeing?” She manages to flutter her eyes a few times at him so
he’ll know she’s begging him to show her around.

Jayden chuckles once he
sees her bright eyes full of enthusiasm. “That’s true.”

“
Can we go to Central
Park? And the Central Park Zoo? They are in one place, right? And
the Empire State Building? And can we go shopping? Not that I’m
going to shop, just window shopping, you know. I mean I don’t even
have the money to shop. Gosh, everything must be frightfully
expensive here.”

Jayden laughs.

“
What?” She frowns, folding her arms across her chest.
“What’s so funny? Okay. All right. Fine. Just because you’ve lived
here all your life and no doubt everything seems exceedingly lame
to you here now.”

Jay manages to stop and
shakes his head. “No, of course not. New York is never lame.
Although I must admit I don’t like it much here.”

“
So you don’t like living
here?” Alex is astounded. Everyone wants to live in New York City,
especially on the Upper East Side where all the rich and famous
live.

Jayden shakes his
head.

“
Why not?”

“
Not my kind of scene. I
want peace and quiet. I want a place where I can relax and think
and not have to get involved with certain types of
people.”

She’s curious, so she can’t help asking, “Then why are you
here?”

Jay shrugs his powerful
shoulders. He’s not going to tell her that he wants a place like
Queenstown and that up until recently he only stayed in New York
because of Sarah.

“
Because of work?” she
supplies.

Jayden changes the topic
swiftly. “So you slept well?”

“
Yes, thank
you.”

“
And you are not
tired?”

Alex cocks her head to one
side in serious thought. “Nope. Not at all tired. I feel better
now. So, um, no more parties, right?”

Jay laughs.

Alex blushes a shade of
pink. The richness of his laughter causes her heart to quiver with
joy. Oh dear! She wonders if that’s normal.

“
Good,” he says. “We’ll go
sightseeing today.”

“
What? I mean, really?”
she asks excitedly, hoping that he means what he said.

Jay cocks his head to one side as he studies her. Her long
hair is in a wild mess, her eyes are bright, and her lips are red
and kissable—enough to tempt a monk. And Jayden is not a monk,
so…

“
Really?” she says, her
voice soft and sweet. She’s giving him the puppy dog
look.

Jay swallows
and
quickly looks away. Shit! This is not good. He has just realized
that he’s attracted to his hired girlfriend.

“
Where should we go first? Oh, I know. I want to go to
Central Park. Would that be okay? I mean I’m not bothering you? I
could always go by myself, you know. I’ve got a map. I got it all
worked out. We are in the Upper East Side of New York City, right?
So...”

Jayden realizes that Alex
chatters nonstop when she’s excited. And he finds that he likes
that just fine. Slowly, he relaxes and studies her as she ticks off
with her fingers all the things she could do at Central Park. He
loves her unguarded emotions, which clearly show on her face as she
talks so animatedly.

Suddenly, there’s a series
of knocks at the door. Alex stops and glances in that
direction.

“
Jayden? Are you up
yet?”

Jay bolts up and fires his
gaze at the door. “Shit!”

“
What?” Alex asks, her
eyes wide in confusion.

Jayden doesn’t have time
to answer. He leaps off the sofa and races to Alex with the blanket
in tow. He hops in between the sheets, arranges the duvet about
them both, and pulls the surprised Alex into his arms. As he is
doing so, one of his hands is busy messing up his own hair and then
he does the same to Alex.

Alex just looks at him as
though he has just gone mad.

Jayden stares at her. It seems as though he can’t help
himself after all. He cups her chin and slams his lips against
hers—tasting her soft, sweet mouth. As he deepens the kiss, his
fingers dig deep into her thick hair. He pulls her closer, wanting
more of her.

Alex is shocked to the core. She goes still as her heart
does somersaults. Not to mention her body is soaring into the sky
like an eagle. Jay is warm and hard against her. And he’s kissing
her.
Her! Plain Alexandra
Stewart from New Zealand!

The door opens and
then—“Jayden!”

Jay doesn’t want to stop
the kiss. But he reluctantly releases the dazed Alex and turns to
look at his grandmother who, no doubt, is demanding his attention
with her stiff voice.

“
Beth?”

“
My God! I can’t believe this,” Beth mutters, her lips thin.
She glances at the disheveled Alex, hums disapprovingly, and then
turns back to Jay. “Please hurry, Jayden, we have an appointment at
Vera Wang for Kelly’s final fitting at ten this morning and then
lunch with Britney at twelve.” Then she sails out the room, her
head high.

Once the door is properly
closed, Jayden relaxes with a sigh.

Alex bites her lip. Her
heart shatters as she realizes that Jayden didn’t mean to kiss her
at all. He only did it as a stage show for Beth.

Jayden turns to look at her. He feels his heart glow. He
wants to kiss her again. She is so soft, warm, and sweet—despite
the fact that she doesn’t even know how to kiss. He realizes that
she hasn’t stopped blushing either. He strokes her tangled-up hair.
Yup, it’s soft, all right.

Alex loves the way he
touches and strokes her hair. But she knows she must stop him
because otherwise she’d like it too much, and it’d hurt her in the
end when they parted. She touches his hand, stilling his gentle
strokes. “You don’t have to act anymore. Beth is gone.”

Jayden’s heart misses a
beat. He frowns at her upset face and wonders what is wrong. Alex
slowly gets out of the bed and goes to the bathroom, her shoulders
slump.

“
Shit!” Jay says, throwing
his head on the soft pillow.

* * *

Alexandra stares at herself in the mirror, her fingers touching her
slightly sore, red lips. She can still feel that lovely sensation
that resulted from Jayden’s kiss. She groans. A feeling of sadness
builds up within her heart.

“
Alex?” She hears his
voice from the other side of the door, which is then followed by a
couple of soft knocks. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that to
you.”

Sorry?
She doesn’t
want him to feel sorry for what he did.

“
Alex, you hear
me?”

Alex sighs and reluctantly
replies, “Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t be sorry, Jay. I know it’s not real
anyway.”

“
Alex, look—”

She cuts him off by turning on the shower so she couldn’t
hear his explanations or excuses or whatever it is he’s trying to
say. She tiptoes to the door and listens to see if he’s still
there. When she hears nothing, she relaxes and rests her head
against the door. Oddly enough her heart hurts in an odd, painful
way. What could it be? A sign of love? Disappointment? Oh, dear.
Didn’t she warn herself about that when she first met him? Didn’t
she tell herself it would be easy to fall in love with Jayden
McCartney? It’s obvious the man does not feel the same way toward
her.

For the first time Alex wants to punch the wall. Only she
wouldn’t because it’d hurt her knuckles and they’d probably be
bruised for a couple of weeks. This wouldn’t look good if she were
going to attend one of the biggest weddings in New York City,
especially when she is pretending to be the girlfriend of the
bride’s brother. She’d surely draw too much attention to herself.
Goodness knows she has already drawn too much attention to herself
as it happened last night.

She sighs and then goes
about showering. Once she finishes, she wraps a thin towel about
her slim body and emerges back out into the bedroom.

She comes to a sudden halt when she sees Jayden watching
her. He’s out on the veranda, leaning against the rail, his
powerful arms crossed about his muscular chest. His eyes are so
intense. She feels as though he could actually see deep into her
soul. Her body quivers in reaction. Her heart is pumping fast, as
though she has just finished a marathon, which she has never done
before.

She curses herself for
putting on her contacts after the shower because if she hadn’t put
the contacts on then she wouldn’t be able to see him properly and
then his stare wouldn’t have affected her so much.

She avoids his eyes and rushes into the walk-in wardrobe.
As she goes about finding her things, one hand tightening on the
towel about her chest, she curses herself for not taking in her
clothing before rushing into the bathroom. She’d have to do that
next time so she wouldn’t have to suffer the humiliation of Jay
watching her as she goes about finding her things with barely
anything on. Of course, she reminds herself, she has been a bit
absent-minded this morning after that incredible kiss she
unexpectedly received from him.

She gathers her black skinny jeans, light sweater, and
underwear, which she hides well under the others so that Jay
wouldn’t be able to see. Arms overfilled with her clothing, she
rushes back into the bedroom. She’s in such a hurry, and because
she’s not fully in control of herself, she steps on the material of
the jeans, trips on herself, and falls flat on her face.

She groans in humiliation
and pain and silently curses herself for being so stupid and
clumsy. She gathers herself up and sits on her bottom, her clothing
scattering around her, her towel barely covering her
nakedness.

“
Are you all right?” Jay’s voice echoes close to her ear.
Gosh! He’s fast. One second he’s out on the veranda, and the next
he’s beside her. Suddenly, she can feel his warm hands wrapping
about her bare arms. She can feel his strength beside her, so close
to her like a brick wall. She can’t answer him because his touch is
sending glorious sensations in her being. Her brain is basically
dead.

“
Alex?” his voice comes
louder.

She turns to look at him
then, her eyes large.

“
You’re not feeling
yourself today, are you?” he asks, one hand cupping her cheek, his
eyes looking deep into hers.