His Hired Girlfriend (16 page)

Alex shakes her head, a
single teardrop falls from her left eye down her red
cheek.

“
Still tired?”

Alex bites her lower lip.
No, damn it! She’s not tired. She’s confused, and she wants to cry.
Oh, damn it! She is already crying because he’s now wiping tears
from her cheek with his oh-so-warm thumb.

Not fair! She doesn’t want him to be so nice to her. She
wants him to treat her normally, like a stranger, so she won’t get
so involved.

She shakes her head. “No,
not that tired.”

Jayden chuckles. “You just
need a bit more rest.”

“
Yeah,” she says, avoiding
his eyes that she knows are staring at her much too intensely. She
can even feel his warm breath against her bare skin.

Jay gathers her clothes for her. She grabs them from him
and tucks them securely in her arms about her chest.

“
So does it fit?” he asks,
a hint of curiosity in his deep voice.

Alex turns to look at him,
her eyes questioning him at what he means.

“
That,” he says, nodding
at the pink laced bra.

Alex glances down and sees the bra he bought for her back
in New Zealand parading proudly in her arms.
She wants to die.

“
Does it?”

How is she supposed to
reply to that odd question? She cocks her head to one side and
nods. “Yes. Yes, it fits,” she replies stupidly.

“
Really?” he prods, one
shapely brow rising.

Alex wonders where this
conversation is going. Apparently nowhere. She is getting rather
cold from inadequate clothing even though it’s a lovely warm
day.

Jayden moves in closer and
wraps his arms around her. “Better?”

“
I should go and
change.”

“
Yeah, you do that,” he
says, refusing to move an inch. “I’m glad it fits.”

“
What?”

“
I’m glad the bra fits.”
He’s grinning, his eyes twinkling.

“
Yeah,” she
responds.

“
Do I get to
see?”

“
See what?”

“
You with the bra
on.”

Alex’s face goes bright red. “Don’t be silly!” she snaps,
giving him a dark scowl. With clenched teeth, she gathers her
clothing, shoves herself out of his arms and runs to the bathroom.
There, she quickly gets dressed and then does her makeup. Ten
minutes later, she’s finished and feels quite hot. Apparently,
rushing and thinking about Jay and his too-close-for-comfort
actions at the same time doesn’t do well with her nerves. She
couldn’t seem to do anything right. Yesterday she felt so
comfortable with him and now she feels this weird tension between
them as though there’s some sort of electrical charge in the
air.
Jesus!
What’s going on?

She cleans up her mess and
then rushes back out. She gives a quick glance at Jay, says, “I’m
going down for breakfast now,” and paces to the door.

Jayden watches her with amusement as she rushes out the
door. He can’t help admiring her little bottom and her slim,
shapely legs in the black skinny jeans either. He quite enjoys the
view. When she closes the door behind her, he feels upset because
he wants to see more. Then his mind flashes back to when she came
out with only a thin towel wrapped about her small body. He can
feel his blood rushing with pleasure at the thought of her near
nakedness, as the slightly wet towel hid little of her nice,
shapely body from his eyes. Not to mention the beads of water
glistening against her skin only roused his desire all the more.
Then when she tripped on herself and fell to the floor, the towel
nearly unwrapped itself from her body. He hoped that it’d fall, but
she was too quick for it, grabbing it just in the nick of
time.

He simply loves the feel of her smooth, wet skin against
his palm. His mind suddenly starts reeling with ungodly images of
her.
Shit!

My God, Jayden, you must stop it this instance!
He shakes his head in disgust. This
is Alexandra he’s thinking about. Alex is a nice girl. He should
not think of her in such a way. Then the thought of what he did to
her early this morning, kissing her without her permission, turns
his gut. She must think him a playboy or a ladies’ man or something
along those lines, taking advantage of her. He’d have to keep his
hands away from her; otherwise, he’d offend her again, and that he
does not want.

He quickly showers and
changes into Jacob Cohen faded blue straight-leg jeans and a navy
blue checkered Burberry shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his
forearms. He’s just coming out of the bathroom when he sees Kelly
entering the bedroom.

“
What’s up?” he asks when
he sees her serious face.

Kelly is dressed in a
pretty Gucci light pink sun dress with a Prada heels. As usual, she
looks immaculate. She smirks at him as she folds her arm across her
chest. “Good morning, Jay.”

“
How is my sister today?
You haven’t gotten cold feet, have you?” he half jokes.

“
Of course not,” Kelly
scoffs. “I never get cold feet. Just a bit nervous is
all.”

“
Well, I’m
glad.”

Kelly brushes her blond curls over her shoulder. “It’s
about time you tell me what’s going on.”

“
Uh-oh!” Jay narrows his
eyes at his sister. “Shoot.”

Kelly touches his arm and
leans closer to him. “About you and Alexandra.”

“
Hmm?”

“
Jay, you have to tell me.
What happened to Sarah? What happened in Sydney?”

“
We broke up.”

“
What? You and
Sarah?”

He sits down on the bed.
He says through clenched teeth, “You were right.”

Kelly comes to sit beside
him. “About what?”

“
Everything. She cheated
on me. I saw her with Kyle,” he says in disgust, suddenly
remembering that night at the hotel in Sydney. “I still can’t
believe it.”

“
Oh, Jay. I knew that
woman was no good. I’m sorry.”

“
Don’t be, Kelly. I should
have listened to you. But—”

“
Not too late, eh? You did
the right thing. And Alex?” Kelly asks, eyeing her brother with
interest.

There’s a long pause. Then
Jay reluctantly says, “I hired her.”

“
You what?” Kelly shouts,
her eyes large as she stares at her brother in shocked
surprise.

“
I hired her. You know
very well what Beth is like. Hey, you can’t mention this to anyone.
Understand? It’s not me I’m worried about. It’s Alex.”

“
Of course,” Kelly
mutters. “Ah, I see now. The matchmaking”

“
Hey, Alex isn’t what you
think she is. She’s a good girl.”

“
Oh?” Kelly chuckles.
She’s curious as to why her brother is defending his hired
girlfriend when she hasn’t said a bad thing about the woman. In
fact, she likes Alex. Whatever circumstances brought Alex to Jay,
she’s only glad it happened because she thinks Alex could help
Jay.

“
So what about you, missy?” Jay changes the subject. “Have
you managed to kill Sam’s bank account with your extravagant
expenditures yet?”

“
Of course not,” Kelly snaps. “What about you? What are you
going to do with Alex when this is over? Ditch her? And what about
Beth? And Mom and Dad? You know very well Beth wants
great-grandchildren.”

Jay feels a mountain of
guilt piling up. He hasn’t thought about that. “No. I’m not going
to ditch Alex. As for Beth, Mom, and Dad—I’ll tell them the truth
when this is over.”

“
When what is over?” Kelly
asks, her brows rising.

Jay shrugs his powerful
shoulders. “When your wedding is over and when Alex returns to New
Zealand.”

“
And you expect everything
to go back to normal? To the way things used to be?” Kelly
questions.

“
Yeah, I suppose,” he
replies, somewhat unsure.

“
Well, I hope so, Jayden,”
Kelly says as she strolls to the door, a hint of doubt in her
voice.

Jay glances at his sister.
She looks as though she feels sorry for him. Damn it! He doesn’t
want her to feel sorry for him, especially in his love
life.

“
For your sake,” Kelly
says before she shuts the door.

Jay rakes his fingers
through his wet hair, muttering, “What the hell is she on
about?”

* * *

T
welve

Jayden comes down to breakfast still thinking about Kelly’s words.
What the hell does she mean? Surely she doesn’t mean everything
would fall apart. What about Alex when all this is over? Well,
she’d be back in New Zealand, happy because she’d be with her
family and not have to pretend to be his girlfriend anymore. After
all, he suspects she doesn’t like him much. She only agreed to help
him because she needed the money for her dad’s surgery.

He wonders what her
reaction would be if he were to tell her that he’s not gay. He had
never thought about that. She’d probably slap him in the face and
call him a liar. Then she’d run home and never want to see him
again.

“
You seem to be deep in
thought, Jay.” Gracie calls out.

Jayden looks up to see
his mother and Alex at the dining table. Alexandra is
smiling at him.

“
Yeah,” he says, the dilemma wiped out of his mind. He comes
to sit opposite them and takes a slice of toast. Then he pours
himself a cup of black coffee.

“
Alex has been telling me
how you two met,” Gracie says.

Jay glances at Alex. He
sees her blushing. “Really? Do tell. I’m curious.”

Gracie chuckles. “She
spilled tea on your jacket.”

Jay takes a bit of his
toast. After a bit of chewing he says, “She did.”

“
Then you spilled beer on
her,” Gracie continues. “How clumsy of you, Jayden.”

He throws the half-eaten
toast down and grabs for the coffee.

“
My gosh! It’s already
9:30,” Beth announces at the door as she rushes into the room.
“Come along now. We are late for Vera Wang.” She tsks loudly.
“Where’s Kelly?”

“
Calm down, Beth.
She’ll be down soon,” Gracie says and winks at
Alex.

Jay sees Alex hiding a grin. When she sees him watching
her, she winks at him. God! How she affects him. He wants to leap
over the table and kiss her. Only he can’t because a) he is
supposed to be gay, b) his family is with them, and c) he has
promised himself not to touch her. Shit! Shit! Shit!
And more shit!
He needs to get away from her; otherwise, he
won’t be able to control himself.

He thrusts the chair back
with a loud screech and stalks out of the room. “I’ll get the car
ready,” he announces as he’s leaving.

Alex slumps, wondering
what has gotten into him all of a sudden as she stirs her lumpy
porridge.

A moment later, Kelly
appears. “Oh gosh! We are late. Come along, Alex, you’re coming,
too.”

Alex widens her eyes.
“Me?” She points a finger at herself, her brows raise.

“
Yeah. We can’t just leave
you here. Besides, Vera Wang is on Madison Avenue where all the
fashionable boutiques are. We can go shopping for your dress when
we are done,” Kelly says, her hands clasped together in
anticipation.

“
Yeah,” Alex says,
somewhat reluctantly.

Gracie grins. “Come on. We
are late.”

Alex nods, and then she is led by Kelly and Gracie on
either side of her to the car.

* * *

Leaning his shoulder against the black limo, Jayden watches as his
family and hired girlfriend finally make an appearance.

“
Oh, we are late, we are
late,” mutters Beth. “We do not want to be late for lunch with
Britney, too.”

Jayden sees Kelly smirk and whisper something into
Alexandra’s ear. Then they both giggle like school girls. Jay
wonders what they are gossiping about. Him, perhaps? They are
eyeing him with some sort of interest.

He opens the door for his grandmother, who mutters
something about the weather being too hot for her frail body to
handle. Then Gracie slides in, followed by Alex. He nods at her
with a masklike face, and that’s the most he’s going to interact
with her from now on, he vows to himself.

Kelly says, “You look like
you want to murder someone, Jay. Don’t worry, we won’t take long. I
know how much you hate shopping.”

“
Just get in the damn
car,” he snaps and gives her a nudge.

Kelly chuckles and slides in. Jay follows her. He finds
himself sitting beside his grandmother, who is busy on the phone
talking to Britney. In front of him are Kelly, Alex, and Gracie. He
thinks it’s better for him to sit in the front with their chauffeur
John. Where he is now, Alex is too close for comfort.
Crap!
He doesn’t need this. She’s within reach, and he could
simply put his hand out and pull her into his arms if he wanted to.
Yeah, he certainly wants to do that, especially when she grins at
him in that alluring way. She keeps nibbling her lip as though
she’s excited about something.