His Hired Girlfriend (25 page)

“
Good,” he says, speeding up. “Taken care of
then.”

After that, everything is a delightful blur to Alex as she
takes in the sights of Central Park and then the Metropolitan
Museum of Art as Jayden guides her around, holding her hand and
showing her things. When she is exhausted from the heat and from
learning and seeing new things, he takes her for a late
lunch.

The BMW comes to a
screeching halt in front of The Steak House restaurant. Jayden gets
out and rushes over to open the door for her.

Alex laughs. “You don’t
have to do that.”

“
Ah, but I have to. I’m a
gentleman.”

“
Yeah. Right,” she scoffs.
She feels like reminding him that he is supposed to be gay, but she
doesn’t have the heart to do so because he looks so pleased with
himself. And he is so damn handsome she can’t take her eyes off
him. She wonders if he knows that he is good-looking and that lots
of women would fall for him if he were to lead them on.

The restaurant is busy and packed with customers. Most of
the seats are taken, though Alex can’t help but admire the fact
that everything is running smoothly. A waiter shows them to their
table, which is situated near the window that overlooks Central
Park. He even pulls out a chair for Alex, and she thanks him
politely. Then he pours them each a glass of water and then shows
them the menu.

“
Would you like some wine
today?” he asks.

Jayden glances down the
wine list and chooses one. The waiter jots that down and then
leaves, telling them that he’d be back in a few moments.

“
Wow. I don’t know what to
have,” Alex comments, biting her lip as she scans through the
menu.

“
I thought you wanted steak. Just go for a steak,” Jay
suggests, leaning back in his seat.

“
Yes, I want steak. All
right, I’ll go for the steak.” Decision made, she shuts the
menu.

The waiter reappears with
the wine. He expertly pours a bit into a glass for Jayden to taste.
Jayden nods his approval and then the waiter pours more into his
glass.

He turns to Alex and pours
some into her glass.

“
Oh. Thank you,” she says
to him, smiling.

“
You’re welcome,” he
replies and then leaves them after he has taken their
order.

Once they are alone again, Alex says, “I like this place.”
She scans around and notes that everyone in here dressed up real
nice. At the door, she sees two people come in. It’s them—the
blond-haired woman and the handsome man she met at Buon Appetito.
She hopes they won’t see her and Jayden. She hopes like hell they
won’t recognize her.

“
I’m sorry, sir, but all
our tables are taken. If you both could please wait a moment,” one
of the waiters says to them.

The blonde mutters
something under her breath and folds her arms across her chest in
irritation. Then her eyes meet Alex’s.

Alex is sure she can see the hazel eyes narrowing as if
there’s a sense of recognition. She quickly looks away, pretending
she hasn’t noticed the woman. She is not pleased when the blonde
heads toward their table.

The blonde stops right in
front of them. She glances at Alex and then turns to Jayden,
smiling pleasantly as if they are old friends.

“
Jayden, darling,” she
says brightly.

Alex widens her eyes in shock.
The blonde knows Jayden? Oh my God! What a small world
this is.

She watches Jay, who looks
at the blonde with a cold, masked face. “Sarah.”

That’s when Alex feels the butterflies in her stomach. Her
heart flutters as she realizes that Jayden is tense. She can see
his hands are gripping into a fist and that his chest is heaving
heavily.

So this is Sarah? Jayden’s
ex-girlfriend? The sense of realization settles in her, and Alex
feels sick in the stomach.

“
Did you enjoy yourself
last night? You didn’t stay too late with Britney, did you?” Sarah
asks.

Jayden ignores her
questions and fires one of his own. “What are you doing
here?”

“
Lunch, of course, darling,” Sarah replies
sweetly.

“
Sarah, we’re getting our
table,” the man says behind her. He comes to a stop when he sees
Jayden. “Well, well, well. New York is certainly a small
place.”

“
It is, isn’t it?” Jayden
replies sarcastically. “How are you, Kyle? Have you managed to
bankrupt another company yet?”

Kyle grits his teeth.
“That’s none of your business, Jayden,” he sneers.

“
Oh. Sorry for asking.
Don’t you have your own table to go to?”

Sarah grits her teeth at
his comment.

Alex can feel the woman
glancing at her. There’s a sense of curiosity and jealousy in her
eyes.

“
M
y girlfriend,
Alexandra Stewart,” Jayden says, his arm around Alex’s
shoulders.

“
Your what?” Sarah shouts
in shock. “This cleaner—this slut is your girlfriend?”

Jayden’s eyes become dark
and cold, and his face turns rigid. Alex has never seen him looking
so ruthless and dangerous before, and the image sets her pulse
racing. She has to admit that he looks damn hot.

Alex turns her attention to Sarah Taylor. What an arrogant
bitch this woman is. The woman thought that she, Alex, was a
cleaner and treated her so horribly that Alex is not prepared for
it to happen again. This time she’ll stand up for herself. It’s a
free country, after all.

Alex smiles pleasantly and coldly as she stands up, her
eyes on the other woman. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’ve ever
told you that I’m a cleaner or that I am a slut.” Moving her face
closer to Sarah, she adds, “And I don’t cheat on my boyfriend
either.” She folds her arms in satisfaction, her brows rising just
a bit.

Alex glances at Jayden.
She hopes she hasn’t gone too far. She sighs with relief when she
sees that he doesn’t look angry. In fact, as she gazes into his
eyes, she realizes that there’s a glint of pride. She grins as he
reaches his hand out and touches her, like a boyfriend would to his
girlfriend, to show her that he supports her, cares for her, and
loves her.

Sarah’s face burns with humiliation. Alex thinks the woman
must want to murder her right now. But she can’t, of course, and
Kyle starts to beg her to leave.

“
I’m not leaving, not
yet,” Sarah hisses as they go to the table that is offered to
them.

Alex watches as they take their seats. Kyle looks as though
he wishes they were somewhere else, and Sarah looks stiff and
angry. At that moment, an idea pops into her head. She sees her
chance and moves her chair so that she and Jayden sit side by side,
like a loving couple. She whispers softly into his ear, “Sorry
about that. I thought I was a bit too forward.”

Jay chuckles. “I see the
little bird has finally flown out of its nest.”

She cocks her head to one
side. She flutters her long lashes a few times in confusion and
asks, “What does that mean?”

“
Just that,” he says,
gently tucking some hair back behind her ear. He wonders if she
knows her lashes are long and that the innocent fluttering affects
him.

Alex feels a fluster of warm sensations melting through
her. Jayden moves his lips to her ear and says softly, “I’m sorry
you had to meet them here.”

His warm breath tickles her sense. She giggles and snuggles
her face against his neck. Once she manages to settle herself down,
she asks, “Who are they?” She is pretending ignorance, of
course.

“
Nobody you should know.
Ah. Here’s our food.”

They make the most of their meals, both in the delicious
food itself and in putting on a good show for their unwelcome
guests who are sitting at the table across from them. Alex knows
without question she has to make Sarah know her place, that she is
no longer Jayden’s girlfriend and that Alex now is. She knows she
must act as the perfect girlfriend. She does so by doing her best
flirting with Jayden. At least she thinks she’s flirting with
Jayden, and she does this by putting some of her food on his plate,
feeding him, smiling at him, saying stupid things she knows makes
him laugh, which he does so accordingly, and yeah, touching him
most intimately.

She knows that Jayden is
uncomfortable with the presence of Kyle and Sarah, that he’s tense
and that he’s probably thinking about Sarah throughout the whole
meal. That doesn’t sit well with her because she knows Jayden still
has feelings for Sarah. Otherwise, he would have a new real
girlfriend by now and wouldn’t have to hire her to be
one.

They finish their meal and take their leave, managing a
curt “see ya around” to Kyle and Sarah on their way out.

Sarah watches until the
lovebirds are out of sight before she allows her full hatred to
show on her face.

“
Ugh! I can’t believe
this. Disgusting!” she mutters.

“
She’s hot,” Kyle says,
smiling.

“
What? You think that
bitch—that girl is hot?” Sarah asks in disbelief.

“
I have to say Jayden does
have good taste. Alexandra,” he says softly. “Even her name sounds
sweet. Can’t wait to taste her.”

Sarah glares at him, her
mouth twisting. Then slowly she smiles as a thought enters her
mind. “You really want her?”

Kyle laughs. “What man doesn’t? She’s one hot chick, all
right.”

Sarah picks up her wine
glass and sips, a plan forming in her head.

* * *

“Where are we?” Alexandra asks, looking around her curiously.
Jayden has been driving her around the city and showing her the
sights, which she still cannot believe since he did not utter one
word to her since they left the restaurant. It was such a pleasant
surprise, and she’s sure they both enjoyed themselves
tremendously.

Jayden gets out of the convertible and comes over to her
side. “Come on, missy,” he says, pulling her out of the
car.

“
All right. Hold on,” she
chuckles, grabbing for her handbag.

Once out, he leads her to the wharf. She has no idea where
they are, but she loves the scenery. All she knows is that she’s at
the harbor because there are lots of yachts around—really big,
expensive-looking ones.

“
Slow down, will ya?” she says, laughing. “I’m wearing
heels. My feet are sore now.”

Jay shakes his head.
“Women,” he says under his breath.

“
Well, excuse me for being one,” she snaps as she tries to
catch up with him so that his hand on her wrist won’t hurt her as
he drags her along.

“
I didn’t mean it like
that. Just a figure of speech.”

“
Yeah, right,” she retorts, ignoring him. Suddenly, one of
her heels gets stuck in between the planks. “Hold on.” She wiggles
her foot, pulling him back. “I’m stuck.”

“
What?” Jay halts and glances down. He laughs, loud and
clear, so that his chest rumbles.

She smacks him on the arm.
“Stop it. This is serious.”

Once he manages to stop, he gets down on his knees and
helps pull the shoe out. Finally, after a good attempt, he says,
“You might have to take that shoe off.”

“
All right,” she says,
bending down.

“
No, don’t. I’ll do it.” He begins to help ease her foot out
of the peep-toe pumps as she leans over him for support. Once her
foot is free, she steps back so that Jay can do the manly thing of
freeing her shoe from the board. His force is so hard that he
breaks the heel.

“
Shit!” he swears, staring
at the dismantled shoe in disbelief.

Alex laughs. She can’t help herself as she touches him on
the shoulder, staring into his face. “You’ve destroyed my shoes,
Jay. I can’t believe it. They’re expensive, you know.”

He grins, his eyes twinkling. He gets up, shoe in hand.
“Well, then. What shall I do?” he asks dramatically, his head
cocked to one side.

“
I don’t know,” Alex replies, hands on hip, her face all
serious now. “You broke it. You fix it, mister!”

“
Damn!” he mutters. “I’ll
buy you another one. That’ll fix it.”

“
I happen to like that one, Mr. McCartney. And you can’t buy
me happiness.”

“
Really?” he
prompts.

“
Really,” Alex echoes, now
folding her arms across her chest. “So what are you going to do
about it?”

Jayden looks at the broken
shoe in his hands as if he is in a great dilemma. “Well, I can
always do this.” He throws the thing into the water
nearby.

Alex gasps. “Jayden! Now
how am I supposed to walk?”

“
I see no other option but
to—”

Alex raises her brows,
wondering what he’s going to do. Her curiosity is answered when he
suddenly scoops her up in his arms.

“
Dear me,” she says under
her breath, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“
Since you can’t walk with
one shoe, I’ll carry you.”