His Hired Girlfriend (11 page)

“Thanks, by the way,” she said,
smiling.

“What for?”

“For the money. Without it Dad
wouldn’t be able to have his surgery.”

Jay couldn’t help but grin from
ear to ear.

Alex saw this
and laughed. “You’re so cute when you smile,” she commented. And
silently added—
‘too bad you’re
gay.’

Jay’s fingers
gripped on the steering wheel.
Oh My
God!
She had just told him he was cute! My
God! Did that mean something?

“They are suspicious I have to
go away,” she began.

“Huh?” He was still grinning
and thinking about her last comment.

“I told them, my family, that
I’m going overseas, New York City to be precise, to do some more
training. I lied to them.”

Jay glanced sideway at her and
thought she look ashamed. He cocked his head to one side. “You
could just tell them the truth.”

Alex blinked and turned to look
at him. “I can’t do that. I can’t tell them that I’m pretending to
be your girlfriend and now I’m coming to New York to meet your
family. And blah, blah, blah...”

Jay laughed.

She frowned at him.

“Sorry,” he said cheekily. “You
could have just told them you are my real girlfriend and that you
are coming to meet my parents.”

“But we are not in a real
relationship. I mean you’re not my real boyfriend. You’re gay.”

Good point, Jay thought. He had
totally forgotten about the fact that he was supposed to be gay. Oh
dear! Lies upon lies. He wondered which was worse – him lying to
his family that Alex was his girlfriend or him lying to Alex that
he was gay.

No, no! He had to put that out
of his mind. He had to think about what was going to happen when
Alex meets his family. More specifically when Alex meets Beth.

“Alex?”

“Huh?”

“We need to clear something
up.”

“Clear what up?” Alex replied
sleepily.

“Us.”

She glanced at him, frowning.
“Us?”

“Yeah, us. We need to be clear
about our story.”

Alex nodded in understanding.
“Oh, you mean you and I? How we meet et cetera?”

“Uh-huh.” Jay nodded, his foot
pressing down the break pedal as the car came towards a red
light.

“Right. Go on then.”

“First of all we have to be
really close,” he said. The light flicked green and he stepped on
the accelerator. “What I mean is we want to make people think we
are in a serious relationship.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Good,” Jay said, making a
right turn. “Secondly, to do this, you’ll have to start calling me
more intimately. Like words of endearment.”

“Endearment?”

“Yes, like sweet heart, honey.
You know? Endearment.”

“Right.”

“Now I’m going to tell you a
bit more about my family.”

“Okay,” Alex said sleepily. The
sound of the car engine humming was like a lullaby to her ears, and
she closed her eyes, just to rest them, she told herself.

“Okay, we’ll start with my dad
then. His name is Tom McCartney,” he began.

Five minutes later after he had
described how his mom and dad had met, he glanced at his passenger.
He blinked. Damn, she was already sound a sleep. He shook his head.
Well, his family story would have to wait. She was tired after
all.

Jay stepped harder on the
accelerator as the car merged into the highway.

An hour later the black
Mercedes-Benzes drove past rows of gigantic, expensive mansions on
the Upper East Side of New York City and through wrought iron gates
that were opening up automatically. The car came to a smooth stop
in front of an immaculately kept, massive, white three-storey
mansion.

Jayden slid out and rushed over
to the passenger side. He cocked his head to one side as he gazed
down at Alex who was still asleep. He couldn’t blame her for being
so tired and he couldn’t blame her for looking so damn adorable,
too. When people sleep in the car they don’t look adorable, they
usually look stupid. But Alex was different.

He chuckled and brushed his
fingers gently across her forehead. Should he wake her up? He knew
his family would be up by now, waiting to greet his fake
girlfriend.

No, he shouldn’t wake her. It
would be cruel. She needed her rest.

With his mind made up, he
effortlessly scooped her up in his arms, turned on his heels,
kicked the car door shut, and strolled toward the house. Before he
could reach the bell, the large double doors opened up for him.

“Thanks, Maggie,” he said to
the plump, smiling housekeeper who was dressed in her very spotless
and immaculate uniform consisting of a black shirt and skirt.

“You’re welcome, Master
Jayden,” the woman said warmly, her gaze resting on Alex who was
snuggling her face comfortably against Jay’s hard chest.

“Your girlfriend? She looks
tired,” Maggie said. “I’ve arranged your room to your request. New
sheets, duvet, drapes, sofa, and of course, a beautiful vase with a
bunch of red rose. Uh, so beautiful.” She sighed happily.

“Thanks, Maggie,” Jay said,
grinning.

“You’re welcome, Master
Jayden.” The housekeeper nodded and shut the door. “Just so you
know. Everyone is up.”

“Right,” Jay said. He knew his
family would be in the dining room having their breakfast, and that
they’d be expecting him to bring Alex there for introduction. Not
yet. He felt that it just wasn’t the right time for that. Alex
needed her rest. Besides, he dreaded what would happen when Beth
met Alex. He had no doubt Beth would jump on Alex and claw her to
bits, figuratively speaking of course.

Hoping that they were still
blissfully unaware of their arrival, Jay paced toward the
stairs.

“So she’s here!”

Jay groaned inside. He slowly
turned to see his grandmother down the hallway. As usual she looked
elegant. Nothing was out of order on her person. Perfect hair.
Perfect face. Perfect clothing. This morning she wore a pretty pink
suit that fitted her slim body gracefully. Beside her stood his
mother.

Tall, slim, and still very
beautiful – Gracie McCartney gave the aura of elegance and
gentleness. Her blue eyes that were very much like his were gazing
at the sleeping Alex who was absolutely oblivious to the presence
of the people surrounding her.

“She is tired, I supposed,”
Gracie said, smiling.

“Jay,” a voice echoed from a
top of the stairs.

Jay glanced up and saw his
sister Kelly. She was dressed in a pretty blue sun dress with her
blonde curls rested about her shoulders. She looked very beautiful
indeed.

“You’re
back,” Kelly said as she came down the stairs. “Thought you’d be
late with
you know who
so demanding and all.”

Jay knew who
his sister was referring to when she had said
‘you know who’
. It was Sarah. Kelly
knew he and Sarah had been dating. But Kelly didn’t know that they
had broken up. Now he saw the puzzled look in her eyes, questioning
him as to what he was doing with another woman in his
arms.

Come to think of it, Jay
thought, Kelly had been right. Sarah was rather a spoiled little
brat who had always gotten what she wanted. Why he had not seen it
before was beyond him. Perhaps he had been so into her then that he
had been blind to all her faults. Although he seemed to remember
now that Kelly had mentioned something along those lines to him
many times.

Kelly came to a complete stop
at the bottom of the stairs once she had seen Alex in Jay’s arm.
She opened her mouth as though to ask Jay who this person was when
Granny Beth said, “Why is she dressed like that? Why is she
sleeping in your arms? A proper lady shouldn’t act like that.”

Jay frowned and said, “She has
just arrived and she’s tired, Grandmother. She needs her rest.”

“Well she’s better be up before
the dinner party starts,” Beth said, gave one more glance at Alex
in distaste, and strolled into the lounge with her nose in the
air.

Gracie shook her head at Beth’s
stiff attitude and said, “So this is your girlfriend, huh?”

Jay managed to nod without
flinching. He felt very guilty lying to his mother. But he had no
choice.

Gracie came to stand beside him
and peeked at Alex. She laughed. “She’s cute. Good choice,
Jay.”

Cute? Was
Alex cute? Jay had always though Alex was plain.
Of course he had also thought she was cute in the
car. He glanced down at the woman in his arms. Yup, Alex was cute
when she was sleeping. She also looked peaceful, young and very
innocent.

“I bet she’ll sleep better in a
bed than in your arms,” Gracie said, winking at him.

“I agree,” Jay commented,
laughing. “Better take her up then.”

“Yes, yes. Don’t forget to wake
her before afternoon tea,” Gracie said, walking into the drawing
room. “We need to get to know her better before the guests arrive.
By the way, you haven’t told her yet that there is a party for her
arrival, have you?”

Jayden groaned.

“Thought so,” Gracie chuckled.
“Better do it soon.”

“Sure,” Jayden responded as he
walked up the stairs.

Half way up, he glanced down at
his sister. Kelly eyed him suspiciously telling him he’d better
tell her what the hell was going on. Jay nodded in respond to her
silent demand.

Kelly raised her brows and then
went into the dining room.

*****

CHAPTER 8

ALEXANDRA HAD THE most horrible
headache ever. It was like someone was hitting her head with a
hammer constantly. She flashed her eyes open and rubbed her temple,
swearing silently why this was happening to her. The bright
sunlight didn’t help either. It was hurting her eyes. She squinted
and gritted her teeth.

“Good afternoon, sleepy
head.”

She snapped her eyes open,
wondering who was in the room with her. She licked her lips and
turned to look behind her. Jayden was standing just at the end of
the bed, hands in the pockets of his trousers. His white shirt was
unbuttoned halfway, showing off his muscular chest.

Oh my
God!
He was so handsome – just like a very
hot Calvin Klein model. She had no doubt that he was wearing Calvin
Klein anyway. She couldn’t breathe properly as she stared at him.
Her heart was beating abnormally fast.

‘
Okay,
Alex, calm down.’
Then she wondered
why Jay had asked her to be his fake girlfriend when he could have
chosen someone much prettier than her.
Someone like Mary St. Clair.
But
then again, she reminded herself, Jay was gay. And because he was
not interested in women he wouldn’t know which was hot, which was
pretty, and which was plain like her. And of course it explained
why he hadn’t been affect by Mary’s famous charm.

Poor man. What a waste. God had
made him a perfect creature but—

She shook her head and told
herself to stop thinking stupid things. She licked her lips again
and did some more blinking.

Jayden chuckled and moved onto
the bed. He came to sit beside her and said, “What’s wrong?”

Alex touched her temple again
and frowned. “I’ve got the most horrible headache.”

Jay moved closer and peered
into her eyes. “You poor thing.” Then he stroked her forehead
gently, rubbing her skin so that it’ll ease the tension within her.
“You need some aspirin.”

“I don’t want any aspirin,
thank you,” she said, her heart starting to do a hard out disco
dance.

Oh My
God!
He was so close. God help her, she
could feel his warm breath against her skin. She could feel how
very,
very
close
they were from each other. Her inside was exploding with hot,
thrilling sensations.
She loved
it!

Not good. This was not good.
She was excited that a gay, hot guy was touching her and paying her
attention? How twisted was that!

“Why not? You’ll feel better
after some.”

“Because I hate aspirin. I hate
any pills. I hate swallowing them. I can’t swallow them properly
and they taste bitter,” she said with fervour.

Jay chuckled. Then when he saw
her seriousness, he stopped. “Hey, you okay?” he asked, now cupping
her face so that she could look up at him.

Alex blinked and bit her lip,
her headache now forgotten. “Yeah, why?”

“Your face is
red.” He smiled. God, he thought, she looked adorable. “I know you
look flushed when you’re tired. You
are
tired. I’m sorry about
that.”

Alex was
staring at his sensuous lips as he was speaking.
What was he talking about? Why can’t she
concentrate? Why was she staring at his lips?

Jayden laughed. “You poor
thing. You can’t even think straight. You’re not even listening to
me.”

That got her
attention then. She glanced up to his eyes and saw the mirth there.
He was making fun of her. Stupid man!
Stupid, hot, gay man!

She brushed his hands away and
shifted out off the bed. “Where am I? Are we at your house?”

Jay made himself comfortable on
the bed and said, “You’re in our bedroom.”

Alex missed
the word
‘our’
.
She simply nodded and wondered where the bathroom was.

“There.” Jayden pointed to a
door to the left.

“Thanks,” she said and rushed
in.

Jay waited, and then a moment
later, she came back out. “I need my things. Where are they?”

“Hold on.” He got off the bed,
opened the huge walk-in-wardrobe and grabbed her luggage out.