His Hired Girlfriend (28 page)

Jayden stroked his fingers
through his hair. “Alex, I have to tell you something.”

“No you don’t. I understand,”
she blurted out. She knew he was regretting that he had kissed her.
In her heart she knew he still loved Sarah and now he felt
disgusted and guilty that he had kissed her. She knew he felt like
he was betraying Sarah.

Alex felt the
hurt built up in her chest. No, she thought, she could never make
Jayden love her because his heart had already belonged to another
woman, a woman who had cheated and betrayed him.
How could a man love that kind of
woman?

“No you don’t. Look, Alex.” He
cupped her face in his hands, his heart felt tight with dread. Gosh
how he wanted to tell her that he loved her, but he didn’t want to
get hurt. He didn’t want to get rejected. He knew she’d hate him
the moment she found out that he wasn’t gay and that he had lied to
her. But he knew that it was either now or never.

“Alex,” he began. “I have to
tell you something.”

“No, Jayden. You don’t have to.
I understand,” she said, shaking her head, a dark expression in her
eyes.

“Sweetheart,
I’m very sorry. I’m not gay. I’m straight. Just like Sam and dad
and Peter, like any other man you know. And I...” He couldn’t go
on. The little voice in his head kept screaming—
‘Tell her, you idiot! Tell her you love
her.’

“Why did you lie to me?” she
asked, her voice quivering with emotion. “Why did you have to tell
me that you’re gay when you’re not?”

“I couldn’t help it. It just
all happened at once and...”

“There are many other women
around. Ones that are better looking than me. Ones that... I don’t
know, ones that belonged in your world. Ones that know your world.
Me, Jayden, I don’t know your world. So why me?”

“I’m sorry, it just happened,”
he said, lost and confused.

“Don’t be sorry, Jayden. I just
don’t understand why you chose me, but I do understand why you did
it. I know you still love her. You just need space so your family
would stop bothering you about marriage and all. So you hired
me.”

“Alex, sweetheart, it’s not
like that.” His face now inches from hers that Alex could feel his
warm breath on her skin.

“I don’t like people lying to
me, Jayden, and I’m really upset about it. I totally understand why
you did it though. But since you’ve paid me and I’ve used up the
money, it’s my obligation that I must complete my part of the
deal.”

Jayden wanted to growl. She was
calling their relationship a deal now? And that it was her
obligation to complete it? This was ridiculous. “Alex, listen to
me, sweetheart.”

“Jayden, you don’t have to call
me ‘sweetheart’ anymore. We’re alone. I’m getting cold. Can we go
now?” she said abruptly and moved his hands away from her. She
turned and strolled back into the captain’s area, away from the
sudden onset of cold wind.

Jayden felt defeated. He also
felt like half of him was dying, very slowly and very painfully. My
God, how he wanted to explain everything to her even though none of
it actually made any sense to him.

Yup, she
hated his gut all right because he had lied to her. And yup, she
hated him even more now because he wasn’t gay.
Shit!

He spun on his heels, went back
to the wheel, and then started the engine. Their drive back was a
solemn and quiet one. Even though they were within arm reach of
each other, their emotional connection felt like it was miles away,
perhaps even as far as the distance between New Zealand and the
States. The atmosphere was tense and thick.

Once home, Alex told everyone
that she had a terrible headache and that she need a good rest
before dinner. Alone in the bedroom, she cried her heart out. She
hated herself for falling in love with Jayden. She couldn’t believe
she was that weak. How she wished things were different. How she
wished Jayden loved her. But that was impossible because he was
still in love with Sarah.

Never mind, she told herself,
the wedding was in a few days time. Then after that she’d be gone,
back to New Zealand. She would never have to see Jayden ever
again.

The thought didn’t sit well
with her though. She sobbed and more tears poured out off her
eyes.

***

JAYDEN HEARD THE soft sobbing
from the other side of the door. He knew in his gut that he was the
cause. He raked his fingers through his hair in frustration.

‘
Oh, Alex
sweetheart, I didn’t mean to hurt you,’
he wanted to tell her.
‘Okay,
Jayden,’
the voice at the back of his head
said,
‘Just go in and tell her. Tell her
everything. Tell her that you love her and that you are glad what
happened has happened. Tell her you’re glad you found Sarah
cheating on you. You’re glad that you dumped her. You’re glad Peter
suggested you hired her, Alexandra Stuart, as your girlfriend. And
that you’re glad you are in love with her because she’s a great
woman.’

Jayden wrapped his fingers
around the door handle, about to open when…ring, ring, ring...

“Shit!” he swore under his
breath. He snatched the BlackBerry from his pocket trousers and
flipped it on. “Jayden speaking,” he growled into the phone.

The voice on the other side
said, “Boss, it’s me.”

Jayden recognised it as David
Peterson, his executive associate.

“David, what is it?” he
snapped.

“We’ve got a problem. It’s
about that piece of property Mr. Marcelo wanted to sell us.”

“What the heck is wrong with
it?”

“It’s big. You’ll have to come
see for yourself. I’ll be in the office.”

“Damn! Yeah.
Be there in five.” He flipped his cell shut. “Shit!” he swore
again, glancing at the door to his bedroom, knowing that Alex was
in there crying her heart out. “I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he said and
then ran down the stairs
. ‘I’ll be back
soon,’
he thought.

*****

CHAPTER 20

TRIED AS SHE might Alex just
couldn’t get up the next morning. What had happened yesterday in
the yacht still played fresh in her mind. Thank God Jayden hadn’t
returned to their room to sleep, so she had been able to cry
herself to sleep. Otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to face
him. She had no idea where he had gone off to. Probably back to
Sarah and making out with her. She felt like Sarah had jabbed a
knife in her heart at that thought, while the woman laughing
mockingly and glaring at her of course.

She felt bad
that she had roughly told Gracie not to bother her last night when
the woman had come to ask if she wanted dinner and that if
everything had been all right. She had lied that she had had a
really bad headache and that she hadn’t felt like eating and that
food made her feel sick. It had been true, however, about the food
part. She knew she wouldn’t be able to eat because she had been
feeling sick in the stomach. A normal dysfunction surely when ones
were in a mood of depression –
the heart
broken type.

She slowly and reluctantly got
up, showered and dressed. No make up for her today as she didn’t
feel up to the task and the fact that the makeup artist was coming
anyway to do a trail.

When she finally came down
stairs, the makeup artist, Laura Andrews, was there and chatting
away animatedly to Kelly, Gracie and Beth in the drawing room and
showing them new collections of makeup trends that had just came
out.

“Alex, did you sleep well?”
Gracie asked, a concern look on her lovely face.

“Yes,” Alex replied, but her
tone and her eyes told a different story. “I’m starving.”

“And so you should be,” Gracie
said. “Not good missing dinner, you know.”

“I know,” Alex replied. “Hi,”
she said to Laura.

The middle aged, beautiful
woman replied a polite greeting.

“Morning, Beth,” Alex said to
the elderly, regal woman.

“Morning,” Beth replied
stiffly.

“Hey, Kelly, I’ll be back after
breakfast,” she said. Once she had gotten a confirmed nod from the
bride to be, she headed toward the dining room.

“She looked awfully pale,”
Laura commented. “Is she not well?”

“Maybe just tired. She’s from
New Zealand,” Kelly said. “Don’t you love her accent?”

“Yes, it’s very unique,” Laura
commented. “She’s Mr. McCartney’s girlfriend?”

“Yes,” Kelly replied, a bit too
enthusiastically in Beth’s mind.

“What a lucky girl,” Laura said
and then they returned to their make-up consultation.

A moment later Stephanie barged
in through the door with an uncontained enthusiasm. “I have the
most exciting news,” she announced to her audience.

The four women looked at her
with raised brows. Stephanie rushed into the room. “You’d never
believe what I saw yesterday.”

“What?” Kelly asked, her eyes
half closed as Laura expertly applied a golden brown eye shadow on
her left eyelid.

“It’s Jayden,” Stephanie
shrieked excitedly. “I saw him and Alex at Tiffany and Co.”

“And?” Kelly asked. Now Laura
was applying a thin layer of black liquid eyeliner on her right
eyelid.

Stephanie took a deep breath
and then basically shouted, “Jayden was buying Alex’s an engagement
ring.”

Kelly shot up and growled,
“You’re kidding me!” The black liquid liner spread up to her
temple.

“Oh dear.” Laura frowned at the
marked she had made on Kelly’s pretty face. But Kelly didn’t seem
to mind. She was too excited about the news.

Gracie said, “Oh my God. This
is great news.” Then she rushed up to Kelly, who looked dumbfounded
and hugged the girl. “Oh Gosh, Alex is going to be a part of the
family and—”

“And the baby,” Stephanie
shrieked, jumping with joy.

“What?” Beth shot up from her
seat and glanced from Gracie to Stephanie. “Alexandra is pregnant?
And now they are engaged?” She turned accusingly to Kelly and
snapped, “Why am I the last to know about this?”

Kelly was
lost for words. Apparently she didn’t know about it either. Heck,
weren’t her brother and Alex only acting? At least she had thought
so.
Oh My God! This was all so
confusing.

“I can’t believe Jayden hadn’t
told me,” Beth said bitterly.

Gracie put in, “Jayden hadn’t
told anyone.”

“And?” Beth prompted, frowning,
obviously very upset about the whole thing.

“And we should all pretend we
don’t know and keep it quiet until Jayden and Alex tell us
themselves. They are probably waiting for the right time.”

“I agree,” Stephanie put in.
“Oh I know. Maybe he’s going to tell everyone on your wedding day,
Kelly.”

“That would be the perfect
time,” Gracie agreed.

“What’s all the locomotion
about?” an unwelcome familiar voice said at the door.

Stephanie turned and folded her
arms across her chest. “Who invite you, Britney?”

Britney brushed her long hair
over her shoulder. “Beth of course.” Then she did a cat walk into
the room, her hip swaying from side to side. “So what’s going
on?”

Kelly said, “Nothing much.”

“Just that,” Stephanie put in,
“Jayden and Alex are getting engaged.” She finished off with a
brilliant smile, showing off her white teeth.

Britney glared at Stephanie and
her face turned red. “What? That’s impossible.”

“Well...” Stephanie shrugged
her shoulders, implying that she didn’t have to believe it.

“Well,” Laura began as she knew
she was about to see a cat fight between Stephanie and Britney soon
if she didn’t do something like cooling down the tension that was
thick in the air. “Very exciting news I must say. Kelly, what do
you think about this look? Good? Not good? And Stephanie my dear,
please come here and get yourself ready for me to do your
face.”

Stephanie narrowed her eyes at
Britney who just folded her arms across her chest and told
Stephanie with her look to ‘bring it on’. Stephanie itched to
obliged the woman only she knew better because they were in the
company of the two most respected women in New York, Beth and
Gracie, and went to ready herself.

Kelly brought the hand mirror
up to check out her face. She clamped her lips together and shook
her head. “We should try something else.”

“Yes.” Laura began cleaning
Kelly’s face.

Beth walked up to Britney and
said quietly, “I think you should leave.”

“What?” Britney snapped.

“Come with me.” Beth led
Britney toward the door. “You know I was not pleased with the way
you treated Alex the other day at Vera Wang.”

“But I thought you agree she
isn’t good enough for Jayden.”

“Things change, Britney. I hope
your behaviour toward Alexandra will change the next time I see you
two together. See you at the wedding.” She turned and went back
into house.

Alone at the
front door, Britney gritted her teeth. “Stupid old witch,” she
muttered under her breath. Some way, some how she’d have to get
what she wanted,
and she wanted Jayden’s
money.
The only way was to get Jayden
himself.

She strolled
to the side of the house and flipped her cells on. She dialled a
number and waited. A second later a male voice said,
“Hello?”

“It’s me, Britney.”

“
Darling, I’ve missed you.
Shall we meet somewhere?”

Britney didn’t beat about the
bush. “Kyle, I need your help.”

A
pause.
“How can I help you, my
dear?”

She could hear the playful mock
in his voice, but she ignored it. “I need to get that stupid slut
Alexandra far, far away from Jayden.”