His Hired Girlfriend (8 page)

The door
opened, and Alex glanced up, smiling and expecting to greet one of
the Thompsons. But it was not any of the Thompsons who were
standing there at the door, grinning down at her.
It was Mr. Hot-Choc.

Her heart
missed a beat and then it started to beat faster and faster.
‘Calm down, old girl, it’s only Jay. And he’s
gay. He’s not interested in you.’

“Hey there,” she said
cheerfully. “What ya doing here?”

Jay, with his greeting smile
still fixed on his handsome face, said, “I’m staying here for a
little while. Love the view.”

Alex nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, Waverly’s great.”

She waited for him to take a
step back to let her through the door, but he didn’t budge. He
simply stood there looking down at her from his great height. She
made an attempt to enter through anyway, and ended up squeezing
herself between him and the side of the door.

She glanced
up at him as she passed, her heart thumping out of control. Her
face was red because he was so near her that she could
actually
feel
him. She could feel his warm breath on her forehead. She
could feel his muscular chest brushing against the side of her arm.
Oh my God!

She told herself to calm down
and not act stupid in front of him.

Once she past the threshold of
the house, she bent down to take her shoes off.

“Alex, that you?” Mrs. Thompson
shouted from the living room.

“Yes. Hi, Mrs. Thompson,” Alex
said, shooting up as she did so.

Bam!
She collided with Jay, his body very close to
her. Why was he behind her when there was plenty of room in the
hallway? It was not like they were in a tiny closet, for God’s
sake.

“Sorry,” he said, grinning down
at her, his face seemed to be moving closer to hers.

Alex smiled apologetically at
him and stroked her fingers through her hair because she was
getting rather hot from being so close to him. Her body was working
overtime, she thought.

“That’s okay,” she managed to
say, avoiding his eyes as she walked into the living area, with Jay
following close behind her.

“Oh my dear, I haven’t seen you
for such a long time,” Mrs. Thompson said as she came around the
bench, her arms wide open. She hugged Alex, patting the girl’s back
as she did so.

“Sorry, I was quite busy with
work and all,” Alex explained, moving back. “Here, it’s from Mum.”
She handed Mrs. Thompson the bag filled with lettuces and
silverbeets. “Mum said hi.”

“Oh she didn’t have to do that.
Well tell her I say hi back and thank you for these.” She gestured
to the bag in her hand. “What would you like to drink, honey,” she
asked as they both walked into the kitchen.

“Ribena would be good, thanks,”
Alex said, watching Jay who was now on the other side of the
spacious, modern living room picking up his big mug of beer.

“Ribena? You got it,” Mrs.
Thompson said, opening her large stainless steel fridge door.

That’s
better, Alex thought, seeing him sitting on the other side of the
room.
Space.
She
needed space. She needed to breathe properly. She could feel her
heart slowing down its furious beating back to a normal
rate.

She left her satchel on the
bar-stall and then took her jacket off. Mrs. Thompson handed her a
glass of Ribena.

“Thanks,” she said, taking the
cool glass in her hands. “How come Jay’s staying here?” she asked,
taking a sip.

Mrs. Thompson glanced up with
raised brows. “You know each other, huh?”

“I met him at the hospital.
Peter was there with him,” Alex said. “I thought he’s staying at a
hotel or something.” She thought he was the type of person who
would only stay in a five stars hotel like the Scenic Hotel or the
Southern Cross Hotel in town.

“Peter thought Jay needed
company and a change,” Mrs. Thompson said as she took out the
roasted pork and vegetables from the oven. She grunted as she
carried the heavy, hot tray across the small space and placed it on
the chopping block. “Why don’t you set the table, dear?” She
started picking out the roasted potatoes, kumara, and carrots and
put them into a large serving bowl.

“Sure,” Alex replied, put down
her drink on the bench and proceeded to roll up her sleeves.
“Smells delicious,” she said. Then she shook her hair and tucked
the strands behind her ear so that they were out of her face.
“Where are the plates?”

“Behind you,” Mrs. Thompson
said without looking up from her pork.

Alex nodded and turned.
“Shoot!” she gasped as she felt a hard body against her.

Jayden caught her arm with one
hand to steady her. He placed the now empty mug onto the bench-top
as he searched her face.

She glanced
up and her heart started to beat out of control—
again
. Oh God, he was touching her.
Then she felt something wet about her breasts. She glanced down and
saw that her jersey was soaked with a dark stain liquid.

“You all right?” Jay asked in
concern, still searching her face, his body way to close for her
comfort.

Alex said, her body trembling
with excitement and anxiety, “Sorry, I didn’t see you behind
me.”

Mrs. Thompson looked up from
her pork. “Just an accident. Why don’t you clean up before dinner,
Alex?”

Alex turned to smile nervously
at Mrs. Thompson. “Yeah, I’ll do that. Excuse me.” Then she
squeezed herself between Jay – who didn’t seem to notice that she
needed some room and wouldn’t move an inch – and the bench and
walked to the door.

After watching her leaving the
room, Jay said, “I think she’s upset with me.”

“Oh?” Mrs. Thompson looked at
him with raised brows.

She liked
doing that, Jayden thought, raising her eyebrows like a judge at
her suspects in court, questioning their innocence.
Well damn, she was one after all.

“I better go and see how she’s
doing since I’m the culprit.” Jay grinned gingerly and left the
kitchen.

Mrs. Thompson smiled and went
about preparing their dinner, humming to herself.

Peter came down the stairs just
then and saw Jay heading toward the bathroom along the corridor.
The blonde man swore under his breath and frowned darkly as he
marched towards his intended destination.

Peter came into the kitchen and
said, “What was that all about?”

Mrs. Thompson looked up at her
son. “What?”

Peter shook his head and
changed the subject. “Renovation not going too well.”

“Why?” Mrs. Thompson asked.

“They found mould in the
bedroom. We have to take down all the walls. Tracy’s not happy.” He
sighed.

“Of course she’s not happy,”
Mrs. Thompson replied. “They’re pulling down her house.”

Peter watched his mum returning
to her work. He thought Tracy, his fiancée, was not very happy at
all. They had started doing this house renovation thing for three
months now and there seemed to be no progress at all. The bills
just kept coming in and piling up but no proper work had been done
as yet. What a headache this all was. And to top it all off he
missed Tracy dearly, even thought it had only been three weeks
since he had last seen her back in Sydney. He was counting down the
days when he’d be able to see her again, which was in two weeks
time. Then there was the fact that he didn’t really want to bother
his parents for too long, crashing in their house while his own was
being renovated. He knew they needed space – even though this house
was very big and can accommodate an army – and he and Tracy
themselves wanted their own space. It was so much better that
way.

***

JAYDEN WANDERED ALONG the
hallway, cursing himself severely. Jeez he was such a jerk. What
the hell was wrong with him? Why was he showing so much interest
towards Alex? And why did he have to stand so close to her just
then?

No wait. Pause right there, hot
shoot!

Oh yeah, he knew why. That was
because she smelt great, like spring or something. He wasn’t able
to help himself because he had wanted to smell her again after she
had squeezed past him through the entrance door into the hallway.
It wasn’t a strong, perfumery smell like most of the women he knew
wore back in New York, but rather a subtle scent – just a hint of
lovely floral that had pricked his interest. Just a hint that had
made him wanted to inhale more.

He reached the bathroom door,
put one hand on the knob, and knocked lightly a couple of times
with the other. When he heard no reply, he opened the door slightly
and popped his head in.

He saw her busy cleaning
herself with some Kleenex. She had her jersey off, which was lying
on the floor. She was wearing only her white singlet and her skinny
jeans.

Looking from behind he thought
she looked slim. He had thought that she looked too thin back at
the hospital, he realised otherwise she looked just right for her
height.

He cleared his throat.

He received no response. He
knew she probably didn’t hear him because she was too busy frowning
at her stained singlet. Jay had no doubt that she didn’t like the
look of that dark beer stain on the very white fabric. The singlet
looked new. Maybe that was why she looked upset.

Then she yanked the material to
her nose and sniffed. She made a face as though she was disgusted.
Jay guessed she didn’t like the smell of that beer either. Then she
started pulling the hem of the singlet from her waist, ready to
take it off.

Shoot!

Not wanting to be seen peeking
in on her while she was undressing, he said loudly, “Alex, you all
right?”

She had
gotten half her singlet up to and covered her face when he had said
that.
Holy Mother of God!
He could see the lace of her bra coiling with her
singlet and it was going up.

Alex turned round as she yanked
the singlet all the way off her body. She blinked once it was off
her person.

“Jay!” she gasped.

“
Holy
shit!”
Jay swore under his breath,
staring at her, the top half of her body naked. She had nice
breasts, he thought in amazement. They were milky white, full and
round with light pink nipples.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

Alex glanced down and her face
went bright red. She quickly covered herself and started mumbling
something that Jay couldn’t hear.

Feeling mighty guilty, he
started, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“No, no, no. It’s my fault. I
didn’t lock the door. But that’s okay coz you’re gay.” The moment
she had said that, Alex wanted to die.

‘
Where did that come from?
You stupid girl! What have you done? You’ve hurt Jay’s tender
feeling. You know very well that gay people are very sensitive, not
only about this subject, but in everything else as well.’

Jay crocked his head to one
side, studying her. He saw that she was staring at the floor,
completely mortified. He knew she was feeling very bad about what
she had just said to him.

So okay, he
was gay. This, he thought, should come useful around her. She was
afraid of him, after all, as a real man. But hopefully not when she
thought he was gay. So instead of saying sorry to her, shutting the
door, and leaving her alone like a real bloke would do, he came
into the bathroom and closed the door. In his mind, a little voice
shouted at him,
‘you’re going to burn in
hell, man’
.

How right the little voice
inside his head was, Jay thought, as he glanced at her chest, the
milky white flesh of her breasts were barely concealed from his
preying eyes what with her slender arms and the little material of
the wet singlet.

“Hey,” he finally said. “It’s
okay.”

Alex looked up at him, her lips
slightly downward. “I really didn’t mean that, Jay. I’m sorry. I’m
very sorry.”

“Don’t be. I can’t help the way
I am,” he said, his gut retching in disgust.

‘
You’re damn right, you
rascal. You can’t help with the way you are. You’re a male who is
about to take advantage of an innocent young woman. Oh yeah, you’re
going to hell soon, real soon.’

He came to
stand right in front of her.
‘Now
then,’
he thought,
‘what does a real gay man do when he encounters such an odd
situation? He’d be understanding and he’d give her a hug, like when
a girl gives her girlfriend a hug after she found out that her best
friend got dumped.’

Jay touched her arms and said
very gently, “It’s all right, Alex. I don’t mind you saying
that.”

He tried, honest to God, he
really did try. But he was just a mere man. He was not a monk. He
couldn’t help himself, and so he glanced down at her breasts
again.

Shit!

She seemed to be hugging
herself harder, as thought she was withdrawing from him because he
was touching her. And in doing so, she was squeezing her breasts
together. His mind started reeling with sinful images. His mind
started picturing what he could do to her, particularly those
amazing breasts of hers.

He quickly
looked away before his imagination got any wilder. He stared at the
wall instead and thought,
‘You rascal,
you’re turned on. Shit! You’re turned on. You’re in deep
shit.’

‘
Think of
something to say! Think of a joke! Make a joke!’
he told himself silently.

Nothing.

Alex looked up at him, inches
away from her, his warm, large hands touching her bare arms.

“Jay?” she whispered, her eyes
large beneath her glasses as she gazed up at him.