His Hired Girlfriend (22 page)

“
You? Kissing me?” she scoffs, her brows rising in doubt.
Na-da! There is
no way
Jayden is going to kiss her. It’s
simply a threat because if he is going to kiss her, he’d blow his
entire masquerade he has so cleverly built.

“
Really?” she prompts, her head cocked to one side as she
studies him. “I don’t believe you. You’re gay, mister, so behave
like it.” Then she shoves his rock-hard chest so he’ll move away.
He obediently shifts aside, freeing her.

Alex sits up and gives him the look that says
“I told you so.”

“
Wuss,” she says,
grinning, feeling quite satisfied she has won the argument. She
lands her feet on the carpet and stands up, intending to head back
to the sofa. In a flash, Jayden catches her wrist, pulls her back
on the bed, and rolls himself on top of her.

Alex has no idea what has
just happened. She can see Jayden on top of her, grinning—the type
she has never seen on his face before. She is suddenly alarmed. She
feels butterflies in the pit of her stomach.

Jayden bring his hands up and cups her face. Slowly, he
lowers his head to hers. Once his face is only inches from hers,
their noses nearly touching, and his hot breath against hers, he
says softly, “I’m no wuss, Alex.” Then he fastens his firm lips
against her soft ones.

His kiss is not hard and demanding but soft and gentle. He
deepens the kiss as his fingers dig deep into her hair and his
tongue strokes along her half open, quivering lips.

Alex is shocked into stillness. Her body is ablaze with
small flickers of fireworks she didn’t know existed. When Jayden
slides his tongue into her mouth, that’s when she catches the
breath at the back of her throat. She feels as though she’s
floating on air, and the fireworks within her become more
powerful—exploding into a myriad of colors.

She doesn’t realize she’s
responding to his kiss as her hands come up to wrap around his
neck. When she finally realizes she’s kissing him back, Jayden
suddenly stops and pulls back, totally breathless.

Alex doesn’t know that she
too is breathless and that her heart is pumping like mad, as though
she has run a marathon.

With his face still practically touching hers, she can see
his blue eyes that are—oh God—blazing with passion. She didn't
understand the meaning of
fire in the eyes
until that moment. Yes, she can see fire in Jayden’s
eyes—an intense, powerful blue flame that’s alive. In reaction to
that realization, her heart does a somersault, and her stomach
knots in dread and excitement.

She covers her hands over her mouth because she can’t
believe what has just happened. Then, because she can’t stand him
staring at her so intensely like that, like he doesn’t regret what
he has just done one bit and that he’d be glad to do it again, she
quickly turns over and gives her back to him.

Jayden moves over so that his lips are near her ear, his
hand touching her bare arm. She can feel the heat there, burning on
her skin and sending her head reeling.

“
Don’t you dare sneak away, or I’ll do it again,” he
whispers.

Alex shivers, both at the thought of that possibility and
at the fact that she can feel his warm breath against her skin, her
senses tingling.

“
I won’t run,” she
whispers, her voice quivering. Then she shoves him back. Jayden
obliges at her need for space. “Stupid man,” she mutters under her
breath and quickly pulls the blanket up and over her head, hiding
from him.

Jayden lies back on his side. Then he switches off the
light, grinning from ear to ear. Damn, he just kissed Alex, and he
doesn’t care one bit if that behavior is not that of a gay man and
that she might be suspicious. He can’t wait to do it again, quite
soon.

* * *

DUNEDIN, NEW ZEALAND

Mary St. Clair
throws her
Louis Vuitton handbag onto the leather sofa and growls in
frustration. Her legs hurt like a bitch because she has been
standing and running around the wards in heels all day.

God, how she hates her job! She thought becoming a doctor
was the best career move ever. After all, it’s one of the highest,
most well-regarded jobs in the world. But now, however, she finds
she can’t stand the thought of walking into the hospital building
itself. She hates sick, old people smell. She knows she’ll have to
quit this and do something else. She thinks that right now would be
a good time for a boyfriend to come along and comfort her.
Suddenly, the image of Jayden McCartney, that American handsome
man, pops up in her head. She still can’t believe he left her
stranded that Saturday night. She expected to spend all night with
him in her luxurious apartment her dad had bought for her for her
twenty-first birthday.

She must talk to Peter and see whether she can contact
Jayden through him. Then a thought strikes her. Of course, Peter
and Jayden are friends. That means Jayden would be in Peter’s
Facebook friends list.

A bubble of excitement bursts up within her. She giggles
and rushes over to her laptop sitting on the desk near the window.
She switches it on, and a few minutes later, she’s browsing through
Peter’s friends list on Facebook. Sure enough, Jayden McCartney is
there. She goes into his profile page and starts browsing. She
thinks he looks hot in all of his pictures. She giggles.
Jayden McCartney
. Oh, how she wants him.

She goes to his bio page,
and her heart skips a beat.

“
Holy shit!” she swears under her breath. She glares harder
and grits her teeth, her hands shaking.
“What the!”

There, his relationship status says,
“In a Relationship with Alexandra
Stewart.”

Alexandra Stewart?
Surely not
the
Alexandra Stewart she knows from
high school?

Her hands shaking, she drags the mouse to click on the name
“Alexandra Stewart.” Then Alex’s Facebook page appears.

“
Oh my God! How can that be possible?” Mary wants to scream
at the unfairness of life and throw the laptop against the wall.
She thrusts the seat back and races to pick up the cell phone. She
dials Peter’s number and impatiently waits.

A few seconds later, Peter’s voice comes through,
“Hey, Pete here.”

Mary takes a deep breath to calm herself down. She knows
it’s not a good thing to be speaking to Peter when her
emotions are in danger of an
eruption. She says, almost calmly, “Pete, it’s me.”

“
Mary?”

“
Yeah. Pete, I need to ask
you something.”

“
Yeah, what’s
that?”

She sighs.
“Jayden.”

A pause.
“Yeah, what
about him?”

Mary grits her teeth, her
heart pounding hard within her chest. “I don’t believe it! I can’t
believe it! I won’t believe it!”

“
Wait, what don’t you
believe, Mary?”

She swallows, tears
brewing in her eyes. “Jayden. He’s in a relationship with
Al—Alex—Alexandra?”

A laugh
. “Oh that.
Hm. Yeah. How did you know?”

“
How?” She strokes her
fingers through her brown hair in frustration.

“
Yeah. How?”

Mary wants to scream her
head off. “Facebook.”

“
Ah. Of course. Anyway,
they met and fell in love.”

Mary wants to snort at that. Hot Jayden? Falling in love
with the mousy and ugly Alexandra? Impossible! Jayden couldn’t be
that stupid
or
blind. There has to be an
explanation. It couldn’t be true. There must be something. “So it’s
true?”

“
Yeah. Is that
all you
want to ask me about?”

Mary pauses. Then “Yeah,” she grits out. “Good
night, Pete, see you
tomorrow.”

“
Yeah. Night.”

Mary angrily throws the cell phone on the bed. She growls
and heaves. She simply
can’t
believe it. No, no, no. There must be something. It can’t be
true.

* * *

S
eventeen

Jayden wakes up
feeling refreshed and alert. Despite the late night, he manages to
get a good sleep. He sighs with satisfaction as he stares up at the
ornate ceiling. Then everything that happened the day before
flashes back. The thought of Alex causes him to grin from ear to
ear. He glances to his left. He sees her still sound asleep. Oh,
damn! He sucks in his breath. So last night wasn’t a dream after
all. He didn’t imagine her milky skin, glossy hair, and luscious
lips. She is beautiful like a goddess in those Victorian paintings
that even a monk is tempted by.

She groans and stretches a little as he holds his breath,
wondering if she’s going to wake up and see him ogling at her,
thinking about her in such an ungodly manner. Oh, yeah, he’s
thinking about her full lips, thinking about licking his tongue
along the soft flesh.

Damn it, Jayden,
the
voice at the back of his head snaps
. You shouldn’t be thinking about Alex that way. She’s so
pure and innocent, and she’d die of shock if she knew you’re
thinking about her in such a way.

She doesn’t open her eyes or
show any sign of waking up. He sighs with relief. She moves
to him and snuggles against him, her head now on his arm, her face
resting against his chest, and her hand resting on his stomach. Not
to mention the fact that one of her legs is resting on the top of
his. He grins and strokes his fingers through her long hair. At
that moment, he feels content. He closes his eyes, moves his face
closer to hers so his nose is touching her hair, and he drifts off
to sleep.

When he wakes up again,
Alexandra is watching him, her eyes large and curious as she
studies him.

He grins and says warmly,
“Morning.”

“
Sorry,” she says, “I
don’t know how I ended up here.” She makes a motion to move away
from his arm. He stops her and gently draws her back.

“
Aren’t you sore?” she
asks.

“
Nope,” he lies even
though his arm is numb. He, however, doesn’t mind one bit. “So did
you have a good sleep?”

Alex nods as she gazes up at him. She has to agree it has
been comfortable sharing a bed with Jayden. Now, however, it’s time
for revenge. The only problem is she wonders if she has the
willpower and the confidence to go through with it. She has never
done anything this reckless before. In fact, she never thought
she’d come up with such an idea. It’s extraordinary and very unlike
her, to say the least.

After the makeover, however, she knows she is now
comfortable in her own body and is quite confident that she will be
able to go through with her plan. Her hand, after all, has been
forced. She has no other choice. Revenge is so sweet.

Jayden touches her nose.
“What are you smirking about?”

“
Nothing,” she replies, a
delightful twinkle in her eyes. Suddenly a fluttery sensation
erupts within her. She sits up, trying to calm herself down. “I’ll
go and shower now,” she says and quickly rolls off the bed before
Jayden can pull her back.

“
Don’t be too long,” he
says lazily.

She glances at him. He
looks almost like a puppy wanting to be petted. She shrugs her
slender shoulders as if she doesn’t care and strolls to the
bathroom, making sure she swings her hips just a little like those
supermodels do on the runway. He’d surely appreciate
that.

Jayden surely does
appreciate that as he watches her until she shuts the bathroom
door. He sighs and rests back on the piles of pillows, gazing out
the window at the lovely sunshine outside.

In the shower, Alex makes
sure she scrubs herself well until her skin is glowing. Afterwards,
she goes about moisturizing herself and doing her makeup as she was
taught by Lisa, the beauty therapist, so she’ll look naturally
beautiful.

“
You can do this,” she says as she stares at herself in the
mirror. Two can play at this game. The tables have to be turned.
She nods her head with a determined look on her face. With only a
thin towel wrapped around her slim body, her hair slightly wet, and
her milky skin soft and glowing, she heads out the door. She makes
sure Jayden notices her before she heads toward the walk-in
wardrobe.

Jayden sits up, his interest piqued as he watches her
finding her clothing in the big wardrobe. He wonders if seeing Alex
every day and him pretending to be gay is a good idea after all. He
also wonders how long he’ll be able to last not exposing the truth,
that he is not gay, that he is attracted to her, and that he can’t
stand not touching her.

“
Jayden?” he hears her soft voice, so smooth and sweet like
melted chocolate that it makes him flare with desire. Shit! He
needs coffee. He needs to clear his head.

He clears his throat.
Hoping he doesn’t sound like a wolf in heat, he responds,
“Yeah?”