Free The Girlfriend Contract 2 by Lucy Lambert

microphone in Gwen's face.
    "Yes, yes we are," Gwen said. She'd never been aware of the sound of her own voice in her life. Did it sound a little raspy? It was cold out, after all.
    "How wonderful!" the reporter said. Then she lowered the microphone and leaned in a little, "Are you okay, sweetie? You look a little cold."
    "She forget her jacket again," Aiden said. He pulled his tuxedo jacket off and draped it over her shoulders.
    "So you can see, chivalry isn't dead," the reporter said, looking back at the camera.
    Just as Aiden told her, as soon as the next limo pulled up and a beautiful woman stepped out, all those flashes redirected back towards the street and away from them.
    She tugged his jacket closer. "I'm beginning to get quite a collection of these."
    "Well, I'm going to need this one back when we get inside."
    The rest of the walk up the carpet wasn't bad at all. And then they were in the hotel. Another man in a tuxedo, his black hair slicked back, came up to show them to their table, which was in the hotel's largest conference room. Inside, there had to be about a hundred round tables draped with white cloths, all with four chairs around them.
    It reminded her of their "dinner" with Bradley.
    The large room reverberated with dozens of conversations and the occasional light tinkling of champagne flutes touching.
    They were seated. Waiters came around with trays of champagne glasses and hors d’oeuvres. Gwen didn't accept any of them, her stomach still too tangled to let anything in.
    And, just as Aiden said, a number of reporters worked the room teamed up with a cameraman.
    A pretty woman verging on middle age, the wrinkles in her face nearly obscured by her Botox treatments, took a seat at the table. Her cameraman pointed the lens in their direction and gave her the thumbs up.
    This is it, Gwen thought. Then she felt Aiden's hand find hers beneath the table. He squeezed her fingers lightly, and she squeezed him back. It soothed some of her nerves, but not all. She'd never been interviewed before, not even one of those random street corner things where the reporter asks you what you think about the crazy weather the city's been having.
    So it was disconcerting to see the large, singular lens of the camera glaring at her. She could see her reflection in the glass slightly.
    The reporter gave the cameraman a thumbs up and he started recording, a little red light beneath the lens glowing light the ember of a cigarette.
    "Mr. Manning, my name is Sylvia Draper, with Channel 11. I hope you're doing well this fine, if somewhat chilly, evening."
    "Yes, Sylvia, quite well. And please, call me Aiden. Mr. Manning is my father."
    Sylvia nodded, pleased that Aiden seemed to be cooperating. "We're sorry that he can't join us tonight. Let me get down to it, Aiden. Do you really think your recent philanthropic efforts on behalf of Carbide Solutions will really improve the company's image on the world stage?"
    Gwen gathered from the reporter's tone that the woman didn't seem to think his efforts amounted to much. This annoyed her. What right did this over-the-hill witch with her plastic face have to question him like that?
    But Aiden just let her insinuation roll off. "Yes, I do. I am not my father, and I will see to it that the company's bottom line doesn't become more important than people's lives."
    He really meant it, too. He grew more impassioned, and Gwen could see in the set of his jaw how important this was to him. And while the camera could catch that, it couldn't catch the way his hand squeezed hers again beneath the table.
    "Bold words. I understand you're seeing someone now. Miss Gwen Browning, if my sources are correct. Care to answer some questions for our viewers?"
    "Not at all. Gwen and I are quite happy to, in fact," Aiden said.
    Gwen could figure out who Sylvia's source was pretty easily. She wondered what else Bradley had told Sylvia about her, aside from her name. It's okay, she thought, we can get through