Maid for Me Too (Chapter One Preview)

Maid for Me, Too

  (Chapter 1 Preview)

  KAT LIEU

  Copyright © 2012 Kat Lieu

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13: pending

  DEDICATION

  Maid for Me, Too is dedicated to the fans of Maid for Me and my wonderful Nummyz Forums Moderators. Without you guys, there would be no Nummyz.com and no Maid for Me. Thank you for having been here for me, for being patient, and for being so lovely and awesome.

  Maid for Me, Too is also dedicated to my Grandpa Boman and my friend Darwin. Both men were dear to me and had gone to heaven in 2011. I love and miss you both.

  MAID FOR ME, TOO

  Written by Kat Lieu (nummyz.com)

  Cover Illustrated by Eve Lieu (mayuiki.deviantart.com)

  Copyright 2012 by Kathleen Lieu, Nummyz Productions

  ISBN-13: Pending

  Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (https://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  ~*~

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  1. Un

  Jaiden Daniels ran after Mina Lin like a madman with an ocean of steroids flowing through his veins. He winced as the pain in his immobilized shoulder intensified. Bearing the maddening pain, he forced himself to catch up to her.

  Sprinting quicker, he ignored the gnawing ache in his tired calves. He hated feeling like a sweaty weekend warrior. Watching Mina run, he wondered how her short legs could propel her so quickly. If the situation were different, he would be amused.

  Who would even think that she was marginally athletic? Or fathom that she could paralyze a six-foot tall young man in seconds with a formidable headlock?

      Then again she was Mina Lin, a girl full of painfully pleasant surprises. Jaiden had the bruises to prove that.

      Finally catching up to her, he grabbed her arm and locked her in place. With difficulty, he spun her around to face him.

  “Stop running away from me and just listen for a second,” he said, pleading with eyes sadder than those of an abandoned chihuahua.

  The lack of expressions on her face annoyed him. He preferred seeing her smile or even frown. Not too long ago, he had realized how much he loved looking into her expressive brown eyes. Whenever he irked her, her cheeks glowed prettily pink. Whenever she was about to explode, she would always scrunched her face up like a constipated child. (How romantic, Jaiden.) Never had he seen her hide her emotions behind a poker face like now. She could make brolic Texas Hold’em players sweat.

  Heart pounding against his chest, he wondered if this was the best time to confess his feelings to her. It’s now or never, he decided. He puffed out a screw-it sigh.

  “I want you to be my girlfriend,” he said with amplified sincerity in his tone. His violet-blue eyes darkened. Squeezing Mina’s hand, he hoped she could tell that he never wanted to let go of her. He stared at her lips, wanting to kiss her so badly. Instead he waited for her to respond.

  When she didn’t even utter a peep, frustration swallowed him like flames devouring a building.

  “Can’t you tell that I like you?” Like a prepubescent boy, his voice cracked but he didn’t care. He could sound like Spongebob for the rest of his life as long as Mina loved him in return.

  This is insane, he thought. What was it about Mina that made him so darn crazy about her?

      Mina was still silent. Though she didn’t say a word, her heartbeats thundered in her ears. If Jaiden could hear them, he would realize that she had feelings for him too.

      Thoughts crowded in her head like hundreds of passengers in an Uptown train during rush hour. Noticing him grimace as he glanced at his injured shoulder, she wished she hadn’t made him chase after her. He should be resting in his manse, pampered by his maids. Then he should be going to physical therapy for months so his shoulder could heal completely.

      Maybe I should embrace and accept him, Mina thought. Do it, her heart told her.

      But I don’t decide with my heart. She looked down at her dirty sneakers and avoided eye contact with him.

  Jaiden winced from both pain and irritation. He wished she would just look at him. To prevent her from running away again, he wrapped his fingers around her hand tighter. His knuckles whitened. Mina flinched.

  “I don’t just like you, Mina... I love you,” he said with a quiver in his voice. He smiled. Tears brimmed in his beautiful, almost otherworldly eyes.

      Mina gulped and wondered if she should clean out her ears. Did he just say he loves me? She felt her heart swell with feeling. This feeling was strong and similar to what she had felt when she was still in love with Kiterin Forrests, the ex-boy-of-her-dreams.

  She wanted to believe Jaiden. Could it be true? He really loves me? But how?   

  Mina peered at his face like a timid mouse, admiring his handsome features. His eyes were more midnight-violet than blue, reflecting his emotions. She wanted to run her finger along his straight nose and full lips. Modeling agencies would die to hire him for his well-defined cheekbones and amazing bone structure. If Michelangelo were alive today, he would sculpt statues after Jaiden’s likeness.

  Adonis, move aside. David, wear some clothes.

  Everything Jaiden wore was expensive and exclusive to the affluent. Mina’s entire wardrobe came from bargain bins. She still wore her dorky and linty clothes from her junior high school days. A son of a billionaire did not belong in her world. She and her recently reformed gamble-holic mother were part of the ninety-nine percent. Jaiden and his father belonged to the point one percent.

      So why say yes to Jaiden when Mina knew that he would inevitably break her heart? She shook her head. “We hardly know each other. How can you say that you love me? Love doesn’t work like that. Besides… your father hates me.”

  She could see the veins bulging on his neck. His face grew red. Jaiden did not expect such a response from her. He took a few seconds to digest her words. “What do you mean we hardly know each other?” He looked seriously stumped. “We’ve been through life and death together.” He exhaled deeply. “Father can disown me for all I care.” He slumped his shoulders. “I love you. Isn’t that enough?”

       Mina wanted to say yes to Jaiden. In a fairytale world, love would be enough. She wanted to tell him that she loved him too; however, at this time she questioned her feelings. Was this love that she felt or was it purely gratitude? Was it just a silly crush? And wasn’t love a cake that took years and years to bake?

      All Mina knew was that in a short amount of time, Jaiden had secured a place in her heart.   

      Maybe we can be together, she thought briefly. She could be a damsel in distress and depend on Jaiden for financial support. She could say that she loved him too, date him, and then reap the benefits of being his girlfriend. Her life would be set, dazzling with glitz and glamour. She would lose herself in a dreamy world and forget about reality.

  Falling from su
ch a paradise would be inevitable. When he would dump her, it would hurt more than glass shards impaling every layer of her skin.

  Why was she so sure that he would dump her? Because she knew that someone who could have anything and perhaps anyone in the world would quickly grow bored of someone like her. She wasn’t hot enough. She wasn’t special enough.  

  She wasn’t Cinderella and this wasn’t a fairy tale. Logically then she could never end up with a real life Prince Charming.

  Despite being physically strong, Mina’s heart was fragile like a butterfly. As easily as Jaiden could pluck the majestic insect’s wings, he could break her heart into a billion little pieces.  

      “Now is just not the right time. We’re too young.” She shook her head again. “I have so much to do and take care of... Mom, school, and college. And I have to find a job and pay you back.”

  A few weeks ago, Jaiden easily helped pay off Mina’s mother’s fifty thousand dollar gambling debt with a single check.

      At first Mina tried to convince herself that she had earned the fifty grand from him. After all she did save his life. Without needing to pay him back, she could sever all ties with him. She could focus on cleaning up the crap in her life and start building her future. But then her pride nagged at her, preventing her from just keeping his money.

  “Don’t worry about the fifty grand… That money means nothing to me anyway.” Because you mean everything to me, he wanted to add.

  His nonchalance toward that amount of money reminded Mina that they were from two different worlds.

      “I can’t just take your money even if it’s insignificant to you. I’ll figure out a way to pay you back. Just let me go, Jaiden.”

  Jaiden refused to release her hand. “I already told you. I don’t care about the damn money!”

  Mina pulled her hand away from his. She turned to walk back to her house. Her tears struggled to exit her sockets as she forced herself not to cry. If Jaiden saw her teary eyes, then he would know that her heart disagreed with her actions and words. She looked at the sky, relying on gravity to keep her tears from escaping.

        “You earned the damn money. You saved my life,” he added, almost whimpering.

      “Anyone in my shoes would have done the same thing. Besides Detective Graham did most of the work anyway.” Which wasn’t exactly true. Left to his own devices, that clumsy whiz-kid Graham would have found Jaiden dead, laying in a pool of his own blood in the middle of nowhere.

      Jaiden rubbed his face in frustration. “I don’t care about Graham or anyone else. I only care about you.”

  Mina bit the insides of her lip. She took a deep breath. “Jaiden... I can’t even think about starting a relationship with you now.”

      “Why not?”

      “Because we’re from two different worlds,” she said.

      “Why does that matter?” Jaiden did not bother fighting back his tears.

      Mina felt the stings of a thousand wasps in her heart when she saw him cry. “It’s... it’s just that... I’m not ready for a relationship.”

  Because I’m a coward. I don’t want to face losing you one day. So I rather never be with you in the first place.

      “When will you be ready? When will the time be right for us?” he asked.

      Mina wanted to take back her words, run toward him, and hug him so badly. But her answer was possibly never... “I don’t know right now. I’m sorry, Jaiden. I’m sorry.”

  Jaiden watched her walk away. He felt as if someone with acid-dipped fingernails had just ripped his still beating heart out of his chest. So many women in his life had betrayed him.

  Barely five years old, he watched his mother walk away. In his mother’s absence, Amelia, one of his maids, became the sole mother figure in his life. Jaiden grew to love Amelia. For years he had thought that Amelia was his biological mother, not Emma Daniels.

  Unfortunately for Jaiden, Amelia left him too when he was an adolescent. When he finally reunited with Amelia a few weeks ago, she came back to hurt him.

      The ache in his heart increased the pain in his shoulder where Amelia had plunged a knife into. She wanted to use him as a blood sacrifice for a nonsensical ritual. He remembered how much it had hurt when Amelia stabbed him.

  Surprisingly though, that flesh wound felt like a mosquito bite when compared to the heartbreak he felt now. He couldn’t blame Amelia for the pain she had caused him. Amelia was mentally unstable.

  Mina wasn’t and yet she didn’t act rationally. If he didn’t love her then why did he shield her from Amelia’s knife? He had risked his life for Mina, and she repaid him with the coldness of an Ice Queen, cutting open his chest and slashing his heart to shreds. He wiped the tears off his face.

  What was she afraid of? Why did she have to make things complicated between them?

  He expected complication from socialites, gossip girls (or boys), and gold diggers, but not from Mina. And since when did Jaiden have to beg anyone for anything? Girls always flocked to him like bees to honey, never vice versa. What was he to do now but walk away? He clenched his fists. “Fine. Just pretend I didn’t say anything. I’m sorry for bothering you.”

      With her back against the front door, Mina sobbed. “Sorry, Jaiden…” She ran up to her bedroom and watched him from her window.

  Did I just throw away my happiness? She closed her eyes, hoping that her tears would stop flowing, but two generous streams trickled down her cheeks.

      Jaiden hoped that Mina would come out of her house. He waited for her but the minutes ticking away felt like hours. His pride killed his patience and eventually forced him to leave.

  Don’t look back and don’t think about her anymore, he told himself. He was sure that he would forget about Mina Lin as long as they didn’t see each other again. Within time she would be but a memory to him. The pain in his broken heart would eventually be nothing but a whisper.

      Or so he thought...