Taming the Last St Claire Read online

  Joey smiled wickedly to herself, imagining the look of horror that would no doubt come over his arrogantly handsome face if he were even to guess at the inappropriateness of the thoughts she was having about him.

  ‘Do you find something amusing?’

  It was amusing to imagine a more relaxed and sexy Gideon St Claire, as he attempted to fend off the attentions of all those panting women! But it was not so funny that Joey was actually aware of how much more dangerously attractive this man could be if he would just lighten up a little…

  She gave herself a mental shake as she looked up into that darkly disapproving face; this man really wasn’t her type. She preferred men with the daring and energy to try anything new; Gideon gave the impression that the last new thing he had tried was wearing black socks instead of grey!

  She drew in a deep breath. ‘Oh, but I haven’t given up my place at Pickard, Pickard and Wright; the senior partners were only too happy to give me a month’s leave of absence so I can help Lucan out.’

  Something, Gideon realised with rising impatience, that must have taken some time to arrange. ‘Exactly when did Lucan make all these arrangements?’

  ‘Three weeks ago—’ Joey broke off to look up at him with narrowed, assessing eyes. ‘When did Lucan break the bad news to you?’

  Gideon stiffened. ‘I don’t remember saying I regard it as bad news.’

  ‘You implied it,’ she dismissed shortly. ‘So—when? ‘

  His jaw tightened. ‘I really don’t see—’

  ‘He only told you at the wedding on Saturday, didn’t he?’ she realised slowly.

  Gideon had absolutely no idea why it was he always felt less in control of the situation around this particular woman. During his years in a courtroom he knew he’d acquired a reputation for being formidable. Now, as a corporate lawyer for Lucan’s vast companies worldwide, he knew he was regarded as being no less ruthless than his older brother. And yet just having a conversation with the unpredictable Joey McKinley was enough to set his teeth on edge. To set the whole of him on edge, in fact…

  ‘He did, didn’t he?’ Joey said with satisfaction, those green eyes now openly laughing at him. ‘It probably totally ruined the rest of your weekend, too!’

  Gideon’s fingers tightened about the handle of his black briefcase. ‘My weekend was perfectly enjoyable, thank you,’ he lied stiffly. ‘In fact I had lunch with Stephanie and Jordan yesterday, as they are flying back to LA early today.’

  ‘And I had breakfast with them this morning, before driving them to the airport, and neither of them mentioned you’d asked for my telephone number. Which I’d have thought you would have done if you had wanted to have this conversation with me earlier.’ Joey McKinley gave a taunting shake of her head.

  It had crossed Gideon’s mind, in fact, to ask Stephanie for her sister’s private telephone number, but on consideration he had decided not to involve either of their families in what was, after all, a private clash of personalities.

  ‘Or maybe you just didn’t want either of them to jump to the wrong conclusions?’

  He scowled his displeasure. ‘I beg your pardon?’

  ‘By you asking for my home telephone number. I’m sure you wouldn’t have wanted to give Steph and Jordan the impression that you have a personal interest in me,’ she answered mockingly.

  Gideon drew in yet another deep, controlling breath—a futile exercise, he thought wryly. He couldn’t remember feeling as rattled as this in a long time. ‘I believe that’s very unlikely.’

  ‘You do?’

  Was it his imagination, or was Joey suddenly standing closer than she had been a few seconds ago? So close that Gideon could actually see the full swell of her breasts and the top of the lacy cup of her bra, and the pulse beating smoothly, enticingly, at the base of her throat.

  Dear Lord…

  His gaze turned to ice. ‘Surely you recognise just from this conversation that we can’t possibly work together?’

  She was suddenly all business again as she straightened. ‘My arrangement is with Lucan, Gideon—not you. And I make a point of never letting people down once I’ve agreed to do something. A character trait I believe you share?’

  It appeared that Joey was as aware of parts of Gideon’s nature as he was of hers! ‘I’m sure that Pickard, Pickard and Wright are more in need of your professional skills than I am,’ he pointed out smoothly.

  ‘On the contrary, they were only too happy to accommodate Lucan’s request,’ she assured him.

  Of course they were, he thought derisively. No doubt Pickard, Pickard and Wright were perfectly aware of the prestige of allowing one of their associates to work at the St Claire Corporation for a month. Being asked for personally by a man of Lucan St Claire’s standing in the business world wouldn’t do Joey McKinley’s career any harm, either.

  ‘So, Gideon, Lucan’s happy with the arrangement, Pickard, Pickard and Wright are happy with the arrangement and I’m happy with the arrangement—it appears you’re the only one who isn’t.’ She looked him straight in the eye—an obvious challenge.

  Gideon coldly returned that gaze. ‘I don’t recall saying I was unhappy with it.’

  ‘No?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then that little problem appears to have been settled to everyone’s satisfaction, doesn’t it,’ she dismissed lightly.

  Like hell it was! As far as Gideon was concerned, having Joey in the St Claire building for the next four weeks was totally unacceptable.

  She cut into his dire thoughts with another equally unwelcome sally. ‘Perhaps now you would care to explain exactly what you meant when you commented that “Jason Pickard, in particular” would have been sorry to see me go?’

  Gideon realised she wasn’t being deliberately provocative any more. Her emotions were now much more subtle. On the surface she sounded pleasantly interested, but he recognised the anger burning beneath that supposedly calm surface; it was there in the sparkling green of her eyes and the flush to those creamy cheeks. Although why she should feel that way Gideon had no idea; everyone in the close-knit law community knew that she had been involved with the junior Pickard for the past six months.

  He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘It’s public knowledge that the two of you are friends.’

  ‘That’s exactly what we are—friends,’ she stated evenly. ‘Nothing more, nothing less.’

  ‘I apologise if I’ve stepped on your personal toes.’

  ‘I’ve just told you that you haven’t,’ she said.

  Gideon’s mouth thinned. ‘I’m not prepared to get into an argument with you over a perfectly innocent remark which I have already apologised for.’

  ‘Does anyone ever dare to argue with you, Gideon?’ Joey McKinley eyed him with obvious frustration.

  ‘Obviously,’ he drawled, looking at her pointedly.

  ‘This isn’t an argument, Gideon, it’s a dialogue,’ she snapped.

  He shook his head. ‘I really don’t have time for this, so if you wouldn’t mind—’

  ‘But I do mind, Gideon.’ She was suddenly standing much too close to him again as she interrupted him ruthlessly. So close that he could feel the warmth of her breath against his jaw as the three-inch stiletto heels on her shoes brought the top of her head to his eye level.

  Gideon dearly wished he had never started this conversation. That he had just picked up one of the boxes from the boot of this woman’s bright red Mini and travelled up in the lift with her, before shutting himself away for the day in Lucan’s office.

  He was thirty-four years old, successful in his chosen career, and the brief and businesslike affairs he occasionally indulged in rarely even registered on the scale of his emotions. Other than the affection Gideon felt for his two brothers and his mother, he preferred to keep a physical and emotional distance from the rest of humanity.

  It was difficult to do that around the forceful Joey McKinley. Especially when she was now so close to him that he could smell the lemo
n of her shampoo, and see the auburn, gold and cinnamon highlights in that glossy red hair. An unusual colour that Gideon knew didn’t come out of a bottle, because her twin sister had hair with exactly the same beautiful autumn shades.

  What would that hair feel like to touch? As soft and silky as it looked? Or as brittle and defensive as the woman herself—

  Gideon took an abrupt step back, shutting down his thoughts as he realised what he was doing, his jaw tight as he looked down the length of his nose at her. ‘Joey, I appreciate the fact that your sister being married to my brother puts us in the position of being almost related.’ Almost being the operative word! ‘But let me state here and now that I have absolutely no interest in knowing anything about your sex life.’

  Joey’s eyed widened at the vehemence she heard in Gideon’s tone. She had no doubt that he genuinely respected and liked her sister, and that he approved of Stephanie’s marriage to his brother. So why had he decided he disliked Joey from their very first meeting?

  Maybe he had disliked and disapproved of her before that first meeting, if his assumptions about her friendship with Jason Pickard were any indication, she mused. She was well aware of the rumours that had circulated about her and the junior partner at Pickard, Pickard and Wright for the past six months. Erroneous rumours, as it happened.

  Oh, Jason was incredibly handsome, and the two of them went out to dinner at least once a week. Joey always enjoyed herself on those evenings as she found Jason good company. But their friendship wasn’t based on either sexual attraction or love.

  In actual fact their friendship had become more in the nature of a smokescreen, because Jason was really in love with a man he had met at university and had shared an apartment with for the past ten years. Unfortunately his parents, Pickard Senior and Gloria, had no idea that their son’s relationship with the other man was anything more than friendship, and would have vehemently disapproved if they did.

  Joey had been thrilled the first time Jason had asked her out—after all, he was the second Pickard in Pickard, Pickard and Wright. But it hadn’t taken her long to realise that Jason wasn’t in the least sexually interested in her. With her usual straightforwardness she had asked a couple of blunt questions, and eventually received a couple of straight answers. The revelation about Jason’s sexuality hadn’t changed anything as far as Joey was concerned; she liked him and enjoyed his company. Enough to agree to go out to dinner with him often—and why not, when there was very little happening in her own love life at the moment! And so the myth of their having a relationship had been born, a myth, it seemed, that even the coldly aloof Gideon St Claire was aware of.

  Joey gave him a cool smile. ‘Then why are we still standing here discussing my sex life?’

  ‘You—’ Gideon broke off in obvious frustration, choosing instead to exercise rigid self-control. ‘Shall we just take your things upstairs and get to work?’ He moved to pick up one of the boxes from the boot of her car before walking stiffly over to the private lift.

  Joey picked up the other box and then closed the boot and locked her car, a smile of satisfaction curving her lips as she followed him.

  The next four weeks—if they entailed shaking Gideon St Claire out of his aloof complacency—promised to be a lot of fun. For her, if not for himself.

  CHAPTER TWO

  ‘WHERE are you going?’ Gideon questioned sharply as he turned and saw that, instead of following him down the hallway to his own office, Joey had stopped outside the office usually reserved for Lucan’s PA. It wasn’t currently occupied, because Lexie had become Lucan’s PA three weeks ago, and the two of them were now happily honeymooning together on a private Caribbean island for a month.

  Mocking green eyes met his. ‘I believe it was an attempt at diplomacy on Lucan’s part when he suggested I might like to use Lexie’s vacant office rather than your own.’

  After the bombshell Lucan had dropped on Gideon at the wedding reception on Saturday evening, he didn’t have too much faith in his older brother’s ‘diplomacy’!

  ‘And how did you know that particular office was Lexie’s?’

  ‘You mean apart from the fact her name is printed on the door?’

  Gideon scowled darkly at Joey’s obvious sarcasm. ‘Apart from that, yes,’ he gritted out.

  She shrugged slender shoulders. ‘I came over on Thursday afternoon, so that Lucan could explain exactly what it is he wants me to do while he and Lexie are away.’

  Thursday afternoon. The one afternoon in the week when Gideon didn’t work at the St Claire Corporation but instead went to the small office he kept across town and dealt with private legal matters needing his attention. A fact that Lucan would have been well aware of, damn him.

  Maybe Gideon had been overly generous concerning that ‘little’ amount of pain he had considered inflicting on his older brother the next time he saw him!

  ‘And exactly what is it he wants you to do here while he and Lexie are away?’ Besides be a damned nuisance to him, of course!

  Joey shrugged. ‘Well, Lucan seemed to have a pretty good idea that you aren’t going to release too much of the legal side of things to me.’ Those jade-green eyes danced knowingly. ‘But obviously I’ll be only too happy to take up the slack. There’s also the fact that with Lexie away too you’re without a PA.’

  ‘My own secretary—’

  ‘Is now my secretary,’ she reminded him pertly.

  Damn it, this situation was just getting worse—made even more so by the fact that he suspected Lucan and Lexie were sitting on their private Caribbean island right now having a really good laugh at his expense. Falling in love hadn’t just made his older brother unpredictable; it had also brought out a distinctly warped sense of humour in him!

  ‘If you would prefer, I can use your office rather than this one,’ Joey said as she once again tapped the toe of one stiletto-heeled shoe to mark her impatience. ‘Could you make your mind up soon, Gideon; this box is getting heavy!’

  His mouth pursed with frustration. He had always thought of the office down the hallway as being his own personal space: all wood-panelled walls, floor to ceiling bookshelves containing his reference books on English and foreign law, all in alphabetical order. And the top of his mahogany desk was always completely cleared at the end of each working day, with none of the personal clutter that so many people seemed to surround themselves with during working hours.

  The two bursting boxes they had carried upstairs seemed to imply Joey intended surrounding herself with exactly that sort of reprehensible clutter for the next four weeks, he mused. No, he didn’t relish the idea of having his office personalised by this woman. But knowing that Joey McKinley’s disturbing presence was in the office next door to the one he intended using would be just as unacceptable—

  ‘Too late,’ Joey announced decisively, and she lowered the door handle to Lexie’s office with her elbow before breezing inside. ‘Very nice,’ she could be heard murmuring appreciatively.

  Gideon reluctantly followed her into the office Lucan had decorated before Lexie became his permanent PA three weeks ago, seeing again that the desk of mellow pine, the cream walls and gold-coloured carpet were all a perfect foil for Lexie’s long black hair.

  But he couldn’t help noticing against his will that they were equally complementary to Joey’s rich auburn-gold-cinnamon-red hair and jade green eyes.

  ‘What on earth do you have in here—rocks?’ Gideon muttered bad-temperedly as he crossed the room to drop the box he was carrying down onto the desktop beside Joey’s own.

  Not a happy bunny, she recognised ruefully as she saw his dark scowl. Not a bunny at all, actually. No, as Gideon began to prowl restlessly about the office he looked more like the predator Joey had likened him to earlier.

  ‘Not quite,’ she answered, as she flipped up the lid of one of the boxes to start taking out the objects and unwrapping them from protective newspaper.

  The usual predictable clutter, Gideon recognised. Her la
w degree. A couple of framed photographs—one of her parents, the other of Stephanie and Jordan at their wedding. A paperweight with a perfect yellow rose inside. A golden dragon.

  Hold on a minute—a golden dragon?

  ‘Yes?’ Joey continued to hold the small golden ornament almost defensively in the palm of her hand as she turned to look at him.

  It was Gideon’s first indication that he had actually made an exclamation out loud. But, damn it, a dragon! Even one as romantically beautiful as this—with the creature’s scaled body beautifully etched in gold, its wings extended as if it were about to take flight, and two small yellow sapphires set in the fierceness of its face for eyes—didn’t quite fit in with the abrasive image he had formed of this woman.

  Any more than that angelic singing voice, he suddenly recalled.

  Joey looked across at him and frowned; really, you would think from his disgusted expression that she had just produced a semi-automatic rifle and intended mounting it on the wall!

  ‘Stephanie had this made for me when I got my law degree.’

  Her twin had always known that the dragon meant something to Joey. A golden dragon had been a feature in Joey’s dreams since she was seven years old. Whenever she’d had a problem—difficulties at school, or with friends—and when she and Stephanie were ten and had been involved in the car accident that had left her twin unable to walk for two years, Joey had dreamt of her golden dragon and instantly felt reassured that everything would work out.

  Consequently, where she went, this dragon went too.

  She placed it firmly in the centre of the empty desk. ‘It has great sentimental value.’

  ‘If Stephanie gave it to you, then I’m sure it does.’ Gideon acknowledged softly.

  Joey looked up at him, looking for this man’s usual cold distance whenever he spoke to her. Instead she sensed almost an affinity…’Do you miss Jordan?’