Taming the Last St Claire Read online

  Joey gave a terse inclination of her head. ‘Of course I care about that. If for no other reason than that you should have done both those things out of professional courtesy, if nothing else!’

  ‘I tried to explain and apologise on Monday—’

  ‘Two months later!’ Her voice rose. She was very aware that it was the sexual tension that had been slowly building inside her over the past two days that was responsible for her shrewishness now, as much as anything else. ‘The fact that you didn’t so much as consider my feelings at the time is indicative of how your own inability to feel emotion makes you blind to how another person is feeling.’

  ‘What exactly do you mean by that?’ he asked, dangerously calm.

  ‘Oh, come on, Gideon,’ Joey said with a short laugh. ‘We both know that if your ability to show emotion was compared to that of an iceberg, the iceberg would win every time!’

  Gideon looked at Joey from between lowered lids, noting the softness of her red hair. The blouse she was wearing today was of a shimmering red that brought out the blonde and cinnamon highlights in those short tresses and her breasts were a full and tantalising swell beneath that silky material. As for the way her black knee-length skirt moulded to the curve of her hips and perfect bottom…Well, what would she have to say about his lack of emotion if she were to realise how many times just thinking about her these past few days had caused his body to harden and throb?

  Just as he was hard and throbbing now…

  His eyes narrowed to golden slits as he slowly walked towards her. ‘That’s really what you think of me? That I’m incapable of feeling emotion? ‘

  Joey took several steps back as Gideon suddenly became the stalking predator once again—with her as the prey. And she realised—too late—that it was his rigid control over his emotions that made him appear cold, rather than any lack of them. He was no longer making any effort to hide his emotions now, as the focus of his anger and desire became centred on her.

  She came to an abrupt halt as she felt the window behind her and realised she had backed as far as she could go. She was now trapped between the coldness of the window and the heat of Gideon’s body as he came to a halt mere inches away from her.

  Joey licked her lips nervously. ‘Maybe I was being a little hasty when I made such a sweeping statement—’

  ‘Maybe?’ he drawled softly, that golden gaze holding hers captive as he took that last step which brought his body flush up against hers.

  Oh, dear Lord!

  Her breath caught in her throat as the heat of Gideon’s muscled chest against her breasts caused her nipples to swell to a hot and throbbing ache. Her eyes widened as that throb was echoed between her thighs as he slowly and deliberately pressed the pulsing length of his arousal into her welcoming warmth.

  ‘Still think I lack emotion?’ Gideon asked huskily, enjoying flaunting the evidence of his own desire and watching her eyes widen even further.

  He captured both of her hands in one of his before raising them above her head and pressing them against the window. At the same time his other hand moved to the buttons on her blouse.

  ‘I—What are you doing?’ Joey cursed the mouse-like squeak that was her own voice at the same time as congratulating herself on being able to speak at all. Gideon was unfastening the buttons on her blouse, one slow button at a time, until it was completely undone and he could push the two sides of the material aside to reveal her breasts cupped in black lace.

  ‘I would have thought that was obvious,’ Gideon mocked softly, and he deliberately held Joey’s startled gaze with his own before that gaze lowered to the swell of her breasts, the dusky-rose of her hardened nipples easily discernible beneath the fine black lace of her bra.

  ‘I—Well—Yes—But—’

  ‘No buts, Joey,’ he said gruffly, and he finally lowered his head to taste the creamy length of her throat with his lips, his tongue lingering on the pulsing heat of the blood thrumming just beneath the surface of her creamy skin.

  Joey couldn’t think when Gideon’s body was pressed so intimately against hers—when she could feel the hard pulsing of his considerable erection pressing against the throbbing nubbin nestled between her own thighs.

  She groaned low in her throat as his mouth travelled down to the swell of her breasts. The warmth of his hand was moving beneath her loosened blouse to rest against the bareness of her back as he pulled her against him. His tongue stroked a caress against her flesh in a trail across the flimsy black lace to first encircle and then draw one swollen nipple deep into the heat of his mouth.

  Joey’s knees buckled at the intensity of the pleasure that claimed her as Gideon continued to draw rhythmically on that highly sensitive peak. His tongue swept moistly over that aching nipple again and again, and the place between her thighs pulsed in that same aching rhythm.

  Joey desperately sought relief for that ache, parting her legs and allowing herself to press the aroused nubbin between her thighs against the iron-hardness of Gideon’s arousal. Her breath was coming in panting sobs as she felt a climax building, growing deep inside her, clamouring for release.

  Gideon had only intended to show Joey how wrong she was when she’d accused him of lacking in emotion. But his demonstration had quickly turned to something else—something more basic, primal—and Gideon knew that he wanted this pleasure to continue. Needed, to see Joey as she came apart in his arms as orgasm claimed her.

  And where did they go from here? a tiny voice of reason mocked deep inside his head. What happened after Joey had climaxed? Did he then strip away all their clothes—first from her body and then his own—before draping her over the desk and burying himself to the hilt between her thighs?

  Much as might want to do that, Gideon knew that he couldn’t. He had already allowed this to go so much further than he had intended. He was more aroused, his body positively aching for release, just from kissing and caressing Joey than when fully making love to another woman. Somehow she stripped away all of his defences and left him feeling vulnerable in a way he had never felt before.

  And he certainly didn’t want to feel it with Joey McKinley!

  Joey felt disorientated, bereft, when Gideon suddenly pulled away from her, leaving desire still coursing hotly through her body. That desire turned swiftly to dismay, and then humiliation, as Gideon looked down at her briefly with dark, enigmatic eyes before turning abruptly on his heel and walking away from her, crossing to the other side of the office to stand with his back towards her.

  The other side of Lexie St Claire’s office, Joey acknowledged, her embarrassment total as she realised what she had just allowed to happen. How much more could have happened in this public place if Gideon hadn’t called a halt to their lovemaking …?

  She quickly grasped the two sides of her blouse together over her semi-nakedness, her cheeks blazing with humiliation as she began to refasten the buttons with fingers that trembled and fumbled over the simple task.

  Joey knew exactly why Gideon had behaved in the way he had, of course: he had wanted to teach her a lesson for what he had taken as a slight on his emotions. But how could she have let things go as far as they had? Why had she? With Gideon St Claire, of all people!

  ‘Point proved, I believe?’

  Joey looked up sharply at Gideon’s comment, relieved that at least her blouse was once again fastened when she saw that he had turned back to face her, his dark gaze now sweeping over her with what looked like mockery. The fact that she deserved it after responding to him in such an uninhibited way brought the bile rising to the back of Joey’s throat—so much so that she had to swallow before answering.

  ‘We’ve established that you’re capable of a physical reaction, at least—if that’s what you mean?’ She silently congratulated herself for managing to meet the challenge in that dark gaze.

  Gideon couldn’t help but admire Joey’s quick recovery from what had been a dangerous situation for both of them. A danger he was still fully aware of as he looke
d at the flushed beauty of her face and recalled how much he had enjoyed the taste of her in his mouth.

  His mouth tightened as he fought against those memories. ‘And so, obviously, are you.’

  Colour blazed once again in Joey’s cheeks. ‘I don’t think my emotions were ever in question!’

  ‘Well, not any more, no,’ Gideon drawled, accepting he was behaving badly, but aware that he needed to reestablish distance between them. Fast! ‘Unfortunately none of that provides us with any answers as to how two of the tyres on my car appear to have gone flat at the same time,’ he reminded her.

  Jade green eyes glittered with anger once again. ‘I’ve already told you I don’t know anything about that.’

  Yes—and Gideon believed her. Hell, he had believed her the first time she’d denied it, and had no idea what he’d been doing in the first place, even suggesting that Joey might have done it.

  Just being around her on a day-to-day basis was totally screwing with his normal ability for rational thinking, Gideon acknowledged heavily. Even when he avoided her—as he had been trying to do for the past two days—he was still totally aware of her. So much so that it had been all too easy, when he’d left the office and arrived down in the car park to find two of the tyres on his car flat, to apportion the blame to Joey. Impulsively. Irrationally. Gideon was acting completely out of character, and he knew it. He had to pull himself together!

  He nodded. ‘I’m inclined to believe you—’

  ‘How kind of you,’ she shot back sarcastically.

  Gideon ignored her. ‘I’m also wondering,’ he continued, ‘whether this and the flat tyre on your own car on Monday night aren’t somehow connected.’

  Joey stilled. Initially she had been relieved to have the subject changed to something other than the embarrassment of the intimacies she had allowed Gideon, but with the mention of her own problem with her car, her attention became fully engaged on the subject.

  ‘What exactly are you suggesting?’

  Gideon shrugged. ‘Could you try very hard not to take it as yet another character defect on my part when I tell you that I don’t believe in coincidences?’

  Neither did Joey. And what were the chances of two people who worked in the same building and parked their car in the same car park finding both their cars had flat tyres within a couple of days of each other?

  ‘Has anyone else working here had a similar problem?’

  ‘Not that I’m aware of—and I can do without any comment from you on how unlikely it is, with the superior stick-up-my-backside attitude you say I have, that any of St Claire’s employees would bother to inform me if they did have a problem,’ Gideon warned as he saw the sceptical look that had entered those jade-green eyes at his first comment.

  He was aware that she had become popular with the other members of the staff over the past three days. His own secretary was full of praise for her, as was May Randall. It seemed that he was the only one who had a problem being around her on a daily basis.

  ‘Just accept that I would have heard if there was anything to hear.’

  ‘Okay.’ She shrugged. ‘Maybe it is just a coincidence, after all?’

  ‘I doubt it.’ Gideon grimaced. ‘Did the people at the garage give a reason for why your own tyre went flat when you took it in to be repaired yesterday morning?’

  ‘They didn’t bother to look,’ Joey revealed reluctantly. ‘I had all four tyres replaced after the mechanic took one look at them and decided that they wouldn’t pass a safety check—I’ve been busy, okay?’ she defended herself when Gideon raised disapproving brows. Could she help it if she was one of those drivers who knew absolutely nothing about the mechanics of her car and only required that it start when she turned the key in the ignition? ‘I doubt that there’s any way we can check, either. By now all four tyres have probably been consigned to a tyre graveyard.’

  ‘No doubt,’ Gideon agreed.

  Joey gave a puzzled shake of her head. ‘Why just sabotage the two of us, do you think?’

  ‘It’s only supposition so far—’

  ‘This isn’t a court of law, Gideon,’ she jeered gently. ‘I promise not to write down anything you say and use it in evidence against you!’

  ‘Very funny,’ he drawled dryly.

  Not really. But Joey was most comfortable around this man when she was mocking him for one reason or another—she certainly didn’t want to think any more just now about the way he had unbuttoned her blouse a few minutes ago and kissed her breasts with a skill and passion that had blown her away.

  ‘There’s plenty more where that came from,’ she murmured.

  ‘I’m sure there is.’ Gideon sighed. ‘But it isn’t exactly helping us to solve this puzzle, is it?’

  ‘Maybe it was just vandals.’ Joey shrugged. ‘Kids who are bored and looking for mischief? ‘

  ‘Maybe,’ he said, not looking particularly convinced. ‘But I think it should be looked into further before we totally dismiss it as such.’

  ‘And how do you suggest we do that?’

  Gideon’s gaze sharpened. ‘I wasn’t suggesting we do it at all.’

  Joey’s eyes widened. ‘I hope this isn’t going to be another case of the big strong man protecting the helpless little woman?’

  ‘Flattered as I am that you should even think of me as a “big strong man”, Joey,’ Gideon said, noting the wings of colour that appeared in her cheeks at his teasing, ‘your own role as helpless little woman is, as usual, seriously in question!’

  ‘Good,’ Joey muttered with vehemence—at the same time knowing that helpless was precisely how she had felt a few minutes ago, with her hands raised above her head, her blouse unbuttoned and her breasts being plundered by Gideon’s marauding lips and tongue. And she’d loved every second of it!

  Looking at him now, every inch his usual cold and aloof self, Joey found it extremely difficult to imagine those intimacies had ever taken place.

  ‘So, how do you suggest we proceed?’ she pressed on.

  ‘I don’t want you involved, Joey,’ he insisted.

  ‘Isn’t it a little late for that?’

  ‘Involved any further than you already are,’ Gideon amended. ‘The most sensible thing for you to do is to go home and leave me here to investigate further,’ he added grimly.

  He had no idea what the hell was going on, and until he did he would feel happier if Joey was safely at home.

  She quirked auburn brows. ‘No date tonight?’

  No date for some time, as it happened. ‘No,’ he admitted. ‘You?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I hope your agreement to work here for a month isn’t in any way affecting your…friendship with Jason Pickard?’

  As it happened, Jason had finally told his parents the truth about himself and Trevor. The senior Pickards hadn’t been overjoyed at the news—especially as they’d realised it meant they would probably never have any grandchildren—but according to Jason they were slowly getting used to the idea.

  Which, of course, meant there was no longer any reason for Joey to go out to dinner with Jason.

  ‘Wouldn’t it be more sensible if I hung around for a while and helped you to investigate?’ Joey said brightly. ‘That way I could give you a lift home once we’ve finished.’

  ‘Not necessary,’ Gideon said. ‘I’ve already telephoned my garage, and they’re driving over a replacement car and will take mine away to fix it,’ he added firmly as Joey would have interrupted again.

  Must be nice, Joey acknowledged ruefully; the most the garage who serviced her car ever gave her was a bill! Not that they were even open at six-thirty on a Wednesday evening. There were obviously benefits to being Gideon St Claire—Lord Gideon St Claire! ‘I could still stay and help—’

  ‘Joey, I may have suggested that you’re far from being helpless,’ he rasped, ‘but that doesn’t mean I don’t still intend to protect you. From yourself, if necessary.’

  ‘You really are a male chauvinist, aren
’t you?’ Joey accused.

  He smiled slightly. ‘Didn’t you miss pig out of that statement?’

  ‘Oink!’ she muttered, with feeling.

  Gideon had to bite back another smile. At the same time he wondered how it was that Joey could so easily turn his mood to amusement as well as anger. Along with several other emotions he would rather not think about right now. Such as an uneasy jealousy of any friendship she might have with a certain Jason Pickard.

  ‘Just go home, hmm, Joey,’ he said, suddenly deadly serious again.

  Her chin rose in direct challenge. ‘And what exactly are you going to be doing to investigate after I’ve gone?’

  He gave a noncommittal shrug. ‘Checking into a few things.’

  ‘Such as?’

  ‘How about I discuss that with you in the morning?’

  Joey eyed him warily, not sure she altogether trusted him to do that, and yet not seeing any hint of evasion in the steadiness of his darkened gaze as it so easily met hers.

  Those same eyes had turned the colour of molten gold when he’d looked down at her semi-naked breasts only minutes ago. Well, at least she now had the answer to that particular question; Gideon’s eyes blazed that beautiful colour when he was aroused—to passion as well as to anger!

  Something Joey would probably be better off not thinking about just now.

  ‘Okay.’ She gave a stiff nod of her head. ‘But I’ll expect a full report from you first thing in the morning,’ she warned.

  ‘Yes, ma’am!’ Gideon echoed her mocking salute of two days ago.

  It was somehow an intimately shared gesture that made Joey feel uneasy as she turned away quickly to collect her coat from the back of her chair, keeping her back turned firmly towards Gideon as she thrust her arms into the sleeves of her jacket before straightening her blouse over the collar.

  She had accused him of lacking in emotion, but at the same time she knew she had never felt this seesawing of her own emotions until she’d met him. Aroused one minute. Amused the next. With both those emotions usually followed by anger. This uneasiness was new, though…