Taming the Last St Claire Read online

  And Joey’s response earlier had already shown him that she returned that desire, at least.

  Maybe desire was the real basis for their dislike of each other? Maybe if they made love together it would ease that tension rather than heighten it—?

  Who the hell was he trying to kid? At this moment he couldn’t care less what happened after he and Joey had made love, as long as they did!

  He held her gaze with his. ‘In a few moments I’m going to strip every article of clothing from your body, and then have you do the same to me, before carrying you into your bedroom and making love to you. If that isn’t what you want too, then you had better say so now.’

  Joey looked up at Gideon searchingly, knowing by the complete lack of embellishment to his words that it was a statement of intent rather than a declaration of feelings. Oh, there was desire, of course—Joey now knew exactly what emotion the glittering gold of Gideon’s eyes signified! But that was all this was. A desire to make love to her.

  Was it the same desire she felt for Gideon?

  Maybe. No—not maybe. She did desire him. More than she had ever wanted or desired any other man, if her response earlier was any indication. But Joey had always believed that when she made love for the first time it would be with a man who loved her and whom she loved in return. She wanted that even more now that she had seen the happiness her twin had found in loving Jordan and having that love reciprocated. Their commitment to each other was absolute.

  She and Gideon didn’t have any of that.

  What they did have—would always have—was a family connection from Stephanie and Jordan’s marriage. As well as a commitment from Joey to work at St Claire’s for the next three and a half weeks, of course!

  She pulled back slightly to look up at Gideon with guarded eyes. ‘Does this blunt, no-nonsense approach usually work for you? ‘

  Gideon scowled darkly. ‘I have always believed in honesty in my personal relationships, yes.’

  Joey shrugged. ‘There’s honesty,’ she said, ‘and then there’s cold, hard logic. I’m sure in other circumstances the first is commendable,’ she said dryly. ‘But I have to tell you that cold, hard logic coming from a potential lover isn’t in the least appealing.’

  Gideon’s jaw tensed. ‘Damn it, Joey, I can see how much you want me!’ He looked down to where her nipples stood out revealingly against her sweater.

  Her chin rose and her gaze steadily met the burning gold of those stunning eyes. ‘Wanting something doesn’t always mean it’s wise to take it.’ She twisted out of his arms to step away from him. ‘Believe me, Gideon, when you wake up alone in your own bed tomorrow morning, you’ll thank me for saying no tonight.’

  Somehow he doubted that very much! He also doubted this constant state of arousal whenever he was in her company—damn it, even when he was out of it too—was going to go away any time soon.

  But perhaps, for all the reasons he had already told himself, Joey was right to shy away from any deeper involvement between the two of them. Damn it!

  He thrust his hands into his trouser pockets. ‘You’re right, of course,’ he admitted distantly.

  ‘I am?’ She tried teasing. ‘That must be a first for me where you’re concerned. I should make a note of it in my diary—’

  ‘Don’t push it, hmm, Joey?’ Gideon said.

  Joey was so relieved to have the tension eased between them, and in a way that hadn’t caused too much embarrassment to either of them, that she could only grin up at him. ‘Do you want that coffee, or do you have to go now? ‘

  Derision sparked in his eyes. ‘What do you think?’

  ‘I think I’ll see you in morning.’

  ‘Actually, you won’t.’ He shook his head. ‘That was another reason I decided to come here tonight. I had forgotten I’m driving to Oxford in the morning, for a ten o’clock appointment with the owner of a family-run hotel there that Lucan is considering taking into our existing chain.’

  ‘Oh.’ Joey nodded. It was the most knowledge concerning St Claire’s that Gideon had confided to her in the past three days; the man gave a whole new meaning to playing things close to his chest. ‘Do you need me to come with you?’

  ‘Not at this stage, no.’

  ‘I’ll see you later in the day, then?’

  Again Gideon shook his head. ‘I don’t work at St Claire’s on Thursday afternoons.’

  ‘You don’t?’

  ‘It’s a long-standing agreement with Lucan.’

  Joey eyed him speculatively. ‘What do you do on Thursday afternoons? Or shouldn’t I ask? ‘

  Gideon’s gaze was just as direct as her question. ‘You shouldn’t ask.’

  Joey had meant the remark teasingly, but obviously Gideon had taken it literally. Now she was curious—what did he do on Thursday afternoons that was so secret?

  Joey was so intrigued by the puzzle that, long after he’d left, she tried to guess what possible incentive could take him away from St Claire’s each week.

  With any other man Joey would have said it was a woman, perhaps a married one, he could only see on a Thursday afternoon when her husband was away or at work. But as the man was Gideon, she somehow didn’t think that was the right explanation.

  For one thing he was something of a workaholic, with his own life and emotions taking second place to that dedication. Taking an afternoon off from that work in order to spend time in bed with his married mistress would, Joey felt sure, be complete anathema to a man like him. Or perhaps she just hoped that it would?

  More to the point, Gideon’s own parents’ marriage had broken down because of his father’s relationship with another woman, and it had succeeded in emotionally scarring all three of the St Claire brothers. Even if Gideon found himself attracted to a married woman, Joey somehow couldn’t see him ever giving in to that attraction.

  She was so intrigued by the mystery of what he did on a Thursday afternoon, that it wasn’t until after she had gone to bed and fallen asleep that the possible answer to that other, more pressing puzzle of who might have vandalised their two cars, literally came to her in a dream.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  JOEY was literally jumping up and down in frustrated excitement by the time Gideon arrived at St Claire’s at eight-thirty on Friday morning. Looking his usual cool and aloof self, in a charcoal-grey suit, white shirt and pale grey silk tie, rather than like a man who had might possibly have spent yesterday afternoon in bed with his married mistress—whatever that might look like!

  Was that a sense of relief Joey was feeling?

  If it was, then it was entirely inappropriate. She’d had her chance on Wednesday evening if she’d wanted to go to bed with Gideon, making any feelings of jealousy on her part over where he went on Thursday afternoons completely ridiculous.

  Which wasn’t to say that she hadn’t casually tried to find out if May knew what Gideon did every Thursday afternoon.

  Either the woman didn’t know the answer to that question, or she simply wasn’t willing to share the information; whichever it was, despite casually mentioning the subject to both secretaries, by Friday morning Joey was still none the wiser as to where he went!

  Gideon came to a halt in the doorway as soon as he saw Joey, standing beside the desk in Lucan’s office. ‘I thought your office was next door?’

  She gave an impatient squeak which made him raise an amused blond brow in query. ‘I needed to talk to you as soon as you got in.’

  Gideon strolled farther into the room to place his briefcase beside the desk before turning to look at her. ‘What could possibly be so urgent that you felt the need to ambush me as soon as I walked in the door?’ He leant back on the front of the desk; yesterday had been a long and tiring day—not least because of the need to try and banish from his mind the unsatisfactory ending to the evening before, regarding the unlooked-for and unwanted desire he felt for Joey.

  A desire that had, unfortunately, leapt into being the moment Gideon set eyes on her again just now.<
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  Joey was looking especially attractive today, in a red business suit and snowy white silk blouse. Her legs were long and silky beneath a pert short skirt, and she wore matching red high-heeled shoes—the latter still surprisingly on her feet, at the moment.

  Why this woman? Gideon asked himself for what had to be the hundredth time. Why was it that just looking at Joey McKinley instantly took his thoughts to long, naked bodies stretched out invitingly on red satin sheets? Whatever it was, Gideon had every intention of mastering it rather than allowing it to master him.

  Joey’s jade-green eyes glowed with repressed excitement. ‘I think I know who vandalised our cars. Well…I don’t know his name or anything. But I do know what he looks like. I think …’ She frowned in brief uncertainty before once again brightening. ‘Well, I asked around the building, and no one seemed to know who I was talking about, and then I managed to walk casually onto every floor myself to see if I could see him working in any of the offices, but I couldn’t, so—’

  ‘Joey, could you take a couple of deep breaths and start again? From the beginning, if possible?’ Gideon said, finally managing to interrupt her flow of words. ‘You really aren’t making a lot of sense at the moment,’ he added, as she looked at him with frowning irritation.

  She had been babbling, Joey acknowledged, taking a deep breath and willing herself to just calm down; she never babbled—and certainly not in front of Gideon St Claire! Besides, she only thought she might have solved the riddle of who had deliberately punctured the tyres on both her own car and Gideon’s.

  Speaking of which…’Did you get your car back yet?’

  Gideon nodded. ‘Yesterday evening.’

  ‘That’s good. And the security disks we looked at the other evening? Do you have those with you now?’

  Joey had gone down to Security herself and asked to look at the disks again, but the supervisor there had been unwilling to let her do that without Gideon’s permission. It was understandable, but it would have made her enquiries so much easier if she could have had a printed photograph to show around and see if anyone recognised the person caught on camera.

  Gideon’s expression darkened. ‘They’re still in my briefcase. Why?’

  ‘Because I think I might know—’ Joey broke off, determined not to start babbling again.

  The beginning, Joey, she instructed herself firmly. Start at the beginning. Calmly. Logically. That last one should be something that Gideon recognised, at least!

  ‘As you know, I went to the coffee shop on Monday morning—’

  ‘To see the buff and golden-haired young god—yes, I remember.’ Gideon eyed her mockingly.

  Joey shot him a glare. ‘Will you just forget about him?’

  ‘I’m not the one who’s obsessed with him!’

  Neither was she, really; at the time it had just been another way of teasing Gideon for being so uptight. A teasing that seemed to have backfired on her, if he was going to keep bringing it into every conversation.

  ‘Forget him, okay?’ she instructed irritably. ‘It’s the other man I met on Monday that I want to talk about—’

  ‘Good God, Joey, how many men are involved in this balancing act you call your social life?’ Gideon stood up abruptly and went to sit behind the desk, his eyes narrowed as he looked up at her. ‘You already regularly date Jason Pickard, and lust after the golden-haired youth with stamina who serves you with your hot chocolate.’ He gave a disgusted shake of his head. ‘Apparently there’s now another man to add to that list.’

  And all of them could just as easily be dismissed—because she wasn’t romantically involved with any of them.

  ‘I believe you missed yourself off the list,’ she retorted a little snidely.

  ‘Perhaps that’s as well,’ he bit out.

  ‘No doubt,’ Joey said. ‘The thing is, I remember seeing this particular man on one of those security disks we looked at on Wednesday evening. Around lunchtime, entering the car park on foot,’ she added as Gideon opened his briefcase to look for the discs. ‘Now, it could all be perfectly innocent,’ she said cautiously, ‘but when he spoke to me I remember thinking that he seemed slightly familiar—which again might just mean I’ve seen him here somewhere.’

  ‘This man actually spoke to you?’ Gideon closed his briefcase with a decisive snap, eyes dark with disapproval.

  She grimaced. ‘I spoke to him first, when I apologised for holding him up in the queue.’

  ‘No doubt you were distracted at the time, drooling over the—’

  ‘Gideon, I swear, if you mention the buff twenty-year-old one more time, I’m afraid I will really have to become violent!’ Joey was very aware that it had been Gideon, the seriously buff thirty-four-year-old, who had been responsible for her distraction on Monday morning, rather than someone barely out of adolescence!

  His expression was derisive. ‘I’ll forget about him if you will.’

  ‘Consider him forgotten!’ she said through gritted teeth. ‘So, I apologised to this man for delaying him and then left, but I was still standing on the pavement outside when he came out, which was when he talked to me—’

  ‘Understandably,’ Gideon interjected. ‘You had given him an opening earlier, and you’re a very beautiful woman.’ He shrugged when Joey gave him a questioning look. ‘Well, you are,’ he mocked lightly as her glance became quelling.

  Joey eyed him uncertainly. ‘You didn’t always seem to think so.’

  His jaw tensed. ‘I’ve never denied that you’re a beautiful woman, Joey.’

  ‘Just not one any sane man should ever be attracted to, hmm?’

  He scowled. ‘If that’s the case, then it would seem I’ve joined the ranks of the insane.’

  And Joey, having changed her opinion of Gideon being a cold and stuck-up aristocrat, also had to be out of her mind!

  ‘Maybe we should just forget about that too?’ she suggested.

  He arched blond brows. ‘For the moment? Or indefinitely? ‘

  ‘Gideon, are you being deliberately awkward, or am I just imagining it?’ She glared at him in frustration.

  No, he conceded ruefully, she wasn’t imagining anything. He had just been thrown slightly by the strength of his protective reaction on hearing that some strange man had obviously tried to pick her up.

  It was because she was Stephanie’s sister, he told himself. That connection made Joey ‘family’, and as such under the protection of the St Claires. It had absolutely nothing to do with his own illogical attraction to her. Nothing at all.

  ‘Sorry,’ he said, aware she was still waiting for a reply. ‘So this man spoke to you?’

  ‘It seemed perfectly natural at the time,’ she said, obviously accepting his apology. ‘How the changeable weather was causing colds, et cetera. But he also asked me if I worked locally—’

  ‘You didn’t tell him, did you?’ he barked.

  ‘Gideon, will you give me credit for having some intelligence?’ She gave him a fierce frown.

  ‘Sorry,’ he muttered again.

  ‘Of course I didn’t tell him where I worked,’ Joey continued calmly. ‘But I do remember at the time making a conscious effort not to do so. Almost as if I somehow knew that I shouldn’t.’ She frowned. ‘I excused myself as quickly as possible, but I remember feeling as if he was watching me as I walked away—What now?’ she asked, when she saw Gideon’s knowing expression.

  He shook his head. ‘I’m just surprised you would find that behaviour strange. Any red-blooded man would feel the same temptation to watch you as you walk away in those sexy high-heeled shoes.’ He eyed her as he leant back in the chair. ‘And do you have any idea how much like my mother you sound when you talk in that scolding tone of voice?’

  ‘That’s probably because—no doubt, exactly like your mother—I’m tempted to smack you every time you do or say something aggravating!’

  Gideon smiled. ‘My mother didn’t believe in smacking any of her sons.’

  ‘That probably
explains why you, at least, have grown into such an annoying adult.’

  Gideon found himself chuckling softly as he answered her. ‘What’s your excuse?’

  ‘Oh, my ability to aggravate and annoy just comes naturally,’ she assured him dryly.

  Gideon laughed outright this time. Something he seemed to do quite a lot of around Joey, he found himself thinking.

  ‘Well, at least I know when I’m being annoying,’ Joey defended.

  ‘Unlike some people?’

  ‘Exactly!’

  ‘In your case, you do it regardless,’ Gideon accused.

  She grinned. ‘Of course.’

  ‘Especially where I’m concerned.’

  ‘Oh, especially then.’ She nodded unabashedly. ‘It’s just too irresistible when you’re so easy to tease.’

  He looked rueful. ‘Most people would know better than to even attempt it.’

  Joey shrugged. ‘I’ve already told you—I’m not most people.’

  No, she certainly wasn’t. Joey McKinley was unlike anyone else—certainly any other woman—Gideon had ever met.

  ‘Perhaps we should just look at the disk for lunchtime?’

  He took out his laptop to place it on top of the desk and turn it on.

  Joey was thrown slightly by the sudden change of conversation. Although why she should be, she had no idea; Gideon had proved, time and time again, how adept he was at avoiding subjects he didn’t wish to talk about.

  Talking of which.

  ‘Did you do anything nice on your afternoon off yesterday?’ She deliberately kept her tone lightly enquiring, having no intention of letting him see how consumed with curiosity she really was regarding his whereabouts.

  He glanced at her over the top of his laptop, his expression inscrutable as he answered. ‘I did what I usually do on a Thursday afternoon.’

  ‘Which is?’ Joey definitely had a problem imagining a workaholic like Gideon actually taking an afternoon off work to visit a mistress—or maybe that was just wishful thinking on her part? An aversion to even imagining him spending the afternoon in bed with another woman?