Taming the Last St Claire (7 page)

Something had changed, she realised—shifted in their opinions of each other. And it was a shift Joey wasn’t altogether comfortable with. Verbally sparring with Gideon was one thing, feeling anything else for a man who totally rejected having any of the softer emotions in his life was something else completely.

Besides which, she wasn’t one hundred per cent sure his offer wasn’t because he felt sorry for her after her admission earlier of missing Stephanie.

‘I have plenty of friends I can share a glass of wine with if I feel in need of company, thank you, Gideon. In fact—’ she gave a pointed glance at her wristwatch ‘—I have a date this evening, so I really need to get going if I want to make it on time.’

Gideon’s mouth thinned. ‘With Jason Pickard?’

‘As it happens, yes. Do you have a problem with that?’ She met the darkness of his gaze head-on.

‘Not in the least,’ Gideon denied, obviously regretting whatever impulse had made him make the offer in the first place. ‘I hope the two of you have a nice evening.’

‘Oh, I’m sure that we will,’ Joey taunted. ‘Jason is wonderful company.’

When he wasn’t in a fluster, that was, because he and Trevor had had yet another argument—usually over the fact that Jason still hadn’t told his parents about the two of them!

‘No doubt,’ Gideon drawled, with a marked lack of interest. ‘You probably shouldn’t wait until lunchtime to get your tyre replaced tomorrow, so I’ll understand it if you’re a little late in the morning.’

‘Is that a suggestion or an order?’ Joey raised mocking brows.

His eyes narrowed. ‘I believe it’s I’ll understand if you’re a few minutes late coming in tomorrow morning. You might have to wait until the garage opens so you can get your tyre replaced.’

Strange how Gideon’s so-called ‘understanding’ sounded just like an order.

Or maybe Joey really was just over-sensitive where this particular man was concerned? If anyone else had made the same offer she would have believed they were being kind. Kindness just wasn’t an emotion Joey associated with the icily reserved Gideon St Claire.

However, he
had
admitted that it was his liking of Stephanie and his love for Jordan that had prompted his arrogant interference in the Newman case. And he had also demonstrated today that he had a sense of humour, after all. Just as the way his eyes had changed from dark brown
to gold earlier had been demonstrative of another emotion. Joey just wasn’t sure quite what that emotion had been…

‘In that case I’ll do as you suggest. Thank you,’ she added gruffly.

‘You’re welcome,’ Gideon said, aware of how much that ‘thank you’ had cost her.

Perhaps it was as well Joey had refused his invitation; spending part of his evening in a verbal slanging match with her as he futilely tried to explain the reasons for his interference two months ago was
not
what Gideon would consider a pleasant way of spending his precious spare time.

He had no idea what his plans were for the evening. Being with his family over the weekend—his twin, especially—had left Gideon feeling restless now they had all returned to their respective homes.

Maybe he would just spend a quiet evening at home in his apartment? Or perhaps he should give Valerie Temple a call; she had seemed receptive to a dinner invitation from him when they had met at an art exhibition a couple of weeks ago.

Whatever he decided to do, Gideon couldn’t help but take note of the fact that Joey had refused his invitation because she had a date with the man she had earlier told him she wasn’t romantically involved with, and he was infuriated with his own interest in the matter.

‘Enjoy your evening,’ he muttered as he turned away.

‘You too,’ Joey murmured distractedly as she watched Gideon walk over to his own car.

Surely that wasn’t
disappointment
she was feeling because he hadn’t insisted that surely she had time to join him for one glass of wine, at least, before her date with Jason?

It couldn’t be!

Could it.?

‘W
OULD
you happen to know anything about the air being let out of two of the tyres on my car?’

Joey looked up in amazement as Gideon burst unannounced into her office late on Wednesday evening, a coldly accusing expression on his face as he spat the question at her.

The last couple of days working at the St Claire Corporation had passed in much the same way as the first one had. Well, without Joey meeting Gideon first thing in the morning in the car park. Or any conversation about the buff young man in the coffee shop. Or the verbal sparring. Oh, and without Gideon inviting her to join him for a glass of wine after work because he wanted to explain and apologise to her for his behaviour two months ago.

Apart from those things, Tuesday and Wednesday had been pretty much like Monday!

In actual fact, Joey had hardly seen Gideon these past forty-eight hours. His car was already parked in his spot in the car park when she arrived in the mornings, and any work he had for her had either arrived mysteriously on her desk by the time she came in, or was delivered by May Randall later in the morning.

The connecting door between their two offices had remained firmly closed. Gideon obviously felt no necessity to
talk to her, and Joey was experiencing an uncharacteristic reluctance to engage in another bout of verbal sparring with him.

Now this…

‘What do you mean?’ she asked incredulously.

‘Stop playing the innocent, Joey.’ Gideon began to pace the office restlessly. ‘I should have guessed this past two days of relative peace and quiet were just the calm before the storm. You’ve just been biding your time, haven’t you?’ He gave Joey no opportunity to reply before continuing. ‘Lulling me into a false sense of security before hitting out!’

‘I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about, Gideon,’ Joey informed him stiltedly as she stood up slowly. So much for the peace and quiet! ‘Why on earth would you assume that
I
had let down the tyres on your car? ‘

‘Who the hell knows how your mind works?’ he asked, throwing his hands up into the air. ‘Maybe because I openly showed my aversion to allowing you to work here in the first place—’

‘Let’s get one thing clear, Gideon—
you
didn’t
allow
me to do anything,’ Joey cut in forcefully, her eyes flashing a warning. ‘As I’ve already told you, my arrangement is with Lucan—and has absolutely nothing to do with you. Your own feelings in the matter are of absolutely no interest to me,’ she added scathingly.

‘I advise you
make
them of interest,’ he advised coldly.

‘I don’t care to,’ Joey snapped.

‘Oh, but you
do
care,’ Gideon said silkily. ‘You obviously care very much.’

Joey blinked, a shutter coming down over her emotions as she wondered if she could in some way have revealed her growing physical attraction to this man. Although how
and when she could have done that, considering she hadn’t even seen Gideon for the past two days, she had no idea!

‘Care about
you?
I don’t think so!’ she scorned.

‘Of course not about me personally.’ Gideon dismissed the idea impatiently, making her breathe an inward sigh of relief. ‘But no matter how you may have dismissed the idea on Monday I believe you care very much about the fact that I should have consulted with you over the Newman case. And you also feel that once I became aware of what Newman was up to I should have informed you and left you to handle the problem, rather than stepping in and dealing with it myself.’

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.