Taming the Last St Claire

He leant back in his chair to look across at her from between narrowed lids. ‘I would have thought experience would win over stamina every time.’

Joey almost shouted her yes! out loud, at having actually managed to engage the aloof Gideon St Claire in this slightly risqué conversation. His whole I-am-an-island thing was like a red rag to a bull as far as she was concerned;

she wanted to say outrageous things purely to shock him out of it!

With the weak February sun shining through the huge window behind him Gideon’s hair was the colour of pure gold. It looked as if it would be soft and silky to the touch. His eyes were dark and enigmatic between those narrowed lids, and there was a slight smile curving the sensuous line of his lips—as if he were enjoying the conversation in spite of himself.

Joey’s hands clenched at her sides as she resisted the urge she felt to cross the office and see if his hair really would be soft and silky to the touch. This was Gideon St Claire, she reminded herself impatiently. The man she had believed—until earlier this morning, a little voice reminded her—to be completely immune to all emotional feeling.

‘Don’t knock the stamina until you’ve tried it,’ she said wickedly.

That sensuous mouth thinned immediately. ‘Which you obviously have.’

As it happened, no…

Oh, Joey knew she gave off an image of eating up men of all ages for breakfast, and that most people assumed she lived alone and was unmarried through choice. But the truth of the matter was she had been too busy, too single-minded in attaining her law degree during her late teens and early twenties, to have much time left over for relationships. In fact, she’d had no time for them at all. There had been the occasional date, of course—the one with Jason Pickard six months ago being the most recent. And look how successfully that had turned out! But she had never been in the sort of long-term and loving relationship she felt necessary, and longed for. Her parents had been happily married for over thirty years, and Joey had decided at a young age that she wasn’t going to settle for anything less.

Unfortunately, the downside of the tough, uncaring image she had deliberately adopted was that it tended to completely overwhelm weak men, and the strong ones just felt threatened by her. Which was probably why, at the age of twenty-eight, abrasive, driven Joey McKinley hadn’t yet managed to find a man she could love completely and who loved her in the same way.

And the same reason she was still a virgin…

Something she was sure the cynical Gideon St Claire would find very hard to believe.

‘Not yet—but I’ll be happy to let you know when I have,’ she came back provocatively.

Gideon winced as he sat forward to lean his elbows stiffly on the desktop in front of him. ‘Do I take it that there’s some sexual connection between the whipped cream and the buff twenty-year-old?’

Those green eyes widened, and for an instant Gideon could have sworn he saw a slight blush to those creamy cheeks. As if the outspoken Joey McKinley was actually embarrassed by his comment. He was intrigued at the thought…

‘Whew—I think I’m having a hot flush, just thinking about it!’ She waved a hand in front of her face.

Gideon sighed. ‘If you’ve quite finished interrupting my morning, I have a business meeting to go to in a few minutes, followed by a luncheon appointment,’ he told her.

The provocative smile instantly disappeared, to be replaced by professional interest. ‘Do you need me to come with you to either of them?’

Did he need to spend any more time today with this irritating, outspoken and highly disturbing woman? ‘No,’ he assured her firmly. ‘The business meeting isn’t going to last long, and the luncheon appointment is personal.’

‘Okaaay …’ She eyed him speculatively.

‘As in none of your business,’ he said grimly.

‘Fine.’ She gave an unconcerned shrug. ‘Well, you know where to find me if you need me.’

‘Either in the office next door, or at the coffee shop down the road having fantasies about whipped cream and attractive young men, apparently,’ Gideon drawled with cool derision.

‘Hey, I think you’re finally starting to enjoy my sense of humour!’ Joey murmured appreciatively.

‘Lord, I hope not,’ he muttered with feeling.

She gave a husky laugh, before turning to go back into her own office and closing the door softly behind her.

Gideon drew in a sharp breath. Three weeks, four days, six and a half hours—and counting.

Until Joey McKinley was out of the St Claire Corporation building.

Out of the office next door.

Out of Gideon’s life altogether…

CHAPTER THREE

JOEY was still so unsettled by the manner in which Gideon had neatly turned the tables on her with his remark about whipped cream that she completely forgot to ask for any on her hot chocolate—and didn’t even notice that it was a young girl serving today, rather than the golden-haired god!

Maybe Gideon really wasn’t as uptight as she had always thought him to be if he could make sexual references like that? After all, Stephanie hadn’t been able to stop laughing when Joey had asked her if Gideon was gay. Just because Joey had never seen him with a woman it didn’t mean Gideon didn’t have one in his life—perhaps there was. Just not someone he wanted to take to a family wedding.

To her intense discomfort, just imagining lying naked on a bed with white silk sheets and having the heat of Gideon’s tongue lapping whipped cream from her bare breasts was enough to make Joey’s nipples go hard inside her bra.

This was so not a good idea—

‘Get you anything else …?’

Joey looked up blankly at the young girl behind the counter, a blush darkening her cheeks as she realised her hot chocolate was sitting there, ready for her to collect, and there was a queue of people behind her still waiting to be served.

‘No. That’s fine. Thank you,’ she muttered awkwardly as she grabbed up the hot chocolate and made a quick about face, instantly bumping into the bearded man standing directly behind her in the queue. ‘Sorry.’ She grimaced awkwardly.

‘No problem,’ he replied.

Joey hurried out of the coffee shop before she did anything else to embarrass herself, breathing deeply once she was outside on the pavement and grateful for the cold February wind to cool her hot and flushed cheeks. She was aware that her hands were trembling slightly as her fingers curled tightly about the warmth of the cup containing the hot chocolate.

What the hell was wrong with her? Well…she knew very well what was wrong—she’d been aroused by a sexual fantasy about Gideon St Claire and whipped cream in the middle of a coffee shop! He was the very last man Joey should ever think of in that way—especially as they were going to be working closely together for the next four weeks.

Gideon didn’t even like her, and certainly didn’t approve of her, so what on earth—?

‘Are you feeling okay?’

Joey looked up to see that the bearded man from the coffee shop had collected his order and was now standing beside her on the pavement. Was she feeling okay? Well, she didn’t know about that—she was hot, bothered and aroused! Something she hadn’t felt for a long time—if ever.

‘You’re looking a little feverish,’ the man continued. ‘Perhaps you’re coming down with a cold? There’s a lot of it about. It’s the weather, of course. One day it’s cold and the next it’s sunny.’

‘Yes, probably,’ Joey answered awkwardly, looking up at the man for the first time.

He looked to be aged in his late thirties, and was quite handsome from what she could tell through the dark beard that hid most of his lower face. His eyes were a deep and pleasant blue. He also looked vaguely familiar…

‘Do I know you?’ she asked politely.

‘I’m sure I would have remembered you if we had met before.’ He gave her a brief, noncommittal smile.

Joey accepted the compliment. ‘Sorry to have held you up in there. I was miles away.’ On a bed with silk sheets, with Gideon. No! She had to stop thinking about that!