Taming the Last St Claire

by Carole Mortimer

  No, they didn’t like each other at all!

  ‘Yes, sir!’ She gave a mocking salute before turning to go back to her own office.

  ‘Joey?’

  She looked back at him with guarded eyes. ‘Yes?’

  ‘Put some shoes on, hmm? It sets a bad example for the troops!’

  Joey’s husky laugh was completely spontaneous, and the shake of her head rueful as she sobered. ‘Be careful, Gideon—you might start to develop that sense of humour, after all!’

  His mouth twisted wryly. ‘I doubt it, when I have that I’m-so-superior stick up my backside.’

  She looked ashamed. ‘I shouldn’t have said that to you.’

  Gideon shrugged. ‘Why not? If it’s what you really think.’

  Joey was no longer sure what she thought of him. Maybe there were reasons why Gideon was always so emotionally shut-off? An impression that had been severely dented earlier, when he’d admitted that he missed his own twin as much as Joey missed hers, she had to acknowledge.

  The break-up of his parents’ marriage when Gideon was only ten years old couldn’t have been a pleasant experience. Stephanie had confided in her that Alexander St Claire’s abandonment of his wife and three sons twenty-five years ago had definitely affected Jordan’s opinion of long-term relationships. Perhaps Gideon had similar issues? Maybe that was the reason—

  Good Lord—she couldn’t actually be making excuses for this man’s coldness, could she?

  ‘Would you please leave, Joey, and allow me to get on with some work?’ he growled, and at the same time pointedly moved to sit behind his desk.

  No, Joey answered her own question. She certainly wasn’t about to make excuses for Gideon; he was cold and arrogant and superior, and every other uncomplimentary name she had ever called him—to his face or otherwise!

  Gideon watched through narrowed lids as Joey finally left his office, waiting until the door had clicked firmly closed behind her before leaning against the back of his chair to let out a deep sigh.

  He was acutely aware that the reason he had moved so quickly to sit behind Lucan’s desk was because he was once again aroused by thoughts of passionately kissing Joey McKinley—and he wanted to do more to her than just kiss her, damn it!

  Three weeks, six days, and one hour and thirty minutes of this torture left to get through…

  ‘Need any help? ‘

  Joey closed her eyes and wished herself anywhere but down on her knees in the underground car park of the St Claire Corporation, with Gideon looming over her as she attempted to replace the tyre that had gone flat since she’d left her car parked there that morning.

  She had left her office a little before six o’clock, convinced by the silence in the adjoining office that Gideon had already left for the day—until she’d arrived in the underground car park and seen their cars were the only two still parked there. Even so, she had still hoped to get away before Gideon came down in the lift.

  It was a hope that had been dashed once she had approached her car and found that the front tyre on the driver’s side was completely flat. Which was why, after trying to pump the thing up again with no success, Joey was now down on her knees on the blanket she had spread on the oil-spattered concrete, attempting to replace the wheel with the spare from the boot of her car. She’d heard the lift descending and then Gideon walking over to her.

  ‘It’s nothing I can’t handle,’ she assured him as she continued to struggle with that last nut.

  ‘Would you like me to—?’

  ‘No!’

  Gideon bit back a smile at Joey’s vehemence, well aware of the reason for it, and knowing that she didn’t like appearing at a disadvantage any more than he did. ‘Perhaps I could—?’

  ‘Perhaps you could just get into your damned car, drive away and let me get on with this!’ she grated as she turned to glare up at him.

  Maybe he would have done just that if he’d thought she was ever going to be able to get that wheel off and replace it with the spare. Although perhaps not: one thing Molly St Claire had drummed into her three sons when they were growing up was that a gentleman always helped a lady in distress. And, whether Joey liked it or not, she was definitely in distress.

  Besides which, he had no intention of driving away and leaving a woman alone in a deserted car park at almost six-thirty on a dark winter’s evening.

  ‘Give that to me,’ he instructed firmly as he moved to kneel beside her on the blanket and took the wrench out of her hand. Or at least attempted to take it, because her fingers instantly tightened about the metal tool, refusing to relinquish it.

  ‘Joey, stop being so damned childish and give me the spanner!’ Gideon glared down at her.

  Jade green eyes glared right back at him. ‘I’m not being childish. I just resent being treated like the helpless little woman to your big strong man!’

  Gideon growled in his throat. ‘Would it help you to know that I consider you as helpless as a Sherman tank?’

  Joey’s lips twitched at the description coming so soon after his comment earlier about ‘the troops’. ‘We aren’t in a war zone, you know, Gideon.’

  ‘No?’ He arched blond brows.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then stop being so stubbornly independent and give me the spanner.’ He met her gaze challengingly.

  Joey slowly released the metal tool into his hand, and sat back on her heels to watch as he easily undid that last traitorous nut before sliding the wheel off completely. He stood up to place it in the boot of her car, and then briskly rolled over the spare.

  ‘Don’t you just hate it when that happens?’ she muttered irritably as she straightened up.

  Gideon smiled at her patent annoyance. ‘It’s no reflection on your capabilities that the last nut was slightly rusted.’

  Maybe it wasn’t, but Joey hated appearing less than capable of dealing with her own problems.

  ‘There didn’t seem to be a problem with the tyre this morning.’ She strolled over to the boot of her car to inspect it, but couldn’t see any visible reason for the puncture. ‘Never mind. I’ll go and get a replacement at lunchtime tomorrow.’ She turned to look over to where Gideon had finished putting on the spare and was now tidying the tools back into the box before folding the blanket.

  His tailored suit and white silk shirt were as pristine as always, but there was a small smudge of oil just to the left of his mouth, which meant he probably had oil on his hands, too.

  ‘Here you go.’ He placed the toolkit and the folded blanket back in the boot, beside the punctured tyre.

  Joey swallowed. ‘I—thanks for your help.’

  ‘No problem.’

  ‘Nevertheless, it was kind of you.’

  His mouth twisted wryly. ‘Considering how ungracious you were when I first offered? ‘

  Joey frowned slightly. ‘I don’t remember you offering. As usual, you just took over.’

  ‘The way I took over in the Newman case a couple of months ago?’

  Joey looked up sharply at the gentleness—and the unexpectedness—of Gideon’s query.

  ‘Yes,’ she finally answered slowly. ‘Exactly the way you took over in the Newman case.’

  ‘I owe you an explanation and an apology for that.’

  Joey’s uncertainty deepened. Her resentment towards Gideon’s arrogant intervention two months ago was the basis upon which she had placed all her future dealings with him. If he now explained and apologised she would have no defences against this rapidly growing attraction she felt towards him. Towards a man who so clearly showed that he only tolerated her at best…

  ‘Joey …?’

  Her startled gaze moved up to meet shrewd brown eyes, and there was a hint of a blush in her cheeks. ‘I’m sure you had your reasons for doing it.’

  He nodded. ‘Because I liked Stephanie from the first, and Jordan asked me to see what I could do to help her. But I realise now that I should have considered your feelings before I acted.’

  Mu
ch as Joey appreciated knowing that Gideon liked her twin enough to want to help her, she really wasn’t sure she could cope right now with his apology. It had been such a strange day already. Not least because she had realised her deepening attraction towards Gideon had already severely battered the defences she usually kept about her emotions.

  ‘You have a smudge of oil beside your mouth,’ she said, deliberately changing the subject.

  ‘I do?’ Gideon instantly raised a hand and wiped the wrong cheek.

  Why did people invariably do that? Joey wondered ruefully. ‘Wrong cheek.’

  He quirked one brow. ‘Maybe you should just do it for me?’

  Joey winced inwardly at the thought of touching him so intimately when she was already so completely aware of him. Maybe it would have been better if she hadn’t mentioned that smudge of oil at all!

  ‘I have some wipes in my handbag.’ She hurried to open the car door, and bent down to get the wipes from where she had placed her handbag on the passenger seat before attempting to change the wheel, sincerely hoping that the visible warmth in her cheeks would fade by the time she straightened.

  ‘Here.’ She held the wipe out to him.

  ‘It really would be easier if you did it for me,’ he insisted.

  Not for Joey!

  ‘You’re a big boy now, Gideon, and perfectly capable of cleaning your own face,’ she muttered irritably, her nerves already frayed enough without the added possibility of touching him accidentally. ‘Use one of the side mirrors on my car,’ she suggested when he didn’t move.

  Gideon could see Joey’s reflection in the mirror as she stood just behind him, and was very aware that not only had she refused to discuss the Newman case with him, but she had also dismissed his attempt at an apology.

  Which didn’t bode well for them having to continue to work together for the next four weeks.

  Gideon’s mouth tightened determinedly as he balled the damp wipe into his hand before turning back to face her. ‘Look, Joey, we seem to have got off to something of a shaky start—’ he began.

  ‘We did that a couple of months ago.’

  ‘And I have just tried to apologise for that,’ Gideon reminded her gently. ‘Why don’t we go somewhere and have a glass of wine together and discuss it further?’

  Much as he might have thought he was acting for the best at the time, he knew that if the situations had been reversed he would have felt exactly the same resentment she did.

  Joey didn’t want to ‘go somewhere’ and have anything with Gideon St Claire! Not if it meant she would be in danger of the physical attraction that had been growing between them throughout the day deepening even further.

  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.?

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ‘WOULD 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 reluctanc
e 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.’