‘Was it ever in doubt?’
Gideon shrugged. ‘It’s February in Scotland.’
Joey gave him a sceptical glance, not fooled for a moment by his excuse; there had been a definite air of smugness about him from the moment she had agreed to come to Edinburgh with him after all. A decision she certainly hadn’t made for Gideon’s benefit; if Joey had her way she wouldn’t see him again until she was old and past caring for or responding to him!
But Joey had liked Molly St Claire from the moment she’d met her at Stephanie and Jordan’s engagement party. Molly’s love and pride in her three sons had been obvious, and it was a love and admiration that was reciprocated; the three St Claire brothers obviously adored their beloved mother.
The fact that Molly had so unexpectedly asked Gideon to visit her in Edinburgh this weekend was unusual; Joey knew from Stephanie that the older woman simply wasn’t one of those clingy, suffocating type of mothers. Gideon’s stubbornness in refusing to visit his mother unless Joey accompanied him had placed her in a difficult position. One that, despite her protestations, she had known could ultimately have only one solution.
Which was why she was now in Scotland, approaching the huge oak front door of Molly’s manor house home, with Gideon strolling along casually—and triumphantly, damn him!—at her side.
Explaining exactly why she was here with him was Gideon’s problem, she had decided when she’d agreed to accompany him. And if he thought his mother wasn’t going to demand an explanation at some point then he was in for a surprise!
‘Now you appear to be smiling smugly.’
‘Do I?’ Joey glanced sideways at Gideon. Both of them were wrapped up warm against the cold, Joey in a thick duffel coat over her jumper and denims, Gideon in a fine woollen caramel-coloured coat over his jumper and trousers. ‘I can’t imagine why.’
Neither could Gideon. But he had no doubt it would involve laughing at him in some way.
Joey was back to being her normal perky, outspoken self, he realised ruefully. Almost as if their making love this morning had never happened. As far as Joey was concerned perhaps it hadn’t…
Gideon wasn’t having the same success in blocking the vividness of those memories from his mind as she appeared to be. In fact he had thought of little else since it happened.
He most especially wondered what the ‘right question’ should have been.
If Gideon were the sort of son who confided in his mother then he might have discussed it with Molly. No, he probably wouldn’t; he didn’t exactly feature in a good light in what had occurred!
It was frustrating as hell, for a man who was always in control of every aspect of his life, not to know what was going on. Although he should be used to it by now; Joey had had him wrong-footed in one way or another since the moment he’d first met her!
And yet Gideon knew that he was enjoying having her with him. That, bad-tempered or otherwise, he was never bored in her company. In fact—
‘Gideon!’ His mother had opened the door before they could even attempt to ring the bell—evidence that she had been looking out for them. She gave Gideon a brief hug. ‘And Joey,’ she added warmly as she clasped both Joey’s hands in hers. ‘Do come in and warm yourselves by the fire. Did you have a good flight?’ she asked once they were in the hallway taking off their coats.
Joey shot Gideon another sideways glance before answering dryly, ‘Not having flown in a helicopter before, I have nothing to compare it with.’
‘Oh, Gideon is a very good pilot,’ his mother said with an affectionate smile in his direction. ‘I have everything ready for tea, if you would like to come through to the sitting room?’
Gideon’s mother couldn’t have been more welcoming, and yet Joey still felt uncomfortable about being here. ‘It’s very kind of you to invite me to stay, too, Mrs—er …’ Joey gave an awkward wince at her inability to address Molly St Claire, who had divorced her husband twenty-five years ago.
‘Please call me Molly,’ she invited with a smile—a beautiful woman in her late fifties, with dark shoulder-length hair that was inclined to curl, and warm brown eyes. Gideon’s eyes.
‘Shall I take our bags upstairs before we have tea?’ Gideon asked. He was somewhat surprised, considering the urgency he had sensed in his mother’s request that he come to Scotland as soon as possible because she had something important she needed to discuss with him, that she seemed so relaxed.
‘Oh, yes—do,’ Molly answered. ‘I wasn’t quite sure what to do regarding sleeping arrangements for the two of you, so I’ve put you both in the blue bedroom for now, with the option that one of you can move into the adjoining room if that’s what you would prefer.’
If Gideon had expected Joey to be embarrassed by his mother’s assumption that the two of them would be sleeping together, then he was sadly disappointed. Instead, Joey looked fiendishly delighted as she turned to look at him with a pointedly mocking expression in those cat-like green eyes.
Gideon’s mouth thinned as he turned to answer his mother. ‘I’ll put my things in the adjoining bedroom.’ He marched out of the room without so much as a second glance in Joey’s direction.
‘Did I say something wrong? ‘
Joey felt a certain amount of sympathy for Molly’s obvious bewilderment at her son’s behaviour. ‘Much as I enjoy seeing Gideon less than his usual confident self, I think you should know that he and I aren’t a couple,’ she said.
‘You aren’t?’ The older woman looked disappointed. ‘Why aren’t you?’ She rallied briskly. ‘It seems to me that you’re exactly the type of young woman to shake my son out of his complacency.’
Joey chuckled softly. ‘Oh, I definitely rattle the bars of the comfortable cage he’s created for himself.’
‘Then might I suggest you keep on rattling them until the cage falls apart completely?’ Molly advised.
Joey grimaced. ‘I could be old and grey by the time that happens.’
Molly moved forward to briefly squeeze her arm. ‘I love all my sons equally, Joey, and have every confidence that Lucan and Jordan have made wonderful marriages—marriages that will last and blossom. But I do worry so about Gideon—he was a very loving little boy, you know.’
Joey couldn’t imagine it. Actually, yes, she could…She could almost see Gideon as a golden-haired little boy, his eyes glowing gold with happiness rather than anger, knowing he was loved as much as he loved, his world totally secure.
‘He was the closest to Alexander. My ex-husband,’ Molly provided unnecessarily; Joey was well aware of who Alexander was. ‘When the marriage disintegrated …’ She shook her head sadly. ‘All the boys were devastated, but Gideon was hit the hardest. It’s made him very suspicious of love, I’m afraid.’
Joey was aware that it wasn’t only love Gideon was suspicious of—it was any and all emotion. ‘You really are mistaken about the two of us, Molly. We’re not together in that way.’
‘Don’t give up on him, Joey,’ the other woman urged huskily as Gideon could be heard coming back down the stairs. ‘The fact that he brought you here with him is significant, you know.’
Joey shook her head. ‘There is a reason for that, and it isn’t the one that you think—’ She broke off as Gideon came back into the room.
His eyes narrowed guardedly as he moved past them to stand in front of the fire to warm himself.
‘Would you mind if I gave tea a miss and went upstairs to rest instead?’ Joey ignored Gideon and spoke to Molly. ‘I didn’t sleep too well last night and I’m feeling a little tired.’ She also thought it would be better if she made herself scarce so that mother and son could have their talk.
‘Of course.’ Molly smiled warmly. ‘Gideon, would you—?’
‘I’m sure I can find my own way if you just give me directions,’ Joey said, deliberately avoiding Gideon’s gaze as she sensed rather than saw his amusement at her remark about not having slept well. Let him be amused; he was only feeding his mother’s curiosity, if he
did but know it!
But Gideon wouldn’t know it. Because Gideon never thought in terms of real relationships with women. Only those relationships of ‘mutual needs’ that Joey wanted no part of.
‘It really isn’t that bad, Gideon.’ Joey looked up at him with concern as he stood so tall and remote in the hallway outside her apartment, after their return to London late on Sunday afternoon.
Gideon looked down at her blankly. ‘Sorry?’
‘I thought Angus Murray seemed like a nice man when we met him at dinner last night,’ Joey said. ‘And he obviously adores your mother.’ She smiled at him encouragingly.
To Gideon’s surprise the news his mother had wanted to share with him was of her intention to marry a laird of the clan Murray—a man she had met at a dinner party a year ago. Angus Murray had an estate near Inverness, and the wedding was to be in the summer, after which Molly intended moving to Angus’s home in the Highlands.
Joey and Gideon had met the older man the evening before, when he’d joined them for dinner—a bluff, gruff Scottish widower in his early sixties, with admiration and love for Molly shining brightly in mischievous blue eyes.
Gideon realised that Joey had the impression he had a problem with his mother’s intention to remarry, but she couldn’t have been more wrong; he was more than pleased that after twenty-five years of being alone his mother had finally found someone she loved, who obviously loved her in return, and with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life.
It was the fact that his mother, after all these years, felt able to love again, to make a future with another man now that the past had finally been laid to rest with Lexie’s marriage to Lucan, that had thrown Gideon’s own years of cynicism towards love and emotion into question.
He nodded. ‘They make a great couple.’
‘They do. And the fact that the police telephoned this morning and told you they have Richard Newman, and that he’s admitted the vandalism, means you no longer have to feel obliged to spend any more time with me,’ Joey pointed out happily.
Ah.
Now, that was a problem for Gideon.
In fact he had thought of almost nothing else since receiving that call from the police.
‘What do you think will happen to him?’ Joey prompted wistfully; Newman was currently ‘helping the police with their enquiries’.
Gideon shrugged. ‘He’ll probably end up seeing the same psychiatrist as his ex-wife.’
Joey grimaced. ‘There you go—yet another example of what marriage can do to you!’
‘What a bad marriage can do to you,’ Gideon corrected.
‘I didn’t think you were aware there was even a distinction? ‘
He gave a rueful grimace. ‘Maybe the obvious happiness of the rest of my family has changed my mind.’
‘I somehow doubt that,’ Joey dismissed lightly. ‘Still, the main thing is that the Newman situation is over.’
Gideon had believed he would feel relieved when his enforced time with Joey came to an end. Had thought he wanted nothing more than to get back to his own ordered life. That, once the situation with Newman was settled, he would be more than happy to walk away from her.
In fact, he didn’t feel any of those things.
Gideon had no idea exactly what it was he was feeling, but it certainly wasn’t the relief he had expected.
‘I’ll see you at work tomorrow, then.’
Gideon refocused on Joey, not in the least reassured by her wary expression as she looked up at him. He had been proved wrong, time and time again about his first—and stubbornly held—impression of her as being a hard-mouthed sophisticate who’d had any number of sexual partners. An impression he now knew to be totally wrong because she had been a virgin until yesterday morning.
‘Gideon?’
He blinked as he shook himself out of his own thoughts. ‘Yes, no doubt we’ll see each other at work tomorrow.’
Joey had no idea what he had been thinking about just now, when he’d frowned so darkly, although she could guess: he was obviously still troubled by his mother having announced that she was to remarry in the summer. Joey knew from that brief conversation with Molly yesterday, while Gideon took the bags upstairs, that with Jordan and Lucan now married and starting out on new lives together with the women they loved, Gideon was Molly’s main concern.
Although the other woman’s hopes of a relationship developing between Joey and Gideon were pure fantasy!
She turned and entered her apartment. ‘Goodnight, then.’
‘Joey …’
‘Yes?’ She looked up at him quizzically, the door already half closed.
Gideon drew in a harsh breath, not sure what he was doing, only knowing that he didn’t want to say goodbye to her just yet. That he didn’t want to say goodbye to her at all! ‘I hope you’ll have a better night’s sleep tonight.’
Joey gave a rueful smile. ‘All that clean Scottish air knocked me out for eight hours last night.’
‘Still …’
Why didn’t Gideon just go? Joey wondered, knowing that if he didn’t do so soon she was going to be tempted into giving in to the impulse she felt to invite him into her apartment. Into her bed! An invitation that would only end up in her feeling totally humiliated when Gideon refused.
‘Drive safe,’ she told him lightly.
‘Do you want me to pick you up in the morning? ‘
‘Gideon, will you just go?’ Joey finally snapped. ‘The strain of us having to be polite to each other for the past twenty-four hours for your mother’s benefit is definitely starting to get to me—even if it hasn’t got to you!’
Of course it had, Gideon realised. What could he be thinking of, trying to delay their parting in this way?
For once in his life he wasn’t thinking, only feeling, he acknowledged wryly. Quite what the reluctance he felt to go back to the cold impersonality of his own apartment told him, he still wasn’t sure.
His mouth twisted. ‘In that case I should thank you for so successfully keeping your aversion to spending time in my company from my mother.’
‘You should, yes.’ Joey looked up at him quizzically. ‘Well?’ she prompted as he remained silent.
Gideon smiled tightly. ‘That is all the thanks you’re going to get, I’m afraid.’
Joey gave an answering small smile. ‘Goodnight, Gideon.’ She closed the door decisively in his face.
Only to sit down abruptly on the sofa once she reached her sitting room.
The strain of having been constantly in his company for the past forty-eight hours had not arisen from being with him at all—she loved being with him—but from having to hide the love she felt for him.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
‘GIDEON, it’s two o’clock in the morning!’ Joey stared up at him disbelievingly, having opened her apartment door in answer to the doorbell ringing and once again found him standing outside in the hallway.
‘Yes.’ He didn’t even bother to glance at the watch on his wrist to confirm the time.
He was still dressed in the black jumper and trousers he had been wearing earlier, with blond hair seriously tousled—as if he had been running agitated fingers through it constantly for the whole of the last eight hours.
In contrast, Joey was wearing another overlarge T-shirt to sleep in, of pale green this time. Not that she had actually been asleep when Gideon pressed so persistently on her doorbell, but that wasn’t the point. At two o’clock in the morning, he had to have known she would have already gone to bed.
‘Gideon—’
‘Why me?’
Joey blinked. ‘Pardon?’
‘The question I should have asked you yesterday morning was why me?’ he repeated, dark eyes compelling. ‘Why choose me as your first lover?’
Joey felt the colour drain from her cheeks, and she leant against the edge of the door as her knees felt weak. ‘Couldn’t this have waited until morning?’
‘No,’ Gideon said determinedly, and he stepped
forward into the apartment before firmly moving Joey away from the door and closing it behind him. ‘Why me, Joey?’ he prompted again huskily.
She swallowed hard. A lump seemed to have lodged in her throat, and her lips felt stiff and unyielding. The chances of him ever realising what question he should have asked yesterday morning had been pretty slim in her estimation. She wouldn’t have mentioned it at all if she hadn’t believed that.
She moistened the dryness of her lips. ‘Well, I had to start somewhere—’
‘Don’t!’ Gideon rasped harshly, and reached out to firmly grasp the tops of her arms, that compelling dark gaze holding hers captive. ‘You’re twenty-eight years old, very beautiful, with a keen sense of humour, fun to be with—’
‘Much as I’m enjoying this paean of praise, Gideon—’
‘So why, when dozens of men must have wanted to make love with you,’ he continued, talking over Joey’s attempt at mockery, ‘did you wait until I came along to make love for the first time? With a man who more often than not annoys you intensely?’
This was a continuation of her nightmare, Joey decided. She had fallen asleep after all, and this was a really bad dream. A very realistic bad dream, admittedly—Gideon’s fingers felt firm on her arms, and she could feel the warmth of his breath ruffling her own tousled hair—but he couldn’t possibly really be here in her apartment at two o’clock in the morning—nor could they be having this conversation!
‘I think it’s probably overstating it slightly to say that dozens of men have wanted to make love to me—’
‘Joey, I realise this is how you normally get through your day, but for once will you just stop making a joke out of everything?’ Gideon’s expression was fierce as he shook her slightly.
Should she be able to feel those fingers holding her arms if this was just a nightmare? And should she be feeling slightly dazed from Gideon shaking her if she was actually asleep?
If the answer to both those questions was no, then Joey was in serious trouble!
She eyed him guardedly. ‘You’re really here, aren’t you?’
Gideon’s answer was to pull her hard against him as he lowered his lips to capture hers in a kiss that was as intense as it was punishing. His eyes glittered deeply gold when he finally lifted his head to look down at her. ‘Does that seem real enough to you?’ he demanded gruffly.
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