Taming the Last St Claire (16 page)

Joey was the warmth of sunshine to his cool of the moon. Was openly emotional to his icy reserve. Heatedly outspoken to his calm caution. Casually feminine—when she wasn’t in work mode and presenting a much tougher look—to his stiff formality.

Opposites, indeed.

And yet their attraction to each other was most definitely still there.

He frowned. ‘This morning was—’

‘I hope you aren’t about to insult me again, Gideon?’ Joey eyed him warily. ‘Because, the way I remember it, it was a mutual ripping off of clothes.’

Total opposites, Gideon acknowledged with a wince at her frankness. And yet that honesty was also commendable. It was even amusing on occasion. In fact he had found himself laughing out loud several times during the past week at some of her more candid comments.

‘We didn’t rip each other’s clothes off—’

‘As good as,’ she insisted bluntly.

Gideon’s mouth quirked. ‘No clothes were actually ripped. And in my own defence I would like to state that I usually exhibit better control than I did this morning.’

‘Oh, believe me, you give a whole new meaning to the word
control,’
she assured him.

‘Which is why this morning’s…lapse was regrettable,’ he finished.

Joey gave him an exasperated look. ‘Tell me, Gideon, do your relationships usually last very long?’

He looked taken aback by the question. ‘Sorry?’

‘I asked do your relationships usually last very long?’ Joey repeated unapologetically; Gideon might be as handsome as sin, and an erotically accomplished lover, but she couldn’t see too many women putting up with the need he felt to analyse and dissect every aspect—particularly the physical part—of a relationship. She certainly found it less than encouraging.

Which was, perhaps, the whole point of the exercise?

Gideon frowned his displeasure. ‘I have always found it advisable to be completely honest when it comes to what you choose to call “relationships”.’

Joey quirked auburn brows. ‘And what do you
choose
to call them?’ she asked curiously.

He looked irritated now. ‘An arrangement of mutual needs.’

She gave a splutter of incredulous laughter.
‘An arrangement of mutual needs?’
she howled. ‘It sounds more like you’re discussing a business deal than a relationship!’

‘Probably because that’s how I prefer to think of them.’

‘And how long does it usually take you to put your “mutual needs” card on the table?’

That irritation flickered again across his brow. ‘I can always tell after a first date whether I want to see a woman again.’

‘Go to bed with her, you mean? ‘

Gideon’s mouth firmed. ‘Yes.’

Joey stared at him in wonder. ‘No wonder you’re still single at thirty-four.’

‘I’m still single at thirty-four, as you put it, through
personal choice,’
he bit out tightly.

‘Keep telling yourself that, Gideon,’ Joey teased as she stood up to begin loading the plates from their meal into the dishwasher. ‘Personally, I’m surprised any woman ever agrees to go out with you a second time after you’ve given her your “mutual needs” speech!’

Gideon had no idea how this conversation had shifted to the way he conducted his personal relationships. Although why he should be surprised he had no idea; he could never predict or anticipate what the outspoken Joey McKinley was going to do or say next.

As demonstrated by her next statement!

‘I suppose I should feel grateful that you haven’t suggested having a “mutual needs” relationship with me.’

Gideon’s expression became guarded. ‘What would your answer have been if I had? ‘

She looked across at him. ‘Guess!’

Gideon continued to look back at her for several long, searching seconds, knowing by the angry glitter of her eyes and the flush to her cheek, exactly what her answer would have been to any suggestion on his part that they satisfy their physical desire for each other within the guidelines of his usual businesslike relationships.

He gave a tight smile as he stood up. ‘I’m not sure your answer is humanly possible.’

She laughed softly. ‘Probably not.’ She straightened as she finished clearing away. ‘Now, if you could just drive me back to the gym so that I can collect my car.’

‘I can do that, yes,’ Gideon said. ‘But only if I then either follow you back to your apartment and stay the night with you there, or alternatively we both come back here.’

‘Gideon—’

‘It’s non-negotiable, Joey,’ he stated.

Joey could see and hear that in the implacability of Gideon’s expression and tone. And, much as she didn’t relish the idea of him spending the night in her apartment—her ‘mutual need’ for Gideon might just rage out of her control if she knew he was laying naked in the room next to hers!—she appreciated the offer. Even if that offer
was
being made to Stephanie’s sister rather than to Joey personally…

‘Fine,’ she accepted finally. ‘But don’t expect me to play the gracious hostess and offer to let you sleep in the bed while I sleep on the sofa, because it just isn’t going to happen,’ she warned caustically.

Gideon gave a derisive smile. ‘I never expected anything else.’

She gave a sweetly saccharin smile. ‘I’m so pleased I didn’t disappoint you! ‘

He was frowning distractedly as he went to his bedroom to collect the things he would need for an overnight stay at her apartment.

Joey never disappointed him. She surprised him, deliberately shocked him on occasion, and evoked an uncontrollable and inexplicable desire in him, but nothing she did or said ever disappointed him.

‘A
RE
you sure you’re going to be comfortable sleeping on here?’ Joey frowned down at the makeshift bed she had made for Gideon on the sofa in her sitting room; the only bedclothes she had been able to find were a spare set of sheets, two old blankets and one pillow.

‘Probably not,’ Gideon drawled as he dropped his overnight bag down beside the sofa, before taking his mobile and wallet from his trouser pockets and placing them on the coffee table. ‘Which will no doubt make your own dreams all the sweeter as you sleep in the comfort of your bed.’

She somehow doubted that. Especially when he was only putting himself through this discomfort in an attempt to protect her. Something, despite her earlier apology, she knew she really had been less than gracious about.

‘Perhaps I should be the one to sleep on the sofa, after all—’

‘I’m just teasing you again, Joey.’ Gideon dropped lightly down onto the sofa and grinned up at her. ‘I’ll be absolutely fine sleeping here.’

‘If you’re sure? ‘

Somehow, now that the time had come for Joey to go to her bedroom, she was reluctant to leave. She doubted she was going to get any sleep anyway, knowing he was only feet away. Possibly naked!

Good Lord, wasn’t she a little young for hot flushes and heart palpitations?

‘I’m sure,’ Gideon answered gruffly. ‘Just go, hmm?’ he urged firmly when she still made no effort to leave.

Joey looked at him from beneath lowered lashes, noting the gold glow of his eyes—as a sign of his own physical awareness of her?—and the slight flush on the sharp blades of those sculptured cheeks. She moistened suddenly dry lips before speaking. ‘I feel very guilty taking the bed and leaving you to sleep on the sofa.’

‘Good.’

Her eyes widened. ‘Gideon!’

He arched mocking brows. ‘As I told you earlier, you have to learn to take it if you’re going to give it.’

‘Okay, point taken.’ She nodded. ‘There’s coffee in the kitchen if you wake up before me in the morning, and—’

‘And here I imagined you’d be bringing me breakfast in bed.’

Joey eyed him uncertainly. ‘You’re kidding again, right?’

He smiled. ‘What do you think? ‘

She gave a grimace. ‘I think you’re going to be waiting a very long time if you expect me to bring you breakfast in bed.’

‘Another of life’s little disappointments.’ He gave an exaggerated sigh.

Joey wasn’t quite sure what to make of Gideon in this teasing mood. It was disconcerting, to say the least!

‘Goodnight, Gideon,’ she said stiltedly as she turned away.

‘Night, Joey,’ he called softly.

She closed her bedroom door firmly behind her before leaning back against it, aware that her heart was pounding, her cheeks flushed.

This was utterly ridiculous. She was twenty-eight years old, and a lawyer of some repute—not some inexperienced eighteen-year-old lusting after a man she couldn’t have! Even if that last part
was
true. She
did
lust after Gideon and she knew she couldn’t have him—on his terms, at least. She wasn’t interested in a temporary fling just to scratch an itch.

Gideon’s good humour had left him the moment Joey closed the bedroom door behind her, and he gave up all pretence of being relaxed as he stood up restlessly to begin pacing the room.

How the hell was he supposed to spend the night sleeping on the sofa when he knew that Joey was only feet away? Possibly naked!

Did she sleep naked.? Just the possibility that she might was enough to cause Gideon’s thighs to harden to a throbbing ache as he imagined those lush, full breasts, her slender waist and invitingly curvaceous hips and thighs, sprawled across silken sheets—

Gideon turned sharply as he heard the bedroom door reopen, schooling his features to casual uninterest as he looked across at her enquiringly.

‘I need to use the bathroom,’ Joey said huskily, and she came out of the bedroom wearing an over-large white T-shirt that reached down to her thighs.

So much for imagining her sleeping naked, Gideon mocked himself once Joey had disappeared into the bathroom down the hallway. Although the T-shirt did have a certain appeal, as it hinted at rather than outlined those softly luscious curves beneath.

Who was he trying to fool? She could have been wearing a sack and he would still have found her sexy!

‘Night, again,’ she murmured, her gaze averted as she went back into the bedroom and closed the door.

Gideon was once again consumed with frustrated desire as he stood in the middle of the room staring at that closed bedroom door for several long seconds. Knowing Joey was just behind that thin veneer of wood. That he now ached to kiss her softly pouting lips. To take her in his arms and mould her soft curves against his own. To caress every inch of her until she was as aroused as he was.

Oh, to hell with this!

He moved to grab his overnight bag before marching down the hallway to the bathroom. He needed a cold shower. A long—very long!—cold shower. For all the good he expected it to do…

If Joey had ever suffered a more restless night’s sleep in her life then she couldn’t think when. Surely nothing could ever have tormented and disturbed her as much as knowing that Gideon was asleep on the sofa in her sitting room?

She had actually got out of bed half a dozen times during the night, with the intention of either joining him on the sofa or inviting him to share her bed, her body aching, longing, to finish what they had started earlier that morning.

Somehow she had resisted each and every one of those longings. Forced herself to return to bed alone. Only to get up again minutes later when she was once again consumed with the same desire.

It was a relief when early-morning light started to permeate her bedroom curtains. A glance at the bedside clock revealed that it was almost seven-thirty. Surely a respectable—acceptable—time for her to get up?

Whether it was or not, Joey knew she’d had enough of lying in the tangle of her own bedclothes. A trip to the bathroom to clean her teeth was in order, before she went into the kitchen and made herself a pot of tea. A
large
pot of tea!

She achieved the first of those tasks by simply not looking at Gideon as she moved quietly down the hallway, but she couldn’t resist on her way back. She glanced across to the sofa, her breath catching in her throat as she saw him lying sprawled face-down on the sofa, with only a sheet to cover his nakedness. At least she presumed he was naked beneath that sheet; his back was certainly bare, as were his long and muscled legs.

Joey couldn’t resist padding softly over to look down at him, her fingers aching to reach out and touch the fall of golden blond hair across his forehead. His lashes were long against the hardness of his cheeks, his lips slightly parted as he breathed in and out.

If Joey bent down just slightly she could kiss those lips—

‘I don’t smell any breakfast cooking!’ Gold eyes gleamed at her wickedly as Gideon suddenly raised those long lashes to look up at her.

Joey almost tripped over her own feet as she jumped back guiltily. ‘I thought you were still asleep!’ she accused, her cheeks burning with embarrassment at being caught in the act of ogling him while he slept. Correction, while she had
thought
that he slept!

‘Obviously you thought wrong.’ Gideon took the sheet with him as he rolled over to look up at her. He was very aware that a certain part of his anatomy had woken up before the rest of him, and that looking at a sleep-tousled Joey was only increasing that throbbing ache between his thighs.

A fact she was also aware of if, the way her eyes had widened as she glanced at that restless bulge beneath the sheet was any indication!

‘What can I say? Part of me is very pleased to see you,’ Gideon drawled ruefully.

Joey’s cheeks were still flushed, but she quirked mocking brows. ‘And how does the rest of you feel about it?’

Gideon put an arm behind his head as he relaxed back on the pillow. ‘As I said, I don’t smell any breakfast cooking.’

Just as he had thought, sleeping on the sofa hadn’t been his main problem last night. It had been forcing himself to resist knocking on her bedroom door and then joining her in bed that had proved the most difficult.

The cold shower he’d taken had been a complete waste of his time once he’d lain down on the sofa. His mind had worked overtime as he’d imagined kissing Joey, making love to her, having her make love to him…

One look at her this morning, red hair soft and tousled, those jade-green eyes heavy with sleep—or lack of it?—and all those erotic imaginings had returned with a vengeance.