Taming the Last St Claire (17 page)

‘And, as I told you last night, you won’t either,’ Joey assured him. ‘There’s toast or croissants in the kitchen if you’re hungry, so just help yourself.’ She turned away.

Gideon reached out and lightly grasped her wrist. ‘Where are you going?’ his voice was husky.

She was very aware of his fingers curled lightly about the slenderness of her wrist. Of his nakedness beneath the thin sheet. Of the long length of his arousal poised beneath that sheet…

She swallowed hard. ‘I thought I’d go into the kitchen and make some tea and coffee.’

Gideon gave a light tug on her wrist. ‘Weren’t you about to kiss me good morning a few minutes ago?’

Her eyes widened in alarm as she realised how easily she had given herself away. A sudden but unmistakable sexual tension filled the room…

‘Don’t be ridiculous—’

‘Don’t lie to me, Joey. Or yourself,’ he added softly.

Joey tried to back away. ‘I’m not lying—’

‘I think you are.’

‘No—’

‘Yes!’

Gold eyes blazed up at her as Gideon’s fingers tightened about her wrist before he gave a second, harder tug, and succeeded in unbalancing Joey.

She could feel herself starting to panic as she tumbled towards him. ‘Stop this, Gideon,’ she instructed firmly as she tried to regain her balance, but instead she found herself sprawled on top of him, only the thin material of the sheet and her T-shirt between them.

Which was no barrier at all. Joey felt the hardness of his shaft pressed against the softness of her thighs, her breasts crushed against his chest, and their faces were now only inches apart.

She lay unmoving, not breathing, as her body was suffused with heat. That heat was centring, pooling between her thighs as the intensity of his golden eyes held her captive. ‘I don’t think this is a good idea, Gideon,’ she said.

He released her wrist to bring his hands up and cradle either side of her face, thumbs moving lightly against the shadows beneath her eyes. ‘Did you sleep at all last night?’

‘I—no, not really,’ she acknowledged with a grimace.

‘Neither did I,’ he admitted quietly.

The tip of her tongue moved nervously across the sudden dryness of her lips. ‘This isn’t the answer, Gideon.’

He gave a rueful smile. ‘Well, it certainly isn’t the question!’

Joey breathed shallowly. ‘Then what is?’

Those golden eyes held her mesmerised. ‘The question is, can either of us stop what happens next?’ Gideon
shifted slightly, nudging her thighs apart. Her core was now pressed against his unrelenting hardness. ‘Can you?’ His hips flexed to rub that hardness against her already throbbing nubbin.

Joey gave a little whimpering moan, her eyes closing as pleasure coursed through her. She felt herself start to moisten between her thighs, her nipples peaking, hardening to an aching throb.

‘Joey?’ Gideon prompted throatily.

She raised emerald-bright eyes. ‘Can
you?’

Gideon shook his head. ‘I don’t even intend to try,’ he admitted gruffly, knowing he had lost this particular battle the moment he’d heard her leave her bedroom earlier. He’d watched from between narrowed lids as she’d moved stealthily down the hallway to the bathroom, her breasts twin peaks beneath her T-shirt, her legs bare and silky. Knowing she was completely naked beneath that inadequate garment had only made Gideon desperate to remove it.

He did so now, and her thighs straddled his as he sat her up, slowly lifting that T-shirt, revealing auburn curls between the slim thighs that he longed to plunder, the slenderness of her waist, and finally the full thrust of her firm breasts, tipped with dusky rose nipples that were already pouting at him, begging to be kissed.

Gideon’s gaze held hers captive as he parted his lips to reveal the soft moistness of his tongue and the sharpness of his teeth. ‘Bend down and put your nipple in my mouth, Joey.’

Every breath she took lifted her breasts in invitation. Her nipples were so hard and aching now they were almost painful. A pain that she knew only Gideon’s waiting tongue and teeth could assuage.

Her position of power was too much temptation, her
need too great, too immediate, for her to do anything other than what he asked. Her hands moved to rest on the pillow either side of his head as she lowered her breasts and instantly felt the sharp sting of pleasure as he took one of those fiery tips deep into the heat of his mouth, while his hand cupped its twin to allow his fingers and thumb to pluck and roll the hard and aching nipple.

Moisture flooded again between Joey’s thighs and she moved against him restlessly. Gideon groaned low in his throat even as he continued to pay attention to first one nipple and then the other, teeth gently biting, tongue rasping, driving her higher and higher towards the release that was becoming a desperate need.

‘I’ve waited so long for this,’ Gideon gasped as he kissed his way across the slope of her breast before moving up to capture her lips with his.

They kissed long and deeply, desire blazing, heightening their senses to fever-pitch.

‘I can’t wait any longer. I need to be inside you now.’ He moved quickly, rolling to his side with Joey beside him as he threw the sheet aside, before moving up and over her to hold himself poised above her parted thighs, his face savage. ‘Take me in, Joey!’ he urged fiercely, his lips against her throat as his hands cupped her bottom, preparing her to receive him.

Joey needed Gideon inside her just as much as he wanted to be there. Her fingers were a light grasp around him as she reached between them to guide him, groaning low in her throat as she felt him carefully enter her before sliding deeper, stretching her, filling her inch by pleasurable inch.

Joey stiffened briefly in pain, her fingernails digging into the flesh of Gideon’s shoulders, when she felt his hardness surge past the barrier of her innocence to fill her
totally as he buried himself to the hilt before becoming strangely still, unmoving.

‘Gideon?’ she prompted uncertainly when he continued to lie there.

‘What the hell—?’ Gold eyes glittered dangerously, and there was a flush to his cheeks as he raised his head to look down at her. ‘Damn it—tell me I’m not your first lover!’

Joey felt her heart plummet even as she knew her face paled at the accusation she could read so clearly in Gideon’s expression. ‘I—Does it matter? ‘

Did it
matter?
Gideon’s shattered thoughts echoed chaotically.

Did it matter that Joey had been a virgin? Did it matter that he had just ripped through the gossamer barrier of her innocence? Did it matter that, virgin or not, he had obviously hurt her? Hell, yes, it
mattered!

His expression was fierce as he took her by the shoulders. ‘You can’t possibly be a virgin! ‘

‘Well…not any more, no,’ Joey acknowledged softly.

Gideon growled low in his throat as his thoughts became even more disjointed. ‘But everyone knows—you and Pickard. The two of you were seen together for months!’

She shook her head. ‘I already
told
you. We were
never
lovers.’

‘But you must have been out with other men over the years?’ he persisted disbelievingly.

Had Joey ever suffered through such an embarrassing conversation in her life before? Somehow she doubted it very much!

They were both completely naked, his hardness still buried deep inside her, and he wanted to talk about why she hadn’t been to bed with any of the other men she had dated. It could only happen to her!

She moistened dry lips. ‘Could we talk about this later, do you think, Gideon?’

His face darkened angrily. ‘We’ll talk about it now!’

Joey couldn’t quite bring her gaze up to meet the glittering gold of Gideon’s accusing eyes. ‘It’s a little…awkward at the moment, don’t you think?’

He wasn’t capable of thinking at all right now. Was too stunned, too shocked by the discovery of her previous physical innocence, to think coherently. It was a bewilderment his manhood obviously echoed as he felt himself softening in readiness for withdrawal. Taking his previous desire to its conclusion was the last thing on his mind right now.

Gideon moved up and away from Joey, to stand beside the sofa and look down at her. She quickly pulled the sheet over her nakedness. But not before Gideon had seen the telling smear of blood between her thighs.

He closed his eyes briefly, before turning away to run his hand through the thickness of his hair. He really had just taken Joey’s virginity. Indisputably. Irrevocably. Unknowingly.

But
she
had known.

Gideon turned to look at her through narrowed lids. ‘None of this makes any sense.’

Joey looked up at him. ‘None of what?’

‘You. Me. The fact that you were still a—a—’

‘A virgin,’ Joey finished helpfully—Gideon still seemed to be having trouble with the concept.

‘Yes!’

What had she expected? Joey wondered wearily. That the two of them would make love and it would all be wonderful?

Well, until Gideon had discovered her virginity it
had
been wonderful!

Then it had turned into something of a nightmare because of his shock. His anger.

And Joey’s own realisation that she had fallen head over heels in love with him.

H
ER
eyes narrowed. ‘Exactly what is your problem with us having made love, Gideon?’ she questioned slowly as he turned away to pull on a pair of black figure-hugging boxers.

He was still too stunned to know what he was thinking, let alone what was coming out of his mouth. A part of him felt as if he was burbling a lot of nonsense—and the rest of him knew that he was.

How could this possibly be? Joey was a sophisticated twenty-eight-year-old woman who gave every impression of being worldly-wise. Damn it, how
could
she still be a virgin?

And yet she was.

Had been.

And Gideon had no idea how he felt about it.

The wary expression on her angrily flushed face told him that perhaps he should keep his mouth shut until he
did
know.

‘Joey—’

‘I would rather you didn’t, Gideon,’ she warned evenly, and she moved to the end of the sofa when he would have reached out to her, all the time clutching that crumpled sheet in front of her, the knuckles of her hands gleaming white beneath her skin.

Gideon’s hand fell back to his side, a scowl darkening his brow at her rejection of his touch. ‘I’m not going to hurt you—well, no more than I already have.’ He gave a pained frown. ‘If I’d known—’

‘I really don’t want to talk about this any more, Gideon.’

‘It doesn’t just come down to what
you
want—’

‘As far as I’m concerned, that’s exactly what it
does
come down to!’ Her eyes flashed a warning as she stood up to wrap the sheet tightly round her. ‘I’m going to take a shower now. My advice to you is to leave before I come back.’

‘You know I can’t do that,’ he rasped. ‘Not with Newman rampaging about.’

Joey eyed him scathingly. ‘He’s hardly
rampaging,
Gideon. And even if he were I have no intention of going out today—so there’s no problem, is there?’

No, the problem appeared to be totally between the two of them. And Gideon knew that he was the one responsible for it. If he had only reacted differently once he’d realised. But how could he be expected to have done that when he had been shocked to his very core by the discovery of her innocence?

‘Why has there been no one else for you, Joey?’ he asked quietly.

She regarded him pityingly. ‘Well, Gideon, that really isn’t the right question to be asking, is it?’

‘Then what
is
the right question? ‘

Joey gave a humourless laugh before turning to walk away. ‘I’m going to take a shower. Lock the door behind you on your way out.’

Gideon gazed after her in frustration, knowing by the stiff set of her bare shoulders and the straightness of her
spine, that it would be a mistake to push her any further right now.

But, damn it, he had no idea what the right question should have been!

Joey had no idea how she made it as far as the bathroom before the tears began to fall, but she somehow managed to get inside the room and lock the door firmly behind her before they cascaded hotly down her cheeks.

What a mess!

She had fallen in love with Gideon. With a man who had made it patently clear he never intended falling in love with
any
woman!

Even so, she should never have allowed things to go as far between them as they had. Should never have given in to the desire—no, the
love
that had kept her awake and wanting him for most of the night.

But she
had
given in to it—had wanted and welcomed his lovemaking only to have the whole thing fall apart when he discovered that she was a virgin. If she had known it was going to cause this much trouble then she would have made a point of losing it years ago.

No, she wouldn’t. She and Stephanie had grown up in a loving family. Their parents were even more in love with each other now than they had been on their wedding day. And somehow that love and total commitment to each other had become a part of both Joey’s and Stephanie’s psyche—so much so that neither of them was willing to settle for anything less. To the extent that going to bed with a man they weren’t in love with had become complete anathema to both of them.

Well, Joey had realised she was deeply, irrevocably in love with Gideon—she had just overlooked the fact that he wasn’t in love with her too. In fact she had made a complete
mess of things. To the point where she wasn’t sure how she was even going to face him again, with the knowledge of her lost virginity hovering between them like some ghostly spectre.

It was small comfort that he was so out of touch with emotion that he obviously had no idea she was in love with him—that the question he should have been asking was why had she chosen
him
to be her first and only lover?

Gideon was still here. That was Joey’s first thought when she emerged from the bathroom half an hour later and caught the smell of toast and coffee coming from the kitchen.