‘Does anyone ever dare to argue with you, Gideon?’ Joey asked.

‘Obviously,’ he drawled, looking at her pointedly.

‘This isn’t an argument, it’s a dialogue,’ she said.

‘I really don’t have time for this, so if you don’t mind—’

‘But I do mind, Gideon.’

She was suddenly standing far too close to him again.

‘Joey, I appreciate the fact that your sister being married to my brother puts us in the position of being almost related.’ Almost being the operative word! ‘But let me say, here and now, that I have absolutely no interest in knowing anything about your sex-life.’

Joey gave him a cool smile. ‘Then why are we still standing here discussing it?’

About the Author

CAROLE MORTIMER was born in England, the youngest of three children. She began writing in 1978, and has now written over one hundred and fifty books for Harlequin Mills & Boon®. Carole has six sons: Matthew, Joshua, Timothy, Michael, David and Peter. She says, ‘I’m happily married to Peter senior; we’re best friends as well as lovers, which is probably the best recipe for a successful relationship. We live in a lovely part of England.’

TAMING THE

LAST ST CLAIRE

CAROLE MORTIMER

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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THE SCANDALOUS ST CLAIRES

Three arrogant aristocrats—ready to marry!

If you’ve missed any of The Scandalous St Claires series, all titles are available as ebooks at www.millsandboon.co.uk

In Mills & Boon® Modern™ Romance:

JORDAN ST CLAIRE: DARK AND DANGEROUS

THE RELUCTANT DUKE

TAMING THE LAST ST CLAIRE

Travel back to Regency England to read about where it all began—

The Notorious St Claires in Mills & Boon® Historical:

THE DUKE’S CINDERELLA BRIDE

THE RAKE’S WICKED PROPOSAL

THE ROGUE’S DISGRACED LADY

LADY ARABELLA’S SCANDALOUS MARRIAGE

Enjoy!

To everyone who has enjoyed

the St Claires as much as I have!

CHAPTER ONE

‘SO, ARE you going to stand there all morning looking down your superior nose at me, or are you going to do something useful and offer to carry one of these boxes up in the lift for me? ‘

Gideon closed his eyes. Counted to ten. Slowly. Breathed in. And then out again. Even more slowly. Before once again opening his eyes.

No, Joey McKinley was still there. In fact she had straightened from bending over the boot of her car, parked two bays down from Gideon’s own in this private underground car park, and was now peremptorily tapping the sole of one three-inch stiletto-heeled shoe against the concrete floor. He knew this woman would become the bane of his existence for the next four weeks, if this situation was allowed to continue.

Joey McKinley. Twenty-eight years old, five foot four inches tall, with short, silky red hair that somehow wisped up and away from the heart-shaped beauty of her face, challenging jade-green eyes, and a creamily smooth complexion with a soft sprinkling of freckles across the bridge of her tiny nose, her lips full and sensual. The leanness of her obviously physically fit body was shown to advantage in a smart black tailored business suit and a silk blouse the same jade-green colour as her eyes.

‘Well?’ his own personal nemesis challenged, that impatient tapping of her shoe against the concrete floor increasing as she looked across at him with auburn brows arched over those mocking green eyes.

Gideon drew in another deep and steadying breath as he considered the numerous ways in which he might cause his older brother Lucan pain for having placed him in this untenable position in the first place. Not enough to do any serious damage, of course. But a little pain? Gideon felt no qualms whatsoever about that. Lucan obviously felt a similar lack of concern about Gideon’s welfare, having inflicted this woman on him without a second’s consideration.

It was something Gideon had been contemplating for the last thirty-six hours, in fact. Ever since Lucan had informed him, at his wedding reception on Saturday evening, that when Gideon took over as temporary chairman of the St Claire Corporation for the month that he and Lexie were away on their honeymoon, he had arranged for Joey McKinley to take Gideon’s place as the company’s legal representative.

Gideon’s assurances that he was perfectly capable of fulfilling both roles had made absolutely no impact on his older brother. He’d also ignored Gideon when he’d confessed he had his doubts that he and Joey McKinley could work together.

Gideon respected the woman as a lawyer, having heard only positive comments from other colleagues concerning her ability in a courtroom, but on every other level she succeeded in making his hackles rise.

That red hair was like a shining beacon in any room she happened to be in, and she had a husky and sensual laugh that, when released, had every male head in the vicinity turning in her direction. She had been wearing a dress the last two times Gideon had met her—firstly, an ankle-length sheath of a maid of honour gown in a deep jade colour at her sister Stephanie and his brother Jordan’s wedding, almost two months ago, and a red knee-length dress at Lucan and Lexie’s wedding on Saturday. The latter should have clashed with the bright copper cap of her hair, but instead it had just seemed to emphasise the natural gold and cinnamon highlights running through those strands.

The black business suit she was wearing today should have looked crisp and professional, but somehow…didn’t. The jacket was short and figure-hugging, and the top three buttons left unfastened on the green silk blouse she wore beneath enabled him to see the tops of full and creamy breasts. The fitted knee-length skirt showed off an expanse of her shapely legs.

In other words, Joey McKinley was—‘You know, I’ve seen paint dry quicker than you appear to be able to make up your mind!’ she called out.—a veritable thorn in his side! He drew in another controlling breath in an effort to force the tension from his body. ‘Do you always have to be this abrasive?’ Silly question; he knew her well enough by now to know that she always said exactly what happened to be on her mind at the time. Something that Gideon, a man who always measured his words carefully before speaking, found disturbing to say the least.

Her next comment was a prime example of that bluntness. ‘Maybe I wouldn’t feel the need if you occasionally took that I’m-so-superior stick out of your backside and joined the rest of us mortals in the real world.’

Gideon winced. The two of them had met—what?—four times in total. Most recently two days ago, at Lucan and Lexie’s wedding, and before that nine weeks ago, when he’d first met her in her office at Pickard, Pickard and Wright, after he had gone to inform her he had managed to extricate her twin sister Stephanie from an awkward legal situation. Two weeks after that he’d met her at the wedding rehearsal of his twin brother Jordan and Stephanie, and then he’d seen her again at their wedding a week later.

Gideon frowned now as he remembered his absolute astonishment during Jordan and Stephanie’s marriage ceremony. Everything had gone so smoothly in the lead-up to the wedding, and Gideon, as his brother’s best man, had ensured that he and Jordan arrived at the church in plenty of time. Gideon had even felt a lump of emotion in his own throat, on his twin’s behalf, when the two of them had turned to see how beautiful Stephanie looked as she walked down the aisle. Until, that was, Gideon had caught the look of derision in Joey’s gaze as she’d glanced at him from where she followed just behind her twin.

Not that this was anything unusual; the two of them seemed to have taken an instant dislike to each other the very first time they’d met. No, the reason for Gideon’s astonishment had come later in the ceremony, when everyone had sat down while Jordan and Stephanie and their two witnesses signed the register, and he’d heard an angel singing.

A single, unaccompanied voice had soared majestically to the heavens, filling the church to the rafters, as sweet and clear as the perfect, melodic chiming of a bell.

He had never before heard anything so beautiful as that voice—so clear and plaintive it had been almost magical as it claimed his emotions. He had felt so dazed, his senses so completely captivated by the pure and haunting beauty of that voice, that it had taken him a minute or so to realise that all the wedding guests were looking towards the right side of the church—which was when Gideon had realised that the singing ‘angel’ was none other than Joey McKinley!

Joey had no idea why it was that Gideon St Claire brought out the very worst in her—to the extent that she enjoyed nothing more than deliberately baiting him out of what she considered his arrogant complacency. Maybe it really was that superior attitude of his that bugged her. Or the fact that, with his icy reserve firmly clamped in place, he was always so emotionally unresponsive. Everything about him was restrained, from the short style of his wonderful gold-coloured hair, the tailored dark suits he wore—always over a white shirt and matched with a discreetly subdued silk tie—to the expensive but unremarkable metallic-grey saloon car he drove. If Joey had been as rich as the St Claire family was reputed to be then she would have driven a sporty red Ferrari at the very least!

Or her resentment could just stem from the fact that a couple of months ago Gideon St Claire had stepped in, with his highly polished size eleven handmade leather shoes, and sorted out a delicate and personal legal matter for her sister, which Joey had been trying—unsuccessfully—to settle for weeks.

It certainly couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that, putting the icy reserve apart, the man was as handsome as sin but gave every impression he hadn’t so much as noticed Joey was a female, let alone a passably attractive one!

His hair—cut too short for her liking—was the colour and texture of spun gold, and styled over his ears and brow. His eyes were a dark and piercing brown, set in a ruggedly handsome face, and as if that wasn’t enough, nature had bestowed upon him high cheekbones, sensually chiselled lips, and an arrogantly square jaw.

Having studied him from beneath lowered lashes at their second meeting—she had been too overwhelmed by both his legal reputation and his considerable arrogance the first time they met in her office!—Joey had no doubt, just from the predatory way that he moved, that the body beneath those dark tailored suits and white silk shirts was powerfully lean and muscled.

Wheat-gold hair, chocolate-brown eyes, broodingly sensual features that any male model would kill for, and a body that was all hard masculine contours meant that Gideon St Claire was seriously hot—with a capital H. A description that, if he were to hear it, would no doubt offend all his icily reserved sensibilities!

Taking all that smouldering sensuality into consideration, Joey had been intrigued by the fact that he hadn’t brought a woman with him to the weddings of his brothers. That coupled with the fact that Gideon didn’t even seem to register her as a female, had eventually made Joey ask her sister whether Gideon maybe preferred men to women. She had assumed Stephanie’s answer to be a resounding no after it had taken her sister almost five minutes to stop laughing hysterically.

So, Mr Arrogantly Reserved and Broodingly Sensual obviously liked women—just not Joey!

Well, that was fine with her—Gideon St Claire might be one of the most disturbingly attractive men Joey had ever met, but the lack of interest he always showed in her only succeeded in making her feel defensive, and more often than not she deliberately set out to shock him.

‘Are you suffering from laryngitis, or are you just not a morning person?’ The bright cheerfulness with which Joey spoke showed neither of those two things applied to her.

‘Perhaps if you were to stop talking long enough to allow me to answer you?’ He spoke tersely, yet even the low and gravelly tenor of his voice was sexy, she thought with a mental sigh. He made no move to close the short distance between their two parked cars. ‘Miss McKinley—’

‘Joey.’

His nostrils flared with obvious distaste. ‘Would you object if I were to call you Josephine?’

‘Not at all—as long as you don’t mind me reacting the same way I did the last time someone tried to do that,’ she came back breezily. ‘He ended up with a black eye,’ she supplied with a smile as Gideon raised questioning blond brows.

One of those brows remained raised. ‘You don’t like the name Josephine?’

‘Obviously not.’

This was not going well, Gideon accepted heavily. He had come to the conclusion, during the hours since Lucan had spoken to him on Saturday evening, that the only solution to this problem was for him to talk to Joey and calmly and logically explain why he didn’t feel they could work together, before waving her a cheery goodbye and getting on with his role of acting chairman of the St Claire Corporation. For heaven’s sake, she must be as aware as he was of their different approaches to—well, everything!

A reasonable and well thought out plan, he had believed at the time. Until he had actually been faced with the abrasively outspoken woman in person. Just these few minutes of conversation with her was enough to show him that his conclusion had been entirely correct. However, he’d also swiftly realised that any suggestion on his part that she might care to rethink agreeing to work with him for a month would probably only result in the contrary Joey McKinley doing the exact opposite.

For once in Gideon’s well-ordered life he had no idea what to do or say to best achieve his objective. He just knew he couldn’t tolerate working in close proximity with this forthright young woman for four weeks and stay sane!

Even if she did have the singing voice of an angel…

The fact that Lucan had announced he was taking a whole month off for his honeymoon, during which he intended to be completely incommunicado except for absolute emergencies, was extraordinary in itself.

Not that Gideon should have been surprised—both his brothers had been behaving in a completely unpredictable manner since they had met and as quickly married the two women they had fallen in love with. It wasn’t that he didn’t like both Stephanie and Lexie—he did. It was the change in his two brothers that he found… unsettling.

Jordan, an A-list actor who had enjoyed any number of relationships with beautiful actresses and models during the past ten years, had surprisingly fallen in love with his physiotherapist two months ago, and showed every appearance of continuing to be totally besotted with Stephanie now the two of them were married. To the extent that the filming of his current movie was completely scheduled around the hours Stephanie worked at the clinic she had opened since moving to LA.

And until Lucan had met and fallen in love with Lexie he had never taken more than a few days away from the company he had built up into one of the most diverse and successful in the world. In fact, driven was the word Gideon would most have associated with his older brother until the advent of Lexie into his life only a few short weeks ago.

It was a word that could have been associated with all three of the St Claire brothers since they’d reached adulthood and entered their chosen professions: Gideon in law, Jordan in acting, Lucan in the world of business.

All of that had changed in the past two months, and as a man who preferred order and continuity Gideon was still trying to come to terms with it. Something he wasn’t likely to do with the annoying Joey McKinley haunting his every working moment!

‘Very well, then. Joey it is.’ He gave an almost imperceptible sigh. ‘I’m sure that Pickard, Pickard and Wright—Jason Pickard, in particular—was sorry to see you go.’

‘See me go where, exactly?’

Gideon eyed her impatiently. Really, nothing he had heard about this woman had ever given him reason to question her intelligence. ‘Here, of course.’

Joey looked taken aback. ‘I’m sorry, but you’ll have to explain what you mean. Especially the “Jason Pickard, in particular” remark,’ she added coolly.

Gideon wasn’t enjoying having this personal conversation in the middle of a private car park, of all places, where any of the other company employees might arrive at any moment. Admittedly it was only a little after eight o’clock in the morning, and most St Claire Corporation employees didn’t arrive until nearly nine o’clock, but it would be most unprofessional for anyone to arrive early and see the acting chairman at loggerheads with an unknown woman in the car park.

Gideon closed the distance between them in three long strides, to stand only feet away from Joey, and instantly became uncomfortably aware of the light but heady perfume she wore. The choice of perfume was a surprise; Gideon would have thought, with her forceful personality, that she would wear one of those I’m-here-notice-me perfumes. The type of perfume that tended to give Gideon a headache the moment he inhaled. Instead, it was a delicate, subtly sensuous scent that made him react in an immediate way he intended to ignore.

His mouth thinned. ‘I was merely trying to express my sympathy at how unreasonable it was of Lucan to ask you to give up your place at Pickard, Pickard and Wright in order to work here for only four weeks.’

Joey found herself momentarily distracted as she watched Gideon move, with the lean and predatory grace of a jungle cat.

Once again she considered it a perfect waste of a gorgeous man that he was as tightly buttoned down as the points on the collar of his pristine white shirt. A little effort on Gideon’s part—and fewer disapproving looks!—and the man wouldn’t only be arrogantly handsome but also totally devastating to any female with a pulse and a heartbeat.

If he would just grow his hair a little longer he would look younger, and also rakishly sexy. Ditto as regards those conservative tailored suits he always wore. Put him in a pair of faded jeans and a figure-hugging black T-shirt, to show off his muscled chest and arms, and any woman with red blood in her veins was likely to have an orgasm just looking at him!

Joey smiled wickedly to herself, imagining the look of horror that would no doubt come over his arrogantly handsome face if he were even to guess at the inappropriateness of the thoughts she was having about him.

‘Do you find something amusing?’

It was amusing to imagine a more relaxed and sexy Gideon St Claire, as he attempted to fend off the attentions of all those panting women! But it was not so funny that Joey was actually aware of how much more dangerously attractive this man could be if he would just lighten up a little…

She gave herself a mental shake as she looked up into that darkly disapproving face; this man really wasn’t her type. She preferred men with the daring and energy to try anything new; Gideon gave the impression that the last new thing he had tried was wearing black socks instead of grey!

She drew in a deep breath. ‘Oh, but I haven’t given up my place at Pickard, Pickard and Wright; the senior partners were only too happy to give me a month’s leave of absence so I can help Lucan out.’

Something, Gideon realised with rising impatience, that must have taken some time to arrange. ‘Exactly when did Lucan make all these arrangements?’

‘Three weeks ago—’ Joey broke off to look up at him with narrowed, assessing eyes. ‘When did Lucan break the bad news to you?’

Gideon stiffened. ‘I don’t remember saying I regard it as bad news.’

‘You implied it,’ she dismissed shortly. ‘So—when? ‘

His jaw tightened. ‘I really don’t see—’

‘He only told you at the wedding on Saturday, didn’t he?’ she realised slowly.

Gideon had absolutely no idea why it was he always felt less in control of the situation around this particular woman. During his years in a courtroom he knew he’d acquired a reputation for being formidable. Now, as a corporate lawyer for Lucan’s vast companies worldwide, he knew he was regarded as being no less ruthless than his older brother. And yet just having a conversation with the unpredictable Joey McKinley was enough to set his teeth on edge. To set the whole of him on edge, in fact…

‘He did, didn’t he?’ Joey said with satisfaction, those green eyes now openly laughing at him. ‘It probably totally ruined the rest of your weekend, too!’

Gideon’s fingers tightened about the handle of his black briefcase. ‘My weekend was perfectly enjoyable, thank you,’ he lied stiffly. ‘In fact I had lunch with Stephanie and Jordan yesterday, as they are flying back to LA early today.’

‘And I had breakfast with them this morning, before driving them to the airport, and neither of them mentioned you’d asked for my telephone number. Which I’d have thought you would have done if you had wanted to have this conversation with me earlier.’ Joey McKinley gave a taunting shake of her head.

It had crossed Gideon’s mind, in fact, to ask Stephanie for her sister’s private telephone number, but on consideration he had decided not to involve either of their families in what was, after all, a private clash of personalities.

‘Or maybe you just didn’t want either of them to jump to the wrong conclusions?’

He scowled his displeasure. ‘I beg your pardon?’

‘By you asking for my home telephone number. I’m sure you wouldn’t have wanted to give Steph and Jordan the impression that you have a personal interest in me,’ she answered mockingly.

Gideon drew in yet another deep, controlling breath—a futile exercise, he thought wryly. He couldn’t remember feeling as rattled as this in a long time. ‘I believe that’s very unlikely.’

‘You do?’

Was it his imagination, or was Joey suddenly standing closer than she had been a few seconds ago? So close that Gideon could actually see the full swell of her breasts and the top of the lacy cup of her bra, and the pulse beating smoothly, enticingly, at the base of her throat.

Dear Lord…

His gaze turned to ice. ‘Surely you recognise just from this conversation that we can’t possibly work together?’

She was suddenly all business again as she straightened. ‘My arrangement is with Lucan, Gideon—not you. And I make a point of never letting people down once I’ve agreed to do something. A character trait I believe you share?’

It appeared that Joey was as aware of parts of Gideon’s nature as he was of hers! ‘I’m sure that Pickard, Pickard and Wright are more in need of your professional skills than I am,’ he pointed out smoothly.

‘On the contrary, they were only too happy to accommodate Lucan’s request,’ she assured him.

Of course they were, he thought derisively. No doubt Pickard, Pickard and Wright were perfectly aware of the prestige of allowing one of their associates to work at the St Claire Corporation for a month. Being asked for personally by a man of Lucan St Claire’s standing in the business world wouldn’t do Joey McKinley’s career any harm, either.

‘So, Gideon, Lucan’s happy with the arrangement, Pickard, Pickard and Wright are happy with the arrangement and I’m happy with the arrangement—it appears you’re the only one who isn’t.’ She looked him straight in the eye—an obvious challenge.

Gideon coldly returned that gaze. ‘I don’t recall saying I was unhappy with it.’

‘No?’

‘No.’

‘Then that little problem appears to have been settled to everyone’s satisfaction, doesn’t it,’ she dismissed lightly.

Like hell it was! As far as Gideon was concerned, having Joey in the St Claire building for the next four weeks was totally unacceptable.

She cut into his dire thoughts with another equally unwelcome sally. ‘Perhaps now you would care to explain exactly what you meant when you commented that “Jason Pickard, in particular” would have been sorry to see me go?’

Gideon realised she wasn’t being deliberately provocative any more. Her emotions were now much more subtle. On the surface she sounded pleasantly interested, but he recognised the anger burning beneath that supposedly calm surface; it was there in the sparkling green of her eyes and the flush to those creamy cheeks. Although why she should feel that way Gideon had no idea; everyone in the close-knit law community knew that she had been involved with the junior Pickard for the past six months.

He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘It’s public knowledge that the two of you are friends.’

‘That’s exactly what we are—friends,’ she stated evenly. ‘Nothing more, nothing less.’

‘I apologise if I’ve stepped on your personal toes.’

‘I’ve just told you that you haven’t,’ she said.

Gideon’s mouth thinned. ‘I’m not prepared to get into an argument with you over a perfectly innocent remark which I have already apologised for.’

‘Does anyone ever dare to argue with you, Gideon?’ Joey McKinley eyed him with obvious frustration.

‘Obviously,’ he drawled, looking at her pointedly.

‘This isn’t an argument, Gideon, it’s a dialogue,’ she snapped.

He shook his head. ‘I really don’t have time for this, so if you wouldn’t mind—’

‘But I do mind, Gideon.’ She was suddenly standing much too close to him again as she interrupted him ruthlessly. So close that he could feel the warmth of her breath against his jaw as the three-inch stiletto heels on her shoes brought the top of her head to his eye level.

Gideon dearly wished he had never started this conversation. That he had just picked up one of the boxes from the boot of this woman’s bright red Mini and travelled up in the lift with her, before shutting himself away for the day in Lucan’s office.

He was thirty-four years old, successful in his chosen career, and the brief and businesslike affairs he occasionally indulged in rarely even registered on the scale of his emotions. Other than the affection Gideon felt for his two brothers and his mother, he preferred to keep a physical and emotional distance from the rest of humanity.

It was difficult to do that around the forceful Joey McKinley. Especially when she was now so close to him that he could smell the lemon of her shampoo, and see the auburn, gold and cinnamon highlights in that glossy red hair. An unusual colour that Gideon knew didn’t come out of a bottle, because her twin sister had hair with exactly the same beautiful autumn shades.

What would that hair feel like to touch? As soft and silky as it looked? Or as brittle and defensive as the woman herself—

Gideon took an abrupt step back, shutting down his thoughts as he realised what he was doing, his jaw tight as he looked down the length of his nose at her. ‘Joey, I appreciate the fact that your sister being married to my brother puts us in the position of being almost related.’ Almost being the operative word! ‘But let me state here and now that I have absolutely no interest in knowing anything about your sex life.’

Joey’s eyed widened at the vehemence she heard in Gideon’s tone. She had no doubt that he genuinely respected and liked her sister, and that he approved of Stephanie’s marriage to his brother. So why had he decided he disliked Joey from their very first meeting?

Maybe he had disliked and disapproved of her before that first meeting, if his assumptions about her friendship with Jason Pickard were any indication, she mused. She was well aware of the rumours that had circulated about her and the junior partner at Pickard, Pickard and Wright for the past six months. Erroneous rumours, as it happened.

Oh, Jason was incredibly handsome, and the two of them went out to dinner at least once a week. Joey always enjoyed herself on those evenings as she found Jason good company. But their friendship wasn’t based on either sexual attraction or love.

In actual fact their friendship had become more in the nature of a smokescreen, because Jason was really in love with a man he had met at university and had shared an apartment with for the past ten years. Unfortunately his parents, Pickard Senior and Gloria, had no idea that their son’s relationship with the other man was anything more than friendship, and would have vehemently disapproved if they did.

Joey had been thrilled the first time Jason had asked her out—after all, he was the second Pickard in Pickard, Pickard and Wright. But it hadn’t taken her long to realise that Jason wasn’t in the least sexually interested in her. With her usual straightforwardness she had asked a couple of blunt questions, and eventually received a couple of straight answers. The revelation about Jason’s sexuality hadn’t changed anything as far as Joey was concerned; she liked him and enjoyed his company. Enough to agree to go out to dinner with him often—and why not, when there was very little happening in her own love life at the moment! And so the myth of their having a relationship had been born, a myth, it seemed, that even the coldly aloof Gideon St Claire was aware of.

Joey gave him a cool smile. ‘Then why are we still standing here discussing my sex life?’

‘You—’ Gideon broke off in obvious frustration, choosing instead to exercise rigid self-control. ‘Shall we just take your things upstairs and get to work?’ He moved to pick up one of the boxes from the boot of her car before walking stiffly over to the private lift.

Joey picked up the other box and then closed the boot and locked her car, a smile of satisfaction curving her lips as she followed him.

The next four weeks—if they entailed shaking Gideon St Claire out of his aloof complacency—promised to be a lot of fun. For her, if not for himself.

CHAPTER TWO

‘WHERE are you going?’ Gideon questioned sharply as he turned and saw that, instead of following him down the hallway to his own office, Joey had stopped outside the office usually reserved for Lucan’s PA. It wasn’t currently occupied, because Lexie had become Lucan’s PA three weeks ago, and the two of them were now happily honeymooning together on a private Caribbean island for a month.

Mocking green eyes met his. ‘I believe it was an attempt at diplomacy on Lucan’s part when he suggested I might like to use Lexie’s vacant office rather than your own.’

After the bombshell Lucan had dropped on Gideon at the wedding reception on Saturday evening, he didn’t have too much faith in his older brother’s ‘diplomacy’!

‘And how did you know that particular office was Lexie’s?’

‘You mean apart from the fact her name is printed on the door?’

Gideon scowled darkly at Joey’s obvious sarcasm. ‘Apart from that, yes,’ he gritted out.

She shrugged slender shoulders. ‘I came over on Thursday afternoon, so that Lucan could explain exactly what it is he wants me to do while he and Lexie are away.’

Thursday afternoon. The one afternoon in the week when Gideon didn’t work at the St Claire Corporation but instead went to the small office he kept across town and dealt with private legal matters needing his attention. A fact that Lucan would have been well aware of, damn him.

Maybe Gideon had been overly generous concerning that ‘little’ amount of pain he had considered inflicting on his older brother the next time he saw him!

‘And exactly what is it he wants you to do here while he and Lexie are away?’ Besides be a damned nuisance to him, of course!

Joey shrugged. ‘Well, Lucan seemed to have a pretty good idea that you aren’t going to release too much of the legal side of things to me.’ Those jade-green eyes danced knowingly. ‘But obviously I’ll be only too happy to take up the slack. There’s also the fact that with Lexie away too you’re without a PA.’

‘My own secretary—’

‘Is now my secretary,’ she reminded him pertly.

Damn it, this situation was just getting worse—made even more so by the fact that he suspected Lucan and Lexie were sitting on their private Caribbean island right now having a really good laugh at his expense. Falling in love hadn’t just made his older brother unpredictable; it had also brought out a distinctly warped sense of humour in him!

‘If you would prefer, I can use your office rather than this one,’ Joey said as she once again tapped the toe of one stiletto-heeled shoe to mark her impatience. ‘Could you make your mind up soon, Gideon; this box is getting heavy!’

His mouth pursed with frustration. He had always thought of the office down the hallway as being his own personal space: all wood-panelled walls, floor to ceiling bookshelves containing his reference books on English and foreign law, all in alphabetical order. And the top of his mahogany desk was always completely cleared at the end of each working day, with none of the personal clutter that so many people seemed to surround themselves with during working hours.

The two bursting boxes they had carried upstairs seemed to imply Joey intended surrounding herself with exactly that sort of reprehensible clutter for the next four weeks, he mused. No, he didn’t relish the idea of having his office personalised by this woman. But knowing that Joey McKinley’s disturbing presence was in the office next door to the one he intended using would be just as unacceptable—

‘Too late,’ Joey announced decisively, and she lowered the door handle to Lexie’s office with her elbow before breezing inside. ‘Very nice,’ she could be heard murmuring appreciatively.

Gideon reluctantly followed her into the office Lucan had decorated before Lexie became his permanent PA three weeks ago, seeing again that the desk of mellow pine, the cream walls and gold-coloured carpet were all a perfect foil for Lexie’s long black hair.

But he couldn’t help noticing against his will that they were equally complementary to Joey’s rich auburn-gold-cinnamon-red hair and jade green eyes.

‘What on earth do you have in here—rocks?’ Gideon muttered bad-temperedly as he crossed the room to drop the box he was carrying down onto the desktop beside Joey’s own.

Not a happy bunny, she recognised ruefully as she saw his dark scowl. Not a bunny at all, actually. No, as Gideon began to prowl restlessly about the office he looked more like the predator Joey had likened him to earlier.

‘Not quite,’ she answered, as she flipped up the lid of one of the boxes to start taking out the objects and unwrapping them from protective newspaper.

The usual predictable clutter, Gideon recognised. Her law degree. A couple of framed photographs—one of her parents, the other of Stephanie and Jordan at their wedding. A paperweight with a perfect yellow rose inside. A golden dragon.

Hold on a minute—a golden dragon?

‘Yes?’ Joey continued to hold the small golden ornament almost defensively in the palm of her hand as she turned to look at him.

It was Gideon’s first indication that he had actually made an exclamation out loud. But, damn it, a dragon! Even one as romantically beautiful as this—with the creature’s scaled body beautifully etched in gold, its wings extended as if it were about to take flight, and two small yellow sapphires set in the fierceness of its face for eyes—didn’t quite fit in with the abrasive image he had formed of this woman.

Any more than that angelic singing voice, he suddenly recalled.

Joey looked across at him and frowned; really, you would think from his disgusted expression that she had just produced a semi-automatic rifle and intended mounting it on the wall!

‘Stephanie had this made for me when I got my law degree.’

Her twin had always known that the dragon meant something to Joey. A golden dragon had been a feature in Joey’s dreams since she was seven years old. Whenever she’d had a problem—difficulties at school, or with friends—and when she and Stephanie were ten and had been involved in the car accident that had left her twin unable to walk for two years, Joey had dreamt of her golden dragon and instantly felt reassured that everything would work out.

Consequently, where she went, this dragon went too.

She placed it firmly in the centre of the empty desk. ‘It has great sentimental value.’

‘If Stephanie gave it to you, then I’m sure it does.’ Gideon acknowledged softly.

Joey looked up at him, looking for this man’s usual cold distance whenever he spoke to her. Instead she sensed almost an affinity…’Do you miss Jordan?’

Gideon looked taken aback by the question. ‘There’s hardly been time for that when he only left this morning.’

‘I meant before that, of course,’ Joey said impatiently. ‘He’s been in LA how long now? ‘

He frowned. ‘Ten years.’

Stephanie had only been gone for two months, but Joey was still deeply aware of the void her twin had left in her own life. ‘Did you miss him when he first left?’

‘You’re still missing Stephanie?’

‘There’s no need to sound so surprised, Gideon,’ she said ruefully.

Gideon was surprised, and yet he knew he shouldn’t have been. Just because Joey appeared to enjoy mocking him at every opportunity, there was absolutely no reason for him to assume she didn’t have the same deep emotional connection to her own twin that he had with Jordan.

‘Yes, I missed Jordan very much when he first went to LA,’ he acknowledged gruffly. ‘It does get easier,’ he added.

The two of them stared across the office at each other for several long minutes. As if each recognised something in the other that they hadn’t been aware of before. A softness. A chink in their armour. A vulnerability…

Whilst Gideon found this insight into Joey’s emotions faintly disturbing, he found it even more so in himself; revealing vulnerability of any kind was not something Gideon did. Ever.

‘The dragon is very beautiful,’ he said, in a swift change of subject. ‘But personally I prefer to believe in the things I can see and touch,’ he added.

‘Maybe that’s your problem,’ Joey said as she turned away to continue unpacking the contents of the box.

Gideon’s jaw tightened. ‘I wasn’t aware that I had a problem.’

Joey raised auburn brows as she sat on the edge of the desk behind her, her pencil-slim skirt hitching up slightly as she did so, exposing more of her shapely legs. ‘You don’t see the fact that you have absolutely no imagination as being a problem?’

Gideon ignored that bare expanse of skin and kept his gaze firmly fixed on her beautiful heart-shaped face. ‘I have always found basing my opinions on cold, hard reality to be the better option.’

‘Don’t you mean the boring, unimaginative option?’ she taunted.

‘I believe I know myself well enough to know exactly what I mean, Joey.’ He glared down at her.

Joey had regretted telling him how much she still missed Stephanie almost as soon as she had started the conversation. But she had been surprised when Gideon admitted missing his own twin just as much.

He gave every impression of being self-contained. A cold and unsentimental man. To imagine him feeling the same ache of loneliness for his own twin as she felt for Stephanie suddenly made him seem all too human.

But perhaps he felt the same about her? The thought suddenly seemed much too intimate. ‘There’s no need to get your boxers in a twist, Gideon,’ she murmured, being deliberately provocative to hide her uneasiness.

‘My boxers?’ Gideon’s nostrils flared in distaste.

‘That’s always supposing you wear boxers, of course,’ Joey continued outrageously. ‘Yet I somehow can’t see you going commando—’

‘I would prefer that we not discuss my underwear, or lack of it, if you don’t mind,’ he bit out with an incredulous shake of his head. ‘You really are the most irritating woman I have ever met.’

‘Really?’ Joey smiled appreciatively.

Gideon eyed her in exasperation. ‘It wasn’t meant as a compliment!’

‘I didn’t think for one moment that it was,’ she said dryly. ‘But can I help it if I feel honoured that the coolly aloof Gideon St Claire has lowered his aristocratic brown eyes far enough to even notice my existence, let alone to actually form an opinion about me?’

Gideon realised it was this woman’s impulsiveness that made him feel so uneasy in her company. So unsure and definitely wary of what she was going to do or say next. It wasn’t a comfortable admission from a man who usually maintained a tight control over his own emotions. Not comfortable at all.

His mouth compressed into a hard line. ‘Now who’s being insulting?’

‘Was I?’ she came back airily. ‘But you do have brown eyes. And you are an aristocrat. Lord Gideon St Claire, to be exact,’ she added, as though he’d forgotten.

Neither he, nor his two brothers ever used their titles. In fact most people were completely unaware that Lucan was the current Duke of Stourbridge, or that his younger twin brothers were both lords. A fact that Joey was well aware of.

Instead of answering her, Gideon glanced down at the plain gold watch on his wrist. ‘I’m afraid I don’t have any more time to waste on this. I have an appointment at nine o’clock.’

She smiled unabashedly. ‘Does that mean the welcome speech—you know…the usual glad to have you with us, don’t hesitate to ask if you need anything, blah, blah, blah—is now over?’

Gideon drew in a harsh breath. Both of them knew there had been no welcome speech from him at all—not even a brief, unenthusiastic one. Which was obviously the whole point of her remark.

‘I’m sure you’re fully aware by now that I would be happier not to have you working here at all,’ he said honestly.

‘Life can be cruel that way, can’t it?’ she said, her smile undimmed.

Gideon gave her one last frustrated frown, before turning on his heel and going into the adjoining office and all but slamming the door closed behind him.

Joey’s breath left her lungs in a relieved whoosh once she was alone in Lexie’s office. That last conversation about Gideon’s underwear had no doubt completely restored the opinion he’d obviously held of her before her earlier lapse in admitting that she deeply missed Stephanie.

Joey was well aware of what people thought of her lawyer persona—aggressive, forceful, too outspoken. She was a shark circling her prey when she defended her client in a courtroom—and it was a reputation she had deliberately nurtured.

Not too many people were ever allowed to see past that veneer of professional toughness to the real Joey beneath, as Gideon had when she’d talked of missing her twin.

Joey had deliberately donned her professional toughness a couple of years ago, after one too many slights, because she was a woman in the male-dominated career she had chosen to enter. And after one too many men, less capable than she believed herself to be, had been given jobs because of their gender rather than their ability. The third time Joey had been passed over in that way was when she had decided that if she couldn’t beat them then she was going to join them and beat them at their own game.

Consequently, before she went for her interview at Pickard, Pickard and Wright two years ago, Joey had gone out and bought herself half a dozen of what she considered to be power suits, had had her hair styled unfemininely short, and adopted an abrasive and aggressive personality to match. The changes had proved to be successful, and she had managed to land the job with that prestigious firm of lawyers.

Once she had been given the job Joey had softened her attitude and appearance slightly, recognising that in some circumstances femininity—showing a little cleavage and wearing stiletto-heeled shoes for example—could be just as effective as abrasive aggression.

But she couldn’t say she was altogether comfortable with the fact that her highly professional persona had slipped slightly when she had been talking with Gideon St Claire.

‘I’m taking a break now, and going to the coffee shop down the street to get a hot chocolate. Do you want anything while I’m there?’

Gideon scowled his irritation as he looked up from the figures he had been studying on his computer screen to where Joey stood in the now open doorway between their two offices. A door she had opened without even the courtesy of knocking first.

‘Surely there’s a coffee-making machine in Lexie’s office?’

‘I don’t drink coffee.’

‘There are drinks machines on each floor, and a company restaurant on the eighth floor.’ Gideon should have known that the past hour and a half of relative peace and quiet wasn’t going to last with Joey McKinley in the building! ‘I’m sure you can get hot chocolate there.’

‘But not with whipped cream on top, or served by a buff twenty-year-old male with shoulder-length blond hair, I bet.’

Gideon’s frown deepened as he thought of the three slightly plump, kindly middle-aged women who usually worked in the restaurant two floors below. ‘Well…no.’

‘There you go, then.’

‘I take it this “buff” vision of manhood does work in the coffee shop down the road?’

‘Oh, yes.’ She smiled at him. ‘So, do you want anything? Something to drink? Muffin? Pastry?’

‘No, thank you,’ he answered, with a barely repressed shudder.

‘No to just the drink, or no to all of it?’

Gideon gritted his teeth at her persistence. ‘All of it.’

‘They do a really great lemon muffin—’

‘I said no and I meant no!’ Gideon was growing more and more irritated. If he wanted coffee he had his own pot, already made on the percolator, and if he wanted something to eat then he would send his secretary—Lucan’s secretary, now that Joey McKinley had commandeered his own—down to the restaurant to get it for him.

Joey lingered in the doorway, seemingly unperturbed by his irritability. ‘Tell me, Gideon, have you ever been into a coffee shop? ‘

‘No,’ he bit out tersely.

‘How about a burger place?’

‘If by that you are referring to a fast food restaurant, then the answer is no. Neither have I ever been roller skating, hang-gliding or scuba-diving—and I feel no more inclination to do any of them than I do to go to the coffee shop down the street!’

‘Nix to the scuba-diving—I’ve never been too sure what’s lurking down there in the depths,’ Joey said with a contrived little shudder. ‘But I’ve been roller skating and hang-gliding and loved both of them. As for fast food places and the coffee shop—you have no idea what you’re missing!’

‘In the case of the coffee shop, apparently a twenty-year-old male with shoulder-length blond hair.’ His mouth twisted. ‘Who obviously isn’t my type. And isn’t he a little on the young side for you?’ he added with disdain.

‘Younger men are all the rage at the moment.’ Joey McKinley was completely undaunted as she wiggled suggestive auburn brows at him. ‘Probably has something to do with the fact that they have more stamina in bed than older guys.’

Gideon stiffened. Who on earth had conversations like this one? Joey McKinley, apparently! Personally, he never discussed any of his own brief physical relationships with a third party, and he wasn’t enjoying these insights into Joey’s private life, either. Especially when she included slights to older men in her blunt commentary. He couldn’t help wondering—and he was severely annoyed with himself for doing so—whether she meant men of his own age!

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…

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