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…
CHAPTER THREE
JOEY was still so unsettled by the manner in which Gideon had neatly turned the tables on her with his remark about whipped cream that she completely forgot to ask for any on her hot chocolate—and didn’t even notice that it was a young girl serving today, rather than the golden-haired god!
Maybe Gideon really wasn’t as uptight as she had always thought him to be if he could make sexual references like that? After all, Stephanie hadn’t been able to stop laughing when Joey had asked her if Gideon was gay. Just because Joey had never seen him with a woman it didn’t mean Gideon didn’t have one in his life—perhaps there was. Just not someone he wanted to take to a family wedding.
To her intense discomfort, just imagining lying naked on a bed with white silk sheets and having the heat of Gideon’s tongue lapping whipped cream from her bare breasts was enough to make Joey’s nipples go hard inside her bra.
This was so not a good idea—
‘Get you anything else …?’
Joey looked up blankly at the young girl behind the counter, a blush darkening her cheeks as she realised her hot chocolate was sitting there, ready for her to collect, and there was a queue of people behind her still waiting to be served.
‘No. That’s fine. Thank you,’ she muttered awkwardly as she grabbed up the hot chocolate and made a quick about face, instantly bumping into the bearded man standing directly behind her in the queue. ‘Sorry.’ She grimaced awkwardly.
‘No problem,’ he replied.
Joey hurried out of the coffee shop before she did anything else to embarrass herself, breathing deeply once she was outside on the pavement and grateful for the cold February wind to cool her hot and flushed cheeks. She was aware that her hands were trembling slightly as her fingers curled tightly about the warmth of the cup containing the hot chocolate.
What the hell was wrong with her? Well…she knew very well what was wrong—she’d been aroused by a sexual fantasy about Gideon St Claire and whipped cream in the middle of a coffee shop! He was the very last man Joey should ever think of in that way—especially as they were going to be working closely together for the next four weeks.
Gideon didn’t even like her, and certainly didn’t approve of her, so what on earth—?
‘Are you feeling okay?’
Joey looked up to see that the bearded man from the coffee shop had collected his order and was now standing beside her on the pavement. Was she feeling okay? Well, she didn’t know about that—she was hot, bothered and aroused! Something she hadn’t felt for a long time—if ever.
‘You’re looking a little feverish,’ the man continued. ‘Perhaps you’re coming down with a cold? There’s a lot of it about. It’s the weather, of course. One day it’s cold and the next it’s sunny.’
‘Yes, probably,’ Joey answered awkwardly, looking up at the man for the first time.
He looked to be aged in his late thirties, and was quite handsome from what she could tell through the dark beard that hid most of his lower face. His eyes were a deep and pleasant blue. He also looked vaguely familiar…
‘Do I know you?’ she asked politely.
‘I’m sure I would have remembered you if we had met before.’ He gave her a brief, noncommittal smile.
Joey accepted the compliment. ‘Sorry to have held you up in there. I was miles away.’ On a bed with silk sheets, with Gideon. No! She had to stop thinking about that!
‘As I said, no problem,’ the man assured her lightly. ‘Do you work around here?’
Joey frowned slightly; it was one thing to apologise to this man for holding him up, but she wasn’t about to tell a complete stranger where she worked. A stranger who still looked vaguely familiar, despite his denial.
‘Yes. And it’s time I was getting back.’ She smiled again, to take the sting out of her dismissal, as she turned to walk away.
‘Enjoy your hot chocolate,’ he called after her.
‘Thanks.’ Joey was a little disconcerted to realise that the man must have been aware of her enough earlier to have noticed she had ordered hot chocolate to go. And she was sure she felt his blue eyes following her as she walked back down the street.
Paranoid.
She was becoming paranoid. The man was just being polite to show that he wasn’t annoyed at being delayed, for goodness’ sake. She was probably just feeling oversensitive after indulging in that steamy fantasy.
Probably? She was definitely feeling oversensitive. And in all the wrong places too.
‘Good lunch?’
Gideon had only just arrived back in the office, and he drew in a sharp breath as he turned and saw Joey, once again standing in the connecting doorway between their two offices.
‘I think we need to lay down a few ground rules, Joey,’ he rasped as he removed his jacket and hung it in the closet before moving to sit behind Lucan’s imposing desk. ‘The first one being that in future I would
