The Burlington Manor Affair

He had to have her.

She wanted it, too, much as she denied it. She was here, for a start. She could have negotiated through a solicitor but she’d come, knowing what he wanted. They both knew why. Something had been triggered between them years ago and it had to be burned out in the only way possible—by thrashing it out between the sheets.

The dress she wore looked like a bespoke wrapping on the most desirable of possessions, and he fully intended to be the one to unwrap her. It hadn’t occurred to him that she wouldn’t be able to wear a bra with it. The dress was backless, though, and he could see her nipples outlined by the clingy, silky material. Rex congratulated himself on a good buy. He’d bought the dress on impulse, because he’d seen it in a shop front in Milan’s design quarter three years earlier and it had instantly made him think of her. Carmen, his elegant little flyaway bird. He’d kept the dress all this time, not even knowing whether he’d ever have the opportunity to give her the gift, because it felt like a connection with her, the connection that had been absent from his life for so long.

Carmen was the one who’d got away. Not anymore. Circumstances had got in the way, but now the little bird had fluttered back to him, and he was determined to see her relinquish that fiercely held mask of independence she wore and admit the desire that had existed between them for so long.

“This is a ludicrous situation.” She stood up, throwing the napkin she’d had clutched in her hand down onto the table. As she turned and headed for the door, he rose to his feet and put his hand out in her path, easily halting her in her tracks as she broke for the door.

A warning flashed in her eyes. She trembled visibly.

“Easy,” he urged, and drew her in against him.

For a moment she kept her eyes lowered, as if she couldn’t bear to look at him, but he could see the pulse at the base for throat was beating wildly, her breasts rising and falling rapidly beneath the dress.

Her eyelids flashed up, and she stared at him boldly. “Rex, please don’t.”

“Why not?”

She shook her head. She didn’t try to break free, though, and it felt good to have his hands on her. She stared up at him, her dark eyes luminescent. So enticing. When her lips parted, he bent his head to kiss her.

At first she stiffened, and her mouth remained immobile beneath his. The resistance was momentary, though, and he felt her soften in his embrace, her lips parting beneath his.

That barrier breached, Rex’s hunger for her flared. Too long he’d waited for this, wanting her, and now he had her. He locked one hand on her waist. With the other he cupped the back of her head as he kissed her deeply.

Carmen’s hands went to his chest, but they fisted there. Even while she opened her mouth to take his tongue she pressed hard against him with those fists and moaned her resistance into his mouth.

Her hair was soft and silky in his fingers, while the curve of her waist made his hands ache to rove over her, to outline her every curve. He wanted to explore, touch and taste every part of her.

As the kiss deepened, her body trembled—which only made his grip on her tighten. He wanted to keep his little bird, win her trust and make her sing out with pleasure.

First she was warm and supple in relinquishment, and then she was all fire and brimstone in his arms, clutching at his shirt with eager hands and arching her body to his.

He moaned his pleasure aloud.

She froze and drew back, breaking the kiss.

Desire pounded at the base of his spine, his cock semi-risen as his body readied to get closer still.

“Why not?” He repeated his question.

“I can’t. I can’t sell myself, least of all to you.” She turned her face away.

He shifted, lowering his head to kiss the soft skin exposed beneath her ear when her hair fell back. As his lips made contact with the warm surface, she moaned and shifted in his arms.

“You want to do this. We both want to do this. We wanted to do it back then, we want it now. That situation’s not going to end until we have each other.”

She shook her head but he could see the truth in her eyes, the repressed emotion and the obsessive desire that he was certain mirrored his own. Carmen had always had the most expressive eyes. It was one of the many things that drew him to her. He felt as if a lifetime of experiences and sensations were offered to him, just by looking into those eyes of hers. His most abiding desire was to be doing that very thing while he brought her to orgasm. Repeatedly.

He continued to soothe her with his hands. “I can’t think of a single reason not to.”

“I can. Bloody hell, Rex. I have my pride.” She tugged free of his grip and stared at him wildly.

The desire that he’d harbored for this woman belted through him with a fury in the face of her denial. He had to have her. He ached for the sweetness she possessed. Reckoning with himself, he tried to keep his cool, he didn’t want to frighten her. She would relinquish, he knew she would. She was as programmed for this as he was, but the bitter sweetness of her resistance threatened to turn him into a Neanderthal. “What about that time in the conservatory? You wanted me then, didn’t you?”

She eyed him disbelievingly.

Tension ratcheted between them.