The Burlington Manor Affair

Furious, she locked eyes with him, but it was too late to deny it, because her clit thrummed, her core spasmed and she came—suddenly, and violently, in his hand. Panting for breath, she closed her eyes and rested her head back on the tree.

“You look so good when you come. I have no idea why you fight it so.”

“Because you’re the most arrogant man I’ve ever met.”

“What can I say? You bring out the worst in me.”

Listening to his voice while her eyes were shut and her body was drifting on the release, she felt strangely dreamlike.

“And you make me hard.”

That comment brought her sharply out of her dreamlike state.

When she opened her eyes, he had his hands flat to the tree on either side of her head, and he was studying her intently.

His eyes glittered. “Back to the house. Now.”

That brought about a fresh wave of annoyance.

He studied her in silence, yet she knew what he wanted. Not just because he’d said it once already. He wasn’t about to repeat it. He didn’t have to. She could feel it, the silent demand, both a weighty instruction and an insistent tug, as if he held her on an invisible leash. Did he? The thought should have shamed her, should have made her balk. Instead, it turned her on, immensely.

He lowered one hand to her wrist, locked his fingers around it.

There was no doubt he meant to take this further. Immediately.

Carmen grappled with her fly, tugging it up, and shook her head.

“I don’t think you’re in any position to deny me,” he said, and drew his free hand to his lips, where he licked his fingers clean.

Astonished at his blatant display, her cheeks flamed.

Then he tightened his grip on her wrist, and led her off at a pace.

CHAPTER SIX

“THE TROUBLE WITH this arrangement,” Rex commented as he walked across Carmen’s bedroom, minutes later, “is that I’m enjoying it rather too much.”

He turned around and looked at her to see her reaction.

Carmen stopped dead, standing on the patterned rug in the middle of the room, refusing to follow him any farther. “What are you saying?”

Rex sat down in the winged armchair that stood in the square bay window of her room. It was the very spot where he’d left the dress for her, the day before. He gestured at her. “Well, for a month you do everything I want, every weekend, absolutely anything and everything.” He paused, allowing his message to sink in. “And in return for that you get my half of the property.”

“I told you I’d pay you.”

Those eyes of hers, such defiance. How delicious it was to see her fire.

“Oh, that won’t be necessary. You will have earned every tiny part of the property by the time I hand it over. Don’t worry about the money.”

She knotted her fingers together. “You’re trying to embarrass me. That wasn’t part of the bargain.”

“I don’t agree. Mostly because I don’t seem to have to try very hard before you get embarrassed. I think your embarrassment trigger and your arousal trigger are very close together.” He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “I can’t help that, and neither can you.”

She pressed her lips together. She was clearly annoyed, and yet he could also see that she was acutely aroused. The hands-on treatment he’d given her out in the grounds had her poised for action. She was taut and watchful, barely waiting to be instructed.

Rex took a deep breath and savored the heady atmosphere of sexual anticipation.

When she noticed, she hissed as if in objection.