The Burlington Manor Affair

“Yes, isn’t it?”

Rex’s expression quickly changed. “What’s up?”

“Apart from the fact that we have joint ownership of the property and you have opened it up to all and sundry without a word of warning...apart from that, well, you have shifted the goalposts on the agreement.”

“What goalposts?” He looked genuinely confused.

He really was expecting her to be over the moon because he’d thrown a party. She’d have been much more over the moon if they’d picked up where they’d left off the week before. As much as she hated to admit it, she wanted more of his intimacy instead of this public display. It smacked of possession. “I agreed to four weekends with you in this house, you and me, negotiating the property deal.”

“We will be...negotiating...again very soon, my dear,” Rex promised, and there was a wicked gleam in his eye. “Don’t worry about that.”

Carmen fumed silently and struggled to find the appropriate thing to say—something that wouldn’t give him an even bigger ego. “What I mean is, I agreed to harangue this out with you, under certain terms and conditions, and now you have changed things. Filling the house with people was not on the agenda, nor do I find it conducive to our financial negotiations.”

He arched his brows. “So businesslike.”

She bristled. He sounded disapproving. “A pity you aren’t, too.”

“Hey, I did this because you said you wanted it to be like it was, with parties and people in the house.”

Carmen had said that, but she meant her friends, her parties. “You should’ve asked me, or at least informed me of your intentions.”

Rex frowned. “I thought this would make you happy.”

Happy, to be invaded by his buddies? But as she glanced around—which she did to make a point—she realized she did recognize many of the faces he’d gathered. It was the old set, people they used to knock about with years ago when they lived at the house together. There were friends from Rex’s university days, and neighbors, and people she knew from her final school days at the local secondary school in nearby Leemington.

“Our hostess, the lady of the evening, the lovely Carmen.” It was Nathaniel Dean who said that as he approached, and his warm smile undid some of the unease she felt.

With her animosity to Rex temporarily shelved, she welcomed Nate’s embrace. “Nate. I haven’t seen you in years.”

“You look amazing.” Nate looked her up and down and gave a sigh. “Carmen Shelby, totally the business diva. It’s good to see you again.”

Carmen looked at him and nodded. It was good to see him. Nate was Rex’s best buddy from university and he often used to come to the manor during the holidays, for weekends. Nate was the cricket buff, and whenever he was around, the lads would gather people to play cricket on the lawns at the front of the house. “And you, what are you up to these days?”

“Followed in my dad’s footsteps, sad to say. I vowed I never would, but boring old banking turned out not to be so boring, after all.”

“And the rest? Are you married? Girlfriend?”

Nate pushed his hand through his hair. “Bit of a sore point...the fiancée and I split up recently.”

“Oops. Sorry.”

“Don’t be. Besides, gives me a chance to chat up beautiful women like you.”

Carmen laughed.

When she glanced back at Rex, he was looking at her with an expression that seemed to say, I told you so.

“Mingle,” Rex instructed her when Nate moved on, “you might even enjoy yourself.” With that he gave her a swift slap on the arse, propelling her in the direction of the large sitting room, the biggest reception area in the house, where most of the guests seemed to have gathered.

“You’ve got a damn cheek.”

Rex grinned, and then left her to “mingle,” as he put it.

In the large sitting room, Mrs. Amery was supervising, but there was a long table set out as a bar at the far end of the room, and a man she didn’t know was stationed behind it. Had Rex hired catering in for the event? Carmen had spoken to Mrs. Amery earlier that day, and she hadn’t said a word about it. If Rex had come down heavily on them and made it sound like the treat he thought it was, Mrs. Amery wouldn’t have thought twice about it.

“Miss Carmen, hello.” It was Leanne, and she looked elated as she carried a tray of canapés through the crowd. “Isn’t it wonderful? It’s like a housewarming party.”

A housewarming party that the owner didn’t know about, Carmen thought wryly to herself. “Isn’t this outside your working hours?”