The Burlington Manor Affair

It was so hard to do that simple act, so out of her realm, yet she felt compelled to do it for him. “Damn you, Rex, it’s so humiliating.”

“That’s why it’s worth doing, because it’s turning you on, isn’t it? I can tell by the sound of your voice, and I could see it all over you at Burlington.”

Carmen pressed her eyelids shut, silently cursing him.

“When you got around to it, it aroused you to show yourself to me.”

He was so right, and it annoyed the hell out of her.

The resistance was like fuel to the furnace of her lust, though, as if doing something so blatantly rude for him hooked deep into her psyche. When she opened her eyes, she moved her free hand down to the hem of the nightie.

“I’m doing it now,” she whispered

Lifting the fabric she watched as the tops of her thighs and her groin were revealed. The very act of lifting her skirt that way was both sordid and liberating at the same time, and it made her restless and needy. A whimper escaped her.

“And you look beautiful, don’t you?”

Carmen stared at her reflection.

She was unable to reply.

Was this really what he saw, this aroused creature? No wonder he could take advantage of her. She looked like an open book, words screaming off the page: I want him. I want this man.

“You’ve never seen yourself looking like that before, have you?”

“You make me sound like I’m that gauche virgin again.”

“That’s not what I meant. I’m asking you if you’ve ever looked at yourself while you’re aroused.”

Carmen felt incredibly vulnerable. It was because he was edging dangerously close to asking her about her sexual history.

“It’s not a difficult question, Carmen. Most people don’t stop to consider what they look like when they’re about to have sex.” He chuckled into the phone and the sound made him feel even closer, as if he was there standing behind her, forcing her to look at herself, his breath warm against her ear as he gave instructions.

The notion didn’t help. “I can’t say I ever have. But, as you point out, it’s not top of my to-do list when in a state of arousal.”

“Do you think you look different?”

“Startlingly so, and yet...”

“What? Tell me.”

“I look the way I feel.”

“Ready for sex?”

“It’s more than that.”

“Tell me. I want to understand you. I’ve wanted to understand you more than any person I have ever known. You’re an enigma to me.”

Carmen dismissed that instantly. He was ladling charm on her and it wasn’t needed. “I’m not a complicated person.”

“You’ve been the biggest mystery in my life and I need to know you.”

The things he was saying tugged on her heartstrings. Could it be true?

Drifting on a tide of emotion, she found herself confessing; even before she’d registered the thoughts they c

ame out in words, a confession that surprised her as much as it might him. “When we’re like this, when you—” she paused, looking for the right words “—when you take control, I feel feminine, I feel like a woman. It surprises me how strong it is, but I like the way it feels.... And that’s what I see now.”