The Burlington Manor Affair

“Yes, it’ll be ready for service whenever you are.”

“We’ll dine as planned, but then I’ll be taking Carmen back to London immediately afterward. It’ll be more practical for her.”

Mrs. Amery nodded. “That’s a shame, but I do understand.”

“Rex Carruthers, do not speak on my behalf.”

His eyes flared as he looked at her. Never had she felt his dominance more directly than in that short, powerful glance.

Even though she was angry, her body responded instantly and intimately. She grew hot and restless and her thoughts went back to where they’d been before she slipped on the stairs. Preparing for his arrival, wanting to be his the moment he got to her. The need to feel him inside her had been building since the last time they were together. So she’d come early, and ran about the place, unpacking her bag and getting dressed for his arrival. It was that eagerness that landed her in this situation, but the desire hadn’t gone away, and the way he was looking at her now—possessively, determined and oozing self-assured confidence—made her desire for him grow tenfold.

Rex stepped aside and let the housekeeper leave the room, then closed the door behind her. When her footsteps faded away, Rex locked the door.

Carmen swallowed. The mood in the room intensified, alone as they were. “You can’t make me leave.”

“That first night, you agreed to anything I wanted.” He strolled closer and put his hands in his pockets. The casual pose was affected. The tension in him was obvious as he loomed over her.

“What I agreed to was a sexual negotiation. Anything, sexual, here in the manor.”

He shook his head. “Funny, I don’t remember you issuing any small-print details. All I remember is your agreement that I should have full control of you, every weekend, for one month. And if I recall, you were pleading, as much as agreeing.”

“How dare you use that against me!”

He was so forceful, so utterly devastating in his command, that she almost lost sight of what they were arguing about. It would be easy to revel in this moment and let him have his way. However, the suspicion that this situation was manufactured in order to break her down was still there.

Carmen attempted to rise. As soon as she did he ducked down and swept her off her feet, lifting her easily into his arms.

“Let me down,” she said, wriggling and thumping her fists against the wall of his chest.

He quirked an eyebrow. “Tut-tut, my dear, you can’t keep going back on your word like this.” He carried her to the bed, where he laid her down. He did not, however, let her go. “Just moments ago you said I could carry you around.”

He kept her pinned to the bed with his hands on her shoulders.

“You can’t shift the goalposts on an arrangement like this,” she blurted. “You keep trying to up the ante but it’s really important that there’s absolute trust in the agreement.”

“You say that, and yet you’re the one who won’t trust me when I’m trying to take care of you.”

She wriggled her hips from side to side, trying to roll free of his hold on her. He wasn’t having any of it. When her lower body rolled away, he moved one hand. Easily latching it around her thigh, he rolled her back. He kept his hand there between her thighs, bunching the fabric of her dress in her groin. His fingers were tantalizingly close to her sex, his thumb pressed against her mound. She had to keep completely still in order not

to rub against him.

His expression had become dark and brooding as he watched her wriggling and trying to escape him on the bed. Then he shook his head, challenging her. “You really are a little spitfire, Carmen Shelby. There seems to be only one way to get your attention for any length of time these days, but if you insist...”

He removed his hand from her shoulder and pulled up her dress. Moving his hand between her thighs he locked it over the surface of her sheer panties, cupping the mound of her sex easily in his palm.

Carmen moaned loudly. She couldn’t help it. His hand on her there was too good. Immediately he began to knead her sensitive flesh, making her clit swell and tingle, her body heating through in a flash.

“Who’d have ever thought you’d turned out to be such a sexually voracious submissive.” He shook his head.

“I’m not being submissive now,” she shot at him.

“Are you sure?” A wry smile crossed his face as he looked down at her hips, where she was rubbing against his hand even while she argued with him.

That was too much. With all her effort she pulled free and rolled away, quickly climbing onto her hands and knees as she tried to break free from him.

He grabbed her, holding her there. “You claimed you wanted to be mastered by me, and yet here you are, defying a simple request.”

Her stomach flipped. She felt dizzy. How is it that my psyche is so in tune with that notion? She wanted to fight with him, to argue about what he was asking of her, but when he demonstrated his will and his intention to have her, she lost the power to resist.