The Burlington Manor Affair

“It wasn’t misty when I got there.”

“You were at the house?”

“Yes.”

“The police say they had no reason to doubt the witness, but my private investigator has discovered that she was seeing Olivia Fordyce’s eldest son at the time.”

Carmen was about to pick up her wineglass again, but froze. “Seriously?”

He nodded. “I’m working on getting to the truth of it.”

“You really meant it,” she murmured. “You really want to find out.”

“Of course I meant it. I want you to have the answers you need, and if they’re painful, I want to help you get through it.”

“Thank you for trying.”

“I don’t want your thanks.”

Carmen inhaled audibly. Wariness shone in her eyes.

Rex hated to see it there, but they had to get past this to find their way back to when it had been good. “I want something else—your trust.”

Their food arrived.

Once the waiter had gone Carmen picked up her fork and stabbed vaguely at her salad. “I can give you my thanks, and I can give you Burlington Manor, but that’s all I’m offering in return for your help this time around.”

“This time around?” Rex smiled. “So you thought you knew what I was going to say next. The same deal as before—is that what you thought? Four weekends with you all to myself?” He allowed his gaze to drift over her, remembering again how good that had been. “And in return you got my half of Burlington Manor. You thought it was a good deal at the time, I seem to recall.”

“It was a deal based on old desires, as you pointed out at the time,” she said sarcastically. “Well, we already had plenty of time to ‘burn it out,’ don’t you think?” Her eyes looked molten, her cheekbones slashed with red.

The atmosphere was thick with erotic tension. For Rex it only proved they were meant to be together. “I don’t think we’ll ever burn out, but I’d happily die trying.”

“Stop right there, please.” Her eyes blazed. “You got me here on the vague promise of information. It was a trick. We both know you have a knack for this...with me. Don’t abuse it.”

It was a warning, but Rex experienced it as a red flag in all the wrong ways. It only served to show how aware she was—how aware they both were—of the tug of desire between them. It hadn’t gone away; it never would. The more she denied it, the more Rex knew it wasn’t something either of them could walk away from. He reached for his drink. He didn’t want to charge at her red flag, but God knows he wanted her. More than anything in life. She’d drawn a line, and now she was teetering on it. One sign, if she even gave him one sign, he would take her in hand. It was within his grasp, and he would edge her over that line of hers very soon.

“A knack? No ‘knack’ would make you give yourself to a man, not if you didn’t want to.”

Her hand trembled and she put down her fork. “Okay, so I wanted you. I’ve said it out loud. Happy now?”

“Only if it stays that way.”

She shook her head, slumped back in her seat. “I can’t...I mean, I know we need to be in touch, to sort out ownership of the manor—”

“And the rest.”

“Yes, but we don’t have to...” She stared at him, blinked, like a rabbit in the headlights.

This was it, time to show his hand. “Carmen, we can’t be alone and not be intimate. Sitting here is an exercise in restraint for me. I want to hold you. I want to love you...and I know that you want to be loved. Is it so wrong?”

She stared at him, and for a moment he thought he saw the whole of the world spinning in her eyes. “No. In itself it’s not wrong...exactly. I should be able to do this.” She lifted one shoulder and her eyes glistened. “I’m an adult and a businesswoman and having an affair shouldn’t be such a big deal...but...”

The edge loomed close. Rex had to take the risk; he had to edge it forward. “What are you afraid of?”

“It’s so intense, when I’m with you, and I’m afraid of how I will feel when it’s over—”

“What if it never was over?”