It means I can blame him.
And it was outrageously hot.
Why? Why the hell did I enjoy submitting to him that way?
As she stared across at him the answer hovered, but she pushed it away, unwilling to acknowledge that she still wanted him so very badly after all these years.
He lounged there in his chair, sipping his tea while he watched her over the rim of his cup. It was a crime for a man to be so blatant, so forthright and suggestive, surely?
“I can’t help being curious,” he added. “The woman I knew before was a sensual kitten, but now...” He gestured at her and his mouth moved in a suggestive smile.
A sensual kitten? Was I ever that? Carmen supposed she must’ve been, or at least he saw her that way. She had flirted with him, a hell of a lot. She didn’t do that anymore, not on a regular basis. With the other men she’d been involved with it hadn’t been like this. Then again, no one had ever spoken to about her sexuality, not like he did. Was that part of his charm, the dark side—the provocative, confrontational Rex who could so easily command a woman’s attention?
“You’re a dangerous temptation now, Carmen Shelby.” He smiled, as if he approved.
“You do so love being provocative, don’t you?”
Mrs. Summerfield emerged from the cold storage area with a stack of supplies on a tray. Carmen nodded her way, but Rex already seemed to be aware of her presence.
“I understand you’re semiretired these days, Mrs. Summerfield,” he said before he looked in the cook’s direction.
She put the tray down on the work surface before turning to respond. “That’s right. It’s not necessary to be up here all the time for one or two, so I come and go. It’s a pleasure to do so when required. I thought some nice chargrilled salmon with sides would do well for you tonight, if that suits you both?”
“It sounds good to me.” Rex turned her way and rested his elbow on the back of his chair.
The muscles in his upper arm flexed and Carmen noticed the dark hair on his forearm. Rex had always been muscular but he’d been leaner before. There was no denying his physique turned her on.
“Did my father leave anything in the cellar for visitors?”
Carmen thought Mrs. Summerfield might be offended, but she chuckled. “A case or two survived. Would you like me to chill a bottle of white for dinner?”
“No, that’s okay. I’ll check it out later.”
“We can fend for ourselves for lunch,” Carmen added. She wasn’t used to being waited on anymore, not for a long time.
“If you’re sure?”
Carmen nodded.
“Right.” Rex took a sidelong glance at her as he rose to his feet. “I suggest we take a walk around the grounds together.”
Carmen froze. “Why?”
“I want to hear your ideas for the place, your long-term plans.”
She broke into a smile, relieved. It seemed that he did intend to stick to his side of the bargain.
He held the door open for her. As she passed he rested his hand briefly between her shoulder blades. It was the gentlest of touches, yet there was intimacy there. Carmen was wary of it. It didn’t feel wrong, though, not after what happened between them the night before. They’d had sex and they’d slept alongside each other all night. However, that brief touch alerted her to his proximity, and his intentions. It wasn’t exactly possessive, but she did feel he could put his hands on her and she’d know what he wanted. It was exactly what he’d done the day before, and even when they met for the reading of the will he’d claimed rights in some way. This was different.
This was even more intense, because they’d slept together now.
It was a glorious morning outside, mid-September showing no signs of giving up on the summer. The trees were still laden with greenery.
The flagstones outside the lobby adjacent to the kitchens ran onto a gravel path, and it crunched beneath their feet as they walked. It was a familiar sound. The path forked, and Carmen paused.
“Lead the way,” Rex suggested, gesturing at the path that went around the front of the property toward the cricket pitch.
“Thank you,” Carmen said, then turned on her heel and went in the opposite direction.
When he raced alongside her, she glanced away so that he wouldn’t see her smile. Instead, she looked up at the exterior of the building as they went, using the opportunity to gauge the state of repair. “I want the place to come alive, to be full of visitors and parties again.”
“It obviously hasn’t witnessed any of that, not since you left.”
“I don’t suppose it has.” It was sad to think of Charles Carruthers here alone, but he’d assured her he was happy that way whenever she’d been in touch. “My first priority will be to secure the place. I see a lot of things that need immediate attention.” She gestured at a stone carved pot on top of a podium. The podium was cracked.
Rex nodded. “Dad obviously let the place go. The staff have done their best, but the resources just aren’t there.”
Was it her imagination, or did he look dissatisfied by that, ashamed even? Even a slight indication of his bond with the place made her wary.
“I intend to take up where my mother left off,” she stated as an opening gambit, claiming rights from the off. “I’ve managed her business interests well enough. I think she’d be happy with my efforts there. Now it’s time to look at the other love of her life.”
She glanced back at him. He was observing her closely.
Rex nodded. “She invested a lot of her time and funds in the manor.”
“Indeed, and many people have commented on it over the years.”
“What do you mean?” His eyebrows drew together.
“I’m often told that when our parents married, your dad didn’t have the funds to restore the place. My mother changed all that.”
“Ah, that. Well, people will talk, but we knew how happy they were.”
“Exactly. People do like to put the knife in, don’t they?” Carmen observed him from the corner of her eye. Interesting that he’d experienced the hearsay, too. Of course, she supposed he would have had the full set of accusations and suggestions that she’d suffered over the years, maybe even more so. Some of the comments had really hurt, especially close to the time of her mother’s fatal car crash—remarks about her mother’s death being conveniently timed, speculation about whether Charles Carruthers would marry again. He didn’t. It came with the territory, though. Any family who had a name, lineage or a prestige property were talked about, their lives dissected like public property.
“Aren’t you worried that people will say the same thing about you,” Rex asked, “that you are investing your personal income from the company in a crumbling British estate?” There was a mischievous look in his eyes.
Carmen was getting used to it again, though, and she felt able to manage it when it was about this particular subject. When it was about sexuality that was different. “Ah, well, I do intend to make it a personal investment, the project, a continuation of my mother’s work. I don’t have a personal cause, or hobby, so Burlington Manor will be that. But it will also be a home. I plan to spend all my weekends here. I might even work from home part of the time.”
“Alone? Or is there a partner you plan to feather your nest with?”
Amused, Carmen gave him a quizzical glance. “Isn’t it a bit late to be asking whether I have a partner or not?”
“Not really. What I meant was...you might have someone in mind. I knew you weren’t attached when I propositioned you. I asked around. We have mutual friends. It wasn’t difficult to be sure.”
For some reason the notion of him researching her relationship status before coming up with this ludicrous deal amused her.
“Besides, I know you’re an honorable sort of
woman and you wouldn’t have got yourself into this arrangement had you not been in a position to do so.”
He really had done his groundwork. “Quite so. And you, have you left some poor woman at a loose end in London while you entertain yourself up here?”
Rex’s mouth curled. “You seem to have a very low opinion of me. I assure you I have never been unfaithful to a woman.”
He eyed her steadily.
Carmen felt an objection rise inside her—an objection that formed because of an old memory of him bedding a friend of hers at a time when she felt sure they were destined to be lovers. But he hadn’t been unfaithful. Much as she liked to think they were an item back then, they weren’t. That was foolish fantasy on her part.
Rex seemed more grounded these days. His actions and comments were more measured. The mature Rex could still be provocative and play free and easy with people’s emotions, but there was an underlying sense of honor that she hadn’t been aware of as a teenager.
Feeling awkward, she looked back at the surrounding landscape, to the fringes of the estate and beyond. “I also intend to make the estate function in a different way. It needs to earn. It’s only right and just for an estate like this to do so in the modern age. It’s contingency for the future, as well. If my business fails to be lucrative, I have to be sure that Burlington Manor can bring in funds for its own maintenance, going forward.”
“An admirable plan. Tell me more.” He looked genuinely intrigued.
Suspicion tickled the back of her mind. Why was he so interested?
“Oh, I don’t know that I should. What if I share my development ideas and you change your mind and refuse to sell?” She smiled to soften the accusation a bit. “It wouldn’t be sensible business practice, would it?”
“Probably not. However, I assure you I have quite enough to do developing my company. A shame, perhaps.” He paused and looked at her deliberately. “My business isn’t established the way yours is. It’s fledgling, and it would be hard for me to devote the amount of time this place needs, even if I did feel any loyalty or obligation toward it, which I don’t.”
They’d skirted the side of the building, and they’d reached the corner where the grounds had previously run down to open meadow land. Most of it had been sold to local farmers, but not all of it. There was some older property on the estate that she was particularly interested in. She left the gravel path, and pointed in the direction of the outbuildings.
“The old cottages,” she said, gesturing at the run-down stone buildings. Originally built to house servants in a bygone age, they hadn’t been used for decades and were scarcely more than empty shells. The traditional York stone walls and interior beams were solid, though, and in her mind’s eye she could picture the cottages renovated and functioning.
“I used to play down here as a child,” Rex commented.
The sun lit the gray slate roofs, which meant if she squinted her eyes, Carmen could almost imagine them brought back to life, made pretty and habitable. “They haven’t been used in decades. I thought it would be an interesting project to restore them.”
“You think there’s potential there?”
Carmen paused on the brow of the hill and took the countryside in, reveling in it. “Holiday rentals, perhaps?”
Rex nodded.
“I’m considering a similar plan for the stables.” She gestured to the left where the old stables were located. “There are also three disused barns on the property, of varying sizes. They’ve been abandoned for many years, but the shells are sturdy and they would make terrific barn conversions. Maybe to sell, or they could be rented out to cover the renovation costs and ultimately feed income back into the estate.”
“You’ve given it a lot of thought.”
“I don’t go into things without thinking through the implications.”
She’d meant that in a business sense, but as soon as she said it and saw his response, she realized what he was thinking about. Sex. His eyebrows lifted. It was almost imperceptible, but so suggestive, and his eyes simmered as he looked at her.
Carmen started walking again and thankfully a breeze lifted, cooling her. At her side, his presence didn’t let the silent exchange end. As they skirted the lake together, Carmen felt his attention intensify.
“One of the things I’d like to look into is developing some sort of scheme with the fishing rights. The owner of the manor has fishing rights to a stretch of the river. It’s about three-quarters of a mile in length.”
“I remember my father mentioning it, but I guess he never did anything about it.”
“No, he didn’t. It was your grandfather who set about making it official, but apart from the groundsmen and the occasional poacher nobody uses it. It’s a beautiful stretch of the river and one of the things I thought the estate could offer was a scheme with the bed-and-breakfast in the village and the pub, too. A lot of visitors come to enjoy the surrounding countryside. We could offer day passes for fishing and hire equipment. The bed-and-breakfast would run it. At this end it would only need the groundsmen to monitor the situation. They already keep an eye out for poachers, anyway, so it wouldn’t be an awful lot more work for them, and it will engage the estate with the local hospitality businesses.”
She rattled on in an attempt to ignore Rex’s insistent presence, his brooding glances. She couldn’t look at him when he was focused on her, so she directed his attention elsewhere. Then she noticed that when she pointed things out, he looked at the place fondly.
A shiver ran down her spine. Never trust Rex Carruthers. That had been her motto for over a decade, and now here she was giving him a blueprint on how to improve the property. What if he refused to sell? What if he used his sexual hold over her to force her to capitulate, then stole her ideas for the place? When the doubts took hold, she drew to a halt. “Why do you even care what I plan to do with the place?”
“Stop worrying.” He actually grew serious for a moment. “I enjoy watching you, and your enthusiasm is impressive. You deserve to be mistress of this place, you’ll make it work. You are much more committed to it than I possibly could be.” He glanced back toward the manor itself, his gaze shifting over it. “It’s a grand old house, it really is, but my relationship with the place was brought up short twice. First when my parents split, then my father and I couldn’t see eye to eye, so it was never going to work.” His gaze returned to her and he was silent a moment as he considered her.
“If you truly believe that, then you would arrange for the transfer papers to be prepared instead of holding me over a barrel with this silly arrangement of yours.”
“A silly arrangement, is it?” He lifted his eyebrows and his mouth twitched in amusement as he looked at her.
So much for being serious. It hadn’t lasted long, but then again she’d rather stupidly referred to the arrangement, which had automatically taken the subject back to sex. She could have slapped herself for being so stupid. “It’s just because you can have any and every woman you want, that’s why you’ve done this, to prove that to me.”
“I told you why I did this. We had to. Too much wanting.”
His tone was intimate, his voice lowered, and she felt herself melting under his persuasive reasoning. Part of her remained guarded, and that part of her rose up and told her to beware. “But I see how you look at the place—you do have a connection, you’ll change your mind.”
He laughed softly, reaching out to cup her cheek. “My dear Carmen,” he murmured. “You are so prickly.”
She gave a dismissive laugh. “You may think you know me, but you don’t.”
It was a knee-jerk reaction. He was right about her being prickly. She found it difficult to trust people. Especially when it came to him.
His expression changed. “Let me in, then. That’s what this is about, these weekends together. We’re both getting
what we want. You get the house, I get to know you. Intimately. I always wanted to know you better.”
She huffed in disbelief. “You have a weird way of showing it.”
“Weird? Direct, maybe. I can’t think of a better way of kicking aside a few barriers than making an agreement that involves us getting naked whenever we want.”
Carmen steeled herself. “Playing games, that’s what you do.”
“Perhaps. But you seem to think I don’t learn anything about you while we’re...‘playing games’ as you call it.” He stepped closer, and put his hand under her jaw, his thumb beneath her chin, lifting it so she was forced to meet his gaze. “I’ve already learned so much about you.”
There was a suggestive accusation there in his expression and it triggered an electric response in her. Carmen struggled to find a retort, her emotions spinning.
“Think about it. Every time I touch you, pleasure you, you show me some facet of yourself that can never be hidden again. Within moments I can take us both back to that place, to revisit. That’s how close we’re getting.” His hands moved, stroking down the sides of her waist and lower, around her hips. He backed her toward a nearby tree.
When she came into contact with it and felt the rough bark behind her, she let out a startled cry.
Rex responded by moving one hand over the fly on her jeans, before dipping down between her thighs. “You see, we’re right back there, with you letting yourself go before my very eyes.”
He was right, damn him, they were right back there. She looked away. She wasn’t going to give in to his reasoning.
Did he really want to know her? The question made her ache with longing. Deep inside, in some long-hidden part of her, she wanted to trust him. Memories of the night before—when he had mastered her so thoroughly—shot through her mind.
His fingers stroked her through the fabric of her jeans. She whimpered under his exploration, but met his gaze. The look in his eyes grew hotter and more demanding, his lust tangible, as if he, too, was remembering.
The Burlington Manor Affair Page 9