The Burlington Manor Affair

by Saskia Walker

  It was resentful, but it was consent.

  Victory.

  * * *

  EASIER? WHY THE hell did I say that?

  Rex smiled at her, and it was so filled with wicked intent that it made her head spin. Before she had a chance to withdraw her comment he ducked down and scooped her up into his arms, whipping the ground from beneath her feet.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  Rolling her in against him, he held her tightly. “Taking you to my bed, so we can get started. Now that you’ve agreed to the terms I see no reason to waste any more time. God knows we’ve wasted enough already.”

  Shocked to the core, she realized his intention was to have sex with her, immediately. The fact he’d swept her legs from under her was proof.

  As he strode across the hallway toward the stairs, Rex’s cologne and the scent of his body swamped her, enveloping her in his maleness. “Put me down,” she demanded, wriggling about.

  “Hush now, my sweet, don’t get yourself all hot and bothered. You said everything you need to say.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “You gave me consent to take charge of you.”

  She’d lost touch with what was being said and panic started to rise. “I did not.”

  “I’m afraid you did.” The wicked gleam in his eyes emphasized the point.

  Ordering her thoughts didn’t come easily. Her body was pounding in response to being in his arms and his blatant statement of intent.

  “Do you want to withdraw your comment about it being easier for you, hmm, playing the sub?”

  Carmen stared at him, aghast. Playing the sub?

  She hadn’t said that, but...that’s what he’d read into it.

  He began to climb the stairs, her weight apparently no hindrance as he darted up them with her in his arms. The way he took charge and controlled her physically was breathtaking. Acting on instinct, she locked her hands around the back of his neck. He paused on the landing at the top of the stairs and glanced down at her with a smile. “I thought not.”

  He crossed the landing fast and kicked the door to his bedroom wide open. The sight of his bed should have made her squirm. Instead, she just stared at it as he approached, her body a rush of longing.

  He threw her down onto the surface.

  “Rex, please.”

  “Rest assured I intend to take full advantage of the offer.”

  “I didn’t make an offer.” She struggled to her feet. Rex had her caged by the edge of his bed.

  He watched her, apparently amused. “Oh, yes, you did. You said that me being in charge made it easier.”

  He had her over a barrel. “That wasn’t meant to be an offer, it was merely a comment.”

  He didn’t answer that. Instead, he looked pointedly at what she was wearing. “When I saw that dress it made me think of you.”

  Another knee-jerk response flew out of her. She couldn’t seem to keep on top of the conversation. “Why?”

  He lifted one shoulder in a casual shrug. “I saw it and it instantly made me think of you. So I bought it. I carried it with me for three years.”

  Carmen shook her head. “You’re just saying that. I’m well aware that you’ve had a very active love life. Why would you buy and keep a gift for another woman while dating some of the most beautiful women in Europe?”

  “One of my whims...as you would call it, perhaps.” He gave a wry smile. “It was worth it, though. My expectations have been exceeded. Then again, the prize is so much better than the wrapping.”

  Don’t listen to him, she urged herself. A clever ploy, using his dangerous charm to make her more malleable. “Your other women didn’t want it,” she said, clutching at anything she might use to defend herself.

  “They weren’t shown it.” His tone was casual and yet there was an undertow there, a weighty inference that defied her to deny him. “The dress was bought for you and you alone.”

  “That implies you knew we would see each other again.”

  “Perhaps it does. I always wanted to see you again, but in that sense it was an impulse buy. It made me think of you, and I wanted it.”

  Something fluttered inside her. It was the way he looked at her while he said, “I wanted it.”

  “You seem to think I had an ulterior motive. It’s simply a gift. And it does suit you, you can’t deny that.”

  Against her better judgment, Carmen was flattered. She glanced down, and instinctively ran her fingertips from the collar along the edge of the fabric where it curved around the outside of her left breast. “It is lovely.”

  “On that we agree.” He was staring at her hand, and the outline of her breast through the sheer fabric. When her hand dropped away, he met her gaze. “Enough stalling.”

  The comment, so direct and compromising, made her pulse hitch.

  Rex strode away across the room and retrieved a chair from beside the wardrobe. Stationing it in front of her—so that she was still trapped between him and the bed—he stood behind it with his hands resting on the back.

  Bizarrely, his pose reminded her of a lion tamer.

  “What are you wearing under it?”

  “As you are well aware, not a lot.” The dress was backless so she hadn’t been able to wear a bra with it. It scooped low at the back and the fabric rippled across the base of her spine, offering her a sensuous caress every time she moved.

  “Show me.”

  “What?”

  He locked her gaze. “Lift your skirt and expose your underwear to me.”

  A rush so hot hit her that she wavered unsteadily. He really intended to do this, to issue her sexual instructions. However, it was the fact that it turned her on so much that astonished her. What happened to keeping him at arm’s length? She’d succumbed, and now he’d well and truly launched his seductive powers on her. She’d walked into his trap.

  He sat down on the chair and observed her as she stood there, unable to move without his instruction. Gesturing with one finger, he indicated the scalloped hem of the dress.

  It was unbelievable, but some perverse part of her actually wanted to do as he said—she not only wanted to obey, she wanted to reveal herself to him. Good sense had gone. In its place was a visceral physical response to his instructions, as if his command had a magnetic pull on her that she couldn’t resist.

  With trembling fingers, Carmen grasped the fabric with one hand and lifted it to reveal her stocking tops. Fixing her attention on him, she watched his response as the silky material swished against her bare skin above the lace-edged black stockings she wore. She paused, her heart thundering.

  His eyes darkened, then narrowed. “Higher.”

  Lifting the fabric with both hands, she revealed her sheer black lace panties. Embarrassment hit her hard, but it was wildly arousing, too, standing there with her skirt pulled up to her hip bones for him.

  Rex hummed approvingly. “So beautiful,” he murmured.

  The pulse in her groin beat wildly, heat gathering fast between her thighs. She squeezed them together.

  “So obedient, too,” Rex added.

  Carmen reacted, dropping the skirt quickly back into place.

  Rex laughed. When he made eye contact again he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He was a predator, and she was in danger of falling completely under his seductive spell.

  “So this really is your kink,” he commented. “Well, well, I always wanted to know what made you tick. Now I know. My, oh, my, what fun we are going to have.”

  The more he teased her, the deeper she got into a setup she wasn’t sure of. He’d turned her into that. This wasn’t something she’d have ever done. Panicking, she turned away. “This was a mistake. I think I should go.”

  Rex was on his feet and at he
r back in a flash, his hands on her shoulders arresting her.

  “Let me go.” She tensed, her hands fisting by her sides as she resisted him. But his body at her back felt good. Her ability to think straight slipped away.

  “You don’t mean that.” He lowered his head alongside hers, resting a trail of kisses on the sensitive skin of her neck. One hand curved around her hip bone and he eased her back against him. The other was on the opposite shoulder, where he stroked her, soothing and arousing her all at once.

  Carmen felt as if she was sinking under his will, but it was too good.

  “That’s better, isn’t it?” He brushed one finger around the curve of her waist.

  His touch clung to her, crackling along her nerve endings.

  “If I’d known you were like this, well...I would have wanted you even more.”

  Carmen wavered. “Even more?”

  He turned her around and tipped her chin up in order to look deep into her eyes. How easily he controlled her...and how good it felt.

  “Even more, yes. I’m going to do something I’ve always wanted to do, tonight. I intend to watch your face while I make you come.”

  Carmen’s breath caught. Between her thighs, the ache of longing that had built steadily over the course of the evening turned into a demanding need.

  “It’s been my intention to do so for many years, and now we are here and you are going to do exactly as I tell you, because you want the house. What could be better, we both get what we want?”

  It sounded so wrong, as if she was selling herself. She did want the house and she would buy him out, but right at that moment she wanted him to make love to her, whatever the circumstances. It would be fatal to admit that to him, though. His ego was big enough. But he was right; they had to burn this out. There was also the inescapable fact that his magnetic draw defied her to resist him. There was such a seductive invitation in his eyes. “Rex, please don’t tease me.”

  “My intention is entirely more grown-up.”

  The husky tone of his voice ran over her skin like hot wax, sealing her fate. She swallowed. His eyes narrowed and he closed his hands around her wrists, holding her tightly. She opened her mouth to object, but couldn’t. That action was like a key, a trigger. The imprisonment at his hands was a drug to her senses.

  Heady arousal sped through her. A muted moan escaped her. The pounding between her thighs had taken her over. Her panties clung to her groove.

  “That’s better.”

  There was no point in denying it. She liked his hands on her. When Rex’s mouth covered hers she was all his, a whirlpool of wanting under him. His lips were firm and persuasive and the brush of his stubble sparked her into another level of sensation. Her mouth opened and her body arched to make contact with his. When it did he moaned approvingly and his free hand moved against the small of her back, holding her in place. The firm wall of his chest echoed the strength she felt in the hand that clasped her wrists together so easily.

  She’d never been kissed the way Rex kissed her—as if the world was about to end, as if he couldn’t get enough of her, as if their lives depended on it.

  “Oh, yes,” he murmured as he drew back and looked down at her with heavily lidded eyes.

  Without warning, he freed her wrists, strolled away and sat down again.

  Wavering wildly, her pulse tripped.

  Get a grip, she told herself, it’s so obvious you need him to control you. The fact that it was true confused her deeply, but she was locked into it now and he’d walked away.

  “The dress, take it off.”

  Carmen acted immediately. She had to. Unlatching the halter neck, she undid the clothing he’d bought for her. She pulled the loosed fabric up and over her head, dropping it to the floor at her side.

  Rex looked at her stocking tops with an appreciative glance. “Take the stockings off. Do it slowly.”

  Carmen kicked off her high heels and put one foot up against the end of the bed. She rolled the first stocking down. It was hard to do it slowly, so she paused occasionally instead, trying to breathe as she did. When it was off, she draped it over the end of the bed. Without looking his way she proceeded to do the same with the other one. When it was off she put her hand on her hip and tossed her hair back, trying to level her head. She was completely naked, but for the briefest of lace panties.

  “What a memorable sight.” He put his hand out. “Bring the stockings to me.”

  Picking them up, she padded across the thick rug to the place where he sat.

  Rex took them from her and tested them, stretching them between his hands. “They’ll do nicely. Put your arms out, offer me your wrists.”

  Dizzy, disbelieving and outrageously aroused, Carmen stared at him.

  He arched his eyebrows.

  The thought of being so thoroughly helpless while he seduced her was outrageous, but he really meant to tie her up. He actually seemed to think that bondage was something she did, something that she was familiar with. It was because she’d melted into submission when he clasped her wrists downstairs. It had felt good, though, as if giving up her sexual self-control that way unlocked a door that hadn’t been opened before. Was Rex used to this kind of behavior?

  He beckoned with one hand. “Come now.” His tone was laden with dark humor. “Don’t forget, it’ll make it so much easier.”

  “Don’t push your luck,” she snapped, but she put her forearms out, palms up, hands clasped into fists.

  He shook out one stocking and used it to bind her wrists together. “Carmen Shelby, secretly into bondage and submission. Who’d have thought it?” He seemed to relish the moment, stringing it out. “It’s a good job I didn’t know that. Otherwise, my erotic imaginings would have been even more corrupt than they already were.”

  Carmen was hooked. How much had he actually thought about it? It didn’t surprise her to know that he was imagining sex with her—as she was with him—all those years ago. They’d got so close to it once. But mentioning it now, that was the weird thing. He’d had so many different women in between. Did it mean that he really thought about those near-misses they’d had, and wondered about how they might have gone—as she had?

  He was looking at her expectantly.

  “Corrupt? You make it sound...wrong.”

  Rex inhaled audibly, and Carmen’s face grew hot. What have I said?

  “Well, you don’t think it’s wrong, obviously.” He rose to his feet, grasped the stocking that bound her wrists together and used it to raise her arms. Nodding at the enclosures around her wrist, he continued. “You’ve obviously done this many times before.”

  Carmen lowered her eyelids.

  “Oh, yes, the perfect submissive. You really have perfected the role.”

  His comment grated, but the last thing she wanted him to think was she was still some ingenue, the way she had been years before. She’d never done...this...before. Somehow this had just happened. However, she’d had a couple of relationships, ill-fated though they were, so she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of revealing her inexperience in matters of bondage.

  “I really didn’t need this element thrown into the mix, the dynamic between us was already hot enough.” He stepped right up against her, one hand still on her bound wrists, the other at the small of her back pressing her closer to him. He whispered the words in her ear, making the world fall away, making the room shrink to the intimate space between them. “But now that you’re giving over all your self-control to me, allowing yourself to be plundered while you’re helpless in bondage, I find I’m enjoying you even more than I already would have.”

  Carmen slammed her eyes shut. What he was saying—the implications—ran through her body like liquid fire.

  Somehow she’d created this situation. Part of her wanted to run, to break free and forbid h
im to touch her. Overwhelmingly she was too aroused to respond and act on that. Because deep down she wanted to know what it would be like, and no matter how much she resented him for it, he was right when he said this thing had to be burned out or it would haunt them both forever.

  Rex had set about using the second stocking to create a leash, tying it between her bound wrists at one end. “Now you’re at my mercy. The teasing could go on for hours...if I could bear the wait.”

  Her nerves strung out. “I warned you!”

  “So you did.” He picked up the trailing end of the stocking, tugged on it firmly and led her to the bed.

  As she followed him, allowing him to lead her, myriad emotions assailed her. It was what she’d wanted, long ago, but so much had changed. She wasn’t that naive schoolgirl anymore. She couldn’t believe she was doing this, allowing him to take control and treat her this way. Yet it was wildly arousing, and when she thought about what he might do with her now that she was helpless, and his, it stimulated her even more.

  Rex nodded down at the bed. “On your back.”

  The thick quilt was cool beneath her body. That wouldn’t last.

  He used the dangling end of the second stocking to secure her wrists to the headboard. He seemed amused, as if it was a kink of hers and he was humoring her.

  Damn him. Carmen squirmed, but the tension in her arms was oddly liberating. It was so hard to relinquish control, and yet when Rex took over it made it impossible for her to do anything but submit. It unleashed something unfettered and wild, something that she’d never experienced before.

  He latched his fingers over the top of her panties and pulled them down the length of her legs until they were off. Writhing on the bed she glared at him, resenting him for exposing her so thoroughly, and yet longing for him to do more.

  Rex undid the buttons of his shirt. He sighed as he looked down at her, as if the sight of her tied up on his bed pleased him immensely. When he pulled his shirt off and abandoned it, her temperature went even higher. His body was hard and fit, so much more muscular than he had been. When she glanced lower and saw the bulge of his erection beneath the zipper on his pants, her eyes flashed closed.