The Burlington Manor Affair Read online

  Puzzled, Carmen looked at Rex.

  He shrugged.

  She shook her head to indicate she hadn’t a clue what it might be.

  It instantly intrigued her—both the confidential nature of the will, and the fact they were able to communicate silently, as they had done so many years ago. It reminded her of sitting opposite him at the dinner table at Burlington Manor, and how he used to make her smile with the slightest expressive glance.

  “Should you have any questions at all,” Chris continued, “please just interrupt and ask.”

  Carmen forced her attention back, startled at how quickly being around Rex took her attention away from this important event and back to that time when she wanted him.

  “The staff will be concerned about the house being sold,” she stated, curious that he’d opted to deal with the staff separately.

  “I daresay they are.” Chris gave her a genial smile.

  She wanted to state her intention to buy it, to own it and keep the staff on in their jobs, no matter what, but it wasn’t the time. Once they’d heard the contents of the will she could flag that up immediately.

  Chris lifted the papers on his desk, and began. “Thank you for gathering here today. This is the last will and testament of Charles Denton Carruthers.”

  He launched into a summary of the contents of the will.

  Carmen attempted to focus on Chris as he read, even though she was constantly aware of Rex at her side. Rex: dark, volatile and unpredictable. Much like he’d always done, Rex seemed to demand her attention without doing anything at all. She resisted as best she could.

  When she took a glance his way she discovered that he was staring blatantly at her while he listened to Chris. His appraisal was so undisguised that her blood rushed in her ears. Chris’s voice faded in and out and she had to struggle to focus on what was being said.

  The first part of the document was devoted to Rex’s inheritance of various stocks and shares, and a property in the Channel Islands. “‘To my son, Rex, I leave the marina apartment in Jersey and the mooring rights, in recognition of his attachment to the place during family holidays as a young boy.’”

  Carmen noticed Rex’s expression changed on hearing the personal information attached to that request. He seemed more thoughtful, which was understandable. About time, too. Despite the fact that Rex and his father were estranged the connection was there. The remark about his childhood served as a reminder.

  She forced her attention back to Chris. He was currently summarizing some money allocations and provisions for long-serving staff, several of them who had retired; the rest still held posts at the manor.

  “‘Briefly, the key factor here is that the property known as the Lodge House, which is the current residence of Mr. and Mrs. Amery—the caretakers of Burlington Manor—should be granted to them with freehold ownership in recognition of the service they have provided over the years.’”

  Carmen nodded. She was pleased to hear that.

  Then they got to the important thing—Burlington Manor itself.

  Chris glanced up to make sure he had their full attention before he moved on. “‘Regarding Burlington Manor, it is my wish that Carmen Shelby should receive a fifty percent share in the house, the other share going to my only son, Rex.’”

  Carmen blinked. “Excuse me, did I hear that right?”

  Chris nodded. “Fifty percent ownership each,” he clarified.

  Carmen’s heartbeat faltered. She’d had no idea. She was expecting it to go entirely to Rex and that she would have to buy the property from him. When she looked at Rex, she saw that he looked surprised by the arrangement, as well. Then he met her stare and his expression changed. His eyes lit.

  Chris continued. “‘This is in recognition of it being as much Carmen’s home as it was Rex’s. I also wish to celebrate the work that my wife, Sylvia, did to retrieve the place from long-term neglect, making it an exceptional home for us all, a place I can truly hand on with pride.’”

  Carmen’s chest grew tight. The remarks about her mother unbuckled her emotions.

  “Carmen?” Chris had paused and was looking at her with concern.

  She realized she’d covered her mouth with her hand. They probably thought she was about to burst out crying. “Please, go on. I’m just so surprised.”

  That was an understatement. Burlington Manor. Half of it was already hers. The fact that her stepfather had considered her in his arrangements touched her deeply. When Chris looked at her she nodded his way, showing that she understood.

  What did Rex think? He’d indicated that he wasn’t expecting anything. In fact, he’d been surprised at the Jersey property. She thought he might be annoyed that his father had made things rather complicated by sharing it between them, but when she glanced his way he gave her a reassuring smile. She was sure he had no interest in the house, and she was ready to buy him out. Her checkbook was in her bag and her bank manager had the funds ready for a fast transfer.

  Chris was reading on. “‘In the unlikely event that both Carmen Shelby and Rex Carruthers are deceased at the time of the reading of this will, I have named a charity that I wish to benefit, Wilmington’s Cancer Care.’”

  “Charles thought of everything,” Carmen commented.

  “He did indeed,” Chris agreed.

  “He had a lot of time on his own in the end,” Rex commented wryly, “to think on it.”

  Carmen sighed. “Rex, do you have to?”

  He shrugged and smiled at her, as if pleased to gain her attention, even if it was disapproving. He was even more provocative than before, Carmen decided.

  Chris continued. “‘Should either Rex or Carmen decide to sell their share, it is my hope that one of them will be able to keep the place going. It has been our family home for centuries.’” He paused and looked up, taking off his glasses for a moment. “Your father did not make this a condition of the will, however. It was a wish, not an instruction.”

  Rex nodded and then shifted in his seat, draping one arm across the back of it as he faced Carmen, observing her thoughtfully. “I’m sure Carmen and I can come to a mutually satisfying arrangement.”

  Carmen nodded. “I’m ready to buy you out.”

  She meshed her fingers together as she stated her intention.

  Rex tensed momentarily. He stared down at her hands pointedly before he responded. “We can share the playground, can’t we?”

  Playground? That remark was typical of him. “Stop wasting our time. We’re both aware that you’ve got no interest in the house. You haven’t even been back there in years—”

  “True,” Rex interrupted. “There’s been nothing to draw me back there, not for a long time.”

  Carmen faltered. The way he looked at her was so intimate and suggestive. She cleared her throat. Luckily she’d been over her proposal and his potential responses several times. “You’ve got your new life, why would you want to be in Burlington Manor now?”

  He lifted his eyebrows.

  Damn him, he wanted to tease and annoy her, just as he had done when she was a teenager. Flirting with women was a game to him. He always did like to see her in a state, but then he’d go off with some other girl, leaving her squirming. How was it that he could still do that to her? She was a grown woman now and she’d quelled all her foolish desires for this man long ago.

  “We have to share. Would it be so hard?”

  “Not at all,” she retorted. “It’s a big house. But we both know you don’t really want it, you’re just looking for a decent settlement for your share.”

  Rex gave a faux pained gesture, putting his fist to his heart and tapping it there. “It hurts that you think so poorly of me.”

  Her cheeks flamed. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

  She found herself s
ilently begging for him to be reasonable and to move on, but he kept looking at her as if she was on the menu for dinner and he was considering how to cook and serve her up. Unable to stop herself she glanced down at her clothing and adjusted the shirt so that the line of the buttons was straight.

  “I’m not willing to discuss terms here,” Rex said.

  Teasing and provocative, as always.

  “We can talk about it at the manor,” he added.

  Carmen sighed. He was obviously determined to force his agenda on her. Why did he want to do this at the house? Carmen felt increasingly light-headed as she was forced to consider what it would be like being alone with him at Burlington Manor. One look at the nonchalant posture of that attractive masculine body had her pulse racing, a nagging ache at her core reminding her she was a woman and she had needs. She crossed her leg higher on the thigh, attempting to quell the arousal there.

  His gaze followed the movement, and his mouth gave a gentle twitch, as if he was restraining an idle remark. When their eyes met, electricity traversed the space between them. His handsome mouth sloped into an insinuating smile.

  Again heat flared in her face. She tore her gaze away. Annoyed, she rose to her feet, glancing at her watch. “Chris, do you need me for any other part of this?”

  “Well, I suppose not....” Chris frowned, then looked at Rex with disapproval.

  This was what Rex was like. They all knew that. He wasn’t prepared to follow the norms like everybody else. Well, she wasn’t going to sit there and let him make fun of her when she knew he had no intention of living in the house. He didn’t want it, never had, and he would never care for it the way she would.

  Chris nodded at her. “I realize you’ve been delayed. I’ll email you the rest of the details, if you prefer.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  “If you have any questions, get in touch.”

  “Thank you.” She walked out of the office as quickly as she could.

  Before she reached the end of the hallway Rex overtook her and blocked her path. “Come now, we haven’t even finished negotiating.”

  Clinging on to that hope, she met his stare. “Oh, so you’re suddenly willing to negotiate, now that I’m walking away?”

  He rested one hand on the wall by her head, caging her in.

  Glancing past his arm, she gauged the distance to the front door.

  “Carmen, be reasonable. I didn’t want to air all my private thoughts in front of the family solicitor.”

  That seemed rational, which put her earlier misgivings under the spotlight. Why did he unnerve her so? “Okay, spit it out. What’s the deal?”

  “The deal is this...I’d really like us to spend some quality time together.”

  “Rex, please. Stop messing around.” She gave him her best warning glance. “Email me when you want to talk sense.” She attempted to shift past his arm, but he moved closer still, locking her in against the wall of the corridor with the bulk of his body. Her skin tingled, her senses responding wildly to his proximity. “Let me pass.”

  “Not until you agree to hear out my terms.”

  She threw him a querying glance.

  “You want Burlington Manor,” he continued. “I don’t. We can come to a mutually satisfying arrangement.”

  She tried not to react too overtly and met his gaze steadily while she waited for him to explain himself.

  Rex gave an exaggerated sigh. “You’ve changed, Carmen, you’re so stern and businesslike.” He moved one hand and ran his finger down the length of her neck.

  Arousal surged through her. The way he touched her was so suggestive. It made the pulse in her groin thud wildly.

  “Maybe some time chilling out at Burlington with me would do you good.”

  Bastard. He was winding her up. This was just a game to him.

  “I want to buy you out,” she repeated. “When you’re ready to discuss it get in touch with me.” She ducked under his arm and darted out the door and down the steps outside, heading across the pavement to where her Mini was parked on the street.

  Rex strode along at her side.

  He was determined. That rattled her even more.

  Opening her bag, she snatched her keys. He reached out and clasped her wrist, drawing her to a sharp halt as she reached the car door.

  “Let me go.” She uttered the words as authoritatively as she could, given that her whole body was instantly hot because of his strong fingers locked around her wrist.

  Rex didn’t let her go. Instead, he backed her against the side of her car. “Not until you consider my offer.”

  “Offer? What offer?” Her attention sharpened. She was already convinced he didn’t want the house. Perhaps he needed the settlement to keep his company afloat. Maybe there was a chance for her to claim it, after all.

  Then he pressed closer still, so that his body covered hers, hard, virile and demanding. The feel of him stole her breath away.

  A woman walked past and she tutted loudly as she peered at them. She had a glamorous saluki hound on a leash. Carmen ignored the woman and the hound as best she could, praying to God it wasn’t somebody who knew her. She had a reputation to keep. Unlike her assailant who’d done everything he could to destroy his reputation over the years.

  Rex ran one finger down the side of her face, lifting her hair free of her cheek. “I like your hair this way,” he said, running it through his fingers as he admired it. “The last time I saw you it was different.” He locked eyes with her. “Don’t you think it would be interesting, the pair of us, together and alone, up at the house?”

  “No.” She blurted it out, and then wished she hadn’t. He’d always had the upper hand, teasing her when she was gauche and vulnerable.

  Undeterred, he moved his hands, embracing her around the waist.

  Even through her suit the pressure of his grip made her legs weak. When she was seventeen and he’d been home for Christmas, she’d longed for him to hold her this way. Instead, he teased her relentlessly—making her horribly aware of her fragile confidence—and then he’d seduced one of her friends. That had hurt.

  If he’d held her like this back then, instead of Amanda, it would have been a dream come true. Now...now it got her back up and made her angry. He was asserting his power over her because he was a man who assumed he could toy with people for his own entertainment.

  The aroma of his cologne hit her and the insistent presence of his body against hers made her falter as she spoke. “Rex, stop playing games. If you’re going to make an offer, please do so.”

  He seemed so much more in control than she was, and his mouth was now set in a determined line. “Two weeks,” he stated definitively. “We live together at the house for two weeks, and then you can have it.”

  “Live together?” It had to be a joke.

  Besides, why did he even want that? He’d never wanted to be at the house. There was more to it, there had to be. It couldn’t be as simple as that. She stared up at him and his intense blue eyes were so vivid they seemed to burn into her. “How much do you want for your share?”

  A slow smile spread across his face, his eyes gleaming as he gazed at her, looking at her lips as if he was about to devour them. “I don’t want money.”

  Lord, he was more irritating than ever.

  Then he moved his hands higher, and squeezed the underside of her breasts. Carmen couldn’t stifle her gasp. His touch knew no bounds, no protocol. It was breathtaking.

  He licked his lips. “But I want it all, for two weeks.”

  Confusion gripped her. “All? How much?”

  “No financial exchange. Just you—” he locked eyes with her “—in my bed, refusing me nothing.”

  In his bed?

  Carmen stared up at him, shocked to the core. The man would do an
ything for a thrill. And yet, even though she was appalled by his proposal, a deep part of her responded to it. In his bed? Images flashed through her mind, images of them, naked and locked together in fierce passion. Desire flooded her. Fighting the rising tide back, she shook her head, attempting to move aside.

  That was futile. He wasn’t letting her go anywhere.

  “Surely you can’t be serious?” she blurted.

  “Ah, but I am, entirely so.” As if to emphasize his point, he moved one hand inside her jacket, where he cupped her breast and ran his thumb over her nipple.

  The only barrier between his skin and hers was her shirt and the sheer lace bra she wore beneath it. Her nipple knotted and tingled. Carmen had to swallow hard to steady herself. Her emotions were in chaos, and her trust in her body and its responses was fast waning. “So, you think that you can have any woman you want, is that it?”

  “Not necessarily. But I want you, and you want the house. I see this as the perfect opportunity for us both to get what we want.” His voice was husky, his message insistent.

  Carmen was totally unable to respond. At her back the hard surface of the car was the only thing holding her up.

  “Come on, why deny it now?” The lust in his eyes was tempered by humor. “I touched you like this before and you liked it then. It was in the conservatory. I haven’t forgotten, have you?”

  Carmen’s eyelids fluttered down, but her attempt to deny the images that assailed her was futile. They were scored on her memory, relived many times. She’d been seventeen at the time and he was back from university in Oxford. He’d been flirting with her in the conservatory, where she used to hang out and read, and then out of the blue she found herself in his arms and they were kissing. Their lust unleashed was dangerous, moving like wild fire. In hungry, eager embraces they’d almost gone all the way. Thankfully a noise from the house had broken them up.

  “I was young and easily led and I won’t be played with again—and certainly not on some ridiculous promise of ownership of the house.”