Calling reader/reviewers, my forthcoming novel THE
BURLINGTON MANOR AFFAIR is now available for review request on netgalley. Find
the title here. https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/show/id/44454
At the time of writing
this no details have been posted other than the cover, so I've included them (plus an excerpt!) below.
THE BURLINGTON MANOR AFFAIR a contemporary erotic
romance, will be published by HQN books, May 2014. ISBN: 0373778627
A legendary family estate.
A mutual longing.
A bargain struck.
Carmen Shelby wants what's been left to her — the valuable
estate that she once called home. Rex Carruthers is the heir to Burlington
Manor, a ruthless playboy who enjoys playing games, and all he wants is for
Carmen to surrender.
There can be only one winner….
EXCERPT:
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 business like." 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 y
ou 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 anything 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."
"I give you my word. In fact I can have Chris make up a
contract if you don't trust me to deliver the goods after you have...served up
your side of the bargain."
Carmen was stunned. Even though she knew him—and she'd spent
days trying to figure every possible outcome from this meeting—this eventuality
had never figured in her thoughts. "The whole suggestion is outrageous. I
don't intend to humor you in any way."
"Why? I'm only asking for two weeks of your time, for
the Manor. Outright."
What surprised her more—that he claimed he still wanted her,
or that he knew she wanted the house so much? She wasn't sure. What she did
know was that she despised him for putting her in this position, and even more
than that she despised herself for considering the idea.
His hand on her breasts felt good though, and she hadn't
pushed him away, hadn't been able to. That old sense of longing had risen up
inside her, a simmering fire that she thought she had quashed long ago. She
forced it back, refusing to let him take charge of her.
It wasn't easy, but fury had its call on her too. She turned
her face away and stared at the lines of the windows and pillars of the
building they had just left, taking strength from the symmetry of it as she
struggled for reason. The house, she wanted the house.
"Give it some thought." He brushed his thumb over
her erect nipple one more time before removing his hand. "Come to the
house this weekend, we'll take it from there."
Perhaps it would be good for her to spend time at the house
with him, for closure. Perhaps it would kill off all those idiotic teenage fantasies
she'd had once and for all.
Or joining him there could be the biggest mistake of my
life.
"I'll come to discuss the deal, but you can't force me
to sleep with you."
He cocked his head to the side and smiled, apparently
amused.
She shook her head, denying it, one hand covering her mouth
in case she said the wrong thing.
"Two weeks of your company is all I ask. Then
Burlington Manor is all yours."
Carmen clung to what logical thought remained. It was hard
to do so. "Even if I wanted to, I can't just take two weeks away from my
business to play house with you."
"Weekends it is then." He stepped away and glanced
at his watch, suddenly businesslike. "If you're in agreement, make
arrangements to be away from London
for the next four weekends. Our time together will begin on Friday
evening."
His arrogance was infuriating. The fact it was also a
massive turn on angered her even more. How was it that he could push her
buttons so easily? He was so self-assured, so knowing, while she clung to the
side of the car, filled with torrid imaginings and confused thoughts and needs.
Her blood pumped hard, her pulse wildly erratic. She glared at him, hating him
for his power and for his ability to suggest such an outrageous bargain.
"You bastard, you know I want the house but that doesn't mean you can just
buy me."
"Consider this, if you don't agree...well, if you don't
agree we'll have to share the house...forever." With that final comment he
inclined his head and then strolled back up the steps into Montague's office,
leaving her standing there with one hand gripping the car to hold her up—her
clothes awry, her body awash with heat, her heart thundering in her chest.