THE BURLINGTON MANOR AFFAIR is now
available worldwide via Amazon! This novel is a contemporary BDSM erotic romance set in London and Oxfordshire. The protagonists, Carmen and Rex, are a
couple who have history, complications, and a silent, obsessive attraction that
just won't go away! I've posted the official blurb and a teaser below, together with buy links.
There are three covers so far, the first is US cover, 2nd is the UK version and the one with the white background is the Australian cover. An Italian translation is in the works.
THE BURLINGTON MANOR AFFAIR Cover copy:
A legendary family estate.
A mutual longing.
A bargain struck.
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:
Carmen
was the one who’d got away. Not anymore. Circumstances had got in the way but
now the little bird had fluttered back to him, and he was determined to see her
relinquish that fiercely held mask of independence she wore and admit the
desire that had existed between them for so long.
“This
is a ludicrous situation.” She stood up, throwing the napkin she’d had clutched
in her hand down onto the table. As she turned and headed for the door, he rose
to his feet and put his hand out in her path, easily halting her in her tracks
as she broke for the door.
A
warning flashed in her eyes. She trembled visibly.
“Easy,”
he urged, and drew her in against him.
For a
moment she kept her eyes lowered, as if she couldn’t bear to look at him, but
he could see the pulse at the base for throat was beating wildly, her breasts
rising and falling rapidly beneath her dress.
Her
eyelids flashed up, and she stared at him boldly. “Rex, please don’t.”
“Why
not?”
She
shook her head. She didn’t try to break free, though, and it felt good to have
his hands on her. She stared up at him, her dark eyes luminescent. So enticing.
When her lips parted, he bent his head to kiss her.
At
first she stiffened, and her mouth remained immobile beneath his. The
resistance was momentary, though, and he felt her soften in his embrace, her
lips parting beneath his.
That
barrier breached, Rex’s hunger for her flared. Too long he’d waited for this,
wanting her, and now he had her. He locked one hand on her waist. With the
other he cupped the back of her head as he kissed her deeply.
Carmen’s
hands went to his chest, but they fisted there. Even while she opened her mouth
to take his tongue she pressed hard against him with those fists and moaned her
resistance into his mouth.
Her
hair was soft and silky in his fingers, while the curve of her waist made his
hands ache to rove over her, to outline her every curve. He wanted to explore,
touch and taste every part of her.
As the
kiss deepened, her body trembled—which only made his grip on her tighten. He
wanted to keep his little bird, win her trust and make her sing out with
pleasure.
First
she was warm and supple in relinquishment, and then she was all fire and
brimstone in his arms, clutching at his shirt with eager hands and arching her
body to his.
He
moaned his pleasure aloud.
She
froze and drew back, breaking the kiss.
Desire
pounded at the base of his spine, his cock semirisen as his body readied to get
closer still.
“Why
not?” He repeated his question.
“I can’t.
I can’t sell myself, least of all to you.” She turned her face away.
He
shifted, lowering his head to kiss the soft skin exposed beneath her ear when
her hair fell back. As his lips made contact with the warm surface, she moaned
and shifted in his arms.
“You
want to do this. We both want to do this. We wanted to do it back then, we want
it now. That situation’s not going to end until we have each other.”
She
shook her head but he could see the truth in her eyes, the repressed emotion
and the obsessive desire that he was certain mirrored his own. Carmen had
always had the most expressive eyes. It was one of the many things that drew
him to her. He felt as if a lifetime of experiences and sensations were offered
to him, just by looking into those eyes of hers. His most abiding desire was to
be doing that very thing while he brought her to orgasm. Repeatedly.
He
continued to soothe her with his hands. “I can’t think of a single reason not
to.”
“I
can. Bloody hell, Rex. I have my pride.” She tugged free of his grip and stared
at him wildly.
The
desire that he’d harbored for this woman belted through him with a fury in the
face of her denial. He had to have her. He ached for the sweetness she
possessed. Reckoning with himself, he tried to keep his cool, he didn’t want to
frighten her. She would relinquish, he knew she would. She was as programmed
for this as he was, but the bitter sweetness of her resistance threatened to
turn him into a Neanderthal. “What about that time in the conservatory? You
wanted me then, didn’t you?”
She
eyed him disbelievingly.
Tension
ratcheted between them.
A red
flash flared across her cheekbones. She shook her head, denying him. “We were
stoned. You brought that potent stuff from university and I’d never had
anything like it.”
He
shrugged. “True enough. It got rid of a few inhibitions for sure, but what was
left behind, hmm? The honest to God truth of what we were to each other, what
we still are.”
Her
eyes squeezed shut. “No!”
“No?
You weren’t thinking ‘no’ when you were on your back and pulling me over you.”
She
turned her face away and wrapped her arms around herself.
Was it
distress, or embarrassment? He had to know. “No, there’s no escape from that
day, is there?” Obviously she couldn’t deny it, so he said it aloud. “Let’s see
if I can recall…ah, yes. ‘I want you, Rex,’ that’s what you said.”
“That
was then,” she shot back. “I was a stupid teenager with a crush on you.” She
glared at him as if she hated him for pulling that moment apart. “I’ve come to
my senses since then.”
If she’d
come to her senses, then what was this about—the trembling, the barely held
sexual desire he saw in her? Rex resisted the urge to argue that point some
more and got serious instead. “Oh, come now, Carmen, can you honestly say it’s
gone away?”
He
closed on her, cupped her jaw, forcing her to look him in the eye.
She
did so, stubbornly, but she didn’t say a word.
His
hand slid down her throat and, when it did, her eyelids lowered and her head
tipped back.
That
action—so simple, so telling—triggered something inside him.
With
his free hand he captured both her wrists together and locked her hands to his
chest.
She
whimpered and looked at him from under heavy lids.
“You
can’t deny it, can you?” He laughed softly, his libido sensing victory. “And
you like this.” He tightened his grip on her wrists, lifting them easily so
that her arms were clearly in his grasp. “This makes it even more tempting for
you, doesn’t it?”
Her
eyes rolled and a low moan emitted from deep in her throat. It sounded earthy,
primal, and Rex mirrored those reactions. Gone was the ladylike front, her cool
exterior.
“Not tempting,”
she retorted in a low warning tone, “easier.”
He
cocked his head, curious.
She
flashed her eyes at him. “The way you hold me makes this easier to
do.”
It was
resentful, but it was consent.
Victory.
Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/lfgpykq
Harlequin books: http://www.harlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=51765
(only $3.99 direct!)
Mills and Boon in the
Harlequin Australia: http://www.harlequinbooks.com.au/product/9781488713934 (due 1st June)