Virtue and Vice

Chapter Nine

A/N: Hello everyone! Thanks for catching up on the new chapter. I'm so happy with all the positive feedback I've gotten over the last week or so. Haven't had time to reply to some of you yet because my life's been pretty crazy in the last few days but what I'm doing isn't important. It's what's next up for Cassandra and Sebastian who have gotten caught up in this whirlwind romance neither of them had planned on in the beginning. 

This might  be a chapter some of you have really been waiting for. *Wink!

Please vote and comment! It means a lot to me to know what you think. =)

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"What? Why are you looking at me with such a disapproving frown?" I demanded as came down the stairs where Sebastian was waiting.

"That dress is too... enticing," he answered, rubbing his chin. "Find something else to wear."

I glanced down at the lemon yellow sundress I was wearing—the same one I was wearing when I first arrived at Cove Manor—and looked back up at him in disbelief. "It's an old sundress with nothing inappropriate about it."

"I don't want that college boy to be ogling you while we're at the bookstore, okay?" he muttered in exasperation. "I would hate to have to throw him out of his own store but that's what I'm going to do if his eyes linger on you for far too long."

I burst out laughing. "Sebastian Vice, you will do no such thing! You're a grown up, civilized man—most of the time."

A grin tugged at his lips from my teasing. "Yup, today may be one of those few, rare days when I let my neanderthal show."

I rolled my eyes and grabbed his arm, pulling him towards the car he had parked out by the entrance while I was getting dressed. "Don't be silly. Let's go. I want to start book shopping!"

We took a black Range Rover to the shopping center this time—it was the least conspicuous car in the garage—aware that he was supposed to still lay low. 

He was wearing khaki shorts, a white button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, dark aviator sunglasses and a black baseball cap. It was enough to make him look vague but I took care not to walk too close to him in case he was recognized but that plan flew out of the window when he grabbed my hand and entwined his fingers with mine, keeping me close to his side as we walked past the stores.

Dover's was at a corner of a busy intersection with an old-fashioned, wood-framed glass facade, its name written in gold script across the brick-red metal awning that hovered over the sidewalk.

The chimes sounded when we came in and from the elevated platform across the store where the till was located, a tall woman with short blond hair turned and smiled at me. 

I smiled and waved at Francine, Ty's mother, and pulled Sebastian to the used books section.

"You don't have to buy used ones, you know?" he said as he followed me down the aisle.

"Oh, but I love old books!" I gushed, lifting a couple from the shelves. "Besides, I'm not letting you buy more than the seventy bucks I spent on food so this way, I get more for my money."

He just sighed and rolled his eyes.

I wandered around the aisles for a few minutes, leaving Sebastian to peruse an old, hardbound volume that caught his interest. I left him the basket full of books I've already selected as I hunted for a couple last ones.

I walked past two tall blondes discussing lunch and headed for the classics section.

"Cassie."

I turned and saw Ty standing behind me in track pants and a gray Georgetown shirt, his blond hair falling over his forehead, his lips curved into a charming smile.