Virtue and Vice

Chapter Eighteen

A/N: Wow, you guys are the best! I wake up at three in the morning to a ton of emails notifying me of everyone's comments and it's worth losing that bit of sleep. LOL! Here's more because you have all been so eager..

This is dedicated to birthday girl AmberWithers, one of the first and most loyal Virtue and Vice fans since it first started posting. She's always voting and commenting. Amber, I'm posting this and Chapter Nineteen for you, okay? =)

Please vote and comment as always!

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Marcus’s sister, Daphne, was marrying Ben Whittaker whose family owned a gorgeous, fifty-acre estate named Villa Soledad in St. Helena. It included a sprawling Tuscan-inspired villa, a vineyard and winery and a bed and breakfast.

They were a great-looking couple with Daphne’s all-American beauty and Ben’s dark hair and dark eyes and they were very obviously smitten with each other.

I ached a little at the sight of their happiness but I wished them the best.

Arriving as Marcus’s guest, I couldn’t argue when Daphne and her mother, Melissa, happily assigned us one of the guest rooms in the main house. The two women were probably used to the many women Marcus keeps company with and I was no exception. Marcus only gave me an apologetic smile and made no protest when we walked in to find a single California-king-sized bed in it. 

“Don’t worry, you’re safe from me,” he assured me, gesturing to a chaise lounge by the window. “I can sleep here.”

I rolled my eyes. “A half dozen people could sleep in this bed. I’m sure we’ll manage fine on it.”

Since we arrived late in the evening, we missed the small dinner they’d held but Melissa instructed a couple of maids to lay out a feast for us in the breakfast nook (if you could call a room with a ten-seater table in it a nook). Ty and Emma each had a beer while they and her parents joined us.

As we headed back up to our rooms, Emma looped her arm around mine and slowed down so we lagged behind the guys. 

“Everything okay?” she asked in a hushed voice. 

I nodded. “As okay as it can be right now.”

“Are you sure you want to spend the night alone with Marcus?” She gave me a meaningful look. “I adore my cousin but he’s earned his playboy reputation.”

I grinned. “Oh, I believe you. But don’t worry, we’re not interested in that.”

Emma dubiously raised a brow. “Right. A guy and a girl—it’s a natural instinct.”

“Don’t you trust my self-control?” I asked her with a chuckle. “I managed four years in college without sleeping with any guy.”

“Yes, but you weren’t as vulnerable as you are now,” she said, her expression serious. “But I know you can take care of yourself, Cassie.”

“Thanks, Ems,” I said with a smile, hugging her quickly as we stopped in front of hers and Ty’s room.

Marcus and I bid them goodnight and headed up to our own room.

He proceeded to shower while I unpacked the rest of my luggage. I was lucky to have had another suitcase to take but as I went through my things, memories with Sebastian from earlier today flashed in my mind and I felt the energy drain out of me.

I remembered the pain and despair in his pleading eyes, his words that echoed the truth he couldn’t confess, the almost ferocious intensity of his feelings—I almost faltered.