Virtue and Vice

Chapter Twenty

A/N: Hello everyone! Thanks to the immense support everyone's shown this book. There's only a five more chapters left to this story so I thought about slowing it down a bit but here's one to get you by the weekend. I won't be posting anything else soon as I will be swamped with things to do. In-laws are coming and to those who have them, you know how important that is. 

There's been plenty of speculation as to what's Seb's secrets are. I've heard some pretty wild, colorful ones. The secret will simply help Cassandra understand Seb better and it's something she'll help him through so he could come out of all of this a better man. But before we go there, let's go see what secrets Cassandra will learn about herself. 

Please vote and comment!

***

The week went by quickly.

Work was as demanding as ever, with a new rebranding project Tamara has assigned me to head. If anyone thought dating the boss was going to make my job easier, ha, they couldn’t have been more wrong. 

Because I was dating the boss, I felt like I had to work harder and prove my worth more than ever.

Since there wasn’t much that wasn’t obvious to everyone, thanks to the nearly daily tidbits about us on the internet after the gossip tabloid spilled the beans, people weren’t asking that many questions anymore.

I guess it’s only been a week and I’ve only mostly been around people at work. I was certain their restraint was partially due to the possibility that no one wanted to piss off Sebastian.

We were invited to attend a Halloween masquerade ball thrown by Jack Cartwright, an influential and wealthy businessman and philanthropist who had been using the ball each year as a fundraising event for a chosen charity. It was very highly publicized and always successful with the rich and famous making up the entire guest list. 

Sebastian participated each year. It was one of the several charity projects he’d become more deeply involved with in the last few years.

Ty and Emma were away for the week to Las Vegas so I turned to Lexie to help me find a suitable costume. It was my first public event with Sebastian and I wanted to make him proud. He told me to just order whatever I wanted but I insisted on making my own.

Lexie was attending with Marcus and Charlie was coming with a date too. She had me sleepover on Tuesday night at the twins’ spacious and stylish town house where we both worked on our costumes.

Sebastian made a surprise visit bringing some beer, snacks and Marcus, much to mine and Lexie’s amusement. The three of them, including Charlie, spent most of the night in the games room, first playing billiards before squatting in front of the TV and playing video games.

It was nearly four in the morning when we finished but instead of letting me stay, Sebastian insisted I take my costume home and sleep the rest of the day away at his place. We had taken the day off to prepare for the ball.

Lexie had just given her brother an amused, knowing look before helping me pack my costume and sending us off.

“Darling, I was—”

I looked up at Sebastian’s abruptly halted statement and found him staring at me through the mirror as he stood by the doorway behind me.

His green eyes darkened and his lips parted slightly in appreciation.

I smiled slowly before turning around to face him.

My ball gown was a deep blue-green satin creation with a strapless, heart-shaped neckline and a full skirt that was half-covered with several dozen shimmering faux peacock feathers that gathered more heavily at the hem.