A/N: Since you guys have been so great in voting for the first couple of chapters just hours after I posted them, here's the third instalment. Let's hear some comments, shall we? Things are finally heating up and I want to know what you think.

***

It had been three weeks since I came to Cove Manor and once again, Sebastian made himself scarce.

I could hardly blame him.

If I were him, I’d also avoid the attentions of an infatuated school girl who made advances at every opportunity.

I was mortified by our last conversation but like how I dealt with most of the unfortunate circumstances in my life, I got over it and pushed myself to carry on.

There wasn’t anything else to do about it.

After he left me, I’d stayed behind and picked at my food. Finally, I walked the rest of the way down to the beach where I’d unstrapped my sandals and walked barefoot along the shore, enjoying the solitude nature offered to my inner riot.

I came here as a virgin prize to a complete stranger who wanted nothing to do with me.

I should be relieved and not dejected by the fact. 

I was seventeen and my life had been less than ideal.

I never had the chance to be in love or come close to anything like it but I had the most nagging suspicion that Sebastian Vice irrevocably became part of my soul the first day I looked into his eyes.

But there was nothing to be done about it, really.

Not when I was just merely a passing distraction which I confirmed when I’d walked back up the stairs from my walk along the shore and saw him standing by the balcony of Aurora’s room that overlooked the beach, his arms wrapped around his exotic goddess, his expression fierce and passionate as their mouths melded. 

I couldn’t compete with that and like anyone who couldn’t lose what little they had, I picked my battles and this wasn’t one of them.

I longed for my happily-ever-afters and wanted to sink back into their temporary happiness.

No wonder romance novels were sold everywhere—happily-ever-afters were rare in reality. It’s been missing in my life for a long time and I’ve only really just noticed.

I did find a cozy and charming little bookstore in town called Dover’s. I discovered it when I accompanied Mrs. Simmons on an errand at Seaside’s shopping center which was really only a few blocks of small local business that sold anything from food and household goods to souvenir items and specialty products.

I’ve ventured back into the bookshop on my spare time, walking the twenty-minute distance and spending an hour or two of my day there when the Mrs. Simmons and the staff shooed me off to go out and enjoy.

The owner was a nice, older lady named Francine and helping her around was her son Ty who was home for the summer. He’s nineteen, returning to Georgetown as a sophomore in the fall, and he was tall, lanky and cute with his sandy blond hair and blue eyes—everything a boy-next-door should be.

I didn’t really have money to buy books and Ty seemed to have known this without me saying anything. He always let me sit by the store’s bay window and let me read the book I’d started and left behind from my previous visit. He’d make coffee and share a cup with me and when we’re both not reading and the store was quiet in the early afternoon, we’d talk.

I’ve mostly evaded his questions about my background but he knew I was staying at Cove Manor for the summer. 

Ty was smart and charming and I once caught myself looking at him while he read, and I realized that he would’ve been the ideal boyfriend. He was the exact opposite of the dark, brooding man who lurked in the shadows of my current castle.

Our coffee-and-book sharing sessions quickly progressed to walking around town when he wasn’t needed at Dover’s. He never made any obvious advances on me or anything like that but we were certainly developing some type of friendship.

One afternoon, he’d talked me into letting him buy us ice cream.

We had just stepped out of the gelato shop and stopped at the sidewalk, still laughing about the fact that the top half of his ice cream had slid off and splattered on the floor. 

He reached out to brush his thumb on the corner of my mouth and the contact made us both go still.

My eyes sought his and saw the gleam in them.

“You had ice cream here,” he murmured, brushing his thumb on that same spot again before lifting his hand away.

“Ty...”

“Cassie...”

A sudden honk startled us and we both stepped away from each other.

A sleek, black luxury car—a Lincoln town car, from what I could see of the logo—pulled over next to the sidewalk, a dark, tinted window rolling down, revealing nothing but the shadows inside.

His head didn’t pop out but I knew instantly who it was. I could feel it in the way my skin warmed and the back of my neck skittered with recognition.

The driver’s door opened and Jennison stepped out, looking as sharp as ever, and headed towards me.

“Ms. Collins,” the man said with a slight, courteous nod, barely glancing at Ty. “We’d be more than happy to give you a ride back to Cove Manor. The hour is growing late. We’d like to see to your safety.”

“I can walk her home,” Ty spoke up candidly, seeming unaffected by Jennison’s starchy attitude. “She’ll be safe.”

Jennison finally cast a sideways glance at Ty, his expression completely unreadable.

“I appreciate the offer but it’s only four-thirty, Jennison,” I said patiently, raising my wrist to gesture with my watch. “The sun isn’t going anywhere till about ten so I think I’m fine.”

“I understand, Ms. Collins, although I must insist—”

“Get in the car, Cassandra.”

My eyes narrowed at the low, deliberate command in his voice and next to me, I could feel Ty stiffen.

“No, thank you,” I directed my answer towards the open window, my tone clipped but polite. “I’ll walk.”

I started to turn away when the passenger door of the car suddenly swung open and Sebastian’s long, sinewy frame climbed out with the grace of a barely-restrained predator.

He reached us in two long steps and arrogantly planted himself between me and Ty. 

He was taller than both of us and we instinctively took a step back and tilted our heads up at him.

He would almost look too solemn in his impeccable dark gray suit if not for his hair that was tousled in light unruly waves as if a hand had raked through it a few times.

It looked like it could use a few more strokes to reach that perfect, sexy, sleep-mussed look.

My fingers itched but I remembered the present and scowled openly at him.

If he felt the daggers in my look, he didn’t show. 

“Mr. Vice, this is Ty Sanders, a good friend,” I grumbled testily. “Ty, this is Sebastian Vice, my generous sponsor for this summer vacation.”

Sebastian’s eyes narrowed slightly at me but I only thrust my chin up in defiance.

“Cassandra, dinner’s at five today and I insist you don’t miss it,” Sebastian said in a silky drawl, angling a look at Ty as if he were a pest. 

Ty simply glared back.

I opened my mouth to snap that we’ve never dined together unless we counted that morning we had breakfast at the kitchen but Sebastian turned back to me and the full force of his vibrantly angry green eyes stopped me mute. 

A war was being waged here and if I weren’t careful, Ty could be dragged right in the middle of it.

The heat of Sebastian’s stare told me he wasn’t above hurting a few innocent bystanders.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Ty,” I finally said, turning to him with a reassuring smile. “I do remember Bart telling me he was going to outdo himself tonight with dinner. He’d be disappointed if I miss it.”

“You sure?” he asked quietly, his blue eyes focusing on me with a slight frown. He could tell I was throwing in the towel with this one but he wasn’t going to push me around himself like Sebastian was.

“Yes. Thanks for the ice cream.”

Before I knew what I was doing, I stood on my toes and kissed his cheek lightly before turning to march towards the car, intentionally ignoring Jennison who scrambled to open the door for me and Sebastian who stood behind me as I got in.

I didn’t utter a word inside the car.

I didn’t glance at Sebastian who slid next to me. I could feel his scorching gaze on me but I resisted.

“That boy only wants one thing from you.”

I couldn’t help the ironic smile curve on my lips although I still managed to keep myself from glancing at him.

“And it’s up to me to decide whether I’ll give it to him or not,” I answered conversationally. “I didn’t realize that I was required to report my social activities to you.”

“You’re here as a guest. I don’t want to be remiss as your host and let you off with some gangly college boy who will take advantage of you and never look back.”

I burst into a humorless, sardonic laugh because truly, this was hilarious.

“I’m not your guest—I’m here supposedly as your sex slave, remember?” I said between dry chuckles. “Since you’re not interested, I’ve resorted to working as your servant for the summer. I’m sorry if I spent too much time not working. I promise to be at your service twenty-four-seven. Considering Timothy’s debt to you, it’d be many years before I can fully pay you back.”

His mouth thinned to a grim line. “It was never a question of my interest, Cassandra. You, on the other hand, were more clear about what was off limits.”

I opened my mouth to argue but our earlier conversations replayed in my head and I realized he was right. He never directly told me he was disinterested. I also told him I wasn’t spreading my legs.

Oh, God. How did everything get so twisted in three weeks?

I sighed, finally turning to him and meeting his gaze squarely. “So what do you want, Sebastian? Do you wish to renegotiate our original agreement? Should I earn my food and lodging at Cove Manor on my back?”

Thank God the panel that divided the front and back seats was closed. 

My cheeks were burning with embarrassment and my voice had a detectable tremble to it—the last thing I needed was an audience even if it was just Jennison.

“Stop it, Cassandra,” Sebastian warned in quiet fury, his fists clenching and unclenching on his sides. “Don’t push me to do something we’ll both regret later.”

“Then stop being so damned contradictory!” I shot back. “I’m supposed to be invisible yet when you find it convenient, you just waltz right in and have your way.”

His nostrils flared as if he was having a terrible time holding his temper in check but he released a long, sharp breath and spoke calmly. “I will do my best to never cross paths with you again but if I see you doing anything that will jeopardize your safety, I will step in and do what needs to be done. I will not be responsible for your downfall, Cassandra.”

Oh, but you already are and you just don’t know it yet.

Afraid that we would literally combust into flames if we continued to fight, I bit my bottom lip in a strained effort to end all conversation.

He seemed to agree, ironically enough, complying with his own silence. 

The moment the car came to a full stop by the front entrance, I scrambled out and started running up the steps.

“Cassandra.”

I came to an abrupt halt and glanced at him over my shoulder.

He inclined his head slowly. “I know I had promised to stay far away but I meant what I said about dinner. You’re to join me.”

I snorted in a most unladylike manner. “Pardon me but I think I’ll skip it. Gourmet cooking never pairs well with acerbic conversation and unappetizing dinner company. I’d hate to stay up the night with a bad tummy.”

I relished the flash of anger that crossed Sebastian’s face before I tossed my head back and continued on my way.

As I walked along the quiet hallway, I smiled and started humming a tune, fully aware that despite his detestable manners and domineering attitude, Sebastian Vice had been jealous of a gangly college boy and I couldn’t be more pleased about it.

***

I couldn’t sleep after all.

I joined Mrs. Simmons for dinner at the staff quarters and went to bed early.

I was tired but all that I saw when I closed my eyes were Sebastian’s glittering green ones.

He was a stoic man, that was for certain. 

But his eyes, when he chose to lower his guard down, said more than he would ever vocalize. 

And yes, in the many recurring dreams I’ve been having since I met the man, those green eyes expressed more than just an inflamed temper. They had sparkled with adoration, flared with wild lust and softened with tenderness—all for me.

But that’s why they were dreams—ones I shouldn’t be having but I felt free of the rules in my imagination. 

I wanted him. I was fascinated by this fortress of a man who kept a lot out and let very little in. The instinct to peel off layers of his grand armor gnawed at me and despite the distance I’d demanded, I was jumpy at every sound and glimpse around me that I might suspect could be him.

But he’d made himself invisible in the house since I left him by the foyer this afternoon. 

I did push him to stay away after all.

With a sigh, I slipped off my bed and groped for my eyeglasses on the night stand.

I usually have clear enough eyesight but I was short-sighted and had trouble in the dark. They were really dorky glasses with thick, rectangular tortoise-shell frames. They were my father’s, vintage and a surprisingly expensive brand, and when I needed prescriptions at twelve, I decided to use them—one of the few mementos I have from a man I have no memory of.

I slipped an old, light-knit cardigan long enough to cover past my pale blue cotton night dress and put my flip flops on.

It was about ten thirty but the sun had just started to slowly fade, streaks of dusk painting the sky a romantic blend of pink and oranges.

I headed down the stairs to the beach, stopping a few feet from the shore and fishing out my cellphone—an old present from my aunt and uncle that was now held up together by duct tape. I took a few pictures of the sunset to send to Deanna and Kathy to reassure them that I was having a good summer despite having suddenly disappeared to visit a family friend. 

“That thing is about to fall apart.”

I didn’t have to turn around to know he was standing behind me.

“That’s what the duct tape is for.” Despite the casual answer, I felt self-conscious and tucked my phone between my hands. “Everything on it still works.”

“I didn’t mean to intrude. I didn’t realize you were here.”

I finally glanced over my shoulder and saw him standing about foot away in white linen pants and a gray shirt. 

I smiled softly. “This is your beach. I’m the one intruding. I’m heading back anyway.”

“Stay,” he said, keeping his distance. “That is if you don’t mind spending some time in my unappetizing company where there’s potential for acerbic conversation.”

I couldn’t help a grin. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be crude.”

He smirked. “I wouldn’t call it crude. Your insults sound fancy for a seventeen-year-old.”

My grin broadened. “I could be quite mouthy.”

Instantly, his gaze lowered to my mouth and I felt my humor drain away. 

Boy, this really was dangerous.

It was one thing to entertain a mad crush on a guy way beyond my league. It was an entirely different matter if he was reciprocating.

“You’re wearing glasses.” A hint of amusement twinkled in his eyes. “I didn’t know.”

I pushed said glasses up my nose and shrugged. “I’m nearsighted. And I can’t read stuff well when it’s dark.”

He smirked. “It’s cute.”

I grinned again. “It’s not, silly. In fact, boys don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses.”

His mouth twitched further into a smile. “I’m not a boy.”

I exhaled sharply and nodded. “No, you’re not.”

“Can’t sleep?” he asked, taking a step forward until he was standing next to me.

“Not really.” I pulled my cardigan tighter around me, aware that I wasn’t wearing very much underneath and that my ratty night clothes looked worse next to his. “You?”

He shrugged. “I don’t sleep much. Or very well.”

I frowned. “Why not?”

“Just don’t.” He pushed his toes in the sand and rocked on his heels lightly. “I don’t need much of it. Never have.”

Then he cocked his head towards me and grinned. “Why sleep when you can make money?”

I snorted even though a smile slipped through. “You think someone as rich as you can afford as much as sleep as he wants. If I could have several wishes, I want one of them to be a day spent entirely in bed. I’d be buried amongst white pillows and covers and I could be  sleeping or drinking coffee or reading a book or just gazing out the window.”

His eyes flickered. “There’s nothing stopping you from making that happen now. No one has required you to report to duties here. You can do that day after day if you want.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Nah. What good is a wish if it’s so easily done? Besides, life is too short to spend it all in bed.”

He laughed softly, his green eyes lighting up and his face relaxing. 

The sight and sound of it caused my insides to do a somersault. 

Sebastian was a sinfully handsome man. 

Sebastian laughing made him extremely devastating. 

“You won’t say that if you knew all the other things you could do in bed,” he replied huskily, his green eyes still dancing with amusement.

I bit my lip. “I have some idea.”

His humor fell away, his gaze now intent on the lip I was worrying.

“In another time, I’d say it’s a waste not to learn all that you can but in your case, leave it at just having some idea,” he said, his tone sounding a bit agitated now.

I scrunched up my nose at him curiously. “Why? I can’t be innocent forever.”

“You can be unless you want some man’s filthy hands all over you,” he bit out, looking a little angry now. 

My brows arched in surprise. “Well, I wasn’t going to sleep with the first guy to stumble along.”

“Don’t sleep with any man at all.”

I blinked slowly. “Um, I don’t want to die a virgin.”

That stopped him.

“Well.” He seemed to be straining for breath. “Don’t sleep with someone who doesn’t deserve you.”

I grinned. “That’s a pretty difficult standard to quantify and measure. What if I just want to sleep with someone who drives me wild with desire? Just pure physical attraction. Wild, crazy, explosive sex.”

He shook his head grimly. “Don’t waste your virtue on something that will become meaningless in about ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes?” I asked, bursting out laughing. “You’re that quick?”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “I wasn’t talking about me.”

“Right,” I acquiesced, trying to suppress an impish smile. “We were talking about all the other guys who obviously don’t deserve me seeing that I can’t sleep with any of them.”

Sebastian gazed into my eyes with searing intensity before he sighed loudly as if weary. “This conversation is starting to sound ridiculous. I best leave you alone.”

“Oh, come on! Why do you always walk away when the fun part begins?” I taunted, emboldened by his own struggle that was fast rising to the surface.

He froze for a second before he turned halfway back to me. “This isn’t just fun and games, Cassandra. I’m giving you some valuable advice. Whether you like it or not, you will listen and take it to heart.”

“I was never a good auditory learner,” I said pertly. “Why don’t you show me?”

His green eyes clouded with something fierce and wild before his mouth set into a tight, grim line. “There are men who don’t deserve you, Cassandra. Then there are men who will devastate you. I’m far worse than both.”

I felt that stupid wall again—the one he erected every time he caught himself showing and saying more than he intended—and it was so palpable it couldn’t have been just a mere metaphor.

“If I’m going down, I might as well pick my poison,” I said through the breath that caught in my throat. “I pick you.”

“Christ.”

I worried my lower lip again as I watched the myriad of expressions flicker across Sebastian’s face—desire, regret, anger, longing and the most curious look of torture.

“You’re a foolish girl.”

Without being conscious about it, I found myself barely a couple of inches away from Sebastian, his hands grasping my elbows while mine gripped his forearms, my fingertips nearly singed from the heat of his hard, sculpted muscles.

I smelled his clean, masculine scent—a mix of soap and aftershave with a hint of sandalwood—felt his warm, ragged breaths on my cheek and heard the low, quick cadence of his heartbeat as his chest pressed against me, his mouth brushing ever so fleetingly against my own parted lips. 

My nerve-endings hissed and crackled.

He moved back a fraction and my heart ripped at the loss of contact.

By their own volition, my arms slid up along his own until they rested on his shoulders, my hands burying into the thick, silky mess of his hair, pulling his head down and anchoring my lips back on his.

Somewhere and sometime between the sudden explosion of our feverish kisses, mingled breaths and exhilarated gasps, he growled, as if in agony, before he yanked me up against him, his own hands coiled almost painfully around my hair.

I’ve shared a few kisses with Kyle before and I had thought all of them pleasant.

That was before Sebastian unleashed this sensual storm on me and I realized that kisses—the really good, soul-shattering ones—weren’t supposed to be pleasant.

Pleasant kisses were for first dates and truth-or-dare games.

The kisses that brand you for life turn you inside out, slake that unnamable hunger only to make you want more, and leave you blissfully bereft of your senses. 

“Dammit,” he murmured as we went up for air, his lips trailing along the bridge of my nose and pressing hotly between my brows. “Have you been kissing him this way?”

“Him? Who?” I murmured back absently, cupping the back of his neck as I rose up on my tiptoes. 

I sought out his mouth again, relentless in further igniting the heat that was fast consuming me. 

We’d somehow collapsed on the sand, Sebastian’s weight settling over me.

“That college boy.” He tugged at my lower lip with his teeth, nipping lightly. “With the ice cream.”

“I don’t...” I pulled him closer, aware of the solid, hard shape of him pressing against my belly. I shivered. “No. Only you.”

I gasped as his hand ran along my shoulder and down my arm, his touch careful as if one wrong move could send us exploding.

“You’re lovely,” he said softly, a hint of a smile turning up one side of his shamelessly seductive mouth. “Spirited and sweet.”

He gently patted the rim of my glasses, his smile deepening. “With a touch of adorable.”

My cheeks flushed at the intensity of his green gaze and the undeniable flutterings of desire that stirred more aggressively inside of me. “Please.” 

Reality was a distant echo in my head, drowned out by the relentless storm raging between us.

I needed more but I had no sensible words to say so.

“You want me,” he whispered, a new note in his voice. He sounded... awed.

I looked straight into his eyes in a brief moment of crystal clarity. 

“It would seem so, Captain Obvious.”

Those deep green, penetrating eyes focused on me in a mixture of curiosity and blatant lust before they crinkled at the corners as Sebastian’s face broke into the most heart-stopping grin I’ve ever seen.

My heart literally did a somersault.

Groaning myself, I reached up and grabbed his collar before pulling him down and crushing his lips against mine, wanting almost to devour that slice of sunshine that broke through him. 

I poured all that I couldn’t say in words into every kiss and he matched it breath for breath, stroke for stroke.

“This shouldn’t happen,” he said as he pulled away for a moment, his voice hoarse and unsteady. A look of pain crossed his face and he closed his eyes. 

I cupped the side of his face and he took a deep breath, turning into my palm and pressing a hot, moist kiss at the center of it.

The lustful ache shot straight between my legs and my eyes fluttered close.

“Cassandra... We have to...Can’t let it... Can’t let this happen.”

He growled like an animal wanting out of the cage and tore himself away from as if I’d just burned him.

My eyes flew open and focused on Sebastian. He had rolled on his back and tilted his head up towards the sky, his shoulders trembling and his breathing uneven.

Something felt empty inside me but it was nothing to the distance I could feel between us even though we’d been practically under each other’s skin a few heartbeats ago.

“Sebastian?”

“Go, Cassandra,” he muttered hoarsely.

I pushed myself up on my knees and leaned over him. “Are you... I mean, is there anything—”

“Go, Cassandra!” he thundered, his emerald gaze burning into me. “If you don’t want to be thrown down on the sand and taken like an animal on your knees, run as fast as you can. At this moment, I can hardly think straight enough to care about your virgin state or the fact that you are too young for any of this. You’re forbidden, Cassandra. I should never forget that.”

My mouth dropped open in anger but a second look at him and the frail control he had left over himself diffused the volcano that was just about to erupt over him. 

“Lightning hasn’t struck us yet and the earth hasn’t fallen off its axis,” I said dryly, pulling my sand-speckled cardigan tightly around me as the crisp, late evening breeze blew by. 

With my blood finally cooling down, I noticed that the sun was almost fully sunken behind the horizon, the skies now a deepening indigo and the air picking up a slight chill.

“Whatever your internal debate is, I wanted it and that’s not your fault,” I added softly, reaching out tentatively to brush a lock of dark hair that had fallen over his forehead. 

His agitation slowly faded and he closed his eyes briefly, letting me push his hair back with my fingertips only to catch it again. “We’d agreed not to honor Pendley’s offer. You’re making it difficult for me to keep my side of the bargain.”

I frowned. “This has nothing to do with Timothy’s stupid offer. Look past it, Sebastian. Maybe you’ll realize I have a mind of my own and I can change it when I want to. Whatever’s between us is there because we both want it.”

He groaned, capturing my hand and pressing my fingertips against his warm, soft lips. “We can’t, Cassandra. Because tonight was just a tenth of what I want from you and when I’ve had it, I’ll want more.”

“Bring it on.”

He opened his eyes and stared at me. 

“Do you know what a vice is?” he asked in an ironic tone. “I’ll tell you just in case you’re not well-acquainted with it. Alexander Pope once put it so articulately.”

“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,

As to be hated, needs but to be seen;

Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,

We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”

So he thinks himself the monster his last name is parallel with in that quote.

I wasn’t the least surprised.

“Think hard about this, Cassandra,” he said quietly as he released my hand. “Because once I have you, there’s no turning back. I’ll want all of you and there is nothing you won’t give.”

I bit down the retort I had ready because this was no empty threat I could taunt him about. 

He meant it.

I was going to tell him I’ve made up my mind and that I was no fickle head. 

But something about the way he looked at me as he waited for a reply stirred just the slightest doubt.

His green eyes told me he wanted it all—body, heart, mind and soul.

And for a girl who didn’t have much in this world, relinquishing all of it meant absolute surrender to what would certainly be a possession. 

I was prepared for the passion he could teach me and I was intrigued enough to look for the real man hiding inside his impenetrable fortress.

But what if instead of drawing him out, he intended to draw me in where I could exist with no one else but him in the tangled shadows of his soul?

“Go back inside, Cassandra,” he finally said when I still hadn’t spoken. “My self-control won’t last much longer.”

Without a word, I scrambled to my feet. 

I glanced down at him as he moved an arm over his eyes and inhaled deeply.

“Goodnight, Sebastian,” I said quietly. 

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Hey guys! Let me know what you think please. Vote and comment! 

What do you think of these two poorly fighting the attraction to something neither of them should want? Please, please, let me know!

XOXO! - Ninya

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