Free Reinvention of Chastity by Eve Vaughn

“Chastity, fancy finding you in here.”
    She let out a yelp of surprise, and whirled around to glare at him.
    “You scared the bejesus out of me. You can’t just walk up on people like that. What if I had a heart condition?”
    A dark blond brow rose in question. “Do you?”
    “Do I what?”
    “Have a heart condition?”
    “No, but that’s beside the point. You didn’t know if I had a medical condition or not. But if I had, you’d be feeling pretty sorry right about now.”
    His blue eyes gleamed wickedly. “Not if I got to give you CPR.”
    Chastity rolled her eyes. Jeremy was the kind of guy it was hard to stay angry with. “Behave.”
    “Okay. Okay. I’ve been duly chastised. So, what are you looking for?”
    “I’m trying to find the volume with the Dumas vs. Impco case.
    Someone didn’t put these books back in order when they took it out.”
    55
    Eve Vaughn
    He moved to where she stood, reached up and pulled a thick, green law encyclopedia from the shelf. “Here you go, my dear.”
    She smiled, taking the book. “Thank you, kind sir. Well, I have to get back to my desk. I have a lot of work today. A couple people are out and it didn’t help that we came back from lunch late.”
    “Actually, I’m glad I ran into you. We didn’t really get a chance to talk like I wanted to at lunch with Sebastian there. Maybe we could do dinner instead?”
    “Why?” The word flew out of her mouth before she realized how it must have sounded. She’d been questioning motives a lot lately.
    “Why? Because I’d like to get to know you better and because the lunch I had planned for us, didn’t quite turn out how I wanted it to.”
    “And you wanted it to turn out how?”
    Jeremy went bright red before letting out a nervous laugh. “Well, uh, you’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?”
    While Chastity found Jeremy attractive with his blond hair, blue eyes, and chiseled face that could have passed for a young Paul Newman, she preferred the dark and brooding type, like Sebastian. Besides, she didn’t need the added complication of getting involved with him when her focus was getting back at Sebastian.
    She’d only agreed to go to lunch with him in the first place because Pearl was being particularly nasty earlier and she’d needed to get out of the office. She sighed. “Jeremy, can I be honest?”
    He frowned. “You’re going to give me the ‘let’s be friends’ line, aren’t you?”
    “Well, it’s not that I don’t like you, I do, but…”
    “But?”
    “Well, I’m just not interested in any romantic involvement. You’ve always been nice to me and I appreciate it, but I can’t help but wonder if you would have even thought of asking me out if I didn’t have this makeover.” She could tell by his reaction that she’d flustered him when he began to stammer. Chastity held up her hand to stop him. “It’s okay.
    There’s no explanation needed.”
    56
    The Reinvention of Chastity
    “Is it Sebastian?” When she didn’t answer immediately, he rushed on.
    “I kind of saw the way the wind blew at lunch.”
    “It’s not what you think.”
    “Isn’t it? I may be slow on the uptake on certain things, but I didn’t miss the state of dishevel you both returned in from the bathroom.”
    Heat flooded her face. Chastity was grateful that her skin tone would cover her blush. “It wasn’t what you thought,” she denied.
    He gave her a crooked grin. “I have a feeling it’s exactly what I thought. Look, if you prefer Sebastian over me, I’m okay with that. If I hadn’t told you already, I really like what you’ve done to yourself. You can’t blame a guy for trying.”
    She smiled back, feeling more at ease now that she knew he wouldn’t push his suit. “Oh, yes I can. I’m surprised though.”
    “Why is that?”
    “I’ve seen some of Sebastian’s women flitting in and out of the office, so I know he likes a little variety, but I didn’t know you were down with the