Deception & Betrayal (Complete)

Dark Side: Chapters 10-12

Chapter 10

"We told you once, and we told you again. He's no good for you!" Emily punctuated her statement with a flick of her wrist. Since she was holding a small piece of cake, crumbs went flying in Karina's direction, making Emily blush and Sara laugh.

"It's true," Karina admitted as she brushed crumbs from her gown. "You did tell me, more than once." She had joined her friends for morning tea, and was venting her frustrations to them. Not only had Jayce left her bed to spend time walking around the city with that other, incredibly beautiful woman, but he'd made no effort to contact her at all in the past two days.

"The kind of man who sleeps with you and then finds another woman hours later is NOT husband material," Sara continued. "I saw the woman he was with too. Jayce certainly wasn't making any secret of the fact that he's already moved on, walking through the city arm-in-arm like that. I'm sorry, but this is his usual pattern."

"I personally can't believe that you slept with him," Emily commented.

"Yes, you can," Sara corrected her friend. "At least Karina waited until the second party, unlike other women I could name."

Emily blushed again and quickly redirected the conversation back to Karina and the mistakes that she'd made. "So are you finally willing to admit that Jayce is bad news and find a nice guy? Besides, you've spent less than a full day in his company so far, so why do you even care?"

It was true that she hadn't spent a lot of time with the prince, and it was true that she shouldn't feel so broken up about how quickly he'd abandoned her for someone else, but Karina couldn't help herself. There was something about him, something that made her forget about what her goals were and fantasize about an actual life beyond doing what she was paid for. She'd never met anyone like him, and she honestly felt that she'd never find anyone like him again. That made it so much harder for her to let go.

"But he left me flowers," Karina said softly. "Why would he do that if I was just a good time for him? Why not just leave and be done with it?"

Emily and Sara exchanged looks. "I don't know why he would do that," Sara said, "but look at the whole picture, Karina. We both saw him with that other woman, and we both recognized the flirting. Admit it."

"True, but you both warned me that Jayce is a flirt. Does that really mean anything? Maybe I overreacted?"

Emily shook her head, denying Karina's attempts to rationalize the prince's behaviour. "Even if you overreacted this time, we all know that he is going to find someone else; he always does. He's just going to break your heart, and I don't want to see you hurt like that."

Sara nodded. "Look how much this hurts, right now, when you still barely know him. There's obviously some sort of connection between you both, but if you let him back into your life when he inevitably shows up again, imagine how much more it's going to hurt next time he walks out on you."

"You both have a point," Karina agreed, "but still..."

"But nothing," Emily stated firmly. "The next party is tomorrow, and Sara and I will help you to stay strong if Jayce is there. We'll look out for you."

"Now," Sara said, changing the topic, "the next party after tomorrow is yours to host. What were you thinking of doing? Maybe we can keep your mind off that troublemaker prince by helping you plan."

~ § ~ § ~ § ~

Jayce scaled the stone outcrop carefully, trying to avoid making any sound to alert the men in the camp on the other side. Those men were his targets, and since there were five or six of them, he really didn't want them to have any warning. Fortunately, the men were boisterously celebrating their latest conquest, and their noise covered the small sounds he was making.