Beautiful Prince (Van der Borne University Book 1)

by Dakota Lee

  I ignore the nagging feeling that nothing will be the same after this.

  Chapter Fifty

  "Somebody is blowing up your phone." Kassidy teases, walking over to the couch with a bowl of popcorn in her hand. "Is Mr. McKay going through withdrawals? Tell him he survived close to twenty-one years without you. One more night won't kill him."

  I chuckle at her joke. We've been inseparable since our weekend getaway two weeks ago. He finally said it. He loves me and I couldn't be happier. We're practically living together at the studio, but I told him I needed to spend time with Kassidy too. It took convincing, but he finally agreed to let me out of his sight, and his bed, for more than just classes. "It's not Logan. In fact, I haven't heard from him all day."

  "Oh, so he can handle being apart."

  "I'm sure he's just busy, holed up in the studio, since there's only one more week before the symposium." I put the finishing touches on my painting days ago, and I'm proud of how it turned out.

  My phone buzzes again.

  Robbie: We need to talk. Be on campus tomorrow. Meet me outside the library at eleven.

  Me: I have plans at eleven

  Robbie: This won't take long. It's important, and come alone.

  Me: Fine

  Robbie's text was cryptic and because he came up here in the middle of the school week, and because we were friends before we started dating, I honor his wishes and meet him alone. He's growing his hair out, and has a few bags under his eyes, but other than that he looks the same. Good.

  "Thanks for meeting me."

  "I'm still not sure why I did, or why you're here."

  He nods, and says, “I ran into your mom. She didn't know that we weren't together anymore."

  "I didn't tell her, because I figured it was a conversation we should have in person. You know how she gets."

  "Yeah, well, now she's worried about you too since you're keeping things from her. She can't take time off from work and Summer's got games, so she asked me to look in on you."

  He looks away as if he can't stand to see me. If he's so put off by my presence, why didn't he just text whatever he needs to say?

  "Look, Jordanna, your relationship with your mom is your business, and I wasn't going to come. And then I got these." He says, passing me an envelope.

  I slip open the flap and look inside. Nausea roils through my stomach and I almost double over in pain. "Where did you get these?" The hand fisting the pictures and negatives shakes.

  "They were in my student mailbox yesterday."

  "I don't understand." I squeeze my eyes shut as if that will make what I'm seeing go away. But of course it doesn't work like that. It's all here. Every night, every pose, every angle in high gloss. Someone delivered moments that should have remained private to my exes mailbox.

  "Evidently, somebody wanted me to know how much of a hypocrite you are." I see the anger and disgust before he has a chance to look away again.

  "I never cheated on you, Robbie. It was you with another woman in your dorm room the day I came to see you. While we were still together. This was after we broke up, and it was none of your business."

  His shoulders slump. "I know Jordanna. I know. But why would you film it?”

  "Are you even hearing yourself right now? I didn't."

  He snatches a photo from me. "I might not have had sex with you, or know what your body looks like totally naked, but I can see your face. You're in every shot, and that's the guy Logan. Guess you guys got friendly working on your class project together. Geez, Jordanna, what were you thinking?"

  "That he's my boyfriend, and I wanted to make him happy."

  "I would've made you happy and it wouldn't have been like this."

  I study his face as he grips the envelope. I can't tell if he's mad that I gave up my virginity to Logan, or because he received evidence that my foray into sex didn't stop with basic missionary and hand jobs.

  "There's something else."

  How could there be more. There's enough stuff in here to blacklist me with any company that has a morality clause.

  He rubs the back of his neck. "There's a guy at school, who I guess had a cousin that went to VDU last year. It turns out your new friends do this type of shit all the time."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean they film people having sex, and blast it around school."

  "Out of spite?" I know Bella dislikes me, but would she go so far as to do this? Would she risk her friendship with Logan to spite me?

  "It's a game. They do it for fun. He said his cousin found out the whole school was in on it. She wasn't the same, after that, and had to leave school."

  Bella loves her games, winding people up and making them march on her time frame. My voice sounds as if I'm standing in a tunnel. "Are you telling me somebody filmed us because of some type of game that I didn't sign up to play?"

  "Yeah, and I'm willing to bet, your virginity was the prize. I don't know why I got these. Maybe they thought I'd still care enough to come up here and confront Logan and get into a fight or something." He shrugs. "Who knows what type of weird shit gets these elitists their thrills."

  "I can't believe this is happening."

  He places a hand on my shoulder. I see it, but I can't feel it. "What are you gonna do?"

  "Get some answers." I turn heading north on campus. I'm on autopilot walking into the dining hall. The smile on Logan's face falters when he sees Robbie behind me. I know he has some reservations about my friendship with him, but I don't owe him an explanation about shit. It's his friends who need to say something to me.

  I shove the envelope against Bella's chest. "I think these must've gotten lost in the mail."

  The pictures I held in my hand float to the floor. "Whose in on it? You Tabitha? Frankie, Hal." I ask, looking around the table. "I'm sure Bella's the mastermind behind this sick little joke, because god knows none of you ever showed a spine or individual thought of your own."

  Bella hands the envelope to Logan. "Seems like the game is up." She inspects her nails, her venomous voice making my skin crawl. "It's a shame really, we were dying to see how much further we could push you before the semester ended, weren't we, Logan?"

  "We?" My voice goes horse, as she inches closer to my boyfriend. "We?" My eyes go to the man I've spent so many nights with. The man who I gave myself to. He hasn't said a word. "There's no way Logan, was in on it."

  "Of course he was. I told him I doubted anyone could pop your cherry, and he insisted he wanted to take that wager." She sneers at me. "Men can never resist the allure of a virgin."

  She picks up the envelope and pulls out another set of pictures, sifting through them like a flip book. "And it looks like he had a damn good time breaking you in."

  Her smile finally reaches her eyes. "I can see you're struggling with this. Look closely, charity. I wasn’t there taking pictures, and it’s obvious to me that these are freeze frames of a recording. That's way too many camera angles to keep track of in Logan's dorm room. Plus, how would I know what day and time you'd be doing this?" She taps her nail against a picture.

  My brain is stuck, trying to make sense of what she's saying. She's right about the location being his dorm room and she would have needed to be physically there to catch us in the act.

  "It didn't even take much convincing.” She says, Frankie and Hal nodding in agreement. “He was more than happy to get you to slut it up and in record time."

  She laughs, taking pleasure in my pain. "Look at you. Still not ready to accept it, are you? You were so convinced that you could take the wicked king of Vandi U and turn him into a knight. But as you can see, you didn't. Underneath that warmth that you think you've been cuddling up to at night is the same heartless bastard he's always been."

  "That's not true. He loves me." My mouth forms the words, but they lack conviction, because the coldness in his eyes says it all.

  "Loves you?" She snorts. "Logan's incapable of feeling anything other than lust and a need to act o
ut his filthy fantasies."

  She turns to the man I gave my heart and body to. "Or am I wrong? Logan, do you really love her, lov-er?" She crawls into his lap, straddling him, sifting her hands through his hair, and nibbling at his jaw.

  "You know me better than that Bella." He sneers at me over her shoulder. "Jordanna, you showed up here riding on your moral high horse threatening the status quo. We told you in the beginning no one likes a narc, but you refused to fall in line. Then, when we told you to stay out of our way, you couldn't even do that. Instead, you showed up at our parties, lording your virginity and purity over us like you were some superior being because your boyfriend was too much of a pussy to take your cherry."

  He looks at Robbie. "Almost two years and not one hit? That's some willpower." His lips curl in a mocking smile. "You missed out man."

  He turns back to me. "So I pretended to care. Pretended to change, because I was dying to know what you'd be like in bed. To see how far I could push you." He snares his lower lip between his teeth. "Mmm. Now I know the answer."

  Bella climbs out of his lap, flipping through the pictures again. "Damn, I think this one might be my favorite."

  He looks at the picture, giving me a vindictive smile. "Bella's right, I wish I had a few more days to see what else I could get you to do. But what I felt for you, it was never love."

  They rise in unison from the table. "Logan, please." I whimper, taking a step towards him, reaching my hand out to touch his arm.

  He grabs it and squeezes, hard enough to inflict pain. "I loved hearing you beg for me to ravage your body. But now, it's just pathetic."

  I stumble backward when he pushes me, Robbie's hands reach out breaking my fall. Bella links her arm through his and they all walk away, leaving me a sobbing mess in the dining hall.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Last week's events still weigh on me. When I realized there was no way I could get out of the bet, I decided I needed to tell Jordy what was going on, but someone took that opportunity away from me. When she came to the dining hall, it was already too late; the damage done, and I had to tell her I'm still the same heartless bastard she thought I was in the beginning.

  It took everything in me, not to snatch my arm away from Bella's poisonous grip. To hold in everything that was screaming inside me, to tell Jordy how I really feel.

  But I couldn't go against Bella and risk everything. I had to play my part. Pretend that Jordanna meant nothing to me. I wish I could make her understand, that I had to stay rooted in place and to keep my mouth closed for both our sakes.

  I'm still under a microscope, and I'm just trying to make it through tonight's art symposium and auction. Jordanna knows the truth about what I did, but school's still in session, and the game is still in play. Tonight will be the final curtain call on our relationship. If I had a soul, I'd ask God to have mercy on it, for what I'm about to do.

  I move to the back of the room and wait for the lights to lower. A solitary filtered red bulb illuminates the small stage at the front of the gallery. They bring the anonymous submissions out one at a time for bidding. The artwork with the highest bid wins an internship with a prestigious gallery in New York City. This is the last chance for any of our work to be seen this semester.

  It's a silent auction, and they contact the winning artist at the end of the night. Of course I know which piece belongs to Jordanna, because I was there when she painted it. I force myself not to think of those nights, with paint on her face and her clothes, when we'd eat on the floor of my studio, work until the early morning hours, and make love in my bed. I watched her grow as an artist and her work is exquisite.

  My sculpture is number fifteen on the auction block. They roll the heavy form out on a dolly. This act of betrayal is the final nail in the coffin.

  The hybrid sculpture and photo collage captures the model throughout the stages of arousal. She lies in repose, smiling, inviting. It's a lazy and uninspired piece, but it still captures the intensity of the moment. The colors on the contours of the clay show the desire and heat on the model's skin.

  The sculpture magnifies every insecurity Jordanna has about herself and highlights a sensual abandon that she never believed she possessed. When the top frame animates, the last picture slides into place like a puzzle piece and Jordanna's face fills the frame.

  I see her turn in her seat. Searching. I'm one of the few people standing in the room. Choosing this location, so I'd be easy to spot. Her eyes lock onto mine and I tip my glass in salute.

  Finally, I see the look I've been waiting for. She's finally accepted what we had is over. I walk coolly towards the exit, signaling her tears, if there are any left to shed, mean nothing to me. She's hurt. Broken. And there will be no doubt in anyone's mind that I'm the one who did it to her.

  It's the last party of the semester. Bella has conceded that I've satisfied the terms of our bet in full, and she's already hard at work, plotting her school domination tour for the spring. I know she went behind my back and had Montanna Reed hack my camera feed before I could transfer the images to my secure storage, then sent them to Jordanna's ex.

  Montanna will be making amends for invading my privacy for a very long time. I'll see to that. I had Simon work up a new firewall and change my security codes. He also wiped Montanna's cloud and left a worm in his system for if he ever tries some shit like that again.

  Bella's telling anyone who cares to listen, that she finally got her dad to agree to let her spend the winter break in Paris. The only part of her story or trip that interests me is the fact that she'll be on the other side of the planet for six weeks.

  Tabitha's who has been watching me all night finally breaks off from the guy who's been licking her boots to join me on the couch. "How ya doing?"

  "What answer do you want me to give?"

  "Weren't we on this couch three or four months ago, waxing poetic about why feelings are the enemy?"

  "They're still the enemy. Which is why in five more drinks I won't be having any.” I gulp my scotch. "And I'd appreciate it if you'd let me get blackout drunk in peace."

  "You didn't have to win the bet, Logan." She's the only one bold enough to insinuate I'm pissed about the way things turned out.

  "There was no way in hell, I was giving Bella the VP position. You know that."

  She nods, because she understands the job comes with more than just the power and prestige of the title.

  When I take over, the VP gets a helluva benefits package that includes a ten percent stake in the company, for anyone who holds the position for more than ten years.

  The first three percent is guaranteed after the first year, non-negotiable, and they keep it no matter what. It's why I couldn't lose.

  I wasn’t about to tie myself to Bella for the next fifteen to twenty years of my life. As it is, I can't stand to look at her at all right now.

  "I get it, Logan. The Vice President gig was more important than the girlfriend. But damn, I'm sure the reasons don't make the breakup any easier.

  We humiliated Jordanna, she's in violation of the school's morality clause and she's getting kicked out of school. Her educational prospects are shitty, because I doubt Carryville is giving her a scholarship to return."

  Bella's watching us like a hawk. She probably has people nearby eavesdropping on our conversation. What most people don't know, is that there's a sub-clause in all the contracts we draw up for our bets. If I renege, or in this case try to undo the damage I inflicted on Jordy, Bella wins by default.

  "Whatever do you mean, Tabby? It was the easiest breakup I've ever had."

  "Then why are you sitting over here getting wasted, instead of celebrating your victory?"

  "Because, it's the end of the semester and I'm about to start my winter internship at Wilmington Kurt. There won't be too many opportunities for drinking myself into oblivion during the break."

  "I don't know why you refuse to work for your dad. That way you'd get to have a life."

  "I grew
up in that office, one day I'll be running it. I think gaining experiences outside of him and his expectations are important."

  "Plus, it gives you a way to scope out the competition?"

  "Exactly." Just one more part of the world to control.

  "Are they putting you in the lifestyle section?"

  "Only if I'm unlucky. I know Wilmington Kurt hired me because my name comes with an automatic invite to the hottest parties and events, but I'd rather work in the editorial or layout department."

  Bella walks up to us. "What's with all the whispering? What are you two over here planning?" She licks her lips, trying to hide the fact that she's nervous.

  As much as she loves the idea of winter in Europe, she's also worried her absence will leave room for some of her army to defect. She should be worried, because of the shit she pulled. I know it was because she was getting bored and did it to force my hand.

  I toss back another mouthful of scotch, ignoring her question. Tabby tries to keep the peace and says, "We're not planning anything. Logan and I are discussing his new job, and what we're all doing during the break."

  Work is the enemy of Bella's life of fun and destruction. She won't settle for a job until her parents make her. Like the bitch she is, she's planning on seducing and thieving her way into the life of a man that will keep her in the manner to which she's accustomed.

  There’s not one part of me that thinks she actually wanted the VP position at McKay Media, but it would have been her ace in the hole for when one of her future husband trades her in for a younger model, after her beauty and pussy loses its luster.

  "Well, have fun chasing down leads, and whatever else you'll be doing. And be ready to come up with a new set of games to play in the spring."

  She heads towards the back of the house, raising her martini in the air.