Dominant Prince’s Foreign Bride

Donors

In Leap’s glamorous Sky hotel, Ziva opened her eyes and scanned the unfamiliar surrounding before noticing that she was completely naked and a strange man stood nearby looking lustfully at her. It must be a nightmare, she thought, but the pain on her chained hands told her otherwise.

“Who are you?” she asked before his voice echoed from every direction, each sentence shaking her to the core. If the devil could speak, she was certain he would sound like that.

“Hi sweetheart…..I’m your master…..I have been watching you….Your body is just perfect, I have been longing to touch you…Your job is to please me…Disobey me and I will sell you off to the highest bidder…”

Ziva screamed out in horror, sitting up on her bed, waking from another nightmare. “He is not here, he is not here,” she repeated the words to herself. It was freezing outside but she was drenched with sweat. Looking at the time, it was too early to go for a swim in a hotel and the water would be too cold. Nights like these she really missed her warmed pool. “Go back to sleep, Ziva,” she urged herself. “You are far away from him and he is in jail,” she drifted back to sleep with the words echoing in her head, replacing the monster’s one that filled it few minutes before.

Five hours later, tall, breathtaking woman strode proudly, each step exhuming confidence, ready for another day. Head strong, self sufficient and resilience, the reasons why she was the best at her field despite the horrific events and worse betrayal by those closest to her.

Laura watched her friend approach with awe. They both left disappointed by the turn out the day before but Ziva was also furious and crutched by the Prince’s statement, yet today she looked like all was perfect in the world. “Good morning, Ziva. You’ve got to tell me how you do that,”she said.

“Good morning, Laura,” Ziva responded cheerfully.

“How do you always show up like you have the whole world on the palm of your hand?” Laura asked enviously.

“It’s another day, we get to start afresh and forget the previous day’s failures, that’s the motto,” Ziva said, feeling revitalised. She never let anything keep her down.

“You have to teach me that before you leave,” Laura said. She took everything to heart and got affected by everyone’s sad stories. Hearing about Ziva’s story got her so upset, she hardly slept. It was the same with her patients, loosing one left her down the whole month and unfortunately for her that meant she was down the whole year. Even though the health minister asked her personally, maybe subconsciously that was another reason she agreed to leave the patient care world to head the country’s blood bank project.

Ziva smiled ”Dilan says it’s all in the mind,” she said. If only Laura could meet Dilan, then she would be really amazed.

“He sounds lovely, maybe I will meet him when I visit Asherway one day,” Laura said, already looking forward to that day.

“That would be great, we would love to have you,” Ziva said. “The turn out looks really promising today, what happened?” she asked when she saw crowds approaching their container.

“The Prince and his friends are coming to donate, the media will be covering the whole event,” Laura explained.

“That’s great, that will definitely boast the numbers but I think I will take time off today if it’s okay with you,”Ziva responded. The Leap citizens loved their prince, him donating was a really good thing weather she liked him or not but she did not want to meet him again after their heated exchange the day before.

“No, please, Ziva. I have never done this, the whole country will be watching, I need you here,” Laura pleaded.

“You will be fine,Laura. You are more competent than you give yourself credit for,” Ziva said in earnest.

“If I mess up, that’s it. The blood stock the country has right now won’t last for two days. God forbid if a major accident happens then we are in trouble. Please Ziva, I need you,”she pleaded.

Ziva sighed, she really liked Laura and other than getting away from Jason, she did come to Leap to help her “I don’t like your Prince,” she said.

“You don’t have to like him, you will treat him like any other donor,” Laura suggested.

“Okay, I will stay but you will be the one dealing with him,” Ziva conceded.

Laura nodded, relieved. “I promise and thank you.”

Thirty minutes later, the Caper sport field was buzzing with activity, old and young people came out in their numbers, excitement could be felt from a distance. Different Leap media channels were setting up in front of the blood bank container, you would swear a celebrity or a music concert was on the way.

“They are here,” Laura told Ziva just before the crowd went wild, singing praises to their beloved prince. The doors to the official vehicles opened, four insanely handsome men came out. An aura of nobility, about 5.7 feet tall, sharp jaw, bluish eyes,tanned skin, meticulously trimmed moustache and hair, Prince Richard lead his friends towards the blood bank container. He greeted and shook hands with the excited crowd with his friends walking a few centimetres behind him, matching his every step.

“That right there are our country’s handsome future leaders,” Laura told Ziva, the two of them watching the four men through the container window. “They are all members of our defence force. Young, hot and intelligent, they are a full package. Wade is the one on the right, he is the prince’s childhood friend and already in charge of our intelligence unit, the best, I am told. Rumours are when Prince Richie becomes King, Oscar will be our defence minister and Victor, the tallest one in the middle will be our health minister,” she said, her eyes lighting up when she mentioned Oscar.

“All men club, how chauvinistic!” Ziva exclaimed, not surprised.

Laura laughed at her predictable friend. “You do realise that the cabinet will have many more other ministers, whom I am certain will be women. Our Richie is the most open minded, very pro women leader we ever had. His youth development programmes have improved our tertiary education access rates with women being the most beneficiaries,” Laura explained. This was one of the many reasons why she loved the prince.

“Did they have to warm his bed to benefit from it?” Ziva asked with a straight face.

“Ziva!” Laura exclaimed in disbelief. It seemed Ziva only thought the worst of their beloved prince.

“What? It’s a fair observation,” Ziva said defensively right before the prince changed direction, a touching moment that left many teary when in the multitudes he spotted a small boy on a wheelchair, desperately trying to squeeze his head between people around him for the opportunity to see the prince. Walking towards him, the crowd cleared the way. The prince knelt down to his level and had a conversation with the thrilled boy. The boy’s mother could not hold her tears back, it was her son’s twelfth birthday and all he wanted was to see the prince but now he got to even talk to him.

“You know what Nick, this afternoon I am coming to your house, I think I just invited myself to your party,” Prince Richard said excitedly. The boy’s reaction was priceless and it warmed his heart.

Nick opened his eyes wide, unable to hold his excitement. “That would be awesome!” he exclaimed.

“Ahem?” the boy’s mother cleared her throat, giving her son the eye to remind him of good manners even when excited.

“That would be awesome, Your Majesty,” Nick added, respectfully. “Will you bring your guitar?” he asked.

“Would my host want me too?” Prince Richard asked, amused.

Nick nodded “I have been practicing our national anthem with mine,” he said proudly.

“That’s cool, now I’m definitely bringing mine so you can teach me,” Prince Richard said dramatically.

“Awesome! Your Majesty,” Nick beamed.

“I need to go and donate blood now but I will see you later,” the prince said standing up and walking towards the container again.

Ziva watched the scene with mixed feelings, Prince Richard’s interaction with the boy was not in keeping with the opportunistic, self centred, chauvinistic man she had concluded that he was. “It could be an act to get the people to like him,” she thought to herself oblivious to the fact that he actually did such acts on regular basis.

Reaching the container, the four were welcomed by Laura who thanked them for coming. She patiently and precisely explained the donation process and different blood types. The four friends discovered that the donation process was strangely less scary and more fulfilling than they all thought. Oscar was thrilled to be attended to by Laura who would not stop blushing because all his friends were on their case and wanted to know details of their very new promising reunion. Laura who had decided to take things slow found herself committed to attending a get together to meet the rest of Oscars friends because the four would not take no for an answer. Her fate was sealed when the prince charmingly said to her “It’s like this, My Lady. When our friend finds a gem that keeps him awake at night and daydreaming during the day, we, as his friends have to intervene very early on to make sure that the gem is legit. That way we cover any blind spots he might have.”

“What happens when you discover that the gem is legit but your friend is not, Your Majesty?” Laura asked, shocking herself. Ziva was definitely rubbing in on her, she would normally never ask any questions, especially when the prince was involved.

Prince Richard smiled discovering the opportunity to seal the deal for his love sick friend. “He would not be my best friend if he had not gone under the microscope and came out as pure treasure. You have Your Prince’s word,” he said, leaving Laura speechless and Oscar touched. Prince Richard had no idea how much he appreciated those words. Although happy that his friend finally met his girl that got away, Prince Richard was disappointed when he did not see any signs of Ziva because he had hoped to apologise to her. When his part was completed, he approached Laura who could only guess what he wanted. Oscar had already told her about his intentions to apologise to Ziva but she did not think it was a good idea. “I did not see your Asherway friend today,” he said.

“Your statement upset her, Your Majesty,” Laura explained, knowing that upset was an understatement.

“I am aware and would like to apologise for it, where is she?” Prince Richard asked, not giving Laura any chance to change his mind.

“We have a massive turnout today, which we owe to you. Ziva is tending to the donors in the tent outside,” Laura explained and hoped that the prince would let things be but he had no intentions of doing that.

“I would really appreciate a chance to express my apologies, My Lady,” he said, not giving her any other option but to get Ziva.

“Off course, Your Majesty. I will go find her,” Laura said and braced herself for her friend’s outburst. She had begged her to stay and promised to deal with the prince but here she was asking her to meet him.

“No,” Ziva said decisively.

“Ziva, please,” Laura begged. Anyone else she would inform them that they can’t really refuse to see the prince when he requested their presence but saying that would just agitate Ziva.

“I don’t want to see him.”

“Please, Ziva, he wants to apologise,” Laura explained.

Ziva scoffed, she could not imagine the obscene man apologising.

“I am serious, Ziva,” Laura pleaded.

“Fine but don’t expect me to bite my tongue because I won’t,”Ziva said.

“You never do,”Laura said, already feeling sorry for the prince. She could bet her life on it that Ziva will not make anything easy for him.