Bound To Him

Blake was in his office, but he couldn't concentrate properly on his work. His mind was filled with Sara. She was in the back of his mind even though he tried very hard to not let her consume his thoughts.

He had seen his share of beautiful and sexy women in the entertainment industry, some were innocent and naive, then there were the cunning and intelligent women. He knew how to read people and predict their personality. 

Initially, it was exciting to get to know them, but later they all turned out the same, they bored him. He would be seen having dinner with someone occasionally, but he never dated anyone seriously, not wanting to give them the wrong idea, many women tried to make all kinds of excuses to get closer to him, but he would tell them that he didn't need that kind of commitment. 

Most of them understood him, and they were okay in the beginning, but then as it turns out, everyone starts to be serious, and then they all start acting clingy. They wanted to know his every move, they start stalking him.

It suffocated him when they started acting like his girlfriend, and sometimes, like a nagging wife, asking him where he went and who he met with.

He always hated it when someone tried to control him, it's the reason why he never wanted to get married or commit to anyone.

He was not like Tristan, he had no bad experiences when it came to love and family, his parents and his sister's marriage were all perfect, but the men were whipped, they were perfect little slaves to the women in their lives, and he did not want to be like them.

Sara was very beautiful, and she looked very feisty when he kissed her, he wanted to know her and uncover what was under all of that fire. He loved being challenged, and right now, he saw her as a one. 

He had lost interest in chasing celebrities, they always have this hard to get an act that crumbles once he pays attention to them, they were just too easy, now Sara was another species altogether. 

"Sir, these are all the details about Ms. Sara Wesley," An assistant hands him a large folder. He wanted to know everything about her, so he had someone do an investigation.

"Thank you, you can go," Blake said sternly, he opened the file and he read all about her family background and modeling journey. Nothing he didn't more or less already know until he got to several pages that caught his eye.

They were headlines to several newspapers,

"King of Cadiz meets a beauty."

"King romances model."

"Are glamour models the King's type?"

"Is this foreigner the FUTURE QUEEN of Cadiz?"

There were many articles dedicated to the King of Cadiz and Sara. 

"King Joaquin and model meet at a restaurant," these had colored photos showing Sara and the king sitting at a restaurant, both of them looking at each other intently. Joaquin looked dashing wearing a black suit while Sara was wearing an orange dress that flattered her figure, she looked very well made up and beautiful.

The next photo showed Joaquin placing a diamond bracelet on Sara's wrist. It looked like a lover giving his girl a gift. The newspaper ever identified the diamonds as the rarest and most expensive diamonds in the world. "Are they together? Does she take all his gifts?" Blake wondered. 

"Obviously Joaquin would not give these gifts for free without expecting anything in return," doubts were planted in his mind. It was not going well as Blake tightened his hold on the file. 

Another article showed Joaquin coming to Sara's photoshoots. He looked like a very caring boyfriend, he even stayed the whole day to watch her, and then they left together after the photoshoot.

One article showed Sara being hospitalized, and Joaquin took the time to go and visit her secretly, he even wore a mask to hide his identity, but one of the nurses in the hospital recognized him and took several pictures and uploaded it onto social media.

Lots of articles mentioned that Joaquin has fallen in love, that he went to the hospital to take care of his sick girlfriend.

The Kingdom of Cadiz had strict rules, they were only allowed to marry members of the other royal families and were never allowed to marry commoners, much less foreigners, they believed that the royal blood will be tainted if a commoner marries into their family.

A few people have said that maybe Joaquin will be the first to break the rules, just seeing their public display of affection, they assumed he was serious about Sara.

There were mixed opinions about their relationship in the media. Both Sara and Joaquin never answered the questions raised regarding their relationship. 

There was an incident where Joaquin invited Sara to one of his parties. Sara had no idea that Cadiz was very orthodox, and men had the final say in all things. Women had to follow a lot of rules, and their opinions and rights were completely suppressed, they were also ordered to dress very modestly. Sara being a westerner and a model, dressed up in a short dress since she was not informed in advance about their customs.

Everyone gasped and murmured behind her back, nobody wanted to say anything out loud since she was well acquainted with the King. Being his guest and since nobody had instructed her where to sit, she sat next to him. 

As a sign of respect, nobody was allowed to sit next to the King, most especially women, they were not even supposed to sit next to their husbands, they were supposed to sit together with the other women. 

A ton of articles came out the next day showing how disrespectful Sara was at the King's party. Joaquin, for the first time, broke his silence and asked for a press conference, he declared that Sara was his friend and no one should raise their fingers at her.

This had shocked everyone, so they started asking questions about the wedding date, to which Joaquin didn't reply to.

The more he read the articles, the more he got angry. Somehow he could not tolerate Sara's name being associated with any other men. 

"So the feisty Sara was not uptight after all, she's probably loose and dates men for the perks," he thought to himself. 

"She probably thought she could land a King, not knowing they only married women of royal blood. She was probably having a fling with him to get all the benefits of dating him, and now she thinks he will marry her," Blake scoffed. Looks like Sara was just like any other celebrity he had come across. 

But there was a niggling feeling that he couldn't put his finger on. Why was he feeling bad, angry, and irritated? He thought he should be happy since now he knows bedding Sara will be easy, but somehow he wanted her to be that woman he saw at the party, very sophisticated and with a very good reputation. He wanted her to be hard to get so he can go and chase her.

"Damn it, why is this so complicated? Ugh!" Blake banged the table, feeling frustrated.

Blake read about Joaquin in another file. His father passed away when he was fifteen, and he became the youngest King in the history of his country, he had handled the responsibility very seriously at his age, and his name was never associated with any scandals or associated with any women except for Sara.

It looked like she was the only one who was special enough to be allowed to be associated with him. He had a clean background, people praised him for his generosity and good character. 

Blake felt something was missing, nobody can be so good. It looked like his background was too clean, having too perfect of a background made him suspicious, he must be hiding something, and Blake will not rest until he uncovers the truth.

He was an Aristocratic Heir, he was born with a golden spoon and never got jealous of anyone in his life, it was always the other way around, people would get jealous of him all the time, but for the first time in his life. He was jealous of Joaquin spending all that time with Sara.

He wanted her now more than ever, he had never imagined somebody would dare slap him, and that kept him awake at night. He saw the fire in her eyes.

Sara's phone was ringing, and when she answered it, it was her assistant. "Bonnie, I need a few more days to rest. I can't return to work right now," Sara said as soon as she picked the call. She wanted to stay home, so she used her sister Ava's wedding as an excuse.

"Sara, did you see the news? You need to see it..." Bonnie sounded frantic.

"No, why what happened?" Sara frowned, opening her laptop.

"Check it...Check it now! Oh my god…," Bonnie urged.

When Sara opened the news section, she was shocked to see the headline. 

"Model Sara Wesley found guilty of taking drugs."

"The truth about Sara Wesley's addiction to drugs."

"Is Sara really as innocent as she portrays?"

The news said that she was captured in the bathroom of a restaurant taking drugs. When the police searched her hotel, they found a copious amount among her belongings. They even captured a dealer that testified to him dealing with her regularly.

The first photo showed a woman's backside bowed down over the sink, it wasn't really that clear, but they had implied it was her. 

The second showed a side view of the same woman snorting drugs, but this time she had the same profile as Sara, blonde hair, almost the same silhouette, and the same height. 

Sara had gone pale, she was ruined. She never even took alcohol. How did they think she could do drugs? She lives a healthy lifestyle and has never thought to indulge in any bad habits.

"This is not me, Bonnie, you know I don't even drink alcohol, I take care of my body… why would they do this to me?" Tears were running down her face and her voice was crackling.

Then she remembered Joaquin's ultimatum. "If you do not come to me within one week, something will happen and you will regret it. Remember I give you one week," he said threateningly.

She looked at the calendar, and it had been eight days since he issued his warning. So he went to all this length just to make her agree to his unreasonable wishes.

Sara had no idea how she was going to prove her innocence. Joaquin was very strong and powerful, he had many resources. He was capable of manipulating the evidence and showing her as the culprit.