Authors: Kristina Lloyd
Thrill Seeker (37 page)
Patrick opened the gate and poked his head out to look left and right down the alley. It was clear.
‘Go on,’ he told her. ‘And take this,’ he added, pushing a crumpled brown envelope into her hand. ‘I did it for you.’
Sofina squeezed past him. She took a few steps out then stopped and hurried back to the gate.
‘What’s wrong?’ he demanded.
She threw a fig at him. He raised his hand and caught it.
‘A gift for my champion,’ she said. ‘Forbidden fruit.’
Patrick immediately put the fig to his mouth and bit into its velvet-brown flesh. The ruby-red innards released their secret juices to his tongue and he noisily licked his lips of the honey-sweet stickiness. In only two bites it was gone – as was she, out of the gate and out of sight.
In minutes Sofina was safely concealed within the hustle and bustle of the lively Brick Lane crowd and heading for home. She wound the dupatta more fully around her head so that just a part of her face was on show. The spiced air was chilly now and she wrapped her arms tightly around herself as she walked, with her head down and her eyes to the ground.
The paper gift was tightly balled in her clenched fist. It was a flyer from the recent chessboxing world championship fight between Alex ‘The Invincible’ Ivanov and Patrick ‘Hunter’ Riley dated a week ago.
On the back of the flyer, in a familiar black spidery scrawl, Sofina had read the following words.
Sonnet for Sofina Khan
Imagine my lips touching yours through this
Suffocating fears with breath of a kiss.
Our hearts entwined now no harm may befall
My lady, my light, my love with you all.
Whispering words across worlds far and wide
To stifle your fears with faith deep inside.
No cell can confine truth, no court outlaw
The heart and mind ever cling to love’s shore.
This supernal spirit true love doth make
Will fiery dragon lay tamed in its wake.
My angel, my honour in you I bide
Needed not until with you I reside.
Trust in and await your lover so nigh
I will against your beating heart soon lie.
Sofina smiled through the tears as she held on to the precious words of the poet, the boxer, her lover. She crushed them in her fist to draw the strength from him that she needed to fight this battle. She was on her way home, to her mother and father, to ask to be allowed to be free to marry the man who had won her heart with his strength and vulnerability.
The only man for Sofina was a fighter who had handed her his heart to keep and was begging her not to break it.
And he just happened to be mind-blowing sex on very strong legs and to have eyes so blue that looking into them was like floating in the deep, blue sea.
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Version 1.0
Epub ISBN 9781448133529
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Published in 2013 by Black Lace, an imprint of Ebury Publishing
A Random House Group Company
Copyright © Kristina Lloyd 2013
Copyright for ‘Forbidden’ © S. M. Taylor
Kristina Lloyd has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
S. M. Taylor has asserted her right to be identified as the author of ‘Forbidden’ in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
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