AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sophie Pederson. His Sophie was finally here, finally clinging to him. Nothing had ever been as right as this angel in his arms. All the women he’d pretended to be interested in didn’t hold a candle to his Sophie. Even a simple hug from her bolstered him and made him believe he could accomplish anything, be the best man, a man worthy of her. He was eons beyond his charming exterior in Sophie’s eyes.
How had he survived the past six years without her? The only event in his life that he could compare to the agony of Sophie cheating on him, ditching him, and ripping his heart from his chest was losing his own mum to a senseless and unexplained murder.
“I’ve got to go,” she cried out, yanking herself out of his arms, staring longingly at him one last time, and then running for the gate in her beautiful dress and heels.
He watched her go for a beat, stunned and confused, the usual emotions when he thought about his and Sophie’s relationship, or their lack thereof.
Then concern overtook him. Something was obviously wrong for her to be running from the royal wedding she was catering. She couldn’t run from him again. Last time she’d been an expectant single mum and she’d insisted he not contact her.
He’d loved Sophie Pederson more than his own life. While he was studying in Spain the year after graduation from secondary school, she had hooked up with some other guy and had been expecting the man’s child when Malik returned.
He’d been blindsided—stunned, confused, and angry. The Sophie he knew and loved was chaste, loyal to him, and would never lie or cheat on him. She hadn’t originally told him who she’d been with, but when she got engaged to their friend Jonathon shortly after, Malik suddenly wanted to pummel the gentle man simply because Sophie had chosen him instead of Malik. When Jonathon was brutally murdered, his heart had ached for her.
She’d never moved on from Jonathon. From what Malik had observed from a distance, she was raising her daughter alone and had worked hard with her talent for cooking and baking, won the reality television show Top Chef, started her own catering company, and become one of the most acclaimed caterers in Europe. Just as he’d always told her she would be. He admired her success.
Why hadn’t she ever come for Malik? Was she still mourning Jonathon? When she’d told him she was expecting, she’d also asked him to please not contact her again. He’d walked quietly away that horrific night and had honored her wishes for years.
He couldn’t handle walking away from her again. Could he beseech her to retract her demand that he stay away? Of course he’d forgive her for cheating on him. He already loved her. He wouldn’t hesitate to love her daughter as his own.
But she’d never given him the chance to forgive or love her. The ‘Charming Prince’ had to have a little bit of pride and not grovel for the woman who had broken him. It hadn’t been a clean break, more of a shattering and a mutilation. Like the remains of her fiancé’s body. Such a mess it had been hard to identify.
Instead of pleading with Sophie to let him be there for her after her fiancé’s death, Malik had clung to his pride and turned to shallowly dating every beautiful, accomplished single woman who crossed his path. One date only. He never developed relationships or led women on. He took each woman out, sometimes he kissed them goodnight, but not often, and then he gently let them down via text, reaffirming how incredible they were and that he regrettably had commitment issues that were unresolvable.
He’d never used the excuse of his mum dying, though some had gone there. He’d been able to let them down so gently that his Charming Prince title was solidly intact. As far as he knew, he had no enemies or ill-wishers—except those he’d protected or rescued battered women from, and the Rindlesbacher family. But William and Naomi Rindlesbacher loathed and envied his entire family, so Malik didn’t really count them as adversaries.
Pushing all of that away, he knew he couldn’t let Sophie go again. Almost six years ago, he’d walked away because she’d insisted they never contact each other again. He had questioned and regretted that choice every day since. He’d gone far too long without the only woman he’d ever love in his life. The only woman, besides his mum, who knew him beyond his shallow, charming shell.
He sprinted after her.
“Sophie, wait,” he called.
She looked back at him, but her dark eyes were full of resolve. She darted through the open gates.
Malik took up the chase. She was fast in those heels, but he was in the best shape of his life having recently completed a master’s degree in exercise kinesiology. It was his third master’s program completion—architecture, an MBA, and kinesiology. He also had two bachelor’s degrees—outdoor product design and computer science. School was easy for him, and with minimal strings pulled and a lot of extra hours put in, he finished degrees in half the time most students could. He liked variety and had no desire to settle down to one woman or one field. Unless there was a chance he could be with the woman he was easily catching up to.
She looked over her shoulder at him and her dark eyes widened. The fear in her gaze almost stopped him short, but he instantly realized it wasn’t him she feared. Someone had threatened her. Malik would figure out who, protect her, and make sure that person knew to never threaten or scare his Sophie again.
Despite his angst, confusion, and worry about Sophie, Malik found himself feeling strangely light. For the first time in six years, he had a purpose—to protect, reconnect with, and love Sophie Pederson. He sprinted down the steep asphalt road and easily pulled level with her. There was a sharp drop-off to the ravine and river on their left, the hill and castle rising above them on the right.
“Malik, you can’t,” she gasped out.
“I’m very capable of doing whatever you think I can’t do,” he teased with a wink.
“I can’t.” She shook her head, her dark eyes terrified of somebody or something and heartbroken for all they’d lost, for the fact that she no longer felt she could turn to him.
What was she scared of? It couldn’t be him. Even being apart for six years, Sophie knew him deeper than anyone but his twin and his deceased mum. She had to know she should and could turn to him. He would protect and love her and her little girl. If she’d let him.
Sophie lurched forward with a cry of surprise. Malik leapt to shield her from hitting the road. He wrapped her up in his arms, curled his body around hers, and took the brunt of the impact with the asphalt. It pounded his muscles, scraped any exposed flesh, and rattled his teeth and his bones. He’d be scratched and bruised, possibly broken. He didn’t care. Sophie was in his arms, and he was protecting her like he was meant to do.
They rolled to a stop, Sophie cradled against his side. He stared into her beautiful face, her naturally bronzed skin and deep-brown eyes with those long lashes and enticing lips he could get lost in for hours. Any pain disappeared. He was finally enough.
Who cared about a little road rash for a reward like this? Who cared about all the past pain and loneliness? Sophie was in his arms. If he wasn’t so angry at heaven for taking Sophie and his mum, he’d think the angels were cheering for him.
“You didn’t have to tackle me. I would’ve held you close with much less drama.” He grinned at her, his ‘roguish’ and ‘irresistible’ and ‘charming’ grin that ‘no woman could resist.’ Entertainment writers and social media influencers’ words, not his.
Sophie’s dark eyes softened, and she arched up toward him. “I’ll give you drama, Charming Prince.”
He chuckled, as if her making fun of his title was hilarious, and all the long-standing pain between them didn’t exist. He wanted to tell her that she still had the heart she’d stolen years ago, but he didn’t need charming words or convincing lines with Sophie. Those words and lines made their relationship more fun, but they weren’t the reasons Sophie had loved him. Could she still love him?
