Prima Donna Read Online Free Page B

into a fiercely contested arrow, everyone clamouring for pole position. Four competitors were off their bikes before the first bend, and as
much as she tried to be cool, she couldn’t help her hands from flying to her mouth anxiously.
    ‘They’ll be okay, you know,’ said a voice near her. She looked around. A little blond boy, no more than six, was sitting in the row behind, looking earnestly at her. ‘My
daddy’s down there. He’s the best.’
    Pia smiled widely, her indignation with Baudrand abated by the boy’s cute freckled face. ‘Yeah? You must be very proud of him.’
    The boy nodded. ‘You bet. I don’t usually get to see him compete, ’cos I have to go to school an’ all. But Mom said this was special ’cos it’s the X Games. We
drove through the night to get here this morning as a surprise.’
    ‘Really? Where did you drive from?’
    ‘Saskatoon.’
    ‘In Canada? Wow. You must be tired.’
    The little boy beamed. ‘Nah. I’m too excited.’
    ‘So are you going to be a snocross rider when you grow up?’
    ‘Yeah. Daddy’s already teaching me. He got me a scaled-down version of his bike for Christmas.’
    ‘Really?’
    ‘Yeah. It’s a Polaris XC120 and it’s got the Sno-X running boards fitted already. Plus he got Oakley to make me some smaller stickers specially to put on my bike. They’re
his sponsors. It looks just like his now.’
    Pia nodded, charmed by his enthusiasm. ‘It sounds great. Really special.’
    The little boy looked back down to the track. ‘Yeah, it is.’
    ‘What colour is it?’
    He sighed, watching his dad proudly. ‘His lucky colours. Black and yellow.’

Chapter Three
    Sophie checked the room one last time, like a nervous dinner-party hostess, before she went and opened the door.
    ‘Hi,’ she smiled nervously, letting him in.
    Adam bent down and kissed her on each cheek. He was fresh – or rather, not so fresh – from class and the smell of dried sweat drifted off him. She closed her eyes, savouring the
smell of athleticism. The company’s tour along the east coast – and currently concluding in New York – had been gruelling, with a full-on repertoire of
Giselle
,
Sleeping Beauty
,
The Nutcracker
and
The Snow Queen
, and Adam Bridges, as one of the male principals and, most pertinently, Pia Soto’s partner of choice, had only
one day off performances in every four. Today was that day, coinciding with Pia’s brief sojourn to see Andy in Aspen.
    ‘Wow! Nice place,’ he beamed, taking in the view of the car park on the next block. ‘Pia’s really knocked herself out for you this time, hasn’t she?’
    Sophie giggled. As the stars of the company both Pia and Adam had suites on the top floor, eighteen floors up, with commanding views over Manhattan. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ she
shrugged good-naturedly. She had no ego about that sort of thing. She’d spent the first fifteen years of her life chasing through fields in southern Ireland, helping her mother milk the cows
and collecting the eggs for breakfast. The tallest thing on her horizon back then had been the six-foot-three-inch sunflower she’d grown for a school competition. Power skylines meant nothing
to her. Big city life, whatever its guise – be it in New York or Chicago, the place she now called home – was intoxicating enough to her. And frankly, having grown up with three little
sisters in a two-bedroom cottage, she was just happy not to be sharing.
    ‘How was class?’ she asked.
    ‘Ugh, don’t ask. Badlands was in a particularly foul mood today. And my right hamstring’s bothering me a bit,’ he said, absent-mindedly rubbing it.
    ‘Well, what are you doing here, then? You should have gone to the physio,’ she scolded, feeling panicky at the thought that she might be held responsible for aggravating a possible
injury. She knew from Pia’s insurance paperwork that her legs were insured for $1.5 million. Adam’s must be much the same.
    He shrugged. ‘Yeah, but if I