The Last Praetorian (26 page)

“Excuse me Princess, I hope I am not disturbing you…” he
apologised, suppressing a grin at the flash of surprise that crossed Sofia’s
face. 
You didn’t know that I knew your secret, let’s see what else you
don’t know
, Ryan thought to himself smugly.

“I didn’t know that you knew who I was,” Sofia explained,
embarrassed.  “When Jon didn’t say anything, I thought it best to keep quiet
about it.”

“Jon told me, the night you arrived.  However, I would
probably have guessed eventually…Anyway I don’t have much experience
prostrating myself in-front of royalty,” Ryan explained matter-of-factly. 

“It’s not necessary, to be honest.  Having spent my life as
an Imperial Princess, it was nice just to be Sofia for a while.  Anyway it was
fun helping Irene with the dinner, I’ve never cooked before,” Sofia explained
with a giggle. 

For a brief instant, Ryan could understand his son’s
attraction to the Princess, as when she laughed her entire face lit-up with a
smile.  Taking a seat next to her on the bed, Ryan cast his eye around the room
trying to think how he could bring up the topic of her and Jon’s sudden
coldness.  “Did Jon tell you that he bought this house for us?” he finally
asked.

“Yes, Irene mentioned it.”

“When I asked Jon where he got the money, he just told us
that he sold some silly trinket that he had been given.  Must have been some
expensive charm…”

“The fleet medal, the Aurelius Star Cluster,” Sofia decided
to confide in Jon’s father.  It bothered her a little that Jon’s parents did
not seem to be aware of the sacrifice that their son made for them. 

Ryan’s eyes went wide at the news.  “Sounds important,” he
whistled.  “I hope Jon does not get into any trouble if anyone ever finds out.”

“I’m sure that daddy would have been furious if he
discovered that Jon had sold the award,” Sofia explained.  “But I think, secretly
he would have approved, if he knew what Jon had done with the money.”

“Jon talked about your father a lot when he was last home,”
Ryan replied thoughtfully.  “At the time we did not know who he was, and Jon
was not forthcoming, but I knew that Jon respected him a great deal.  Jon
referred to him as one of the greatest men that he had ever known and I know
that Jon is devastated about his death.  He blames himself for not doing
enough, not being able to protect him.”  Deciding to change the topic slightly,
Ryan added. “I remember one of Jon’s biggest regrets was not being able to meet
your mother.  He often told us how he would have loved to meet such a person
who could have captured your father’s heart so completely.  I think Jon thought
your mother must have been a pretty special woman.”

“Yes, she was,” Sofia replied.  Remembering the times as a
child when her mother would comb her hair and sing softly to her until she fell
asleep.  “I think my mother would have enjoyed meeting Jon too.  Aside from
her, Jon was the only person who could never be intimidated by my father. 

I remember one time when I was caught sneaking around the
ship, I liked to do that a lot.”  Sofia added with an impish grin.  “Father
threw an almighty tantrum, furious that I had sneaked out without an escort and
was proposing all sorts of terrible repercussions.  When Jon calmly placed
himself between my father and me and simply stated that the blame should lie
with him as he was in charge of seeing to my safety.  For almost an hour my
father belittled him, blamed him, cursed him, threatened every punishment under
the sun, from demotion through to treason and death.  He just stood there not
saying a word!  Finally my father collapsed into a chair exhausted and just
dismissed him, but still he stood there impassively and inquired as to
my
punishment. Faced with a possible death sentence and he was concerned about my
sentence!  I don’t think father knew what to say; he just dismissed us both. 
Aside from my mother, Jon is the only other person to stand-up to my father, on
my behalf.  I think everybody was secretly terrified of him, but not Jon.” 

Sofia remembered that incident clearly.  She had never seen
her father so angry and was terrified of the consequences, but Jon had
deflected his anger away from her.  Ever since then she had seen Jon in a new light,
somebody that she could trust, somebody that she knew she could rely upon to
protect her.  She had never felt so safe as she did when she was with Jon.

Ryan smiled at the story, finding it incredible to believe
that his son had stood up to Marcus Aurelius, the Emperor, all to protect this
young girl from his temper.  “Jon never spoke much about himself and his
exploits in the navy,” Ryan explained slowly. “I got the impression that his
life was very dangerous and he did not want us to worry…  His mother, Irene,
was constantly asking him if he had met anybody, I think she was hoping that he
would meet some girl, settle down and start a family of his own.  I remember
there was this one time…” Ryan explained, giving Sofia a knowing look, as she
was captivated by what he was saying.  “Irene pestered Jon endlessly about
whether he had met somebody.  Finally Jon capitulated and confessed that he had
met someone.”

Suddenly Sofia realised that she was no longer having fun. 
She had been spellbound hearing about her family from Jon’s own words to his
father, but she did not want to know about some fling, or even worse, a
permanent relationship that Jon was involved in.  She could feel a growing knot
in her stomach as Ryan repeated Jon’s words, describing this beautiful woman,
with flawless skin, beautiful eyes and the grace and manner of a Princess. 
Sofia could hear the words as if coming from Jon himself, conveying the love
and affection that he held for this woman.

As a clump of something cold and unpleasant landed in the
pit of Sofia’s stomach, she hesitantly asked, “Did Jon ever tell you her
name?”  While she did not know all the women on-board the
Imperial Star,
she
knew many of them, and counted a significant number as her friends.  Thinking
back she could not remember the number of times that her female friends
commented about the fetching Commander, she knew that more than one of them had
approached the Commander, but each one had been politely rebuffed.  At the time
she had felt relieved, jealous of any other woman sharing the Commander’s
attention, but unsure why.  Now she knew that most likely at least one of them
had caught his eye.

Surprised at the question, as Ryan was preparing to leave
the Princess to her thoughts, he shook his head in a negative.  At the
disappointed look from the Princess he did add. “The only other thing that he
mentioned was that she had flaming red hair, and eyes like the brightest
emeralds.”  With a smile in her direction, he left the room, closing the door
softly behind him.

He was talking about me!  He meant those beautiful words
for me!
  The thought sang through her mind.  As an Imperial Princess of the
Empire, Sofia had very little say in her own life.  Her time was strictly
scheduled for study and, or official ceremonies, for her to appear next to her
father.  Therefore Sofia had never had to make an important decision on her own
before.  Sofia sat down and thought long and hard for many hours about what
she
wanted
.  

*****

Jon had been waiting for some time at their usual place for
their training sessions, having laid out the practice mats some time earlier. 
However, now the sun was starting to hang low in the sky and still Sofia had
not appeared.  Sighing, Jon prepared to put the mats away and call it quits for
the evening.  Jon was surprised to regret the end of their training sessions
together.  While Sofia had said almost nothing after their first day, he missed
at least being able to spend some time with her, being able to touch her.  Blinking
back the sweat from his eyes, Jon was surprised to see her approaching in the
late afternoon light.  Dressed in her usual workout clothes of a T-shirt and
jeans, with her hair tied back in a braid, Jon tried to work out what seemed
different about her.  Finally he realised that she was looking him in the eye,
not diverting her gaze like she had for the past few days, and her smile… her
smile lit-up her entire face, reaching into her eyes which seemed to glow with
an inner warmth.  Jon swallowed deeply.  Forget repairing the energy grid for
the shuttle, Sofia was emitting enough energy to fly the
‘Light
halfway
across the galaxy by herself.  As she approached, Jon took a self-conscious
step backwards unsure of the reason for the dramatic change.

“Sorry I am late,” Sofia uttered as she arrived at the
practice mat, shooting Jon a smile that rooted him to the spot.

“What do you want to practice today?” he asked, reluctant to
bring up the reason for her good mood and jinx it.  God, how he had missed her
smile! 

“Let’s practice hand-to-hand, you know physical contact,”
she stated giving Jon a look that, hot damn, was almost predatory if he had not
imagined it.

“Ugh, sure,” he replied.  Totally off-balance by her sudden
about turn in mood, wondering suspiciously if this was a ploy to get him off
balance for their practice session…in which case, Jon admitted to himself, it
was working terrifically well. 

Both antagonists dropping into a basic combat stance, which
Jon had painstakingly taught to Sofia, they observed each other closely.  Which
was to say that Jon was observing her sparking eyes and warm smile…when Sofia
darted a quick blow to his torso, which, frantically, Jon only just managed to
block in time.  After that Jon decided it was safer to focus on her hands and
feet than other more alluring parts of her body to focus his gaze on.  As they
fought within the tight confines of the training mat, Jon came to some quick
conclusions. 

First, that she was an outstandingly able student and had
been paying close attention, as he fought to defect blows to his face, torso,
groin and legs in rapid succession.  Second, that Sofia was toying with him!  Sure,
she was an outstanding student, but she was not following through with her
blows and instead of identifying a weak-spot in his defence and focusing on it…
she was playing.  Suddenly it struck Jon that Sofia was not intent on actually
hurting him, but was…enjoying herself! 

With that realisation for the first time in many days, Jon
allowed his posture and body to relax and he found himself returning the
smile.  Deciding that she was not the only one allowed to enjoy herself, the
next jab, that had ever so slightly too much weight behind, he caught her wrist
and spun her around, sliding her body into his chest, regretting once again
that he had decided to wear a shirt, as he enjoyed the feel of her against his
bare chest. 

Twisting her head around to meet his gaze, eyes sparking she
exclaimed, “You never taught me that move!”

Jon just laughed and replied. “I cannot give away all my
secrets now can I?”

However, it was obvious that Sofia was not beyond
improvising a little herself, as, while Jon’s attention was once again solely
on her face, she jabbed a sharp elbow into his chest.  Not enough to hurt, but
enough for him to loosen his grip on her, enough for her to slide out of his
grasp.  Taking a step back, the two opponents allowed themselves to catch their
breath.

“How about we make this more interesting, a bet on who wins
the next round?” Sofia challenged, eyes sparkling in anticipation.

“I don’t know,” Jon confessed, “What are we going to bet
on?”

“Whatever you want,” she shot back.

Jon, who had already worked up a heavy sweat, felt his body
temperature shoot up by a further ten degree’s upon her response.  A thousand
thoughts, all lustful, poured forth from his imagination into his mind and he
had to fight to control his bodies response.  Taking a deep breath to calm his
overactive imagination, Jon thought quickly.  While Sofia was an outstanding
student, even with her slight advantage in terms of speed she was never going
to best him, Jon had spent almost the past ten years in combat of one form or
another, continually honing his fighting skills.  Hence he would put on a good
show, perhaps even let Sofia think she had the edge, before making it seem like
he only just won…and the wager.  Pushing to the back of his mind all the
delirious thoughts of what he wanted, especially when she stood there in-front
of him, hot, sweaty and glowing…Well he would just make some silly requirement
that, that… she never cut her hair, or something… Decision made he nodded his
head in agreement and stepped back into his combat stance.

Sofia once again attacked, harder and faster than before. 
Jon had to focus a great deal of his concentration into blocking her attacks. 
Occasionally, when he saw an opening, he quickly counter attacked to make it
seem like he was at least trying.  Finally after a good few minutes of sparring
and both opponents starting to get tired, Jon finally started to look for an
opportunity to finish the match.  However, before he could, he saw Sofia take a
step off the practice mat, instantly slipping. He saw her startled expression
and tried to lunge to catch her.  Unfortunately he was just too far away and
off balance, with a startled cry Sofia fell heavily onto the mat, her ankle at
a bad angle and was still. Worried that Sofia could have badly hurt her ankle
with the fall he hurried over to make sure that she was unhurt.

Before Jon knew what was happening, his legs went out from
underneath him and completely unprepared, he hit the mat, hard.  All the air
fled from his lungs and Jon desperately tried to catch his breath, but before
he could a soft but heavy weight landed on his chest and a vicious elbow was
shoved into his throat.  Lifting his head off the ground, Jon stared into a
pair of triumphant green eyes.

“I win,” she exclaimed victoriously.

“You
cheated
!” Jon replied, experimentally trying to
move his body to see if he could dislodge her.  However, the moment Sofia felt
him starting to move she jabbed her elbow deeper into his throat.  Anyway Jon
quickly discovered that movement was a bad idea, as most of Sofia’s weight was
spread across his lower chest and…groin.  Her weight combined with his movement
was causing… other parts of his body to become excited.  Laying his head back
on the ground in defeat, he sighed deeply before realising the implications of
losing.  He had never seriously considered losing the wager and had not given
any thought to what she might demand, after all she had insisted
anything
...