The Last Praetorian (28 page)

As they reached the front of the queue, Sofia turned around
and reminded Jon. “Don’t forget that you own me a dance.” 

Jon only smiled, he had not forgotten. 

*****

The club was absolutely packed when they finally made it
inside; finding a table was out of the question – and anyway with the deafening
noise and stifling heat it would have been pointless.  Instead Jon slid an arm
around Sofia’s waist, much to her delight and shouted loudly into her ear, to
be heard above the music, the directions to the open-air patio.  Once they
finally managed to push through the crowds and out into the open, Sofia gasped
in delight.  The view was as spectacular as Jon had remembered it, with
Carrington city spread across to the right, but the bay spreading out in a
panorama directly in front of them.

By the time they had managed to reach the outside patio the
music had transitioned into something softer and slower and much more suited to
the hot night.  As she felt Jon hesitating behind her, she spun around to look
at him.

Playfully tugging his arm Sofia pulled him forward, until
his body brushed up and down hers.  “Not so fast,” she said.  “You promised
you’d dance with me.”

Jon gazed down at Sofia and tried to pinpoint the exact
moment when he felt out of his depth.  He was thinking he had things under
control.  Now, suddenly, he found himself looping his arms loosely around
Sofia’s waist, and what a fantastic waist it was too, as she danced him
backward onto the middle of the patio.

Dammit, she would want more than one dance
, Jon
thought to himself resignedly.

Then again, seeing that he suddenly had no idea what he was
doing, maybe he should just surrender to her.  The thought of surrendering to
Sofia took on a way too erotic connotation then, so he set the thought aside
and tried to concentrate on something else.  Unfortunately, his concentration
seemed to be intent on erotic thoughts this evening, and they kept zeroing in
on things they had no business targeting. Like how warm and silky was the bare
flesh above Sofia’s skirt that his fingertips encountered when he settled his
hands on her hips. Like how good she smelled up close this way, sweet and
decadent and tempting.  Like how fluid and natural her movements were when she
propelled her body forward into his again.  Like how unspeakably lovely her
eyes were when she glanced up to see how he was doing.

Like how he wondered what she would do if he kissed her.

“Getting the hang of things, Jon?” she asked as she executed
a stunning twirl that offered him quite a nice view of her back.

“Oh, yeah,” he replied, the words coming out a bit rougher
than he intended. “I’m getting the hang of things really well.”

She laughed with genuine delight, oblivious to the fact that
the two of them were talking about entirely different things.

“I knew you’d be a good dancer,” she said, spinning closer
still.

“How did you know that?”

“I notice more than you think, Jon.”

“I don’t doubt that for a moment.  Something tells me you
miss very little.”

“And you don’t miss a thing,” she responded, reeling and
darting around Jon with the grace of a summer breeze, chuckling good-naturedly
at his obvious and total confusion.

Before he realised his own intentions, he snaked an arm out
to halt her, pulling her to him until her body was flush against his.

Then the strangest thing happened.  Although the music kept
playing, faster and faster, and the dancers surrounding them still pranced and
staggered merrily about, the world enclosing them gradually slowed down to a
halt.  So Jon slowed down with it, spinning Sofia in a gradually more tight
circle, pulling her closer with every turn, until the two of them stood utterly
still at the centre of the dance floor.

And then, although he never planned to do it, he leaned
forward to kiss her... only to be abruptly swung around by a firm hand on his
shoulder! 

His mind still full of her scent and the feel of her pressed
up against his hard body he was slow to respond to the abrupt change of
events.  Trying to blink away the fog that surrounded his mind, he came face to
face with a very angry pair of cerulean blue eyes.

“You have some nerve to come back here, Radec!  After the
stunt that you pulled last time!”  Following his gaze, down from the eyes he
recognised a hard chiselled face, and the powerful body of somebody used to
hard labour.  Eyes blinking in the darkness he noticed a number of other
indistinct shapes, hovering in the darkness behind.  The realisation hit him
like a thunderbolt.

“Jack Stanton!” he exclaimed, “with family.”  Recognising
the other brothers as they stepped forward.  “For crying out loud, it’s been over
ten years!  Have you not got over this yet?”

“You broke little Becky’s heart,” Jack exclaimed angrily.

“You sure this is not more about your wounded pride, when I
took exception to you and your brothers using me for a punching bag?  By the
way are you not missing one?  I only count four, I hope you didn’t lose James
on the way over…”

“Excuse me!” an angry voice exclaimed, interrupting their
little jaunt down memory lane.  Sofia stared in complete bewilderment at the
group that had just interrupted their dance. 
And we were just about to get
to the best part!
Sofia wailed, stamping her foot in frustration.  “Who are
you?” she demanded turning her displeasure on Jack, “and more importantly who
is Becky?” She demanded giving Jon a furious gaze. 
Seriously, before this
night is out I am going to get a full list of all Jon’s previous relationships,
chronologically.
Sofia decided angrily. 

Jon had completely forgotten about Sofia, so caught up in
the surprise of seeing Jack and his brother’s again. “Becky was…” at an angry
gaze from Jack, Jon corrected, “…is Jack’s younger sister, we dated, briefly,
during college,” Jon explained.

“You broke her heart!”

“Oh come off it,” Jon scoffed.  “Becky had her heart broken
once a week, but it must have repaired itself just as quickly as usually by the
next week she had hooked up with whoever the new guy was.  Jack and his
brothers took exception to this and decided to use me as a punching bag.  We’ll
I don’t like being a punching bag,” Jon insisted with a dark look.  “Anyway, it
looks like most of the bones healed fine in the end,” Jon grinned.

Sofia was about to propose that they take up this discussion
at a later, well… date, as she was much more interested in continuing off where
they had just been interrupted.  However, before she could intervene a massive
forearm encircled her around the waist, pulling her back against an equally
massive chest.

“Hey little lady, why don’t you find yourself a
real man
,
instead with hanging out with this piece-of-crap,” an equally massive voice
boomed out from above Sofia.

Sofia was more surprised than frightened, and while Jon had
an extremely pissed off expression, it was more anger about somebody
man-handling her, than the cold hard,
I am about to kill everybody in the
room
expression that she had come to recognise on his face when he was
deadly
serious about something.  “This is their youngest brother?” Sofia exclaimed in
surprise, encased by the massive body.

“Yeah well, Bill Stanton was a monster himself.  Not that I
would be surprised if a couple here are half-brothers, as I understand his wife
must have laid with half of Carrington city.  The male half that is…” Jon added
with a smirk, purposely ignoring the fact that Jack had gone completely
red-faced at the comment and was cursing a mean streak at him.

Sofia just sighed to herself, wondering what it was about
Jon that meant he always had to have the last word. Anyway Jon was a big boy
and could look after himself.  After giving him a reassuring look that she was
fine, she turned back towards the monster that had her surrounded.  Stroking
him softly on the chest, she looked up into his eyes and cooed. “You mean a
real man, like you…
James.”

Staring down, wide-eyed, at the stunning woman that was
pressed softly against his hard chest, he was just able to make out the slight
swell of a breast, encased in a silky emerald blouse; James could hardly
believe his luck!  He was still staring at her in complete rapture, when she
added.  “And who do you think you are calling
little
?” she demanded,
slamming her knee straight into his groin.  James’s eyes just rolled up into
his eyelids and he collapsed onto the floor like a house of cards, hands to his
groin, whimpering like a baby.  Satisfied that he would not be going anywhere
in the near future, Sofia turned around to see if Jon required any assistance.

Jon meanwhile had everything under control, ducking under
the ridiculously telegraphed swing from Jack and hammering his own fist into
the other man’s stomach!  Jon could feel the wind rush out from his lungs, and
with a wheeze he collapsed onto the floor.  Jon however, was not standing idle,
already sidestepping a vicious punch from one of the other brothers.  With a
vicious kick of his own leg, targeted at the brother’s thigh, there was a loud
crack as bone snapped and he too fell to the floor in a howl of pain.  Ducking
under a haymaker that would have taken his head-off, he quickly glanced around
to notice that Sofia had disabled her own opponent.  Momentarily glad that
their days of training had paid off he caught her by the hand and quickly
stated. “Sorry I think we will have to leave dancing for another time.  Back
the way we came, left at the bar there is a back door.”  He stated breathlessly
pushing her back indoors, ahead of him, into the packed crowd.

“You seem to know
this
club, particularly well.”

“Well I must confess, this is not the first time I have been
here.”

“I see, and did you need to make a quick exit, out the back
door, during those visits too?” Sofia inquired, pushing her way through the
crowd.

“Not every time,” Jon replied noticing that the other
brothers were gaining on them, simply by shoving other patrons of the club out
of their way. 

Deciding that he needed to buy the two of them a little more
time, he grabbed the two nearest clubbers, shoving them in the direction of the
brothers and screamed out aloud, over the music. “Fight!” pointing in the
direction of the brothers.  As is often the case every head turned in the
direction of the yell.  What Jon saw was the brothers push the two clubbers out
of their way.  Of course, everybody else saw it as a challenge and piled in. 
Before they knew what was happening the brothers were buried under a mountain
of bodies, with fists flying everywhere.  Out of the corner of his eye he
noticed Security descending onto the dance floor to break up the fight. 

Pushing Sofia in the direction of the back door, he
instructed her. “Wait for me outside, I won’t be long.  I just want to make
sure that the gang of five…” he motioned over his shoulder, “don’t have any
plans for chasing us across Carrington city tonight.”

Nodding her head in understanding, Sofia pushed open the
back door, hurrying out into the night.  Sofia was amazed at how undeveloped
everything on Altair was, from the old manual swing doors, to public
transportation that still ran on a combustion engine with fossil fuels.  Sofia
shook her head in disbelief that having come from this planet, Jon could even
recognise a computer, let alone use one!

Glancing around, realising that she was in some sort of
enclosed yard, noticing the bins in a corner overflowing with trash she just
rolled her eyes in disbelief.  She wondered for a brief instant if they still
buried trash on Altair; everywhere else
everything
was recycled or reused. 

Realising that it was not the best idea to be standing
directly in front of the exit, Sofia noticed a gap in the wall next to the
trash, and hurried through, glancing left and right she found herself in a
narrow alley running along the side of the club.  After a further few meters,
she found another alley intersecting that one and ducked down this side alley. 
Finally out of sight, Sofia leaned against the wall to catch her breath, trying
to suppress a laugh. 
That was fun!

Trying to remember the last time that she had such fun,
giggling, she decided that the time she sneaked into Jon’s apartment and caught
him bare-chested had been almost as fun.  However, her introspection was
suddenly cut short when she heard footsteps hurrying down the alley after her. 
Tensing her body, she waited for exactly, the, right…moment.  As the body
flashed past, she timed her moment spectacularly catching him by the wrist,
using his own momentum against him to slam him up against the wall, knocking
the wind out of him.  To be doubly sure she also kicked him in the groin,
hard.  Only to look up, into the misty grey, wide-eyed expression of Jon, staring
at her in complete astonishment.

“Whoops, sorry!” she giggled out, high on excitement and
adrenaline.  Jon did not say a word. Just slid slowly down the wall, whimpering
painfully as pain radiated out of every pore of his body.

It was quite some time later, when Sofia helped Jon back to
his feet, after profusely apologising for hitting him so hard, assuring him
that she thought he was one of the brothers chasing after her.

Finally being able to see straight, breathe, and not being
totally incapacitated by the pain radiating from his groin, he looked up into
Sofia’s eyes and his breath caught in his throat.  She was absolutely glowing;
her hair a crimson red, her eyes sparking like the brightest jewels, and her
skin, while covered in sweat, was gleaming from the starlight.  She was like an
angel, descended from the heavens; Jon had never seen anything so beautiful in
his life.

As if via a magnet, he was drawn to her bright red, soft,
lips. He dipped his head forward, Sofia tipped hers back, and oh, so slowly, he
covered her mouth with his.  Her lips opened easily beneath his, and the taste
of her filled him, nourished him, intoxicated him.  But it didn’t quite satisfy
him.  Instead, the kiss only inflamed his appetite, making him hunger for more
of her than he could ever hope to have.  Despite that, he deepened the kiss,
cupping her face in his hands, tilting her head back further, plundering her
mouth at will.  Sofia was not passive through all of it, instead curling one
hand around his neck, running the fingers of her other through his hair
greedily.  She returned his kisses with equal fervour, equal finesse, and equal
fire.  For the life of him, he simply could not let her go.