Pax Imperia (The Redemption Trilogy) (28 page)

Suddenly, like a door opening in her mind, she recognised the name of the Senator with whom Jon was dancing. While the family name of Aurelius was not uncommon, it was only while watching the pair Sarah realised this must be the daughter of the late Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. No wonder Jon had recognised her. While Sarah was busy with her studies at the Academy, she had heard the story of their escape and their subsequent flight together across half the Imperium to Eden Prime. Many of the news data-nets at the time had remarked at the miraculous escape, but watching the two together she realised it was nothing of the sort. For Sarah could clearly see, in the way Jon unabashedly stared at this woman, the love he held for her. Jon would never have allowed any harm to befall her, not while she was under his protection.

As it became obvious the couple were about to kiss she turned away, not wishing to intrude on such a private moment, although they already had most of the Senate as keen observers. While everybody else was too busy surreptitiously observing the couple, Sarah slipped out of the door and made her way to the small apartment she shared with Jon.

*****

As Jon’s eyes slowly opened, the first thing he saw was Sofia staring steadily back at him, her eyes open wide in helpless yearning and for a moment in time everything seemed to come to a standstill, and he could not tear his gaze away from her. He bent his head and paused just above her mouth so that their breath mingled. She, in turn, licked her lips, as if in invitation for a kiss, making no move to back away. He could feel her warm breath and smell the scent of her hair, and he wondered how he had ever lasted so long without her touch. Unfortunately, it was at that moment time decided to resume its normal pace, and the music and couples twirling around them intruded once again into their own private world. Sofia also remembered where they were and pulled away, right out of his embrace, leaving him feeling cold and bereft.

“Sofia wait,” he called after her rapidly retreating figure, hurrying in a desperate attempt to catch up with her before he lost her all together, for the second time in his life.

Fortunately she had not managed to get far before he caught up and grabbed her by the arm to stop her escape. She spun around to face him once again, eyes flashing with anger.

“Leave me alone. Have you not hurt me enough already? Did you think you were just going to waltz back into my life? You might not have noticed, but I have my own life now. I’m no longer that naïve girl you pulled off the
Imperial Star
. Now leave me alone.”

Jon took a step back, as if she had just slapped him, but then, with grim determination, pressed ahead anyway. “If you will just give me one minute to explain?”

“Explain how you tripped and accidently stuck your tongue down that woman’s throat? How you had dropped something and were innocently looking for it
up her skirt!
” Sofia cried out, drawing more than one astonished gaze from the guests in the corridor.

“No, of course not,” Jon stuttered, red faced with embarrassment. “Look, can we go somewhere a little more private to discuss this?”

Sofia looked at him as if he had just grown a second head, before replying. “If you think I am going anywhere with you, alone, you can think again.” With that she turned her back on him, striding determinedly in the direction of the residential apartments.

“Sofia, please wait? Give me a minute to explain,” he called, exasperatedly, after her.

“I have an early start tomorrow,” she called back. “I am an important person now. I am busy and have responsibilities. People depend on me.” However, his next words caused her to stop dead in her tracks.

“You are just like your father. Always using your responsibility as an excuse. How many times did I hear your father say exactly the same thing?”

“Don’t you dare speak about my father like that,” she uttered, quietly furious, her hands clenched in fists of rage. “You know nothing about him. While my father had many responsibilities, he always knew what was most important. He never missed a single anniversary, always spared the time to be with me on my birthday and my father always remembered the anniversary of my mother’s death. He was a great man and I will not have you speak ill of him.”

Jon stopped a few feet in front of Sofia, looking at her with his penetrating grey eyes. “Your father was the Imperial Emperor. He ruled over more than a hundred star systems, billions of people, and he was responsible for them all. Yes, he was a great man but he was not perfect. It was not him that remembered every single one of those occasions that you speak of.”

Sofia took a step back, suddenly unsure of herself, as if a cornerstone of her life seemed to suddenly tilt and twist erratically. In all the years that she had known this man, he had never lied to her, not once. “But I don’t understand,” she said, confused. “He was there every time I needed him most. He always brought me the most beautiful gifts, knew me better than anybody else alive, except perhaps—” Her voice trailing off as she stared at Jon in a new light. “It was you wasn’t it?” she breathed.

Jon looked away, suddenly embarrassed, not having meant for her to find out that particular secret. “You are right, your father was a great man,” Jon explained quietly. “But he was only a man and he constantly had the weight of the Empire on his shoulders. I did what I could to help him, to help you, by keeping those days free for him to spend with you.”

“And all those gifts that he brought me?” she pressed.

“I gave them to him, to give to you,” Jon confessed. “He would have got them himself. You were the most important thing in his life, but—”

“—he didn’t have the time,” Sofia finished the sentence for him.

Jon just nodded resignedly.

“Then I will consider that the time he spent with me as his gift and the others as having come from you. Thank you for all of those beautiful things.”

“You are welcome,” Jon replied, his lips upturned in a smile. “Anyway, I cannot take all of the credit, as many of those gifts I enjoyed just as much as you did. I particularly remember that long, backless blue Louvettan-style dress I bought you. I remember thinking you would look beautiful in it.” He reached out to touch her cheek deftly while giving her an achingly sweet smile. “You were more beautiful wearing it than I could have ever imagined.”

Sofia’s breath caught in her throat, as she observed the way he was gazing at her, as if she were the most precious thing in his world. Making a snap decision, she turned her back on him and took a few steps away. Noticing he had not moved to follow her, she stopped, turning back to face him before offering him her arm. “Aren’t you coming? I thought you said you wanted to talk. My responsibilities can wait, as tonight I suddenly find myself free.”

*****

Sarah breezed past yet another armed guard as effortlessly as a breath of fresh air. She made her way deeper into the Senate building, where the offices for the various Senators and their aides were located; a restricted area, and therefore strictly off limits to anybody else—including her. Fortunately there was very little need for her to sneak around, as the body suit she wore refracted all light around her, making her, for all practical purposes, invisible. Not for the first time she had to come to a complete stop as a guard swung around and pinned her with his penetrating stare. Sarah stopped breathing, trying to make herself as still as the wall she was standing in front of. She was absolutely certain the guard could not see her. The suit was the latest model from the research labs of Naval Intelligence.

It was so secret that very few people, even within Naval Intelligence, knew about it. That was one of the strange paradoxes of working in intelligence circles, where there were even secrets contained within secrets.

So why was this guard staring directly at her? Standing stock-still Sarah took the opportunity to study him, from his piercing blue eyes, blond hair, fantastic chest and abs, which made her drool at the thought of being manhandled by him as he arrested her for trespassing. What was even more disturbing was that all the guards she passed had been fully alert, almost as if they had been forewarned of her arrival. Furthermore all were prime human male specimens, so much so that it just made Sarah want to linger as she slipped past them. Whatever happened to the bored, half-asleep, chain-smoking, ex-cops that were usually employed in such places? Instead this bunch looked fit, mean, alert and armed to the teeth. They seemed fully capable of starting a small war, and finishing it.

After several seconds the guard seemed to lose interest and continued on his rounds. But luckily Sarah remained rooted to the spot as, after several steps farther, the guard once again stopped, swinging his gaze in a full three-hundred and sixty degree glance of his surroundings. Confident that nothing seemed to be out of place, he holstered the pistol in his hand and continued on, constantly checking everything and everywhere. Sarah let out the breath she had been subconsciously holding, having almost been caught out by the guard’s manoeuvre.

Seriously, who were these guys? She had broken into top-secret, illegal research facilities with less trouble than it was taking to make one round of this place.

Finally arriving at her destination, and after checking that no more super-guards were in sight, she quickly entered the security code supplied by Naval Intelligence to bypass the lock and slipped into the room.

It only took her a couple of minutes to expertly toss the office, leaving not a single trace of her presence behind, and to discover the information she was looking for was not contained on any datapads littering the office. Hardly surprising, since if you were in the process of committing treason by plotting a military coup against the Confederation, you were unlikely to leave proof lying around. She moved to the wall safe hidden behind the picture of the Senate building. While the safe was an archaic throwback to the past, it was equally as effective as its technological replacements. Sarah cursed quietly as she tried to crack the code; unfortunately this was one code that her superiors had been unable to obtain. It was easier said than done when she could not even see her own hands, as the research labs had yet to invent an invisibility suit that the wearer could see. With a nervous glance around to ensure she was still alone, she powered off the suit. This of course had the unfortunate side effect of no longer refracting the light around her body, leaving her as naked as the day she was born.

*****

It was late in the evening when Jon led Sofia from the Senate, the sun having set many hours before. However it was a clear night, with the moon and stars shining brightly, therefore still easy to see by.

“Where are we going?” Sofia asked nervously. Considering her upbringing she had never sneaked out with a boy before and found the thought of doing so quite exhilarating.

“We are almost there,” he reassured her, leading her around the building, finally coming to a stop at the beginning of a wide path leading away from the Senate. A wide vista of grass, lakes and magnificent trees spread out before them in the moonlight.

“The Senate Park?” she asked in surprise. “I’ve been here occasionally, but only during the day. I hear it’s not entirely safe after dark.”

Jon looked at her in amusement. “After escaping from traitorous Admirals, fighting off cutthroat mercenaries and actively participating, if not starting, a brawl in a club on Altair, now you are afraid of the dark? Anyway, you are with me and I will keep you perfectly safe. Trust me,” he reassured her.

In the end it was not armed assailants or hatchet wielding maniacs who thwarted the pair, but something far more mundane—her high-heeled shoes. After catching her for the second time, he stopped and surprised her by dropping to one knee in front of her.

“Jon?”

He gently took hold of one of her ankles and, after she put her hand on his shoulder to steady herself, unbuckled the shoe and slipped it off her foot. Sofia sighed as she stepped flat on the thick grass.

"Oh, that's nice."

He lifted his chin to look up at her and smiled sensually. Then he tapped her other ankle and she shifted her weight so that he could unbuckle that one as well. With both feet free of her torturous shoes, he stood and picked them up, hooking the back straps over his fingers to carry them at his side.

By the time he had finished, standing so close to her she could feel the heat radiating from his body in the cool evening air, Sofia was struggling to contain the rush of desire that was pooling inside of her. “Thank you,” she breathed, taking a step closer to him to press herself against his chest. “You were always the most kind, considerate and thoughtful—” She trailed off and stood, open mouthed, as Jon casually tossed both shoes into the lake next to them. Watching helplessly as her favourite pair of shoes disappeared into the dark, still waters to swim with the fishes. “You god damn, arrogant, selfish, son-of-a-bitch. Those were my favourite shoes,” she cried out, completely forgetting her earlier opinion of him.

“Really you should be thanking me,” he smirked. “They looked like instruments of torture.”

Giving one final despairing look at where her shoes had sunk into the depths, she turned her angry stare back on Jon. “So now that we are finally alone, what did you want to talk about?”

“Uh, well you see, I wanted to explain…” Jon trailed off, now that he did finally have her alone, he was unsure what to actually say.

Recognising his uncertainty, she said, “Why don’t I start off then? As I certainly know what I want to do,” she breathed, leaning into him. “I have dreamed about this for years, ever since your sudden, abrupt departure last time.”

“You have?” he replied in surprise, observing her eyes darken as she seemed fixated on his lips, her warm breath caressing his face.

“Oh yes,” she breathed throatily, her lips hovering just over his.

Jon could not believe his good fortune, as his eyes fluttered shut, leaning forward into the kiss, his body yearning for her touch. Wondering if her lips were just as soft as he remembered…