Read Praetorian Series [3] A Hunter and His Legion for Free Online Page B

she’d been gone.  I’d just about drifted into sleep during that time, but it was the noise from the tent’s zipper being closed that roused me awake, and I lifted my head and peeked through droopy eyelids to see Helena standing before me, gazing down at me.  She stood with her hands on her hips and looked at me without betraying her emotions, so I lowered my head back to my pillow of bunched up clothing.
    “Find a good place to hide it?”  I asked.
    “Find a good place to hide what, Jacob?”  She asked.
    I lifted my head again.  “The o…”
    “A good place to hide… what , Jacob?”  She asked insistently.
    I smiled.  “Never mind then.”
    She smiled back and I found myself staring at her as she stood there in her loose shirt that looked more like an exceptionally short dress, the scar on her leg barely even noticeable now.  She cocked her head coyly at my inspection and placed her hands on her thighs, and slid them up past her hips to rest along her waist.
    “See something you like, Lieutenant?”   She asked.
    My grin widened .  “Maybe.”
    She raised her chin and looked at me with smoldering eyes , and reached under her shirt with both hands before slowly lowering them, her shorts coming down with them.  She kicked her shorts in my direction but I managed to dodge them.  She took a step forward and lowered herself to the ground, positioning herself over me so that she could lean down and kiss me while I reached up to comb a hand through her hair.
    She pulled away and kissed my nose before gazing softly at me.
    “Feel better?”  She asked.
    “You always did know how to cheer me up,” I answered.  “Even if it’s doing something as simple as taking my mind off of a time traveling blue ball that also has the power to warp people’s minds and turn them into raving…”
    She interrupted me by lowering herself beside me on my good side and moving her hand to unbuckle my belt.  She looked at me as she worked, her eyes filled with annoyance, but she didn’t stop what she was doing. 
    I lowered my head back agai nst my pillow and smiled.   “Never mind.  I’ll just shut up now.  Keep doing what you’re doing.”
     
     
     
    II
    Para doxes
     
    Outskirts of Damascus, Syria,
    October, 42 A.D.
     
    I woke the next morning as hap py as I’d felt in a long time.
    The last time Helena and I had shared such intimacy without the world crashing down around us in one form or another had been that one wonderful night in Byzantium when we’d settled our differences and I’d given her an apology gift in the form of a necklace.  Helena liked to think that had been the moment when we’d conceived our child as well, but she wasn’t quite sure.  We’d had a few other opportunities to succeed at such a thing since then, but Helena, unlike me, had a bit of a romantic streak in her.
    I stretched out my arms around my head and extended my right arm to pull Helena in close, but all it met was air.  I opened m y eyes and noticed she was gone, and tried to think of where she could possibly be, but then I remembered she had LP/OP duty from six to one today.  I glanced at my watch and noticed with wide eyes that it was almost noon.  I bolted upright as quickly as my damaged flank would allow me and got dressed.
    I found my favorite pair of smiley faced boxer shorts first and gave them a quick sniff.  They smelled fine enough, so I slipped them on before retrieving my mulitcam patterned combat fatigues and stepped into those as well.  Lastly, I clipped on my web belt that held my pistol’s thigh holster and secured that around my leg.  Deciding I didn’t really need a shirt, and since I couldn’t immediately see one anyway, I retrieved my pistol, slipped it into place, and stepped out into the late morning sun.
    It was a hot morning, and the sun glared brilliantly from high above.  I held out an arm to shield my eyes as I allowed them to grow accustomed to its intensity, and reached into a