by Lee Abrey
Now I was out of the army, I wasn’t at all sure I believed in the gods any more. However, in case they existed, I thanked them for giving me back my perfect life. It wasn’t really perfect, like those rugs with a deliberate imperfection wrought into the weave so the weaver can’t be accused of aping the gods. That was one of the sillier religious notions I’d read about. Aspire to be the best then deliberately do badly so your gods wouldn’t be offended.
My gods would never be that stupid. I laughed aloud at the thought, figuring if Thet existed he would be amused too, and breathed another plume of smoke into the sky. Beauty in our creations was a compliment to the gods, not a sign of hubris in people.
I couldn’t help wondering when Azrael would tell me what he’d bought with his munificence in getting me out early. I’d pay the price if I possibly could. If he wanted sex with me, could I do that? I was pretty sure not. I didn’t want to do him and didn’t think I could even lie there and take it.
Azrael said he was over me? I shook my head at the shining water. He wasn’t over me. He trembled when I was near and I could see him, biting his lip, willing me to kiss him. He hadn’t actually hit on me but it felt like only a matter of time.
It was only intuition at that point, intuition born from watching people in love, myself included, behave worse than idiots.
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END
To Be Continued in Polo Shawcross: Dragon Soldier
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About the Author
In real life, I’m Australian and currently live on the Gold Coast in Queensland.
This book and the last one Polo Shawcross: The Birthday Dragon are free, the second pair (Polo Shawcross: Dragon Skin and Polo Shawcross: Dragon Outlaw - the last 2 in the quartet) are not. But they’re still cheap. I’m raising money towards a printed version and working on some other books that have been waiting their turn while I finished this quartet.
Thanks for reading, it means a lot to me
Lee
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Notes on the Dedication:
Thanks to a military family and friends, growing up in a US R&R port, and an interest in things military, I have been lucky enough to meet an amazing number of old and young soldiers (and sailors, submariners, airmen, and marines). Many of them were special forces types (Australian, New Zealand and British SAS, US Seal Team 6 (UDT)).
All of them thought it quite normal to do completely crazy and impossible things before breakfast, (and more, thought it was fun) and were kind enough to share their stories (and laughter, and less often, their sorrow) with me. And (when we were about the same age) often their bodies. Polo would fit right in. And I’ll apologise to all the Military Police-people who are nothing like the ones I wrote about. Hey, you have Jack Reacher for a role model, everybody’s jealous.
Of course, once again, lives have been pillaged to provide local colour – Polo’s troubles as he tries to get into the army will be recognisable to most military types. My father nearly got kicked out of military college for having the same initials as a troublemaker. Thankfully, a sergeant stepped in and sorted the problem out, but the officers never admitted they had the wrong man.
So, for all the broken boys (and girls), all my love,
Lee
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Also By Lee Abrey and available as ebooks
Polo Shawcross: The Birthday Dragon
Polo Shawcross: Dragon Soldier
Polo Shawcross: Dragon Skin
Polo Shawcross: Dragon Outlaw
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You can read more or contact me at:
- Twitter @stinginthetail twitter.com/stinginthetail
- email at [email protected]
- I also blog at https://stinginthetail.wordpress.com/
My author page at Smashwords is at https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/shawcross
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