“I knew Hadrian wouldn’t be any use to me in bed,” Sabina said calmly. “So I thought you might show me the ropes. You certainly seemed like you’d know what to do… and I had a suspicion I might love you too, which was a bonus.”

“You have a funny way of showing it,” I snarled.

“Not really.” Her blue eyes were clear and guileless as she watched me pace back and forth. “I want to be in love as much as any girl, Vix. I just don’t want to be obligated by it. Hadrian as a husband won’t obligate me to anything, and you as a lover won’t either. Not since you’re going to the legions.”

Somehow that enraged more than anything she’d said yet. “I am not going to the bloody legions!”

“Yes, you are. It’s plain as the nose on your face. You’re what the legions are made of.” She rose, slipping her arms about my neck. “You’ll probably conquer us some new province, and the whole city will shout your name and shower you with rose petals.”

I reached up and gripped her wrists before she could come closer. “Stop that.”

“I’m not competing with that, Vix. I don’t even want to.”

“Shut up!”

“I don’t see why you’re so upset,” she pointed out. “I should be the one upset with you. Here I’ve just told you I love you, and you haven’t even been nice enough to say it back.”

“After you used me?” I growled.

“Who used who, Vix? I came to your room every night, bedded you, loved you, asked absolutely nothing in return. You seemed happy to get all you could.”

I ducked that one. “If you think I’m letting you set one foot in my room again—”

“I won’t come if you want,” she sighed. “Though I hope you’ll change your mind? It’s a month till my wedding, and I’d like to make the most of it.”

I wrenched away, pointing at her. “Sabina,” I yelled, using her name for once without feeling the least bit awkward, “I wouldn’t touch you now with a bloody pole!”

“I wonder where that saying comes from,” she mused. “Why a pole? What kind of pole? Why not a rod or a spar or a beam? I’ll have to look that up…”

She fished her scroll out of the frozen fountain and wandered away. I stared at her, fists clenching and unclenching at my sides, and I remembered something I’d overheard Hadrian say to the Empress. Sabina didn’t look anything like her beautiful snake of a mother, but she did have exactly the same way of gliding out of a room. Or in this case, a garden. She was welcome to glide right out of my life, the bitch. She and Hadrian deserved each other.