She laughed, tossing the flower onto the path behind them. “You are a strange man, Julius. I have seen you with them, remember? You can be as arrogant as a king, as arrogant as I am myself. We are well suited to one another, though I think you would not like the slow pace of existence here. My country has seen five thousand years of life and death. We have grown old and tired under this sun and your men are young in comparison. They have the energy of youth and think nothing of running through lands like a summer storm. It is a frightening thing to see, in comparison to my sleepy Alexandria, yet I love it.”

She turned to face him, her nearness intoxicating. Without thinking, he reached out and held her by her slim waist.

“My advisers warn me daily that you are too dangerous to remain in Egypt,” she said. “They see the lust and the strength and nothing else in your men. They remind me that you burned my beautiful library and your soldiers laughed and played dice in the ashes.”

“They are fighting men,” Julius replied. “You cannot expect—”

Her laughter silenced him and a slow blush appeared on his cheeks and neck.

“You are so quick to defend them!” she said. She reached up and kissed the underside of his jaw and laid her head against his chest.

“My advisers do not rule here,” she said, “and they have no answer when I tell them you returned Cyprus to us. That was not the act of a destroyer. It gained you great good will amongst my people. They saw it as a sign that the old glories are on the rise again. They watch us and wait to see what we will accomplish together.”

Julius did not want to spoil the mood, but he had to speak. “There will come a time when I have to return to my city,” he said. “I will wait until the funeral is finished for your brother, but I must go back.”

She lifted her head and looked into his eyes with a troubled gaze. He could feel her distance herself from him. “This is what you want?” she said, her voice revealing nothing of her thoughts.

Julius shook his head. “No. I want to stay here and forget the years of battle. I want you at my side.”

The tension vanished from her as if it had not been there. She reached up and brought his head down to her scented mouth.

When they broke apart, her face was as flushed as his and her eyes were bright.