Cleopatra – Saara El – Arifi

For I had recognised the gladius blade and the hand that had wielded it. — I strode into Caesar’s chambers without announcing myself. “Cleopatra?” He sat up as if he had awoken from a deep slumber. His torso was bare. I did not let it distract me. “It was you.” For a moment he looked like he was about to deny it. An expression of manufactured confusion crossed his features.

His sword leaned against the wall in the corner. I removed it from its sheath. The hilt was still warm from his grip, and Pothinus’s blood had not yet dried on the blade. “You followed me.” He sighed and pulled the covers from the bed.

He wore a simple white loincloth. My gaze lingered by the contours of his hip bones, where material met muscle. With gentle hands he took the sword from me and placed it into the waistband of his loincloth. I imagined it was my hand and felt my skin grow hot.

If Caesar noticed, he took it for anger. “It wasn’t my intention to execute Pothinus, just an added benefit of my trip.” “I told you not to come.” “You expect me to allow you to walk into danger so readily?” He had drawn himself up, his muscles tightening, his jaw locking.

Here was Caesar the soldier. Commanding, unyielding, insufferable. And altogether intoxicating. “Allow?” I said incredulously. “You asked the impossible of me.” His anger was quiet. Simmering. I relished it. “I ask nothing of you.” He stepped towards me, until I could feel the heat of him. “Nothing?” If I had been bolder, I would have told him all the things I wanted from him.

But my courage only matured with time, and as it was, I could only say: “No.” His hand reached up to the nape of my neck, his touch tender. Where his fingers lingered, my skin turned warm. “Of all the things I would ask of you.”

His eyes moved to my lips and I found my breath stuttering in my chest. “Such as?” I whispered. “A kiss, if you would grant it.” My hands went to either side of his jaw, where the roughness of his beard met the olive of his skin. I leaned forward until we were a hair’s breadth apart. I could feel his breath on my face, shallow, hot. His eyes bored into mine, dark, pleading. The distance closed between us. I could not tell you if it was him or me who made the irrevocable move.

It was impossible to separate the need from the person. The kiss was gentle at first. Our lips parted, each of us savouring the other. But then it deepened and our bodies pressed together. I sense your thoughts: What of Calpurnia, his wife? Rome was a distant land, made even more distant by the immediate danger we lived in. We knew not if we would survive this war.

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ballantine books & colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. Published in the United Kingdom by The Borough Press, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers UK, London. Hardcover ISBN 9780593875643 Ebook ISBN 9780593875650 book team: Production editor: Loren Noveck • Managing editor: Pamela Alders • Production manager: Richard Elman • Proofreaders: Cyrus Chin, Jill Falzoi, and Tracy Roe Interior and cover illustrations by Sophie Dunster Cover design and illustration by Sarah Foster/HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd Cover images: Shutterstock The authorized representative in the EU for product safety and compliance is Penguin Random House Ireland, Morrison Chambers, 32 Nassau Street, Dublin D02 YH68, Ireland.

https://eu- contact.penguin.ie ep_prh_7.3a_155144341_c0_r0 1kitap1.com/en Contents Dedication Author’s Note Prologue Part One: The Witch Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Part Two: The Whore Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Part Three: The Villain Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Epilogue Acknowledgements Selected Bibliography About the Author 1kitap1.com/en For my mother, Karen El-Arifi, who taught me what it was to be a mother, wife and friend 1kitap1.com/en 1kitap1.com/en AUTHOR’S NOTE Ginestho [Let it be done] —Cleopatra A papyrus signed in Ancient Greek, believed by some archaeologists to be written by Cleopatra.

If so, it is the sole surviving entry of the Pharaoh’s voice in her own history. This is a true story. As true as any other biography of Cleopatra VII. Despite her being one of the most famous women in classical antiquity, we know very little about the life she led. The historians we have relied upon to tell her tale lived centuries after her death.

Plutarch—most likely Shakespeare’s predominant source for Antony and Cleopatra—captures one of the fullest accounts of her history in Life of Antonius and Life of Caesar, though his sources included his great-grandfather—who had never met the queen—and a deserter of Antonius’s army, Dellius. Mentions from her contemporaries are fleeting and rarely substantial.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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• Title: –
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• ISBN: 9780593875643, 9780593875650
• Pages: 352
• Language: English (en)

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