Max frowned. “Terrifying? I’d have guessed triumphant was the word you were looking for.”
“No,” Eden said, her gaze drifting back to the colossal shapes. “Because once you’re here, you realize the theories don’t matter. Whether it was a workforce of twenty thousand skilled laborers fed on royal grain, or the slave-drags the Greeks liked to imagine, or something else we can’t fathom. It doesn’t change the sheer ambition of the thing. It’s the finality of it, Max. They built this to last forever. What have we ever built that will last like this?”
Max followed her gaze, his expression softening. “We built a life, once,” he said, the words quiet and dangerously honest. “Or we started to.”
Eden felt the sting of it—the reminder of the years she’d spent replacing his presence with dusty Latin and Greek translations.
“We built a dream, Max,” she corrected, her voice trembling just slightly. “But dreams aren’t made of limestone. They don’t survive the wind.”
“Maybe not,” Max conceded, his eyes holding hers with a gravity that bridged the years. “But even the pyramids needed a foundation. I think we just stopped digging before we hit the bedrock.”
A ghost of a smile touched Eden’s lips. She enjoyed speaking with him in euphemisms. Was he saying that there was a chancethey could start over? That they might actually build something real now that they were older and knew what they wanted?
A voice cut through their reverie, sharp and condescending. “Lady Eden! Fancy seeing you here.” The figure was unmistakable: Sir Thaddeus Albright, with his wiry frame and self-important air. Was he going to keep showing up every single place she went? She was heartily sick of him already.
“Sir Thaddeus.” Eden greeted him with an aloof nod, already anticipating his barbs.
“A surprising place for a woman of your... delicate upbringing. Is this the extent of your... exploration?” His smile was patronizing, his gaze dismissive as it flitted to Max. “And I see you’ve bought your lapdog.”
Max’s expression hardened, the lightness gone from his eyes. “Isn’t there a cuneiform tablet you should be bungling?”
Albright bristled, his eyes narrowing. “I see your new companion has no manners.”
Max stepped closer, an imposing presence. “I’m not her companion, Albright. I’m her protection. And my manners are just fine, so long as you keep away from my client.”
For a moment, the two men were locked in a silent challenge. Albright finally sneered, turning on his heel. “Enjoy your excursion, Lady Eden. Do take care in the heat.”
They watched him stride away, his long shadow trailing behind him. Eden let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, a rueful smile tugging at her lips. “I believe I’m in your debt.”
Max shook his head. “I wouldn’t say that. I suspect you could’ve dispatched him quite handily yourself.”
“Perhaps,” she allowed, “but it’s always reassuring to have an ally.” He was the only man who’d ever championed her, and perhaps that was what she’d missed most of all. The worldlooked entirely different when you had someone on your side and didn’t have to navigate it alone.
He sighed and shook his head as he watched Albright walk away. “I fear he’s going to be a problem. He seems unduly interested in what you’re doing.”
Eden waved a dismissive hand. “If he’s the only obstacle in our path, I’ll count myself lucky.”
They continued toward the pyramids, the earlier interruption lingering between them like a storm just past. Max slowed his pace, matching hers as they navigated the desert’s uneven terrain.
They stopped again to gaze up at the Great Pyramid, its enormity humbling. Eden studied Max as he explained the recent excavations, the reverence in his tone revealing a depth she found profoundly moving. In this moment, his defenses fell away, and she glimpsed a man as passionate as he was complex.
“Your expertise impresses me,” she confessed, watching the sunlight shift over his features, rendering them at once familiar and newly compelling.
“It’s just years of being around it all,” he said, his blue eyes warm. “One picks things up.”
The sun began its slow descent, and the light turned golden, draping the landscape in a soft, amber glow. Eden and Max lingered, the world falling away until it was just them and the sweeping canvas of desert and sky.
She wanted to talk to him more about what he’d said earlier, about how perhaps they’d just needed a stronger foundation, but Albright had ruined the moment, and she didn’t know how to bring it up again.
They found a place to sit, and Eden felt the thrill of discovery all over again. “I can’t believe I’m watching the sun set over the pyramids,” she said, tilting her head to take it all in.
“I’m glad to be here with you, watching you as you experience it for the first time,” he said quietly.
It was the most natural thing in the world, yet also the most daring, to let herself lean toward him, pressing her shoulder to his. His unique scent, sandalwood and cloves, made her want to burrow even closer against him and simply breathe him in.
Max met her gaze, and for an exquisite moment, nothing else existed. He reached for her hand, his touch hesitant and charged with meaning, and brought it to his lips, turning her palm upward and holding it between both of his. “Eden, all these years I wondered...”
Their guide’s voice cut through the thickening shadows, sharp and unwelcome. “Lady Eden! Mr. Thorne! Dinner is ready!”
