Chapter Seven

Suhad awoke to the pleasurable sensation of warm lips nipping sweetly at her shoulder. She contorted her slender frame in a languid stretch and opened her eyes with a sleepy smile. Her unrestrained joy at being presented with Tutankhamun's beautiful smiling face was short-lived, however, when she realized she lay before him completely uncovered in the beaming sunlight, her nudity boldly on display. With a dismayed cry, she snatched up a nearby blanket and began hastily covering herself.

Her self-conscious reaction prompted an amused chuckle from Tutankhamun. "It's a bit late for modesty, don't you think? There isn't an inch of your body I haven't touched or kissed," he laughed, "And yet, you take issue with my looking upon you in the daylight?"

"Stop laughing at me!" she growled in a pouting under-breath, unable to meet his eyes, "Last night was different! We had only the moonlight. Here, in the harsh brilliance of daylight, every flaw is laid bare. Don't look at me!"

"Why shouldn't I? You're beautiful," he refuted with a disarming smile.

"I know I don't compare to the women you've known," she mumbled timidly.

Tutankhamun frowned at that. "They don't compare to you." Suhad raised brown eyes full of naked vulnerability to meet his earnest gaze. "Where is this uncharacteristic lack of confidence coming from, my love?"

"I...I just...I know..." she stammered, "I'm not experienced like your palace women in the ways of pleasing you. I have no attendants at my disposal to beautify me and rub me in fragrant oils. I'm not draped in jewels or adorned with expensive linen. I'm but a village girl from Amurru."

"And yet you hold the Pharaoh's heart right in your palm. So who really has the disadvantage?"

"Khaten, you don't underst-,"

He pressed his lips to hers to staunch her stream of words. When she had finally settled and returned his kiss, he nuzzled at her tenderly. "Put your mind at ease. You please me," he reassured her, "Only too well. There is no comparison. We've only just begun and already my desire for you plagues my every, waking thought." He leaned forward to kiss her and gently tugged the blankets from her fisted grasp, baring the smooth, glowing tones of her unblemished, brown skin to his eyes once more. "I see no flaws when I look at you, Suhad," he whispered as he stretched out beside her with obvious intent, "Only the woman I love..."

Later when she lay snuggled against his flank, exhausted and breathless, Tutankhamun found himself playing with her tangled curls and marveling over the realization that there wasn't a single thing he didn't love about her. "I wish that we could stay like this always."

She brushed a fleeting kiss across his nipple, reveling in the low grunt of pleasure that reverberated in his chest when she did. "As do I. But we both know that cannot be."

"If I could change matters...make it simpler for us then I would, Suhad."

"I wouldn't change anything at all," she replied, surprising them both. He tipped a questioning look down at her. "I don't regret meeting you. I don't regret loving you. And I don't regret that you are Pharaoh...because you are exactly the Pharaoh our people need. How can I begrudge that?"

"How did you come to have such a generous heart, my love?"

"I think it is because you are the one who opened it."

Tutankhamun nuzzled a kiss across her forehead. "As you have opened mine." He coasted his fingers across her cheek, neck, shoulder and smooth expanse of her back, unable to get his fill of touching her and wondering, in that moment, if he ever would. "Then let us have this day," he declared impulsively, "And we will consider tomorrow when tomorrow comes. I want to stay in this moment with you."

Suhad shifted upright to drape herself across his body, folding her arms across his chest and propping her chin against her hands in order to regard him with a knowing smile. "Is that your subtle way of implying that you wish to remain abed all day?"

He emitted a rumbling chuckle and threaded his fingers through the soft hair at her temple. "Well...I am not opposed to the idea."

"And what do you propose we would do together as we lazed about in bed so unproductively?"

He nibbled at his lower lip in unspoken implication, his questing hands descending down the slope of her back and pulling her more securely against him, making it inescapably clear what he wanted. Suhad's answering laugh transformed into a serrated moan as he deftly reversed their positions and his lips began a slow descent down the column of her throat. "Haven't you satisfied that hunger yet?" she moaned hoarsely as he shifted on top of her.

His answering reply was muffled against her skin. "Never." He proceeded to spend the next hour backing up that avowal with action.

"I'm starving," Suhad announced shortly after they had finished making love a second time. As if to punctuate that statement, her stomach chose that moment to rumble loudly. She poked Tutankhamun in the ribs when he dared to laugh. "Stop it! It's your fault. You promised me roasted hare for breakfast."

At the reminder, Tutankhamun threw his forearm across his eyes and groaned. "You cannot be serious. I can scarcely move, Suhad. After you have so thoroughly exhausted me, can you not give me some time to regain my strength?"

Suhad rolled her eyes at his dramatic posturing. "You didn't seem to have issue with movement a moment ago."

Belying his earlier declaration of fatigue, he swiftly pulled her against him, nestling himself suggestively in the warm juncture between her thighs to nibble at the fluttering pulse at the base of her throat. "That is because my motivation for movement was altogether different." Suhad shoved him away with a playful laugh and wriggled from beneath him entirely, deftly skirting out of his reach when he would have pulled her to him again. He smirked at her. "If it is your aim to have me give chase, I will be more than accommodating."

Suhad staved off his tickling advances between fitful giggles, their constant twisting and turning as they vied for the upper hand leaving them wrapped together in knots of linen. "My aim is to have you feed me," she chortled, swatting at his hands, "Behave yourself! There will be no more of that until I've received sustenance!" She did her utmost to kick herself free and scoot across the bedding, eyeing him in laughing wariness as he crawled after her with a wide, predatory grin. Suhad wagged a warning finger at him. "I mean it! Keep your distance! Don't make me do something desperate!"

He started to make a dive for her when her belly chose that exact moment to emit yet another roaring grumble. Suhad clamped her hand over her mouth to hold back her embarrassed giggles while Tutankhamun dropped his head forward in laughing defeat. He surveyed her from beneath the curtain of his dark, unruly hair. "Really, my love...you have the option before you between myself and a meal...what is your answer?" Her growling stomach provided a ready response. Tutankhamun groaned.

"Fine then," he agreed, leaning forward to press a firm kiss to her mouth, "Give me an hour." Tutankhamun rose from the tangle of blankets, completely unabashed in his nudity and seemingly unaware of the effect he had on Suhad as he rooted about the tent to collect his discarded clothing without a hint of modesty. She was left sputtering in discomfiture and appreciation as she watched him. It was a sight to which she could easily become accustomed.

After he was gone, Suhad thought that she would rouse herself from the blankets and begin the task of readying them for that day's journey. Instead, she continued to linger amid the rumpled bedding, replaying in her mind each titillating kiss, each heated caress, each fervently whispered endearment that they had shared that morning and the previous night. She was left a little unsettled by how quickly she had developed a craving for him.

Tutankhamun proved to be a passionate and demanding lover. That discovery had not particularly surprised her. What had surprised her was the revelation that he was equally gentle and generous in bed and, unbelievably, almost tentative with her at times, as if he feared committing some action that would turn her off.

She had appreciated knowing that, in some ways, he was just as uncertain as she. However, his unspoken anxiety that he might somehow repel her with his fervor was misguided. Although it was true that he could be very forward about what he wanted in bed and that his candor sometimes shocked her, his unrestrained ardor emboldened Suhad to return his passion with equal measure rather than to shrink from it. The more they were together, the less reserved she became. Suhad was blossoming under his informal tutelage and, in her sexual awakening, Suhad found herself compelled by the desire to fill Tutankhamun with the same insatiable ache he had left in her.

Suhad rolled over with a muted groan, suddenly regretting her decision to choose food over him. Frustrated with herself, she pressed her thighs together in hopes of muting the erotic tingling that had begun to pervade her body. When that didn't work, she made a concerted effort to direct her thoughts elsewhere, namely formulating a plan for when they crossed into Mitanni territory. Finally, after some time of fitful tossing and turning, Suhad drifted off into an exhausted slumber. She was awakened, what seemed to her to be only a few minutes later, by sweet, lingering kisses against her neck.

Tutankhamun's laughing whisper sounded in her ear. "Is this how it is to be then? You are privileged to spend your day lounging in bed while I must earn my meals through servitude."

Those last, clinging remnants of sleep dissipated entirely then and Suhad came awake with a start. The moment she became fully cognizant of Tutankhamun's smiling face inches from her own, she threw her arms around his neck with a happy cry. "You've returned!"

He lifted her against him and held her tight, both taken off guard and flattered simultaneously by her enthusiastic greeting. "Did you miss me?"

"So very much," she mumbled into his shoulder.

"Such a greeting and I haven't even shown you what I brought with me." He shifted from her slackened embrace and angled around to retrieve the game he had caught that morning. Tutankhamun favored her with a wide smile brimming with boyish accomplishment. Only he could take such unmitigated pride in presenting the woman he loved with a dead rabbit. "I caught it," he told her wryly, "But you have to clean it."

After Suhad rose and dressed, she was surprised when Tutankhamun offered to help her prepare breakfast rather than simply watching her do it. They worked in tandem to both clean and roast the animal. It was evident from his repulsed expression that Tutankhamun found the process revolting, especially when Suhad explained to him the importance of burying the animal's entrails, but he remained an avid pupil nonetheless. He followed each of Suhad's instructions with very little complaint. Mostly he asked questions. He almost reminded Suhad of an inquisitive child who was exploring his surroundings for the first time. His eagerness to learn even about the most mundane of life's tasks had Suhad surveying him through new eyes.

"You've never done domestic work before, have you?" she asked him when they finally sat down to enjoy their breakfast together.

Tutankhamun took a bite of meat, chewed and swallowed before answering her question. "There was never any need for me to do so. I've always had servants at my disposal to prepare my meals and see to my grooming and general comfort."

"And yet, all this time we've been together, you've hauled water, you've collected brush to start the fire, you've hunted and washed and loaded..." Suhad recounted, ticking off the list, "I don't understand what compels you. You are the sovereign ruler of Egypt and I just watched you skin a rabbit."

He appraised her from beneath his lashes. "Does it cause you to think less of me?"

"No. To the contrary," she replied, "I couldn't possibly admire you more."

"Please do not admire me," Tutankhamun sighed, "What I have done is what I ought to have done. All of my life, others have assumed responsibilities that should have been mine alone...making all my life decisions, telling me what I should do and where I should go...ruling my kingdom in my stead. And, because I allowed that to happen, I left myself vulnerable to my enemies. It's long past time that I started doing things on my own."

"And that is precisely the reason I admire you...because what king would be concerned with such things?"

"You give me too much credit."

"And you do not give yourself enough," she countered.

Uncomfortable with her praise, especially when he felt so singularly undeserving of it, Tutankhamun smoothly changed the subject. "We should move on from here soon," he told her, "We don't want the day to get away from us."

Suhad nodded her agreement, her forehead knit with a pensive frown. "Tomorrow we will reach the Mitanni border. I've been thinking about how we can get into the prison." He groaned in protest, but she held up her hand for silence. "Allow me to speak before you disagree out of turn. If we wait until it is dark, I think I might know a way to get us close enough to free Lagus and the others. But it will require you to trust me and follow my lead."

Tutankhamun sighed at that. "Why do I have the unpleasant inkling that I'm likely to despise this plan?" Ten minutes later, his suspicion was regretfully confirmed but, while he hated it and especially hated Suhad's heavy involvement, he could not counter her idea with an alternative.

"I will be the perfect diversion," she promised him.

"I don't like it."

"I don't expect you to like it. I expect you to trust me. Can you?"

She watched him wage an internal battle against arguing with her before finally jerking his head in a resigned nod. "Fine. We will do it your way."

"So we will wait until the sun sets tomorrow," Suhad said, "and then we will make our move." She grew quiet as she contemplated what events would follow after if their plan was successful. "We haven't really talked about it, you realize..." she mumbled after a few beats of silence, "...what will happen after you've freed Lagus and your men."

"Of course, we have. We return to Thebes."

"I know that," she acknowledged with an exasperated sigh, "I meant between you and I."

"We return to Thebes," Tutankhamun emphasized again.

She surveyed him with a frustrated scowl. "Khaten, you know I cannot return to Thebes with you."

He shoved away the remnants of his breakfast, wiped his mouth and frowned at her in growing bewilderment. "Why not? I thought after everything that's transpired between us these past two days that we would be together..."

"...I want that. I want to be with you."

"Then come with me," he invited, "You needn't worry about anything. I will take care of you, Suhad."

"That's not the point! Your people will never accept me."

"Of course, they will," he argued with a dismissive air, "You saved the life of their Pharaoh."

"And what of your queen...your sister? What will she say about us?"

"Ankhesenamun does not factor into what is between us."

Suhad crossed her arms in challenge of that statement. "I know that you are not so naive as to truly believe that!"

"Why should she take a lover and not I?"

"Is that the reason for this insistence that I accompany you back to Thebes?" she wondered tightly, "To spite your sister?"

"Do not insult me, Suhad! You put words into my mouth that I have not spoken."

"Then why? When you know it shall be a disaster!"

"I do not know that and neither do you!" His outburst echoed through the confines of the tent, stunning them both into momentary silence. When he finally spoke again, his tone was significantly softened. "I thought you and I had agreed that we would have this day," he sighed.

"Some realities won't be kept at bay, my lord." Every ounce of angry bravado deflated from Suhad with that defeated utterance. "Others will not understand what we feel for one another. They will believe me to be little more than your Mitanni concubine!"

He shook his head in denial. "That is not what you are."

"Yet that is what they will see!"

He swept up her hands and pressed them between his own. "I care not what others think about us! All that matters is you and I. I don't want to be without you, Suhad."

"Nor I you," she whispered in reply, "But we cannot pretend that this can go on forever or that I can return with you to Thebes and have everything work out in grand fashion."

"What if I were not the Pharaoh?" he asked her, "What then?"

"We would not be having this conversation! I would spend the rest of my life with you," she answered without hesitation.

"Then I renounce my throne," he declared implacably, "I will not return. Let them continue to believe me dead. Ka will be crowned Pharaoh as he has planned and you and I will live out the remainder of our days together."

It was a suggestion she had made to him before, one that had been born from fear of losing him. The same nagging fear that continued to curse her now. That first time she had asked him, he had refused and she'd understood exactly why he had. Now, he was volunteering to do the very thing he swore he could not do...and all for love of her.

For a brief instant, Suhad felt her heart to take flight and soar with his ardent avowal. She allowed herself to fleetingly entertain the possibility of a real future with him...becoming his wife...raising their children...growing old together. She could see that future so clearly and then...she made the conscious and deliberate choice to squelch the fantasy into figurative dust. Suhad knew that she could never allow him to go through with such a thing. It would not only be the abandonment of his throne and Egypt, but the complete denunciation of his bloodline, his heritage, his dynasty. She would be, in essence, asking him to disown his very identity. Her love for him would not allow her to expect such a sacrifice.

"No, Khaten," she said at last, "I won't ask that of you again."

"You haven't asked this time. I'm offering this to you, Suhad. I would give you anything."

"Could you truly be happy with such a choice?" she pressed him keenly, "Or would your conscience plague you for the remainder of your days? You would be unable to bear the shame and we both know it." His eyes skittered away at her astute presumption, conveying more to Suhad than words spoken could have. She swallowed thickly in acceptance. "So you will continue with your plan. You will liberate your men...and then you will liberate your kingdom and you will become the great Pharaoh that you are destined to become."

"And you?" he prompted, "What about you...about us?"

"I will be the woman who saved your life once and shared your bed. Nothing more."

"You are no passing fancy, Suhad. You are etched in my heart. If you think I will return to Thebes and you will be forgotten, you are wrong."

She sniffled, valiantly blinking back the tears that gathered in her eyes. "You've had other women, Khaten. Let us not pretend that I am something special. You will find another."

"I will not," he refuted fiercely, his own tears welling, "Don't you understand? You are special to me. I have never known real, abiding love, Suhad, not until you. I knew duty. I knew desire. But true love, the deep, unshakable kind that transcends infatuation and romantic attachment...the kind that compels you to sacrifice everything you are and everything you want on behalf of another...I have only known that with you." He cradled her face between his hands and brought her near for his tear soaked kiss. "So do not tell me that I will forget you. I will never forget."

She gripped him to her, sobbing brokenly against his shoulder as she whispered, "I won't forget you either."