Seratis Daughter of the Sun

by N J Adel

  I moved a little to the side and stroked his hair, yet he wouldn’t look at me. “Redamun, you’re my soldier, my protector. Who’s more man here than you are?”

  “Please. Majesty knows what I mean.”

  “I understand the frustration, but this is only one thing among a thousand others that make a man. Does it really mean this much to you?”

  “It means everything to me,” he answered too quickly.

  The male mentality reduced to one and only task. If a man couldn’t mate, nothing else mattered. I was not a man and probably would never understand what motivated and drove one. For that I wouldn’t judge or try to reason.

  I nodded at my guard, Nur’s words resonating in my head.

  Majesty could have put the whole world under her command, but no. You chose to smother one of the most valuable powers any human could possess, pretend it never existed, just like you’re doing now.

  Watching Redamun suffer like that was unnecessary. Not to deny that ending his pain wasn’t the only reason I was settled to do what I was about to do. I wanted him, too. Desired him beyond need.

  Yet even though I couldn’t control my fire, if I had to, I could certainly control my libido—a simple term that summed up too many deep and complicated and dangerous drives in one Latin word.

  However, Redamun’s soul crushing ache was the main reason I would break an ancient promise I’d made. To myself.

  It wasn’t like I hadn’t done it twice already since I woke.

  Once with Drusus to find out the truth about his family.

  And the second time was with Nur to help him find his fire.

  Now, I’d do it to help Redamun extinguish his own.

  I touched his chin with my finger. “Very well. Open your eyes and look at me. I can help.”

  He raised his head, his eyes intrigued but alarmed at the same time. “How?”

  A smirk curved up one corner of my lips as I locked my gaze with his. “You know how.”

  His quizzical expression lasted for a moment or two before it stretched and softened with comprehension and reverence. “Thank you, Majesty. Yes. Please, I beg you.”

  Why would any person in their right mind beg someone to take hold of them like this? For sex? For love? For happiness?

  Was anything worth losing the birth right of free will?

  No matter how much you loved and trusted me, my beautiful guard, why would you agree to let go of such a precious gift?

  And most importantly, how could you still trust me after?

  This was too much power for one human to possess.

  And I did possess it.

  It might have not corrupted me yet, but if I chose to use it more often, it would. I was no goddess immune to sins. I’d always been a human that could be tempted. With judgment able to be clouded. With my vanity and pride, I might descend into an inferno of injustice and cruelty.

  And blood.

  Of my own creation.

  For a pathetic whim or a great cause. It wouldn’t matter at all.

  “Please, Goddess. Do it. Compel me,” he insisted.

  My teeth ground together. Angry pressure banged my skull. “If you ever call me goddess again, I’ll rip your tongue out of your throat. You know better.”

  He chuckled and then swallowed. “Yes, Majesty. I apologize.”

  “Don’t make me regret what I’d offered.”

  “I won’t, my Queen.”

  I tsked. “In bed…call me Meha.”

  He stared back at me with a different glint I couldn’t interpret, his erection pulsing hard. “Anything you wish, my beloved. I’m yours.”

  His feelings brightened with a new level of intimacy and affection that hit me right in the heart. In the sweetest way ever, slowly melting away my rage, numbing my never ending battles of the conscience.

  Holding his face between my hands, I dug deep into the corners of his mind, searching for the parts that stirred his fire.

  They weren’t very difficult to find. Redamun’s consent and his readiness for me made his brain an open path for me to stroll.

  His pupils dilated as I took charge of his will. His mind, his body, I compelled to follow my command and not their own.

  “While we touch, your fire will remain asleep under your skin, blazing inside but never out,” I said.

  “Yes.”

  I smiled. “Go ahead.”

  He crushed his lips into mine, his heart echoing. Our fingers intertwined while he plunged into my hot folds.

  Pushing all thoughts aside, I took him all in.

  How had I lived this long without this man’s physical love? If my compulsion power had brought me any delights and wasn’t a pure moral curse, it would be this.

  Redamun was the kind of man wet dreams were made of. He owned a body that wrecked homes and drove priestesses to hell furnaces with a smile on their no longer innocent faces.

  And I had my legs wrapped around his waist, and his erection where I needed it most. I rocked with him, rubbing my nub against the throbbing hardness. His hands gripped my hips almost painfully, and I cried out in pleasure.

  “Your sounds of pleasure are more intoxicating than wine to me, my sweet Meha.” He slowed down, gazing into my eyes. “Touch me. All of me.”

  My hand slid down his muscled back, feeling every curve. He kissed and licked his way down from my lips to my breasts. Everywhere I touched, everywhere he kissed, sparks flowed from him into me, shooting pulses straight to my core.

  I gasped and moaned against the sensation. Swollen and filled with his thickness, my sex felt as if it was going to burst if he wouldn’t take me faster right this instant. “Need you, Guard Redamun.”

  But he wouldn’t be hurried.

  “Be unwearied, unceasing. Alive, you and your own true love.” He pulled my nipple into his mouth and sucked. “Let not the heart be troubled during your sojourn on Earth, but seize the day as it passes, my love.” He flicked my other nipple with his fingers.

  I moaned harder. “Never taken you for a poet, Reda.”

  “I am for you, Daughter of the Sun.”

  A handmaid who lusted over a woman. A scholar who was as profane as a prostitute and dominant as an alpha wolf. A soldier who was as romantic and soft as spring poets.

  My friends, you never cease to amaze me.

  Almost pushed over the edge, I gripped Redamun’s hair, yanking at it. “Not that I don’t find it beautiful and surprisingly arousing, but I really need you to speed up before my fire takes over.”

  He growled, his pouch brushing my nether lips, and I moaned again.

  “Damn,” he ground out.

  Despite my words, he still built a slow, delicious rhythm that was both the greatest pleasure and the worst torture he’d ever inflicted upon me. He watched as he slid in and out of my wetness, and I watched with him. My back arched to take him as deeply as I could, the sight too much to bear.

  When my cries grew breathier and louder, he moved faster, thrusting in and out. “I’ve imagined doing this since the day I met you,” he confessed. “But I never imagined it to be this mesmerizing.”

  I clenched around him, and my body shuddered, control already slipping away, awareness of anything but he disappeared.

  “I want to go inside you so deeply there’s no more me or you. Only us.” He held my hips with both hands in a hard grip and pounded into me as hard as he could, any reason or concern apparently lost to him. Only the need to fill me with his seed. To solidify our connection. To prove he was a man.

  My man.

  I was hot and so was the energy, both burning for release. Summoning all my will power, I altered the direction of the fire toward my hands. He thrust inside me as deeply as he wished, my climax only hindered by my blazing hands.

  Not without difficulty, I used what was left of my concentration to command the fireballs to find their way to and in the pond.

  He pulsed and jerked, groaning out my name, as I convulsed, milking him with my clasping folds. M
y body stiffened in his grip, my back arched, my screams in succession. Then I softened with the pleasure overwhelming him, of release mixed with the satisfaction of fulfilling a long needed, almost impossible task.

  He held me as if afraid I was going to disappear. “Merr-i-ten, Meha.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Redamun hopped out of the bed, heading to prepare a bath for the both of us. Then he stopped in his tracks, a low groan in his throat.

  I grabbed the sheets over my body and sat up. “What is happening? What did you stop?”

  “I swear this power will make a mad man out of me.” His fingers quivered with flames. “What in the name of Amun? Tia!”

  “Something bad happened to Tia?” I’d shunned all external influences when I was with him and focused all my energy in the moment; I didn’t sense or hear or see anyone else but him.

  Finding my handmaid’s heartbeat, I connected with her feelings. Then I eyed his sticking erection and chortled.

  He tried to cover his groins, but his hands were on fire. He blew on them, and I laughed some more.

  “Majesty is amused?”

  “Yes.”

  In her chamber, Tia rose to a crescendo of erotic moans. Warmth flooded my cheeks out of laughter…and arousal.

  “Oh, Tia, please keep it down,” he grumbled.

  I twisted and buried my face in a pillow, trying not to squeal like a little girl.

  “Seriously? Majesty doesn’t find this irritating at all?”

  “Considering what we’ve been doing an hour ago, no. It’s probably what… She felt us and got in heat. She has every right to let it out.” I stared at him over my shoulder. “The question is, why are you picturing her? That’s obscene.”

  “The pictures forced themselves into my head. And I’m not picturing her. Not…alone.”

  “What?”

  A sheepish smile crossed his face. “I know how she feels about Your Majesty. I’m picturing what she’s picturing. It’s wrong of me, I know. But I can’t help it with all…” he waved his flaming hands at the adjacent wall to Tia’s chamber, “that.”

  My stomach clenched with laughter. “Oh my.”

  Tia’s voice finally died, and I turned, my hand over my mouth, my eyes watering.

  Redamun shook his head, starting to the bathroom. “That connection the four of us have is unhealthy.”

  “Yes. Too much exposure,” I said, my voice recovering from laughter.

  Footsteps approached the door. A quick knock and a faint screech. Then Tia rushed in. “You wanted something, Guard Redamun? You were calling for me.”

  “Holy Mother of Gods. Tia!” he yelled, succumbing to the floor, his arms attempting to cover his erection, his hands still ablaze.

  She arched a brow, staring at him, her hair ruffled, her forehead sweaty. “That’s impressive.” She turned to me, patting her lashes. “And I can never unsee that.”

  I burst into another frenzy of titters.

  His hands flew in the air. “What did I tell you, Majesty? Unhealthy.”

  “Ahhh I’m going to die.” I grabbed his toga spread on the bed next to me and threw it at his semi-hardness.

  He secured it around his lower body with his knees and elbows, the fire around his fingers gradually fading.

  Tia cocked another brow at him. “No need to conceal anything on my behalf. I’m sure you already know it is not my cup of tea.” She glanced back at me. “If Majesty doesn’t need me, I’ll leave now.”

  An image flashed before my eyes. Tia in the bath with me, and Redamun, stroking the long, hard erection I saw while he thought of me and her together, eventually coming inside of me with my name on his lips and my fingers on and inside her.

  My sex clamped at the thought. “Actually Tia. You can wait. We are about to take a bath. I think you need one, too.”

  A small smile painted her expression along with a beautiful blush.

  Redamun’s eyes widened. “I beg your pardon, my Queen?”

  “You heard me well. Go fix that bath,” I said.

  His jaw hanged low. Then he lifted his glance at Tia. “You’re fine with that?”

  Her shoulder lifted with a slight shrug, her smile now a grin. “Queen’s orders. I follow them gladly.”

  I smirked at her short body, undressing her with my gaze, happy to see her hard nipples through the white drapes of her gown. Gesturing for her to come closer, I imagined the things I’d do to her and she me.

  As she stood by my bed, I sat on the edge and tucked her short hair behind her ear. “If you have any issues with a man watching you—because Redamun will be, in details—fear not and say them now. I shall never force you to do anything you find uncomfortable.”

  “I don’t mind at all as long as Majesty finally allows me to…be with her.” She bit her lips on a smile. “All I beg for is that only Majesty touches me.”

  “Of course,” I assured her.

  “In that case, I don’t mind if all the men in the house are watching.” She giggled.

  At the suggestion, more images formed in my head. If I would have two together, why wouldn’t I have all three of them? If Drusus wasn’t that vulnerable to our powers, I would have added him to the scene, too.

  “What?” Redamun mumbled, on his feet, the thick fabric covering him from the waist down. “I do mind, Majesty.”

  I smiled at him. “Is it so wrong that I find the idea very appealing? That I want more? All of you. Separately and together. Even Drusus.”

  A throat cleared. From the garden. My gaze darted at the terrace. Nur’s distinct heartbeat came into my recognition.

  He cleared his throat again. “I must say I can hear this conversation, Majesty.”

  Half embarrassed, half entertained, I twisted my tongue inside my mouth. “Even better. Come up.”

  Redamun stared at me, shaking his head. “This is not good for my sanity.”

  “Or mine.” I shrugged, laughing. “I’ve never had these thoughts before.”

  Scratching his chin, he kept staring at me, his eyes bulging. “It’s the fire. It must be. That energy is wicked.”

  “Yes.” Blame it all on the fire. “Hypocrisy is wicked, too.”

  “What? What did I do now?”

  “You find being with two naked women together gleeful but add in another male and you’re threatened?”

  “I’m not threatened by a pupil or a Roman, Majesty,” he said incredulously. “The fact that Majesty believes that I am is offensive to tell the truth.”

  “Then what is the issue?”

  “Yes, Guard Redamun, what is the issue?” Nur jumped into my bedchamber and bowed to me. “My Queen.”

  “Majesty knows what the issue is.” Redamun pursed his lips, lowering his head for a moment, his fire no longer there. Then our gazes locked, and I could feel him beyond all the sex. “I don’t wish to see you with someone else. Ever. Not even with your trusted handmaid. Nonetheless, I’m a man. I confess that Tia being a woman, having bits appealing to one attracted to women, would dull my jealousy to the point of numbness and even joy.”

  “Well, I can fix this for you the same way I did with the energy. I can even make you find man bits attractive.”

  The rhythm of his heart faltered, and probably for the first time, I saw real panic in my guard’s eyes. “Please don’t. To both.”

  “If I may, I have the same request.” Nur rushed into the conversation. “These things are to be done only with uncompelled consent.”

  I grunted. “I don’t see either of you chanting about Seratis’s beautiful powers any more. The mesmerizing Goddess has lost her charm already with the gentlemen.” My gaze shifted to my handmaid. “You should have seen them doing everything in their might to evoke her, beg her when it was something to their liking they wanted.” I narrowed my eyes at the two men. “Now that it is something she likes, they are afraid of her.”

  “Seratis is to be feared, and so are you, Queen Meha. After all, you’re one,” Nur said. “I admit tha
t, despite my earlier beliefs, every day I learn Majesty has made the right choice not to become the Goddess of Sleep and erase her from existence.”

  Redamun glanced at Nur and then back at me. “I, on the other hand, am grateful for what she’s bestowed me with today. That hour has been the most precious gift I’ve ever had.” He swallowed and wet his lips. “Saying so, Seratis is too powerful to be trusted or loved. My Queen, though, I trust her with my life and love her with all my heart.”

  I took a deep breath, thoughts of years had passed and ones to come swirling in my mind. A moral conundrum as old as time had been tormenting me since I discovered the power of compulsion.

  Now with an epiphany that sprouted in the most unexpected, unrehearsed situation, it would all end.

  My fingers twined with my handmaid’s, and she wrapped the sheets over me as I stood. Taking another breath, I approached my men. “Meha or Seratis, both names are mine. I was a fool to think I could chop off my name and live in peace. From now on I embrace my whole name.” I stared at each set of eyes in front of me one at a time, putting all my resolution and firmness there. “You cannot devote yourself to one and not the other.”

  They exchanged glances. Each had a risen conflict, and each I had sensed.

  Tia was the first to move. She kissed my hand she was holding and knelt. “You are my Queen. And now you’re my Goddess, too.”

  “Thank you, Tia, but I demand no worship, only faith.”

  “You’ve always had that from me, Majesty.”

  I nodded at her with a smile.

  “Since the day I dedicated my life to the seeking of knowledge, I stopped believing in magic or gods,” Nur said. “But with you, my teacher, Nefertsheps Queen Meha Seratis, my one and only Queen as long as I shall live, I’ve witnessed enough to believe in you.” He bent a knee. “Whatever Majesty wishes, by her will I abide.”

  “Your loyalty and dedication have always come from logic before heart. Something I admire and shall always be grateful for,” I said.

  Redamun’s jaw flexed as I glanced at him. “I wish I was dressed properly for this moment.”

  I couldn’t help but chortle at the hilarity of both our attires—a sheet and a toga wrapped carelessly around our skins. “Me too.”