Sekhemkhet's Promise Pt. 02

Sekhemkhet smiled, running his nose along Beth's. If she had needed confirmation that he was real, she had it now. "Sixty-odd years should do it, but that's an estimate, more than anything."

His words snapped Anabeth out of her haze. "I can't."

"And why not?" Sekhemkhet's smile had not faltered. His confidence worried her. He lowered his head, dipping so that he could run his lips gently over her neck. It took all of Beth's strength not to let any noise escape. He knew how she was reacting, of course he did, it was more than obvious, but she refused to vocalise this need that she felt.

When Beth felt his tongue snake out and lick a wet trail up to her ear, she almost forgot the reasons why she couldn't stay. "I have a life in England," she managed to breathe out, though she could barely hear herself. "My family-"

"Would you rather return to a country where you have no power?" She could have laughed. He spoke of her having power and yet she felt powerless as his hands wound around her waist, sloping lower to grab her ass. Beth's head fell back against the shelving. "Spend your days following your father's wishes, never able to achieve anything for yourself, simply waiting for a man to wed you and become your new master?" His voiced trailed from her neck to her chest, exploring lower, to her neckline. It was too high for even cleavage to show. For once Beth thanked the ridiculous layers of clothing that kept her from him.

"And you do not claim to want to be my master?"

"I will be your master," Sekhemkhet growled. He had found a way around her layers. She felt her skirts being lifted from behind, coming further up her legs until she felt the cool air of he room around her thighs. The hot weather had ensured a thin dress and underskirts which were easy to lift. One of his hands came around to the front and she was suddenly panting, urging him to touch her, feel how aroused she had become. To take her as only he had taken her before. "But you will have more freedoms with me than with some man who wishes to claim you as a brood mare."

"What freedoms?" Beth asked, but it was almost unintelligible. She gasped - his fingers had found her heat and were coated with her juices already. She groaned as he slid them further along to her opening before returning to the bundle of nerves at the top, where he began to circle.

"You could study?" Sekhemkhet suggested, his mouth back at her ear, his tongue snaking out and licking the shell of her ear, leaving it wet. "You could explore," his fingers found her entrance and he pushed one inside. Anabeth couldn't stop the helpless moan that escaped her mouth. Her knees were ready to give out and if he hadn't been so close she would have collapsed. "You could spread your legs and let me show you what it truly means to be worshipped."

Anabeth brought her head forward, looking at him for a moment. His eyes were burning, almost hypnotic as he began to pump his finger in and out of her, while circling the little bud with his thumb.

With a growl, he claimed her mouth, kissing her roughly. His tongue forced itself into her mouth, twisting with hers as his fingers began to move faster. Anabeth was helpless - her insides were already fluttering, her hips moving in time with his hand, begging him to give her release as best as she could without words.

"Release yourself," Sekhemkhet pulled away, his voice heavy and deep. "Let yourself go."

He didn't need to say it Beth couldn't have stopped it if she tried. Her insides began to clench around his finger, and she cried out, his mouth covering hers again before she could make too much noise. Beth held onto him for dear life, allowing herself this pleasure that she hadn't felt since she had last been in his arms. As she began to still, his fingers continued to move, playing with her, creating tremors inside of her.

"Anabeth?!" A frantic voice called from the hallway. It was Mr Banks.

Anabeth's eyes snapped open, her head turning to the door. What am I doing?! There were people right outside and the door wasn't even locked. If they had found, her she'd have been ruined. "I must get back," Anabeth refused to look at Sekhemkhet, ashamed that she had let this happen again. She heard him chuckle - a low rumble in his throat - as he removed his fingers gently from her, as she pushed away and made for the door.

Before she could get far, his arm snaked around her waist, constricting until she was back in front of him, this time her body pushed up against his. Sekhemkhet's face dipped, lightly kissing her jawbone, her cheek and finally her lips. He spoke with their face's mere inches apart.

"I'll be expecting an answer, Anabeth. Sooner, rather than later."

Anabeth managed to pull free of his arm, still without looking at him fully, turning back to the door and leaving the room without looking back. Relief flooded her to be away from him, and yet the ever-present want that pulsed in her abdomen, despite her recent experience, left a tension that she could not rid herself of.

Sitting at the meeting room table again, Anabeth simply felt tired. When was the last time that she had felt as though life was normal? Before she had questioned life and death and ghosts and reality?

She had taken a severe talking to by Mr Banks, 'simply a warning', he had told her. One of his only two jobs was to keep her safe, which was difficult if he could not find her. Anabeth apologised and explained that she had needed a moment alone. The real worry came when he asked where she had gone. When she told him about the room, he informed her that he had looked in there and seen no one. She assumed that she had not counted correctly and must have been behind another door, but something about it was tugging at the edges of her mind.

"Shall we begin?" Karim smiled at the group. Peter looked especially nervous, though he was smiling. Beth wondered if that was due to her scorn or if he was just desperate to secure the exhibit.

"The artefacts shall be put on display in this museum for six months, before travelling to England where they shall remain for a period of eighteen months. From there they shall travel to Rome, where a bid has already been made for an exhibit, for the length of six months, after which they shall return here. At that point certain pieces shall be returned to the tomb, however select pieces shall remain on display." Karim read this from a piece of paper, looking to the group of British men in front of him.

Peter had sagged in his chair out of relief. Beth's father would accept the loss of six months over losing the exhibit completely, and Peter was safe.

"We have one stipulation, however," Sekhemkhet added after a moment of silence.

"Of course!" Peter beamed. "Anything."

Sekhemkhet smiled at this, and a knowing feeling ran over Anabeth's body. He's going to ask for you to stay, she thought, that will be his only condition and then you will have to agree to it.

"I must remain with the exhibit at all times. When it is in London I will remain in that city and then I will follow it to Rome."

Anabeth could almost feel Peter bubbling with glee. It was an easy condition to fulfil. She, herself, felt a relief. She could go home. Life could continue.

"Absolutely! In fact I shall send word that you will follow as soon as we are done-"

"And, with her permission, of course, Miss Brightbury here will accompany me on each stretch of the journey."

Immediately there was a commotion among the British men. Murmurs of indecency and unexpectedness. Whispers of strange Egyptians.

"It is entirely up to you," Mr Banks spoke loudly enough for Beth to her, leaning forward on the bench he sat on. Something told Anabeth that this was not a decision that Mr Banks had spoken to her father about.

"I'm expecting an answer," Sekhemkhet grinned at her, paralleling the words he had mumbled to her in the other room.

What was the decision? Stay and work in a museum for six months in a beautiful country, return home, and then go travelling again before returning home for good? Was it so bad? It would be freedom, independence. It would be working with history, something she had always wanted to do. And there could be further opportunities for exploring and examining artefacts. She may even get to enter the tomb again, though she wasn't sure that was a great idea.

Anabeth was still deciding when she overheard a whisper behind her. "A woman doing a man's job? It's a disgrace. The Egyptian should be ashamed of himself." She could not see who it was, but it did not matter. Why had she gone on the trip to Egypt in the first place? To prove herself. Well here was her big chance.

Anabeth steeled herself. "I accept."