AllFreeNovel
Share Us
You do not have to ask permission.
She played his low, husky words over and over in her mind.
What would it be like to not only have that kind of freedom and power with a man, withShai, for just one night, but all nights? All days? For the rest of life and beyond?
Heba realized that this was something she wanted so badly she could barely breathe. It was the only thing she’d ever wanted forherself.
Not for her role, not for the kingdom. She wanted Shai for her. Heba.
But she had to win him. Had to earn it. She was desperate and panicked as she’d never been before, because she didn’t knowhow.
“Are you well, my Queen?” Shai asked in that low baritone that stroked over her body like a physical caress.
Heba squirmed and tightened her thighs around the body pillow. His voice always made her throb and achedown there. It was torture to always be with him and not have him. But it would be far more painful to be without him even for a moment.
She was too selfish to ever let him out of her sight.
“Mmm,” she hummed noncommittally.
He said no more, simply returning to his silent vigilance. He would not rest until she did.
She thought back to the most daring, terrifying thing she’d ever done.
Taking the helm as Regent had been trying at first, but she navigated the tricky political waters like a young crocodile cutting her teeth and testing her strength. With Shai at her side, she never really feared for her life, only for her son’s.
Thankfully, she discovered that most of the powerful royals, priests and nobles wished for Thutmose’s survival. If for no other reason than to depose her as ruler so that they could be rid of a lesser, incompetent female.
She spent the first year weeding through who was on “her side” and who was against. She knew none of them could ever be trusted; none of them supportedher. But she could use them in her own way to align their interests, to protect her son until he was ready to rule.
She also had to establish credibility. Show backbone without antagonizing anyone too flagrantly. Shai helped her vet a right-hand man, as it were, an administrator of her will.
He was the royal steward, Senenmut. He had served her father loyally, and her husband as well, though Thutmose II always ignored his counsel to his own detriment.
Senenmut was instrumental in helping her establish herself with the royal court. Together, they prioritized projects, from expanding trade routes to building roads and monuments. They negotiated treaties with warlords and Sea Peoples, keeping peace inside and outside of the Egyptian empire.
For that first year, she did everything in her power to show that she was a capable ruler. To earn the people’s respect in every stratum of society. Once she had done so, once she felt secure in her rule, that her edicts would be obeyed, she took the most terrifying decision in the whole of her life—
She set Shai free.
She made the decision to do so the moment she’d awoken fromthat night. The moment she looked into his eyes and saw the sadness and pain she’d never noticed before.
She took the time to establish herself. To keep him as her shield as she did so. To feel safe with his protection just a while longer.
But the moment she knew she had the power, she knew she had to let him go.
So, after a few sleepless nights of tossing and turning, she bolstered her courage and resolve and blurted out her declaration at the end of a routine court session before she could indulge in selfishness and cowardice for one moment longer.
She’d been so terrified that day by what she was about to do that it took all of her concentration and strength to hold herself still. For, on the inside, she quaked with trepidation and near-hysteria down to her very bone marrow.
What would she do if he took his freedom and left her? Just disappeared from her life forever?
She had Senenmut now to help her. She had most of the powerful nobles and officials on her side.
But Shai was the one person she trusted more than anyone else. He was her strength and her confidence. He protected her from the entire world and enabled her to be bold, to take calculated risks.
Who would shebewithout him?
And what about her infant son? Who could she trust to guide Thutmose, to set the model for how she wanted the Pharoah to grow up into manhood?
