42- All The Things Left Unsaid

42- All The Things Left Unsaid
Later, after they'd laughed and joked and agreed to eat breakfast, Imset pulled Aisha close, whispering in her ear. "I think I rather like the sound of Zaddy..." A simmering promise of what would happen later in the air. And just like that, the muscles in Aisha's core were liquid and his wicked grin told her it had been his intention.

He gave a casual shrug as if nothing had happened. Imset leaned against Aisha's arm at his dining room table, an assortment of steaming breakfast food appearing in a flash. They'd all settled in to eat together after the embarrassment from earlier wore off and Aisha was able to stop cringing.

"Who cooks all this food?" Aisha wondered aloud.

"Our servants," Hapi shrugged.

"So... you all do have servants? Where do they live?" Aisha still had yet to see another human anywhere.

"They're all over. Some, who didn't have any lives to go back to, live her. Others stay in the human world until summoned. It's pretty grueling servitude but also pretty standard," Nephy explained.

"But...?"

"You were different," Serket laughed, biting off a piece of seared sausage, "So were we."

Before Aisha could respond, Imset had slid his hand to grip her knee and someone was bursting through the main door.

"Thank the fucking gods!" Hathor bustled in, ignoring everyone else to pull Aisha up out of her chair and into a deep hug. "Grandchildren," she sighed into her shoulder, barely loud enough for Aisha to hear it.

"Mother, don't start," Imset groaned.

"Who the hell are you telling not to start? If I hadn't started something all those years ago none of your ungrateful, funky asses would be here now..." It was a passive assertion of power. They were all grown but she was still their mother and she had no problem pulling rank whenever she wanted. Aisha bit back her smile. Before the idea of children settled in her chest. They... had not been using protection. Her breathing picked up, sweat flushing over the back of her neck.

"I'd hardly call us funky..." Mutef muttered, wiggling his brows as he speared a sausage, "Imset, maybe. But us too?"

Imset glared, "You smelled like ass for a week straight when Neith locked you out of your bedroom... don't you recall brother? Begging at every door for someone to let you take a bath?" Imset's voice quivered with laughter, Nephy snorted into her drink and with the way Qebe was coughing, it was likely he'd inhaled some eggs.

"Wasn't it the Nile in the end, where you finally washed off a week of blood and sweat off? I think even the crocodiles swam away."

Mutef pointed his small steak knife at Imset and growled, "We swore to never speak of that. Where is your loyalty?"

"Don't mind them, dear," Hathor insisted, pulling back to survey Aisha's face, "Lovely."

The woman was insanely beautiful, to the point that it was nearly painful to meet her gaze.

With long lashes, a full bottom lip with a plump cupid's bow, black dreads hanging to her waist, against a comfortable shift dress. Aisha could barely stand to witness such effortless nobility, such grace when she was so clumsily human. And to have it wrapped around her in such warmth and love seemed almost unfathomable.

Hathor seemed so contented and serene, Aisha had a hard time imagining her beating up Horus. But the siblings all assured her it had happened and would continue to because the man just got her last nerve. He was able to drive her blind with rage as only close lovers and friends could. Aisha could see that in the brothers as well. How they each knew exactly how to get under their wives' skin.

"I could have slapped some sense into that boy after what happened," she cooed, rocking Aisha gently before letting her go. Again that motherly love soothed her. Boy wasn't exactly the term Aisha would have used to describe Imset. To any average person, he was a god... and every inch a man. But to his mother, one who had pushed out not one but four gods of death, he was still a child.

She smiled, pulling A'isha back to the table, "Sit by me. Tell me about yourself."

"Uhh, I don't really know where to start?" Aisha brought some juicy pineapple to her mouth, hoping for a small delay in having to talk about herself.

"Oh gods, Imsety you told her about the party tonight, didn't you? You absolutely must come, my darling," Hathor chirped, happily pouring herself a cup of tea, "It wouldn't be half as important for Imset without you."

"We've discussed that nickname, mother!" Imset was mortified, positively flushed all over.

"You mean, you talked and I pretended you were talking to your father? Because you sure as hell weren't talking to me. Not after I pushed out that big ass head. Tell me something else funny, Immy."

"Anyway... Aisha is still uneasy around others, mother, which is entirely understandable and completely my fault." Imset huffed, "I don't think a party full of gods is ideal...you know...for her."

Hathor's mouth dropped open, "Well I'll be damned..."

Mutef put his hands around his mouth to simulate a loudspeaker, "Whipped!"

"Boy, cut it out! Act like you have some kind of sense."

"Funny, you didn't think I scared easy last night when your temple was covered in the blood of half a dozen men," Aisha said between mouthfuls of pineapple. She didn't need to be a smart ass but it felt good so she didn't care. All the chatter at the table stopped when Imset turned to run his eyes over Aisha's form.

"Testy are we?" his voice was too calm, calmer than when he'd been trying to watch his temper earlier. He turned away, the ghost of a smirk on his full lips, "Careful."

"Or what?" her words had barely come out and then they were in his room again. Aisha thought she could hear the sounds of snorting and cackling coming from down the hall but she couldn't focus on it.

"You can't just take me wherever you want, whenever you want, Imset! Dammit, I was hungry," Aisha whined, whirling to face him as he stood with his back to the door.

He let out a dark laugh, the kind that sent fire to her stomach, "On the contrary, I can. And I will. Anytime I want. Because of that mouth of yours..." She was liquid again, absolutely boneless.

"You are such an interesting little human," Imset mused, rolling his tongue over his lip, "I think you've been keeping a secret..."

"A s-secret?" Aisha watched him begin to undress, agonizingly slow, her mouth now dry as the desert outside, "I don't have any secrets."

Imset stalked closer to her, "You have many secrets but this one, in particular, took me far too long to realize." His naked body glistened in the sunlight, his brown skin glittering like crushed glass was contained inside. And as her eyes lowered, she could see every beautiful inch of his desire.

"There's something so sexy about you saying 'yes lord Imset' like the obedient consort you should be..." using just his palm, he pressed her against the bedpost, Aisha's chest heaved as each of his hands slid under the hem of her shirt, finding her braless and already covered in chill bumps.

"Naughty," he purred, "As sexy as your submission is... that need you have to challenge me is sexier. You like to push my buttons, Aisha. That's your secret." He pinched her nipples hard, pulling her bottom lip into a wet kiss then biting down. She moaned, not in pain.

"That's it. Your secret is so clear to me now, as it should have been the day I wrapped my hand around your throat," His voice was liquid fire, husky and deep. Aisha wanted nothing more than to be tied to that voice. To hear it in her dreams and nightmares, to have it breathy against her ear as he pushed into her, to hear its timber as she took him in her mouth.

"That look in your eyes then is the same as it is now. Your secret, Aisha is that you like it when I'm angry. Don't you?" he whispered in her ear, voice hoarse with need, erection pressing against the seam of her jeans.

"Gods yes," her voice was no longer her own. It belonged to a woman who desperately wanted everything he was offering. His body. His soul. Everything, even death. Damn the consequences. Damn her complicated mix of emotions.

"Well what kind of god would I be if I didn't give my consort what she wants?" he nipped her neck and pushed her roughly to the bed, his eyes glazed with the sight of her, only her.

His body was hot behind her, skin to skin with her clothes long abandoned on the floor. They were joined, wholly pressed against each other as only lovers could be. The rough slap of his thighs against her own, echoed through the room, each thrust making her mewl into the pillows, shred and tear at the sheets, grit her own teeth.

"Mmm, please," she panted, arching her back even more until it was nearly painful. His growl of a reply came swiftly, so full of desire and approval Aisha could hardly stand it. He grabbed her arm, bringing her heaving back against his chest. One hand clenched around her neck as the other found the spot between her legs. Imset's own breathing had turned shallow and rough as he struggled to hold his own release.

Tightening his grip around her throat until tears swam over the rims of her eyes, he grated, "You're mine, Aisha. And I l-" They shattered. And shook. Thrashing and moaning until they were hoarse. But Imset couldn't bring himself to the words stuck in his throat. He couldn't push past the primal phrase you're mine to tell her the full truth. He was hers. Maybe she had more ownership of him than he had over her. Maybe he was more lost to her than he thought possible and each minute they spent together was a lifetime of things he didn't think he could feel. He loved her.

And he'd been as ass. And he'd been cruel. And he had so many things to apologize for. So many things she would most likely never forgive. It was a terror. A nightmare he felt in his waking hours, that he might have ruined what was budding between them before it could even begin. That aching fear—that she might not want to stay with him after everything he'd shown her of himself, all his worst parts—kept him from saying those last words. I love you. He would never recover if he said those words and she didn't feel the same.

So instead, he tucked her into his arms and pressed them both in the pillows to rest.