I've been busy - two chapters at a time! Enjoy!


Divine Passion

It started with a kiss. Soft and gentle. Dionysos' tongue had tasted of promises to come. And he had left it there – for a while. Instead he had made sure lunch had arrived, fruit and bread and dried meet – and more of that mellow wine.

After lunch Dionysos had shown Ariadne the steering wheel. It really was a wheel, a novelty even for a girl from a nation of sea-farers. A large, spiked wheel to turn the great steering oar.
" My uncle Poseidon's invention", Dionysos have told. "Makes it easier to navigate the boat. "
" How comes no mortal ships carry this invention?" she asked.
" That you'll have to ask him, he'll probably give you a peculiar reason, he's full of them, the Lord of the sea."
"You want to try the wheel, steer the ship?"
" Can I?"
" Sure!"

It had been a breathtaking experience for Ariadne to handle the big ship, to feel its huge form obey her movements. With the wind in her hair she rode against the waves, feeling salty sea splash her face and kiss her lips when it sprayed the deck. Dion had sat on the rail with a smile upon is face, sometimes swaying to and from in a way that looked quite daring. Ariadne almost feared he would fall over board, then she realised that it wouldn't matter to a god. He would probably just jump back to her again.

When the sun had set behind them hours later they were already back on main deck again, talking about everything and nothing. It felt like they had know each other for years and years, like this day on the ship was just one in an endless row of similar ones.

They had dined beneath the deck with the rest of the crew, a happy group. Save for the maidens and the fair-teethed steward Yisao there had been Boulos, the captain, a large man with black beard and weathered face, a bronze-skinned Aigypto pilot named Hanouk-Re, the fat chef Pylades and his helper, a likewise fat woman named Hali. And finally there had been Silenos, an ugly old man who's reason for being aboard Ariadne hadn't really grasped. These jolly sailors treated the god Dionysos like an equal and Ariadne like a welcomed rookie. She felt more partaking than she had ever done on the Athenian ship.

Yet the real bliss came with the night. Dionysos had pointed out the Elms fire around the pole when escorting her to his chamber, then he had kissed her once more on the moonlit deck. This time he hadn't been so careful. Tender, yes, but with a hot undercurrent of passions to come.

Inside the cabin his kisses had been more eager, more demanding, and Ariadne had felt her responses correspond to that desire, to each burning touch of his. The blood had rushed, hummed in her ears when she kissed back, explored his lips and teeth with her tongue.

Dionysos had let go of her mouth to taste her neck instead, his hands travelling upwards, beneath the top of her dress. In return Ariadne had thrown modesty over board, sending it to sink beneath those wine-dark waves outside. Without hesitating a second she had gone on to explore his soft skin with her hands and lips instead.

This mate wasn't hairy and scarred like Theseus had been, his skin was smooth, soft and without any pimple or boil. On top of that he was hard, more fit than he had appeared, clad in those loose-fitting cover-all clothes he seemed to fancy. Those clothes that suddenly fell off him, undesired and discarded into a bundle on the wooden floor. Revealing him. All of him! All of his divine beauty!

All of Dionysos!

Down to the very body part where all his desires united and became a breathtaking natural force with just one aim. Her.

Ariadne had hesitated but a second, gasping slightly, then she let more primal desires take command. Finding herself naked too, without really knowing how it had happened, she had met her lover in a standing position, her arms around his neck, her lips at his torso, her heavy breaths synchronising with his heavy trusts, his eager explorations inside of her.

She hadn't thought herself ready, yet she came together with him. Swept away on waves of desire across an imagined starlit sky she had moaned his name, or parts of it, pulling at his long hair to the rhythm of his love-making.

Spent they had sunken to the floor, sitting cuddled together, covered in sweat and fluids of desire, breathtaken like after a run and listening to the sound of their hearts slowing down.

" You liked it?"
" You need to ask? "
" Guess not. Milady, a man likes to hear these words nevertheless. "
" So I'll give them to you, Dion. I liked it. A lot. I treassured. Every second of it!"

He rose, lifted her up in his arms, surprised she noted that it seemed to take no effort at all. As if she was light as a feather. Carefully he placed her on top of a generous four-poster bed. The soft sheets were uncovered, waiting. As was she. Again.

This time he had taken her slower, more gentle and throughout. Using his hands, his fingertips as well to help her reach higher peaks. Kissing her closed eye-lids, nabbing at the tip of her nose with tender teeth. Dionysos knew places Ariadne hadn't been aware of herself. Buttons for bliss, zones of sensitiveness. Making it last longer, the leaps higher…

The third time Dionysos had entered from behind, using his fingers as well, adding icing on the cake with the same rhythmic movements. Ariadne felt herself melt, loose herself in the whirlpool of passion, dragged under, under… Was she ever aware of how long they had been making love like this, it had felt like centuries, eons, outside measurable time.

Then sleep had sneaked up on them, one last shivering flicker of awareness before they let the deep, deep streams of dreams carrying them away together.

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When Ariadne woke up something had felt different. It wasn't the fact that Dionysos was already up, humming slightly to himself while shaving, naked save for a towel around the neck. Neither was it the fact that she was naked as well, and with a strange sense of modesty trying to hide herself beneath the sheets and blankets.

It was something with the sun and the sea, with how the waves heaved and then fell. Now Ariadne realised that the sun was shining right trough the round port window, rays bouncing off the brass items that littered Dionysos' cluttered desk across from the bed. Wrong angle!

The boat had changed direction during the night, it was going north instead of south-east, and with an almost unbelievable speed. Why? Where were they going, and why the rush?

" Dion?"
" Good morning sweetie! Slept well?"
" Ah – yes! Are we…? We are not heading for Anatolia anymore, right?"
" Correct, Ari. We're going home. "

" Home? But I thought your home was in Anatolia, Dion."
" That it is. One of them are there. But I'm talking about my Grand Home. The vista of my family. The home of the gods. Olympos. "
" Olympos? Then… what about me? Am I…?"

" You're coming with me", Dionysos stated as a matter of fact. "I was planning to take you to Anatolia that is true, but tonight I changed my mind about that. After that amazing lovemaking I decided I cannot be without you again. Not ever. So I'm taking you with me. "
" But I can't go there, can I? Not there, among the gods, right?"
" Yes you can, Ari. Remember what I told you about Zeus, my father. And my mother. And the favour my father owes me. I'm going to cash that one in now. "