A place in the sun
With a smile of relish lighting up her lovely face, Aphrodite sank in the tub of hot water, while glancing out through the window at the meadows and the lake beyond. When the night was falling, mists were beginning to swirl up from the water and create strange plays of light and shadows in concert with the balls of colourful divine fire which shone from tops of pillars and in ornate iron baskets hanging from trees or iron posts down by the walkways. A faint breeze was making Aphrodite's curtains dance and swirl, the sequins upon them glittering slightly in the soft light from her own divine flames, which she had dimmed to a bluish purple. The windchimes were singing their songs of randomness and the frogs and crickets were calling out for mates. Love sure was in the air that eve.
The young goddess was in a better mood than she had been in a long time, finally things were going her way and the nervousness form earlier had faded almost completely. Not only had the wonderful Hestia understood exactly what Aphrodite had meant when she had explained what she wanted her home to look like. Hestia had made it happened as well, ordering in nymphs and other minions who had moved in furnishings, hung up curtains and draperies and arranged potted flowers and iron chandeliers for divine fire. A large and plushy bed that was something Aphrodite couldn't do without. When her bed became decorated with gold- and silver threaded pink silk and lace canopies, it all began to feel like perfection. As icing on the cake, some of the nymphs brought in pillows clad in the purest silk and they also told Aphrodite what she needed to know to keep these clean. Some simple formulas of magic could remove everything from spilled wine and fruit stains to – well other kind of gore. Other formulas could mend tears in the fabric. Other nymphs rolled out carpets in wonderful colours, fur hides from more or less exotic animals and other wondrous things.
Hestia also brought some large cupboards, telling Aphrodite these were excellent for storing all kinds of items for beauty in. Everything from jewelry to perfumes and crèmes, make-up and hair ornaments went neatly into little drawers marked with golden lettering spelling out nonsense words, which of course were possible to alter with some easy magic to instead spell out what was hiding inside.
"Ingenious," Aphrodite laughed and thanked the older goddess heartily.
"It's an old design of Athena," Hestia responded. "So don't thank me, thank her!"
"I haven't really been talking that much with Athena," Aphrodite shrugged her shoulders. "She and I don't seem to have that much in common."
"Oh, you should do," Hestia smiled. "She's brilliant! Kindness herself, even if she can appear fierce. But that's her war aspect."
Aphrodite replied something non-committedly and they dropped the subject and moved on to chairs, tables and coaches. After that closets for clothes, cupboards, book shelves (even if Aphrodite wasn't exactly an avid reader) food utensils, vases... in the end Aphrodite's head just spun and Hestia left her with a promise to return the next day for the finishing touch. The goddess of home knew very well that a client sometimes needed to sleep on the details to be completely pleased with them.
But that was far from all!
After Hestia had left –HE had arrived.
Apollo.
Apollo, god of music. Suddenly he was there with a lyre.
"Hestia told me you play a bit, so I thought you might want to have this," he stated without further ceremonies, his voice gracious and sonorous. "This is my somewhat belated way of saying welcome to Olympos, Aphrodite."
"Oh, thanks," she blurted out while receiving the magnificent instrument in her hands, too mesmerized by his sweet smile to think of anything more intelligent and coherent.
"You're welcome," Apollo bowed. "I'd be delighted to hear you give it a try."
"Come sit down here then," she indicated a sofa in that garden room/living room. The room was a kind of hybrid between being indoors and outdoors with its ivy-covered wooden pillars carrying up a glass roof which was partly covering the area, a design which seemed very much in vogue at the time at Olympos.
Apollo made himself comfortable among Aphrodite's lime green and turquoise pillows on the settee. The first moments, the only thing heard was the splashing of the fountain while Aphrodite hesitated slightly. Then she fingered the lyre, captivated with its clear and loveable harmonies. Her tries were tentative first then more secure, as she begun humming a little melody. Soon she found the chords she was looking for and started to sing out what she had in mind. Then it hadn't taken long until the dear Apollo was singing along with her, his clear tenor ringing out against her soft soprano, swirling around it like a brave counterpoint. Together they sang several songs, first those everybody and his dog knew. After that Aphrodite tried other songs, more obscure ones, but didn't Apollo know how to sing those as well? Suddenly the two of them found themselves sitting there and making up lyrics, laughing when it got stupid or dirty and delighting in the clever things coming along unexpectedly.
"You're great," Apollo said as he rose. "I'd love to stay a bit longer and sing together with you, but I've got things to do. Although we have to do this again, dear!"
"Yes, I'd delight in that," she fired off her loveliest smile at the god, enjoying his reaction at her slight flirt. He turned slightly red upon his cheek at her attention, so dainty! He – Apollo – handsome and clever god of music, ought to be more than used to girls trifling with him. In spite – his reaction was almost like a school boy, gratified and almost shy! It made her go all flimsy over him.
"Tomorrow," he added after a heartbeat of hesitation. "Tomorrow, Aphrodite, I'll be back here. And we'll sing together again. And perhaps..."
"Perhaps what?"
"We'll see about that. Ehrm... I've gotta be going." The last sentence had been uttered a bit too quickly and she grinned at that when she stood from the settee and let him kiss her on the cheek before he turned around and disappeared down the garden path, a kind of sway in his movements she found endearing. Sitting down again, Aphrodite listened to the fountain for a while before taking up the instrument again and began conjuring up new tunes. New little fragments of music to somewhat try to preserve the wonder of the moment.
Apollo... Back tomorrow!
That was what Aphrodite recalled in her warm bath, over and over picturing the endearing god of music in her mind. The god of music and the god of the sun. To finally find herself a place in the sun! Apollo was handsome and sexy and there was something challenging in his behaviour, like he was playing a game, a debonair board game in which he expected her to make the next move. Now, she'd do exactly that, it was a game she knew very well. She had played it an endless amount of times before. It was in fact her favourite game.
*o*o*
The god of music kept his promise, the next eve he returned to Aphrodite's, bringing his own lyre and once again they sat down in her semi-outdoors living room and sang and played, enjoying every moment of it. This night Apollo wasn't in any kind of hurry. On the very contrary, he had postponed everything else in his life to spend the evening with her. An evening which led on to just what she had hoped for. A night not spent alone.
Aphrodite led the way of course; she wanted the God of Music to be without a doubt about what she desired. For about an hour she was fine with singing, playing and extemporizing and to joke around with songs and lyrics. To listen to his mellow voice as he sang to her. Then slowly she began to spice the lyrics with small innuendos, teasing him with small flirts, nudging him with bare skin, hoping to make him blush, because there was nothing she adored as much as fair men who blushed. They were the cutest things!
This time Apollo didn't blush though, he was far too bewandered in the game for being caught unaware a second time around. Instead he took the bait where she dropped it, picked it up and tossed it back, just as he did with his songs. He joked a while until he apparently felt it was time to stop cavorting around and getting down to business. Halting his play as if on a hunch, he put down his instrument on the couch and instead he took her head in gentle hands, smiling:
"You sure are beautiful tonight, Aphrodite. Even more beautiful than usually, maybe I should say. It's like the night conjures up a special ambience to your velvet skin, making it shine from within, as if lit by an inner fire only a generous and sweet heart could kindle. A sheen making those sapphire eyes sparkle like the rarest of gems, your rose-coloured and lush lips promising suave tenderness of the ineffable kind."
"You sure are a poet, my sweet," Aphrodite whispered, then cutting him off by connecting her mouth to his, tasting those musical lips for the first time, enjoying another kind of deployment of his tongue.
Apollo had been gentle at first, like one of his ballads. But just like he had more up-tempo songs on his repertoire, he soon sped up the tempo of the kiss, exploring her oral cavity more fiercely almost wrestling with her tongue, battling for dominance as he made her moan slightly. She hadn't planned this to happen so early in their play, yet sometimes you get caught by the game, swept away and finding yourself moving other pieces than originally planned. Apollo sure was a master player of this game too; he detached his lips from hers after a short, sparkling connection of their tongues. Instead he softly pecked the tip of her nose, then the corner of her eyes, nibbled loosely at her earlobe before tracing the contour of her neckline, down towards that little deepening where her collarbones met. There he placed the tenderest and the most tempting kiss. Hinting at wilderness yet to come.
In return Aphrodite grabbed those blond locks of his, then searched his neck, his shoulders and tried to reach inside his orange tunic, discovering the pins holding the textile in place over the left shoulder, releasing it and letting the fabric flutter apart, exposing his alluring, fit body. Apollo made a small peculiar sound, something between an aroused moan and a giggle. Then he responded by removing the clasps which held her crimson coloured peplos pinned together over her shoulders, exposing her chest and her breasts, with dark nipples already hardened by lust. Those become the next object for his tracing lips and tongue. A kiss there, a circling, fluttering movement with the tongue, quick like a viper, warm and cold at the same time, and then retracting, halting the tease just when it was becoming unbearable for her.
Running her hands along his sinewy back, she ad-libbed on his licks with her own fingers, then scratching slightly, just adding a little bit of pain to the pleasure. Apollo gasped at that, not able to keep his sanity, this woman was driving him mad. He'd never encounter anybody as skilled and as truly passionate at the same time. Goddesses hundreds of years older had nothing against this thrilling set of pure sensuality. Everything else paled when he tasted her skin, which was soft like the peal of a peach, warm against his lips and slightly shivering – so vibrant, so full of life, so bristling with sensuality. He couldn't wait, he wanted to have all of her right there and right then and he became unable to contain himself when she worked her hands across his back and up his arms while she kissed the top of his ears, scratching them with teasing teeth as well.
Tipping her backwards among the pillows, he heard the wood of the settee protest slightly at the sudden change of weight when she fell with him on top. It creaked again while she was writhing under his kisses which now reached her belly and that sweet sweet little navel of hers. A navel reminding Apollo of an entrée dish to what as waiting for him further down. He urged to go there, at the same time he wanted to hold back, to let this delicate enjoyment to last as long as possible. Lifting his head for a while, he faced her, meeting her slightly closed lids, open mouth and that desire radiating from her delicate features as she embraced him, made it almost impossible to linger.
"Aphrodite!" With an animalistic groin he hardly recognized as his own, he moved himself so he was able to relieve her of her under garments and feel with his hand, for the first time tasting that hot, pulsing wet centre of desire which was hers.
As a response Aphrodite trusted her body almost spastically against Apollo, felt his hardened member against her in the same instance as he was tasting her nipple again, the left one this time, after having painted a V across her chest and waist. Reaching out, she liberated him of what fabric there still was clinging to his slightly sweaty body, exposing his total nakedness against her own. At that moment his fingers down there disconnected and gave room for his member, his large, hard and promising manhood, which without hesitation trusted itself deeper into her cavity, relentlessly taking up a beat well worthy of a god of music.
She sang to it, a song not with lips but with her body, her movements the counter-point to his hammering, her hands playing a pretended lyre across his backside – until she stopped, frozen in the moment, just before that sweet release came to her and she let herself ride the way up to the crest and meet him there as he reached his own release. Apollo growled, beastlike in a way Aphrodite would never have believed of this refined, proud and slightly arrogant man. He tossed his head back, golden mane catching the last of the orange sunlight as the warm orb which defined him finally sunk behind the mountains in the west, painting the tufty clouds in the sky in a heartfelt pink.
As the sun sank, Apollo lowered himself as well, across Aphrodite's soft contentness, heard her heartbeat slow down as her breath reached a more normal pace and she let slip of a content mewl before her lips puckered in an air kiss, a gentle outro to finish the symphony of love making.
"Your highness," he whispered in a husky voice. "You truly are the Goddess of Love. Father and his little officiant Eumonia were right about that."
"You were hesitant to believe that, Apollo?" she teased gently, while twirling a golden lock of his fringe around her right index finger. Apollo sighed in response.
"Let's just say I've seen a few come and go."
"Love goddesses?"
"Uh – yes. Some."
"And they were...?" she felt unlikely nosy, then again she believed she did have some kind of right to know what her competitors and precursors had been like."
"Uh... they were... like... They were either like untouchable enigmas, beings on pedestals to be admired from afar, delighting in your unworthiness. Or they were complete sluts, opening their legs for whatever man who was around. Your direct predecessor, Lyssia, she worked herself through all the men of Olympos within a year. Then she lost interest. And seemed more content with focusing on her own splendour."
"She stopped caring?" Aphrodite tilted her head.
"I wonder if she did care at all."
"The name rings a bell. Lyssia..." the goddess shifted upon the coach, the silk beneath her body swishing silently beneath her. Sitting up slightly, Apollo rested his chin on his upper arms and breathed in through his mouth. A pillow fell to the floor with a soft thud and somewhere a bird called out with a shrill chirp, almost startling her. Her lavender eyes widened slightly and caught a ray of the warm red divine light in one of the lanterns.
"It was... No hard feelings, dear, but she was – or perhaps still is – your mother's friend. Dione recommended Lyssia. But I think it was because she didn't want the position herself."
"Then I got the job instead," Aphrodite tittered slightly before she got serious again. "Do you know why my mother declined the proposition? I asked her, but she never told me."
"I'm not sure," Apollo bit his lip. "It might have to do with father. Dione was... Zeus' lover way back. I think she feared that their old relation would stir awake again if she came here in a position of Goddess of Love. And... Well since their affair both of them had got married. Zeus to Hera and your mother to your father."
"Well, my parents divorced back in... 50 years ago or something. Way before momma got the job offer. So it can't 've been about my idiot dad. He never appreciated what he had. But... Or..."
Aphrodite almost said it, but caught her tongue in the last moment. You don't tell the man you have just made love to that his father is kind of alluring! Instead she caressed his cheek gently.
"...or maybe you're right. I guess we'll never really learn. And perhaps it's not for us to care," she lowered her voice, regarded him as his skin caught the colours of the divine light now when the sun had gone. The spirits of the night were wakening up around them, making their presence known with slight shifts in the aether, like small, barely notable hisses and pops in the gods' telepathic receptors. Quickly Aphrodite blocked the disturbances, some of those beings could be so intrusive, never bothering with normal courtesy. She knew they were just dumb, curious things, still she understood how they could scare sensitive and psychic mortals from time to time.
Grinning silently Apollo shifted position again, so he came to rest one strong tight across her legs, sort of claiming her. With any other man she'd been annoyed by such a possessive body language. But with Apollo it was somewhat – endearing. Instead of protesting she traced her hand gently against his backside, then, while getting something naughty in her face, she reached down to his firm buttock and squeezed it. Gently but with the intent clear. Like a tilt through his body did she feel his response. That god was ready again. Hungry again. As was she.
*o*o*
The next morning Aphrodite found herself strolling down the lake-walk, not with any specific goal in sight, just taking in the beauty of the Olympian nature and in her mind going over yesterday's eve again and again, savouring the night with Apollo like the finest of wines. She must have been lost in thoughts, because she didn't notice the other goddess until her shadow fell across the path.
"Aphrodite!" The younger woman looked up and right in a couple of round, emerald eyes shadowed by long lashes. The goddess who had greeted her wore her honey blond hair tied up in two braided bums, making her look like she had two giant rodent ears protruding from her head.
"Hemera! Nice to meet you," Aphrodite smiled and in return Hemera tilted her head, offering some small talk before she apparently couldn't contain herself any longer.
"Heard you've been with Apollo," she said with a gentle grin. "He was good?"
Darn! Rumours flew faster than Zeus' thunderbolts here apparently!
"Who told you Apollo and I have..."
"Oh, you know..." Hemera continued to smile. "Things like that go around. I heard it from my sister. Nyx. She was still up when I rose this morning. Nothing uncommon with that, she's kind of a night creature. Seems like she had heard about the two of you from some of her minions."
Aphrodite cursed. Those beings yesterday! Spying eyes no doubt. From now on, she believed she had to be more careful around here.
"But I wouldn't worry if I was you," Hemera tittered at Aphrodite's concerned looks.
"And why is that?"
"I won't tell. After all, you don't deserve it."
"I – don't deserve it?"
"Yes, you're a newbie and you can't possibly know about all quirks and foibles of this place. It was probably somebody deploying an apparition for a definitely different matter and that apparition just happened to come across you two when you were making it out. Obviously nobody told you how to lay a ward around your house."
"I'm going to need that?"
"If you want to be left alone with your boyfriends," Hemera told frankly.
"Hmm... In fact Hestia hinted at something like that, but she sounded like it wasn't really imperative, so I didn't pay that much attention. I guess I just – ehrm – found it out the hard way. So, Hemera, how do I do it? Is it enough with cardinal point pentagrams?"
"Far from it," Hemera admitted. "You know, this is not some mortals you want to keep bad spirits away from. These – beings – are more skilled than that. More skilled and most of all more nosy. They're semi-intelligent, so they're not exactly looking for basic stuff like bodies to possess. They do fine on their own. You're going to need a Diorum Double Circle."
"And what exactly is that?" Aphrodite asked. "Well, I know about Circles and Double Circles, even if I've seldom have had need for the latter ones, after all a Circle keeps the mortal thief away."
"Yes, but here you're dealing with magical beings who seldom respect the average goddess or god's privacy. Okay, they don't dare eavesdropping people like Zeus and Hera and Poseidon. But they take their chances with us commoners and have no problem with gossiping about us. And with nymphs and satyrs around, yesterday's secret is today's public property."
"Oh, dang! So I need one of these Diorums, and then I can hump whoever I want in my garden without having to worry?"
"Well, not really," Hemera responded. "But it's a good start."
"A good start, eh..."
"Aphrodite, I'll tell you where to begin. To keep the normal spies around. The way everyone around here does it. Then if you need more extensive solutions, I guess you'll have to talk to my sister."
"Nyx?"
"That should be the one, yes."
"She's – a master of chaos magic, I've heard," Aphrodite said and regarded the voluptuous goddess in her loose-fitting ice blue dress.
"Yes, and she's pretty good at it. Even with Olympian standards. So go ahead and ask her!"
"And why should I need her extensive help."
"Because," Hemera mused, "I can tell that you're the one who's going to need an extended protection for your privacy. And I'm not saying that as a criticism, more as a statement of fact."
Aphrodite felt she had no real response to that. It was more or less the truth. The love goddess guessed she couldn't help herself but she had never bothered with resisting the interesting men around her. At least not if they were free for the taking like Apollo or Hermes or Poseidon. While seeing nothing wrong with partaking in an act they both desired, she was well aware that other people may tend to think differently about extensive love making. She didn't really know why, she was exactly not hurting anybody, but life had taught her to abide by the common idea of what was proper and what wasn't. At least to the extent of keeping her little love adventures in private. Now she wanted Apollo but she did want to explore gods like Poseidon and Helios later. And maybe those strongblokes as well. The brothers Kratos and Zelos who were Zeus' enforcers, they seemed tempting, she had always had a thing for hefty and slightly dangerous men. Then there were gods like Aiolos and Argus. Not to mention the evasive Hephaestos, who was a true mystery, hiding away in his workshop.
She said nothing about these thoughts to the Goddess of Day though, that was nothing Hemera needed to know. Instead she thanked the other goddess for her offered help and asked when she could be able to assist.
"Anytime," Hemera offered. "Why not now? Or were you busy with something? Going somewhere?"
"No, not really," Aphrodite shrugged. "Just strolling around, walking my mind."
"That sounds like a great idea on a lovely day like this. But let's go up to your place and I can show you what I had in mind."
"That sounds great," Aphrodite beamed, and together they turned around and began climbing the flagstone staircase snaking itself up the grass hills towards Aphrodite's place.
When they crossed a small stream, Hemera suddenly interrupted her regular flow of smalltalk:
"You know that Ares is coming home tomorrow by the way?"
"Ares?" Aphrodite almost halted in her track and for a brief second the only thing heard was the gurgling of the trickling waterfall on their left hand and the chirping of the birds.
"Yes, the God of War. He's been up north looking for some immortal Centaur." Before launching into some rendition of an adventure Aphrodite couldn't care less about, Hemera became interrupted by an enquiry:
"Demeter and Calliope talked about him the other day. So, what's he like?"
"Well..." Hemera let up a laughter. "For those women who like them handsome and brawny – and don't care that much about brains, I guess he's the thrill. He's buoyant, abrasive and enduring, surely living up to his title. But contrary to what most people believe he isn't a badass. He treats his woman like a gentleman. Making sure she's having a fine time. Yet he can be a pain in the ass sometimes. And he's taking after his father in that sense that he's not one woman's man."
"You speak of – own experiences?" Aphrodite tried to catch Hemera's green eyes, but the other goddess avoided her looks and suddenly seemed to find the waterfall very interesting.
"Aphrodite – yes. Yes I do," Hemera finally admitted with a sigh. "Although that was quite a while back. I guess he and Nike've been having a good time now when they were away together."
"That's Kratos' sister, right?" Aphrodite asked, tried to picture a sister of the big, blond and loud mouthed fellow who intrigued her in an odd, almost forbidden way.
"Yes, and Zelos' and Bia's. Nevertheless, just before Ares left, he dumped Eos, Goddess of Dawn. She did NOT take it well if I might say so."
The love goddess didn't need to ask more, Hemera was serving her the whole story as they ascended the last fifty steps or so. Including certain things which this poor Eos had obviously told someone in confidence, which Aphrodite took in mind. Inevitably she would have to guard her tongue around most people here, at least until she knew which goddess (almost certainly it was a goddess) who was so keen on rumours that she had to share around those kind of matters. Aphrodite got the impression that the guilty one was not her talkative company, but someone else, way up the line of gossip. Then again, what comes around goes around, and hopefully Eos knew who NOT to share delicate secrets with the next time.
What more, Aphrodite couldn't wait to see this god Ares. If he was the kind of man she thought he was, she felt more than thrilled at the thought of encountering him.
But what about Apollo?
Aphrodite guessed she'd have to cross that bridge when she got to it...