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WHERE WE ARE APPROACHING THE DREADED 80% MARK (AND WHAT THAT MEANS)

She decided to ignore her ballooning out-of-control issues and revert to her tried-and-true problem-solving method. Head-on confrontation. Not that it had ever garnered her much of a positive outcome in the long term, but the short-term results were oftentimes spectacular.

Certainly, these short-term results were beyond spectacular as Athena was currently pressing her into the closed door—the one that Aphrodite had knocked on just seconds ago—and kissing the very breath out of her lungs.

Say what you want about Athena, but she was the Goddess of Wisdom for a reason. Slow on the uptake, she was not. One look at Aphrodite’s face after she’d opened the door in nothing but a pair of boxer shorts and a sports bra and Athena had seen exactly what was there. Undiluted, unrestricted desire.

“So all the tropes are proven totally useless, and the tried-and-truelust at first sightwins the day,” Aphrodite whispered and felt her lover’s smile blossom against her lips.

“It’s one of my favorites.” She could taste Athena’s words on her tongue, the ‘favorites’ in particular carrying a strong undertone of champagne.

Her skin was burning everywhere the hands she’d been admiring the whole week touched, and her clothes were binds that restricted her movements and did not allow her to breathe. She wanted them gone. As if reading her mind, Athena grabbed two fistfuls of the precious couture and a crimson Armani dress fell to the floor in tatters, the sound almost obscene how it reverberated in the quiet of the small room.

In a matter of seconds, she was standing in a red satin thong and her pair of Louboutins. She decided to ignore her ankle bandage. It did not fit the picture she was trying to paint for Athena.

Though Athena didn’t seem to need any pictures painted. She stood back, the remnants of the ruined dress falling away from her fingertips, and her eyes were filled with awe. Perhaps even a little shock. Perfect. Aphrodite could work with shock and awe. It was her currency in this business, after all.

This wasn’t business, however. This was all for her. That was the conclusion she had arrived at after watching Athena dance, mingle, and then retreat from the party in complete solitude, leaving Clio with a puzzled expression.

“She is just amazing. Frustrating, yet amazing.” The muse had felt entirely comfortable settling into the empty chair next to Aphrodite, who’d signaled for their glasses to be filled. She didn’t want to hear what Clio had to say, but perhaps she needed to?

“We had years of happiness and then…” The server interrupting them to bring another Veuve Clicquot made Aphrodite want to scream. Clio just looked at him with her serene smile, and Aphrodite was struck again by how perfect Athena and she seemed for each other. The knowledge of thousands of generations in their eyes. Both guardians of age-old secrets. She could certainly see what Sabine had seen when she’d fired her silver arrows at them. Theywerea perfect match.

As if reading her thoughts, Clio took a long sip of her drink and continued, “And then all that perfect happiness somehow turned into perfect boredom. Maybe it’s the years, the comfort level of being so similar, the knowledge and understanding of each other, but one day we were jumping each other’s bones and the next I found myself looking around and searching for excitement. I loved her. I love her, still. I will love her always. She is my best friend and the one person on earth who knows me better than I know myself. But love is fire. Exhilaration. Desire. Not coming home to a pair of comfortable slippers and falling asleep. At least not for me. I wanted that fire back. And Athena deserves some desire back as well. Because as I said, she is amazing.”

“Love is what you make of it, Clio.” Aphrodite marveled at how the words she’d been uttering all week tasted horrid on her tongue this time.

“Then neither of us wanted what we made of it, Aphrodite. Hence the frustrating part of my earlier statement.”

Clio’s smile turned a bit predatory as she leaned closer.

“I confess, however, that watching the two of you together, doing whatever dance it is you have been doing these past several days, is very educational. And hot. You have something that Athena and I never had.” Aphrodite threw back her drink and carefully set the flute on the table, her mind spinning from the revelations, as Clio continued. “Opposites attractis a superior trope. I have to tell Erato to stuff herage gap, Ice Queennonsense, and accept that fire and ice meeting is an explosive combination.”

Aphrodite filed away the tidbit about Erato fancying an age gap, because since when? And who was the Ice Queen she was favoring? Her assistant, the timeless player, was perhaps ensnared by someone older? Someone more experienced? Surely not. There were only so many choices on the menu, andAphrodite refused to entertain the thought of Erato chasing after Hera. An actual shudder went through her.

But that was for a later ponder. At this moment, she was looking into the devious eyes of the Muse of History and seeing nothing but goodwill reflected back at her.

“You have your reasons to not pursue whatever is brewing and sparkling so radiantly between you, Aphrodite. But the whole Convention is set alight by your fire. And I am here to inquire if perhaps it doesn’t need to be a perfect match? Or even something halfway that deep? Athena has had her perfect match before. Maybe now she deserves to simply have some fun? If anyone knows history, it’s me and let me tell you, love can be very serious business. It kills, maims, starts wars and ends them. But love can also be a fling that just satisfies a hunger. It’s been known to happen, trust me.”

Clio had smiled at her kindly again and Aphrodite had stared, taken aback by the simplicity of it all. Athena deserved to have some fun. And maybe so did Aphrodite?

Well, this certainly was a lot of fun. Standing nude in front of a positively dumbstruck Athena was a very enjoyable experience. And merely enjoyable be damned. It was amazing. It was joyful. It was freeing. The hungry eyes trailed down from her face to her breasts and it felt like a physical caress. As if the fingers Aphrodite craved were tracing down her body, stopping at her nipples that furled tightly just from being looked at ravenously.

They both moaned at the sight and sensation and at that sound, Athena seemed to lose whatever tether had been holding her in place. Lightning-quick she had Aphrodite boosted up, hands under her ass, gripping her cheeks possessively. Aphrodite’s arms encircled strong shoulders, her own hands delving into Athena’s hair. She was delighted to find an undercut beneath the longer strands, and her palm caressed up and down, enjoying the pricking sensation.

Goddess, this woman was, in fact, all sensation, from the strength of her muscles, to the silk of her skin, to the bite of her teeth at Aphrodite’s bottom lip.

“You were getting distracted there.” Athena’s sly words held no apology for the sharp pain and Aphrodite didn’t have time to demand one since she was being carried—okay, this was extremely sexy and might account for her losing her trail of thought—to the bed in the center of the room and placed ever so gently down despite the rough grip on her ass or the teeth now marking her skin.

She felt weightless; she felt victorious; she felt desired as Athena’s mouth dragged down her throat to her breasts and when the heat of that mouth closed around her nipple, they both growled.

Aphrodite had always been wanted. Always been desired. It was sort of what she was all about. Her so-called cross to bear. That was nothing new. But she had oh so rarely wanted back like this. Strongly, to the point of oblivion, to the point of forsaking her own safety, her own security. Athena meant so many things. So many dangerous things. This could all be Zeus’s game. Some long-term alliance or power play he was executing. And that would mean she again would be deprived of her free will. Yet right this second, this very moment, it mattered not. She wanted. She craved. And she was being sated.

By Helios and all the heavenly deities, big and small, she was being sated. That wonderful wonderful tongue was doing amazing things to her breasts and as she reached out to touch Athena, a strong hand grabbed her wrists, raising them above her head, effectively rendering her helpless, spread out for the taking. And the greedy lethal mouth took again, claiming her lips, then her neck, her collarbone, that spot where shoulder met neck… She was marked and possessed and she reveled in it. When a hand reached out between them and dipped into her, itfelt like a puzzle piece fitting in its rightful position. One finger, then two and she could almost hear the click of everything coming into place, the universe aligning.

Was this where she had belonged all along? Under the silky skin sliding against hers, entranced by the comforting scent that wrapped her in a warm embrace, held down and possessed by strong hands and fingers that conveyed nothing but safety, even as they took her reason away with each thrust. How strange that centuries had passed, and she had never known what this very safety and security felt like. What total comfort felt like. Was this freedom? Of choice? Of simply being with whom you wanted to be with?