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p o w e r f u l ,
like the stride of a woman with her mission on the line

"MOMMY! Look at how high I can go!" I squealed in excitement, welcoming the wind as it hit my face. She laughed joyously as she continued to watch me like a hawk from our old porch. Mommy was sewing from where she stood, skilled hands etching fabric.

"Honey, be careful on that swing. It's getting rusty, you know how worried your father and I both get." She glanced at the open field in front of our home — in nostalgia. I wanted to correct her, she's not my real mom. I already knew — why does she keep telling me that she was?

My mood was immediately dampened at the thought, my high pumps of momentum turning to dragging skids on the eroded dirt under were I swung. I tried to smile at my mother, but just the thought were I came from had my eyes stinging. I sucked it up, knowing that it's going to be this way forever.

"Mom can we go inside? It's getting cold." I pretended to shiver. When she nodded, I hopped off the swing, my pigtails lightly swinging as I pulled my slightly eroded hoodie around my small frame. She held her hand out for me to take, which I did, welcoming its soft texture. "When will daddy be home?" I asked. I hadn't seen him in a week, mommy said he was coming home tonight or early in the morning.

"He called while you were swinging. He has to stay overnight for some hours, but I promise you'll see before you go to school." She gave me a smile, squeezing my baby hand gently. I nodded, skipping into the dining room. I skimmed through my books, deciding to read to mommy as she cooked.

"Can I read to you mommy? I'll show you how much better I've gotten." Her dimples showed as she gave me a warm, encouraging smile.

"Go ahead, little one." So I did. I tried so hard for my mommy.

I wanted to make her proud of me, but I knew that she was as proud as she could be for a child that wasn't hers. I stopped reading when she answered a phone call.

"Hello." She answered aggressively. Her whisk dug into the gravy on the stove. I didn't hear the rest of the conversation, myself to engrossed in the door, eyebrows furrowed.

  I could sense something was about to happen.

Suddenly the door slammed open. I jumped, as did mommy, as a man I hadn't seen before came in on the house. He had an untrimmed beard and long hair that had peeks of gray.

"Surprise!" He yelled out, silencing mommy with a single stare. The door creaked as it swung slightly out of place. He'd probably broken it.

"Baby, come here now." I could sense mommy's uneasiness as I walked around the table away from the man. His face looked crazed and loving, a bad combination. Once his eyes drifted to me, I became scared. I tugged on mommy's dress and hid behind her.

"Who is this little girl?" The man questioned, seeming upset--enraged even. Mommy cleared her throat before standing up straighter with confidence. I did the same behind her. We were each others backbone.

"This is my daughter." She placed a calm hand on the back of my head. Her voice was proud at the statement, I found myself smiling a little bit. "Leave Ricardo." She demanded with a tone that made even the trees shake. The man looked furiously at me, then he was still.

"Come here, babygirl." His voice was a beat in my head, a steady drum that I became hooked on. He crouched close, cracking knees like a sharp pierce in my brain. Mommy drifted away from my fingertips and I only saw him. He was taunting me, taunting something inside me. Fire ignited in my gut, and I took a step towards that outstretched hand. Mommy couldn't stop me as I was pulled strongly towards him.

The feeling was gone swiftly, yet I was already in his arms.

Our whole lives would change.

•–•–•

"I have returned my gods. It sure is a pleasure for you to be in my presence once again." I walked around the conference room, heeled feet clicking loudly against the Grecian tile.

"What a pleasure it is indeed." I rounded the head of the table were Hera was. Sarcasm was still her best trait.

"Nice to see you not discriminating against your daughter for once, Hera," I thought aloud.

  Spoken too soon.

"Goddess, no, you are not my daughter. That wasn't my doing when you changed to look like me and continued to seduce my husband. No daughter of mine does that to her father." Hera growled like the dog she was, the corners of my lips quirking at her anger. I sat on the edge of the table were she scooted over slyly, away from me.

"If you're not my mother, he's not my father — simple, my idiotic Hera." The ugly snarl on her face didn't diminish, my grin lightening up the tasteless mood. She didn't budge, and I gave up with a defeated sigh, "It was all fun in a Halloween prank." A small lift to my shoulders and I walked away. Neither of us had time to care it seemed. I pulled out my chair to sit between Ares and Amphitrite.

"It was the middle of July. But of course, what excuse could your infidelic hands come up with?" Persephone, the gullible older sister I had, questioned, narrowing her dry eyes. "Cat got your tongue?" She mocked my silence scornfully.

I could belittle, but no one would belittle me.

"No," I hid my smirk behind my hand, "...just thinking about your glorious lover, Hades." Persephone looked down at me menacingly. Goddess, her and Hera had the same toxic attitude. "My, my, just what would become of you if I'd change myself into you, Effy, and pounced on your boytoy like he was my last meal?" It was more of an ability that allowed an able goddess like me to turn into any person I desired. Just by seeing them was I able to articulate every attribute that they had, and fool some of these lowly gods that held respect for their repulsive superiors.

I guess being gone for so long meant they'd forgotten every remote thing about me, and that included how my divine power looked and worked.

So when my hair shone the brightest of oranges and my eyes were soft and welcoming like the goddesses sitting right in from of me, I could see how it would be problematic. It wasn't only that, but even my posture became one with hers, mimicking every move she could calculate before she did them.

"Pleased? Shocked? Hypnotized?" I suggested, my voice matching the one of his lover's. The same questions could be asked from that of our peers.

"Alright, break it up. You both are goddesses, not immature little sirens." I rolled my eyes at Poseidon, returning my figure to the--better --gorgeous bronzed eyes and hair.

"You know you love it, Idon." Hermes spoke up, chuckling at the uptight uncle who grumbled under his breath.

Thank you, I mouthed to Hermes, his fluffy hair moving swiftly with his teasing smirk back.

A thundering cough reigned our attention back in, Zeus, fine god he was, pointedly looking towards me as he addressed us.

"May I start the meeting?" He was nowhere near flustered or readable given he had been the center of our conversation five minutes ago. The vile things that mouth did to me — heavenly bliss.

"How does this work again?" I huffed without appreciation, fiddling with a framing tendril close to my ear.

"It's simple, take notes whenever an issue is brought up. Think about how you could help them out." Zeus answered me without a second glance, off putting any possible pick up of sexual tension between us. "Ares, you're up."

  I remembered this god vaguely, my readings on earth shunning us both together in a pile of infidelity. Ares, the god of war, has always been as stoic as he had been on the battlefield.

"Yet again, the mortals..." only those words passed his rugged lips and I was already biting my nail. It had been years since I'd last been to one of these meetings, and who would have known that the mortals nonsense was right — my measly once lover was no match for this divine being.

  "Political strifes were never one of my strong suits, but whatever you need help with I'd gladly—"

"How absurd."

Oh my...was this little Atty?

"What, my goddess?" I produced a mocking smile on my face, Athena's subtle outburst drawing even more attention from their group discussions. Not only was she a snake, but a loud mouth as well.

At least we could prove just who's daughter she is.

"Your flirting will fail on my acquaintance. Stop it." She hissed back at me. Then why mention it in the first place?

"Still as much of a prude, Atty." Athena rolled her eyes at my remarks, making me a little more agitated than it should have. "Virgin ears don't look good on a grown woman, much less a goddess." I gave her an innocent flutter of my eyes.

"I'm proud of what the mortals worship. I don't need a promiscuous goddess that spreads disease to tell me what I can and can't do with my body." I narrowed my eyes at her.

"What disease have I ever spread? Those lies have probably indulged you more than whispering a lick of the word whore. Call me it directly or do not claim you know anyone in this room." She stood abruptly from her seat, daring a glance at her deranged father like he would help her. Her sharp face settled on me, doing its best to look intimidating with her constant brow twitch.

"The wisest would know when to shut their mouth," she slammed her palms on the table, "obviously it is not you." Goddess, there was at least a dozen reasons why I'd left these things, it was no wonder the mortal world wasn't getting better.

"Telling me to shut my mouth will do nothing, Atty. I love when it stays open." My sideways glance slithered it's way towards her, eyes locked on hers as she stood frozen. She dared to test me by standing taller, I reciprocated, standing strongly from my seat and lowering myself to her standards. Absentmindedly, a twitch begun in my arm, lasting only a seconds time. "Someone like you has no idea what it's like to be a real goddess. Little girls should stay sucking their thumb, big girls take the Chardonnay."

  I reached towards center table to grab the specialty drink for this occasion.

"At least I have parents." My hand stopped in the middle of its unsealing, a delicate smile creeping up on my face.

"Detrimental comeback, my love." Again, my eyes settled calmly on her hideous face, head tilting while I leaned on my right arm and set the bottle down with my left. It was unjustly silent, the notable gulps and clinking of gold accessories against the floor rung out in anticipation and cowardice. "If you would care to, I'll deeply indulge you in the way you're described by the mortals." Quickly, my gaze shifted to the chilliest of winters, raising goosebumps even on my own skin. "Or would you rather have me carve it into your skin with my tongue?"

  Her resolve dissipated, that weak anterior of hers cracking without a second thought.

"You-you psycho!"

"Would you like me to show you-" My hand tightened around the bottles neck. Anything I would give for it to be Athenas, her nails clawing at my arm in any attempts to get free.

"Settle down, goddesses-"

"You are just like the nymphs, weak and contempt with being on the bottom."

"Nothing about me is weak — yet your father surely thinks so too." The chill was whisked away, drawing back in the heat and warmth, especially those of the gods who had yet to hear crude words from my lips. Athena looked mortified.

"Sit down, now!" The poor girl was so shocked she settled into her seat limply. This was where we were different. I did not bow down — especially without a fight.

Standing once again with my shoulders squared, I smirked Zeus's way. Ares was already seated again, allowing his father to control the situation — and poorly at that.

"I have insulted your wife, your daughter, and now you." Zeus did not stray his eyes from me, nor open his mouth to form syllables. I took his silence for weakness. Even he, God of all Gods, tensed at my strides. I called out to everyone who would listen. "You, Zeus, hold no power over ones that are more powerful than you. The weak have strikingly outshone your pride."

Right then, I whispered so breathlessly low in his ear, "While you fuck me so diligently, remember the effect I have on you." A deadly kiss I placed on his jaw, eyes cold when I purred to him, "you won't last forever."

Very faintly did I manage to smell the arousal he did well to mask. His old fashioned tunic was perfect for my one true love. Those sharp blue eyes locked with mine from the side, shining with lust from the simplest of my breaths on his neck. To compensate for the stress he was feeling, I placed a soft kiss on his lips while pushing him back in his seat. Measly conquerable just like any other night.

My farewells to the godly bunch was forced and bid perkily. The large meeting room had been held on an the lower level of Olympus than my room, meaning I had a few flights to climb in heels.

Courteous of my aroused, foggy mind, I didn't notice the body of someone I bumped into while making my exit. They cursed me faintly, grumping about some type of split wine of their slacks — purple slacks they were.

"Dite."

"Dionysius."

We spoke above one another, eyes settling on each other slowly. He was surely a unique god, the deepest of grape purple canopying his hair and a lighter shade enslaving his eyes. They could get you drunk.

"Still falling late, I see." With a chuckling smile, I pretended to scold a long term friend. As if sensing my gaze that stopped on his cup, he held it out to me.

"A new creation only for the finest lips to taste." I took the sconce and bid the liquid down my throat. Only the god of winemaking could get the gods drunk so easily. I wouldn't be one of the victims.

Stumbling into his arms, I held up the mortal bottle, still cold.

"There's plenty more where that came from." His contemplative glance from where I exited was short lived, his grown-god body pulling me up for stabilization. Or at least, that's what I wanted to happen when I dragged him down to kiss me.

"Keep going straight and you'll hit my room." He flipped me to his front, wrapping an arm around my waist to whisper the sultry words in my ear.

"Just like old times." With haste, I molded my mouth greedily over his, barely holding it together as we reached his — unmistakable — purple door.

There was no other purpose for men than to please women.

My first score was already settled, the thought prominent on my mind while I smiled against his lips. We made it inside with our decency residing somewhere down the hall.

I enjoyed it when Dionysius cupped my breasts over the fabric of my dress, sliding both his hands down my body and to his knees from behind me. My shoes were removed gently by his doorway. Stepping out of them, I finally breathed a sigh of relief when Dionysius ground his hips into me. He had a vulgar sense that could manipulate me if I so wanted.

  But instead, I settled for opening my neck and running my hands down to his which were attached to my lower abdomen and daring to caress the folds of my slick cunt over my dress. He was carefree in his foreplay and hasty towards the wrong reasons.

This negligent attitude of his would be killed today, and it would start with me removing my own clothes.

  My steps were light as a provoked Dionysius tilted his head at me. Like every god in Olympus, looks were no feeble matter. Dionysius was a wine-obsessed sexual savage who would tolerate my stripping.

  The zipper came first, then the straps. A smug smile lit my face when I stepped out of it completely, taking my hair out to properly unwind myself. My body was just as bare as when I popped in from a clamshell.

"Dear Dionysius, you won't keep me waiting, will you?" In his room did he hold a smaller kitchen and large dining room table. I plated myself on the cool touch of his granite, bending onto its edge like a dream. A dashing smile was delivered between our distance, my spread legs and cool front parallel to the god before me. I supported my head on crossed arms, watching Dionysius remove his Greek loafers with no haste at all. He rolled up his sleeves to unveil his taunt arms. They were more scarred than the last time I'd seen them.

Although his journey to me would be short, Dionysius had the obvious habit of wasting time and being late to the party. It made his descent towards me all the more dangerous and erotic.

  My eyes were no doubt lustrous as I perched myself upon my elbow in smitten fascination with how well this god would treat me.

  The first movement of his hand from his slacks pocket was preposterous. His fingertips moved delicately against my spine, feathering their touches up and down slowly. Dionysius gave me a devilish smirk, those purple eyes matching my own needy pleasure.

"Tonight, will my Dionysius be take me like fine wine, or rugged liquor?" Those fingers wrapped around my chin and pulled me to my full height.

"Not only will you enjoy both, but you will also taste the finest wine I have to offer." I was exposed to him in all my goddess glory. In his button down and dress pants, he turned me to face him head on. He was painfully mesmerizing in his journey down my body. He hardly touched me, but I could feel every wisp of his hand ghosting my hips and thighs.

  Simultaneously, he captured my wrists on my lower stomach and opened my thighs by hooking a shoulder under my knee. Looking down at a god like this brought up fond memories.

"Dionysius." He must have heard the warning in my voice. I had no reason to beg for pleasure or pant from the stimulus I was getting. This was baby play, after all.

  A small part of me did tense when he immediately kissed the part of me that was pulsing the most. I clenched my fingers to try and grasp his hair and move him closer, but my attempts would remain futile. In this weakened state, I was helpless.

I was forced between the man on his knees and the counter, nothing to rest my back against or to lessen the torture on my asscheeks. Ah, foolish pleasure is not pleasurable at all.

  Focusing back on the god before me, a shudder racked through me as he ventured into dull servitude. Dionysius got closer to me, allowing my hands to wind into his beautiful hair.

He had easily found the spot that made me tick, most likely enjoying the feeling of my tugs on his silky hair. Dionysius held no remorse for me, leaving similar colored hickeys on the