by Ashley Ladd
Leo released himself from Clestie and bowed courteously. “No, dear stepmother. I only spoke the truth. Since when do I do anything other?”
Hera glared down her long Grecian nose at Leo. “Sometimes I wish you were a little less honest. Like when you blurted my age out to all and sundry—and my weight.”
A mischievous smile played about Leo’s lips. “But one hundred thirty-six pounds is nothing to be ashamed of for a woman of 5022 years.”
More lightning bolts flew from Hera’s fingertips, this time at Leo’s feet.
“See what I mean?” Leo released Clestie so suddenly she almost stumbled into the line of fire as he did a quick dance.
Righting herself, Clestie stepped forward and extended her hand in greeting. “I’m so very pleased to meet you.” And this was extremely weird. She dug her nails into her palm to ensure she wasn’t dreaming. The little pinch of pain lent assurance she dwelled in a waking reality.
Clestie’s curiosity was about to choke her and looking back at Leo who was dusting himself off as his loincloth came dangerously close to exposing his private parts, she blushed. Heat burst in her pussy and spread to her limbs, all the way to her fingertips. Turning back to Zeus and Hera she tried not to squirm but blurted out, “I’m thrilled,” I think, “but what am I to be thrilled about?”
Surprise flooded Hera’s face and she shook her head. Sharply she elbowed her husband in the ribs. “Didn’t these two tell you?”
Reverent or not, Clestie itched to drag the words off their sluggish tongues but she forced herself to remain still and deferential. “No!” she roared, and then bit her tongue hoping they wouldn’t turn her into a scorpion or something worse. She added in much more controlled tones, “No. I’ve yet to be enlightened.”
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Hera closed the gap between them and clasped Clestie’s hands. Immediately, bright white light showered out from between their palms and she felt a radiant glow tingle deep in her soul. “Then allow me, my dear. For your valiant sacrifice, we are elevating you to the heavens as a demi-god to rule by our dear Leo’s side.”
Leo’s thigh brushed hers as he entered the circle of light and he put his hands over theirs. Gazing deeply down into Clestie’s eyes, he said, “You shall rule beside me—as my wife.” He bent before her on one knee and gazed up. “If you’ll have me.”
Clestie’s jaw dropped open and she gaped at the blond vision for several silent, heart-stopping moments.
“Well?” Zeus leaned close. “Are you going to keep the lad waiting all day? Not that there’s any doubt what you’ll say.”
Leo glared at his father. “Do you mind?” When Zeus didn’t move, Leo added through gritted teeth, “A little privacy, please?”
Hera grabbed Zeus by the ear and tugged. “I swear you’re the nosiest deity. Come, dear husband.”
Zeus batted his wife’s hand away. “Oh, okay.” He looked sternly at Clestie. “Don’t disappoint my son.”
Clestie whispered to Leo. “Are they always like this?”
“Worse,” he said. “But you’ll get used to it.”
A warm glow enveloped her and she nodded. She missed what little family she’d had and would cherish a large and boisterous one, even if she had to put up with the inescapable family squabbles.
“Don’t take too long on your honeymoon, Son. As you keep telling me, your Leo babies can’t stand another long hiatus so soon. All you get is one week.”
Embarrassing warmth crawled up Clestie’s neck but Zeus and Hera were gone before it settled in her cheeks. She blinked. “Guess I’m going to have to get used to that.”
Leo looked nervous and lifted her hand to his lips. “Does that mean you’ll accept my proposal of marriage? That you will leave everything here and come to the heavens and rule the Leos by my side?”
“Yes!” She jumped into his arms and grappled him to the floor. They rolled over and over until she victoriously straddled his very fascinating, burgeoning cock. Then, she paused as a horrible thought washed over her. “But I’m a Scorpio.” She grimaced down at her very Scorpio body. “Won’t that be a hindrance?” How could a Scorpio rule with a Leo? According to the stars, Scorpios and Leos shouldn’t be a love match.
Leo put slight pressure on her shoulders and dragged her down so that the tips of her breasts rubbed against his naked chest and her lips were within kissing distance. “This Leo and this Scorpio are a perfect match.”
Gasping, she bit her tongue. She’d said that aloud? Or did he read minds?
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His thumbs traced the outline of her breasts and then drew inward until they played with her nipples. “Of course, you have Leo in your moon.”
Moaning, she ground her pussy against him. Her juices began to flow and she squirmed. Huskily she whispered, “Let’s take this somewhere private.”
A lazy, sultry smile curved Leo’s lips. “Take me to the heavens.”
The heavens…
Elizabeth.
Panicked, she pulled back and looked up at the apartment. Pain slashed through her happiness. Couldn’t anything be easy? Black and white? Cut and dried? Did she have to choose between the love of her life and her cousin, the only family she had left in the world? The death theme had reared its head again and she finally understood all the nuances of her astrological readings. The end of one life, one purpose, and the beginning of a new glorious one—except for leaving her beloved cousin and business partner. “I can’t just disappear without saying goodbye to my cousin.”
She let her gaze roam Petunia’s shop—her shop. “What do I do with Petunia’s shop? I can’t just abandon it.”
Leo sat up and pushed his mussed hair from his eyes. With a sigh, he curled his arms around her waist and held her tight when she tried to slide off his lap. “Leave it in Elizabeth’s capable hands.”
Clestie pondered his excellent suggestion. Elizabeth had practically been managing the shop. But she was only on sabbatical and soon planned to return to her accounting position. “I can’t ask her to give up her career to run a musty old magic shop.”
“You were going to hire a manager anyway. She doesn’t have to be here for the day-to-day management,” Leo said, leaning his forehead against hers and gazing deeply into her eyes.
Clestie felt her eyes crossing and blinked. “How did you know?”
Leo stole a quick, dizzying kiss from her lips. “I’ve been watching you, of course. I also know you’ve been avoiding looking at the nighttime heavens—at me.”
Clestie nodded and swallowed a lump. “I-I couldn’t bear to see you so far away. To know I’d never see you up close again. Never touch you…kiss you…” She punctuated her words with kisses.
Leo lifted her off him and gave her a swat on her tingling bottom. “You’d better hurry up and find Elizabeth or I won’t be able to pull back.”
Clestie tried to sidle up to her new fiancé as he rose to his feet, but he held her at arm’s length. “Once I start making love to you, dearest one, I don’t plan to stop for the entire week of our honeymoon.”
Quivers raced through Clestie. Stretching up, she slashed a kiss across Leo’s mesmerizing lips. The soft kiss grew feverish and his hands roamed her back. His moans sounded a red alarm in her mind and she tugged fiercely away lest they go off to
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never-never land and she never see her cousin again. She couldn’t go and let Elizabeth worry on her account.
She held her forefinger up and said breathily, “Hold that thought. I’ll be back in a jiff.” She dashed up the stairs, taking them two and three at a time. Her fingers barely skimmed the iron railing but her furiously pounding feet made it sound like a herd of elephants had invaded the shop.
Elizabeth emerged from her bedroom, groggily rubbing her eyes and yawning wide. Her dark hair stuck out in clumps around her ears, accentuating the paleness of her face washed clean of her foundation and blush. “What’s all the ruckus? Can’t a person sleep in the m
iddle of the afternoon without all the hullabaloo?”
Clestie ran to her cousin and folded her in her arms. Making a special memory, she sniffed in her scent of wildflowers.
Elizabeth pulled back and eyed her suspiciously. “What are you doing?”
Brimming over with happiness, she could barely keep from bouncing up and down like every nerve ending in her body. “Saying goodbye. Leo’s come back for me and I’m going with him.”
“Going with him where?” Elizabeth inclined her head toward the ceiling and beyond. “Up there?”
Giddy, Clestie nodded. “We’ll rule the Leos together.”
Elizabeth’s eyes widened and she seemed to snap out of her daze as her gaze sharpened. “Do you know how crazy that sounds?”
Clestie hugged herself and twirled around like she was a little girl again. “I know. Isn’t it awesome?”
Elizabeth’s eyes clouded and she swiped at a tear. “I don’t want you to leave.”
“You were all for me going back to my dancing.”
“This is different. I only had to drive a bit to see you.” Elizabeth finger-combed her hair back, but it still looked like straw. “I can’t very well catch a spaceship to your star.”
Leo’s voice reverberated behind them. “I promise you she’ll be very happy and performing a great service for your fellow mortals.” He rested his chin on her head and snaked his arms around her waist. “Perhaps if Zeus is in a cheerful mood, he’ll permit us to visit on our anniversary. One day a year, at least.”
One day a year wasn’t nearly enough! Clestie leaned back into her man and gloried in his warmth as she soaked in the vision of her cousin, emblazing it in her memory. She touched her heart. “I’ll take you with me. I’ll never let you go.”
Tears streamed down Elizabeth’s cheeks and Clestie felt a suspicious sting attack the back of her eyes. She left Leo’s warmth and hugged her cousin to her heart. “I’ll visit as often as I can. I’ll be watching over you. Promise.” She pulled back and crossed her heart.
Elizabeth swallowed a lump in her throat. Her gaze roamed about them. “What about the shop? What will you do with it?”
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She took her cousin’s hand and squeezed it. “Will you take it over? I mean, you can hire a manager for the day-to-day stuff. I know you have your own career waiting for you, but it will provide security for you, and that way it will stay in the family.”
“I’d be honored.” Elizabeth glanced down toward the shop proper. “This place has grown on me.”
Clestie didn’t try to bite back her smile. “Yeah, me, too. Petunia’s place is very magical.” Miraculous. She glanced back at her very magical almost-husband and quivered.
“Will you be my bridesmaid? Alongside Aphrodite?” She couldn’t believe she was saying this, but then she was marrying Leo, the constellation demi-god, brother to Aphrodite.
Elizabeth gulped and panic pooled in her eyes. “The Aphrodite?”
“None other,” Leo said as he dropped his hands to Clestie’s shoulders and squeezed. “Just worship her, show complete reverence and respect and you won’t have a problem.”
Elizabeth’s eyes widened and she said in a small voice, “Good. I’ll remember that. I’ll just practice up on how to speak frog.”
Clestie couldn’t help but laugh until she remembered Richard the alligator. “Just curtsy a few times. You’ll be fine. Aren’t you the one who told me it’s good to have friends in high places?”
Elizabeth moaned. “I never dreamed this high.”
Clestie shrugged and spread her hands wide. “We’re just blessed. What can I say?”
Leo murmured, “I’m the one who is blessed.”
His sweetness melted her heart and she turned and pressed a kiss to his lips. Her heart swelled when he pulled her against him and deepened the caress. When his hands kneaded her breasts, she moaned into his mouth and moisture dampened her panties.
Elizabeth cleared her throat and looked away. “Guys. Get a room.” She tiptoed away over creaking boards, mumbling, “Exit, stage left.”
Leo lifted his lips and gazed down into her eyes. “Zeus, we’re ready to go home.”
Home.
Petunia’s shop had been home—when Petunia was here, and more recently when she, Elizabeth and Leo had settled in. What was home now?
A smile illuminated her soul. Home was where her heart dwelt—and it dwelt securely in Leo’s arms, within the sanctity of his heart. His first reading for her had been more right than either of them had ever imagined possible. She’d not merely moved from one town to another, or even from her country to another, but she’d traveled all the way to the stars.
An odd shimmering tingled at the depths of her being and before she knew it, she was floating in Leo’s arms, surrounded by twinkling stars, a silvery moon and gloriously colorful nebulas of flickering blues, purples and greens.
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Leo released her for a moment and spread his arms wide. “Welcome home, dearest.”
Wondrous awe struck her and she had to ask, “This is real? I’m not dreaming?” On a mischievous smile, she added, “Is the moon really made of cheese?”
“Minx,” he teased with his lips pressed against hers. “You modern mortals need so much proof. Isn’t this enough?”
Clestie snuggled close to Leo and wound herself in his intoxicating locks. She nibbled and kissed the golden flesh of his shoulders, down his chest, and skirted the rim of his loincloth. “You’ve made a believer of me.”
The loincloth tented provocatively and she blew on it, hoping the slight breeze would provide her a peek of the treasures that lay beneath.
Leo laughed huskily and sifted his fingers through her hair. “Naughty little minx.”
She delved her hand under the teasing cloth and found his gems. Small tremors shook her as if she curled her fingers around the velvety length of his cock. “Since you’ve been in my life.”
Leo’s hips thrust higher with each stroke of her hand. “Ah, you can’t blame your basic Scorpio nature on me.”
She smiled so sweetly she felt as though she was about to go into sugar shock.
Leo growled and his eyes flashed fire.
Ignoring his almost suffocating but adorable Leo pride, Clestie let her little devil come out to play. She lifted his loincloth and peeked beneath. “Ooh.” His cock was so ready for her, pulsing and throbbing. She enjoyed playing peekaboo so she dropped the cloth.
Leo’s forehead puckered and he supported himself on his elbows. “Do I not please?”
She edged the material away again and blood rushed to her pussy. She allowed her gaze to caress his beautiful cock and the powerful thighs. “You most definitely please.” Mouthwateringly so.
He lifted her offending clothes over her head and dropped it by their sides. Then he pulled the tie on his loincloth so that it puddled atop the heap. With a wickedly delicious come-hither grin, he laid back and crooked his finger. “Then allow me.”
With a saucy shake of her tush, she stretched her leg across his hips and hovered just above the tip of his cock. She couldn’t get over how she could stay stationary without floating away or falling, how she could breathe without air. She licked her lips as she smiled into his dream-filled eyes.
“Can people see us with a telescope from Earth?” Not that such a tiny nuisance would stop her from loving her man.
She stroked his cock with her clit and moaned when ecstasy flooded her. Eternity wouldn’t be long enough to enjoy her god.
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Leo clamped his hands on her shoulders and pushed her down onto his cock until his full length was sheathed in her sleek warmth. “Only as twinkling stars. Their telescopes aren’t high-powered enough to view us in such intimate detail.”
She clutched his magnificent cock with her vaginal walls and slid up and down.
He thumbed her clit until only ragged breaths burst from her throat, until she was so feverish she was a
bout to burst into a raging inferno.
In between gulps of air, she asked “What about your…family? The other…constellations?”
Thrusting deeper, Leo rocked her harder. “Have no fear. We’re cloaked by the nebula.”
“Fear?” Silvery laughter tinkled off her lips. She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his lips. “What fear could I have with you by my side?”
Bells chimed and sirens flashed making Clestie jump and her heart almost explode. “What’s that?”
“By Cronus!” exploded from Leo’s lips.
“What?” Alarm threatened to choke her. What could threaten gods in heaven?
Satan and his devils, of course…
She tried to climb off Leo but his hands clamped around her waist as he pounded harder in rhythm to his ragged pants. “One of our Leos is in distress.”
“Shouldn’t we help?”
“Patience, dear one. Give him a chance to figure it out. We’ll monitor the situation—as soon as we’re finished—and I’m in no mood to rush.”
When Clestie hesitated, Leo added, “Was it was not you who taught me to give mortals more credit? More autonomy?”
A sly smile played about his sexy lips. “Not to be so overbearing and in charge all the time to quote you?”
She digested the lesson and relaxed. She was about to quip “now you listen”, but since it benefited her supremely well, she held her tongue. “Yes, my love.”
She tuned out the bells and rode him hard. Bronco-busting felt so much better than peekaboo. She squeezed her thighs against his flanks and rode like the wind.
Sweet, soul-shattering shudders shook her to her core and she screamed in ecstasy. She squeezed his cock inside her, milking his seed.
Leo pulled out all the way to the tip of his penis and then rammed in to the hilt.
Their souls entwined, they clung to one another and rolled over and over. Kissing deeply, they crossed the Milky Way before the euphoria subsided to a satisfied glow.
