Hiding Behind Aphrodite

I leaned down, scooping up the lariat. She arched an eyebrow, shifting and sliding a hand towards me. Provocative still, defiant, but also making an offering. Daring me to slice truth from artifice.

I looped the lariat around her hand, winding it up around the silk-covered bracer. That caused an involuntary shiver through her once more -- there was indeed something there, and we would have to find it. "You're feeling the blessing of Aphrodite directly now," I asked, looking in her eyes.

"Actively, yes," she said, holding my gaze.

"And it includes sexuality?"

She arched an eyebrow. "Aphrodite is the embodiment of sexuality, Thomas. I don't think you quite knew what you were tapping into."

"And neither did you?" I arched my own eyebrow.

There was another shiver, and for a moment her eyes flickered down. There it was -- that touch of the **** woman who was having her defenses stripped. And clearly, this aggressive sexuality was in part a new defense. "I have... been seductive before, but I never felt it so directly. So intensely. Even after my climaxes before, I didn't feel Aphrodite's blessing so intensely...."

I blinked. "Until we... until you came with me inside you," I murmured. I remembered that cascade of orgasm -- I had been with a girlfriend who had a tendency towards multiple orgasms, but even she didn't have one trigger the next the way Diana had. "You broke through to a new side of Aphrodite's blessing."

She took a deep breath, her smile growing again. "No, Thomas," she said, her voice musical. "You broke through to a new side of Aphrodite's blessing."

I felt a shiver down my back with her words. She slowly smiled. "That is your bedroom door?" she asked, nodding to the door next to the kitchenette.

"Yes," I said, slipping the lariat off her fingers.

She held my gaze for a moment, then turned and walked to the door, her movements causing the back of the shift to rustle over her posterior, her legs shifting even as her hips moved. I had noticed before that Diana knew how to walk when she was being watched, and knew how to draw her eyes. I had no idea how hypnotic her movements could be.

She looked over her shoulder. "Coming?" she asked, her hair cascading to one side.

"...of course," I said, evoking a smile from her as she turned and pushed through.

I looked down at the lariat in my hands. On the one hand, this was a dangerous area. Diana was asserting control, and with that control protecting her sense of self, even as she prepared to blow my mind. And I had no doubt she would blow my mind. If I were going to continue the process of breaking through to her core self, of stripping away her defiance, I would need to deflect attempts to use her aggressive sexuality to hide her true feelings.

On the other hand... I was hard enough to break through steel. I wanted her -- more than I could imagine.

The blessings of Aphrodite indeed.

Wasn't this part of what I had won with the swearing of that oath? The incredible fantasy of a woman blessed by the Goddess of Love and Lust doing her level best to wreck me in bed?

I took a deep breath, and half-smiled. Yes it was... and I could accept it. But I also had to keep my head. Diana and I had made some rather dramatic breakthroughs -- you could even say I had unlocked new powers of hers -- but I didn't want this to become Diana of Themiscyra distracting me with the blessings of Aphrodite every weekend. I wanted to continue to open her up, not let her hide.

This was going to be harder than I thought, I realized.

I walked into my bedroom then. It was neat and clean -- hardly a surprise, given that Wonder Woman was coming to spend the weekend messing it up with me. I had taken a lot of time and energy making it nice. I have a queen sized bed, with a moderately nice wooden bed frame. I fully expected to take advantage of that frame, and Diana's own bondage fantasies.

But right now there had to be something different. And it was hard to remember that, when I walked into the room and saw Diana sprawled over the dark comforter on the top of the bed, one leg artfully arranged over the other to give her a hint of privacy, her body arched, her hair a dark mane framing the sultriest look I have ever seen on a human face. She smiled when she saw me, and I wanted to throw myself on top of her and take everything she was offering.

Shivering, I managed to just stare. "Astounding," I half-whispered.

"It looks even better up close," Diana said, her lips curling in a smile. Which actually helped me a bit -- because as coy as she was, and as legitimately excited as she clearly was, I could see the mask she was hiding behind all the more clearly right then. So far, I'd made the right moves to expose her true self. I wasn't about to lose that battle now.

"Come here," I murmured.

"Are you sure?" she asked, shifting to make that arch more pronounced. "Are you sure you don't want to come here instead?"

"No," I answered, truthfully -- I don't think the lariat was affecting me, but one could never be certain about that. "But come here anyway."

She took a deep breath, then swung her legs artfully about -- the train of the toga allowing just a hint of the black curls beneath it to be seen -- and sliding to her feet. She walked over to me, smoldering with each step, and looked straight in my eyes. "Yes, Thomas?" she asked, affecting innocence. "What can I do for you?"

Taking a deep breath, I touched her shoulder -- there was a knot there keeping the shift in place, but I didn't unknot it. I stepped around her, leaning to kiss her neck. She even smelled good, and cooed softly as my lips touched her skin.

"Hold your hands out to either side," I murmured, stepping around behind the amazon goddess. She did so, conveying amusement and sensuality in equal measure.

I looped the end of her lariat around her left wrist, which caused her to breathe out slightly. This wouldn't stop her from following her plan through, of course, but it did lock her into truth -- and of course, her oath demanded she be his captive whenever he bound her in the golden rope, and she was profoundly affected by that vulnerability. Indeed, embracing her Aphrodite-granted nature was her way of protecting that vulnerability, even though deep down she didn't want to be protected from it.

I gently looped the rope around her arm, then across her shoulders, then around her other arm and tied another loop on the other side. The rope was thinner now -- I didn't fully understand how the lariat of truth worked, but it seemed to adjust itself as needed for its projects. I stepped back around to her front, pulling the lariat taut.

"It's not really much of a restraint," Diana said, still holding her arms out to her sides.

"It doesn't need to be," I said, smiling a bit. "Lie down on the bed, keeping the rope in position." I wanted her bound in truth, if not restrained in movement, even as I held onto the other end of the lariat.

Her smile grew coy again, even as she moved to the bed, sliding almost bonelessly. She rolled onto her back, lying back, the lariat's length seemingly adjusting to keep the rope taut on her arms and across her shoulders no matter how she moved them. She looked hungry, lying there, her legs crossed again, her eyes following me. And I knew she meant it. The lariat would keep her from deception.

I walked next to my closet. I had a wooden chair there, which mostly got used as a convenient place to sit while putting socks on. I picked it up, walked to the foot of the bed, set it down, and sat on it, holding the lariat and looking at the way Diana was posed, leaning up against the headboard to watch me.

"Aren't you going to join me?" she asked, teasingly.

"Perhaps," I said, softly. "But first... touch yourself."