Aphrodite's Chosen

This is a rewritten version of a story I wrote nearly twenty years ago. There's no sex in this chapter, just some kissing and some setup. It heats up in chapter two.

Kalisha Connors frowned at the woman across from her. Three tall glasses that once held cocktails lay empty before her, and she was feeling quite drunk. She certainly hoped the titian-haired stranger who had interrupted her solitude wasn't going to be cheerful.

"Bad breakup, huh?" The stranger's voice was sexy and melodic. Kalisha wished she had a voice like that. The woman was drop dead gorgeous, too, in a green dress that hinted at shapely curves and matched the color of her eyes.

"Yeah." Kalisha around for the waitress. One more, and then she'd stagger home. Hopefully, John would be gone. If he wasn't, at least he wouldn't be able to try "talk sense into her" as he liked to put it. Storming out of the apartment would have worked better if they had been at his place, instead of hers. "Howdja know?"

"A very pretty girl, in a very nice black dress, drinking all alone in a bar. It doesn't take a psychic."

"Guess not. Glad somebody thinks the dress is nice." Kalisha's dress had started the whole argument. It showed a little bit of cleavage and two inches of thigh above the knee. Kalisha thought it helped set off her naturally dark complexion, and went with her black hair rather nicely. If she hadn't been five foot ten and long in the legs it would have covered her knee, but John said it was trampy. "

"He didn't? He's a fool."

Maybe the redhead wasn't so bad after all. "I'm Kalisha," she offered.

The redhead smiled. "Pleased to meet you"

"Who are you?"

"I'm between names right now."

What an odd thing to say.

The thought slipped through her alcohol laden mind, and she thought about John again, and the dress. "I wanted to be sexy, you know? A little bit on the wild side."

"You succeeded. A

little

bit. Is a

little bit

all you want to be?"

Kalisha shook her head. It was hard to focus; things were blurry. "Not really. But it was all I thought I could get away with."

"Because I'm looking for a woman who wants to be very wild indeed."

Is that a proposition?

She'd never messed around with a woman. She'd always figured she was straight, and a bit boring, but if she was ever going to do something like that, at least she had three drinks as an excuse. "Like what?"

The woman touched Kalisha's wrist. "I'd need you sober. What you agree to drunk doesn't count."

"Well that'sh going to be a --" started Kalisha. The touch of the other woman's hand was cool and pleasant. The blurriness went away, along with the pleasant fuzziness in her brain. The three Whiskey Sour's might as well have been cokes. Kalisha blinked. "What did you do to me?" she asked.

"Don't worry," said the woman. "I'll buy you another set of drinks, if you want. But I don't want to take advantage of you. I have an offer, if you are truly interested in life on the wild side."

Who is this woman?

Kalisha took a few breaths before answering. "Maybe," she said, too curious to just say no. If she walked away she would always wonder what the woman had to say, and how her life might be different.

"You've felt my touch. I have power. I can make you immune to disease, even pregnancy unless you desire it. I can help you out now and then -- although not with everything, nor always when you wish it."

"Who are you?"

"I have been called many names in many places. But all those names seem quaint somehow. I am far older than I look. Call me Love."

"Alright, Love." Kalisha thought that sounded odder than any name could be. "There's a catch, isn't there?" She knew her fairy tales, even if she hadn't ever actually believed them.

"I need your worship, Kalisha."

John had gotten her to go to church a few times, but it had never clicked with her. She believed in something more than just flesh and things, but she hadn't figured out exactly what. "This is the part where I sell my soul in a contract signed in blood?"

The woman laughed, melodically. "No, no. What a modern notion! No contract. Just that I can only help you as long as you help me in return."

What would John think?

It was a lousy way to make decisions, but the fact that John would thoroughly disapprove made the proposition more attractive. "And what would worshipping you entail, exactly?" Maybe the woman was a goddess, and maybe not. But Love had done something to her to make her sober, something like a miracle, and that's what gods did, wasn't it? Miracles? It was the only miracle she'd ever witnessed.

"Once a week," said Love, "I need you to do something wild and sexual. Uninhbited. Crazy."

"I need to think about it."

"Maybe we'll see each other again, sometime." Love sounded doubtful.

Kalisha stood. She took a step towards the door.

Right. Miracles happen all the time.

She stopped and turned. "I've thought. Yes. But I need to know more about you-- starting with a name."

Love stood, and smiled. "You like to bargain, Kalisha. Very well. A name for a kiss. One name for each kiss, each more passionate than the last."

"Here?" Kalisha paled. All eyes would be on them.

"Here. Unless you have some place more daring in mind? Think of it as your first act on my behalf."

Kalisha gave the woman a quick peck.

"Inanna, I am," said the woman.

The name meant nothing to Kalisha. She gave Inanna another peck.

"That was not our deal." Innana pressed her lips to Kalisha's. They were warm and soft, with no mustache to tickle her. "Ashtar, too."

Wasn't there a movie with a name like that? It was some Middle eastern thing. Kalisha's mother had been from Iran, but she had died when Kalisha was young, and Kalisha had never gotten in touch with that part of her heritage. She could go to a library and look it up. She nodded to Inanna-Ashtar-Love. "Thanks, that's enough."

"Is it all you want?" The woman was looking past Kalisha and smiling.

Kalisha followed her gaze. John had entered the bar, and was looking around. For her, probably. Got tired of waiting to tell her how wrong she was and came to do it in person. He spotted her.

She turned back to Ashtar and put her arms around the other woman. Pressing her lips to Ashtar's, she felt the other woman's breasts compress against hers as they held each other close.

Mmm, purred the stranger. "Freyja, the Norse called me, and gave me a brother."

Kalisha pulled back slightly to whisper, "He is watching, isn't he?"

"Oh yes, but don't you have enough names?" Freyja teased.

For answer, Kalisha kissed her hard. A soft but insistent tongue pressed against her lips. She yielded, tongues touching and dancing.

"Aphrodite," murmured the goddess breathlessly.

John grabbed her elbow. "Kalisha, stop this! You're drunk!"

Kalisha turned and shook her elbow loose. "Actually I'm perfectly sober. Not that it's any of your business."

"The woman sounds sober," said a strange male voice, belonging to a big man in his fifties. "Keep your hands off her."

"And who are you?" asked John belligerently.

"I'm O'Malley," said the man. "As in 'O'Malley's bar.' So get out. And you two? You're welcome to stay, but this isn't the place for that kind of display."

"Awww," groaned one of the nearby patrons.

"We were enjoying it," said another.

"I'll buy a round for the house, if they keep it up," said another, a man in a three piece suit whose date, a pretty woman in a red dress, seemed to approve. Miss Red Dress squeezed Mr. Three Piece's knee and whispered in his ear. Kalisha had the sense they were going to have fun tonight.

John backed up, and then turned and headed for the door as quickly as he could.

O'Malley shook his head. "Things have changed. For the better or for the worse, I don't know. I guess this *is* the place." He walked behind the bar and busied himself polishing glasses.

Kalisha watched John go. "Once more, for the crowd?" purred Aphrodite behind her, her breath hot on Kalisha's ear.

Kalisha turned back to her. "Love?" she asked. "More like Lust, I think."

"A fair accusation. You'll need to find love for yourself, I won't be a lot of help for that. But I won't hinder, either."

"Fair," said Kalisha. "One more."

She slipped her hand into the Aphrodite's silken hair and pressed her lips to the goddess. This time it was Kalisha's tongue that thrust forward, to be met by Aphrodite's in a wet dance. Kalisha's free hand slipped downward along Aphrodite's back and over the curve of her behind.

After all, it's not often you get a chance to grope a goddess. Even if I am straight.

Or be groped by one. Aphrodite's hands were on her ass, tugging up her skirt.

Can they see my black panties?

She almost wished she hadn't worn any panties at all.

Aphrodite let her ask go, and pulled her head back. "Venus," she whispered.

"I knew that one."

"Yes, but that's not why you were kissing me, that time, anyway. You were kissing me because you like it."

Kalisha blushed. "Yes."

"I've chosen well."

"One more?"

"No. You need to play with mortals, dear. But I shall remember the taste of your lips on mine." The goddess slipped out of her grasp. Kalisha stared after her, but the goddess disappeared into the crowd of patrons effortlessly. Kalisha forced a smile through the look of puzzlement that she was sure had overtaken her face. There were people clapping-- not everyone in the bar, but enough. She grinned, and waved.

"Good night," she called, and there was another round of cheers. The waitresses were busy delivering drinks to everyone, and O'Malley and the bartender were busy making them. Whether the crowd was cheering her or the free beer, Kalisha wasn't sure.

She walked outside into the cool evening air, and then had a nasty thought. John could be out there, waiting for her. He wouldn't hurt her, but he was likely to cause a scene. She spotted him. His back was to her. He was in rapt conversation with a young woman with long brown hair and glasses, whose loose blue sweater had a neckline right at the neck, and whose beige skirt covered her ankles.

Kalisha quickly headed the other way down the street, glancing back just in time to notice the brown haired woman wink at her. Her green eyes looked vaguely familiar.

So that's what Aphrodite, or Venus, or Innana, or whatever, meant by helping me out now and then. Very discreet.

Kalisha hummed a Katy Perry song as she walked back to her apartment. Thank goodness John was such a prude she'd never given him a key. By the time she got home she was dead tired. She barely managed to peel off her clothes before falling into bed.

Something wild, crazy, and sexy. I have a week. I'll think of something.