chapter 7

She thought as Hephaestus brought forth a Harp that was covered by a sheet.  Hephaestus had a smile on his face as he pulled the sheet off revealing a golden harp, it was a little  bigger that what she usually  sees but she was unimpressed, if a harp was all he got then it was a disappointment.

"Be hold, the greatest piece of machinery in this current age, the Auto-harp"

"A what?"

She questioned,  and  Hephaestus cleared his throat before uttering only one word.

"observe"

He said with a smug grin that seemed to irritate Aphrodite in a certain way. Hephaestus took the harp and started to play a tune, it was a smooth and harmonious tune that was slow, it had a calming  effect and  Aphrodite was pleased to hear it.

After about 3 minutes  Hephaestus stopped playing the harp and placed it onto the table once more.

"was that a display of your musical talents?"

If it was, she was quite disappointed. Her impression of him was slowly turning bad, however Hephaestus didn't answer her and simply clapped his hands once and  the same tune played once again, the harp played automatically.

"Oh my…"

"with this instrument, you can listen to your favorite tune without having to play it yourself"

The harp worked in such a way  that by playing any tune on it for about three minutes or more the tune will be ingrained on to the instrument and will play  the same song by itself.

"if  you play two songs in a row or 3 and  clap twice those 3 songs will play by themselves in the order you played them."

He instructed as Aphrodite was now Holding the harp in her hands with a look of astonishment, Hephaestus smiled at this, her smile  was enchanting and it seems his plan worked.

Name of  the game? First impressions and unique experience. According  to the myth from his past life, Aphrodite would  be classified under the term "slut" and because of that she has been around and knows all the tricks that most gods pull to try and have access to her sacred garden. Hephaestus  wasn't looking to have momentary access to her garden but he was looking to claim it and have it belong to him and him alone, so he needed her to fall in love with him the same way he is with her and the only way that he thought would make that happen was give her something that none of the gods have or could ever hope to have and have her impressions of him increase for the better.

"But how? You aren't the God of music to be able to do this plus I don't sense you using your divinity to manipulate this instrument so how?"

She asked, her curiosity practically radiating off her almost as if she needed to know.

"That's for me to know and  for you to find out"

He refused her request, an odd occurrence.

"come now Hephaestus, won't you share the knowledge with me?"

"if you must know then try and find out"

Aphrodite frowned slightly and was irritated by the sudden denial of her request, her curiosity  was peaked and she wanted to satisfy it. She placed the Harp on to the table once more and walked  towards Hephaestus.

"truly? You would deny a Goddess her request?"

She grasped his right hand  with her left and placed her right hand on top of it as she asked giving him a seductive look that promised all the pleasures in the world, she bat her eyelashes at him before she smiled seductively.

"A God must have some secrets after all"

This came as a shock  to Aphrodite, her frown became very present. This was the first instance that she has had a request denied, in fact a majority of the time she doesn't even need to be seductive.

"Humph!!  fine then keep your secrets"

A pout appeared on her face, well  if he doesn't want to share information then she won't care. Her pride was actually kind of hurt a little.

"Heh!"

He chuckled at her behavior before grasping her hand  with his own  he raised  it up and firstly  kissed the back of her hand before turning it and kissed her palm.

"Do not worry my Lady, You shall know all my secrets eventually"

Aphrodite did not  answer as she was  stunned by such a blatant act, a kiss on the back of the hands implies politeness and a desire for friendly  relationships and by contrast  kiss on the palm, is one's desire laid bare, Hephaestus  has just blatantly told her that he desires her greatly.

This served to confuse her, he expressed how he greatly desires her right now but throughout their meeting he hasn't outwardly showed it, until this very moment.

'what does that mean?'

.Before  she could further  think about it, her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a horn being blown. It was a horn she and Hephaestus recognized.

"Greetings Goddess Aphrodite, the King Has called for an immediate meeting and you are expected to go to the main palace as of hearing this message. Goodbye"

Hermes wasted no time, delivered the message and immediately left without so much as looking at  Aphrodite or whoever her guest was.

"Well I must take my leave, you can peruse the other gifts in your own time or maybe the next time I'm here, which will be soon"

Hephaestus voiced and let go of her hand, During the  week he has been making gifts for Aphrodite  he has hardly had time to forge weapons  and a sudden meeting called by Zeus made him very nervous, of course this is the mortal former self that's feeling nervous so he needed to calm himself, plus it has been mentally draining to hold back his lust for such a long time as such he needs a break from seeing Aphrodite's beautiful features and collect his thoughts.

"Wait! Are you not going to the meeting?"

She asked, there was a little bit of nervousness to her voice almost as if she wanted to talk with him a bit more but of course neither of them picked up on this.

"No, I shall be there I simply need to calm myself before going to the palace, I'd rather not see my mother  but if I must I  need to prepare myself"

A look of understanding dawned onto the Goddess, Hephaestus and Hera do not have the most civil of relationships. In all honestly it's to be a expected after  all what kind of mother throws their child off the heavens, sure he survived but still. To an extent  Aphrodite felt bad for him.

"Ah! I see"

"do not worry my Goddess, I am a God I can handle my problems"

"wha!! I'm not worried!!"

She defensively voiced, instantly correcting his misunderstanding.

"you sure? Your defensiveness says otherwise"

He smiled at her as she frowned.

"I'm Not worried!!"

"Yeah sure, anyway see you later."

"Hey wait!!"

However  Hephaestus  did not wait and immediately  exited her palace  without waiting for her, this again made her frown as he once again did not listen to her request.

"Humph!!!"

A pout was present on her face once again.

....

A/N:hope you enjoyed the chapter, please offer your thoughts and suggestions.

I beg thee foe powerstones