The Fallen Queen of Eden Ch. 08

While Lili and Eli were joy-riding through the countryside, Levi was standing before his bathroom mirror looking at his beard with a sigh. Lilith had managed to leave a small bald patch as well as scratches on his cheek. This was not a disaster though. Carefully he trimmed the thick hair back before lathering it up. Taking up his safety razor he moved swiftly through the whiskers, shaving with smooth precision until within the space of a few minutes he looked at least five years younger. Too bad for the scratch along his cheek from Lili's nails. Still, for his age, he was fairly handsome and kept himself in fine physical form. The only thing missing was the dark-haired, green-eyed beauty by his side. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of the front door and footsteps on the hardwood floors. Jeza had come home. He looked once more with satisfaction at himself in the mirror before stepping into the hallway.

The Preacher-man could not recall that he had ever loved Jeza. The fact of the matter was that Levi had never really loved anything beyond himself and his ambition. Growing up, he had sat in the front pew of a small-town church and watched his father preach the gospel. Gabe Sethos was a passionate speaker who truly believed in his calling and it reflected in his life. He loved and was dearly loved by his wife Sandra as well as his three children. He never spoke a cross word and was friendly and loving to everyone he met regardless of lifestyle, race, religion or creed. If you needed a dollar he was likely to give you five just in case. 'Do unto others' was more than just words in a book and when he died the entire town turned out to mourn his passing. The Preacher-man was a superior speaker to his father and far more charismatic. Although he was wildly successful beyond all expectations he never recognized what had made his father a great man and wrongly assumed that he had surpassed him. Even in seminary school he was driven and believed firmly that he would be acclaimed and revered. He also believed that standing beside him through it all would be his ideal vision of womanhood.

Of course, this belief had not stopped him from dating for fun. In fact, it was the only reason he had taken Jeza out. She had been attractive at the time and they had shared a lot of laughs together. Unfortunately, youth and shared kisses in the back seat of his car quickly spiraled out of control. The day she told him she was pregnant he was sure that all his future plans were ruined. Everything in his world seemed bleak, but his parents offered to help him so he could stay in school and ultimately the idea of a child of his own gave him a reason to keep going. In the end, he married her but there was never any love between them. One week after exchanging vows he came home from school to learn that she had miscarried. He was devastated at the announcement, but Jeza didn't seem upset at all. She cooked his supper and began talking about her plans with friends over the coming weekend. Over the years he had wondered many times if she had not lied about her pregnancy just so he would have to marry her. They never had children and Levi's profession prevented him from divorcing her no matter how much he despised her.

Over the years he and Jeza became masters at putting on the persona of a loving devoted couple. They put on their best toothpaste smiles and held hands before the cameras and euphoric, adoring crowds, but in private they barely spoke to each other. In his eyes, Jeza seemed more plastic than flesh. She spent hours working out so she could maintain the 'perfect' body. Well, some of that was devoted to her personal instructor Ty and his very 'hands-on' approach. She had been under the knife a few times getting breast implants, facelifts and tucking anything she deemed saggy. After so many dye jobs, perms and constant styling products, her hair felt like straw.

Jeza had just put one foot on the staircase when she noticed Levi watching her from down the hall. Immediately she posed and tried to look as alluring as possible. It was always fun to let him see what she would not allow him to have. She was surprised to see his beard gone and was rather glad of it. It had been a long time since she had seen him clean-shaven. Certainly long enough that he had clearly cut himself rather badly along his cheek. Obviously, he was trying to impress her by making himself look more youthful.

It was always a boost to her ego to know that he wanted her. She never looked into her mirror without seeing herself as beautiful and worthy of every man's lust. The proof of this was her personal trainer, Ty. Devilishly handsome, he had only just turned forty, but his over six-foot body was well-muscled and he boasted a head full of dark curls. Nothing gave her more pleasure than running her hands along his perfectly tanned skin (a feature which came from a spray can if he were honest) or feeling him kiss her with just the right amount of scruff on his fine chin. Most importantly, he managed to satisfy her in every physical way possible and she was certain that he adored her.

The truth was not so flattering. He enjoyed the extravagant gifts and large sums of money she lavished on him, not to mention the nice apartment she rented for him so they could carry on their trysts. He accepted the arrangement and why not? It wasn't as though he had to be her escort anywhere and he made certain never to use any words of love or affection. As far as Jeza knew, Levi was none the wiser and there was certainly no reason to let him in on the secret.

"Are you hoping that I'll invite you in so you can satisfy your husbandly desires?" she asked, turning to her husband in a sultry manner and smirking.

"Don't flatter yourself, I haven't desired you in over forty years. I'll leave it to your trainer Ty to stoop to that level." At the insult, her face twisted and she glared daggers at him. "Careful, Jeza, you almost wrinkled your forehead. It would be a tragedy if you needed to go in for an emergency Botox injection." Levi smirked at his wife then retired into his own room.

Levi couldn't stand the greedy, vain and plastic woman his wife had become. He longed for a real, caring and gentle companion. It was this desire that had led him into his numerous affairs only to lose interest as avarice took hold of each mistress. The last woman to catch his eye was a young twenty-something-year-old model named Vivienne Parvana. They had met while appearing on a late-night talk show together and despite his age, he managed to charm her over a cup of coffee in the green room. She knew he was married when they met but she quickly fell for him because he had a way of weaving the illusion that they would end up together without ever uttering a single promise or even hinting at his intentions. He set Vivienne up in an apartment, gave her a generous allowance, lavished her with jewelry and gifts making her feel like a queen. They often dined together in her flat and occasionally took trips to his secluded cabin in the Ozark Mountains.

For a while everything between them was good, but then things started to change. It soon became evident that Levi Sethos was not the man he presented himself to be at the pulpit. At first, it had seemed like nothing, Levi had noticed a small butterfly tattoo on the lower center of her back and became completely aroused. He wanted her to get more and even suggested an intimate piercing or two, all of which he was willing to pay for. To his disappointment, she declined on the basis that as a model she often had to walk the runway in little more than underwear and didn't want to spend her time being airbrushed before a show.

Levi then began to up the ante in other small ways, first requesting that she wear a long black wig along with her normal lingerie, then asking her to switch to black lacy teddies and garter belts. Eventually, he brought her intimate apparel in black leather which he liked even better. He sold her on the idea as just a bit of harmless role-playing that hurt no one and he was right. She went along with it because it was his 'thing' and sometimes it was fun to pretend at being someone she wasn't, like a true 'bad' girl. He didn't tell her about the cameras he had placed in the apartment he had given her.

Eventually, he began losing interest in her. He showed up less frequently and when he was there he quietly complained that she wasn't 'her'. Vivienne didn't understand who 'her' was and more than once it led to arguments. The final straw came when she had dressed up for him the way he liked in an attempt to rekindle things.

"Why don't you have a fire in your eyes that burn like smoldering flames, all wild and untamed?" he asked her.

"There is," she assured him, but he only looked at her sadly and walked away.

"You'll never be my Laine."

The next day, Vivienne received a note informing her that she was to take her things and move out of the apartment. Angry, she sent him a message stating that she would be telling her story to the tabloids and ruin him. The Preacher-man's response was swift and severe. After walking the runway at a Paris fashion show, she went to collect her things and found her teacup poodle dead in the handbag she carried him in. The poor creature had been poisoned and with it was a note warning her to never speak of Levi Sethos or their past relationship and she never did.

In the Preacher-man's mind, Vivienne had been a fun distraction and pretty bauble to play with, but she was not the one intended for him. Lilith was. She embodied everything that Laine had been and even more so. In her, he had found his perfect mate. She was nothing like these women or Jeza his wife. She was beautiful and authentic. She cared nothing for his money, his power or fame. In her, he saw his every desire and fantasy fulfilled. He had no idea that she was a demon or that she had come from Hell. She hadn't even needed to use her gifts to seduce him, not that she had had her power to do so at the time anyway. No, his heart and mind had become fixated and all he knew was that he craved the sight of her and yearned for the chance to touch her.

He went to his dresser and began to rummage through a small stack of books. One of them was a translated copy of an obscure Hebrew text known as The Book of Jubilees. Banned from the bible for being extremist and certainly heretical, it told the story of Adam and Eve's nine children and in particular, introduced Cain's wife Awan who was also his younger sister. The pages of Levi's copy had been cut into a large cavity where the words had once been. He took from it a picture of Lilith that Adam had taken and smiled. His fingers gently traced her image before putting it back into the book and taking out a USB drive. Closing the book, he set it down then reached over and took out his tablet.

Before sitting down on his bed, Levi turned out all the lights in his bedroom then turned on his iPad. Using an adaptor, he plugged in the USB drive and opened the file accessing a series of videos. All of them were surveillance videos from inside of Millie's bar and home. He knew exactly which one he was looking for and found it within seconds.

In the flickering light of the computer, he watched as Lilith entered her bedroom with a man in tow. The footage was months old and the man was nothing more than a one-nights stand, a nobody that had gotten lucky by momentarily getting Lilith's attention. Whomever her companion was, it wasn't Elijah Asher. The Preacher-man imagined she was doing the same thing with him now and it only fueled his jealousy and desire.

Looking at the video, Levi watched as Lili and her one time fling kissed and gnawed at each other while hastily unbuttoning shirts, pants and any other garments that might impede their progress towards a night's pleasure. Levi felt his own arousal awaken as he watched her push the man onto her bed then wrap her lips around his cock and suck him in as though he were the most satisfying popsicle ever made. Oh, God, if only she would do that to him, the Preacher-man thought as his own manhood pushed hard against the zipper for release.

He quickly unfastened his pants and, sliding them down slightly, began to stroke himself as his dark eyes watched the dark-haired beauty crawl on top of her lover. The sounds of their heavy breathing and the look of pure pleasure on her face as she straddled him, taking him all inside of herself, were etched into Levi's mind. In the darkness of his bedroom Levi began to pump himself harder as he watched the rhythmic movements and heard the moans of pleasure between the hot passionate kisses. Why couldn't that be him? The desire to have her in his arms, her long legs wrapped around him and feeling every part of her was driving him mad. Her hips were rocking faster and faster, but before Lilith could reach her zenith, the Preacher-man reached his with a gasp and deep guttural moan.

Once he was fully spent and he was relaxed again, Levi took some tissues from a box near his bed and began to clean himself up. This was maddening. How many nights would he have to endure like this before she would finally see the light? There was nothing he wouldn't do for her. Nothing that he couldn't give her. Soon he would show her just how far he would go to prove his love for her. She couldn't turn him down after that, right?

"Why can't your eyes look upon me with the same affection as they do other men?" he asked, looking at her image on the surveillance video. "You look at me, but you never see me. I want you to smile for me. If you would only love me then I would be your slave." He tried to push Lilith from his mind as he finished removing his clothes and once more got into bed. Even in the darkness of his room he still could picture her just as he had seen her at Hog-eyes Road House. The image of her wearing those teasing cut-off shorts and the men's flannel shirt with its sleeves tied just underneath her perfect breasts. "The bridegroom has come for his bride only to find that she is not waiting with her oil lamp. You are meant for me, Lilith. You are mine or no one's."