by Jon F. Merz
Lilith reached up for the snap of my pants, finding it and unzipping them before reaching her hand inside and finding what she wanted, squeezing and moaning at the same time. Clearly, she was pleased with her discovery.
I fell between her legs and started kissing my way up them. I’ve always loved the shape of a woman’s legs, from the ankle all the way up to the back of the knees and to the inside of her thighs where the skin is the softest, to that final peak of perfection where I gently lapped now.
Lilith went crazy, grabbing my head, finding tufts of my hair and pulling me onto her as much as she could manage, bucking and writhing as I increased the intensity a little bit. I took my time, as I always do, and heard a sudden intake of air as she gasped and moaned and then orgasmed for the first time.
I was intent on staying down there for a few more minutes, but Lilith wasn’t having that. She pulled me up and I shucked my pants as I maneuvered my way up where I lay on top of her. Without a word, I eased inside and the effect was immediate as Lilith’s eyes rolled back in her head and she gasped again. I bent low over her face, kissing her and finding my way to the spot just beneath her ear where I nuzzled and licked and sucked at her neck while thrusting at the same time, keeping my pace slow and controlled until she let me know how she wanted it.
I didn’t have long to wait. Lilith clamped her legs around my waist and started grinding hard and fast and with her hands, she grabbed my buttocks and pulled me deeper into her, begging me to go faster and faster.
When a sudden rush, she came again, moaning the entire time. I’d heard my name said before a million times, but there’s still nothing like hearing it said by a woman you’re making love to. It’s the best sound in the world next to that of a woman having an orgasm.
Lilith surprised me by rolling us both over so I was on the bottom and she sat astride me. She bent low over me, dangling her breasts into my mouth while she ground her hips down and hard. I grabbed her ass again, cupping her cheeks just so while she drove herself on and on to another shattering orgasm.
She collapsed on me and caught her breath. I felt like all of the pent-up sexual tension between us was being released and I scooted out from under her, letting her collapse forward on her stomach. I lay atop her from behind and started grinding into her. She lifted her chest up and I reached under to feel her breasts in my hand while I started my own rhythm.
Lilith arched her back and drove her buttocks back up and into me as I thrust forward. She matched my tempo and stroke and I knew it wouldn’t be long before I finally felt myself erupt.
“Now, Lawson,” said Lilith. “I want it now.”
I was sweating, aware that the juice I’d had in the stew must have been driving me like mad, because it felt almost like we were in the middle of a workout. I drove on harder and harder now, desperate to feel that boiling over.
And then I felt it start low in the most primal point of my being, that looming sensation that started growing and growing as I started breathing harder and harder. Lilith was moaning now; I was moaning as well, and then with a sudden rush, I felt everything - every molecule of my soul - erupt into her with complete and total abandon.
I had nothing left to feel, nothing left to give. I surrendered in complete and total ecstasy.
“Lilith.”
I slid off of her to her side and lay there on my back, sucking in wind, trying to get some oxygen back into my body. I was lightheaded, basking in that afterglow of orgasm that leaves you bleary-eyed and wondering what sort of ecstatic death did you just experience.
I looked over at her. “That was…something.”
She looked back at me with eyes half-closed. “You were every bit as amazing as I dared hope for, Lawson.”
“Right back at you,” I said. I turned my head toward the ceiling and continued breathing. “Good thing you put some blood into the stew. I might have gotten tired otherwise.”
“I had a feeling you’d need some. I certainly did. I wasn’t about to let an event like this exhaust either one of us.”
“I have a feeling I won’t soon forget this,” I said.
“And why would you want to?” asked Lilith. “But hopefully, we’ll have another go. What do you say?”
I nodded. “Let’s get a drink first and then I’m definitely up for it.”
“Slower this time,” she said. “Not that we’ve gotten all that initial session out of the way, we can take our time and do a bit more…exploring.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“Be back in a sec.” Lilith got to her feet and wandered off to the bathroom.
I lay there a moment longer until I heard the steady buzzing of my phone.
“Great.”
I scrambled for my pants and found my iPhone. I took it out and saw it was Niles.
“Great timing.”
“You there?”
“I’m here. What’s up?”
“Scalpels came back negative, Lawson.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course we’re sure. Eva is not the killer near as we can tell. Which means the real one is still out there.”
I frowned. “Wonderful. All right. I guess I’m going to have to apologize for this one, huh?”
“Take her to dinner. Hell, fuck her for all I care. Just make sure she has a good time and doesn’t make trouble for us on this, okay?”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Call me tomorrow.”
36
“Everything okay?” Lilith came walking back into the room looking glorious in the nude.
I couldn’t help but smile as she sat down next to me. “Yeah, just a problem at work. Something I thought was finished, turns out it’s not.”
Lilith kissed me and gave me a sip of her wine. “Anything I can do to help?”
“No, but I will go and make myself another drink.” I stood up and started putting my pants back on.
Lilith looked on disapprovingly. “Now why are you going and doing a thing like that? You know those are coming off again.”
“Yeah, but I don’t like walking around naked,” I said. “I’ll be back in a sec.”
I walked into the kitchen and started making another Sapphire and tonic when my phone buzzed again. I saw it was Newby and opened it up. “Hey.”
“Lawson?”
“Who else answers this phone?”
“Where are you?”
“In the middle of something,” I said. “Can this wait?”
“No,” said Newby. “I’ve been doing some research and I found something I think you might want to know about.”
“What’s that?”
“Did you know that Adam had more than one wife?”
“What in the world are you talking about?”
“Adam. From the Bible. You know how we figured that it was referring to Eve, what was written on the wall?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, it turns out there was another woman in Adam’s life. Another woman he considered his wife until she left him.”
“She left him?” I finished squeezing the limes into my drink. “I’ve never heard of this before. Not that I’m exactly a church-going dude or anything.”
“It’s not publicized by the church for obvious reasons,” said Newby. “But it’s true. Adam had another wife. And she was created at the same time as Adam. Not from his rib, but at the same exact time. She was different from Eve, much more of her own person. She refused to be subservient to him and ended up leaving him. She and the archangel Samael even got together and after that, she wouldn’t go back to the Garden of Eden.”
“Holy shit.” I took a sip of the drink. It was good and strong, which was just what I needed at the moment. “Have you told Letourneau yet?”
“Left him a voice mail,” said Newby.
“And what about a name? Does this woman have a name?”
Newby paused. “She’s referred to a number of ways. In some mythologies, she is referred to as a ‘night hag,’ or ev
en a ‘screech owl.’”
My gut twinged. Where had I heard that before. “But do you have a name? I need a name, dude.”
“Depending on how you translate it, it could be ‘lilitu’ and remember how we take about the Akkadian language?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, the name uses the LYL as a root of the name, so it means it could be anything with those letters in it.” He paused again. “But if I had to guess on a good name to pursue, it would be Lilith.”
I almost dropped the phone.
“Are you absolutely certain of that?”
“As much as I can be,” said Newby. “Why?”
“Because I happen to be with someone by that name right now at this very moment.” I cast a look into the living room but Lilith hadn’t come out of it. “I have to go.”
“Lawson, wait-“
But I’d already hung up. I needed my gun and fast.
I’d left it in the car, not wanting Lilith to see it when I got undressed. She would have known I wasn’t in international law then.
Now, I wished I’d brought it in with me and cooked up some stupid excuse I could have fed her in the meantime. She wouldn’t have bought it, though. That didn’t matter at the moment; I just needed the damned thing.
I put my glass down on the counter and moved quietly toward the front door.
“Lawson?”
Lilith called out from the living room. I froze in mid-step.
“Yeah?”
“You coming back?”
“Absolutely. But I need to get something from my car.”
She appeared in the doorway, still looking every bit as gorgeous as she had earlier. But now that I knew what she potentially was, the allure was fading fast. “You’re going outside without a shirt on? You’ll freeze to death before I’m able to get my hands on you again.”
Somehow that didn’t sound nearly as appealing as it had earlier.
“I’ll just be a minute.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think you should go out there. I think you should stay here. With me.” Her eyes had gone darker. So much darker. “You’re not going to leave me, are you?”
“I’ll be right back,” I said trying to smile as I said it. It wasn’t a lie; as soon as I got my gun, I was going to come right back in here and interrogate her about the killings of Cousins and Amalfi.
Lilith pouted. “I think you’re going to leave me, Lawson. And I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.”
“You’re not in a position to stop me, Lilith.”
She sighed. “Maybe not. But he is.”
I felt the blow to my head and was swallowed up by the blackness before I even had a chance to react.
I came to with a whole world of pain in my body.
There was still music playing and someone was singing. I blinked and the darkness started to recede, leaving behind a massive headache. My arms were also crying out for release, but since they were pinned up to a board, there wasn’t much of anything I could do at the moment.
My legs were also restrained to the same board and I looked down. My jeans were still on, but otherwise, I was naked.
I moved slightly, which was odd until I realized I was being pinned down to what looked like circular tabletop. I shifted this way and that and realized it was mobile. Like it could spin.
Interesting.
Candles flickered all around the room, casting weird light and shadows as the flames danced this way and that from my movement and the currents in the air. I wondered where Lilith was. And for that matter, I wondered who the hell had gotten the jump on me.
Answers were forthcoming, lucky me.
Lilith swept into view flanked by Manny. It was like watching Maleficent being escorted by an oompah loompah. Lilith had slid into a semi-sheer back satin robe tied simply at the waist. Manny had on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and looked like the lazy shit he was.
What mattered now was making sure that I started this exchange out on the right foot. I had to be careful and show them that I was really in a position of supplication.
“Hey Manny, I just fucked your wife.”
Oops.
But the gnome didn’t do anything except glare at me. No doubt he had no control in this relationship. If Lilith really was in charge and the killer of both Cousins and Amalfi, then he was just likely along for the ride and had no real worth whatsoever, aside from any comedic value he brought to the gym.
“You’re not the first,” he said then. “And you won’t be the last.”
“Shame about the lack of working equipment you have,” I said. “Does it smart whenever you see a commercial on TV for the little blue pill? Still have fond memories of rubbing one out to the Sears catalog back in the day before it all went south on you?”
“Fuck you,” said Manny. “You’d be dead right now if it wasn’t for the fact that we need you.”
“We.” I started chuckling. “As if you matter even one tiny bit in this entire operation.” I looked at Lilith. “Why don’t you tell him the truth? Tell him that’s he just a convenient source of comfort and security but you never really loved him at all. You’ve just spent your entire life using him because he’s so utterly pathetic and exploitable?”
Lilith eyed me and said nothing. She walked over and tested the wheel I was pinned to, by moving first this way and that. As she bent over me, I could still smell her scent and couldn’t help but smile.
“I’ll give you props, though. You were a fun lay.”
She nodded thoughtfully. “As were you, Lawson. And since you were my first ever Fixer, I must say you certainly lived up to the hype.”
“No faking it like you have to with the little guy over there, was there?”
She threw a glance at Manny and I saw a look of disgust crease her face as she probably recalled the pitiful attempts he made at satisfying her. “No,” she said. “No faking it. You were marvelous.”
“Damn right,” I said. “You’re welcome.”
Lilith sighed. “Was that all I was to you, though, Lawson? Just a simply lay?”
I frowned. “Well I wasn’t going to put a ring on your finger, if that’s what you’re asking. I’m not as easily manipulated as Limpy, the eighth dwarf over there.”
“Aren’t you?” Lilith ran her hand over my chest, feeling the width of my pectorals. Then she drew her hand over my arms, squeezing them. She smiled. “I’ve got a thing for arms, in case you hadn’t realized it.”
“Kinda guessed when you were squeezing them so hard while I rode you.”
She nodded. “There’s nothing like the strength you feel in a man’s arms when they’re above you, thrusting away.” She winked. “And you said you hated thrusters.”
“Well, if CrossFit thrusters worked like horizontal thrusters, I’d be the Games champion.”
“I’ll bet you would,” said Lilith. She sighed and let her hand wander down toward my crotch. “And this…this is simply astonishing.”
“Careful, I’m not like your mascot Thumbelina; you start prodding at it and it’ll go off like a loaded handgun.”
“Speaking of which,” Lilith said, “we took the opportunity to remove your firearm from your vehicle and lock it away so you wouldn’t be tempted to make some sort of half-hearted attempt at escape.”
“I’ll have you know all my attempts at escape have always been fully-hearted.”
Lilith smiled again. “And so at last we come to start to know the real Lawson. Not the international law expert but the legendary Fixer I’ve heard so much about.”
“In the flesh,” I said. “I mean…obviously.”
Lilith licked her lips and kissed me hard then. Knowing it probably galled Manny, I took full advantage of it and kissed Lilith back passionately. She moaned a little bit and pressed her body into mine. If she kept it up, I might have even been tempted to try a hands-free upright sort of thing.
But then she pulled away and left me tasting her lips. I blinked and saw the look of absolute
hatred on Manny’s face. Not my fault his wife happened to find me irresistible. And if he couldn’t provide her with what she needed, then…
“So now what?” I asked. “You guys cut me down, and while Manny does something exciting like cruise the real estate listings, Lilith you and me go have wild sex again? Is that how this works?”
“I have a very simple question for you, Lawson,” said Lilith. “And I need a very honest answer from you, all right?”
“Honesty? Interesting request coming from someone who has been lying to me since she met me.”
“And you haven’t been?”
I thought about it and she had a point, but whatever. I was the good guy in this equation and she was the psycho serial killer. “What’s your question, Lilith?”
She drew closer and stared into my eyes. “Do you adore me?”
37
“Well, I don’t know,” I said. “I mean, you haven’t even given me a blow job yet. I always reserve my truest adoration for women who can give me a good hummer.”
“We should just kill him and be done with it,” said Manny then. “He speaks too rudely to you, my queen.”
I shot a glance his way. “Well, the hand puppet speaks. How nice.” I looked back at Lilith. “‘My queen?’ Really?”
Lilith waved her hand. “You haven’t figure did out, so obviously it sounds trite to you.”
“Desperate and pathetic, maybe,” I said.
“You never answered my question,” said Lilith. She came closer to me again and leaned in to kiss my neck. I caught the scent of her hair, felt the gentle touch of her fingers along my nipples. “Do you, Lawson? Do you adore me?”
“Why is that so important to you?”
“Because I need to you to adore me. This is what I thrive on. I need to be the center of attention in your life. I need your adoration. It…sustains me.”
I shook my head. “Human blood sustains us. You don’t need my admiration to stay alive.”
Lilith laughed. “Oh Lawson, I do enjoy knowing the real you now. The guy at the gym was always so intense and never seemed to crack a smile.”