The Scottish castle was as cold inside as the stones on the outside. It was tastefully decorated, beautiful in fact, but it lacked warmth and that lived-in feeling. Lois hadn't had to explain her absence to Oliver because he'd been working.
Clark treated her to French cuisine. She would have been happier with a simpler meal or even better to get down to business, but it was good: chicken in lemon-butter sauce, potatoes, string beans, and an even richer pastry for dessert. It might have been more enjoyable if she didn't feel like she was on the menu as well.
"So this is the proverbial Luthor Mansion?" she said when they'd finished eating as much to break the eerie silence of the large rooms that were no doubt haunted with Luthors of the past as to begin the interview.
"Home sweet home," he answered. "My life is an open book, Ms. Lane. What else do you need to know for your article?"
"When did you know you were different?"
"My father never let me forget it. He told me the story of finding my spaceship almost every night. Follow me. Part of the reason I invited you was so that I could show you rather than just tell you how I grew up."
He took her to the fencing room. "One of my powers as you know is invulnerability. He shouldn't have been able to physically hurt me, but lessons in fencing began when I was five, and he found a way to make the sword cut my skin." He picked one up and showed her the blue-tipped blade.
"I am so sorry." He'd told her about the fencing matches, but it was different to see it. Her father had been emotionally distant at times, but he'd never do something like this. She could picture him at that tender age, surprised that the man who was supposed to love and care for him had just sliced him open.
"The cuts healed fast enough, no lasting scars. That's not to say I enjoyed them, but it taught me to always be alert and gave me the motivation to master the art. To answer your question, it wasn't until I was a teen that my powers really started to kick in with a vengeance."
"Did they come all at once?"
"No, they were spread out, but I had them all before I turned eighteen. My father and I got closer during those years. He found me much more useful."
"I'll bet."
"Don't think I hated my childhood. Boarding school gave me a reprieve though sometimes boys can be just as vicious, but in most ways, my upbringing made me stronger. There are a lot of fools out there that can't separate their emotions from their actions. I suffer no such problem. I do what makes sense."
"For you or other people?"
He chuckled. "That's what I love about you. Anyone else that works for me would quake in their boots or lick mine. You never fail to challenge me. Okay, yes. I do what makes sense for me, the Luthor name."
"I know you do, so what's with this new Ultraman? Why break the mold now?"
"I thought we covered this already?"
"We did, but you're feeding me crap. You haven't done much to change your horrific business practices from what my sources say, which tells me that Ultraman is still a song and dance for the public eye. What are you plotting exactly?"
sss
He looked at her, hazel eyes were boring into his, sizing him up and searching for truth. A chill ran down his spine. How did she see through him so well? A mortal woman with no powers to speak of shouldn't scare him, but at times, this one did. "Maybe I just want your admiration."
She laughed at him. A normal female would have gone weak in the knees at his charm. "Sometimes I wonder if you even lie to yourself." She went stiff as a thought occurred to her, and she took a step back. "Wait a minute, have you drawn me here to-to-" her eyes looked back toward the bedrooms.
"Don't be ridiculous if I wanted to take you by force at any point, I could have."
She relaxed and her cocky attitude returned. "No, your ego won't let you do that, will it? You want me in your bed willingly. God knows it's not your sense of morality keeping you from it of which you have none."
He grinned, but he didn't argue. "Morality is a social construct invented by those in power to keep the rabble under their control."
"Is that the Luthor motto?" she asked with a scoff.
"One only has to observe to know it's true. Life is short. Why deny yourself its pleasures?" He moved in closer. He knew she desired him. He could hear her heart pound faster, and he didn't miss the way she looked at his mouth.
He took a chance and captured her lips, and it didn't take but a second for her to yield under them. It was even more empowering than the red kryptonite his father had given him as a teen to embolden him and kill the slight murmurings of his conscience before his first kill.
It didn't last but a few seconds though before she tore away from him. "I have to go," she said as alarmed as if they'd just had a full-blown affair.
He shook his head as he watched her flee. It was normally so easy to get women to lay with him; he had money, power, sex appeal. Why did she have to be so difficult? He supposed her resistance was part of the sport that made him keep trying.