Lana couldn't believe her eyes. Somehow, in the middle of the night, it had all seemed so much less than what it really was. Suddenly she felt cold, from the inside out. She immediately grabbed the sheet, drawing it over her. It was of little consolation. "Pity" he said "The morning light did you well. Granted, not quite so well as the moonlight." She shivered.Images of the night before began to flood her every thought. She tried desperately to shut them out. her current state of undress wasn't helping things, though."You know, when the earthquake struck San Francisco a hundred or so years ago, the firefighters ran out of water." Lex said, motioning to the building in front of them, ablaze. "Because, due to the vibrations, all the underground water mains had burst and the water just leaked into the ground instead of onto the buildings. All of San Francisco was built of wood, and so the fire spread like, well, wildfire."
He paused for a moment. She could almost see the fire in his eyes. That same fire that had been there last night at the rooftop as he kissed her, kissed her like he had never kissed her before. "Just a few months prior, one of the few good politicians there proposed that the City Planners spend tax dollars to "quake-proof" the water mains. The rest of the politicians however, decided to spend it on gambling, and the…company… of a few beautiful women." He gave her a sideways glance, looking over her satin-covered frame. She shuddered yet again. In some ways she liked, or perhaps even loved it when he made her shudder like that. She had been up all night shuddering. "How ironic it must have been for them, when the city hall they had just met in was nothing more than a pile of matchsticks."
Lana's half-awake mind swirled. "Why are you telling me this?" "Because, you see those fire fighters down there?" Lex gestured with another full wine glass. Lana peered out of the glass wall in front of her to the yellow ants scurrying around a little red fire truck. "About a month ago, The Metropolis Board of Development and Maintenance voted 25 to 3 to move the management of the Water Mains to a new, electronic, database with full computer back-up, incase of emergency. And, with all the electricity out, even the back-up is in need of back up. So, there won't be any water coming out of that pump, or that hose, or any hose for that matter. Watch."
Over the next few minutes, Lana could discern from the movement of the little yellow ants around another red dot, and then another and another that what Lex had said was indeed true. When she looked back up, she saw a sickly smile on his face. "Well, we have to help him, I mean, there could be people in there. Innocent people, Lex." "No, we don't. No one is innocent. Besides, there's nothing we can do, anyways. Lex was calm, direct. His emotions never faltered. He was calculated with his every word. The way they rolled off of his tongue and out of his lips. There was something about the way that the little scar on his upper lip seemed to dance when he spoke that made Lana feel weak at her knees and a little sick to her stomach. Sick in a good way. "So, say we save that one person, hell, that one building. What happens to the next one? Do we save it, too? Soon enough, we're saving the whole damn city. What makes you think we can do that, just you and me? No one has that kind of power, not even me." The reality of their situation began to sink in for Lana. She almost could see all the faces of those who needed help, all the faces she couldn't help. She felt sick, and distraught and yet, almost relieved.
"Now, go, take a shower. I'm sure you must feel very…unclean after last night." Averting her eyes from his, knowing that if she looked at him when he looked at her like that, that she'd never make it to the shower, or, rather, that she'd never make it alone, a thought suddenly struck Lana. Shower?
"But, but you said that there wasn't any water?" Lex's grin was reminscent of the Cheshire Cat in all his glory. "Well, being in Luthorcorp Tower does have it's advantages, namely water, heat, and electricity completely independent from the city's supply, Generators, a water main that reaches deep into the Kansas aquifer, all the amenities." "Wait, we have power? And Water?Why aren't we doing something. Lex. We should be helping those people."
He rose from his seat. The black silk shirt clung to his torso, accentuating his carved physique. Black suit pants matched the Versace jacket hanging on the bathroom door. A silver belt buckle darted in her eyes. Swirling the remaining French wine in his hand, Lex looked at her pointedly. She averted her eyes to the bed. "Let's put it this way." He sat on its edge, picking up an oblong object that had been throw aside near his leather shoes the night before. "You see this… toy… we used so shortly last night?" Images, sounds and feelings began to flood her head again. "The electricity that was used to charge it and power it could have charged and powered, say, one life-support unit for about an hour or so. But you weren't thinking about that in the moment when I had this deep inside you, were you?" His words flowed out of his lips, and past his scar in ways more intoxicating than the wine she had just savored. She couldn't help but glance up at him, with the way he said it, said "deep" in the way someone only can when they've been deep inside someone, so deep they could almost see their soul. Lex had been that deep inside of her last night. He had been that deep again and again and again. She had felt naked and exposed, and wrong and dirty andloved. When his arms wrapped around her as he slept, she felt safe from all that was going on outside, all the chaos and confusion. If he couldn't save her, who could?
But now, her mind was racing and swirling with thoughts and images and the sound of his labored breathing matching hers. "So, when you eat, or shower, or play you won't think of all of that, will you?" She inhaled as if to protest. "You never thought of the leftovers going to feed starving children in Africa, or the pollution being emitted from your car sending acid rain on your, our, grandchildren. So why think now? Because some building across the street is burning? You don't think, you survive, in times like these. And you, my dear…" he rose to his feet, still holding the shape in his hand, outstretched towards her. "Are a survivor." The look in his eyes was overcoming her. The way his arm wrapped around her neck dangling the toy near her face as his wine-scented, rich tasting breathe tickled her nose and pressed against her lips.His other hand pulled aside her satin sheet and sent her mind racing, every bit of her screaming out "No!" and "Yes!" simultaneously.
She never made it to the shower alone. She could almost imagine each tear drop hitting her face, her shoulders, her back, her chest and sliding down her stomach, her thighs, her rear. As Lex's hot, wet, slick and hardened body pressed against hers, she began to realize she had really needed a good, long, hot shower.