Chapter 69
Following the trail of clothing left scattered about, Lois was absolutely sure by the time she got to the bedroom that Clark was indeed naked underneath that thin sheet. Stopping at the door, she saw him propped up by one elbow reclining, very much at ease, on his right side.
The famous red and blue costume was tossed casually, in a heap, on the end of the bed with the soft, red boots flopping over each other on the floor. The discarded clothing did answer one question for her; apparently Superman did not wear underwear underneath the suit.
Probably too bulky.
She looked up to see his bare chest peeked out above the sheet.
No, he definitely does not need any extra bulk, not with those muscles. Her mind wandered back to a cornfield in the middle of a night long ago. No, he doesn't need anything extra anywhere.
The look he gave her as she entered was smoldering and not easy to resist, especially when he was offering her all she had been dreaming about for years now, but she steeled herself to keep her wits about her as she played for time.
Ten minutes.
He patted the bed beside him. "Now why are you way over there?"
"Just enjoying the view, Smallville," she smiled her most seductive smile and hoped she wasn't betraying her nervousness. But this isn't Smallville. He can't be!
"Kal," he said, as if reading her mind. "The name's Kal from now on," he said, waving her over to the bed.
She nodded but took her time in slinking over to him, knowing he was enjoying watching her. Handing him the wine and the corkscrew, she purred, "You can probably do better at this than I can."
He took one look at what she offered, laughed, took only the bottle of wine from her, and pulled out the cork easily with two fingers. The pop resounded loudly about the room, and he didn't spill a drop as she held up the glasses for him to fill.
"I keep forgetting…" she began, keeping her voice sounding as playful as she could manage, "this doesn't even have any affect on you, does it?"
"No, but it looks like you could use some. Sit. Drink."
She obeyed both commands, the first, nervously, the second, gratefully. The smooth liquid slid down her throat, but there was no way that mere alcohol could dull any of her senses right now. The man of her dreams was lying in front of her, only too willing to make all her fantasies of the past few years come true.
But her own inner thoughts were at war, disguised on the outside by her most seductive smile.
Crap, Lois! You really are a big coward, aren't you? Are you that afraid he'll hurt you?.
I'm not a coward! I just don't want…well, whoever this is. I want Clark. And this man is simply not Clark. I don't know what's wrong, but he's—
"Lois?"
"Clark—"
"Kal," he corrected her.
"Kal," she relented, and smiled at him, before drinking deeply from the glass again. "This is…uh…just not how I imagined this evening was going to go. I thought we were going to go to a movie."
"We can do that," he said, the devilish gleam in his eye still evident, "later." Taking the glass from her hand and setting it on the nightstand, he pulled her toward him.
For several minutes, the only sounds were those of his kisses against the bare skin of her shoulders, her eyelids, and her lips, and her increasingly heavy intakes of breath.
A siren screamed from the streets below the bedroom window, its wail signaling its fast approach and then its retreat into the distance.
Lois instinctively pulled away from the passionate kiss she was enjoying, despite her own misgivings about the situation, and looked toward the window. From past experience, she expected all too well for her companion to pull one of his sudden departures, but Kal just pulled her back toward him, seemingly oblivious to the increasing commotion coming up from the street.
"Clark!"
"Kal," he insisted between the kisses he was gently trailing up her left arm.
"Kal then! Don't you hear that? Something's happening!"
"It certainly is," he whispered eagerly.
She pushed him away from her. "Sounds like a fire truck," she said, her head still turned toward the window.
Kal's head turned casually toward the direction of the fading siren. "It is, but how can you tell?"
"The pitch of the…or something. I don't know. I just can. It's different from the ones used by the police cars and the ambulances."
"Very good," he said appreciatively. "Who needs super hearing when you've got great sound recognition?" He smiled and pulled her down toward him once again. "Now, can we get back to—"
She resisted. "No! Aren't you going to see if they need you?" She saw the puzzlement, the irritation on his face, and her own registered astonishment.
So okay…something is wrong. Granted. But you're still Superman. Somewhere underneath all of this sensual, eager-to-get-on-with-it new attitude, you're still the Man of Steel, Protector of Metropolis…Right?
But as she stared into those beautiful blue eyes that were solely focused on her, she wondered. Whatever was wrong seemed to be affecting not only his attitude toward her, but his job as well. His real job.
"Cla—"
"Kal."
"KAL! " She all but screamed the name in frustration. "Aren't you at least going to take a peek and see where the fire is?" Her tone let him know her cooperation in any present endeavors was now at a standstill until he did as she asked.
She watched as Kal gave an impatient, no, an almost disgusted sigh. "Fine. Whatever you want."
At last, she saw him focus his attention at a spot somewhere probably many blocks away, through her wall, through space, and probably even more walls.
"It's in the Luthorcorp building. Forty-ninth floor. Satisfied?" He looked back at her and reached for her hand.
She stood up and looked down at him expectantly. "Forty ninth? That's the floor Lionel Luthor's office was on. Come on, you need to go. Heck, I need to go!"
"Lois—"
"Will you move it!" This time she was shouting. "Their ladders will never reach that high. There may be people trapped—"
"I'm sure they've got the building evacuated by now."
"They'll need you. We need the story."
"Really?" He leaned back among the pillows. "Last time I checked, Lois and Clark were Perry White's golden, darling duo. So why—?
"Get dressed!" She said lowly, but with as much firmness as she could muster.
For a moment, as she had grabbed his costume from the end of the bed, she had all but forgotten about Clark's altered state. The feel of the silky material of the red cape between her fingers, and the quick look back at him lying there against her own fluffy pillows brought a flood of realization back to her.
He was staring at the ceiling, his hands behind his head, and a slow, seething, burning rage was beginning to show on his face.
Good one, Lois. You almost sicked Psycho Superman on the Metropolis Fire Department!
"Wait a minute," she backtracked, her tone now placating, soothing, "you know, you're right. They can probably handle it. No problem. I mean, they'd put out an APB for you if they couldn't, right? You'd hear about it, right? So why don't we just relax, and—"
But Clark's, or rather, Kal's eyes had drifted back to that same spot on the wall and he was staring intently at it.
"No, you were right," he said with more than a bit of irritation. "There are two women…looks like part of the cleaning crew. They're cowering in a storage room. They're not going to get out before…I've got to go." He said the word with a touch of venom, apparently angry at the interruption of this emergency into his life, and he reached for his costume.
"But…but…" She was trying to talk to a blur of activity as he donned the familiar red and blue right before her eyes in a couple of seconds. "But you can't—"
"I'll be back. Besides, if I'm gone more than five minutes, you'll have Chloe to talk to by then."
"Chloe?" Lois smiled guiltily. "You did hear."
"Lois, my hearing has been ramping up right along with all my other powers lately. It would have been hard for me to ignore. Besides, the desperation in your voice would have alerted me anyway." He finished attaching the cape.
"What?"
"I do keep tabs on you. I have to. You get into so much trouble…" He opened the window and turned back to her, "Tell Chloe I'm fine."
"Clark! You're not—"
He was gone.
"—fine," she finished lamely to an empty room.
She was still rooted to the spot several minutes later when Chloe let herself in with her own key.
"Oh, god, Lois, you didn't let him leave!"
"Like I could have stopped him? Chloe, there's a fire…"
"But if he's on Red Kryptonite—"
"Red? Great! That's just great! There's a red kind now? That one got missed in my catch-up education about all things Kryptonite. So, let me guess…turns him into a sex fiend?"
"Not exactly."
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Author's notes: Okay, I'm back. No long note tonight since I want to get something posted before you all forget what's going on in this book length story. I'll try to post another chapter soon and give you all my proper thanks then!
