last time
“Well… then marry me. Soon. Very soon. And then, we can be together – in the same space.”
“Soon? H-How soon?”
“As soon as we can put this thing together? A month from now? Two?”
She felt an inward tremor at the thought. Wedding. Wedding night.
He sensed her withdrawal. He gripped her hands gently in his, and looked at her intently.
“Lois. I don’t mean to rush you. You can take all the time you need for that… you know that. You know I’d never use pressure – physical or psychological – to push you into something you weren’t ready for.”
She nodded. “I know,” she whispered. ‘I’m not afraid of that… of you… I guess it’s all me. Our wedding night… it should be…”
“It will be. No matter what happens or doesn’t happen. It will be really incredible.”
She hesitated a long moment, biting her lip as she deliberated over the idea. And then, she looked at him with a new resolve.
“One month.”
“One? Is that long enough – to – get ready?”
“I –“
“I mean – to get the wedding ready –not for you –“
She laughed. “I know… I know… and yes –with my mom on the job – it’ll be – “
‘I’ll help! I mean – it’s not like it’s fair that you have to deal with it all –“
“I know – and don’t you worry – that’s been the plan all along. It’s just that – mom will want to help – this is something she’s been wanting to do since I was born.”
He grinned. “Is this a good thing?”
“Well… fasten your seatbelt, Superman... because likely it’s going to be a wild ride.”
And now...
“So what do we do now,” she said, her expression suddenly worried.
“Well – what we were doing was pretty good,” he said, suggestively.
“Just ‘pretty good’? Not fabulous?”
“Fabulous. Amazing. Wonderful.”
She grinned. “Good. You better not start taking me for granted.”
“Oh, believe me. That will never happen.”
“I meant - what do we do now – now that it’s out – now that – I mean – do we go out?”
“Do you want to go out? Tonight? I know I promised you dinner – and I can do that here, or we can go out.”
“What do you want to do?”
“I think I asked you first.”
“No. I asked you first.”
“I asked you first about going out to dinner.”
She made a face at him. “Oh sure. Make it all my decision.”
“Do you want me to tell you what I want to do before you tell me what you want to do?”
She nodded. “Just this once though. Don’t get too comfortable with that.”
He grinned again. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Okay. So here it is – the undisguised truth, by Clark Kent. I want to stay in. I do not want to be bombarded by press right now. I however would love to go out with you if that is what you want.”
“Goody. Looks like we’re both in agreement then. I just didn’t want you to think I was … uncomfortable with people knowing about us – that’s insulting to you. I am really thrilled people know, and want to gloat to each and every woman out there lusting after you that you are mine. How evil is that?”
He laughed. “Not evil at all. Sweet. You aren’t psycho-possessive Lois, so that sentiment isn’t the least bit alarming.”
“Do you feel that way about me? And other men?”
“Uh – I don’t want you to feel threatened …”
“Darn it, Clark – just say yes, already.”
“Yes. I do feel that way. Hands off everybody, this woman is with me.”
“Ah. You said it so perfectly too – none of this ‘you’re mine’ stuff that I threw out there.”
“I am yours, and you are mine – but that’s a mutually agreed upon thing… no coercion involved – now or ever. I mean – if one of us wanted out, then – I guess we’d have to just … opt out. No matter how much it hurt.”
“You better not opt out on me, buddy.”
“Lois, I will never stop loving you. I know that. With certainty.”
“Likewise.” She leaned in and kissed him again. She broke it off after a long and enjoyable moment and smiled at him. “You’re stuck with me. Til death do us part. But then – I do tend to get myself into tricky situations – so – “
”Lois,” he shuddered. “Please. Don’t. I don’t even want to think about that. Maybe… just maybe… you’ll be more careful now?”
“As if! Now I have my own personal bodyguard – “ She saw the distress in his eyes. “Kidding. Kidding. No – I won’t put that kind of burden on you. “
“Lois – I don’t want you to change who you are –or how you do your job… I just don’t want to lose you either.”
She hugged him close. “We owe each other now – we owe each other our best efforts at staying alive and healthy. So –yes, I will change, but not for you – for us… and you don’t need to feel guilty about that – even if my chances for Kerths and Pulitzers fly out the window. ”
He drew her close and hugged her tight. “God. I just love you so much.”
The phone rang, and they drew apart.
He looked over at the phone. “It’s Perry again.”
“You can get it. We aren’t otherwise occupied at the moment,” she grinned at him.
“If you keep smiling at me like that, that’ll change,” he said.
“I’ll keep that in mind. Go answer it. Please – give the poor guy a break.”
Clark went over and picked up the phone.
“Perry! What’s up? A party? Can you hold? Lois… “ Clark looked over at her inquiringly.
“Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling about this,” said Lois.
“Perry wants to throw a party… sort of celebrating the engagement – he wants to invite the Daily Planet crowd as well as Lana, her fiancé, and some other folks. Tomorrow night. Is… are you okay with that?”
She gave him a look that clearly said Save me Superman. “I am… if you are….”
“Yeah… if you are.”
“Then… why not? “
Clark returned to the conversation and confirmed with Perry. They talked a short while longer and then he hung up the phone.
“I bet you anything you care to wager that Ralph is going to corner you and either ask you why you’re settling down with Lane when you can have any ‘chick’ in the world… or he’s going to comment on how it’s a good thing you’re invulnerable because I could freeze a normal man to death.”
“You said something like that before. I can’t even imagine that anyone would think that of you, and as far as the other women… they all pale in comparison. “
She smiled brightly. “I know. Likewise. I’ve never known anyone like you… despite… you know… and – we … we go together. It makes sense. Us. You and I.”
“It sure does,” he said warmly coming over to her. As soon as he got close, he pulled her close thrilling to the fact that he could now do this – the natural gesture of wanting to hold her, wanting to kiss her – he could actually do this – and she welcomed it. It boggled his mind. He still remembered their first painful encounter – at least, the first one with her conscious… and the time he tried to give her that briefcase.
“So care to place that wager,” she asked as they drew apart.
“What are we laying down for a bet?”
“Anything you care to wager.”
“Anything?”
“Within reason, Clark!”
“But who defines what’s reasonable?”
She grinned. “Oh, Okay. You can have all my chocolate bars.”
“Chocolate is not what I’m after,” he said with a throaty growl, as he brushed his thumb across her lips – causing her heart to skip several beats.
“Looking for a pound of flesh?” Her voice was shaky as she asked the question.
“110 pounds?”
“About that…”
“Then… yeah…” His voice trailed off as he leaned in slowly. She watched mesmerized and then closed her eyes in delighted anticipation of his kiss. His hand was on her waist and he pulled her close as he bent forward until they met in another one of those drugging kisses which seemed to last forever, and still didn’t last long enough.
Then, he lifted his head.
“So… what do you want if you win?”
“The same thing you want…”
“Win/Win then.”
“Yeah,” she said dreamily, reliving their earlier activities in her mind.
The next evening, Lois waited for Clark’s arrival with a pounding heart. She was no longer afraid of having a fear-reaction upon seeing him – in fact, seeing him made her heart beat for other more pleasant reasons.
She was terrified of facing the public. She felt like she had done something wrong and in a way, she had. At least in the eyes of outsiders. She had launched a hate campaign against this man, manipulating public opinion, only to end up scooping every other reporter out there on the asteroid story, and then scooping every woman who yearned after him by getting engaged to him.
She knew she hadn’t really done anything wrong. Her motivation in launching her campaign was honest – she had truly believed him to be just like his doppelganger. And while she wrote some of her articles with an ambivalent heart, she did end up giving it all up once she really felt in her heart that she was completely wrong about him.
And as far as getting engaged to him – it’s not as though she’d manipulated him in this way. They had simply fallen in love.
But nonetheless, she knew that she would be held up to some amount of ridicule and disgust in the public eye and that really bothered her. Part of her wanted to plead her case and let people know exactly why she had done what she had done, but she knew that to do so was disastrous – for the safety and sanity of the human race, as well as for Clark’s well being.
If people knew about Lord Kal, they would likely start to fear and mistrust Clark, and then his life would never be happy. She had dug this particular hole for herself, and she would weather it. She had weathered far worse.
Luckily the people in her life who mattered knew the truth and didn’t hate her nor did they fear Clark. In that respect, she had the best of all worlds. Even more important, Clark loved her. He loved her without reserve. And that was all she really ever needed.
There was a knock at the door, and she opened it quickly after verifying it was him.
He was so absolutely gorgeous he nearly took her breath away. She stood gawking at him for a long moment.
“My god… Clark… you’re just… so….” She stopped as she realized that the door was open, he was still outside her apartment, and surely they were being spied upon by the neighboring tenants. “Come in!”
He grinned at her and complied, and she shut the door.
“Now… where was I?” She launched herself into his arms, and threw her arms around his neck urging him down to meet her in a kiss. He returned the embrace, wrapping his arms around her, and they kissed, letting all their need and passion come through in this all-too-brief contact.
After long moments they broke apart. She felt a surge of longing for this man, wanting to be closer than they’d ever been before. She wanted to make love to him. She wanted that with such a deep ferocity and need that it took her breath away. Not very long ago, the idea of doing such a thing filled her with worry and fear. And now, it was all she could do to restrain and contain herself. Soon. Soon. Very soon.
“Clark,” she whispered. “Do we have to go? Let’s just stay here.”
“Lois,” he said regretfully. “Yeah, I think we do kind of have to go. Unless you really really don’t want to.”
“I just want you to myself. I just want to…” She leaned in and whispered the rest into his ear. She felt a thrill shoot through her as his hands suddenly gripped her upper arms – tightly as if bracing himself against the need that she had just ignited by telling him, in no uncertain words, what she wanted from him.
She was pleased to see that he looked a little less… unruffled when they parted, an impish smile on her mouth as she waited for his verbal response.
His hands were still on her arms, and without any warning at all, he jerked her close almost roughly and plundered her mouth with a passion that would have terrified her a short time ago. His kiss was relentless and claiming, but always with the promise of tenderness. She knew she was safe, even in the maelstrom that she herself had ignited. She moaned in her throat and leaned against him, trying to communicate to him her need and willingness.
“God, Lois,” he said, after breaking apart from her almost as abruptly as he pulled her close. “When you say that… when you do that… I just want to…” A slow smile formed on his lips and he leaned in and whispered very close to her ear, causing desire to shoot through her at the sensation of him being so close. His breath on her skin, the light touch of his lips against her earlobe, the very husky desire-driven tone of his voice, and then – above all else, the words he spoke. Aggressive. Passionate. Primal. Needing.
He stepped back and watched her, a smile matching the one she had worn after unsettling him so deeply now resided on his face.
“Oh,” she gasped. “Oh…”
“Just… you know, so you know it’s not just you,” he said, with deliberate mildness.
“Oh. I get that. Loud and clear. You think you won this round, do you? Well, I’m not done with you yet, big fella.”
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t tell me you didn’t hear me, Mr. Super-hearing.”
He quickly gauged her face for any darkening of expression. Super-hearing was probably no something she joked about back in that other world. It probably was something she dreaded and loathed.
Not seeing any panic or pain on her face, he continued with the banter.
“I was referring to what you called me.”
“Yes?”
“Big fella?”
“Well… if the … shoe…fits…”
“Lois. I don’t know if I can take this anymore. I’m this close to …” And he leaned in to tell her again. Startled, she stepped back. “Oh no. You aren’t doing that to me again. I just got my heart back to a normal rhythm. Come on, gorgeous. It’s time we left.”
On the car ride over, she began to have major second thoughts about her wanton behavior.
“Clark. I… I feel kind of badly about earlier,” she said softly, not looking at him. “I feel like I was a tease…”
“Lois,” he said, grasping her hand. “You were a tease. So was I. That’s not a bad thing. I like it when you do that… I like it very very much.”
She blushed, and then smiled.
“So you don’t think that… I’m… all talk. No action?”
“We made the decision to wait. We both agreed on it, and now, we are abiding by that agreement… and so why not tease each other about it? Why not drive each other nuts? Isn’t that half the fun?”
She smiled again. “Thanks, Clark. I just didn’t… want you to …”
“Lois. If anything was bothering me, I promise I’d say something. You … well – yeah – you bothered me… if you know what I mean… but in a very good way. And don’t forget, I was as much a tease as you were.”
“I started it though.”
“And I’m glad you did. Do that anytime. Well. Maybe not any time. But – you get the picture.”
She leaned into him. “I love you. And… I meant what I said.”
“What do you mean?”
“What I whispered… into your ear….”
“Lois,” he said, his voice holding playful warning.
“Not the right time… I know,” she giggled. “We can’t walk into this party looking all.. bothered… although for you, I guess it’d be far worse if you were in that suit.”
“Lois!”
“Okay – okay – I’ll be good.”
He squeezed her hand. “Whatever you are. – you are always that.”
“Really?”
“Really… really… good.”
“Clark…”
“Not the right time?”
“We’re here. So – yeah. Not the right time!”
He parked the car. And then, before she could do anything, he gently put his hands on the sides of her face, holding her there. He leaned in and gave her a slow, loving kiss that very gently lit embers and helped urge them to a strong conflagration. He drew apart and grinned at her, taking in her flushed face, her parted lips, the dazed look in her eyes.
“Might as well go in looking like we’ve been up to something.”
[tbc]
