Table of Contents Previously, on Part 16:
“Lois, where are you going?” Clark asked as he trailed behind her. He was practically jogging, trying to keep up. “The Planet’s back that way.”
“Are you sure you can trust everybody at the Planet? It wouldn’t be the first time the mob had a plant in the media. Plus, a big story like this? We don’t want a leak or, worse yet, we want to make sure it prints with our names on it.” She frowned as his face clearly expressed his doubts. “Don’t look at me like that,” she scolded. “Once you’ve had a story stolen, you learn to be a little careful. But I guarantee they could care less about politics at my dorm. I’m going back to write it up.”
“I’m sure your room will be a quiet haven on a Saturday night,” he mocked. “Sure, let’s go.”
Lois glanced at her watch. The parties would still be out in force. “No, you’re right. Too noisy.”
“We can work at my place but no monkey business,” Clark warned, waving his finger under Lois’s nose.
And now, Part 17:
_________________
Lois was excited, way too excited to wait for a bus to take her into work on that Monday afternoon. She called a cab instead and saved well over an hour on her commute. She couldn’t wait to get to the Planet to see her first American front-page story.
Of course, there was always the possibility that Kent hadn’t kept his part of the bargain and mentioned her contributions at the end of the story ‘with special assistance from Lois Lane’. He wouldn’t be the first person to claim all the glory for himself.
She stopped at the newsstand outside to buy two copies of today’s edition--one to read and one for her résumé. She decided not to read it until she had located a quiet corner in which to celebrate… or castrate her no-good co-worker, whichever the situation called for.
But there wasn’t a quiet corner to be found in the newsroom.
“Careful of the power cord,” someone hollered as she disembarked from the elevator.
Lois stood, mesmerized by the mêlée. There were lights of differing heights and colors spread from one end of the newsroom to the other, each trailing a never-ending tail of taped-down cables. There were cameras everywhere and people on top of people.
“It’s an advertising campaign for some new fragrance, ‘Exclusive’. Perry accidentally agreed to let the newsroom act as a backdrop. It’s been like this all day,” Clark explained.
Lois was too stunned to comment until Clark directed her to her seat. His hand felt warm on the small of her back.
“So why don’t they just film on a backlot like everyone else does?” Lois inquired.
“Good question.”
“So what are you working on?” Lois dismissed the fluff that filled the newsroom. “Anything interesting?”
“Purportedly, I’m working on the dockworker’s strike. There’s a flu-bug going through the Feature’s Department, and with our feature story this past weekend—thank you very much—I was selected to help them out. But how exactly am I supposed to make phone calls with all the noise around here?”
“True.”
“I’ve been sitting back and watching, just like everybody else.”
Lois followed him down to an empty desk that was closer to the action. The two of them leaned back to enjoy the show and were quickly joined by Jimmy, who was so busy lusting after the scantily-clad models that it was doubtless he noticed when Lois arrived.
“The beautiful people.” Lois dismissed them all in hand.
“Yeah.” Jimmy was so awestruck it was doubtless he even knew what he was agreeing to.
“What a sad world we live in that you have to dress a certain way and be a certain age and smell a certain way in order to be loved.”
“Yeah, sad,” Clark agreed. Lois glanced up at him with disgust. He may have agreed with her, but it was obvious that he was giving the women in the room ‘the eye’ just like the rest of the gang. ”It’s very sad.”
“Oh, pulease.” Lois sighed. “I wonder what they’re going to print today. No one is getting a thing done.”
“There’s always the associated press,” Clark suggested.
“Or we could get to work,” Lois proposed. She was met with silence as a buxom red-head paraded past. “Never mind.”
“Have you tried my new fragrance?” an equally beautiful, although thankfully fully-clad woman purred.
“No, I don’t really wear… Oh, gross! I… I swear my roommate wears that scent. Really! The nerve of some people. And that stuff probably costs as much per quarter ounce as a semester’s worth of books.”
“What died?” Jimmy finally broke away from the peep show long enough to fan away the funky fog that hung before them all.
“I’ve smelled better stuff in the backwoods,” Clark noted. “Forget this. I’m heading home.”
Clark stopped by his desk long enough to gather a few things. “Lois, is there anything I can get you before I go?”
“An antihistamine? Blinders? Ear plugs? No, I think I’m good.” She and Clark dodged past the nutty woman who was wandering through the newsroom spraying everyone with her eau de wet dog. “It won’t be the same without you,” she quietly told him.
“Well, why didn’t you say so? I can stick around for another hour if you like.”
“Oh, you don’t have…”
“Not a problem. I insist.” Clark smiled at her. “So what are you working on?”
“I have no idea. There’s not even a hint of order around here.”
“Great. You can help me.” He quickly outlined the work that needed to be done on the story. She divided it up between them, and they headed back to their respective desks.
~*~
After the set was struck, the lights were dismantled, and the last of the beautiful people had left the floor, Clark finally started to hit his stride. He was really beginning to make headway when he noted Lois’s approach in his peripheral vision. He held up a finger to hold her off for just a moment while he finished typing his current thought. She sidled up behind him and perched on the back of his chair.
“Cla-ark,” Lois’s voice was light and sing-song as she beckoned for his attention. “What are you working on?”
Clark barely looked up from his work. He needed to put a few finishing touches on this section, but otherwise his portion of the article was almost done.
“I’m just finishing up my part. How is your work coming along?”
Lois giggled a little bit before answering. “I think you’ll be rea-ea-eally pleased with my contributions.” She giggled again. Clark jumped as her foot slid inside his pants leg and wandered up his shin.
“Lois? Are you feeling okay?” Clark wondered.
“I feel good, Clark. Never better. How do you feel?” She reached out and Clark could have sworn she was about to stroke his arm, to find out how he felt.
But before her hand touched him, Perry splayed across the other side of his desk. Rahelia, the cleaning lady, pushed her boss across the wooden surface. Perry appeared as if he wasn’t sure how he’d gotten there and was obviously looking for a way out.
“Oh, Perry,” she called in her thickly accented voice, “I have been waiting so long to be with you.”
“Don’t get me wrong, Rahelia, but I’m a married man—a happily married man. And I’ve gotta get out of here.” Perry took off at a near run across the bullpen.
“Aren’t you married?” Clark accused Rahelia.
“I have so much love that there’s plenty of me to go around. Besides a man of Perry White’s wit, charm, his way with words, his power… such a man is irresistible.”
“Isn’t it romantic?” Lois sighed against Clark’s shoulder.
Rahelia took off after Perry, apparently singing her loved one’s praises--although Clark didn’t know enough Spanish to know exactly what she was saying. Not that he had the chance to concentrate—Lois was purring in his ear.
“Is everything okay with you?” Clark asked again.
“Hmmm… I feel like a breath of sunshine on a warm summer’s day. You like sunshine?”
“Yeah, sunshine is great.”
With Lois’s, albeit not very believable, reassurance that she was doing okay, Clark tried to go back to work. He was close to finishing, but it was becoming more and more difficult to get anything accomplished.
He jumped. Was that…? Then, it happened again. Lois couldn’t possibly have, but then, of course, she did… She was whispering kisses just under the edge of his collar. It was distracting. Okay, who was he kidding, it was mesmerizing.
It wasn’t anything like his Lois. Something was wrong. Definitely wrong. First there was Rahelia, and then there was Lois. Oh, goodness, there was Lois sending tingles up and down his spine.
Lois moaned.
He just needed a distraction. He wiggled his toes, just like he did at the dentist’s office when he didn’t want to gag. It didn’t work.
He listened to the vending machine drip water off the back coils. He listened to the whine of the fluorescent lights. He listened to the rhythmic thumping of the photocopy machine. Wait a minute, there was something wrong with that sound. Clark lowered his glasses and glanced into the copy room. His jaw dropped open as he caught the full Technicolor show inside—Cat Grant and the copy repairman were doing things in that small space that Clark hadn’t thought were possible.
“The copy room…” Clark mumbled to himself without thought.
“That’s a great idea,” Lois gasped, sliding away from him--both to his relief and disappointment. “We’ll have more privacy there.”
“Wait!” Clark tried to warn her, but it was too late. She had already bounded across the newsroom and thrown open the door.
“Come on,” she called to him. Then she stopped, mesmerized by the activities going on inside. “Oh, it’s beautiful,” she sighed.
Clark screwed his face up. Many words came to mind, but beautiful wasn’t one of them.
There was something truly odd going on in the newsroom. Rahelia chasing after Perry. Lois pawing on him – ohhh, she was rubbing on his chest as she watched and the way she was cooing and sighing was driving him crazy. While Cat was normally a bit over the top, this was unusual behavior even for her.
“I’m going to head home,” Clark decided. He needed to think things through, and he just couldn’t think in this environment.
“Don’t leave,” Lois pouted. “I don’t know what I’ll do without you.” She traced his features with her fingertip--his jaw line, his lips. He caught her hand as it slid down her chest. She seemed so child-like right now. Her face was animated; her tone was light. Whatever it was, it worked for her. “But I know what I want to do with you. You set me afire in a way no other man could.”
She paused and looked back into the open door of the copy room. He felt her breath on his neck as she sighed. “Why don’t we ever do that, Clark?”
Clark gaped. “Because… because you know how to say ‘no’ in over a dozen different languages, remember? Because you don’t even want to date me, let alone…” He gulped. “Let alone… that.”
“But, Clarkie, I know how to say ‘yes’ in over a dozen languages, too. You want to hear? ‘Yes! Oh, yes!’” she moaned in a decidedly erotic fashion. She fumbled with his shirt. He dodged, hitting the wall outside Perry’s office.
“I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but you’re making me very uncomfortable,” Clark informed her.
“I know something that will help you relax,” she purred. She leaned in for a kiss, but Clark deftly slipped from her grip.
“I’ll relax when I get home.”
Lois’s pout tugged on his heartstrings. He might not be interested in Lois in the cheap, tawdry way she was coming on to him now, but he could never deny her entirely. There was something about her. “I’ll come back. I promise,” he reassured her.
She tilted her face to examine his eyes carefully. “You promise?”
“Scout’s honor,” he promised, with the appropriate three-finger salute. “I’ll be back first thing in the morning.”
“I’ll be waiting for you. Kiss me goodbye?”
Clark’s breath caught. Did he dare? His Lois would never have asked him that--certainly never on the newsroom floor. With the way she was acting, one kiss may lead to so much more.
Still, this might be his only opportunity… No, that wasn’t right. He was going to marry her someday--someday when she wasn’t acting strangely.
He vowed to be on his best behavior in the meantime. He chastely kissed her on top of the head. Just like a little sister, he told himself, although the emotions he felt inside weren’t very sisterly at all.
He had to get out of here. He fled from the room.
Clark wasn’t gone long before Lois started to miss him. She glanced at her watch. It was six o’clock. That gave her only a little less than fourteen hours to prepare for his return.
She grabbed her purse and raced out of the office. She had to go shopping.
A few hours later, she arranged her purchases upon her bed. $119.95 at Victoria’s Secret for the little blue number with all its veils, $48 for the custom-fitted bra that made her look so good—even if it did hurt her ribs a little, $39.80 for buy four thongs get one free, $44.50 for white pumps, $5.75 for the softest pantyhose she could find, $204 for makeup and skin care, and $88.50 for the dress. Such a beautiful dress—lacey and as white as her love for Clark was pure. She could hardly wait to see Clark’s face when he saw her in it.
Then, of course, there was $79.50 for the fragrance. She had spent hours finding the perfect scent, knowing how sensitive her lover was. She wanted a musk to signify her animal attraction to him, a floral scent to signify the feminine way he made her feel, an Oriental scent for how exotic he made her feel—oh, there was so much she wished to communicate to him on a visceral level. With some help from the saleslady, she eventually selected an ambery scent which spoke of flowers, woods, and even that animal drive with a classic, yet exotic sensation. It embodied the way being with Clark Kent made her feel.
She fell into bed, convinced she would be too excited to sleep. Instead, it was a matter of moments before her breathing evened out and dreams welcomed her.
Author's note:
I wrote this section a long while ago, but wasn't satisfied with the way it turned out. I tweaked it here and there, but writing naughty stuff is just not my forte. Then, people started posting all these PML stories and I started to get a little bit nervous, first that it would look like I was copycatting and secondly that my story wouldn't measure up. But I've finally had peace. PML is popular now because it's a pivotal point in their relationship. And I have my story as good as it's going to get. So I hope you all enjoyed.
-E-
