PREVIOUSLY....
She’d never been exactly courageous when it came to matters of the heart. And what if Martha was wrong about Clark’s feelings for her? The safe thing to do was to go back to Metropolis tomorrow. But if she did that, she would probably lose any chance of getting Clark back into her life. Still, was this a risk she was willing to take? In her job, she often leapt off the diving board, head first, without checking the water level in the pool. But could she do that for love?
Finally, her heart pounding harder, she came to a decision. Leaving the kitchen, she began to ascend the stairs of the old farmhouse, heading to her bedroom.* * * * * * * * *
AND NOW...
Clark wasn’t entirely sure what woke him. Was it the soft footsteps on the stoop of the cabin? Was it the sweet perfume of Lois, smelling of soap and shampoo, obviously fresh from the shower? Or was it, perhaps, the uneven breathing he could hear as she stopped outside his front door?
He lay there, waiting for her to knock, and was bewildered when she just stood there.
Then, he was confused again when instead of knocking as she always did, she simply opened the door and stepped inside. He propped himself up in bed and looked in the direction of the door, his head tilted slightly as he listened, waiting for her to speak, to explain what she was doing there in the middle of the night. Or... maybe it was morning?
He listened to the sounds outside. No. No, it was still night. He could distinctly hear his father snoring and the gentle breathing of his mother, both still in the arms of Morpheus. He refocused his hearing on Lois and realized that her heart rate was elevated.
“Lois?” he finally asked.
He heard her take a deep breath before slipping off her coat and draping it over the back of the couch.
“Hi, big boy,” she said in what sounded as if it was supposed to be sultry, but came off as slightly shrill.
“Lois?” he asked again.
“Oh, god, Clark,” she finally said, sounding distressed. “I’m sorry. I don’t know how to do this. I thought I could pull it off. And your mother said... But I just... don’t know how to do this. I’m sorry. I’ll...” Her voice trailed off and he heard her hastily gathering up her coat again before turning back to the door.
“Lois, wait!” he said, pushing himself up further in bed. He heard her movement cease. “Do what? What don’t you know how to do?”
He could hear what sounded like her forehead softly coming to rest against the door and suspected her hand was on the door handle.
“Seduce you,” she whispered.
Seduce him? For a moment, he froze. Had he really heard her right? She’d come here to seduce him? But... At that point, his hearing picked up the soft sound of silk moving against her body as she breathed heavily and his mind involuntarily painted the image of how she must look. Before he’d been blinded, he’d never realized that various materials sounded different against the human body. And until this moment, he wouldn’t have known it either. But hearing the soft whisper of what she was wearing brush against her skin now, he realized that on some level, he’d always subconsciously heard the difference. In short, Lois simply sounded sexy and his body responded accordingly.
“I’m sorry,” she continued when he took too long to react. “I’ll just...” She moved then, opening the cabin door and letting in a blast of cold air.
“Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!” Clark gasped before she could get out the door.
She hesitated slightly before pushing the door shut again.
He knew what he should ask. Why was she trying to seduce him? It was the natural question. But in his current state there was only one thing he wanted to know, desperately needed to know. “What are you wearing?” he asked, his voice husky.
He could hear her swallow before licking her lips. The image that presented left him in a cold sweat.
“Almost illegally short, silky lingerie. It has a see-through bed jacket that goes over top,” she said, her voice sounding nervous. “I got it on a shopping trip with Lucy. Sort of an impulse buy. I’m not sure why I even agreed to go into the store or why Lucy was able to talk me into buying it. It was an extravagant waste of money. I’ve never worn it before. I’m not even sure why I packed it, but...”
“What color?” Clark asked, cutting her off impatiently.
Something in his voice brought her babble to an immediate halt.
“Black,” she whispered, her voice having gone deeper.
“What else are you wearing?”
“Black stockings that come to above my knee and below the edge of the lingerie.” Her voice trembled.
“And your feet? Surely you didn’t walk over here in just your stockings.”
This time there was a hint of laughter in her voice. “The work boots your mother lent me.”
Clark closed his eyes and flopped back against the bed at the image now dancing in his head. He could practically see her standing there. The black lingerie barely covering the essentials. The black stockings highlighting her long, shapely legs with just a hint of skin at the top until her clothing cut off the top part of her leg from view. Her dark hair curling slightly around her face. She had likely reached up more than once to tuck a strand of loose hair behind her ear while she’d been standing there - a nervous gesture that was so utterly Lois. A soft blush would be staining her cheeks. Her eyes would have vacillated, as had her voice, between sexy and scared. Even the work boots she was wearing struck him as sexy.
It was a good thing she had no idea how to seduce because he was already hopelessly ensnared. If she knew what she was doing... he could hardly imagine the mess he would be in then.
“Come here,” he said, his voice not much more than a growl.
He heard her take a sharp intake of breath and step closer. Then she shivered.
“Your fire is almost out. I’m just going to put another log on first,” Lois said, dropping her coat again on the back of the couch.
Clark knew he should get up and tend to the fire instead of leaving the task to Lois. It was the gentlemanly thing to do. But in his current state, he dared not get out of bed. His other option was to pull back the covers and suggest that Lois would be warm enough if she simply joined him, but he didn’t quite have the nerve. So he listened as she walked over to the fireplace to begin her self-assigned task.
* * * * * * * * *
Lois fought off the urge to heave a sigh of relief as she removed her boots before tending to the fire. The sudden douse of cold had hit her unexpectedly, pulling her out of the magnetic desire his words had inspired in her as he’d insisted she describe what she was wearing. Tending to the fire had been a welcome distraction, a means of recovering her composure.
She couldn’t say she was entirely certain what she was doing in Clark’s cabin, or how far she was actually prepared to take this. Even as this thought passed through her mind, she flinched slightly at the hypocrisy of it. ‘Oh, god, Lois, you know exactly how far you plan to go. Look at what you’re wearing. You didn’t come here dressed to look at his 4H badges,’ she silently wailed to herself.
Still, she wasn’t prepared to let Clark go without a fight. It was time... some might even say it was long past time for them to settle... whatever it was that existed between them. And her outfit, together with her showing up in the middle of the night, stripped away all pretexts, made it more than clear the direction she wanted their relationship to take. What else was there to say after that? Whether he returned her feelings or not... By the end of tonight, at least she would know where she stood with Clark Kent. She supposed that was something. The next step, really, was entirely his.
All too soon, the task of building the fire was completed and her skin felt the warmth of its heat. She rose to her feet and turned towards Clark. Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, she walked over to Clark’s bedside, sitting down beside him.
“Hi,” he said softly.
“Hi,” she responded, feeling the oh-so-quick pattering of her own heart. How had she never before noticed how his voice, speaking nothing more than a single syllable, two letter word could cause the blood to race through her veins?
Still, she was not entirely sure how to proceed. Should she tell him that somewhere along the way she had fallen in love with him? Should she simply climb into bed with him - letting her actions speak for her? Just the thought of doing something so bold almost made her feel faint. Her fear of being rejected was too strong, too overwhelming.
He solved the problem when, a moment later, he reached a hand towards her. She grasped it immediately, turning the hand over, studying it before, unable to resist, she bent over and kissed the inside of his wrist.
He half groaned, half spoke her name, as his hand escaped her grasp to find her cheek. She closed her eyes as his hand, soft yet strong, caressed the tender skin. He moved into a seated position and brought his other hand up to join the first. Gently he traced the contours of her face, her eyebrows, her nose, her full lips, before letting his fingers softly caress the line of her throat and down onto her shoulders.
When he pushed the sheer material of the bed jacket off her shoulders with his fingers, she straightened her arms, allowing the material to slip, almost silently to the bed behind her. Her heart beat jumped again when, using nothing but touch, his fingers ‘saw’ her outfit, tracing the straps over her shoulders and following the edge of the skimpy material over the swell of her breasts to where it dipped low into the valley between them. But his fingers didn’t linger, following the material upwards again until they reached the straps so that he could trace the other side before allowing his hands to whisper over her sides and down to the hem of the garment.
When she moaned softly, his hands retraced their path until they were again on her neck and then buried in her hair so that he could pull her head gently towards him.
Their lips touched in what wasn’t much more than a light caress of lips on lips but the spark of electricity that jumped between them from the gentle touch shocked them both.
Without conscious thought or planning, the kiss took on a life of its own, deepening almost immediately as passion seized Lois with a potency that was completely foreign to her. The plan to seduce him dissolved. The need to talk about her feelings dissipated in an all consuming blaze of heat and hunger.
When had she crawled under the covers with him? When had the remainder of their clothing disappeared? When had the decision been made to...
Anyway, when had any of it happened? A simple kiss and it seemed as if neither had been able to get close enough, one moment flowing into another in that all-consuming desire to become one, until, at last satisfied, they collapsed into each other’s arms, exhausted, a mass of mingled limbs and sweat.
* * * * * * * * *
Clark lay staring unseeingly towards the ceiling as Lois slept curled up against him. How had he let this happen? It had been cruel and irresponsible and... absolutely wonderful. Still, how could he have done this to Lois? She deserved so much more than to be saddled with a blind man.
Not that being blind had in any way detracted from the wonder of making love to Lois Lane. The taste of her, the smell of her, learning the secrets of her body with his hands and mouth, the soft sounds she made in the midst of love making, the feel of her hands and lips as she’d explored him... all of it had combined together to drive him completely over the edge more than once during the course of the night. And even with all of that, her softly whispered, ‘I love you,’ as she’d drifted off to sleep against his chest had been the best moment of his life.
Still, it had been wrong of him to take advantage of the situation. He certainly hadn’t intended to do so. No. He had... What? Been unable to resist? Even thinking that gave him a pang of disgust. He’d always abhorred men who claimed they were unable to resist as an excuse to take advantage of a woman. Yet, now he was no better than they were.
He was about to break her heart. He knew that with absolute certainty. Given the number of men who had hurt her in the past, it was remarkable the risk she’d taken by coming to his cabin last night, of making love to him without any sort of commitment. She’d put her heart on the line and he was about to deliver the final devastating blow.
His arm tightened protectively around her.
She murmured slightly and he could tell the moment she woke. Her face, which was buried in his neck, lit up in a slow smile. Then her hand whispered over his chest. She took a deep breath and let out a contented sigh.
“I had the most amazing dream,” she finally whispered sleepily.
He smiled. “Funny. I think I had the same dream.”
“What? Did you dream about having amazing sex with an incredible hunk of a man, too?”
He couldn’t help the snort of laughter that escaped. “Maybe our dreams weren’t exactly the same,” he finally admitted.
“I would hope not,” she said, adjusting positions. “So what was your dream about?” she asked, settling herself with her arms across his chest so that she could look at him.
“Well, it wasn’t about having sex.”
“Really.”
“No. Not at all. It was about making love... with an incredible hunk of a man.”
This caused Lois to laugh. “So then... I take it you weren’t disappointed. It being your first time and all.”
“How...?”
Lois leaned forward, planting a gentle kiss on his lips. “How did I know?” She shrugged. “Call it an educated guess. You just seemed a little... hesitant at times.”
“Are you disappointed?”
“Disappointed? No. Never. I sort of like the idea that I’m your first. And... it answers a whole lot of questions I had about your relationship with Mayson.”
“Lois, there was never anything between me and Mayson.”
“I know that... now. But I’ll tell you... no one can say you’re a slow learner.” She sucked in a breath through her teeth.
Clark laughed. “So do I rate a gold star?”
“Hmmm... I’ll have to think about that one. A gold star is pretty impressive. I’m not sure you rate one yet, but with a little tutoring and a whole lot of practice... well, we’ll see what we can do.”
The humor suddenly left Clark’s face and heart. “Lois...” He began slowly.
She instantly pulled away. “Oh, great. Here it comes.”
“What?” he asked, confused as she sat up and began rustling around. He reached for her and felt her slip on what he assumed was the t-shirt he’d dropped on the floor while crawling into bed the previous evening. That must be what she had been reaching for when he’d heard her rustling around. He might not be able to see her, but he still keenly felt the loss of intimacy her actions represented - and it cut deep into his heart.
“This is where you tell me that although last night was great, it was a mistake. That for some reason that only makes sense to you, we can’t be together. So what is it, Clark? Is it that you don’t feel about me the way I feel about you? I’d understand that, really. After all, I’m not exactly happily-ever-after material.”
“No! That’s not it. Not at all!”
“It’s okay, Clark. I understand. I mean, I knew there was a chance I was setting myself up for this when I came over here last night. You’re not to blame.” She began to move off the bed. “Last night was great. We’ll have to do it again sometime.” Her voice was flippant, but he could hear the deep hurt in it.
Desperate, Clark reached out, grabbing at her, finally managing to get a hold on her arm. “Would you just hold on?” he asked when she struggled slightly to be free of him.
Finally, she stilled.
He adjusted his hands, finally finding her face and holding it gently. “I love you. God, Lois, I’ve been in love with you for so long... wanted... this for so long... I can hardly remember a time when I didn’t want it, didn’t love you.”
Her hands came up to his, pulling them away from her face and gently kissing them before lowering their now entwined hands into her lap. He could feel the soft skin of her thighs beneath the backs of his hands and closed his eyes, unable to resist savoring the feeling of renewed intimacy her actions engendered.
“If anyone other than you had come over here last night...” His voice trailed off. “Lois, I was a virgin until last night by choice.”
“I never doubted that.”
“The only thing I regret about it is that we didn’t talk first because... Lois, I’m blind.”
“I sort of figured that out.”
“I don’t have anything to offer you. I keep saying that I’ll get my sight back, but I don’t know if that’s true. The last thing you need is an unemployed blind man dragging you down. You deserve so much more than that. And I can’t burden you with that. You can do so much better.”
She let out a sharp breath. “You’re probably right,” she said.
His heart dropped.
“After all, you’re a stubborn, pigheaded, annoying, lunkhead who is probably a whole lot more trouble than you’re worth.”
“Lois...” he said, hearing the sarcasm in her voice.
“Clark, I love you. I don’t care if you’re blind or flying around in tights saving the day. I love you because you’re you. You make me stop and smell the roses.”
“Or the cow manure,” he added.
She softly chuckled. “Yeah, or that. What I need from you is not defined by your eye sight or your superheroness.”
“Superheroness? Is that even a word?”
“Would you let me finish?” she rebuked him gently.
“Sorry.”
“It’s who you are in here...” She freed one of her hands so that she could place it on his chest. “...that I’m in love with, that I need in my life. Clark, if I were blind and unemployed... would you still want me in your life?”
“Yes, of course, but...”
“But you’re the man. You’re supposed to take care of the little woman. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve never exactly been the little woman. I don’t need a man to take care of me or provide for me. I need...” She paused, searching her heart and mind for words. “I need someone who will simply support and love me. I never had that as a child. I never even knew that such a thing existed until you came into my life. I need you, Clark. I just need you to love me and support me. Everything else is just...” She stumbled for a moment, trying to find the right word. “...details.”
He closed his eyes, recognizing what it had cost her to say those words. Lois Lane independent career woman of the 1990s was admitting that she needed another person. In the light of that... “I need you, too,” he admitted softly.
He could feel the tension suddenly leave her body.
“So where do we go from here?” he finally asked.
“Well... I’m going to borrow a pair of your sweats and your t-shirt and then I’m going back to the farmhouse. It’s probably too late to get back inside before your folks get up.”
He tilted his head to the side and listened for a minute. “You’re right. Mom is already in the kitchen.”
“Then I guess I’ll have to make the walk of shame.”
“Lois, there is nothing shameful about what happened between us last night.”
“It’s an expression, silly.” She leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on his lips. When it instantly threatened to get out of control, she pulled back.
Clark groaned in protest.
She reached out, running her fingers affectionately though his hair.
“Stay,” he whispered.
She sighed. “We have chores to do. Or have you forgotten?”
“I hate chores,” he grumbled in a pout Lois was certain reflected a teenage Clark objecting to doing his chores.
“But you love me and you’re not going to make me face Betsy alone, are you?”
Clark laughed. “Glad to know I’m good for something.”
“You’re good for a lot of things,” she responded, yanking away the sheet covering him to illustrate what she meant.
“Hey!” he protested, grabbing the sheet and pulling it back up to protect his dignity. As he tucked it in tightly around his chin, Lois laughed.
“Spoil sport,” she said, before rising from the side of the bed.
After walking over to the small dresser, she opened it, rustling through it for a pair of sweats.
Clark listened to her in silence, wishing more than anything that he could watch her. Still, there was little point in wishing for something he had no way of obtaining. On the other hand, there had been times over the past year when he’d thought having Lois here like this was nothing more than a pipedream too. “So what happens now?” he asked as she continued preparing to leave.
She stopped her rustling around. “Just... think about something. When I was talking to Perry, he indicated that he may be willing to give you your job back.”
“Lois, I can’t go back to Metropolis. Superman and Clark can’t be blind at the same time.”
“No one knows that Superman’s blind. I never reported it.”
“The bad guys know. Mayson does, too.”
“The bad guys have disappeared. Besides, they will hardly pay attention if some reporter they’ve never even met turns up blind.”
“Mayson knows. And she hates Superman.”
“But she loves Clark.”
“And when she finds out that we’re together? You don’t think that might change her feelings for me?” When she didn’t respond, he spoke again. “What?”
“I was just enjoying the thought that we’re together,” she said. She walked over and gave him one final kiss before stepping towards the door. “Details, Clark,” she continued. “Nothing we can’t work out.”
“Lois...” he began.
“Clark, has anyone ever told you you’re a worry wart? Just... think about it, okay? It’s not as if you can hide out here for the rest of your life.”
He sighed.
“Love you,” she said.
Clark smiled in spite of himself. Suddenly he was anxious to do chores. He had a suspicion that they would be much more fun today. He reached under the sheet, withdrawing a handful of black silk and holding it to his nose as she turned towards the door.
* * * * * * * * *
Lois opened the door to Clark’s cabin only a crack to peer outside before quickly shutting it again.
“Oh, god, it’s your dad,” she said when she caught sight of a figure passing between the cabin and the house.
“He’s probably just heading out to the barn,” Clark said. “He’ll be gone in a moment.”
Lois shook her head in amusement when she noticed what he was holding - her lingerie. Still, she didn’t comment. Instead, she simply counted to ten before cautiously opening the door once again. She let out a breath of relief when she saw that everything was now still.
Taking a deep breath, she quickly stepped outside and made a silent dash towards the house. She paused at the door, sneaking a glance into the brightly lit kitchen. No sign of Martha. Good. Her hand went to the doorknob and turned, taking great care not to make any noise. Slowly, ever so slowly so as to avoid any creaking, she pulled the door open far enough to step inside.
“Sleep well, Lois?”
The humor-filled voice coming from behind Lois caused her to jump. She spun towards Martha in guilty surprise.
“Uhh... fine,” Lois finally managed to mutter.
“Good, good,” Martha said, pushing past Lois to enter the house. “I just went out to collect some eggs for breakfast,” Martha said casually, as if finding women wearing her son’s clothes sneaking into her house before sunrise was the most natural thing in the world. “Jonathan wanted to get rid of the chickens years ago, but I don’t think you can call a place a farm if you can’t eat fresh eggs while you’re there.”
She turned back towards Lois who was still standing in the open doorway. “You coming in?” she asked the shell shocked Lois.
A blush spread across Lois’ face as she followed Martha into the house, her mind searching for some plausible explanation, other than the obvious, for why she was sneaking into the house at this hour. Unable to come up with anything remotely believable, she removed her coat and boots and made some barely intelligible remark that she was certain made no sense at all before fleeing the room, Martha’s soft chuckle following her up the stairs.
TO BE CONTINUED...
ML
