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Synopsis of Chapters 1 - 8 Missing Lois - TOC ***
Where we left off in Part 12...“Whose blood?” he asked, taking hold of her arms. He wasn’t being rough and, for some strange reason, at his touch her kneecaps tingled.
“Trust me, Bruce. You don’t want to know.”
He raised a skeptical brow at this statement. “And, yet, I keep asking.”
“I’m not going to tell you, so just stop. Leave, now. Destroy the sample in your vault. Forget about Metropolis. If he ever finds out you have it, I’m as good as dead and you’ll be next on his list. Please, Bruce.”
“He doesn’t scare me.”
Penny was shocked by that announcement. “Well,
he scares me.”
Bruce wrapped his arms around her. “I won’t let him hurt you.”
Penny sighed. It felt good to be held by him. To actually rest her head on a man’s shoulder for once.
What in the hell are you doing? She pushed herself out of his embrace. “Leave. Please. He and Lois hate you. If they find you in their house…”
He started playing with his pinky ring. She had never noticed the emerald stone in it before. “Really? Hate me? That’s a little strong, don’t you think? I’m really not a bad guy.”
Lara started to cry. Penny ran over to her playpen. She had almost forgotten the girl was there; she had fallen asleep on the stroller ride back to the house and had been so quiet. She picked her up and put her on her shoulder. Lara just cried harder.
“What’s the matter, little one? You never cry.” Penny rocked her back and forth.
“Is that her? Clark and Lois’s adopted daughter?” Bruce asked, stepping up to her and running his hand over the baby’s head.
Lara only screamed louder.
“Get away from her!” Penny insisted, moving away from him, holding the baby protectively.
Bruce stared at her. “She
was found on their doorstep, wasn’t she?”
Penny nodded. Yep, that was what they had told her and their family and friends. She still nodded, fear in her eyes. “Calm down, Lara. Everything will be okay.” She kissed Lara’s forehead. “I’ve told you to leave, Bruce. You can’t be here.”
Bruce stared at her and Lara, the blood draining from his face. “The sample?”
Suddenly, through the window flew Clark. Not Superman… Clark.
***
Part 13A few minutes earlier at the Daily Planet…Clark returned to the office after stopping that robbery at the jewelry store. Mazik’s Jewelry Store, the same one he robbed two years earlier when one of the Mazik brothers had kidnapped his parents. What a small world.
Lois was sitting at her desk. She looked drained. Tired.
He sat on the edge of her desk. “Are you all right?”
She nodded.
Clark moved a lock of hair off her forehead. “Anytime you want me there with you, you let me know.”
Lois looked up at him with such an expression of love, he cupped her jaw in his palm and kissed her. “I love you, Clark Kent,” she whispered.
He rested his head against hers. “Not as much as I love you, Lois Lane.” He winced as soon as he said it. She was going to take it the wrong way. Please, don’t explode. Please. He pulled back and looked in her eyes.
Lois stared at him for a minute and then seductively licked her lips. “We’ll just see about that.” Oh God, she was a beautiful woman.
He smacked his hand upon his forehead. “Penny!”
“Penny?”
“She came by, while you were at your appointment. Her brother got hurt and she wants to fly out to Gotham City to see him. I told her you’d come home when you got back.”
Lois raised a brow. “Oh, so the little woman…”
“Because I volunteered…” He adjusted his tie and lowered his voice. “To have you-know-who fly her over there, if she would just wait another hour.”
“Gotcha.” She patted his leg. “Hey, doesn’t her brother work at Gotham Laboratories? The same division where the computer exploded last night?”
“Yeah, I guess so. Why?”
“Because Bruce Wayne announced this morning that no one was hurt in the explosion.” She rolled her eyes. “Another reason why we can’t trust that guy. Just another rich man out to save his company over his people. Lex Luthor all over again.”
“Bruce Wayne better not be another Lex Luthor,” Clark replied, sneering, not quite sure what the man was yet. He was still an enigma. The ‘Bat’ claimed to be on the side of truth and justice, but still… The man pushed Clark’s buttons.
Lois shrugged, reaching down to grab her briefcase and fill it with the files she was working on. “Let me just let Perry know where he can reach me.”
Clark nodded, rubbing his temple.
Lois set a hand on his arm. “Is something wrong?”
“Just all of a sudden, I got this splitting headache.” He pinched his eyes together.
“Clark, you don’t get headaches.”
“I know.” He shook his head, trying to shake the sensation. Lowering his voice, he said, “It almost feels like Kryptonite.”
“Kryptonite?” Lois swallowed. “Here?”
“Only….” Clark closed his eyes. He could hear his daughter crying out in excruciating pain. His eyes flashed to Lois’s. “Lara!”
Clark ran out of the newsroom in a gust of wind and jumped out the storage room window. He approached his living room windows seconds later.
“
I’ve told you to leave, Bruce. You can’t be here,” Penny was saying.
Perhaps he had been wrong about Bruce Wayne after all. He pushed his way in through the windows. “Get away from my daughter.” He snarled, moving towards Bruce Wayne.
“Clark!” Penny gasped, backing up towards the dining room with Lara in her arms.
Bruce looked pale, like all the color had drained from his face as he faced him, but he didn’t back down. He raised his hands slightly in an act of surrender that Clark doubted the man possessed. “There’s been a terrible misunderstanding, Clark.”
“You’ve got that right.” The splitting headache that he had felt at the office and then some, returned as he got closer to Bruce. “Penny asked you to leave, Wayne.”
“How could I know, Clark? I had no idea,” Bruce spoke calmly, glancing over at Penny.
Clark took another step towards him, wincing from the sharp pain of Bruce’s Kryptonite ring. “Didn’t know what, exactly, Bruce?”
“That she was your daughter. Your flesh and blood daughter.” Wayne swallowed. “How would I know? I thought she was a foundling child, just like you told everyone.”
“Why does that make a difference to everyone?” Clark glared at him, stumbling into a side table with a lamp, accidentally breaking it. “She
is my daughter. No matter who her birth parents were.”
Bruce glanced over at Penny and Lara again, doubt in his eyes. “Clark, I didn’t want to hurt her.”
“Too late.” Clark continued to slowly move towards him. Fighting to stay on his feet through the pain.
“Clark, I know you are furious at me right now.” Bruce still held up his hands. “I’m sorry. I should never have come uninvited to your home. Please, Clark, remember who you are. And what you believe in.”
“I know who I am,” Clark growled, picking Bruce up and pinning him against the wall. “I also know who you are and about your kind of justice.”
“Clark!” Penny gasped from the other room.
Bruce Wayne swallowed. “I know you do, Clark. That’s why I’ve been trying to make contact with you. So we aren’t so alone out there. Just us against the world.”
Clark tried to throw him, but his strength was so drained from the Kryptonite, he merely dropped him. “I’m not alone, Wayne. If you feel so all alone, get yourself a sidekick.”
“Right. You’ve got Lois and your daughter,” Bruce nodded, rubbing his shoulder and taking a few steps away from Clark.
“Stay away from my family.” Clark stumbled towards him, pinning him to the wall again, this time with his shoulder. “Stay away from my wife, my daughter, and my nanny. Stay away from my parents, my in-laws, my friends, and colleagues. Stay away from my home and my city, Bruce.” He lost some more strength and Wayne was able to push his way free. Clark tried to grab hold of Wayne’s shoulders, but he felt too weak to push him aside, instead he fell to his knees, tearing the rich man’s jacket.
Lara was still screaming across the room in Penny’s arms. “Stop it! Bruce, stop it,” Penny yelled. “Please.”
Clark tied the cuffs of his jacket together, so Bruce was unable to move his arms, like he was in a strait-jacket. Then Clark collapsed, writhing on the floor.
Bruce looked over at Penny, pleading. “I would never… I was just… I’m stuck, Penny. I can’t reach my ring.”
“Here, let me…” she said coming out of the dining room.
Clark held up a hand to stop her. “Keep… Lara… away…”
Penny backed towards the kitchen, still holding the screaming Lara in her arms.
Bruce backed up towards the front door. “Clark, if I had known I never, ever would have come to your house. Please, believe me. I was trying to protect you. I want us to be friends. I want us to be able to work together.”
Clark glared at him. He sure had a funny way of showing it.
“Let Penny help me, so I can cover up the Kryptonite stone on my ring,” Bruce implored.
“No!... Penny… stay… away.” Clark groaned, kicking his legs at Wayne, but the man was able to leap aside. He had to keep his daughter away from the Kryptonite.
“Hold on! Hold on!” said Bruce. “I think I got… damn, the ring fell off my finger.” Bruce shook his hands, trying to get the sleeves to fall off his arms. He spun around in circles, he tried to hook the end on the doorknob, finally, he tried to catch the cuffs with his foot. As he pulled the sleeves of his jacket off his arms, causing the ring to go flying into the air, there was a screech of tires and a slamming door outside the townhouse.
“No!” Clark groaned. Not Lois!
Lois pushed open the cracked front door, hitting Bruce in the back. This caused him to fumble the Kryptonite ring in his outstretched hand.
“Clark!” she gasped running to him. The ring landed on the foyer floor next to them.
“Go! Save Lara,” he moaned, wincing from the pain.
Lois glanced up and saw Lara and Penny in the dining room. “Penny, take Lara upstairs away from all this. Then call my father and have him come over.”
Penny nodded and ran upstairs, carrying their daughter.
Lois kissed Clark on the cheek. “I’ll take care of Bruce, Clark.”
“No, Lois!” he groaned, knowing he would never be able to stop her. “You don’t know…”
Lois stood up and faced Bruce Wayne, pointing an outstretched finger in his face. “You brought poison into my house. Where my family eats and sleeps and lives and where my child plays. I don’t care how special you think you are or even what your motives are, you will be sorry you ever set foot in my house, near my child.”
Clark gazed at the ring a mere foot from his face. He took as deep a breath as he could manage and blew. The ring jiggled and slowly rolled another foot away from him, right next to Bruce.
Bruce Wayne lifted his foot above the ring. “Someone once told me that actions speak louder than words.”
“Stop!” Lois shouted, holding up her hands. “Men.” She shook her head before bending down to pick up the ring. “My child plays on this floor.” She held the Kryptonite ring in her palm, staring at it. Mesmerized.
Bruce took it and turning the top, caused a lead cover to shut out the Kryptonite radiation.
Clark collapsed onto the floor with relief. Still too weak to move, at least the thousands of invisible swords were no longer attacking him and the throbbing in his head had lessened. He watched as Wayne went to put the ring back on his finger. He wanted to stop him, or at least yell ‘no’, but his energy was still too drained, and he knew his murmured voice would not carry.
Lois punched the billionaire in the nose and held out her hand again. Not a karate chop, not a slap, a punch. And a good one at that. Clark was impressed.
Wayne nodded, rubbing his nose, acknowledging he deserved the hit, and handed her back the ring. Lois again stared for a moment at it in her palm, just as she had when she had picked it up from the floor. She had seen Kryptonite before, even held it in her hand. Why today did it cause this strange reaction in her? Was it because it had been fashioned into jewelry? Then, as if remembering herself, his wife ran outside and threw the ring into a passing garbage truck, making it into the back of the truck just as the compactor pressed down.
Lois returned inside. Clark had never seen her so livid and he had seen her angry more times than anyone else, even Perry. Mostly because her husband had been on the receiving end of that anger more than once. She stared at Bruce Wayne and pointed out the door.
Bruce took off what was left of his jacket and draped it over his arm. “I really am sorry, Lois. I’ll make it up to you and Clark, somehow.”
“Wait!” Clark mumbled from the floor, finally finding his voice and trying to push himself up to his elbow. “He has another piece.”
Wayne paused and turned around.
Lois stared at her husband, too. She was going to ask him how he knew this.
“He wears it around his neck in a lead vial,” whispered Clark.
Bruce held up his hands and Lois loosened the billionaire’s tie, popping open the neck of his shirt. He wasn’t wearing the vial necklace.
Lois crossed her arms and stared at him with a raised brow. “Well?”
Bruce shrugged sheepishly. “It’s with my other suit.”
Clark’s wife rolled her eyes and threw up her hands. “What? The one with the cape?” she said skeptically.
Clark heard a gasp from the stairs and saw Penny standing on the landing.
“I’ll leave it at home the next time I come to Metropolis,” suggested Bruce. This was this guy’s peace offering?
Clark pulled himself to his feet and Lois wrapped her arm around her husband’s waist to help him stay there. “You aren’t welcome in Metropolis, Wayne,” he said to the intruder in his home.
Penny ran down the stairs and up to them, staring Bruce Wayne in the eye. “Bruce, please. I’m begging you. Haven’t you put this family through enough?”
Bruce nodded. “I’ll leave it in the vault, where it will be safe. All right, Penny?”
Their nanny sighed in relief. “Thank you.”
Clark wondered how his nanny had a vested interest in all of this. Then he remembered the look in her eyes when she held his daughter earlier that day. Penny loved Lara; she wanted her kept safe.
Bruce gazed at Penny with such intensity that Clark wanted to step forward between them, protect her from that rodent, but Lois held him back. “Penny, you were heading to Gotham City to see your brother?”
Clark had completely forgotten about that. There was no way he could fly her now.
“Matthew Barnes is fine. A little concussion, a slight scratch on his forehead,” said Bruce to her. “I can give you a lift, Penny, if you still want to go and check on him. I happen to be flying that way.”
Penny turned to look at them, her eyes wide, anxious, nervous. Was she asking their permission?
“After all he’s done today, are you sure that’s what you want to do?” Lois asked their nanny. Clark had a strange feeling that his wife wasn’t talking about the flight. Poor Jimmy.
Penny smiled, glancing back at Bruce Wayne. “Okay.” She opened the closet, removing her purse and overnight bag. “Lara has stopped crying. Your father was out, Lois. I left a message on his answering machine to call you.”
“We’ll need you back by Monday morning,” Lois reminded her.
Penny nodded, gazing up at Bruce Wayne with admiration. The look made Clark feel sick to his stomach. He wondered what it was about the man that attracted her. Personally, he couldn’t see it. Some women just had bad taste in men, he guessed. But then he remembered Penny had admired Superman once, too. Maybe his nanny had a thing for men in capes. This thought brought a chuckle to his throat. Penny didn’t even know about Bruce’s cape.
Oh, wait. Clark glanced at his wife; Lois had mentioned something about Bruce’s cape. Did she know? Clark shook his head. When it came to superheroes, Lois was blind as a… chiropterid. Maybe it was petty, but Clark felt a mean little satisfaction in not telling her that he knew Bruce Wayne was Batman's true identity. After all, there was a whole lot his wife still wasn't telling him.
Nevertheless, Clark felt like he should warn his nanny away from Bruce, but it wasn’t his place and thankfully, not in his job description. Wayne kept telling him he was trying to do the ‘right thing’ and he did seem to be attempting to clean up Gotham City. Clark didn’t like his methods, but he couldn’t fault the man’s motivations.
Lois walked Clark over to the couch, before she kissed his cheek, murmuring, “I’m going to go check on Lara.” She turned with a glare at Bruce, waiting until he reached for the door before moving away from Clark. He leaned back as a smile tugged at his lips. His wife still hated Bruce. He had married one smart woman.
“I’m sorry,” Bruce said to him again. “I was only trying to help.”
“We don’t need your kind of help, Mr. Wayne,” Lois said from the base of the stairs. “Next time you want to visit, don’t.”
Bruce nodded, rubbing his nose. Clark thought Lois was lucky not to have broken it and ruined the man’s image, although he personally wished she had.
As they opened the door, Penny looked back at her employer almost with pity. Clark didn’t understand her. He could have sworn she was frightened of him at the newsroom this morning and now…? he shook his head.
“I’m sorry,” he heard her whisper and Clark wondered for what? For being afraid of him? Or for going off with the idiot who brought Kryptonite into his house?
Clark speculated what he had done to earn both her pity and her fear. Bringing Bruce to their house, perhaps? Or was it something else? He would have to have to have a meeting with the Bat one of these days and find out what exactly this afternoon had been about. He didn’t feel like talking it out at the moment. He just wanted the man out of his house.
“
Are you hungry?” Bruce asked Penny as they walked outside.
“
Famished.”
“
Do you like Chinese?”
“
Love it. Are you flying me to Beijing?”
Clark shook his head. That was a multi-hour flight via airplane.
Bruce chuckled. “
Ah, no. I’m not Superman.” He could say that again. “
But I know a great restaurant in Gotham City.”
“
Which one? Hunan Palace on Third or Ming Dynasty on Eighth or Zung Zu on Thirtieth and Elm?”
“
You are from Gotham City.” Clark could hear the admiration in Wayne’s voice. “
Ming Dynasty, if you must know…”
Clark stopped listening as Lois came down the stairs. “Lara’s fine. All that screaming has exhausted her and she’s asleep. Let me help you upstairs. You should really lie down.”
“I’m…” The word ‘fine’ died on his lips as he looked at his wife. Lois had showed no fear when dealing with Wayne. That man had been hurting her husband and her child and she had just ran in and took charge and saved the day, once again. She had even punched Wayne in the nose. How many times had she saved him, now? Clark felt lucky to have someone like her in his life. What had she said the other day? “
I just can’t stop loving you. I don’t know how.” He didn’t know how to stop loving her either.
“You’re what?” she asked, concern in her eyes.
Clark smiled. “You’re right, Lois, I should go lie down. Why don’t you help me upstairs?” Just gazing at Lois filled him with energy. She was his sunlight.
“My Dad could be here any minute…”
Damn! He forgot that she had asked Penny to call her father. He had no idea what the man could do for Lara, but it was probably best to have her vitals checked. “I’ll just change out…” He looked down at his brown suit.
Lois raised her brows. “Change?”
“Lois, I didn’t change into my blue suit.” He swallowed.
“No, you didn’t.” They stared at each other for a moment.
“I flew into the living room window in this suit,” he said, stating the obvious. He couldn’t believe he had made such a mistake. Lara had been in pain. Clark didn’t think, he just acted.
“Oopps.” Lois didn’t seem so surprised.
“That means that Penny and Bruce Wayne know I’m Superman. No more denials. No more cover-ups.”
She nodded. “Yep.”
“They both already knew, didn’t they?”
Lois nodded again. “They had their suspicions. I’m not worried about Penny, if she keeps her mouth shut, but do you think that Bruce will say anything? There’s something about that man that just gives me the willies.” She shivered. “Other than that stupid stunt he pulled today. I just can’t figure out his motives. Why is he so interested in you, us… Superman? Is his life that boring?”
Clark grinned, pushing himself to his feet. About as boring as theirs, he was tempted to say. “He won’t say anything,” he said instead.
Lois wrapped her arm around his waist. “How can you be sure? I don’t trust that man.”
Music to his ears. Clark pulled Lois to him and placed a soft kiss on her lips. That kiss set fire to his nerve endings. “Let’s just say, I’ve got something on him he doesn’t want revealed.”
“Newsworthy?”
“Definitely.”
“Blackmail, Clark? That doesn’t seem like you.”
He smiled at his wife; it was all he could do to stop himself from pulling her into another embrace. He didn’t want to talk, let alone think about Bruce Wayne. He wanted to wipe the man – everything – from his mind. All he really wanted to think about was her. This beautiful, strong-willed woman who had consented to be his wife. His body ached for her in a way he hadn’t allowed in a long time, too long.
“Not blackmail. More of a hot lead,” he replied. A hot lead that would never see the light of day.
Lois paused on the landing and waited.
“Speaking of hot leads…” Clark whispered in her ear. “Why don’t I float us up to bed?” Then he proceeded to kiss down her neck.
“Clark, if you think you can…” She swallowed. “… distract me...”
He kissed her lips, wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her tightly against him.
“Did you say float?” she whispered between his kisses.
“Uh-huh.”
Lois swallowed again. “As in float, float…”
He tried to hover them off the ground, but the Kryptonite exposure was still too recent. So, Clark lifted her into his arms instead, walking her up the stairs and setting her down outside their bedroom door.
“Clark! You’re still weak from the Kryptonite exposure,” she chastised him.
“You’re not an elephant, Lois. I can carry my wife easily, even while drained of super help.”
Lois cleared her throat. “Did you say something about floating?”
Clark pressed her against their bedroom door, kissing her. Did he really need to answer that question? He was pretty sure that Lois would have the ability to make him float even if he had been born on Earth to human parents.
Lois held her hand against his chest. “Are you sure, Clark? No teasing, this time? You really want me?” She looked at him unsure she could handle more rejection. He loved his wife and was embarrassed at how cruel he had been at times to her lately.
Again, he didn’t answer. Clark merely picked his wife up once more while he continued to kiss her. He carried her into the bedroom, shutting the door behind them.
Clark set her down on the bed and took a step back to spin out of his clothes. Before he could start spinning, Lois placed a hand on his shoulder and shook her head. “Here, let me.”
“My way is faster,” he murmured as she kissed him again.
“Faster isn’t always better, Clark,” she whispered with a slight smile as she untied his tie, tossing it on the chair.
“You are talking to the fastest man on Earth, Lois,” he replied as she tugged off his jacket.
A smile graced her lips. “Fast at some things, true, but not all things.”
He raised a curious eyebrow. At what things was he not fast? His wife kissed him again. Oh, right. He felt himself flush.
That. Yes, he did know how to enjoy and draw out every nanosecond of that. By the time she stepped back, his shirt was unbuttoned and had joined his jacket and tie on the chair. How had she done that? “Do you have super speed, Mrs. Kent?”
She grinned naughtily. “I have what I call super distraction.” Then she pushed him down onto the bed.
“That sounds interesting, tell me more,” he said, using one of his favorite interview lines. His shoes hit the floor.
“You’re supposed to be resting,” murmured his wife, motioning with her head that he should move more onto the bed.
“Right, rest.” Clark scooted up more onto the bed until his head was lying on the pillows.
“Super distraction goes hand in hand with super determination,” Lois informed him crawling onto the bed and on top of him. He liked the way her mind was going.
“Uh-huh.” He mumbled as she kissed him, her chest pinning his to the bed. He liked those super qualities, so far. Her hands caressed up his body and then down his arms to his hands. She pulled him into a sitting position and then wrapped her legs around him. When he next opened his eyes, he saw a flash of red float through the air. She had taken off his cape. She was good at that super distraction ability.
Next came his suit pants. Lois grinned at him. Now, he was down to his blue suit and red… okay, just the blue suit. He liked what she was doing to him. Slow was delightful. Super enjoyable.
Lois lay down next to him, so he had to turn to face her. She kissed every spot on his face and then worked down his neck. Before he knew it, he could feel her tugging on the sleeve of his suit. He hadn’t even felt her unzip his suit. Magic fingers.
A window in his mind opened a sliver. Doubt entered. How had she become so talented at removing his suit?
“Do you need some help?” he whispered between her kisses. He didn’t really want to help. He loved what Lois was doing to him. He tried not to think about the doubt that was tugging on his mind. He only wanted to think about his wife and what she was doing to him. He tried not to think that she had done this same thing with the other Clark.
But there it was: full blown doubt. Was Lois thinking about the other Clark or was she thinking of her husband? He should have taken off the suit himself. It was too late now.
She pulled him back into a sitting position and sat down on his lap again. He liked that part. Her kisses went down from his neck now, his shoulder, his pecs, his… Clark swallowed. His stomach.
“Lois, I don’t know if I can…” Clark’s eyes opened. He had to look at her, convey his true feelings.
Lois was gone. He was alone in the room and lying naked on the bed. “Lois?” He felt very exposed and wrapped himself in the comforter. “Lois?” Had she thought he was being cruel? Had she thought he was teasing her? Had she noticed his indecision?
Clark loved Lois. He wasn’t trying to be cruel. He hadn’t been teasing her. He wanted his wife. He wanted to make love to her, but now he wasn’t sure that he could.
He heard a sound coming from the hallway. Wrapped in the comforter, he walked down the hall to Lara’s room. From the doorway, he saw his wife watching their daughter sleep.
“Everything all right?” he asked.
“Can you hear her heart beating?” she whispered, catching his eye. “Does it sound normal to you?”
Lois wasn’t thinking of the other Clark. She was worried about their daughter. Clark’s heart filled with love for his family. His wife. His daughter.
“It’s so strong I could hear it all the way from the other room,” he told her.
“That’s more your hearing than her heart, Clark.” She smiled at him indulgently. “Do you think she’ll be okay?”
Clark walked up next to her and wrapped her inside his arms within the comforter. Even fully clothed, she felt good against his bare skin. “The exposure is the worst part, Lois. All that crying, plus the relief from the pain being gone, she’ll be out for a while.”
Lois raised a brow at him. “One track mind, much.”
“Hey, you’re the one who took off my clothes,” he reminded her. That window was now firmly shut; the doubt gone. He loved his wife and he was going to show her how much.
She grinned, wrapping her arms around his waist. “I admit I liked having you at a disadvantage. The super spin can take away some of the fun for me. Next time, though, don’t wear so many layers.”
He chuckled.
Next time, he liked the sound of that.
Lois turned around. Kissing her fingers, she transferred the kiss to her daughter’s cheek. Then she rested her hand on her daughter’s tummy. “I love you, baboo. I’m glad you’re okay.” Taking Clark’s hand, Lois led him out of the room and shut the door behind them.
“Are you mad at me?” Clark whispered, unsure at why she had left their bedroom so abruptly. Had she sensed his doubt? Heard his hesitation?
Lois cupped his jaw in her hand. “Of course not. Why would I be?”
“You left… me naked…” he stammered. Oh, why had he brought this up? “… in the bedroom.”
His wife smiled, holding up a bottle of lotion. “I thought you would like a backrub.”
“You don’t have to pamper me to get me to love you, Lois. And you don’t have to make pasta every night for dinner, either.”
“Who me?” Lois innocently batted her eyelashes. “You noticed that, huh?”
Clark wrapped her in his comforter embrace again, kissing her. “That’s what I get for telling you what pasta does to me.”
“Come on, Superman. First one to the bedroom gives the first backrub,” she teased.
“You’re on!” replied Clark, disappearing into their room.
He heard Lois laugh as she slowly entered their bedroom and shut the door behind her. She leaned against the doorframe and grinned.
Clark was already lying underneath the comforter on his stomach. “Where have you been, Honey? I’m ready for my backrub.”
His wife tossed him the bottle of lotion. “We should have Dr. Klein check your hearing. I said the
first one to the bedroom
gives the first backrub, Clark. You can start with my shoulders.”
Lois started to unbutton her blouse and he decided giving her a backrub might not be so bad of an idea after all. Skin against skin. Rubbing. Heating. His imagination went wild.
Clark crawled over to her at the edge of the bed. “Faster isn’t always better, huh?” Then he proceeded to show her how slow, gentle, and loving he could be.
***The End of Chapter 9***
Continued in Chapter 10 – Full Circle Comments
