Chapter Text
TITLE: In the Hothouse 1/3
PAIRING: Clark/Bruce
AUTHOR: Whiteroses77 (Whiterose)
RATING: Adult
WORD COUNT: 2,630
DISCLAIMER: I only own the story.
SUMMARY: A charity event hosted by Bruce goes awry, all the guests are affected by an amorous attack, but how will it affect Clark and Bruce.
~B~
He moved around the function room as if he was a master of ceremonies crossed with a professional escort. He was happy to sponsor the charity event – Time to Care. The gimmick of the party was that every guest had to donate their watch; nobody was allowed to leave with their timepieces. Everyone was in his or her finery. He introduced people of influence to other people of influence. Before the night, he had played them against each other so they all wanted to one-up the man next to them, and show up wearing their most impressive and expensive watch so therefore showing the amount of generosity they cared to bestow by giving it up. He buttered them up, convincing the wealthy elite to make an even greater donation and part with their money as well. He sipped at his champagne flute and watched with pride as his scheming worked. Most here weren’t bothered about the unfortunates in society, but they were bothered about proving who was richer, with how much they could spend on something as simple as a watch, and how they were willing to throw it into the figurative charity bucket.
He moved on to the next group, and he smiled at the pretty young blonde thing on Sam Ford’s arm, he wasn’t sure if she was the business tycoon’s lady friend or one of his daughters, neither would surprise him. The interested smile he received in return, didn’t tell him anything either. Anyway, the truth wouldn’t change what he was there to do. His objective was the same. He offered his hand, and she placed her perfectly manicured hand in his. Bruce traced his finger over her palm, she giggled at the tickle, and then Bruce deftly unfastened the clasp on her diamond encrusted watch. He slipped it away, then an attendant appeared beside him, and Bruce handed over the generous donation.
Sam and the other men in their group chuckled, and then gave up their timepieces without the seductive approach. After chatting for a minute, he moved on.
The next pampered princess that he came across eyed him daringly, then he spotted her time piece and understood, it was a delicate filigree and jewel design, and it was placed as a necklace around her svelte neck. He leered and then hovered around her, and he lightly caressed her neck as he unhooked the clasp. As he did, his gaze found two new guests entering the function room. He smiled towards the handsome looking pair. The two dapper journalists looked around the room. The classic little black dress adorned brunette’s eyes searched the crowds; the lady was certainly looking for a juicier story than a charity do. Her tuxedo wearing companion’s gaze found his straightaway, and Bruce smiled over the top of slim shoulders. He caressed them again, and murmured into her ear, “Excuse me; I have some more marks to target.”
Then he slipped away, with the necklace in his hand and headed for the journalists. As he approached, he said, “Hands up and give me your valuables.”
The pair rolled their eyes together, met each other’s gaze, and smirked. He leaned in and kissed the beautiful brunette’s cheek, “It’s nice to see you Lois.”
Lois Lane grinned, “You seem to be making a killing.” She said motioning to the necklace held in his hand.
He smiled in return, “Well it was a great idea.”
“If you do say so yourself huh?” she goaded playfully.
He shrugged, and then glanced at their companion, “Except it wasn’t my idea. Was it Clark?”
Clark’s eyes smiled through the lenses of his black framed glasses. He said, “I’m glad it’s working out.”
Both men reached out, and shook hands. As his sleeve rode up, Lois spotted the watch Clark was wearing. She decried, “What is that?”
Her partner licked his lips nervously, and admitted, “Bruce let me borrow one of his old ones, for the donation.”
“That’s cheating.” Lois accused.
Bruce revealed, “I wasn’t going to let him arrive with his normal watch on, Lois.”
“Why…?” she asked obtusely.
Clark began to speak but Bruce spoke first, “His usual one belonged to his dad, I’d never ask him to give it up.”
Lois closed her mouth and looked suitably contrite, and then she shrugged. “Well now at least I don’t feel so guilty.” She unfastened her own watch, and handed it over. She shrugged again, saying frankly, “Probably get better in a cracker jack box.”
He knew Lois’s bank balance would be pennies compared to the other guests, he soothed, “It all helps.”
Then he turned to Clark. The man, whose idea spawned the event, offered his wrist. Bruce grinned and teased him, “You want the treatment.” He took his hand and then went to bow his head to kiss his hand, holding his gaze playfully.
Clark blinked slowly through his lenses, and then shook his head and uttered, “Just get the watch already.”
Bruce chuckled, he straightened up, and then he said, “Hold this.” placing Lois’s watch and the necklace into Clark’s free hand to free his own. Then he began undoing Clark’s watch.
Lois squinted at the necklace curiously, and asked, “Sheesh are those rubies on there?”
He felt a shudder go through Clark that ended at the wrist that Bruce was holding. Then he heard a soft drawl, “Hmm they’re definitely not rubies.”
Bruce glanced up at the tone in his voice. He saw Clark’s chest rising and falling faster, and he saw a sneaking curl of his full lips appear. “You wanna tell her or shall I that her sugar daddy’s a cheap skate, huh?”
He met his gaze and saw contained fire in those eyes. Bruce’s pulse tripled with dreadful realisation. He sensed Lois’s frame stiffening beside them, and he knew she understood too. The red jewels were really red poison. He tried for smooth control, he finished releasing Clark’s watch, and then casually he reached for the necklace to retrieve it.
They both held it in their grasp, neither willing to let go. Bruce uttered, “You don’t really want this.”
Untamed eyes looked over Bruce’s whole form palpably, and caused his pulse to ratchet up another notch. Clark murmured provokingly, “What do I get instead, Bruce?”
He recognised the utter unadorned craving revealed in that gaze, and it stirred something up inside Bruce, but it was something that couldn’t be acted upon. It was something raw that he had to protect the people here from. He licked his lips, glanced at Lois nervously and then tried to pull the necklace from his grasp again. Clark’s grasp was unyielding as he murmured, “I think I should hang on to this.”
He understood how Clark must’ve been feeling under the effects of what was essentially his drug of choice, the one thing that could affect his judgement and make him feel great at the same time, but abstinence was the only way. Bruce stepped in closer, he uttered, “Clark look at me.”
Defiantly, Clark rolled his eyes and looked away; they were keen and searching for intrigue of some kind. Bruce reached up and cupped his cheek, and guided his face back to him. Clark locked gazes with him intensely, and then Bruce said quietly but seriously, “Give me it back.”
Clark breathed through his nose, his nostrils flaring, his eyes gleamed at his demand, and then he slowly lifted his fingers away and released the necklace. Bruce nodded with relieved satisfaction, and backed off a step. Then he caught the attention of an attendant, and delivered all three watches to him. He returned his gaze to Clark. Clark was breathing shakily; the effects of instant cold turkey must be devastating.
Then a few moments later, he was fine again, back to normal. Bruce and Clark gazed at each other a long moment with understanding there of the situation that just occurred and more.
Then he suggested, “I’ve got to continue my rounds. I’ll catch up with you later.”
Clark nodded, and then glanced to Lois, who was looking concerned and relieved at the same time. Bruce walked away then, relieved too that he had managed to avert a situation, his own pulse returning to normal. He had to forget what he had seen in Clark’s eyes, and get on with the event.
~*~
The rest of the night went well, the donation bucket was overflowing, and the wealthy guests didn’t even care to acknowledge how much their donations were actually worth. A watch was a watch to them, to the people the charity would help; it was food, shelter, and the basics of living.
He’d stepped up to the podium to make a quick thank you speech, when he noticed a trail of attendants carrying in what looked like bouquets of flowers. Seconds later, the guests noticed them too, and began clapping, thinking they were thank you gifts from Bruce himself. As the attendants gave the flowers out, Bruce’s gaze found Clark’s across the function room. Clark mouthed, “This you?”
Bruce shook his head in the negative.
He saw Clark take a controlled breath, and Bruce began to feel the concern that was shown on Clark’s face. He began moving down from the podium to investigate. As he reached and began moving through the crowd, he now noticed that the red poppy like flowers weren’t cut, they were living plants still in pots. “Shit.” he cursed under his breath, his instincts already firing.
Then suddenly, the poppies began spitting out spores, and everyone was dotted with them, Bruce included. He felt dazed and sleepy, and he slowly collapsed to the floor. His last thought was, ‘I hope Clark gets us out of this.’
~*~
He awoken slowly, and felt heavy headed. He glanced around the function room, and saw many people just now awakening like him. He felt as drugged as he probably was, his eyes closed again but they were opened again quickly, by the sensation of being touched. He saw the lady friend of Sam Ford reaching for him, and caressing his shirt covered chest. She smiled sultrily as he met her gaze, and then she scooted around the floor closer to him. She murmured enticingly, “I’ve always wondered about you Bruce.”
There was an atmosphere of debauchery surrounding him, inside and out, and he returned with a leer, “Does Sam know about that?”
She chuckled, “I don’t think Sam cares about that at the moment.”
Bruce’s gaze found Sam Ford not too far away, more than distracted by an attractive but older blonde woman that was on par with his own age. Bruce wondered, “Who’s that?”
She continued rubbing Bruce’s chest, and revealed, “Sam introduced us earlier, said she was an old friend from his college days.”
It appeared old Sam Ford still had a thing for his old love. Bruce returned his glazed eyes to the young woman who was getting a little closer. He smiled and whispered, “I think we should get off the floor.”
As he began the attempt to lift up, another feminine hand pressed him back down to the floor. He chuckled lazily as he saw it was the lady with the necklace watch. He watched her straddle him, felt her press down against his growing interest. He smirked at her, until he remembered about the jewels on her necklace, then he remembered the look in Clark Kent’s eyes. He turned his whole body over on the floor, and he scanned the room urgently. He saw two familiar figures still on the floor across the room, almost struggling in each other’s arms. Bruce’s eyes widened at the sight. He pushed up from the floor, but his two temptresses grasped him and pulled him down. With frustration, his gaze found his target again, and saw the couple had got to their feet. Clark held Lois in his arms. Then as if sensing he was being watched Clark glanced around the room at him. Under his gaze, Bruce squirmed at his two sirens touch. Then he watched as Clark took a heaving breath before speeding away with Lois in his arms.
The two women’s lips met his neck, and he groaned with unbidden arousal. His mind was trying to deal with the idea that somehow Clark had been affected by the spores too, and that he had disappeared into the night with Lois. His mind struggled with that thought. After seeing the desire in Clark’s eyes earlier, in his intense state of libidinousness he was spurned by the lack of Clark’s focus on him. As his bow tie was released from its bow, his mind returned to Sam Ford and his college friend’s ember kindled passion. He knew the spores were causing people's long held desires to come to the fore.
His body recoiled from the attentions of the women that he had no real interest in. He struggled and he pulled away from the beautiful women, and he dragged himself to his feet with brute determination. He saw in his peripheral vision that the spores had affected everyone in the room. He found his balance, just as he saw across the room, Clark blur back into sight. They locked gazes and Bruce saw the primal need in Clark’s eyes through his lenses, saw a predatory curl of his lip. Bruce’s pulse raced with fear and something else. He glanced around the orgy of people on the function room floor. His eyes darted back to Clark as he took a prowling stepped towards Bruce’s direction. God this was so wrong he knew it. He saw Clark’s focus land on the women trying to seduce him; he saw his eyes light up, not green with jealousy but fiery red and dangerous.
He had to get them both away from the people here. He side stepped the pawing hands of the women at his feet. Then like a jack rabbit, he set off running, around the heaps of people, down the length of the room, towards some standing pink marble pillars. His breath coming hard, he hid behind one, and breathed deeply.
He couldn’t see him but he sensed Clark stalking him slowly.
He closed his eyes, and licked his lips; goose bumps appeared on his skin. He knew he needed to do something…
As Clark’s broad shoulder came into view around the pillar, Bruce reached out and grasped him, and swung him around, and pulled him in.
As he found him there, waiting for him, Clark’s eyes widened behind his lenses of his black framed glasses. Then his hands came up, and pressed against the pillar, enclosing Bruce in between them, trapping him. Clark stepped into his personal space, and uttered in a playful drawl, “You trying to get away from me, Bruce.”
His behaviour mimicked the effects of red K, it seemed more than just the spores. Trying to keep control of the situation, he uttered back, “Not at all.”
Clark’s eyes gleamed amber for a second, and then he leaned in and breathed against his cheek, Bruce breathed shakily, as Clark murmured, “I know what you want baby.”
His chest heaved, he and Clark had always been truthful with each other, he couldn’t lie to him now, but he couldn’t admit it either. He stayed silent instead.
Clark breathed noisily, barbed by impatience. “You telling me you wanted those women instead?”
He shook his head mutely.
Clark licked his teeth, and smiled cockily, “I know.”
To be continued