"Your secret's safe with me, Oliver." Lois whispered to her rescuer. And then she kissed him.

She knew immediately that something wasn't quite right. This wasn't Oliver. Oliver was a fantastic kisser, but he had a tendency to use just a tad too much tongue for her taste. This man... well, his kiss was just out of this world, gentle but expressing a passion that set her heart racing. If Lois had been the type of girl to swoon, she just might have in the arms of this mystery man, this Green Arrow. But Lois was NOT the type of girl to swoon. She pulled back from the embrace.

"You're not--" she began. "That's a helluva thank you," said the voice of Oliver Queen, her boyfriend. Oh god. Could this night get any weirder? Lois did the only thing she could to resolve the situation. She slapped the hooded man in front of her as hard as she could.

Lois looked apologetically at Oliver, but a sudden sound distracted her. She turned her head just in time to see the mysterious stranger disappear in a sudden flash of superhuman speed.

"Did you just call him Oliver?" Ollie asked her. Oh no. This was SO awkward! "It was, uh... just a hunch," Lois said by way of explanation.

It had been a week since that impassioned- and ill-advised- kiss in the back alley, and Lois Lane simply couldn't get it out of her head.

She was lying in her bed in the Talon apartment. It was five-thirty a.m. and she had just woken from a dead sleep, that she couldn't seem to sink back into. Because she was thinking about HIM. The Green Arrow. It was so strange! So unlike her to even be awake this early in the morning, let alone completely conscious and unable to fall asleep again!

Lois shook her head. What was wrong with her? She was acting completely out of character. Lois Lane was NOT the damsel in distress who lay weeping at night because she needed some MAN to fill an emptiness in her life. Lois Lane was a strong, independent woman who didn't need ANYONE, man or not.

But the Green Arrow's kiss had created in her a deep longing she simply didn't understand. She knew she had had boyfriends who would have KILLED to have her feeling the way she did right now. But nothing they had done had touched this place in her, whereas a simple KISS from this guy...

"Ugh, what am I DOING?" she groaned out loud. "I swore- very publicly, too- to unmask this guy. I made a point of getting on his bad side! But he's got me sighing after him like some kind of sad little schoolgirl! Next thing you know, I'll be hanging around rooftops, hoping to see him!"

Lois formed a quiet resolution not to go on a roof until this Green Arrow guy got what was coming to him. After all, he WAS a criminal...

Three nights later found Lois on the roof of the Daily Planet, gazing out across the city.

"Your secret's safe with me, Oliver," Lois whispered in his ear. And then she kissed him.

For the barest second, all of Clark's inhibitions rose up to surround him and he held back. This was LOIS, for god's sake, his FRIEND! And she was dating another close friend of his. This wasn't right, it wasn't...

And then suddenly, it didn't matter. Because Lois was, simply put, an AMAZING kisser. He experienced a rush of joy unlike anything he had ever felt before. His last coherent thought was that this was FAR better than kissing Lana ever had been, and then he lost himself in the kiss.

But suddenly Lois was pulling away. "You're not--" she said. "That's a helluva thank you," Oliver said. Oh god. Oliver! How the hell would he explain this? Oh well. Right now was NOT the time to try. In a burst of superspeed, he dashed to the end of the alley.

Leaning up against the wall, out of sight, he peeled back the hood and slipped off his darkened glasses. He was gasping, but it couldn't be from the superspeed. He'd barely exerted himself. So why... No, that was a stupid question. It was because of Lois. A small smile crept across his face...

"Sorry, man. About last week I mean. It was totally... I really shouldn't have kissed her back. And I'm also sorry I haven't had a chance to call you since then. It's been a crazy week on the farm. Anyway, just call me back when you get this message." Clark snapped his cell phone shut.

The truth was, he hadn't called Ollie to apologize this week, not because of an overload of work, but because he didn't want to lie to him. And if he had told Ollie that he was sorry for kissing Lois before today, he wouldn't have meant it.

But after a week, it was getting old, dreaming about that moment every night, feeling the touch of her lips every time his mind wandered. If he could take back the moment, he would. Because just a simple kiss had somehow bewitched him far more than ANYTHING Lana had ever done.

Lois Lane had hooked him. She occupied some corner in the back of his mind at all times now. How had this happened? They'd been friends for almost three years now. Had he really never had feelings for her before now? Or had he been blinded by his love for Lana that he had simply... never noticed?

But that didn't seem possible. Because if he was really honest with himself, he... No. He wouldn't allow himself to complete that thought. It was too... Too what? Too ridiculous? Too impossible?

Twenty minutes later, Clark lost the battle in his head. He gave in and whispered the words that had been resounding in his head for some time. "I'm in love with Lois Lane." And he smiled...

To be continued...