It had been soft, and addictive in texture, as he had explained to her. Because she had been smirking at him in an entirely too smug way, as if she knew the magical properties of her hair and the way they'd affect him.
She probably did, the witch.
He'd found himself married to her about an year later. Though he wasn't sure how marrying her had fit into his grand scheme of rising from lower than middle-class to being the CEO of a company that he knew would eventually make millions; billions, even. She was good at playing the pretty society wife. Because she was good at everything she put her hand to, and for him, she had been willing.
He never pondered too long on why or how. It made him think uncomfortable thoughts that involved morals and goodness. He'd learned a long time before he'd even met her that a conscience was a roadblock in the way of success.
Now he wonders when his son will learn this. Because though he had bent himself for Lillian, he had kept his mind straight for the important things, like corporate business affairs. His Lex did not seem to be succeeding in this concept of separation between mind and heart.
"Too emotional," he'd told the boy, tapping a foil against his lean chest to make the point. But his Lex had been too consumed in anger.
And Lionel knew that when his son wasn't consumed in anger, it was some other strong emotion due to human interaction. His son was like his mother, good at everything he put his mind to, and too passionate in doing so.
It worried Lionel. Because somewhere in the back of his mind, was a father who looked at his son and wondered when his Lex would reach out to touch the curl of hair that fell down the Kent boy's forehead.
And discover how soft it was.
The first time he let himself reach out and stroke the lock of fierce red that fell down the side of her face, he'd been shocked.
Take the relationship between Lex and the Kent boy who saved him. Kent boy wasn't really a Kent and he was a little special--Lionel remembered the day of the meteor shower and it had been the little Kent boy that had put Lex to sleep in his arms. He'd also apparently saved Lex from drowning in his car the first day in the small town. An overt show of gratitude, Lionel could understand, having dealt with the Kent family Kansas-farm-grown-whole-some attitude and the town's hostility to anything Luthor that he himself was responsible for.
But Lex seemed to have invested entirely too much in the small town, not just the Kent family.