kitten
5th October 2005, 21:49
Sugar Burns Blue
NC-17
Spoilers: Everything up to Arrival, season five, episode one.
Disclaimer: Smallville does not belong to me. If it did, it would be porn. Not the really nasty animal porn, but filthy, amoral smut nonetheless. And the wardrobe budget for Michael Rosenbaum would be the cost of condoms and a warm bathrobe. But I digress.
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A/N: Post Arrival one-shot. What it means to let Lex take you home. I’m not quite clear on the sequence of events from Commencement to Arrival, but I believe it’s all the same day. I’ve assumed so here. Sex, language, general malfeasance warnings.
Dedicated ecstatically to Cranky Chick's return from the corporate no man's land.
Sugar Burns Blue
“Purpose of travel?”
Chloe wasn’t sure how to answer that, considering the incongruous couple she made with Lex. He was dressed in a designer suit pressed beyond any probable wrinkling, and she was wearing the dusty casual clothes she had on when she rolled on the floor of a cave and in the snow. Business wasn’t believable. Pleasure was pushing it, according to her visibly frostbitten face and hands.
“Took a wrong turn at Albuquerque,” she quipped to the security guard holding her passport open at her photo.
Lex cleared his throat and smiled at her, preparing to finesse things.
“Canadian diamonds,” he said. “And I’m afraid we spent a few too many hours enjoying the snow.”
He put his arm around Chloe to give the impression of a romance and stroked a thumb very gently over her reddened cheek. She froze and marveled at how easily the man took it in and believed it. The obvious age difference, her sullen demeanor and the awkward affection should have tipped him off, but maybe he didn’t care. Maybe Luthor money had already papered the airport and covered any problems.
It was rather pointless to wonder, she thought. Getting back to Smallville was a priority and Lex was getting her there faster than any commercial flight could. The moment her name had been registered at the hospital he had been on his way to get her.
He draped a parka over her shoulders for the short walk to the jet, but he didn’t put one on. Either they were short one coat or he was in a macho mood. It seemed like the latter, and she only reinforced it when her shoes refused to keep purchase on the tarmac. The clasp of his arm around her body was helpful but pushy. He held her hand as she climbed the stairs, and only let go when she was inside and handing the jacket to a flight attendant.
The three flight attendants were typical for Lex, tall brunettes with breasts straining their uniforms. At least their manners were restrained, and none of them offered him a welcome to the plane kiss. They were even polite to Chloe, her status as a prisoner notwithstanding.
She wasn’t being escorted in wrist and ankle chains, and any threat was delivered solely by the blue-grey eyes on her. Her day had dragged on too long to cause trouble just to prove he didn’t scare her.
The cabin was massive and plush, with expensive leather on the seats and buttery suede on the two bolted down sofas. Everything was creamy coloured, even the light pine wood. There were end tables flanking the sofas, and a coffee table in the middle. It reeked of money spent tastefully on quality, custom fittings. In Air Force One style, a full-size desk took up one of the rounded corners, overlooking the rest of the cabin. Anyone who spent more than ten minutes with Lex could have imagined it exactly. All cool precision and nothingness, it suited the image he put out and gave no hint of humanity.
Since Lex was being a gentleman for the moment, Chloe stepped in first and settled into one of the seats. One of the amazons offered her a drink and she looked to Lex before she answered. He gave her a nod with an edge of mockery. For the moment she was a guest, entitled to the courtesy of his staff.
“No thank you,” she said, and the attendant moved on to Lex, who had sat on one of the sofas nearest Chloe.
“Mineral water,” he said, as calmly as if he was at a charity dinner. The trio of beauties disappeared after he had his drink, probably to touch up the the makeup they wore thick as spackle, the blond thought cattily.
She couldn’t distract herself with her surroundings anymore and looked at him from under her lashes. Sometime in the last year Lex had crossed a bridge and burned it behind himself. He no longer wanted the things he had been quietly pleading for from the Kents and Lana. It wasn’t his objective to be someone’s friend, brother or son. He wanted everything his own way, and he was powerful enough to insist upon it.
He was dangerous to anyone who defied him, and smoothly charming to those who would help him. She had been bumped to the top of one of those lists.
Lex would use their history to get to her, and that was a vulnerability. A year ago she had been under his protection and Chloe had no illusions that her survival was due to the FBI’s efforts. Lex Luthor had extended his influence and made it known that his interests were in keeping her alive and well. Her instincts at the time had told her he sincerely wanted to protect her, but she had also felt he was proving something more than his willingness to help.
Lionel was the great evil in his son’s eyes, and his actions dictated all of Lex’s decisions. Everything Lionel did was countered by the exact opposite counterattack from his eldest offspring. When his father declared war on her, she had known her staunchest defender by default. Lex got the tactical advantage and the moral high ground. It must have been very gratifying for him.
But gratitude faded, and their association dwindled. He was busy and she had been in turmoil over Clark’s secret. Chloe didn’t regret knowing, because she wouldn’t have been able to stop looking. She’d been a target before, for the same reason. It was comforting to finally know that reason.
She hadn’t decided never to reveal him, or set limits to how much help she would offer in concealing his abilities. Clark was as distant as Lex, she just ran into him more often at school. Her entire life was in transition until events forced her hand.
“There are painkillers if you need them,” Lex offered.
Chloe shook her head mutely. She met his eyes with reserve and kept it up until he looked away, ducking his chin to the side.
“Tell me what happened, Chloe,” he coaxed. “I can figure out most of it on my own. You didn’t walk to the Yukon, and neither did Clark.”
You’re right, it was more of a brisk run, she thought.
“I’m not easily intimidated,” she told him. “If your father couldn’t break me when I was younger and more rattled, you certainly won’t do it.”
The cocky words were placid and without smugness. They both knew it was the truth. She might need to fear him, but she didn’t.
“So, we’ll negotiate,” Lex said, sipping his drink. “What do you want?”
Chloe really thought about the question and smiled wryly.
“I’m not sure anymore. There was a time when I wanted Clark. I’m over that. Money doesn’t work. Lionel tried. Some days all I really want is a normal life, and no one can give me that.”
He leaned back and smiled lightly.
“I might. Perhaps not your own life, but a normal one. Your father, your cousins, any other family. It’s not too late.”
She shook her head. “No, it is. The only thing you can offer for my cooperation is a partnership with you, and I’m not sure that’s worth anything.”
Lex frowned and the jet shuddered as it rolled out. They sat silently through takeoff and stared at each other across the small space.
“You used to trust me,” he said. There was something underneath the words that made him sound like he was taking it personally.
“I don’t trust anyone the way I used to, even my father,” Chloe said. “You can appreciate that. Everyone has an agenda. The trick is aligning yourself with someone who has similar goals for a brief time, then getting away from them before they turn on you.”
He pulled in a lungful of air and held it, exhaling slowly.
“The cynical young journalist,” he mocked. “How original.”
She swiveled her seat toward the windows and looked out deliberately. “I don’t need extra points for style.”
Her body ached all over, the result of Clark’s super speed as much as being dropped in the snow. There was nothing to be done for it, so she endured it with his intrusive gaze. Lex was quiet and she decided to put her seat back and sleep. It reclined flat and she stretched out with a sigh.
Chloe was drifting with the hum of the engines when someone took off her sneakers, making her jolt up. Lex had perched on the arm of the sofa and he was running his fingers over her toes like a xylophone.
“What are you doing?”
He gripped her ankle tightly when she levered herself up, and pulled off her sock.
“I’m checking you for frostbite,” he said sarcastically. “What else would I be doing?”
Narrowed green eyes fixed on him taking off her other sock.
“You’re trying to use sex as leverage to make me tell you what I know,” she said. “I don’t appreciate it, and it won’t work. Go fuck one of your sky whores.”
He smirked and strolled away, his steps taking him over to the desk and to the windows behind her back. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of acting jittery about it. Instead Chloe put her socks back on and closed her eyes again.
Lex’s chuckle behind her was too near, but she ignored him. He was looming over her but he wasn’t going to win that way.
“Maybe I want more than a fuck,” he said. “Have you ever thought I might want you?”
“I’m not going to let you stick it to me because it suits you, Lex. Dumb blond is just an expression.”
Her peaceful, superior smile grated on his nerves and he yanked on her seat belt, fastening it over her body and across both elbows. Chloe gasped and fought too late to do any good. She struggled futilely for few more seconds, then stopped, putting on a brave face.
“This isn’t ConAir, and you can’t keep me strapped down the entire flight.”
She looked at him and her voice took on a patronizing tone she’d learned from his father.
“Spiteful childish gestures only make you look weaker,” she said, and the words made him clench his mouth shut for a long moment. When he pasted on a smile it was nasty and cold.
“Reverse psychology doesn’t work on me, and I can keep you strapped down the rest of your life if I choose. You’re clever and not bad to look at, but your small amount of power won’t take you very far.”
Lex walked to the side of her seat and leaned down until he was right above her face.
“Everyone knows my bad luck with airplanes. I could have us land and torch the jet, then go deliver the tragic news of your death to your father. If I give myself a few noble wounds and take a few minutes to formulate a poignant heroic act, he’d probably give me a big hug and thank me.”
His twist of seductive smile caused her to snarl at him.
“We could spend the rest of our lives together, no one the wiser, no one butting in to ‘save’ you from me,” Lex whispered. “Because we both know you don’t need a hero.”
A flicker of something like shock ran through her before she swallowed audibly. “You’re repeating yourself. We already faked my death. And frankly, the domination act isn’t working for me. So let me up.”
His hand closed over her breast roughly and she was mortified. Her nipples were hard, and the arched eyebrow he gave her was speculative.
“It’s not working?”
“I just got out of the hospital with frostbite,” she bit out. “I’m a bit chilled. Don’t add my notch to your belt.”
He let her go and walked back to the sofa, sitting down and picking up his mineral water. She didn’t feel any safer for the distance.
“I’ll make a deal with you, Chloe. If you can look me in the eye and tell me honestly - without any doubts - your loyalty is for Clark, I’ll stop trying to win you over.”
He relaxed into the suede and ran his free hand idly over the curved arm. She could lie to him, but he would know. Lex always knew when she was lying, and Clark raised a lot of doubt in her mind. There was only one other person she wondered about more. She turned her head, stared at him and spoke.
“My loyalty is something different every day, and some days it’s entirely absent. I don’t see why I owe you answers.”
Chloe shifted around and stared out the window, ignoring the shuffled noises of his approach. He was toying with her, and she was tired of not being taken seriously.
The lightest touch to her sore chin, and Lex turned her back to look up at him. “Many people would say saving your life makes us connected,” he pointed out. “Folklore and mythology says you belong to me now.”
She rolled her eyes. “Convenient after not speaking for half of 2004. You’re not superstitious, Lex. ”
His hand wrapped around hers and the other one kept touching her face, running over her frostbite and tickling across her nose. His expression was almost loving and she blushed.
“I’m a lot of things you don’t know,” he said, and suddenly switched both of his hands to her breasts, rubbing her nipples deliberately. “Funny, you don’t feel cold anymore. Your face is nice and pink. Your skin is almost hot.”
He kissed her cheek and Chloe gritted her teeth. She wasn’t immune to Lex’s attractive facade. Physically he was beautiful. He flicked her nipples expertly and they ached.
“It doesn’t mean anything. You of all people should know sex is transferable. You’ve got the right parts and you’re the right age. The body doesn’t discriminate.”
Both of his hands cupped her face and he looked into her eyes. He pecked her lips and Chloe tensed all over.
“Some things are very different between one person and another,” he corrected. “No one has a mouth like yours.”
Lex ran his tongue over her lips leisurely, and she held her mouth tightly closed. He lapped at the corners and Chloe jerked her hips involuntarily. Her body knew who he was but it didn’t care. Mindless impulses wanted him, her pride be damned. Her pride had something to say about that, but he was too close to open her mouth safely, so she glared.
“You’re not too good for me,” Lex said confidently. “I don’t think you believe you are. I can see all the nasty little thoughts you’re having, but deep down . . . “
His right hand ran all the way down her body and pushed between her legs. He smirked and kneaded her as her hands fumbled to stop him.
“Fuck, Lex!”
He devoured her mouth and Chloe gasped. She had done exactly what he expected, and lost to him. His hand on her face wound around to the back of her neck, but she couldn’t pretend kissing him back was against her will. She was drawn in and snared by someone who had the most potential for evil she’d ever seen.
She wrenched her face away from his, and he laughed.
“Deep down you always want me to come in and wallow in your worst impulses,” he said. “More in your head than in your cunt.”
Chloe tried to sneer at that, but it came out a weak moan. Lex used his hands to hold her legs open, and stuck his face over the part of her body he had so crudely named. He applied brutal pressure and her fingernails dug into her palms. He was unzipping her jeans and pulling them down, and her legs were spread even though he wasn’t holding them. He was right.
She wasn’t a lamb running from a lion, she had lain down with lions for years now, and she was one of them. An adopted lion perhaps, but more attuned to Lex with his twisted needs for control than to Clark’s simple self-preservation.
Her jeans and socks were on the floor. He was stripping her and she wasn’t fighting.
Chloe was panting heavily and Lex took a moment to watch her face flicker through expressions. She was wet for him and he could smell it easily, but she was ashamed and angry and a few other things he was too distracted to fathom. He was going to bury himself in her until they didn’t rattle around her brain, until she gained the clarity of thought he had when it came to their situation.
He would prove they were better together than she and Clark could be under the best of circumstances.
Her eyes closed on conflicted thoughts, and she shuddered as he pulled off her panties. But Lex’s keen vision swept over her body and he locked the image into his mind. Chloe might not like him, but she wasn’t truly resisting the things he was doing. Pleasured anticipation made her tense and uncharacteristically quiet, not helpless.
Lex adjusted the seat belt to hold her even tighter, and she hissed as it nearly cut off the circulation in her arms. But first he tugged her jacket open and pushed her shirt up off her breasts. Her bra was conventional white cotton and he nipped at her through it.
“Did you wear this for him? Trying to appeal to his homespun lack of imagination?”
“No,” she answered, “Just clothes sometimes. Not always plotting . . . not like you.“
He kissed her deeply and murmured into her ear. “Poor Chloe. Evil billionaires can’t resist you, in all your innocence.”
His voice dripped with irony as he fingered her, setting her legs open with knees bent. She squirmed and arched on the seat. He leaned in to give his groin some relieving pressure on her hip, and Chloe leaned closer. She clenched around his fingers and sighed lowly.
Lex’s free hand sifted through her hair and drew it over her own features, leaving tingling trails in its wake. Maturity and poise had arrived in her 18-year-old self. She had changed so gradually over the years, and she was on the cusp of a final transformation. They were both putting away childish things. He was nearly distracted watching it.
“The simple life would be wasted on you,” he told her, smirking and moving down to stand between her legs. “You’d die a little every day. You’re lucky I have a better offer.”
He stood back from Chloe and waited until she opened her eyes, sure her curiousity would force her to look at him. Her eyes were cloudy when she did, and tears had gathered in the corners. She wet her lips.
“Haven’t wanted that for years,” she said with effort.
He levered the seat forward so her head was slanted higher than her body, and took off his shirt and jacket. Hot admiration swept over his chest and he decided to be generous, kneeling up to put his face to her pussy.
Chloe felt her head start to spin as Lex ate her, messy and unrestrained. He wasn’t staying any one spot for more than a few seconds and everything in her started mapping how she would like him to move. She bit her lip to keep quiet, and tried to keep something of herself remote from him. Disappointment built with her orgasm, because she had used up all her defensive postures. He was only giving her sex.
She tried to will him either to stop or finish her off, and Lex seemed to think her frustration was funny. He leaned his chin against her thigh and blew softly through her pubic hair, teasing.
“Bastard,” she grated, the single word taking all her air.
“You come when I come, not before.”
He stood up and tilted his head back, pulling the tendons in his neck taut. Chloe recognized a few yoga breaths and was glad he was suffering. He deserved it.
After a moment he opened his belt and zipper, and took out his erection. It was moist and swollen painfully and he wedged it into Chloe without ceremony. She yelped and her legs closed around his hips, her feet planted into the leather seat. She heaved up with his first push deeper, and Lex gripped her shoulders to hold her still. Heat from her body spread up into his. He felt it in his cheeks and over the back of his head, and watched it on Chloe’s face.
He drove his tongue in her mouth and she groaned. Their chests rubbed together. He pulled her bra down.
Leaning forward to kiss her was too difficult, so he held her arms and pulled away. He couldn’t manage controlled thrusts, and some rammed Chloe up with the weight of his lower body. Her hands were clawed into his sides and the seat belt was probably bruising her.
His mind split to allow passive observation. She was rolling her neck and making throaty noises. Her earlier defiance was nowhere in evidence, and her body was taking him eagerly no matter how rough he was.
He owned her. Lex Luthor owned Chloe Sullivan and could use her as he wished. She was his. Any protestations to the contrary were ridiculous.
He let his body drag him back to the soaking, winding crush. Chloe had found a way to steady herself so she could lift up to him, and her lips were moving in a jumble of words he thought might be important.
He finally caught “No protection.” A bit of nervous tension had returned to her, and he could feel her resisting the orgasm that was nearly there. He wasn’t wearing a condom, but he wasn’t willing to stop, either. Their lack of protection from each other went well beyond the physical.
“Too late,” he ground out. “S’okay.”
He kept his eyes on hers until she gave up and let her body drive them. Kept watching even after she became as rough as he was being with her. He was under unusual strain because of the altitude, and the pressure in the cabin made Lex swallow quickly in succession. It might be worth it, but he didn’t want to pop an eardrum.
Chloe trembled violently and gasped out part of a word.
“Ha-”
He paused and she collected herself enough to try again. “Harder.”
They were both pouring sweat and physically wrecked, but he fucked her harder, punching her body with his own. Lex closed his eyes and held the seat with both hands, leaning his upper body on hers and pumping his hips savagely. The only way he could stay on his feet was to glue himself to her.
It was too much for every part of her, and Chloe was wasting the few breaths she took with stupid, futile screams. Lex was in control and she was at his mercy. She was so close to falling into ruin and the only thing preventing it was the cruel way he kept his cock from the spot she needed it to contact. She got her legs wrapped around him even though they were numb.
There was a sudden, impossible rise in the heat of his body, and Lex had no choice but to end it. Shudders wracked both of them and he caught a glimpse of night sky speeding past the window. He barked her name and green eyes fixed on his.
“Now, Chloe!”
He angled his next thrust with the tiniest difference, and she howled. Spasms from her dragging flesh spread to his hips and he was gone, too. Lost in the stars and the power of his own body. Lost in Chloe. Spurting inside her.
Lex opened his eyes as soon as he could, genuinely concerned about falling over. He opened the seat belt and settled in to Chloe’s clumsy hug. Her arms were most likely bruised and numb, and he checked them surreptitiously, running his hands over her.
“I’m okay,” she assured him. Her face twisted momentarily as he pulled out with a sloppy sound. Semen mixed with her own fluids seeped out warmly and Chloe grimaced. She was sore and the aches of being nearly frozen were now very intense pains. The seat was slick with sweat and she shifted uncomfortably. Lex was heavy and she thought her legs might fall off.
“I thought for a second you were going to use your safe word,” he said, sounding exhausted.
“Would you really have stopped, given your . . . mood?”
It wasn’t new for her to be steamrolled by one of Lex’s outbursts of distrust and anger. He had endless supplies of rage that would go unrequited, the product of decades of repression. Setting them off was relatively easy for her, which was oddly a measure of how much he cared.
His guilty silence told her she had indeed weathered another storm.
“You didn’t hurt me,” she told him. “And if I really meant it, I’d twist your balls right off.”
Lex chuckled on her shoulder, relieved. He owned Chloe but he didn’t want to hurt her. He stood up and fastened his pants, getting more clear-headed. She was still sprawled limply.
“Can you sit up?”
She did, arching her back and looking out the window. “It’s nighttime. I guess we survived today,” she said.
“Let’s not tempt fate by assuming that while we’re still in the air,” he suggested, putting her back in her bra and pulling her clothing down.
She sighed and cuddled him, grateful that they held as well as fought. A gentle hand smoothed over her hair and down her spine.
“I feel sweaty and gross. I’m going to shower. Did you bring my clothes?”
He saw Chloe to her feet and made sure she could stay upright before he picked up his discarded shirt and jacket.
“They’re in the bedroom.”
He pointed to a door and Chloe gave him a scathing look.
“Isn’t it a little sleazy to be fucking in the cabin when we could have gone to bed?”
“I thought you’d changed your mind about me,” Lex said. “And then you were so hostile. What was I supposed to think?”
His face was averted and blank, the absence of his mask allowing her to see the vulnerability he faced so stoically every day. He woke up every morning and had to convince himself that believing in people and trusting them was worthwhile. It had never been the case in the long-term for him, and required a lot of faith. But for months now he'd woken up and decided to trust her.
“That nearly freezing to death makes me crabby,” she said over her shoulder.
There was a bedroom, as nicely appointed as the cabin. She gave a pointed look at the very comfortable, very large bed and Lex smirked playfully at her. Her overnight bag was sitting at the foot.
They got in the shower and Chloe washed her hair while Lex washed the rest of her. He massaged between her legs and dipped two fingers inside to get rid of the lingering stickiness. When his washing verged on foreplay she turned her back and shoved at his wrist.
“You know, I didn’t give you permission to come in me. Did you run out of condoms?”
“No, but I was claiming you. It was a dramatic moment I was unwilling to water down with a scavenger hunt through the bathroom cabinets,” he said mildly. “I’m not sleeping with anyone else.”
That still made her nervous. His monogamy could be the result of a lack of time to screw around, not real self-control. She wondered about it when he was out of town, but Lex was forthright with her. If he was having sex with other people he would say so.
“And if my pills fall through?”
He combined soaping up her back with a light massage.
“Then you go hunting while I watch the cubs and guard our little corner of the Serengeti.”
Her lion metaphor either amused him or stuck him as being astute, because he used it often. Chloe slapped him painlessly on his chest, as punishment for not taking her seriously.
“Condoms from now on. You get to limit your trust, and I get to limit mine.”
“Understood.”
They finished washing her and Chloe scrubbed Lex’s back, scanning him for injuries he might have hidden. His sexual performance indicated he was fine, but she looked anyway. Sentimentality ran high after her orgasm.
“Eventually we’ll have to decide to trust each other completely or call it quits,” he said quietly. “Love doesn’t last when it’s constantly scrutinized. I don’t like how I treat you sometimes.”
She didn’t want to have that talk on a day when she was trying to absorb so much already. Her mind didn’t feel quick enough to deal with his inferences and subtleties.
“I’m mostly in love with you, and I mostly trust you,” she said. “Is it a problem right now?”
“No,” he said, his tone just off from casual.
Chloe sighed and let Lex kiss her. They were in for a hell of a conversation one day soon. She dreaded it as much as it piqued her curiousity.
“Isn’t love supposed to be sweet and happy?”
“Love reflects the people who feel it. We’re not sugary, cheery people. We’re smarter than that and we’ve been through too much.” He paused, staring at her and demanding something in the soulful look. “Does it bother you?”
He had given her a thoughtful answer and Chloe tried to give him one in return. Her emotional discomfort couldn’t overreach his own. As long as he tried, she would, too.
“Sometimes it feels wrong to be this content with what we’re doing, but I don’t mind. Sugar burns blue for a very short time, then there’s nothing left but a shitty brown crust.”
Lex gave a snort of laughter and she smacked his shoulder.
“What? It’s true.”
“I worry sometimes I’m not romantic enough for you, and then you go and say something like that.”
“Romance isn’t real. I’m real and so are you. Together we’re real. I need that. I love it.”
“I do too.”
They stared at each other and ended up hugging to break the silence. Chloe turned off the water and he found towels. They went back to the bedroom, drying off.
“So I was quiet and rude during a half-hour drive to the airport and you concluded I had turned on you? You’re going to pull a muscle jumping to conclusions that fast. Is it really that important not to lose to a farmboy?”
She kept her tone light, but Lex’s shoulders squared. Clark was an problem for each of them for different reasons, and for them as a couple for another set of issues.
“Fifty-fifty. If you fell into Clark’s lap it would tell me with certainty he gets everything I deserve, and he’s done nothing to earn. It would hurt to lose you at all and to him it would be . . . I’m not sure what I’d do.”
Chloe wasn’t able to tell if he was speaking about his emotional state or retribution he might take. Either way she decided she wasn’t up to hearing the details.
“Not an issue for today,” she said, her voice muffled by the towel over her head.
They dressed in sweaters and slacks for the cool, dry air of the plane. She lay down on one of the sofas and Lex took a seat, sipping at his abandoned water.
“So tell me what you found out.”
She glanced at him and unconsciously scratched at the frostbite on her face.
“Not a lot. He’s exactly what we thought. The news showed the crater where his house used to be, and the Kents’ truck was still in the driveway. I told him it was okay to leave me alone, and he was supposed to be running back to Smallville.”
Lex squinted, exasperated. “How did he think you were going to get home? Clark has to start taking responsibility, alien or not. You could have died.”
“I’m okay,”Chloe said, reaching out to rub his knee gently. “He did what we expected, just to the extreme. I didn’t believe he was fast enough to run nearly to the North Pole. It was a calculated risk, like dropping half the lab on us. It places me against you and with him.”
Their reconciliation had happened only after he had been split into two halves. His evil half had taken it upon himself to explain the reticence that had made Lex ignore her, and Chloe had accepted the apology. Her overwrought suspicion at the time was the first step to prying Clark’s secrets out of him. Letting him save her from tons of concrete solidified his belief that Chloe and Lex were enemies. It was also on a video in the safe if they wanted to expose him.
“Do you think Clark will really tell you everything now?”
Her lover finished his drink and came to sit on the sofa with her, holding her feet on his lap.
“Not immediately, but soon. He trusts me. I think he’s desperate to believe I’m on his side, and keeping his secret for a few months earned me a lot of credibility. My acting was pretty good. I said I would never be the iceberg to his Titanic. He ate it up.”
Soft strokes to her feet made her blink sleepily.
“All this confiding might bring up some romantic urges,” Lex said. “You might have Clark in the palm of your hand.”
His pride wouldn’t let him ask the question he inferred, but Chloe was kind enough to answer anyway. From the mumbly tone and careless words he could tell she was drifting off.
“Won’t happen. Not in the palm of my hand, not in my vagina. If I want an interplanetary screw I’m more likely to look up Marvin the Martian. Even though you kissed Lana not too long ago,” she said significantly.
Sharp green eyes shot hate at him before they closed. His overtures to the brunette girl were not yet forgiven.
“Meaningless,” he assured her, smiling tenderly despite himself. “All my sick, demented love is yours.”
Which means nothing beyond today, Chloe reminded her lurching heart. Made it a mantra and chanted it as she pretended to sleep for the rest of the flight, Lex sitting with her the entire time.
NC-17
Spoilers: Everything up to Arrival, season five, episode one.
Disclaimer: Smallville does not belong to me. If it did, it would be porn. Not the really nasty animal porn, but filthy, amoral smut nonetheless. And the wardrobe budget for Michael Rosenbaum would be the cost of condoms and a warm bathrobe. But I digress.
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A/N: Post Arrival one-shot. What it means to let Lex take you home. I’m not quite clear on the sequence of events from Commencement to Arrival, but I believe it’s all the same day. I’ve assumed so here. Sex, language, general malfeasance warnings.
Dedicated ecstatically to Cranky Chick's return from the corporate no man's land.
Sugar Burns Blue
“Purpose of travel?”
Chloe wasn’t sure how to answer that, considering the incongruous couple she made with Lex. He was dressed in a designer suit pressed beyond any probable wrinkling, and she was wearing the dusty casual clothes she had on when she rolled on the floor of a cave and in the snow. Business wasn’t believable. Pleasure was pushing it, according to her visibly frostbitten face and hands.
“Took a wrong turn at Albuquerque,” she quipped to the security guard holding her passport open at her photo.
Lex cleared his throat and smiled at her, preparing to finesse things.
“Canadian diamonds,” he said. “And I’m afraid we spent a few too many hours enjoying the snow.”
He put his arm around Chloe to give the impression of a romance and stroked a thumb very gently over her reddened cheek. She froze and marveled at how easily the man took it in and believed it. The obvious age difference, her sullen demeanor and the awkward affection should have tipped him off, but maybe he didn’t care. Maybe Luthor money had already papered the airport and covered any problems.
It was rather pointless to wonder, she thought. Getting back to Smallville was a priority and Lex was getting her there faster than any commercial flight could. The moment her name had been registered at the hospital he had been on his way to get her.
He draped a parka over her shoulders for the short walk to the jet, but he didn’t put one on. Either they were short one coat or he was in a macho mood. It seemed like the latter, and she only reinforced it when her shoes refused to keep purchase on the tarmac. The clasp of his arm around her body was helpful but pushy. He held her hand as she climbed the stairs, and only let go when she was inside and handing the jacket to a flight attendant.
The three flight attendants were typical for Lex, tall brunettes with breasts straining their uniforms. At least their manners were restrained, and none of them offered him a welcome to the plane kiss. They were even polite to Chloe, her status as a prisoner notwithstanding.
She wasn’t being escorted in wrist and ankle chains, and any threat was delivered solely by the blue-grey eyes on her. Her day had dragged on too long to cause trouble just to prove he didn’t scare her.
The cabin was massive and plush, with expensive leather on the seats and buttery suede on the two bolted down sofas. Everything was creamy coloured, even the light pine wood. There were end tables flanking the sofas, and a coffee table in the middle. It reeked of money spent tastefully on quality, custom fittings. In Air Force One style, a full-size desk took up one of the rounded corners, overlooking the rest of the cabin. Anyone who spent more than ten minutes with Lex could have imagined it exactly. All cool precision and nothingness, it suited the image he put out and gave no hint of humanity.
Since Lex was being a gentleman for the moment, Chloe stepped in first and settled into one of the seats. One of the amazons offered her a drink and she looked to Lex before she answered. He gave her a nod with an edge of mockery. For the moment she was a guest, entitled to the courtesy of his staff.
“No thank you,” she said, and the attendant moved on to Lex, who had sat on one of the sofas nearest Chloe.
“Mineral water,” he said, as calmly as if he was at a charity dinner. The trio of beauties disappeared after he had his drink, probably to touch up the the makeup they wore thick as spackle, the blond thought cattily.
She couldn’t distract herself with her surroundings anymore and looked at him from under her lashes. Sometime in the last year Lex had crossed a bridge and burned it behind himself. He no longer wanted the things he had been quietly pleading for from the Kents and Lana. It wasn’t his objective to be someone’s friend, brother or son. He wanted everything his own way, and he was powerful enough to insist upon it.
He was dangerous to anyone who defied him, and smoothly charming to those who would help him. She had been bumped to the top of one of those lists.
Lex would use their history to get to her, and that was a vulnerability. A year ago she had been under his protection and Chloe had no illusions that her survival was due to the FBI’s efforts. Lex Luthor had extended his influence and made it known that his interests were in keeping her alive and well. Her instincts at the time had told her he sincerely wanted to protect her, but she had also felt he was proving something more than his willingness to help.
Lionel was the great evil in his son’s eyes, and his actions dictated all of Lex’s decisions. Everything Lionel did was countered by the exact opposite counterattack from his eldest offspring. When his father declared war on her, she had known her staunchest defender by default. Lex got the tactical advantage and the moral high ground. It must have been very gratifying for him.
But gratitude faded, and their association dwindled. He was busy and she had been in turmoil over Clark’s secret. Chloe didn’t regret knowing, because she wouldn’t have been able to stop looking. She’d been a target before, for the same reason. It was comforting to finally know that reason.
She hadn’t decided never to reveal him, or set limits to how much help she would offer in concealing his abilities. Clark was as distant as Lex, she just ran into him more often at school. Her entire life was in transition until events forced her hand.
“There are painkillers if you need them,” Lex offered.
Chloe shook her head mutely. She met his eyes with reserve and kept it up until he looked away, ducking his chin to the side.
“Tell me what happened, Chloe,” he coaxed. “I can figure out most of it on my own. You didn’t walk to the Yukon, and neither did Clark.”
You’re right, it was more of a brisk run, she thought.
“I’m not easily intimidated,” she told him. “If your father couldn’t break me when I was younger and more rattled, you certainly won’t do it.”
The cocky words were placid and without smugness. They both knew it was the truth. She might need to fear him, but she didn’t.
“So, we’ll negotiate,” Lex said, sipping his drink. “What do you want?”
Chloe really thought about the question and smiled wryly.
“I’m not sure anymore. There was a time when I wanted Clark. I’m over that. Money doesn’t work. Lionel tried. Some days all I really want is a normal life, and no one can give me that.”
He leaned back and smiled lightly.
“I might. Perhaps not your own life, but a normal one. Your father, your cousins, any other family. It’s not too late.”
She shook her head. “No, it is. The only thing you can offer for my cooperation is a partnership with you, and I’m not sure that’s worth anything.”
Lex frowned and the jet shuddered as it rolled out. They sat silently through takeoff and stared at each other across the small space.
“You used to trust me,” he said. There was something underneath the words that made him sound like he was taking it personally.
“I don’t trust anyone the way I used to, even my father,” Chloe said. “You can appreciate that. Everyone has an agenda. The trick is aligning yourself with someone who has similar goals for a brief time, then getting away from them before they turn on you.”
He pulled in a lungful of air and held it, exhaling slowly.
“The cynical young journalist,” he mocked. “How original.”
She swiveled her seat toward the windows and looked out deliberately. “I don’t need extra points for style.”
Her body ached all over, the result of Clark’s super speed as much as being dropped in the snow. There was nothing to be done for it, so she endured it with his intrusive gaze. Lex was quiet and she decided to put her seat back and sleep. It reclined flat and she stretched out with a sigh.
Chloe was drifting with the hum of the engines when someone took off her sneakers, making her jolt up. Lex had perched on the arm of the sofa and he was running his fingers over her toes like a xylophone.
“What are you doing?”
He gripped her ankle tightly when she levered herself up, and pulled off her sock.
“I’m checking you for frostbite,” he said sarcastically. “What else would I be doing?”
Narrowed green eyes fixed on him taking off her other sock.
“You’re trying to use sex as leverage to make me tell you what I know,” she said. “I don’t appreciate it, and it won’t work. Go fuck one of your sky whores.”
He smirked and strolled away, his steps taking him over to the desk and to the windows behind her back. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of acting jittery about it. Instead Chloe put her socks back on and closed her eyes again.
Lex’s chuckle behind her was too near, but she ignored him. He was looming over her but he wasn’t going to win that way.
“Maybe I want more than a fuck,” he said. “Have you ever thought I might want you?”
“I’m not going to let you stick it to me because it suits you, Lex. Dumb blond is just an expression.”
Her peaceful, superior smile grated on his nerves and he yanked on her seat belt, fastening it over her body and across both elbows. Chloe gasped and fought too late to do any good. She struggled futilely for few more seconds, then stopped, putting on a brave face.
“This isn’t ConAir, and you can’t keep me strapped down the entire flight.”
She looked at him and her voice took on a patronizing tone she’d learned from his father.
“Spiteful childish gestures only make you look weaker,” she said, and the words made him clench his mouth shut for a long moment. When he pasted on a smile it was nasty and cold.
“Reverse psychology doesn’t work on me, and I can keep you strapped down the rest of your life if I choose. You’re clever and not bad to look at, but your small amount of power won’t take you very far.”
Lex walked to the side of her seat and leaned down until he was right above her face.
“Everyone knows my bad luck with airplanes. I could have us land and torch the jet, then go deliver the tragic news of your death to your father. If I give myself a few noble wounds and take a few minutes to formulate a poignant heroic act, he’d probably give me a big hug and thank me.”
His twist of seductive smile caused her to snarl at him.
“We could spend the rest of our lives together, no one the wiser, no one butting in to ‘save’ you from me,” Lex whispered. “Because we both know you don’t need a hero.”
A flicker of something like shock ran through her before she swallowed audibly. “You’re repeating yourself. We already faked my death. And frankly, the domination act isn’t working for me. So let me up.”
His hand closed over her breast roughly and she was mortified. Her nipples were hard, and the arched eyebrow he gave her was speculative.
“It’s not working?”
“I just got out of the hospital with frostbite,” she bit out. “I’m a bit chilled. Don’t add my notch to your belt.”
He let her go and walked back to the sofa, sitting down and picking up his mineral water. She didn’t feel any safer for the distance.
“I’ll make a deal with you, Chloe. If you can look me in the eye and tell me honestly - without any doubts - your loyalty is for Clark, I’ll stop trying to win you over.”
He relaxed into the suede and ran his free hand idly over the curved arm. She could lie to him, but he would know. Lex always knew when she was lying, and Clark raised a lot of doubt in her mind. There was only one other person she wondered about more. She turned her head, stared at him and spoke.
“My loyalty is something different every day, and some days it’s entirely absent. I don’t see why I owe you answers.”
Chloe shifted around and stared out the window, ignoring the shuffled noises of his approach. He was toying with her, and she was tired of not being taken seriously.
The lightest touch to her sore chin, and Lex turned her back to look up at him. “Many people would say saving your life makes us connected,” he pointed out. “Folklore and mythology says you belong to me now.”
She rolled her eyes. “Convenient after not speaking for half of 2004. You’re not superstitious, Lex. ”
His hand wrapped around hers and the other one kept touching her face, running over her frostbite and tickling across her nose. His expression was almost loving and she blushed.
“I’m a lot of things you don’t know,” he said, and suddenly switched both of his hands to her breasts, rubbing her nipples deliberately. “Funny, you don’t feel cold anymore. Your face is nice and pink. Your skin is almost hot.”
He kissed her cheek and Chloe gritted her teeth. She wasn’t immune to Lex’s attractive facade. Physically he was beautiful. He flicked her nipples expertly and they ached.
“It doesn’t mean anything. You of all people should know sex is transferable. You’ve got the right parts and you’re the right age. The body doesn’t discriminate.”
Both of his hands cupped her face and he looked into her eyes. He pecked her lips and Chloe tensed all over.
“Some things are very different between one person and another,” he corrected. “No one has a mouth like yours.”
Lex ran his tongue over her lips leisurely, and she held her mouth tightly closed. He lapped at the corners and Chloe jerked her hips involuntarily. Her body knew who he was but it didn’t care. Mindless impulses wanted him, her pride be damned. Her pride had something to say about that, but he was too close to open her mouth safely, so she glared.
“You’re not too good for me,” Lex said confidently. “I don’t think you believe you are. I can see all the nasty little thoughts you’re having, but deep down . . . “
His right hand ran all the way down her body and pushed between her legs. He smirked and kneaded her as her hands fumbled to stop him.
“Fuck, Lex!”
He devoured her mouth and Chloe gasped. She had done exactly what he expected, and lost to him. His hand on her face wound around to the back of her neck, but she couldn’t pretend kissing him back was against her will. She was drawn in and snared by someone who had the most potential for evil she’d ever seen.
She wrenched her face away from his, and he laughed.
“Deep down you always want me to come in and wallow in your worst impulses,” he said. “More in your head than in your cunt.”
Chloe tried to sneer at that, but it came out a weak moan. Lex used his hands to hold her legs open, and stuck his face over the part of her body he had so crudely named. He applied brutal pressure and her fingernails dug into her palms. He was unzipping her jeans and pulling them down, and her legs were spread even though he wasn’t holding them. He was right.
She wasn’t a lamb running from a lion, she had lain down with lions for years now, and she was one of them. An adopted lion perhaps, but more attuned to Lex with his twisted needs for control than to Clark’s simple self-preservation.
Her jeans and socks were on the floor. He was stripping her and she wasn’t fighting.
Chloe was panting heavily and Lex took a moment to watch her face flicker through expressions. She was wet for him and he could smell it easily, but she was ashamed and angry and a few other things he was too distracted to fathom. He was going to bury himself in her until they didn’t rattle around her brain, until she gained the clarity of thought he had when it came to their situation.
He would prove they were better together than she and Clark could be under the best of circumstances.
Her eyes closed on conflicted thoughts, and she shuddered as he pulled off her panties. But Lex’s keen vision swept over her body and he locked the image into his mind. Chloe might not like him, but she wasn’t truly resisting the things he was doing. Pleasured anticipation made her tense and uncharacteristically quiet, not helpless.
Lex adjusted the seat belt to hold her even tighter, and she hissed as it nearly cut off the circulation in her arms. But first he tugged her jacket open and pushed her shirt up off her breasts. Her bra was conventional white cotton and he nipped at her through it.
“Did you wear this for him? Trying to appeal to his homespun lack of imagination?”
“No,” she answered, “Just clothes sometimes. Not always plotting . . . not like you.“
He kissed her deeply and murmured into her ear. “Poor Chloe. Evil billionaires can’t resist you, in all your innocence.”
His voice dripped with irony as he fingered her, setting her legs open with knees bent. She squirmed and arched on the seat. He leaned in to give his groin some relieving pressure on her hip, and Chloe leaned closer. She clenched around his fingers and sighed lowly.
Lex’s free hand sifted through her hair and drew it over her own features, leaving tingling trails in its wake. Maturity and poise had arrived in her 18-year-old self. She had changed so gradually over the years, and she was on the cusp of a final transformation. They were both putting away childish things. He was nearly distracted watching it.
“The simple life would be wasted on you,” he told her, smirking and moving down to stand between her legs. “You’d die a little every day. You’re lucky I have a better offer.”
He stood back from Chloe and waited until she opened her eyes, sure her curiousity would force her to look at him. Her eyes were cloudy when she did, and tears had gathered in the corners. She wet her lips.
“Haven’t wanted that for years,” she said with effort.
He levered the seat forward so her head was slanted higher than her body, and took off his shirt and jacket. Hot admiration swept over his chest and he decided to be generous, kneeling up to put his face to her pussy.
Chloe felt her head start to spin as Lex ate her, messy and unrestrained. He wasn’t staying any one spot for more than a few seconds and everything in her started mapping how she would like him to move. She bit her lip to keep quiet, and tried to keep something of herself remote from him. Disappointment built with her orgasm, because she had used up all her defensive postures. He was only giving her sex.
She tried to will him either to stop or finish her off, and Lex seemed to think her frustration was funny. He leaned his chin against her thigh and blew softly through her pubic hair, teasing.
“Bastard,” she grated, the single word taking all her air.
“You come when I come, not before.”
He stood up and tilted his head back, pulling the tendons in his neck taut. Chloe recognized a few yoga breaths and was glad he was suffering. He deserved it.
After a moment he opened his belt and zipper, and took out his erection. It was moist and swollen painfully and he wedged it into Chloe without ceremony. She yelped and her legs closed around his hips, her feet planted into the leather seat. She heaved up with his first push deeper, and Lex gripped her shoulders to hold her still. Heat from her body spread up into his. He felt it in his cheeks and over the back of his head, and watched it on Chloe’s face.
He drove his tongue in her mouth and she groaned. Their chests rubbed together. He pulled her bra down.
Leaning forward to kiss her was too difficult, so he held her arms and pulled away. He couldn’t manage controlled thrusts, and some rammed Chloe up with the weight of his lower body. Her hands were clawed into his sides and the seat belt was probably bruising her.
His mind split to allow passive observation. She was rolling her neck and making throaty noises. Her earlier defiance was nowhere in evidence, and her body was taking him eagerly no matter how rough he was.
He owned her. Lex Luthor owned Chloe Sullivan and could use her as he wished. She was his. Any protestations to the contrary were ridiculous.
He let his body drag him back to the soaking, winding crush. Chloe had found a way to steady herself so she could lift up to him, and her lips were moving in a jumble of words he thought might be important.
He finally caught “No protection.” A bit of nervous tension had returned to her, and he could feel her resisting the orgasm that was nearly there. He wasn’t wearing a condom, but he wasn’t willing to stop, either. Their lack of protection from each other went well beyond the physical.
“Too late,” he ground out. “S’okay.”
He kept his eyes on hers until she gave up and let her body drive them. Kept watching even after she became as rough as he was being with her. He was under unusual strain because of the altitude, and the pressure in the cabin made Lex swallow quickly in succession. It might be worth it, but he didn’t want to pop an eardrum.
Chloe trembled violently and gasped out part of a word.
“Ha-”
He paused and she collected herself enough to try again. “Harder.”
They were both pouring sweat and physically wrecked, but he fucked her harder, punching her body with his own. Lex closed his eyes and held the seat with both hands, leaning his upper body on hers and pumping his hips savagely. The only way he could stay on his feet was to glue himself to her.
It was too much for every part of her, and Chloe was wasting the few breaths she took with stupid, futile screams. Lex was in control and she was at his mercy. She was so close to falling into ruin and the only thing preventing it was the cruel way he kept his cock from the spot she needed it to contact. She got her legs wrapped around him even though they were numb.
There was a sudden, impossible rise in the heat of his body, and Lex had no choice but to end it. Shudders wracked both of them and he caught a glimpse of night sky speeding past the window. He barked her name and green eyes fixed on his.
“Now, Chloe!”
He angled his next thrust with the tiniest difference, and she howled. Spasms from her dragging flesh spread to his hips and he was gone, too. Lost in the stars and the power of his own body. Lost in Chloe. Spurting inside her.
Lex opened his eyes as soon as he could, genuinely concerned about falling over. He opened the seat belt and settled in to Chloe’s clumsy hug. Her arms were most likely bruised and numb, and he checked them surreptitiously, running his hands over her.
“I’m okay,” she assured him. Her face twisted momentarily as he pulled out with a sloppy sound. Semen mixed with her own fluids seeped out warmly and Chloe grimaced. She was sore and the aches of being nearly frozen were now very intense pains. The seat was slick with sweat and she shifted uncomfortably. Lex was heavy and she thought her legs might fall off.
“I thought for a second you were going to use your safe word,” he said, sounding exhausted.
“Would you really have stopped, given your . . . mood?”
It wasn’t new for her to be steamrolled by one of Lex’s outbursts of distrust and anger. He had endless supplies of rage that would go unrequited, the product of decades of repression. Setting them off was relatively easy for her, which was oddly a measure of how much he cared.
His guilty silence told her she had indeed weathered another storm.
“You didn’t hurt me,” she told him. “And if I really meant it, I’d twist your balls right off.”
Lex chuckled on her shoulder, relieved. He owned Chloe but he didn’t want to hurt her. He stood up and fastened his pants, getting more clear-headed. She was still sprawled limply.
“Can you sit up?”
She did, arching her back and looking out the window. “It’s nighttime. I guess we survived today,” she said.
“Let’s not tempt fate by assuming that while we’re still in the air,” he suggested, putting her back in her bra and pulling her clothing down.
She sighed and cuddled him, grateful that they held as well as fought. A gentle hand smoothed over her hair and down her spine.
“I feel sweaty and gross. I’m going to shower. Did you bring my clothes?”
He saw Chloe to her feet and made sure she could stay upright before he picked up his discarded shirt and jacket.
“They’re in the bedroom.”
He pointed to a door and Chloe gave him a scathing look.
“Isn’t it a little sleazy to be fucking in the cabin when we could have gone to bed?”
“I thought you’d changed your mind about me,” Lex said. “And then you were so hostile. What was I supposed to think?”
His face was averted and blank, the absence of his mask allowing her to see the vulnerability he faced so stoically every day. He woke up every morning and had to convince himself that believing in people and trusting them was worthwhile. It had never been the case in the long-term for him, and required a lot of faith. But for months now he'd woken up and decided to trust her.
“That nearly freezing to death makes me crabby,” she said over her shoulder.
There was a bedroom, as nicely appointed as the cabin. She gave a pointed look at the very comfortable, very large bed and Lex smirked playfully at her. Her overnight bag was sitting at the foot.
They got in the shower and Chloe washed her hair while Lex washed the rest of her. He massaged between her legs and dipped two fingers inside to get rid of the lingering stickiness. When his washing verged on foreplay she turned her back and shoved at his wrist.
“You know, I didn’t give you permission to come in me. Did you run out of condoms?”
“No, but I was claiming you. It was a dramatic moment I was unwilling to water down with a scavenger hunt through the bathroom cabinets,” he said mildly. “I’m not sleeping with anyone else.”
That still made her nervous. His monogamy could be the result of a lack of time to screw around, not real self-control. She wondered about it when he was out of town, but Lex was forthright with her. If he was having sex with other people he would say so.
“And if my pills fall through?”
He combined soaping up her back with a light massage.
“Then you go hunting while I watch the cubs and guard our little corner of the Serengeti.”
Her lion metaphor either amused him or stuck him as being astute, because he used it often. Chloe slapped him painlessly on his chest, as punishment for not taking her seriously.
“Condoms from now on. You get to limit your trust, and I get to limit mine.”
“Understood.”
They finished washing her and Chloe scrubbed Lex’s back, scanning him for injuries he might have hidden. His sexual performance indicated he was fine, but she looked anyway. Sentimentality ran high after her orgasm.
“Eventually we’ll have to decide to trust each other completely or call it quits,” he said quietly. “Love doesn’t last when it’s constantly scrutinized. I don’t like how I treat you sometimes.”
She didn’t want to have that talk on a day when she was trying to absorb so much already. Her mind didn’t feel quick enough to deal with his inferences and subtleties.
“I’m mostly in love with you, and I mostly trust you,” she said. “Is it a problem right now?”
“No,” he said, his tone just off from casual.
Chloe sighed and let Lex kiss her. They were in for a hell of a conversation one day soon. She dreaded it as much as it piqued her curiousity.
“Isn’t love supposed to be sweet and happy?”
“Love reflects the people who feel it. We’re not sugary, cheery people. We’re smarter than that and we’ve been through too much.” He paused, staring at her and demanding something in the soulful look. “Does it bother you?”
He had given her a thoughtful answer and Chloe tried to give him one in return. Her emotional discomfort couldn’t overreach his own. As long as he tried, she would, too.
“Sometimes it feels wrong to be this content with what we’re doing, but I don’t mind. Sugar burns blue for a very short time, then there’s nothing left but a shitty brown crust.”
Lex gave a snort of laughter and she smacked his shoulder.
“What? It’s true.”
“I worry sometimes I’m not romantic enough for you, and then you go and say something like that.”
“Romance isn’t real. I’m real and so are you. Together we’re real. I need that. I love it.”
“I do too.”
They stared at each other and ended up hugging to break the silence. Chloe turned off the water and he found towels. They went back to the bedroom, drying off.
“So I was quiet and rude during a half-hour drive to the airport and you concluded I had turned on you? You’re going to pull a muscle jumping to conclusions that fast. Is it really that important not to lose to a farmboy?”
She kept her tone light, but Lex’s shoulders squared. Clark was an problem for each of them for different reasons, and for them as a couple for another set of issues.
“Fifty-fifty. If you fell into Clark’s lap it would tell me with certainty he gets everything I deserve, and he’s done nothing to earn. It would hurt to lose you at all and to him it would be . . . I’m not sure what I’d do.”
Chloe wasn’t able to tell if he was speaking about his emotional state or retribution he might take. Either way she decided she wasn’t up to hearing the details.
“Not an issue for today,” she said, her voice muffled by the towel over her head.
They dressed in sweaters and slacks for the cool, dry air of the plane. She lay down on one of the sofas and Lex took a seat, sipping at his abandoned water.
“So tell me what you found out.”
She glanced at him and unconsciously scratched at the frostbite on her face.
“Not a lot. He’s exactly what we thought. The news showed the crater where his house used to be, and the Kents’ truck was still in the driveway. I told him it was okay to leave me alone, and he was supposed to be running back to Smallville.”
Lex squinted, exasperated. “How did he think you were going to get home? Clark has to start taking responsibility, alien or not. You could have died.”
“I’m okay,”Chloe said, reaching out to rub his knee gently. “He did what we expected, just to the extreme. I didn’t believe he was fast enough to run nearly to the North Pole. It was a calculated risk, like dropping half the lab on us. It places me against you and with him.”
Their reconciliation had happened only after he had been split into two halves. His evil half had taken it upon himself to explain the reticence that had made Lex ignore her, and Chloe had accepted the apology. Her overwrought suspicion at the time was the first step to prying Clark’s secrets out of him. Letting him save her from tons of concrete solidified his belief that Chloe and Lex were enemies. It was also on a video in the safe if they wanted to expose him.
“Do you think Clark will really tell you everything now?”
Her lover finished his drink and came to sit on the sofa with her, holding her feet on his lap.
“Not immediately, but soon. He trusts me. I think he’s desperate to believe I’m on his side, and keeping his secret for a few months earned me a lot of credibility. My acting was pretty good. I said I would never be the iceberg to his Titanic. He ate it up.”
Soft strokes to her feet made her blink sleepily.
“All this confiding might bring up some romantic urges,” Lex said. “You might have Clark in the palm of your hand.”
His pride wouldn’t let him ask the question he inferred, but Chloe was kind enough to answer anyway. From the mumbly tone and careless words he could tell she was drifting off.
“Won’t happen. Not in the palm of my hand, not in my vagina. If I want an interplanetary screw I’m more likely to look up Marvin the Martian. Even though you kissed Lana not too long ago,” she said significantly.
Sharp green eyes shot hate at him before they closed. His overtures to the brunette girl were not yet forgiven.
“Meaningless,” he assured her, smiling tenderly despite himself. “All my sick, demented love is yours.”
Which means nothing beyond today, Chloe reminded her lurching heart. Made it a mantra and chanted it as she pretended to sleep for the rest of the flight, Lex sitting with her the entire time.