The Reunion (NC 17) Completed 26th April 2013

[HotCrossedBunny]

The Reunion


















Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing to do with Smallville.
Potential spoilers: Up to S4 although I have changed some of the back story
Summary: Chloe and Lex meet on prom night and then again five years later at the reunion, a lot as happened in between.

*Chapter One*

A sliver Aston Martin screeched to a halt outside the High School and a well-dressed man sprang out of it. He tore up to the building, throwing open the doors and paying no heed as they banged against the walls, only taking a second to glance down at his watch. Fuck! He was running so late!

He sprinted through the halls, cursing his choice of footwear as he did so and praying that she would still be there.

“Have they announced prom queen yet?” He demanded of a senior that he seemed to know by sight.

“Yeah, ages ago”.

“Fuck”, he swore again. “Where is she?” He had no doubt that she would have won; no one could hold a candle to her.

The teen shrugged, “Back in there”, he gestured to the gym behind him, seemingly unconcerned. “She and Clark went off for a while but she is back there now”.

He breathed a sigh of relief; at least that meant that he had not completely missed her. He might still be able to make this up to her and he was sure that he would be able to find someone who had taped the coronation - so at least he would still get to see her, even though it was hardly the same. He ignored the comment about Clark, sure that it would be nothing and not having the time to dwell on that matter at that moment.

Without a word of thanks, he burst through the gym doors and was almost bowled over. The heat produced by a large gathering of teenagers huddled together was rather impressive, as was the noise coming from what they described in their broacher as a band, not to mention the sea of pink crape paper which covered what had been the gym merely a few hours before. He felt a shudder travel down his spine, he had never been so happy to have spent his teenage years in virtual solitude. If this was what it was like to go to High School dances, than all of those night alone in his dorm room had been well spent. If only he had known that he might not have worried about it so much.

That thought was put out of his mind as he scanned the crowd; he wasn’t here for his own enjoyment, he was there for her. He searched all of the couples dancing on the floor but couldn’t see her, he looked over the refreshment tables where some more people were socializing but again he could not find her. Finally, he started moving through the tables until finally he got to one almost empty tables and stopped.

Only the back of her head was visible to him but that was enough. He would recognise those blonde curls anywhere, even if they were tied back in a way that was unusual for her. He could also make out the creaminess of her shoulders between the hot pink of her halter neck and the rest of her black dress. He couldn’t be sure, but he didn’t think that he had ever seen her wear pink before. It wasn’t his favourite colour, but she could pull it off.

He wasn’t sure whether he should be pleased to see that no one else had taken the place which he intended to fill or sad that so far she had had no one to spend this evening with. She had been crowned Prom Queen, for goodness’ sake, that was supposed to be something important in American High Schools. She should have been surrounded by friends and well-wishers and yet there she was all alone.

Wanting to see more of her, he moved around the side of the table and caught a glimpse of her face. He didn’t know what he had expected to see but certainly not an expression of quite resignation. That wasn’t her - she was young and brilliant and she had her whole life ahead of her, resignation had no place on her face or in her emotions.

She was looking down at her tiara, seeming far too calm considering what a big occasion it was. Then, every so often, she would prod it and a small, secretive smile would tug at her lips, before she glanced over at a couple dancing on the floor and it disappeared again. She hadn’t even noticed that she now had company.

“You know, in a few months you won’t even remember his name”, he finally spoke.

“What?” She looked up in confusion, trying to locate the source of the intrusion. “Lex? What are you doing here?”

Lex smirked.

“Well I couldn’t miss the coronation of Chloe Sullivan as Smallville’s queen”, he said, inviting himself to sit down.

“You did miss it”, Chloe pointed out.

“You noticed that I was absent?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Well no, not exactly. But if the famous Lex Luthor had been present then I am sure that someone would have noticed”, Chloe tried to explain, cursing herself for blushing.

“I like to think that I have a certain presence”, he smirked. “So how was it, having all of those girlish dreams fulfilled?”

“This”, she gestured to their surroundings, “is not my dream girlish or otherwise”.

“I know, but I promise you that it is theirs”, he looked around the room. “You realise that every single girl here tonight wishes that they could be you?”

Chloe looked incredulously at him.

“You were crowned Prom Queen, you were voted most likely to succeed/get out of here, you got scholarships to several very impressive colleges”, he said seriously counting the items off on his fingers, before adding in a joking manner, “and you have the company of the best looking bachelor in the room”.

This got her to smile and he felt really good for the first time in a long time.

“So what has me puzzled is why you are sitting here all by yourself”, he continued. He had to tread carefully unless he wanted her to tell him to fuck off and mind his own business, which past experience had told him she was quite capable of doing.

“The coronation didn’t exactly go as planned … not that I actually had it planned at all. I was meant to come here as a reporter, look at what was going on, write an article, spend some time with Clark”, she tried to keep the pain out of her voice, “but it didn’t work out like that. I got possessed, got a crown, you know how it is”. She tried to shrug the entire night off.

“Just a normal Friday night in Smallville then”, he smiled.

“Pretty much”, Chloe smiled back.

Lex didn’t ask about the possession, and squashed his desire to find out not only what happened but also who was responsible. He reasoned that he had no reason to feel protective of Chloe Sullivan and that he would probably read about it pretty soon and it wasn’t what that night was supposed to be about. He cared about Chloe, he hated to admit it but he did. Things hadn’t been easy between them and he was willing to bet that after last year she hated him, but a few weeks ago she had smiled at him for no reason when he had seen her out and about. He couldn’t believe it. Until that moment he hadn’t thought that anyone would ever continue to care about him or even think that he was still a human. He had been battling to hold on to his friendship with Clark but could feel it slipping away from him. It had been after a particularly tense meeting in which Lex had worked out that it was only a matter of time until he lost Clark completely – based on the way that he had stared at him – that he had run into Chloe, in the park of all places. She had just been walking along, had seen him and had said hello and given him a friendly smile. To most people it would probably have been nothing more than a common courtesy but to a man as deprived of true affection as he was, it has been manna. That was when he had vowed to make an effort. Chloe was going to have the perfect prom night.

“I meant what I said”, he said.

Chloe looked at him inquiringly.

“In a few months you won’t even remember Clark’s name”, Lex reminded her of what he had said before, helpfully.

She snorted, not bothering to deny that she had been thinking about a certain flannel clad farm boy.

“Take it from someone who only had one friend in the whole of High School and didn’t go to a single dance or have a single girlfriend”, he admitted, “college is a completely different world”.

“If High School is so unimportant then what are you doing here? Correct me if I’m wrong, but you did graduate a long time ago”, she stressed the long and grinned at him cheekily. She could never resist trying to bait him, whatever her mood was.

“Because I wanted to see you”, he replied honestly, “and because of that little fact I won’t destroy your entire family’s prospects because of that little slip of the tongue”.

Chloe scoffed at him. They both knew that he wouldn’t do anything like that; when Lionel had demanded that he fire her father he had come straight to her shaken the truth out of her and then protected them. He had finally stood up to his father, found out the truth about his grandparents’ death and had put him in prison. He wasn’t going to threaten her for real now.

“Why are you really here?” Chloe asked him, again.

“I told you, I wanted to see you”, he poured himself a glass of punch.

“Why?” Chloe asked, “Was the thought of me getting crowned so comical to you that you had to come down here and see it for yourself?”

“Actually”, he took a sip of the pink liquid and grimaced – it tasted much as it looked, pink! -, “it restored my faith in this town. I know that Clark suggested you to everyone as the alternative candidate – the one to vote for it they wanted to take a stand against the whole Prom Queen thing -, but they still voted for you. They saw their superior and for once chose that person to lead them rather than trying to squash them. I’m impressed”.

Chloe pulled at face at him.

Lex took a flask out of his pocket and put some in his drink and in hers, “This will liven it up a little bit”.

“I’m not 21 yet, Lex”, Chloe reminded him, not having any real objections.

“Please, I know that you have been into clubs before now”, he said, hoping that she wouldn’t ask about how he knew that.

“Cheers”, Chloe said, choosing to ignore that he knew about her clubbing as she figured that Clark had told him about how she found him when he was in Metropolis, and because she liked having someone there to talk to. She supposed that she could have gone up to one of the groups of boys of her own age – it wasn’t as if she hadn’t had offered to dance that night – but she just didn’t feel like it. She seemed thoughtful as she sipped her ‘grown up’ punch with appreciation; he had brought the good stuff, although as it was Lex she supposed that she shouldn’t have expected anything else. After a few seconds had elapsed, she asked, “College is really different, huh? I mean, friendships change. The person that you thought you loved … you might find out that they weren’t the one?”

“Sure, it happens all of the time”, Lex answered easily, as he followed her gaze onto the dance floor.

He saw what had captured her attention and scowled. Clark and Lana were wrapped in each other’s arms, neither of them really knowing how to dance but just enjoying being together. He shouldn’t be angry he supposed; they weren’t doing anything wrong – although he thought that they could have been a little more sensitive to Chloe’s feelings, but he wasn’t really one to talk on that subject - and they were in love after all. He didn’t know if they would stay together, but it was almost certain that Chloe would get over Clark very quickly, once she was away from Smallville.

“When you go to … are you going to Yale or Harvard?” He wondered, he knew that she had got scholarship to both Universities and to several others but as they were the best they were the only real possibilities.

“I’m not sure yet, I got into MetU and …”

“No!”

“I beg your pardon”, her head snapped back around to look at him, her broken heart and its cause temporarily forgotten.

“I said no. Chloe you can’t throw your future away for some guy”, Lex sounded truly disgusted.

Chloe looked down, she wanted to be angry with him but she couldn’t. Well, that wasn’t entirely true; she could be angry with him very easily – no one could make her loose her temper as quickly as Lex Luthor could – but not over this. “I know”, she admitted and took another swig of her drink. “It needs more vodka”, she informed him holding it out to him expectantly. Lex acquiesced.

“I don’t know where I want to go really. I applied to MetU because as my safe backup option, the one I had to get into whatever happened. I then applied to every Ivy League school that I could think of just on the off chance that one of them might give me an interview, I never honestly thought that I would get into all of them – especially not with scholarships to most. It is a great opportunity, I know that, but I have never visited the campuses, I don’t know the areas … I guess …” She trailed off and shook her head.

“Tell me”, he coaxed.

She looked over at him, as if trying to calculate the risk involved before giving in. “I can hear myself, you know. I have full scholarships to the best schools in the country, my Dad isn’t going to have to worry about anything and I am going to get a great education whichever one I go to. I am going to have the chance to have a new start and go to a new place. I should be so excited. I am excited and Met U shouldn’t even still be on the list but … I’m scared”, she finally admitted.

Lex nodded, but remained quiet to let her continue.

“I feel like I am on the edge of this huge precipice, it is what I have been waiting and working for for years, but now that I actually have the option … I’m scared. It would be so easy to stay in Kansas, to go to MetU, to stay near Clark”, she fiddled with the straw in her drink.

He wanted to tell her that she was wrong, tell her that she couldn’t throw everything away for Clark. He mentally tried to work out how much he would have to pay to get Clark into one of those Ivy League Colleges.

“But I won’t”, her voice was low and calm.

He looked up.

“I’m just feeling sorry for myself”, she gave shrug, “I have done all of the research, I’m in the process of making pro and con lists and when I work out which one is the best I will choose it but it won’t be MetU. I will not throw everything away. Not really”. She was decided.

“Thank God for that”, he heaved a sigh of relief.

“You know a lot about these things right?”

Lex nodded. Strictly speaking he didn’t really know a lot about it, but he wasn’t going to tell Chloe that. If he didn’t know the answer he would call the deans up, get them out of bed and get the information from them.

“Which one has the best looking men?” She asked, with apparent seriousness. “That is the one thing that the internet refused to tell me”. He stared at her and she broke into a wide grin at the expression on his face.

“I haven’t really noticed but I know quite a few people who have sisters who are still in those schools so I could always call and ask”, he said as a better plan formed in his mind. He fingered his phone in his pocket, he would have to put his plan into action as soon as they entered phase two of his first plan.

“So, now we know that you are about to go to college and be a huge success, what do you say we make sure that you celebrate prom night correctly?” He suggested, trying to sound calm so as not to give the rest of the night he had planned out away.

“And how do we do that?” Chloe asked, wondering if Lex knew about the prom night tradition. She blushed slightly at that. Of course, he didn’t. That was a thing that only girls knew about.

“Well, we start with dancing”, he stood up and offered her his hand. “As it seems that none of the boys here know their right from their left, I suppose that the task falls to me. Chloe Sullivan, you would the Prom Queen do me the honour of dancing with me a former geek?”

“Ewww! You were a geek? Sorry no go”, Chloe said in her best valley girl imitation as she got to her feet.

[malugargula]

Great start
Can't wait to read more
:)

[trckyrcky]

Love this story. Can't wait to see what happen next. I hope Chloe decide to go to Harvard and I can see her becoming a Lawyer with how good she is a investigation. She really like to help people and I can see her doing that as a Lawyer.

[falllovessummer]

I love this idea. I can't wait to see what happens next.

[TrinityR]

I can't comprehend how somebody could go for Clark with Lex around...;P

[Yelena]

Great beginning!

[HotCrossedBunny]

A/N: Hello everyone. Thank-you for reading my new fic and for reviewing, I hope that this will continue *hint hint* :)

*Chapter Two*

Lex didn’t even bother to pretend to be offended, instead he grinned down at her and kept his hand held out to her. This was probably the first time that he had risked being turned by a girl since he was her age and yet he wasn’t worried in the slightest. Lex had planned out that night and knew exactly how, and where, it was going to end.

“Well you know what they say, you have to nab the geeks during High School so that you marry them before they make their millions and make you sign a pre-nup”, he joked. That had actually happened to his best, and only, friend from Excelsior – with a little help/loan from the youngest Luthor that is. It was one of the best business decisions that Lex had ever made actually, his old friend had recently brought Microsoft to its knees and looked set to take on Apple in the next few months. Now the man who was worse bullied and reviled had women falling all over him.

“They say that, do they?” Chloe smiled at him teasingly as she pretended to consider his hand.

“Yes they do”, he replied smoothly.

“Well I have never been one to do as everyone else saying oh”, she broke off with a gasp. Lex had snatched her hand and pulled her after him onto the dance floor, apparently deciding that he had had enough of trying to be a gentleman. “Is this how you get all of your dance partners Lex?”

“No, normally women make it quite clear to me that they are available before I even think of asking them”, he replied honestly.

Chloe didn’t doubt him. “So what’s my attraction, the fact that you can’t have me?” She challenged him automatically without thinking about the words that were coming out of her mouth or how they could be misconstrued.

He turned to her and she shut up, blushing. She hadn’t meant that, she hadn’t meant to imply that he was attracted to her or that this was anything to do with that. Oh God, he would think that she was so up herself that she was inside out – as her Kiwi pen pal was wont to say/write.

Lex raised an eyebrow as he saw her blush. He had known perfectly well what she meant but could also appreciate the reason behind her sudden and quite evident case of embarrassment. Under normal circumstances he would have loved to have called her on it, to really make her squirm and see how far he could push it before she struck back and they entered into one of their famous matches of verbal judo, but that would hinder his plans for the rest of the night.

Reigning in his worst impulses with an effort, he opted for murmuring, “Not exactly”. Slowly he allowed his gaze to shift up and down her form, making a point of lingering on her most attractive attributes so that she would be sure to catch his meaning.

He noted with no small degree of satisfaction that she had indeed grasped his meaning. Furthermore, she was clearly not accustomed to being devoured by a man’s eyes – although why that should be Lex couldn’t imagine - and the process obviously was making her a little uncomfortable, but being Chloe she tried to act calm. He smirked, enjoying the way that she held her chin just a touch too high in her attempt to seem unconcerned. It was utterly charming, but that would not save her.

Grasping her chin gently between his pianist’s fingers, he lowered it a fraction of an inch and observed her as an artist would a canvas, wanting just the right shading to bring the work of art to life. After considering her for another moment before seeming satisfied, he advised her, “If you want people to think that you are comfortable, don’t fidgety or act haughty … just look them straight in the eye”.

Chloe could have kicked herself, or him, or someone who just happened to be passing. She knew that! She was a reporter for goodness’ sake, she knew how to tell when someone was lying and how to make herself seem like their confident to get the truth out of them – all for the greater good, of course. She was the girl who had faced down Lionel Luthor – or tried to at least – without a quiver, but here she was getting flustered just because Lex was looking at her. She was pathetic. Trying not to let her confusion show on her face, she searched frantically for the best way to regain control.

“Don’t always buy into the ‘I’m so nervous and innocent and need a big strong man of the world like you to take care of me’”, she advised him trying to sound very much like a woman of the world, but breaking into a tiny, overly breathy voice for her impression, before reverting to her normal tone. “That path will probably lead to your next to failed marriages”. Once again the words were out of her mouth before she could really think about them. Chloe closed her eyes with a grimace. She hated being out of control. This was getting ridiculous, she was Chloe Sullivan and she could speak to anyone – at length - without problems, get information out of people, find truths that everyone else simply couldn’t see and yet around Lex Luthor …

“That didn’t come out the way I meant”, she tried to backtrack.

“No, I think that it did”, he said. He watched as her face contorted and wanted to reach out and tell her that it was alright, that he was not offended but that wouldn’t get him anywhere. Seeing his chance, he pushed his advantage, “And now that you have so terribly insulted me, you cannot refuse to dance with me”.

Chloe opened her eyes to stare up at him; she must have misheard him. She was just trying to replay the sound-bite which she had stored in her head to see what he had really said when she felt him taking one of her hands in his and placing the other one on his shoulder, before placing his on her waist. She ignored the tingles that this action sent through her, as she searched his eyes for the truth. He had clearly been pressing her to dance and he didn’t seem mad, but he was Lex Luthor, he didn’t stand around and let himself be insulted.

She swallowed as she took him in. His eyes were warm and filled with something which looked remarkably like mirth, his hands were large and strong and they were holding her, and that was when she realised that she hadn’t really looked at him properly before. Well, she had. In fact, Chloe had studied him, trying to work out everything about him down to his favourite breakfast cereal. To this end she had scrolled through hundreds of photos of him, taken the chance to examine him in every meeting they had, not to mention indulging in several rather heated fantasies about him … but she had never looked at him like this.

He had perfect pale skin, just as he had when he had arrived in Smallville but now there were tiny, very faint freckles on his nose, the evidence of his second marriage and his ability to survive anything. He had the smallest hint of lines around his eyes, presents from his father Chloe was sure. He still smelled good just like he had at their first meeting but it wasn’t just his cologne, she didn’t know whether the change was in him or her but now she could smell the scent of the mansion on him, the aroma of good scotch, the leather of the chair he always sat in, and even the soap that he used.

Chloe couldn’t explain it but he smelled like his life and it was soothing and real. It made her forget for a moment all of the stupid little things that she had been fretting about, this was what mattered: real life, surviving and prospering as Lex had and she knew that he had because she could smell him, more than that she could feel him as he pulled her gently further into his arms.

Even now they weren’t dancing as intimately as some of the other couples on the floor, who were practically welded together. They were just dancing, Lex’s arm wrapping itself around her waist and his hand now pressing against hers which was against his chest. He had touched her before, she could remember every single time from the first time that he had shook her hand to the way he had placed his hand on her shoulder when he had vowed to protect her, but never before had she felt quite so warm and protected. It was as if she were cocooned in tranquillity.

“I’m sorry that I made that comment about your wives”, Chloe said from where her head naturally rested on his shoulder.

“That’s okay. Besides, you were right”, he said, as he continued to rock with her to the music. “Desiree put a spell on me – quite literally – but I can’t claim excuse that with Helen”. For a few minutes that seemed to be the end to the conversation, Lex was happy to just hold Chloe for now and breath in the scent of her flowery shampoo, until he remembered something and asked her, “You never liked her, did you?”

“No”, Chloe answered. She remembered when she had gone to him with her research on Helen, and had been rebuffed. Trying to smooth over the topic so that their dance would not be cut short, she offered, “But I never found out anything concrete against her”.

“I still should have listened to you”, Lex acknowledged. In truth he had known that for the longest time. Even when she had come to him with the information he had suspected that it was true, but it was easier to make Chloe the villain of the piece rather than accepting that the woman to whom he had given his heart was just using him and that no one would ever love him and that he would live and die alone hated by everyone just like his father. So he had been rude to Chloe and clung to Helen as if she were his life line. Even on the island he had heard Chloe’s words over and over in his head, when he had got back he had almost apologised but he had been too embarrassed and Chloe had just asked after his health and told him that they were all glad to see that he was alive, she hadn’t rubbed it in. In hindsight he thought that that might have been the day when he begun his downward slide into …well into what didn’t matter.

“You barely knew me. You had not reason to trust my research over her word”, Chloe tried to let him off the hook, not mentioning all of the tears she had cried over the way the way that he had treated her that day when she had only been trying to help. It still stung as she thought of him calling her a silly, jealous, interfering little girl who would do better to worry about her own love life rather than his, but being nestled as she was in his arms took some of the discomfort away.

Lex would have felt better if she had let him have it for the way that he had behaved that day, but no she was Chloe – the only woman sweet enough to forgive something like that. He wanted her to know that he hadn’t forgotten how badly he had acted and didn’t take it lightly. “I knew that you were the only one to have worked out the links between the meteor rocks and the strange occurrences around here”.

Chloe shrugged, or the nearest thing that she could do considering the position that she was in.

“As a Luthor there are several things that I can’t say, I’m sorry being one of them. But I hope that you know that if I were capable, I would apologise for blowing you off that day and being so rude to you”, he said, sounding a little gruff. He really hoped that she had not taken his words to heart that day, because if she had then the three months he had spent on that God forsaken island were nowhere near atonement.

“Well if you were capable and said that, I too would have to apologise”, Chloe admitted, trying to hide just how happy his words made her. “I could have tried harder to get you to see the truth and in most cases I would have taken such a rebuff as a challenge to make you see what I saw and admit that I was right all along”.

He looked down at her face as she tilted it up to stare right back.

“But I was so angry when you wouldn’t take my word for it I decided to leave you to your fate”, remorse flooded her voice; “If I had tried harder then maybe you wouldn’t have ended up all alone on that island”.

He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He could just see her huffing indignantly over his appalling treatment of her and – quite reasonably – deciding to let him walk into the lion’s den, but it killed him to know that he hurt her that much. Either way, he wasn’t going to let her continue to feel one jot of guilt about her actions.

“Don’t worry about it, I learnt a lot from it and the truth is that I was so far gone by that point that I doubt that anything you could have said would have made a difference”, he tried to wrap up the conversation. This was not the way that the night was supposed to go. If he were going to shift gears in time, he would have to start now.

“So, what are you plans for tonight?” He wondered, trying to sound casual which was extremely difficult as she remained nuzzled up to him.

“Stay until 9 pm and then go home”, she said with a rueful smile. Even to her own ears that sounded like a pathetic plan for what was supposed to be the most magical night of a girl’s life – if even half of the romance novels she had read were to be believed.

Lex bit his lip to keep himself from uttering the first comment that came to mind at that. Once he had himself under control he noted with a smile, “I thought that prom nights were supposed to be a little more than that”.

“Yeah, normally they are”, Chloe admitted, a little woefully, “Or so I have been lead to believe”.

He nodded thoughtfully as she presented him the opportunity he had been waiting for, “So, if you had your choice, what would you be doing tonight?”

Chloe shrugged again.

By now Lex had worked out that that was one of her tells; it was what she did when she knew the answer but didn’t want to risk saying anything unless she let something slip. He prodded her gently, “You had no plans?”

She sighed; she didn’t want to tell him the truth so she couldn’t explain why her lips started moving. “I had three plans. My prom night dream, which I gave up on at the end of freshman year”, she admitted, remembering being left by Clark and running around the dance asking everyone if they had seen him. He hadn’t even bothered to tell her that he was leaving. She scowled before feeling it melt away as her back was rubbed.

Lex nodded, understanding what it felt like to be betrayed. He had heard about it at the time and had thought about how terrible it must have been for Chloe to just be stood up like that. He could never understand why Clark had not noticed that what he had done must have hurt others.

He tightened his arms around Chloe a little more protectively, without meaning to. When he realised what he had done he hoped that he wouldn’t have frightened her off, but if Chloe had noticed it only seemed to encourage her to tell him more.

“My idea after that was to come with my date, have a nice time and then go off to University”, she said, this time with little emotion.

“Date?” He inquired, looking around as if waiting for someone to come in a swoop her away from him. From his research leading up to this evening, he hadn’t heard anything about a date. Well, if this mystery man did show up then he would have a fight on his hands because Lex had no intention of letting her go easily … if at all.

“Yes, I am capable of getting one”, she snapped, a little hurt although she supposed that he had reason to know that she did sometimes get asked out seeing as he had never seen her on a date, she had never had a boyfriend, and he didn’t think of her as anything other than Clark’s little friend.

“I have no doubt of that”, he assured her, a little shocked by the bite in her tone. Boys couldn’t possible by a sore point for a girl as pretty as she was, he knew that Clark had probably knocked her confidence but there must have been a string of men just waiting to make her feel better. The possessive steak came out again as it had several times when he had received reports of Chloe kissing boys in The Torch office, honestly was nothing sacred anymore? Trying to get back on topic, he continued, “But Clark told me that you didn’t have one for tonight. Hence my surprise”.

“Yeah well, it didn’t work out”, she shrugged, feeling a little silly now for having made such a big deal out of it. She couldn’t help but let her gaze wander over to the man who would have been her date, he was dancing with a girl who looked quite pretty. Chloe was happy for them.

Not realising what promoted her look, Lex offered, “Want me to have a word with him?” considering whether the boy looked like he might have any scholarships which he could have pulled.

“No thanks, I was the one who called it off”, she explained, a little startled by the look in Lex’s eyes. He looked like he would have liked to break her former potential date’s fingers.

“Why? If you don’t mind me asking”, Lex’s tone was clipped - he didn’t really care if she did mind, she was going to tell him either way. If that boy had tried something then Lex would not be held responsible for his actions, or the boy’s medical costs.

Chloe groaned. She would dearly have liked to be able to dodge this question but she could feel from the tension that was oozing from his body that she was not going to be able to; he would get the answer out of her whatever it took. “Clark didn’t have a date and wasn’t even going to come for a while, I wanted to convince him to come and Lois was meant to be travelling down too and we were all going to have a sort of friends end of high school dance party”.

Lex looked sadly down at her. “Lana decided to come”, it wasn’t a question.

“Yeah, and Lois didn’t. But it’s good, I’m happy for them”, she did her best to cover up her bruised sentiments. It was silly really, it was just a party and she had never really thought that Clark might finally see her and fall in love with her.

“If there is anyone in the world selfless enough for that to be true, you’re probably her”, Lex said as his palm traced slow calming circles across her back.

“I don’t know how selfless I am”, Chloe said, still thinking about what she had let Lex endure for her pride, and what she had almost done to Clark when she had teamed up with Lionel.

“I do”, there was a moment of unease. “So, if you hadn’t broken if off what would you have been doing with him? I mean, 7:30 until 10pm is quite short for a night out, there must have been more to the plan than that”, he said marvelling at how short Smallville High’s prom was. “Was he going to take you out afterwards?”

“Um … yeah. We were going to drive into Metropolis and have dinner”, she answered him uncomfortably, hoping that he would leave it at that and that he didn’t know about certain post-prom traditions.

“Nice to hear that the boy had some romance in him”, Lex said, looking over at him. “Football player?”

“Yeah, quarter back now that Clark quit”, Chloe informed him, forgetting that that was all over now. They were about to graduate so he couldn’t be the quarterback any longer.

“You could do better”, he informed her.

“Sure”, she said, but not with a lot great deal of conviction, “but it would have been nice to be the perfect girl for the night”, she sounded a little sad.

“Well you have come to the prom, got the crown, you’re doing a bit of dancing now”, he reminded this of her by spinning her around as the music changed, “I think that I can manage to get you to Metropolis for some dinner at somewhere much nicer than he could afford”. Finally his opening had arrived.

“You don’t have to do that”, she told him laughing as they twirled. She had not even known that she knew how to dance like that until Lex had taken her in his arms.

“I want to”, Lex was firm. “Can’t be outdone, where was he going to take you?” He imagined some little out of the way restaurant with a low price tag that the boy had mistakenly thought he could impress Chloe with.

“Metropolis Plaza”, Chloe informed him, her eyes going back over to the two dancing couples who had been occupying her thoughts throughout the night.

Lex let out a low whistle, “I think that you are lucky that you dropped him then, you only go to dinner there if you are planning on spending the night, and it is certainly out of his price range so he was probably looking at it as an investment”. He didn’t add that he could buy the entire Plaza chain and give it to her as a graduation present without feeling the pinch; he was too bothered by the thought of that footballer trying to take advantage of Chloe’s trusting innocence. She couldn’t have known what it was so obvious to Lex he had had planned, could she?

Chloe said nothing.

That was when something occurred to Lex. “If you and he were planning on going up to Metropolis and he was obviously planning on spending the night there but your cousin who you could otherwise have stayed with was supposed to be coming down here … how and when were you planning on coming back?” He watched her flush pink. “Oh”, was all that he said, as he tried to calm himself down.

He wasn’t sure whether he should be happy or furious. Over the years he had had plenty of fantasies in which Chloe Sullivan played the starring role and she had always seemed to have a slightly more knowing way about her than most of the other girls her age but he had always just put that down to his imagination. He didn’t want her to be a snow white virgin who knew nothing of men, because if she were then that made his feelings for her so much worse, so he had always just figured that he had unwittingly imbued her with desires that she probably didn’t have. He was very pleased to be proved wrong, but the idea that that pillock had been the one she had almost chosen to indulge in such pleasures with made him see red.

“Didn’t take you for a prude Lex”, her forced a teasing note into her tone. For reasons which she didn’t want to dwell on she really hoped that Lex wasn’t one of those men who thought that it was alright for them to go around sewing their wild oats while the girls had to be devoid of any and all passion … until their wedding night when they were suddenly meant to somehow know everything that they top whores did.

“I’m not, I just didn’t realise that you were dating him”, he said the first thing that came into his head.

“I’m not”, she admitted. She didn’t know why, but she felt that she owed him an explanation. “We have known each other for a while though and I decided that I wanted to take control of my life. I wanted to have the perfect prom night and not go to college the same Chloe Sullivan”.

Lex nodded slightly, understanding the situation. He was going to have been her first. Lex didn’t think that he had ever been so grateful to Clark and his bloody Lana fixation before in his life. Knowing that he would need to tread especially carefully now, he started, “I like the same Chloe Sullivan”.

Before he could get much further, the song changed to a pop one and Chloe grimaced.

“You aren’t a big fan of Britney Spears?” He asked jokingly, unable to stop himself from responding to her animated face.

“Not really no”, Chloe answered, not mentioning the entire summer she had spent doing the Baby One More Time dance routine when the song had first come out and that her grimace had been from the memory of her making a prat of herself all summer long and the distain of her cousin, rather than because she didn’t like the song.

“Want to get out of here?” Lex asked, sensing that the time was right. “I have a helicopter on the roof, we could be in the city in 30 minutes, go to the best restaurant in the city …”

He heard a snort from behind him and a turned to look at Chloe’s former date and the cheerleader on his arm – she wasn’t wearing her uniform, but he could still tell.

“We’re just off now”, he informed Chloe. “I’m not that fond of cherries anyway”.

Chloe went scarlet as she got the reference and ended up looking not unlike said fruit.

Lex had clearly also understood and looked about ready to beat the man to death but Chloe held his hands and asked, “Are you ready to go?” She hadn’t actually made a decision to go with Lex – she couldn’t just fly off with him to Metropolis, that was absurd -, she just knew that she had to get him out of there before he ended up all over the front page of the papers for having assaulted a teenager.

“Whenever you are baby”, he replied, pulling her even closer to him, if such a thing were possible considering how closely they had drawn together without realising it, as they were dancing. He had instantly realised what was going on and knew that she didn’t want him to make a scene. Well that was fine, just as long as he was getting what he wanted. He would take her anyway that he could have her and if this was what it took to get her to Metropolis he would save his plans of revenge of later.

She looked up at him beseechingly and he couldn’t help but wonder how far she would allow him to go if it kept him from drawing attention to them and the fact that he was still firmly on the verge of mutilating one of her former classmates. She hadn’t corrected him when he had called her baby. He ran his hand lower down her back and again she didn’t object. He smirked as he wondered how she would take a little more PDA.

Chloe licked her lips, as a thrill shot through her. She knew that it was wrong to feel like this. She had no right to be attracted to Lex or to be relishing the look of shock on her almost lover’s face but she couldn’t help herself. Or rather, she probably could have helped herself, but she really didn’t want to. She was in the arms of Lex Luthor and he seemed to be willing to help make the footballer jealous so she might as well make the most of what she imaged would be her one and only chance.

Satisfied that Lex wasn’t going to hit anyone, Chloe removed her hands from his and tucked one of her hands into the crook of his arm.

Lex smiled at Chloe’s method of taking the initiative and once again wondered just how far he could push this. Never one to ignore opportunity when it came knocking; he ran his thumb over her full lower lip.

Chloe reacted, parting her lips slightly. She couldn’t have pulled back even if she had wanted to; she was too enthralled by the predatory glint in his eyes as he leant in and brushed her lips gently with his own.

There kiss lasted only a few seconds, but as he pulled back Lex was pleased to note that she looked a little dazed. He used that to his advantage placing his hand over hers and escorting her out of the room before she could come to her senses and object.

Lex noted with no inconsiderable degree of satisfaction that her former date was looking after them incredulously. Somehow no one else had noticed but even if they had the billionaire wouldn’t have minded. He was going to give Chloe the perfect prom night … and destroy the football player while he was at it.

[malugargula]

Chloe's gonna have the prom night from the gods
lol
:)
Can't wait to read more

[cbrunberg]

great story. lex will definitely give her prom night from the gods. can't wait for next chapter

[TrinityR]

Wow! I just LOVE IT! It was a brilliant chapter! Especially I loved the description of how wonderful Lex smelt:P:P

I just have the bad feeling in my gut than they will have sex and then Chloe will leave him, because she's not in love with him:( And then they'll meet on the reunion... upss... Have I spoillt something here?

[hfce]

Great story. I can't wait to see where this leads. :)

[gecko]

interesting story, can't wait to read what happens next.

[HotCrossedBunny]

A/N: Thanks for all of the reviews *feels spoiled*

*Chapter Three*

Lex led Chloe out of the gym and through the school’s corridors relieved that there didn’t seem to be anyone else about (they must have all still been in the gym), as the last thing that he wanted was for someone to address Chloe and bring her out of the stupor into which his kiss seemed to have sent her. He tried not to let his anxiety show as he hurried her up to the rooftop, all the while keeping her hand tucked in the crook of his arm. He knew that if he could just get her into the helicopter that he would get everything that he wanted but if she refused … well it didn’t bare thinking about.

As the cool night air hit them Chloe seemed to come back to herself a little. “Uh, Lex”, she started.

He panicked, that was the only word for it which was utterly ridiculous as Lex Luthor did not panic. He had never panicked in his entire life, - not even when he had gone up against his father - but the idea that he might miss his shot with Chloe was enough to make him crazy and break out into a cold sweat.

There was no way that he was going to be left alone again, ethics be damned. As she started to pull her hand out of his, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and grasped her wrist gently but firmly trying to make it seem like that was just something normal that he did when walking beside a woman rather than letting her see the truth - that he was manhandling her into his helicopter to take her away to Metropolis where he could take her out and then repeatedly ravish her.

Chloe looked confused as he pushed her along but didn’t pull away from him until they were only a few steps away from his chopper. Lex kept hold of her wrist, even as she turned to face him and he yanked the door open, - his pilot was already in the machine and ready for take-off.

“Lex what are we doing?” She wondered, the fog clearing from her brain enough for her to realise that this wasn’t normal. This couldn’t be right, she had just been sitting at her prom bored to tears and miserable and then suddenly Lex was there and they were dancing, then kissing then … this. She wasn’t complaining, but this wasn’t normal.

“We are getting into the helicopter”, he announced, deciding to take charge in true Luthor style. She looked like she was about to back out, if she did he wasn’t certain that he would be able to talk her back into it. He had learnt a long time ago that it was always better to beg for forgiveness rather than ask permission – especially when they were locked in a small cabin together hundreds of feet above the ground with nowhere she could run. Although, he didn’t think that he would mind facing down and trying to pacify an angry Chloe; he believed that he would be able to beg very persuasively for forgiveness in those conditions, on his knees if Chloe really wished. He placed his hands under her arms and lifted her back into the cabin, following her in before she could protest and closing and locking the door.

“We are ready for take-off”, he informed the pilot.

“Lex, what are you doing?” Chloe asked as he strapped her into the chair and then did the same to himself and the engine whirred to life. It didn’t matter if she protested now, it was too late.

“I’m taking you to Metropolis as we agreed”, he said casually, as if he had no idea what she could possibly be angry about.

She looked at him incredulously. She couldn’t fathom what was going on. She remembered his offer but part of her had thought that it was a joke, but even if it weren’t she couldn’t accept it. It was simply too much. She had agreed but only to make her footballer jealous and to stop Lex from pummelling him, he had to know that right? Why had he put her into the aircraft? Hell, since when did Lex manhandle? Since when did she allow something like that to happen? Since when did she kind of like it?

“We didn’t actually agree”, she pointed out. “Lex, you don’t have to do this”.

“I know that I don’t have to”, he said as he body argued that point furiously, “but I want to. Now, sit back and relax”.

“Lex …”

“I’m not letting you go Chloe”, his voice was stern. “So sit back and relax or argue with me if you want but either way is not going to make a difference”.

Chloe raised an eyebrow at him, a look which she had perfected in her bathroom mirror after seeing Lex do it for the first time and longing to be able to do it. The practice had paid off.

“You are very sure of yourself”, she commented. She should have been furious and normally she would have been but there was something about the way Lex said it, the way he sat back in his chair, the way her skin still tingled from where he had touched her, the way his scent filled the confined space.

“I try”, he said noticing her impression of him with a smirk.

Chloe felt somewhere a little south of her stomach flutter as he smirked, but ever in search of a logical explanation put it down to the movement of the helicopter.

“Often kidnap girls on their prom nights?” She asked.

“I wouldn’t say often”, he said with another smirk, “although normally I don’t have to kidnap women, as you put it”.

“Really? You do surprise me”, her tone and posture reeked of hauteur.

He raised an eyebrow at the blatant display of displeasure she was putting on for his benefit, which lead him to believe that she was not actually that angry. “I seem to remember you being a little more pliant earlier”, he teased her. It wasn’t as if she could storm off now.

“Yes, well I was distracted”, she admitted sulkily, trying not to blush.

“Really? I wonder what distracted you so much”, he leant over so that his hot breath tickled her.

“I … don’t remember”, she lied unconvincingly.

He grinned and caressed her cheek gently, before leaning even closer as if he were about to kiss her.

“Lex”, she breathed his name, before asking, “what are you doing?” God, she wanted to kiss him, but she needed to know what was going on.

“Getting a better view”, he said huskily. He undid his seatbelt now that they were in the air and bent over so that his arms were on either side of her, trapping her. His lips were only a few inches away from hers now.

“Always been into star gazing have you?” She tried to ignore the way that he was looking at her and the way that it made her tingle.

The smile he gave her at that made her heart melt, “Sure the view out of the window. That is what I was talking about.”

Chloe turned her head to look out of the window, hoping that not being able to see him would make the feelings she was experiencing die down, it didn’t work. The sensations only increased as Lex informed her huskily about the names of the stars that they could see, their histories; his voice was hypnotic although she couldn’t really focus on his words. He ran his fingers through her hair and down the back of her neck, onto her shoulder and then down her back. His other hand was ostensibly indicating the stars out of the window but then moved to wrap itself around her stomach, pulling her back into him.

She nuzzled back into his warmth automatically.

“God you smell incredible”, he growled into her ear.

“Lex, please stop this”, she begged him weakly, knowing that she wouldn’t be strong enough to stop him if he kissed her or touched her more right then.

“You don’t want to go to Metropolis? You don’t want to have dinner or go dancing? You don’t want to have the prom night you deserve? Tell me what you want and I will give it to you”, he purred, running his hand over his shoulder and down her arm.

“I want to know why you are doing this”, she repeated for the … actually she had forgotten how many times she had asked him that, but she was quite sure that it had been a few. She didn’t dare ask how far he was planning on taking the prom night thing, just in case he hadn’t been implying anything by that and thought her presumptuous.

“Doing what? This?” He stroked her hair, allowing his fingers to tangle in her golden tress and watching with rapt attention as she moved her head back into his hands. Her body clearly wanted him, even if her mind didn’t.

“Or this”, he massaged her neck and shoulders gently feeling her relax under his touch, which was saying something as she was incredibly tense … he was going to have to remember to do something about that later. Damn, he needed something to distract his mouth from saying something stupid and giving away some of the thoughts that that had conjured up.

“Or this?” He asked as he nibbled her earlobe.

“All of it”, she gasped, no man had ever done anything like this to her before. “Why are you acting like you care?”

“Because I do”, he told her seriously.

Chloe considered his words for a second, she had always thought that Lex had been disappointed with her after last year and that he had stopped thinking about her at all soon after that. The idea that he cared about her was amazing, wonderful but completely unbelievable … and yet when Lex said it for some reason she found herself believing him implicitly.

There was silence for a few minutes as it all sank in.

“You know it is a little chilly in here”, she informed him.

“Sorry, I should have thought of that earlier”, he said, although he didn’t think that it was actually cold at all. He tried to pull back to remove his suit jacket and hand it to her.

“No”, she said pulling him back closer to her, “just put your arms around me”, she instructed him.

“That I can do”, he smiled as he wrapped his around her and nuzzled her neck.

After a few more moments of silence Lex could practically hear her brain whirring, at first he thought that it was the helicopter but then he was sure that it was her brain. “A million dollar for your thoughts”, he offered.

“They aren’t worth that much”, she smiled.

“I’ll be the judge of that. Come on”, he gave her an encouraging squeeze.

“I wanted to say that I was sorry for what happened last year”, she murmured.

“What are you talking about?” He turned her face towards him; the scene outside the window had lost all interest for him.

“Last year. I got myself in trouble, then I came to you and you got me out of it. I’m sorry that it happened”, Chloe said her eyes still fixed on the window even though her head was turned.

“Look at me Chloe”, he commanded and she obeyed, hating herself for being so weak.

“I never blamed you for any of that. You were jerked around by Clark, I never agreed with the way that he treated you and while we both know that what you did wasn’t right it was understandable and you did the right thing in telling me the truth”, he thumbed her cheek.

“You seemed really angry at the time”, she pointed out. She had never before talked to anyone about what had happened that day.


~*~

“Chloe, how could you have been so fucking stupid?” Lex roared.

“I … I don’t know”, Chloe said, trying to remain strong.

“What the fuck do you mean that you have been working with my father but then he turned against you?” He demanded. He had been having a relatively quiet day, just sitting in his office working when his father had called him and asked/told him to fire Gabe Sullivan. Lex had called Clark immediately to see if he knew what any of this was about but Clark had said that had wasn’t aware that the Sullivans and Lionel had any contact at all and so couldn’t work it out and Chloe hadn’t told him about anything. Lex had sighed, clearly his father was back up to his old tricks and Lex’s favourite blonde/pain-in-the-butt reporter was somehow mixed up in it. Why did that not surprise him?

He had thought of going straight to the Smallville High and cornering Chloe there but he thought that that might be too obvious (and he didn’t know if his father was having him, or her, or both of them watched) so he had had order Clark to bring Chloe straight over to the mansion after school. This was the only place safe enough to speak freely and it wasn’t all that unusual for Chloe to accompany Clark on his trips.

Thank goodness Clark had actually brought her over earlier because they had several free periods and he thought that Chloe seemed agitated. From what Lex gathered as they walked in, Clark had not told Chloe that it was Lex who wanted the meeting; he could hear her asking, “Come on Clark, what is the mystery. You told me that you would tell when we got here. What’s going on?”

“That is just what I was about to ask you, Miss Sullivan”, Lex said, leaning back in his chair.

He could see her visibly pale and gulp. He raised an eyebrow before getting up and walking over to them. “You can leave us now Clark”.

Chloe looked after Clark in panic as he left but Lex would not be deterred by that, he would know all. Within a very short time he had got her to blurt out that she thought that she was in serious trouble and that he was the only one who could help her, but she had stalled at the rest of her story.

“Answer my question Chloe”, he growled, “What do you mean that you have been working with my father and that he turned against you?”

“Pretty much what I said”, she got out, willing herself not to take a step backwards or start to shake. She didn’t want to come here in the first place but now that she was there she couldn’t think of any way out of this problem, unless Lex was willing to help.

“Alright”, he said trying to calm down, that wasn’t going to do him any good. She was clearly terrified and the fact that she didn’t fall into his arms as most women would have impressed him, but by God he wanted her in his arms.

“Come on, sit down”, he said wrapping an arm around her shoulders and leading her over to the settee and making sure that she was settled before moving to the drinks cabinet and getting the decanters of scotch and soda and two glasses, he had a feeling that they were going to need them.

Once he was sat back down next to her and poured himself a double scotch and a single scotch and soda for Chloe, no sense in giving her anything too strong.

“Here”, he passed her the drink and said, “I know that you aren’t old enough yet, but what the hell. Sounds like legality is the least of your worries”.

“Thank-you”, Chloe said, taking a sip of her drink, it burnt her throat but it was a relief to feel something there other than the knot that had been there for over a week.

“Start from the beginning”, he advised her as he placed his hand on her back. He saw her hesitate, “Whatever it is Chloe, whatever you have done I will help you but I have to know the truth … all of it”.

She took another gulp of the amber liquid; it wasn’t quite so bad this time. “Last summer I started to work with you father, researching Clark”, she said. She didn’t get into the why or the how, there were no excuses for what she had done and she fully expected to be dismissed and left to her fate after she told him that.

Lex raised an eyebrow at that, but all he said was, “Go on”.

“I was supposed to be researching Clark and at first it went really well. I already had loads of information that I had collected before and which Lionel already knew so it couldn’t hurt Clark”, she remembered her folly with tears sparkling in her eyes.

“What did he offer you in return”, Lex asked.

“Everything”, was her simple answer. “New computers for The Torch, my Dad got a promotion which paid enough to buy a new very fancy house, and I got a column at The Daily Planet. On top of that, there was talk of scholarships when it came time for University”. She wished that she didn’t have to tell him any of this.

“So he made you completely dependent on him, then he asked for more?” Lex could tell exactly what had happened just from looking at her face. This was classic Lionel. Chloe must really have been desperate and miserable to have fallen for it; he would have to talk to Clark about taking better care of her.

Chloe nodded, “He wanted more information on Clark”.

“And you didn’t give it to him”, Lex supplied for her. “Then he started to threaten you to bring you back into line?”

“Yes, and last night it got worse”, several tears trickled down her cheeks as she relived the experience. Lex’s hands clenched into fists as he saw the tears, if Lionel had laid one finger on her he would be dead before the day was out. “He told me that he would get rid of everything, that Dad would be left as nothing more than a dishwasher”.

Lex breathed a sigh of relief. Those kinds of threats he could deal with, he focused on his anger towards Lionel and not on Chloe, he wanted so badly to reach out a wipe those tears away but he knew that he couldn’t do that.

“What was your response?” He asked, already knowing that answer; she had refused.

“I told him no. I had suspected that it might come to this”, she admitted, “but I didn’t think that he would go after my Dad, just me”.

Lex snorted at her naivety; Lionel would know that Gabe was her weakness and that attacking him would be the best way to bring Chloe to her knees. Bugger that was not an image that he needed.

“I have being researching your father and thought that if I could find out enough dirt on him then I could blackmail him into leaving us alone”, Chloe said sadly staring at her hands.

“Well that was stupid, brave but stupid”, Lex said mildly as he took a sip of his scotch. He wanted to look in control; he couldn’t be Chloe’s rock if he showed emotions. At that moment she needed someone she could depend on, someone strong not someone with feelings and weakness like any other. For her he could, he would be a superhero.

“I know”, she whispered.

“I am going to fire Gabe like my father wants”, he said easily, “you and he are going to go through a terrible couple of months being scared of losing everything and I am not going to do a thing to help you … on the surface of things. You will hand over all of the information you have on my father to me and will be compensated accordingly, let’s say the amount of money that your father would have made had he been working at his new job during his upcoming period of unemployment”.

Chloe looked up at him, hope filling her eyes.

“You have a college fund I assume, that will be enough to get you through these few months and then the balance will be redressed at the end of that period. Any harm done to your father’s reputation or yours during that time will be remedied afterwards by my explaining that you were working for me the entire time when your father comes back to the company in his managerial position”, Lex spoke with quiet authority. “I told you that I would take care of this and I meant it”.

“What about Clark?” Chloe wondered.

“He doesn’t have to know anything”, Lex assured her. “If the truth does come out at some point I will tell him that Lionel approached you to ask you to research him and that you came straight to me not sure how to deal with my father and that I told you to give him information that he already had so that we could see if there were any type of threat to Clark there. I will take full responsibility if he is angry about it”.

“Why would you do something like that?” Chloe wondered.

He couldn’t say because he couldn’t bear to see her so upset, and so he answered, “Because Clark is my friend but he will never truly trust me, he trusts you and I would hate to see him disappointed in you. That is more than anyone should have to bear”.


~*~

“I wasn’t angry … well that isn’t true. I was furious but that was because I was worried about you and scared about what my father might do to you”, he kissed her cheek. “Listen Chloe, I want to give you what I think should be the best night of your life so far but it you don’t trust me, if you are afraid that I am going to try to take advantage of you …”

“I’m not”, she assured him.

Lex smirked; he had known that that would get to her. He hadn’t been sure about how she felt about him before that night, but now he knew that she trusted him - if she hadn’t she would never have leant into his touch earlier. If she trusted him she would want to prove it and it might be wrong (scratch that, it definitely was wrong) but he would use that to manipulate her into staying with him that night. He knew that there was no way that she would back out now, not if she thought that doing so would be a sign of her lack of faith in him.

“Manipulative bastard”, she muttered knowing exactly what he had been up to.

Lex grinned at her.

[TrinityR]

I love it!!how you describe the feelins and sansations here:D:D
I'm curious how it will go...

[TrinityR]

I love it!!how you describe the feelins and sansations here:D:D
I'm curious how it will go...

[hfce]

As Chloe knows who he is. She knows what he is doing. LOL!

[HotCrossedBunny]

*Chapter Four*

“So, does size impress you?” Lex couldn’t resist asking Chloe as they walked into the garden room restaurant of the Metropolis Plaza. He could have taken her back to his apartment and had the dinner brought over – which is what he would have preferred, rather than having to share her with everyone – but he knew that that wasn’t part of the traditional prom night experience, so he had booked them a private table, in addition to a suite for the night. He was used to the grandeur of places like this but he was aware of the impact it had on most women and was eager to see Chloe’s response.

“Of course”, she smirked over at him, “everything is more satisfying when it is larger, wouldn’t you agree Lex?”

Lex was glad that he hadn’t been drinking anything at that moment or he would probably have spat it out at the smirk she had given him, followed by the incredibly sweet innocent look … which he didn’t buy it for a second.

“Well I certainly appreciate size in certain attributes”, his gaze wandered down to her chest. It was really very nice.

“But really”, Chloe continued, trying desperately to ignore the look he was giving her and the feelings it stirred with in her. “It is more about the quality. I mean, size is useless if you don’t know what to do with it”, she let his hang on her words for a minute before saying, “But looking around here they know what to do with it, the place is decorated in such a lovely manner”.

He smiled. “I’m glad that you approve. There is another dining room which is a little larger and more opulent, gold leaf all over the place etc., but I thought that you would be more comfortable here”.

“You didn’t think that you could elevate me too much, huh Lex?” She joked.

“No”, he protested too loudly, reaching across the table to her, “nothing like that. If you want to go into the other dining room then we will go there. If you want the entire building then …”

“Lex, it’s alright”, she put her hands over his. “I was only joking. I know that you wouldn’t have brought me here at all if you were ashamed of me.”

He didn’t look fully convinced.

She leant out and caressed the side of his face; he looked so young and lost in that moment, she couldn’t resist comforting him. She felt protective, that was it. That had to be what made her share her feelings at that moment. “Actually, I thought that it was really sweet of you to bring me to the more beautiful of the two rather than the more opulent one, just because you can. Mic … the other boy I was with, he was going to take me to the other one, he insisted on showing me the brochure and highlighting the fact that he was taking me to the largest one for dinner, as if that would somehow guarantee him”, she trailed off. “Anyway …” she tried to cover up what she had almost let slip. “I just wanted to say that I appreciate beauty over status”.

“So do I”, he agreed taking her hand in his, “it’s good that you didn’t end up with him, I don’t think that you would have had a very enjoyable night”.

There were so many answers to that statement, unfortunately most of them would have revealed far more about her than she was willing to at that moment. She certainly wasn’t about to tell him that she didn’t expect pleasure from a sexual union - she just wanted it over and done with -, or anything else about her feelings on the subject for that matter. So she just gave him a forced smile, “I don’t think that he would have lasted the night, do you?”

Lex knew that she was using humour as a shield but decided to allow it for now. He looked her up and down openly and answered honestly, “No, I think that he would have come in his pants just seeing you in your underwear”.

“You don’t know what I look like in my underwear”, she pointed out, trying to ignore the way that her body reacted to his gaze. If she hadn’t been so accustomed to thinking of herself as the ugly duckling’s chubby little cousin she would have believed him and wanted to prove him right.

“I have a vivid imagination”, he raised her fingers to his lips and gently kissed them.

“Has anyone ever told you that you are a terrible flirt Lex?” She asked, trying to calm her breathing and not let him see that he was getting to her. This was Lex Luthor after all; he probably flirted with everyone like this. He probably flirted even more with girls who looked like Lana, if not actually Lana, if this was even flirting. Chloe couldn’t be sure. Maybe this was just how men normally acted around girls and she just wasn’t used to it and he was just feeling sorry for her. Bloody hell, his eyes were gorgeous.

“Actually usually people tell me that I am a very good flirt”, he tried to keep his tone light.

“Really Lex? People? Not just women? I have to say that I am surprised, but I suppose that a lot of things make more sense now”, she found her snark. She was always more comfortable with snark, rather than real emotions. Snark was a nice warm blanket to cuddle up to … when you didn’t have anyone, possibly because of the snark. It was a vicious cycle.

“My my Miss Sullivan, are you attempting to provoke me?” He deliberately made his voice low and dangerous, enjoying the powerful thrill which shot through him as he watched her shiver.

“Maybe”, she said before she could consider her words.

Lex’s grin spread even wider as he wrapped his arms around her and drew her closer; there was no harm in giving her a few spoilers of what the night could hold in store for them.

Her breath quickened and she felt a tug between her legs which frightened her, she had to kill the mood. “Or maybe I was being completely serious. You know Lex, being gay isn’t something to be ashamed of anymore. I know that your father wouldn’t understand but …”

“Go and sit down”, he ordered her gruffly, his mood ruined. Chloe pulled faces at him when she thought that no one but him was watching as they were led over to a private table, surrounded by plants. She hadn’t actually meant to offend him; she just hadn’t wanted him to kiss her then. Mostly because she wasn’t sure that she would have been able to refrain from begging him to take her right then and there if he had.

Lex tried not to respond to her silly faces until they were sat down and had ordered drinks. Chloe raised the menu to cover her from view and the stuck her tongue out at him.

“You know, I’m sure that I can find a quiet corner to drag you into to thoroughly chastise you”, he said as if it were a threat, trying to maintain a dower expression when he really wanted to laugh. He took a sip of his drink, and noted that as normal it was very good.

Timing her response so that he was just swallowing as she spoke, Chloe batted her eyelashes in a, completely feigned, mixture of innocence and horror. “But Lex, whoever told you that I was into that?”

He choked, as she had known he would. She loved that fact that she could get the upper hand with Lex Luthor, occasionally.

“I beg your pardon”, he said between coughs.

“I asked”, Chloe lowered her voice and leant across the table so that he could still hear her, “who told you that I was into that?”

Lex had a very stern talk with himself at that. She was just playing with him, he knew that and yet his traitorous body refused to believe it. It wouldn’t believe that Chloe was just leading it on without any hope of relief.

Chloe grinned from ear to ear, unable to keep up her pretence of being a femme fatale. She had heard that line years ago in the film Heart Breakers which she had been watching with Lois and had made a note to use it if the occasion ever arose, well now it finally had. That was one off her list of smart ass comments to make, only about 200 more to go before she died – otherwise she would have a lot to get through on her deathbed.

“Damn it Chloe don’t you know not to tease a man like that, it could get you in trouble, you know”, he tried to be part of the joke.

“Oh please I’ve been pushed up against a wall by bigger guys that you”, she played with her menu so that she could avoid making eye contact with him, she would never be able to make this stick if she looked at him directly.

“Who?” Lex demanded.

“Honestly Lex anyone would think that you were jealous”, she taunted him. Now he would back off, looking offended at best or at worst he would make an ‘in your dreams’ comment and then they would be back to normal.

“Who?” He repeated the demand, this time taking the menu off her so that she had nothing to hide behind.

Her eyes snapped over to his face as if he controlled them rather than her. Therein he noted shock and a little confusion but that did not stop him from staring her down until she answered his question. “Clark. We were trying to work out how you knocked off Eve’s earring”, she explained. Feeling a little stupid now for trying to make it seem like something more.

“Well played Miss Sullivan, well played”, Lex complimented, effectively letting her off the hook. He wanted to tease her about it and he would, but only after he had bedded her, - too much teasing of a non-sexual nature before that she leave her too tense to do anything.

He held out the menu to her, “But you know I don’t think that Clark can do my moves justice, if you want a real demonstration …”

“I should go to the source”, Chloe finished for him with a sweet smile, “But I think that Lionel is still in prison”. She froze. Bugger, she was stupid around him. The desire to win their little match had made her lose her common sense.

Lex froze, he really didn’t want to hear his father’s name at that time, especially not coming out of Chloe’s mouth in that context. He knew that his father had stolen his girls before, he tried to breathe deeply. Chloe didn’t know that and judging by her face she was clearly sorry.

“I didn’t …” she tried to explain herself.

“You know Chloe, the possibility of you getting chastised in some dark corner somewhere is becoming increasingly likely. In fact, I think that I have got the choice down to two corners I’m rather fond of”, his tone was controlled.

“Oh”, was all that she said, as she couldn’t think of anything else to say.

He handed the menu back to her and said, “Order whatever you like.”

“Thank-you”, she replied taking the menu from him and trying to work out how to get back to where they had been just a few minutes before, before her monumental slip up. “So, what would you recommend?” She asked.

“The steak is very good, if you like that sort of thing. As is the chocolate mousse”, he thought about it for a few seconds.

“Alright then”, Chloe placed the menu down, “I’ll have that”. Chloe never allowed other people to order for her, she always said that it was a ridiculous practice and if she was going to put something in her mouth she was going to choose what it was. But she had to do something to show Lex that she was sorry and this seemed like a big gesture to her, although of course if Lex didn’t know about her distain for letting other people choose her food then it wouldn’t mean much to him.

Lex smiled at her. “You are really going to let me order for you?”

Chloe nodded.

“I wouldn’t have thought that you were that kind of young lady”, he said, treading carefully.

“I’m not”, she assured him. He seemed to get the implication. Lex called over the waiter and ordered for both of them, along with some wine.

“So what were we talking about?” He asked, even though he remembered their conversation perfectly well.

“Clark’s inability to match up to you”, she supplied helpfully. Yes, that was a much better topic of conversation than her monumental cock up.

“Ah yes, excellent”, he looked distinctly smug.

“Sexually that is”, she added, giving him her cheekiest smile.

“That is the only way that really matters, although I think that I am also a lot sneakier than he is”, he appeared to be giving the matter a great deal of thought.

“I wouldn’t bet on in”, Chloe muttered under her breath.

“What was that?” He asked, thinking that he had heard exactly what she had said. Actually, certain that he had heard. He had always known that Clark had a secret and it didn’t surprise him that Chloe now knew it. He felt betrayed that he had been kept in the dark and considered trying to pump her for information but then he thought better of it. If the choice was between getting to the bottom of the mystery that was Clark Kent and getting between Chloe’s legs well … it wasn’t really a choice as far as Lex was concerned.

“I said that I wouldn’t bet on you being better than Clark sexually”, Chloe tried to cover up her slip.

He smirked, “I think that I have decided upon my favourite corner for your impending chastisement”.

“Alright”, Chloe stood up and sashayed around the table to him, taking her time and watching his reaction to her. She had decided that she wasn’t going to let herself be intimidated by him, he was clearly all talk and no trousers and she was going to prove it. She would be the one to make Lex Luthor back down for once.

“I beg your pardon”.

“I said”, she leant down so that she could whisper in his ear, and noted that his attention was glued to the sight of the cleavage which was now revealed to him. “Alright. Let’s go”. She ran a finger around Lex’s collar. “Let’s find that corner you’re so fond of”.

Before Lex could work out whether she was joking – he figured that she had to be, but she had a very good poker face – their meal arrived and Chloe went to sit back down delighted by her success, she had made Lex Luthor tongue tied.

[TrinityR]

and there she goes with the spanking again... just in other words:D:D

Kidding:D:D
I love it!! The tension between those two is so powerful! I only wish Chloe thought of as sth more than just a way to get over her virginity? Assuming, she still is a virgin.

[HotCrossedBunny]

What are you talking about? In a corner? He was just going to kiss her you silly billy. I think that someone has an obsession and that that person's name is TrinityR! Just saying you seem to see these things all over the place. :D

Yep, she is still a virgin. Jimmy tried and they did some stuff but she didn't go all of the way with him. It was awkward. Hey, maybe Lex could change her mind. Just thought, are there any fics out there where Lex is a bad lay?

[TrinityR]

What are you talking about? In a corner? He was just going to kiss her you silly billy. I think that someone has an obsession and that that person's name is TrinityR! Just saying you seem to see these things all over the place. :D

Yep, she is still a virgin. Jimmy tried and they did some stuff but she didn't go all of the way with him. It was awkward. Hey, maybe Lex could change her mind. Just thought, are there any fics out there where Lex is a bad lay?

No! I'm not! It's my stupid dictionary! I had to check the word "chastised " and it traslated as punish or spank, so don't blame me!!
I'm obsessed with Lex's lack of underwear:D:D not spanking:D

[HotCrossedBunny]

Me thinks the lady doth protest too much. ;p Okay, I will blame your dictionary. It does mean punish/tell off but how it is done is the person's own choice, in this case he was going to kiss her and nibble her ear lobe - because in my head Lex has a thing about nibbling.

[HotCrossedBunny]

*Chapter Five*

“It’s green”, was Chloe’s only comment as her soup arrived.

“Yes it is, it’s based on the That’s Amore Ai Cinque Colori Soup they sell in Italy”, Lex informed her casually. He had known what her reaction would be when he ordered if for her, which was the main reason for doing it. He had also briefly considered escargot but he did actually want to give her something that she would like, on top of freaking her out. He was used to empty gestures, he didn’t think that Chloe had made one but he wanted her to prove it. She had allowed him to order for her, she should eat up her dinner.

“It’s green”, she repeated poking it with her spoon.

“Glad to see that your reporter’s eye is as keen as ever”, he teased her. The scowl on her face was adorable.

“There’s spinach in it, isn’t there?” She asked, knowing that she was going to have to eat it.

“Yes, and lots of it. It’s good for you”, he couldn’t resist adding.

“Yeah yeah”, she muttered, giving the thick, green liquid another doubtful poke, wondering if it contained meteor rocks.

It was just on the tip of his tongue to tell her that she didn’t actually have to eat it if she really didn’t want to and he would let her order something else when – after obviously stealing herself – she took a big spoonful and swallowed it down.

“Good girl”, he praised her, trying not to laugh too much.

“It’s not bad”, she commented smiling and taking another spoonful, “in fact, it’s actually quite nice”.

“I did choose something that I thought you might actually like. I’m not cruel all of the time, you know”, he said, not sure whether he should be offended by her unintentional insinuation.

“I know”, she said, as she broke off a piece of her wholemeal bread roll. It wasn’t bad either, she was getting good at this healthy eating thing.

“Have you ever tried vegetables before?” He asked, amused by her reaction. “They are quite nice you know”.

Chloe reached for the menu to hide her face from the rest of the room so that she could stick her tongue out at him again, before saying, “I know. I have tried vegetables before”.

“Yeah French fries don’t count”, he scoffed.

“I didn’t know that you knew such things existed”, she threw back.

“Gabe didn’t make you eat your greens as a child?” He asked, unable to imagine a childhood where you didn’t have to clean your plate before being let up from the table.

“Not ones I didn’t like, no”, Chloe answered, a little more strongly than was actually necessary. She didn’t like any implication that her father might not have done everything perfectly. Chloe would maintain to her dying day that her father was the perfect Daddy and that his child rearing technique was flawless … even the hole he had burnt in her ballet leotard when he had tried to iron it.

“And you didn’t like greens?” He was trying to get a view of what Chloe was like as a child. One thing that he knew about her which had probably been part of her personality since she was a tot was that she was fiercely protective of her father.

“No”, she screwed up her face. She really hated broccoli and remembered a fight she had had with her mother a few days before she had left over her refusal to consume boiled broccoli. Chloe had finally won by throwing it at Moira in frustration because she was being so horrible to Chloe. She wouldn’t have dared acted like that if her Daddy had been home – Moira that is, not Chloe. “You know”, she addressed, “most people rather conveniently ignore the fact that potatoes and cauliflower have more iron in them than broccoli does”.

“There is broccoli in that soup”, he informed her. “You might what to try some of the green vegetables again, your tastes change as you get older”, he said. Not missing that she had told him that she had got enough iron as a child.

“Gabe wasn’t strict, I take it. I can’t imagine him being”, he thought about how differently his life might have turned out if he had had such a loving and supportive father.

“No, but he didn’t have to be. I wanted to make him happy. I always did my homework, got good grades and stuff like that. As a child I even kept my bedroom tidy”, she remembered that her father had almost seemed happy when she had turned into a mucky pup and used her floor as a closet, it had proved that she had finally realised that she didn’t have to earn the right to be part of their family. “The only thing I wouldn’t do was eat”. She wasn’t sure why she had shared that much with him.

Lex nodded, understandingly. He knew from Clark that Chloe’s mom had left when she was five and he could only imagine how the man had had to try to cope with a five year old. It made sense that he would just be relieved that she was eating something, whatever it was. He had noticed before that Chloe’s eating patterns seemed to fluctuate a great deal, he wondered if that was something that came from her mother’s abandonment, it was something he would have to keep an eye on when she went off to University.

“I refused to eat just after my mother died too”, he said.

Chloe looked over at him in interest. It was unlike Lex to offer such a personal detail.

“I was away at school when she died, I knew that she had been sick for just over a year before she passed and I had tried to get back as much as possible but … I could have done more. I should have done more.” He looked over at her, “The difference is that while I really didn’t do enough, I’m sure that you were perfect”.

“I don’t know about that”, Chloe voiced her greatest fear, “I mean if your mother stops loving you, or never loved you to start with, that’s not good. I’m sure that I was naughty …”

“Well you see I happen to know that you were an angel at that age”, Lex contradicted her.

She looked at him sceptically.

“Gabe told me. Well, not just me actually. Everyone he comes into contact with pretty much knows every moment of your life from your first green poo”, he informed her.

“Oh God, he doesn’t tell that story does he?” She asked, although it was stupid as if he was mentioning it then her father must have told him.

“Oh yes. We all know about the first day he got you home from the hospital, went to change you and discovered an enormous green poo and had to rush you to the doctor’s thinking that something was wrong … only to find out that that was normal”, Lex delighted in the colour she turned, “however not being able to accept that you were normal, he is now claiming that it was possibly the biggest ever …”

“Don’t”, Chloe warned him and he grinned at her.

“So you see, I know that you have nothing to feel guilty about”, he popped one of the items on his plate into his mouth.

“It never occurred to you that my father might be the tiniest big biased?” She wondered.

“Oh no, I’m sure that it was just as en…”

“Lex”, she cut him off causing him to smirk at her. He loved being able to get a reaction out of her.

“He also tells the story of you throwing some broccoli at your mother when she screamed at you”, he said, watching her carefully to gage her reaction. The truth was that Gabe did not tell that story to everyone, that had been told in confident to a therapist which Lex made all of the high-ish ranking members of the plant see so that he could keep an eye on them. He had laughed when he heard the story, but he had not missed the tension in Gabe’s voice. He was furious that his wife had mistreated their baby although he was proud of Chloe’s reaction to such treatment.

Chloe looked at him oddly, “I didn’t know that he would tell that story. He came home a few minutes later and comforted me, told me that I didn’t have to eat broccoli if I didn’t want to but if I started throwing food again that I would be going onto the naughty step. I thought that he was ashamed of me”. She lost her appetite at that. Had that day been the reason why Moira had left?

Then she thought for a moment, desperate for something to distract her from that sad trip down memory lane. “What made you start eating again?”

“The sister of a friend of mine came to visit him at Excelsior”, he didn’t mention that it had been his only friend. “I had met her a couple of times before but when she came that time she was extra nice for the first couple of days, then she snapped. She shouted at me”, he smiled at the memory, “she told me that I was being a selfish jerk torturing myself like that and how did I think that her brother felt and that my mother would be disgusted if she could see what I was doing. She also added that I should grow up”.

Chloe looked at him in disbelief.

“And you took that?” Chloe couldn’t imagine Lex, even as a teenager, letting anyone speak to him like that.

“I didn’t have much choice”, he chuckled. “She was a lot like you. You really don’t argue with her if you know what’s good for you”.

“What happened to her?” Chloe demanded. Not bringing up the fact that he always argued with her and never backed down, it was really rather annoying … and exhilarating.

He noted the touch of possessiveness in her tone. He smirked. “She decided that she needed a bigger challenge. She married Bruce Wane, he’s been a lot less self-destructive since then”, under his breath he added, “He doesn’t dare go on drinking binges now”.

“Good”, Chloe said, realising that the little demon was taken so couldn’t go after Lex. “She sounds nice”.

“Yeah, she is”, he replied before adding ruefully, “Tough but nice”.

“I am imaging an amazon”, Chloe tried to picture the woman who could cow these powerful men.

Lex shook his head. “Short, 5,2 if that, with red curls and dimples”.

“Cute”, Chloe commented, a different image coming into her head.

“Yes”, he agreed, “but deadly”.

Chloe ate some more of her soup. “I would have tried veggies years ago if I had known that they could taste like this”.

He grinned. “How about another new experience tonight?”

She looked at him warily.

He held out an oyster to her. Chloe didn’t want an oyster, she really didn’t but she couldn’t stop herself from leaning forwards and allowing him to feed it to her. He pressed it to her lips, gently forcing her bottom lip down to allow him to slip the delicacy into her waiting mouth. He had clearly done this before.

She pulled a face. “Do you want some of my soup and bread to make up for the fact that they have given you a yucky starter?” She offered.

“No thank-you”, he declined. “They are considered a delicacy you know”.

“They are also considered to raise your libido, but that don’t”, she informed him.

“They don’t? Must be the view then”, he said, hoping that he hadn’t gone too far this time.

Chloe pulled another face at him again, just as their second course arrived.

“You ordered me steak and French fries?” Chloe giggled, “How very plebeian of you”.

“Not when it is the very best emu”, Lex replied waiting for her reaction.

“Emu?”

“Try it before you judge it”, he advised her, wondering how she would have fared growing up in his home. He imagined a tiny Chloe at the age of six wearing her most stubborn face – as one of the pictures on Gabe’s next showed her – refusing to eat what was in front of her. Lex would have been forced back into his chair and refused to be allowed up from his chair or to have anything else to eat or drink until he had finished, but he had the feeling that Chloe would probably have melted Lionel’s heart at that age.

Eyeing her meal with suspicion Chloe took a bite and then squeaked with delight, “It is gorgeous. That is it, you have competition, I am opening my own completely unethical business tomorrow just so that I can have this again”.

“Wait until you taste desert”, he said simply, making a mental note to make sure that her freezer was packed with emus.

They finished their main course rather quickly – both being starving - and Lex was just in the middle of a really good story when he noticed that Chloe’s attention was not on him.

“I don’t believe it”, she muttered.

“What don’t you believe?” He wondered as he followed her gaze, and trying not to feel offended.

“That is the senator”, Chloe explained, “I was doing a piece on him a few weeks ago for an audition article”.

“A quote would probably help”, Lex mentioned casually.

“Well yes but I couldn’t even get his press secretary to call me back so I don’t think that this is going to happen”, Chloe said, obviously not angling for anything, she was just surprised to see him.

“Well then you should have asked me”, he beckoned over a waiter and informed him that he would not be displeased if the state senator were to stop by their table. The man appeared a few seconds later looking flushed and overjoyed.

“This is an honour Mr Luthor”, he tripped over his words.

“Indeed it is, you are going to have the privilege of being interviewed by one of the world’s best reporters”, he indicated the blonde sitting across from him.

“Yes, of course, I have long admired your work Miss …”

“Sullivan”, Chloe supplied helpfully, trying not to laugh.

“Yes of course Miss Sullivan. Your last article in particular was a revelation”, he obviously had no idea who she was.

“Really?” Chloe looked delighted at that. The senator looked worried but nodded, she was obviously important to Lex and it wouldn’t do to upset her.

“Yes”.

“Oh I’m so glad. I really thought that there would be some backlash to my article on swinging in the suburbs and my suggestion that if the members of our government had a little more sex that they might get more done in the day”, Chloe wanted to see how far she could push this.

The senator choked and Lex had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.

“Um, yes, quite”, he babbled. Then he handed her a card, “Here is all of my contact information Miss Sullivan. I don’t want to interrupt your dinner, oh look your pudding is coming, but please do contact me any time and we will arrange an interview for whenever you find most convenient”.

“Swinging in the suburbs?” Lex chucked as he left and their mousse was placed in front of them.

Chloe shrugged, “It was the only thing that I could think of”.

“Apart from my concern that that is what you think of when put on the spot, I am shocked that when I introduce you to one of the most influential men in the state and you act like that”, he tried to make his voice stern, “I am tempted not to let you have your dessert, which would be a great shame as it was triple chocolate mousse with a triple shot of espresso”. ‘Just perfect for keeping you up all night’, he thought.

Chloe snorted, in an extremely unladylike manner. “Like you could ever do that”.

Lex regarded her for a moment, she clearly wasn’t buying his trying to play the powerful business man card so he gave in, “Dig in”. He regretted those words almost immediately. He had no idea whether she was doing it deliberately to get him back for the innuendos he had been throwing her way all night and his previous attempt at high handed behaviour, or whether she was just an incredibly sensual being but Chloe’s response to chocolate mousse would have been enough to seduce a monk.

She ran the spoon slowly along the top of her dessert then brought it to her lips, inhaling deeply before slipping it into her mouth. Her eyes drifted shut and he heard her moan with pleasure as the taste exploded on her tongue. She sucked her spoon before releasing it to gather more chocolate, anxious to enjoy every sinful mouthful.

“Oh God that’s good”, her voice sounded almost raspy.

It brought back several rather inappropriate fantasies he had had over the years of eating melted chocolate off her naked body. He groaned as she took the second bite, with a slightly whimper, she swallowed and her pink tongue poked out to lick her lips. Damn, he shifted under the table. He was suddenly a little uncomfortable.

“Are you alright Lex?” Chloe asked, opening her eyes. “You look a little odd”.

“I’m fine”, he said but his voice was strained.

“Are you certain because I am sure that we could get a doctor or something if you don’t feel well”, she actually started looking around for a member of staff to call upon, she was sure that they must have a hotel doctor around somewhere and if not, the name Lex Luthor was bound to produce one.

The concern in her voice touched him deeply and let him know that she had not been playing him, she really had no idea how deeply she could affect him just by eating some chocolate mousse.

“I’m fine, just a little overly warm. What would you think about going out on the balcony?” He wondered.

“Of course”, Chloe rose, genuinely concerned about him, she picked up his dessert as well as her own and started towards the public balcony.

“I meant my private one”, Lex explained, seeing where she was headed. Bugger, he hadn’t made himself clear.

“Okay”, she replied turning to him, ready to follow; still not getting the significance of the placement of his private balcony. Her level of faith in him was really quite touching, although entirely misplaced based on what he was planning on doing to her when he got her up there.

“Allow me”, he said taking the desserts and handing them to the waiter to take up. He was really rather moved when he saw that Chloe’s belief that he wasn’t feeling well had made her forget about her pudding.

Lex led her out through the main lobby just in time to see the football player and his date arriving, he smirked. This was going to be fun.

[malugargula]

Amazing chapters
Can't wait for the fun to begin :)

[TrinityR]

uuu.... sexy eating. Nice:) And want more!

[hfce]

They are so cute! I can't wait to see the confrontation. LOL! :)

[HotCrossedBunny]

A/N: Meh, this went no where near as well it was supposed it. It was supposed to be fun and sexy, I will probably rewrite it once I finish the story.

*Chapter Six*

Heads turned as the striking couple entered the room, even in the most exclusive hotel in Metropolis they were something out of the ordinary. The gentleman was tall, well dressed, oozing confidence and sex appeal. They had all seen him on the covers of magazines but he looked far better in person; he was devilishly handsome. Men and women alike stared enviously at the smiling blonde woman on his arm as they were framed perfectly in the lobby’s archway.

Lex looked around for the voices he had heard a few minutes ago and caught his reflection in the large mirror in the Plaza’s lobby and grinned smugly. God they looked good together. It was hard to tear his eyes away from the sight but he did so when he heard the voices again.

“This is going to be fun”, he whispered to Chloe, taking her hand before walking her over the reception.

Chloe had heard the voices too but was still a little surprised, she had thought that it would take them longer to get there and she wasn’t sure whether or not she should be looking forwards to another confrontation. Part of her wanted to run away and hide and avoid the possibility of Lex actually doing the boy some damage this time, the other really wanted to rub her upgrade in his face. This was the first time that she hadn’t been the one left hurt and alone.

However as he grasped her hand and exerted a gently pressure on her, she knew that she didn’t really have a choice. He was determined to go over there and judging by his expression, he was in a mischievous mood.

“What are you up to?” She asked him in a whisper.

“You’ll just have to wait and see”, he gave her a wink just before they reached the front desk.

“I’m sorry, you’ll have to wait”, the haughty receptionist informed the football player. “Mr Luthor”, she beamed over at him, “Is there anything that I can do for you sir?”

She knew that it was wrong, she knew that she should not be impressed by the amount of power that Lex had, but it really was nice for once to come first rather than being at the end of the queue.

“Just checking that everything I ordered earlier has been done”, he informed her, although they all knew that he really just wanted his presence known.

“Yes sir Mr Luthor, everything is just as you requested including them um extras”, she blushed a little.

Chloe raised an eye brow at Lex, wondering what he was up to; there was no way that he would stoop to checking that his orders had been carried out or doubt that the Plaza would not have done so. She really wanted to know what was going on, especially as she watched the woman blush. She doubted that Lex having asked to have extra towels or something put in the room would have caused that reaction. What could it have been?

“Good”, he gave the receptionist a winning smile before returning his attention to his date, bringing the hand that was still entwined with Chloe’s to his lips.

She gasped as she felt his mouth against the tender skin of her knuckles. He had been tactile all evening and had touched her before, but she had never got so wound up by such a minor caress in the past. Maybe it was the excitement of knowing what they might be doing later.

“But”, the footballer started to complain about something, drawing attention to him and reminding Chloe of what he had said the last time they had seen him visa vi her cherry.

She tightened her grip on Lex’s hand, she wanted revenge. “You were going to take me to the private balcony”, Chloe reminded him, “Have you forgotten where it is?” She asked, “Do you know?” She turned to the secretary ignoring her former potential date.

“Um, yes Miss”, she glanced over at Lex and once he nodded explained, “it is attached to the penthouse suite … Mr Luthor’s suite”.

“Oh”, Chloe blushed realising her mistake. What had happened to her journalist’s nose? She would have got that if it had been anyone else. Honestly, if the thought of potential sex made her this dim she wasn’t sure that it was a good idea to go all of the way. She might never recover her brain, and she heard that she might need it at college.

“Chloe, you aren’t really?” The footballer interrupted her thoughts.

She looked over at him wondering if she had misjudged him. Maybe he was the sweet, slightly simple soul that she had always taken him for. Maybe his outburst earlier had just been because he was upset and because deep down he cared about her, not enough that she wanted to sleep with him but a little. She gazed into his eyes expecting to see concern, but just saw disgust.

Chloe felt sick. She had no problem with the idea of waiting until marriage or at least until you were in love to have sex – even if she was just doing it because she wanted to get it over and done with – but she wasn’t going to be looked at as if she were a slut for deciding not to do that, especially not by the man who had been planning on taking her flower only a week ago and by the looks of it was hoping to hook up with another girl that very night!

“Yes she is, but that is no business of yours”, Lex barked out, unwilling to allow anyone to speak slightingly of/to/in the general vicinity of Chloe. “What is he doing here?” He turned to the secretary.

“We have a reservation”, he interrupted and Chloe closed her eyes. The man really was an idiot! Could he not see how angry Lex was? Chloe could and as much as she hated to admit it – being a strong independent woman who had no need for a man – it was still nice to see that he, at least, cared about her.

“No, you don’t”, the receptionist reminded him. She should know, she had deleted the reservation herself.

“Mikey, how could you do this to me?” His date whimpered.

“I didn’t do anything, I made a reservation”, he glared at the receptionist. “Check again”.

“I have checked several times and you still do not have a reservation, you never had a reservation. We don’t even have a record of you calling to make a reservation”, the receptionist explained, lying through her teeth just as Lex had told her to.

“But …”

“Mr Luthor has brought the entire hotel for the night”, she explained, “well the bedrooms not the restaurant etc. He said that his lady friend would need plenty of options”. Lex had not actually instructed her to say that part but she was good at sensing the mood of the room and knew that she would be richly rewarded for such a statement.

“You brought the all of the bedrooms?” Chloe looked up at Lex, not sure whether he was doing this just to annoy the footballer or because he really planned on having her sleep somewhere else.

She could practically hear Mickey smiling as he realised that there was a chance that she wasn’t going to get laid that night. Well, Chloe squared her shoulders, maybe she wasn’t but he did not have to know that and Lex certainly wouldn’t tell him.

“Well that is really sweet of you”, she cooed, placing her hands on Lex’s warm, strong chest. “But I seem to have forgotten to bring my teddy bear and I can’t sleep without him. You can’t think of something else I could cuddle up to, could you?”

“Oh, I think that I could manage to think of something”, he wrapped his arms around her waist, drawing her even closer enjoying the feel of warm body pressed against him, before teasing her, “I could take you to a toy store”.

“Don’t you dare”, she snaked her arms around him.

“Oh damn, and after the things I had put in the room, I hoped that you were into toys”, he said in a whisper which was supposed to sound intimate but carried. Chloe had no idea whose benefit he had said that for, but she found that she didn’t care.

She ran her hands up his back up to his neck to pull him down so that she could really whisper to him. “Pretend that I am saying something really scandalous”. She only just managed to stop herself from asking what the toys were, if he had been being serious.

He grinned, “No problem”, he whispered back. He then cupped her ass and pulled her hard against him so that she could feel his erection, and said in an (almost) normal tone, “I had no idea that you were into that. But I think that I can accommodate”.

There was a noise that sounded like something between a cough and a snort from the area behind the desk, and the sound of squabbling from the side.

“Have him shown the door”, Lex told the receptionist smirking smugly as he heard the ruckus, one thing for sure was that he wasn’t getting any that night. In fact, he was fairly certain that he heard him getting hit with handbag.

“You are so evil”, Chloe giggled as Lex pulled her over to the side and into the lift.

“You’re the one who told me to act as if you said something scandalous”, he reminded her.

“Yes, well I thought that it was better than you trying to kill him, you looked around ready to do that earlier”, Chloe said as they entered the small cabin.

“Well I was prepared this time”, he grinned down at her, “Now, you said something about Clark trying to show you my moves in a lift”.

“Yes”, Chloe said leaning back against the wall, pretending to be casual. “I’m not sure that he could be beaten”, she teased him, placing her hands behind her and pushing her chest out slightly, trying to look natural.

“Red rag to a bull”, he murmured as he advanced on her, running a hand over the side of her face before leaning down to kiss her neck. She smiled and forced him back until he was the one pushed up against the wall.

“Feisty, I like it”, he beamed down at her about to push her back when there was the ping and the lift doors opened.

“Damn it”, he muttered.

“What’s wrong? Now we get to go on to the bedroom”, she gave him her most seductive smile which must have worked judging by his reaction.

Lex let out a low growl before he picked her up bridal style and marched into the room, heading straight to the bedroom.

“You promised to show me your balcony”, Chloe reminded him, fairly certain that at least now she knew what his intentions were for that night.

“Alright”, he agreed and began to move over to the balcony before she stopped him as she finally got a chance to look around the suite. It was beautiful, but that came as no surprise to her as this was Lex’s suite. What she hadn’t expected was that it was decked out in the most clichéd romantic style possible.

“Did you really do all of this for me?” Chloe gasped, forgetting for a moment that she was still in his arms.

“Of course, who else would I do it for? Lana?” He found it extremely upsetting that Chloe was so shocked that someone would decorate the room for her.

“So, this was planned”, she checked.

“Yes, of course”, his voice was husky.

“Put me down please Lex”, Chloe said her voice filled with confusion.

Looking a little sad, Lex did as she said but Chloe didn’t notice. She was too busy staring around the room.

“It is gorgeous, a little over done but gorgeous”, she wandered around the room. There were candles and rose petals everywhere and soft music was playing in the background. Without thinking her feet led her over to the bedroom which was done out in the same style with a packet of condoms sitting in the centre of the bed.

Lex followed her into the room, hoping that she was offended, she had seemed to be getting into it a few minutes before.

Chloe turned to him, she wanted to say thank-you or something along those lines. He had tried to give her the ‘perfect’ prom night, she was sure that he wasn’t into the overly fluffy things. But she didn’t. Instead she hid behind snarkiness as she always did when assaulted by a strong emotion. “Someone was very cocky”, she teased him, throwing a pointed look over her shoulder at the packet of condoms, for the larger man.

He smirked, she wasn’t mad. “Well I have the abilities to make it up, don’t worry. But I don’t want to pressure you into anything you aren’t ready to do”.

She felt her heart swelling. Chloe was in his arms before she knew what was happening, kissing him for all that she was worth. Their arms grabbed at each other, their hips ground against each other, she could feel his arousal hot and hard against her.

Breathing hard, she took a step back and put her hands behind her. There was silence for a moment as they both tried to get a hold of each other.

“Lex”, she said, the glimmer of a tear in her eyes, “I can’t”.

[HotCrossedBunny]

Anyone else had their reply section screwed up today? No longer able to do bold, centre etc?

[TrinityR]

That wasn't bad! And hey, you see? I can do bold!!:P

I actually loved the chapter, I just hope Lex will persuade Chloe to sleep with him anyway.
I'm pretty surprised she can talk so idly about Lex's moves in the elevator. Didn't watching that camera footage hurt her ?

[hfce]

Great update. Why can't Chloe do it?

[HotCrossedBunny]

A/N: Glad to hear the TrinityR's is working correctly but mine has apparently lost all advanced post abilties so you will have to cope with no formatting, hopefully it will still make some sense. Oh, and as for her feelings about the lift incident, they will be discussed later. :D Thank-you for the reviews.

*Chapter Seven*

Five years later …

Smallville high school’s gym was decorated with streamers and balloons in varying shades of red and blue – a tribute to the red and blue blur, although they had no idea that he came from their town. A large banner welcomed the alumni to their five year reunion and the party was officially in full swing. The majority of the guests who had already arrived were either dancing or somewhere over by the snack table, but hardly anyone was sitting down.

Chloe sat at exactly the same table she had sat at during her high school prom, and like that night she was alone. The only difference (other than her wardrobe) was that this time at least she had an alcoholic drink, which she felt she thoroughly deserved. She hadn’t wanted to come back to Smallville, it wasn’t that she hated it here it just wasn’t home anymore her true home was in … She shook her head. She couldn’t think about the home that she had made anymore or who she had made it with. It had been a mistake.

Taking a sip of her drink and enjoying the way that it burnt her throat she surveyed the scene. She still recognised most of the people there and she had even spoken to a few of them but her friends were not there yet.

She took another swig of her scotch and scowled. It wasn’t a good year and it certainly wasn’t a single malt, she had become a connoisseur over the last five years but she would take it at the moment. At least if no one she really knew was there yet she didn’t have to put on a happy face and pretend that everything was alright.

The moment that Clark and Lana arrived they would hug and kiss her and want to know everything that had happened to her – although they did still email each other about once a month and saw each other a couple of times a year. Chloe really didn’t want to talk about how her life was going right then, she knew that it would all work out alright in the end but it didn’t really make her feel any better at that moment. As she kept reminding herself, no one had ever died from a broken heart, she had looked it up. It was just hard to believe at that moment.

Chloe tried desperately not to think about the past or the last time that she had been in that gym. She finished her drink and pulled a face at the bottom of the glass.

“Hello happiness, I was informed that you were supposed to be there”, she addressed it very strictly.

“That is at the bottom of the bottle, not the glass, and not of that filth”, a voice came from behind her.

She closed her eyes, unable to stop the memories flooding back to her in a torturous montage.

“Well you would know”, was all that she managed to get out, hoping that her voice would not crack. She was not entirely successful.

“I’ve got the bottom of a lot of bottles, but I never found happiness there”, she was informed and she felt his hand touching her shoulder lightly. She screwed her eyes shut even more tightly, willing the tears not to fall.

“No, you no doubt find it between women’s legs”, she said jumping to her feet, spinning around and trying to get away but she found her way barred.

Chloe held herself as still as she could, concentrating on every single muscle in her body but it didn’t work, she still shook a little with desperation. She could feel the warmth of his body, smell his scent – he had been drinking more than normal – and feel his hand still on her shoulder. It was enough to undo her but she had to be strong. She didn’t know what kind of game he was there to play but she was not having any part of it.

“Get out of my way Luthor”, she demanded angrily.

“Not until you look at me”, he said, fighting the impulse to grab her and kiss her senseless, she might fight at first but eventually she would submit.

She wanted to refuse, wanted to fight against him and the hold he had over her … but she couldn’t. He was too strong for her and she knew it.

His words “look at me”, replayed over and over in her head, spawning unbidden images.

~*~

Prom night …

“I can’t Lex”, Chloe’s voice sounded pained and Lex thought that his heart might break. Not because he was going to be denied the physical release that he had been anticipating for days now, but because she sounded so upset.

“Chloe, look at me”, he instructed her as he brushed his thumb across her cheek.

Slowly she did as she was bid.

“There’s no need for tears, there is no need for you to get upset. I meant what I said; I’m not going to try to force you. We can …”

Chloe shook her head and his heart sank even further as he realised that he wasn’t even allowed to say that they could take things as fast or slow as she wanted. The message was clear, she didn’t want him. She had just come with him because she had needed someone and that was okay, he had forced her into getting into the helicopter, if all she wanted as friendship then that was what he would give her. He could take her out dancing. He would do anything to make her happy, even if that meant denying his own needs and wants.

“It’s not that Lex”, she tried to explain, seeing the doubt in his eyes, “I can’t …”

“It’s okay sweetheart”, he tried to assure her. He wanted to pull her into his arms, it seemed like the most natural thing to do but he wasn’t sure if she would find that comforting or alarming in her present state.

“No it isn’t Lex. I can’t get the bloody zip undone”, she finally got out as she continued to fight with the wretched thing behind her.

“You can’t get the bloody zip undone?” Lex repeated in astonishment as his mind tried to catch up with his libido, which was once again raging. “That was all the matter was?”

“Yes”, Chloe nodded.

“That’s no reason to cry”, he said.

“I wasn’t crying, it was just frustration and it’s so hot in here”, she moaned, “I want to feel your hands on my skin, not on this stupid dress”. She cursed herself inwardly for having brought the damned thing in the first place; she should have known that something with pink on it was bound to cause problems. She did not even realise what she had just let slip.

A shot of arousal went straight to his cock.

“Turn around”, he ordered her as he tried to spin her around by the shoulders. She did as she was told and presented her back to him.

He ran his hands up and down her sides a few times, now that he knew just how much she liked it. He knew that it was mean but he couldn’t resist.

“Please Lex”, she moaned.

He grinned. He hadn’t been with anyone who could get quite that worked up quite that quickly in a very long time. He was fairly certain that she wasn’t just doing this to “get it over with” anymore.

“You have discovered the magic word”, he teased her as she took hold of the zip, “and I expect that I will be hearing a lot more of that tonight”.

She felt her mouth go dry at that and her knees weaken a little but she was determined to be strong. “Why, planning on doing a lot of begging are you?”

Her cheekiness was rewarded with a chuckle as he yanked the zip hard. It moved, but only a little.

“God, I knew that I shouldn’t have had those fries yesterday”, she groaned. The dress was now clearly too tight.

“First of all you don’t change yourself to meet the requirement of a piece of fabric”, Lex told her sternly. “Second of all, the dress isn’t too tight; it is just a dodgy zipper. I intend on suing whoever made this for negligence, incompetence and mental and physical cruelty”.

“Do you think that you can accuse them of that?” Chloe wondered, she didn’t know the finer points of the law but she thought that it was unlikely that that was allowed.

Lex’s only answer was to grasp her hips and pull her hard against him. She wriggled enjoying the friction and from what she could feel she imagined that Lex would probably win his case.

“Do you trust me?” He murmured in her ear.

“Yes”, she whispered back, not needing a second to think about it. He was Lex Luthor; he had protected both her and her father. He deserved her unquestioning trust and loyalty.

“Thank-you”, he said, not knowing where that he come from. He had only meant for practical purposes, he didn’t realise quite how much her opinion of him mattered to him. “Stay where you are”, he commanded as he reluctantly moved away from the heat of her body.

Chloe wondered what was going on but did as she was told, she could hear Lex moving away from her and rummaging in a draw before returning to her and plucking the fabric slightly from her back. He slipped two fingers down the back of her dress, allowing some cool air to get at her skin. He spread his fingers and she felt tingles right the way down her spine.

“Don’t move”, he said and then she felt something cold against her back and the sound of cutting.

The air found its way through the gaping hole in the fabric as Lex cut his way carefully down her back until he got to her tail bone – being sure never to cut her -, then he moved around to the front.

“Will you do the honours?” He asked, nodding towards her halter neck, there was nothing wrong with the fastening there and it was now all that was keeping her dress on.

She swallowed, she had been desperate to get her clothes off, to feel his skin on hers. She had been so overcome with lust that she had not actually considered the part where she would have to bare herself to him.

“You first”, she said, buying some time. She needed to get a few more deep breaths into her before she was quite up to stripping off in front of him. It may have been night but the curtains were wide open so that they could see the stars and there was soft candle light, he would see everything.

Lex smiled at her, sensing the nervousness in her tone. He wanted to tell her that she had nothing to be afraid of but he knew that that would do little good.

“As you wish”, he said and removed his jacket and placed it neatly on the chair near the bed. He then sat down on it to untie his shoes, take them off and do the same with his socks. He loosened and then removed his tie before standing up and working on the first few buttons of his dress shirt.

Chloe had to catch her breath. She didn’t think that he had ever looked more handsome. Certainly he looked good in his suit, but like this, a little less formal with the hint of smooth skin exposed by his shirt … she wanted to throw herself into his arms, and probably would have done so if that would not have impeded the show that she was enjoying.

Lex grinned, as he felt her eyes burning into his skin. He knew that he was an attractive man but it was always nice to have definite proof of the fact and to see the effect that he had on her. Chloe’s cheeks were a little flushed and her chest was rising and falling more definitely than was normal.

He wanted to tease her and slowly pulled out the shirt from his trousers and fiddled with the next button down.

“Hurry up Lex”, her voice was saturated with need and desire, “please!”

“Well since you asked so nicely”. He made short work of the rest of his buttons and the cuffs and threw the shirt back over the chair, too far gone to care about whether or not it was folded up neatly.

Chloe gasped as his torso was revealed to her. She had never seen such a beautiful chest. He was exquisite. He had long hard muscles but not overly bulked up. He was perfect, not even the slight scars could detract from his deliciousness.

Lex unbuckled his belt and shoved his trousers down before kicking them to the side, he was only in his boxers now – he didn’t want to scare her.

“Your turn”, he growled as he advanced on her. “Take your dress off, let me see you”. He could rip it off her himself, and was more than half tempted to do so, but he wanted her to do it. He wanted her to willingly show him everything.

“Okay”, she agreed, her eyes still glued to his body as her fingers rested on the straps just above her breasts before slowly tracing their way around to the clasp at the back. She took a breath stealing herself, her eyes travel up to him and the patient need she saw there spurred her on. It took a few attempts, as her fingers were trembling so badly, but finally she got it. Still holding onto the straps she brought them back around in front of her.

She couldn’t believe that she was doing this. She was about to expose herself completely to Lex Luthor.

~*~

“Look at me”, Lex’s tone was low and commanding. It was the one that he had used on her a hundred times before and normally made her succumb to him, but not this time. Chloe kept her eyes screwed shut. She would not give in to him.

“Chloe”, he repeated, this time cupping her chin and raising it, “Look at me”.

She tried to recoil from his touch, but her body wouldn’t let her. It had been so long and she ached for his touch more than a junkie craved its fix.

“Look at me”, he repeated his command, this time stressing every single word. He was going to win this, come what may.

Her body trembled under the strain of not obeying him, but she wouldn’t open her eyes. She did not want to see Alexander Luthor! Well, that wasn’t really true. She yearned to see him, just like her body burned for his touch but she knew that she couldn’t allow that.

Seeing that he wasn’t getting anywhere with this plan of attack, Lex kept his grip on her chin but used his knowledge of her body to his advantage. He trailed his other hand down the back of her neck, along her shoulders and down her arm in a sensual caress. He could feel the muscles jumping under her smooth flesh causing him to smirk; he could still get a reaction out of her. She still wanted him and he was not unaffected by her himself.

He reached behind her and rubbed her back in the way that always made her relax. Her body wanted to give in, it was only her mind that stopped her from melting into his arms.

Lex licked his lips, he should have known that she would make this difficult for him. He looked around to check that no one was paying them any attention, they weren’t so he was free to continue – not that an audience would have necessary stopped him but it might have given his pause for thought.

He cupped her bottom gently and saw her eyelids flicker a little. His smirk grew. He grabbed her ass, squeezing her and pulled her into him.

Chloe’s eyes shot open.

[TrinityR]

Try using diff browser, maybe it'll help.

What? FIVE years later? I wanted some diflowering here...:(

Oh, ok, I'm better now, you still will write about prom night and I WAS LAUGHING SO DAMN HARD!
I just wonder in what chloe will come back home the next day as the dress is cut.
And do I have the impression Lex had hurt her? <hearbreaks>

Oh, and I wanted to tell you that every new fanfics of yours seem to be better than the previous one!

[HotCrossedBunny]

You are a genius, I just realised that my firefox updated itself yesterday! I will download a new one later. :D

Glad that you liked the zip problem. And who says that Lex is going to let her go home the next day? It is five years later because that was the first time that she escaped, he has kept her naked in the hotel since then. Not really, I'm just kidding. He will have clothes delivered for her - he wouldn't have let her wear a walk of shame outfit anyway. ;p

Ummm ... no comment.

Thank-you *blushes*

[cbrunberg]

can't wait for next chapter. but five years later surprised. with out anything in between. so hopefully you will be filling in the blanks. and I hope lex is not the person who hurt her

[leeleeginevra]

I'm looking forward to the next update. You have a good momentum going here!

[malugargula]

I'm really curious about what happened that night that made her so angry with him 5 years later
Great chapters

[HotCrossedBunny]

A/N: Thank-you for all of the reviews *waves to my new one* this chapter might answer some of your questions ... or it might lead you down the garden path! :D

*Chapter Eight*

The reunion continued, everyone was so preoccupied with seeing their old friends/enemies that they paid no attention to the drama that was unfolding over by the tables. The best dressed, and obviously most cultured, couple in the room were obviously spoiling for a fight, in spite of their physical proximity.

Chloe’s memory of Lex was perfect, images of him had haunted her every night since their … she didn’t even know what the word for it was, but seeing him in the flesh again was a completely different experience. The memory of him had kept her awake so many nights as she writhed between the sheets, desperate to feel his skin against hers rather than just the silk of her linen, but the reality of him was almost enough to bring her to her knees.

He was absolutely gorgeous. He was just as large as she remembered although he seemed even larger in his annoyance. His body was just as strong as she had remembered; she could hardly ignore it being pressed against him as she was. His long, talented fingers continued to squeeze her buttocks drawing slight noises from her which she tried to swallow back, but without much success.

She was furious with him, how dare he come here to her school, to her reunion and treat her like this? She wanted to brace her hands against his warm, broad chest and push but was afraid that feeling him under her fingers might prove to be her undoing. Not to mention the fact that he was so much stronger that she was, he would just pull her back even closer till they were grinding together. The images that that put in her head were hardly conducive to thinking clearly.

Chloe gave him her meanest scowl as she looked up into his face. She could see bald head, the dark bruises under his eyes, the fine lines around his eyes and mouth which hadn’t been there before. She could smell the alcohol on his breath, not enough for him to be drunk but certainly more than she would have liked him to have drunk by this time at night. His dark grey suit was expensive and perfectly tailored but slightly crumpled. God help her, he was still so delicious that she wanted to eat him up.

Lex did not seem overly bothered by her scowling at him, if anything he seemed to find it rather amusing. He couldn’t be too bothered about anything now that he had her in his arms, even if she wasn’t there entirely of her own free will. She was damned sure going to remain in his arms though, or at least on his arm and covered by his coat. It had not escaped him that she was wearing a rather revealing plum colour gown – a mixture of his favourite colour (purple) and hers (red) – which he knew had originally been brought to seduce him with. He tried to console himself that she must have known that he was going to be there, that all of that leg and the hint of cleavage were just for him but he couldn’t quite convince himself - she had seemed shocked and outraged to find him there.

Her long golden hair was falling freely around her shoulders, just the way that he liked it so that he could run his fingers through the silky tresses. Her make-up was natural but distinctly sexy, there was extra mascara and eye liner on and her lips were as tempting as he had ever seen them. He did not believe that she had intended on going home by herself that night.

To confirm his suspicions he continued the kneading of her ass and was pleased to note that he obviously still had a physical effect on her although he was outraged as he felt that all that was underneath there was a thong.

He gritted his teeth. Chloe hated thongs. She said that the only reason to wear them was if they were the edible kind and you planned on having your man lick off you. For her own good Chloe better have fucking been expecting him to show up there tonight.

Chloe knew exactly what he was doing and decided to push away and damn the consequences. She placed her hands on his chest, convincing herself that she was too angry for him to have any effect on her, and shoved as hard as she could. He didn’t move as much as one millimetre. Lex was simply too strong, he kept her in place, if anything pulling her even closer. They were practically melded together. She wouldn’t have thought when she was younger that she could ever be displeased to find herself in this position.

She whimpered slightly as she found herself completely against him, she wanted to tell him to let her go but she was afraid that he would realise how much of an effect he was having on her. She didn’t want him to know that she still thought about him.

Judging by the expression on his face, he knew exactly what he was doing to her, she tried to move her head but Lex was still holding her chin and she didn’t dare close her eyes again unless he found a more persuasive method of making her open them again.

“What the fuck are you wearing?” He demanded, “This had better be for my benefit”, he growled before he could think better of it.

“Fuck you, I have wear whatever the fuck I want and it has fuck all to do with you”, Chloe hissed back.

“The last time I heard the word fuck come out of your mouth that many times you were on your knees as I fucked you from behind”, he reminded her, as if that somehow gave him the right to pass comment on her attire.

“Fuck you”, Chloe balked. She was not at her most eloquent at that moment, as the majority of the blood was not going to her brain.

“Well I was going to get to that part later but I can rearrange my schedule. Do you want to do it here or go back to the mansion?” He asked, as if he really didn’t understand that she had been swearing at him rather than offering him her body.

“You bastard”, she hissed.

“What?” He tried to look as neutral as possible, “You seem tense. Like you need seeing to”.

“You know what Lex? You are completely right” She ran her hand along her neck, “I really do need a good, long, hard fuck”, she watched with satisfaction as his eyes followed her fingers. “Clark will be turning up soon-ish, so you had better make yourself scarce”.

“He touches you and I’ll invent a kryptonite weapon and kill him”, Lex’s voice was menacing.

“Touch him and I will kick your ass”, Chloe threatened.

“Dressed like that?” He didn’t sound convinced, those five inch heels alone would make any violence rather difficult.

“What is wrong with the way I look?” She demanded, unable to believe that they were having this conversation. This was not what she had planned on saying to him when next they met.

“Nothing”, he breathed.

“Well you look like crap”, she lied.

“You look gorgeous”, Lex kept her pressed to him.

Chloe tensed as she remembered.


~*~

“You’re gorgeous”, Lex almost groaned as Chloe finally let go of the straps of her halter neck, allowing it to fall to the ground and reveal all of her to him.

A shy smile played around her lips but she couldn’t look at him, she wrapped one of her legs around the other one and her hands went up to cover her breasts.

“Come here”, he said with a warm smile as he closed the distance between them and took her hands from over her breasts and placed them on his shoulders before cupping her face and kissing her gently.

Chloe’s hands glided over his bare shoulders up to his neck and pulled him closer, increasing the passion of the kiss until they were both gasping.

“You are too fucking gorgeous for words”, he growled as they broke apart.

She blushed slightly, clearly not sure whether to believe him. He felt hatred towards anyone who had ever made her feel ugly swelling within him but he stamped it down, he would show her how beautiful she really was.

“I mean it”, he assured her taking both of her hands in his and kissing them. She had small graceful hands with practical nails, he liked that, it meant that they wouldn’t lacerate him too badly when she clawed at his back.

“You are so lovely”, he kissed the insides of her wrists causing her to whimper slightly. He grinned, so she was ticklish, that would come in handy later. He kissed his way up her arms, his fingers kneading her flesh, “Such perfect arms”, he murmured.

They were nowhere near as toned as Chloe wanted them to be, she almost wanted to pull away from him and hide the extra fat she had but she believed Lex’s words. She didn’t know if he had been possessed by something, but he obviously thought that he was telling the truth. He obviously thought that she was pretty.

His teeth grazed against her collar bone and she gasped, her hands clutching at his shoulders. His head lowered down into between her breasts and she froze, this wasn’t good. He licked and nibbled his way down between them and she really wanted to cover those hated mounds up again but Lex beat her to it. He must have noticed how repulsive they were too, he must have … he was kneading them gently and Chloe thought that her knees might buckle. She leant even more heavily on him.

As he massaged the flesh his thumbs ran across the two stretch marks on the sides of her breasts which were a constant reminder not only of how quickly she had developed when she had finally started to grow, but also that her father hadn’t know that she was supposed to have a bra the second that she got anything up there. It had not been until Lois had come back that she had got one and realised that they were supposed to be there and that it wasn’t just excess fat but by then the damage had been done. They would never be quite right again. Lex seemed to disagree. He seemed to be intent upon rubbing the heaving mounds until she lost all ability to think.

“You are perfect”, he growled as he finally changed his approached and used his thumbs on her nipples.

“Oh God Lex”, Chloe groaned, her head falling back.

Lex grinned as he saw the effect that he was having on her and lifted her onto the bed, in case she was about to fall over. He crawled up over her and kissed her firmly before returning his attention to her breasts, this time continuing his exploration with his tongue.

She arched her back instinctively. “Please Lex”, she whimpered.

He wanted to please her but then had an idea, he pulled back trying to explain to mini Lex that he wasn’t giving up.

“Tell me that you are perfect, that your body is perfect and that you want me to touch and kiss you everywhere”, he said as he sat back on his heels.

“I … I’m perfect, my body’s perfect an … and I want you to touch and kiss me everywhere”, she said in a shaky voice.

“Good girl”, he popped one of her nipples into his mouth and sucked firmly causing her to make noises in the back of her throat which went straight to his cock.

Eventually he travelled down to her soft but flat stomach where he discovered a handful of beauty marks which he paid extra attention to, not wanting them to feel left out, before he ran his hands over her hips and imagined holding onto them as he plunged into her. He could just about make out the lattice work of white under her skin, but when he ran his fingers over her she was completely smooth. The stretch marks had healed, they must have been from very early on, she must have grown very quickly that would mean that when he got to her thighs … God he could really have done with a cold shower about then.

His hands slipped underneath her to squeeze her bottom. He grinned. There was definitely enough there to hold onto during moments of passion. Whilst he was definitely a breast man, he did appreciate a nice ass as well.

“So perfect”, he murmured, as he ran his hands up along the insides of her thighs which were also marked. He could feel her trembling underneath him, he glanced to the side and could see her hands balled up in the coverlet and he was damned sure that it wasn’t from pain. He trailed one finger along the inside of her thigh and watched her straining not to buck against him.

“You know I never thought that I would see Chloe Sullivan quiet and still … I’m not sure that I like it”, he let his tongue travel the path this finger had mapped out and heard her gasp this time and felt her moving against him.

“So sensitive”, he murmured against her. He hadn’t touched a virgin for years, he normally didn’t find much pleasure in the idea of instructing someone – before it had just been because he could – but now the possessive part of his nature revelled in the fact that he was going to be Chloe’s first, last and only. He would be the one to teach about pleasure, how to move, even how to love a man if he could manage it.

“Lex, please”, she begged, not sure what she was asking for.

“Don’t worry baby, I’ll give you everything you want”, he kissed his way up her thighs before he began to stroke her gently, waiting until she started making noises in the back of her throat before replacing her hand with his mouth. He wanted this to be the perfect night for her.

“Oh God”, she screamed as he sucked her clit and she felt herself ripping apart. “Oh Lex, oh Lex”, she cried out as she bucked up under his mouth.

Lex took hold of her hips and forced her back down to the mattress, more than a little proud that he had made her come to fast, he resolved to get at least one more out of her before he slipped so much as one finger into her.

Chloe struggled against his hands but eventually calmed down slightly as the sensations ebbed from her body and she found herself able to breathe again, only to feel the tension coiling up inside her again.

“Oh Lex”, she whimpered against as he began licking and sucking at her in earnest, her hands went to his shoulders and stroked over his shoulders.

“So perfect, you taste so good. I want you so much”, he growled between licks.

“Then take me”, she offered herself to him. If he hadn’t been hard already, that would have been enough to do it.

“I will”, he promised, “but not just yet”, he moved her hips so that he could change his angle and was more than rewarded when he heard her scream. He started to stroke her again, while she was still thrashing about determined to prolong the pleasure for as long as possible.

Slowly, more afraid of hurting her than he had ever been before in his life, he inserted a finger into her and was recompensed with a string of curse words that would have made a navy seal blush. It was safe to say that she liked it and his earlier ministrations had clearly worked as she was sopping wet. He was greedy, he wanted to taste her again, he just couldn’t get enough of her.

Chloe screamed as if she were being murdered as he slipped in another finger and then another, flicking his tongue against her all of the time. She was beyond words or begging at this point, Lex couldn’t take it anymore. She was more than ready for him now, he nipped at her and was astounded as she came even more explosively than before.

Lex crawled up her body watched her face with fascination as it contorted as she came, he leant down to kiss her forehead gently and braced one arm next to her head. He moved his other hand back down between her legs double checking that she was ready, he really didn’t want to hurt her although he knew that that was impossible unless she had somehow broken her maidenhead already.

He was almost lost to passion. He placed himself against her slick, trembling opening and considered taking things slowly but her hips already jerked against him, so he entered her. She felt amazing, she was so hot and tight.

Chloe could barely make sense of things. This was her third orgasm in such a short space of time and she had never even had one before. It was a little too much for her and her brain wasn’t really up to dealing with all of the endorphins running around her system. Added to that the fact that there was now there was friction, she thought that she was about to go crazy. The only thought which was clear in her head was Lex.

Lex grit his teeth as he met the resistance, he stared at Chloe but realised that she was still too far gone to realise much of anything. If he broke her now she would probably be spared most of the pain, he stroked her cheek before playing with her clit as he forced himself into her again this time breaking through the barrier.

Chloe’s eyes shot open, he had not quite succeeded, she had felt it.

He continued to toy with her trying to take her mind off the pain and Chloe pulled him down to kiss her. The pain had brought her back to her senses a little, so she could concentrate on him. He was hard between her legs and although she hurt there she couldn’t help wriggling a little against him. His fingers were still tormenting her but she took his hand and pulled it away; she wanted to hold it. She used her other hand to stroke his head as their tongues caressed, it wasn’t the heated battle of earlier it was slower, more sensual, more romantic as if they were really in love.

“God if you don’t stop that then I’m not going to last very long”, he growled in her ear.

“Which?” She asked keeping up the movement of her fingers over his scalp and of her hips.

“Both, I can’t keep still much longer”, his voice sounded strained.

“Then don’t”, Chloe tried to grind against him more effectively.

“You’re sure?” He checked. God he was turning into a pussy where she was concerned. Time was when he would have already fucked her senseless, rested, flipped her over and done it again virgin or not.

“I’m sure that you are going to be in some serious pain if you don’t hurry up and ah”, she gasped as he thrust into her.

“Like that?” He groaned with satisfaction, or something very much like it.

“Yeah, like that”, she gasped trying to move against him.

“Put your legs around my waist and your hands on my shoulders”, he advised.

Chloe complied although the former took a couple of attempts as Lex continued to plough into her, increasing the pace and depth.

“Good girl”, he commended her once she had managed it, “now push back against ah yeah like that, just like that”, he panted out.

“Fuck your amazing”, Chloe clawed at his shoulders.

“Right back at you”, he managed to get out between breaths. He could feel himself bottoming out inside her now, causing her to gasp and moan with every movement.

“God so close”, she moved her hands down his back, desperate to pull her closer. “Are you …?”

“Yeah, just”, he broke off as he changed his angle slightly and was rewarded with a string of what might have been profanities although he couldn’t be sure, he thought that he even heard some French in there too.

Her muscles clamped down around him with a death grip and he could barely contain himself but Chloe wasn’t having that, she was apparently in just enough possession of her faculties to realise that he had not yet found released and reached down to touch him causing him to explode within her.

Lex slumped over her as pleasure coursed through him. He knew that he should get off her but Chloe was holding onto him too tightly.

Realising that he was not actually going to get out of her arms – not that he particularly wanted to – he held her close and rolled them over so that he was on his back and she wouldn’t be crushed. He wasn’t normally one for the post sex cuddle but he had to admit that with Chloe he could get used to it. He was really quite comfortable or at least he would be if he weren’t lying on something plastic.

“Oh fuck”.

“What’s the matter?” Chloe wondered, a little fearfully. Had she done something wrong? Had he not enjoyed it? Did he regret what they had done?

“The condom”, he groaned.

“Fuck”, Chloe seconded his thought.

“I never forgot before”, he said lamely, as if that somehow made it better. He had wanted to give her the perfect prom night, not ruin it.

“Hey don’t worry about it. You’re clean, right?” Chloe double checked.

“Of course, I would never have risk your health like that”, he sounded more than a little affronted.

“I know, well then I will just have to take the pill tomorrow. It isn’t the end of the world”, Chloe assured him, hugging him – he looked like he needed a hug.

“I wanted this night to be perfect for you”, he returned the hug.

“It was perfect Lex”, she kissed him on the cheek, “You were perfect”, she snuggled down against him then and went to sleep.

That night had been perfect, even as she woke up the next morning she was on cloud nine. She looked around the room for the source of her contentment but she couldn’t see him.

“Lex”, she called out. There was no response and she realised that his part of the bed was cold. Lex was gone.


~*~

“You look gorgeous, as always, but far too much of you is on display”, Lex growled in her ear, trying to resist the urge to drag her off into a corner.

“I wasn’t aware that that was your choice”, she hissed.

“I think that I have some rights”, he retorted, already knowing that that had been the wrong thing to say.

She turned on him, “Rights?!?!”


A/N: Meh, I'm tired and my head hurts so tell me if that chapter didn't make sense.

[TrinityR]

Don't worry, hon, it's amazing!
I'm just worried why Lex left her in the morning. Did he go to bring her the pill?
And please, don't say that LEx cheated on her and that is why they're not together... ;/ I don;t think LEx would ever cheat on Chloe. He's not that kind of a guy, he would lie, but never cheat on the woman.

Oh, and one more thing, liek a pratical one to know. When you lose your virginity it's not the lost of the hyman that only hurts, it's more about the stretching of muscles. Lex is extra large (judging from the condoms:D) so Chloe should feel more pain.

But I loved it this chapter!!!

[HotCrossedBunny]

Thank-you.

Are those questions that you would like answered? If so I can PM you the answers to those, but might spoil things.

Thanks for the practical knowledge, I didn't know that. I will incorporate it into the next chapter - does that mean that there is no chance that she would have enjoyed the first time once he was you know in?

[TrinityR]

Thank-you.

Are those questions that you would like answered? If so I can PM you the answers to those, but might spoil things.

Thanks for the practical knowledge, I didn't know that. I will incorporate it into the next chapter - does that mean that there is no chance that she would have enjoyed the first time once he was you know in?

No, I don;t think I really want to know:DD That will spoilt my fun.

No, of course that doesn't mean she wouldn't enjoy it. She would. I once talked to Zannie, because I was confused why Chloe was in pain when there was no hymen (it burst, sometimes it happens, trust me, I know), so she said it's more about the muscles that had to be streched and adjusted to a man.
But it's 100% possible to come. the pain dies down and even if there's a little of it left the woman feels more pleasure than pain, so the forst overcomes the second, she can come. Sometimes it doesn't hurt, depends on the woman.
You should read Road Tripping (by Zannie) very realistically described Chloe losing her virginity to Lex and... that fic is SO MUCH FUN!!

[HotCrossedBunny]

That's what I thought.

Ah okay, that makes sense. Thank-you for the information. I will definately read Zannie's fic, it sounds really good although I had to finsihed the BlueSabby one I am on and then hunt down the one where Lex and Chloe are married but only in name and then decide to have sex and fall in love - I adored that one. Then roadtrip. :D

[chicablue]

great update. Can't wait for the next one.

[HotCrossedBunny]

A/N: Sorry, still not my best dratted flu but I hope that you will enjoy the Chlex.

*Chapter Nine*

“After”, Chloe started to shout but then, remembering where she was lowered her voice to a hiss, “After what you did you have no fucking rights!” She injected her tone with enough venom to compensate for the fact that she was forced to reduce her volume but her body strained with the effort of doing so; she really wanted to scream blue murder at him.

“I was your first Chloe”, he growled at her, “that gives me some rights whatever happened afterwards”. He kept his hold on her; there was no way that he was going to let her get away from him. He would rather have her there before him fighting with him than be without her. He couldn’t be without her, not again.

“No it doesn’t”, she struggled against him, tears stinging her eyes as she thought about her disappointment.

“Yes, it does”, he ran his hand up her back trying to stop the shimmer of moisture in her green eyes. He didn’t want to upset her, he really didn’t. On the contrary, he wanted to kiss those tears away but he just couldn’t live without her and this was the only way that he could provoke her into talking to him even if they were fast descending into childishness.

It pained him to think that she had a good point and that he had indeed lost some of his rights, that was one of the reasons why it had taken him so long to come after her. He had tried to do the noble thing and put her out of his mind; to let her get on with her life without him and find someone new, better but it hadn’t worked. She was just as miserable without him as he was without her. And so he was here to win those rights back and make her happy. Of course, it seemed like getting her back and making her happy was going to involve making her furious first and he knew that when she was angry she tended to act out. Well he wasn’t going to allow that either, she was not going to get hurt because of him ever again.

Chloe gasped as she felt his hot breath on her cheek, somehow that was even more intimate than his hands on her body and made her lose her train of thought. She hated herself for her weakness around him, after what had happened she shouldn’t have allowed herself to feel anything other than hatred towards him. She tried to distract herself by looking around the room, anything was better than being reminded of him.

Whilst she had been arguing with Lex she hadn’t been aware of her surroundings but now she realised the precariousness of their situation. She looked around to check that no one was observing them, she was not entirely fortunate. Obviously the in/famous Lex Luthor being in attendance and holding a woman close had not gone unnoticed by some women who were shooting her suspicious looks. Chloe grimaced.

Lex noticed the direction of her gaze and smirked. He could feel the effect that he was having on her – even if she tried to hide it - and relished it, he didn’t care if anyone else saw them but if it bothered Chloe he would offer her a way out.

“You have two options here Chloe”, he whispered in her ear, “either I kiss you senseless right now in front of all of the local town busybodies – most of whom have cameras on their phones – basically ensuring that it will be on papers tomorrow morning and that everyone will know that you are mine”. The idea sent a thrill through him.

Suddenly Chloe was glad that his arms were wrapped so tightly around her so that she didn’t fall over when her knees buckled. Her bones had turned to jelly, her pupils had dilated and she had to really focus on keeping a firm hold on her anger as she clung to his suit jacket to keep herself fully upright.

Lex smiled at the reaction his words had caused and supported her body against his.

“What’s the other option?” She asked, galled that he had made her admit that he was in control and that she did have only two choices, sort of. If the second option was just as bad she would refuse, although she had no idea how her body would take such a refusal it was about ready to give herself to him on any terms.

“Sit down quietly and politely and have a drink with me, as if we were just old friends”, he offered her a way out. He had wanted to make the second option something even more outrageous but he knew that if he pushed her too far she would just close off from him completely.

“You don’t know what friendship is”, she spat back at him. That was good, that had sobered her up a little. Her knees had almost regained some of their strength which would be useful when he pushed her away and stormed out of the room.

His face remained neutral but there was a flash of pain in his eyes which no one other than Chloe would have noticed. She realised that her words had sliced through him and for a moment, one terrible moment, she felt delight. She had managed to hurt him. She felt powerful. Oh God, that was the attitude that had got her in trouble with Lionel when she had wanted to destroy Clark. She was repulsed with herself. The flood of guilt washed over her as she looked up at Lex, she wanted to reach out and comfort him, she hadn’t meant to hurt him when she had said it. It had just come out.

Lex could practically read her thoughts and God help him he was going to use them against her. “So the kiss it is then”, his head swooped down hoping that she would be too confused by her feelings to react quickly enough, however she did just turn her head in time so that he only caught her cheek.

He tried to keep the disappointment from showing on his face, he knew that he should not have expected it to be that easy. “Or the drink if you would prefer”, he added reluctantly.

“I think that I could use a drink”, she said as she felt him placing another kiss on her cheek. It was the easiest way to get him to release her, and she really did need a drink.

“Alright”, Lex agreed and reluctantly loosened his grip on her enough to pull out a chair for her and to help her – for her legs were still jelly-like – to sit down. He took the seat next to her and wrapped his foot around the leg of hers so that she couldn’t pull away from him. He already missed the warmth of her body pressed against him, he certainly wasn’t about to allow her to run away.

There were several bottles on the table and Chloe reached across for the scotch, anxious for something to do and poured them both a glass of it. As she did so he got a flash of cleavage which made him glance around and give “sod off” glares to any man who was looking her way.

“The fact that I agreed to have a drink with you does not mean that I want you to scare away potential male company”, she informed him icily as she handed him his drink.

Lex appeared unconcerned by this rebuke although inside he was seething at the thought of another man coming near her, even though he knew that there was no chance that she was leaving with anyone but him.

To distract himself from saying something that she might make him regret he took a sip of his drink and pulled a face. “Certainly not the best. I thought that I had trained you better than that. You should know which scotch to consume”.

Chloe bristled at this and the fact that he hadn’t responded to her earlier jab, she had wanted him to be jealous and declare that she was only leaving with him – even if she didn’t want him to think that he had the right to make her decisions for her.

“Fuck you”, she responded again. She did know the difference between the two and knew that this wasn’t good so there wasn’t really anything else that she could say, but she had to say something.

“Fuck again?” He raised an eyebrow. “Either you have a one tracked mind or they didn’t teach you many words in that fancy school you went to”.


~*~

Chloe stared around the bedroom in confusion. Lex had been there that night, he couldn’t just have gone. Well, that wasn’t true he could very easily just have gone. They hadn’t talked about their feelings or anything, he had just said that he had wanted her to have the perfect prom night which he had given her and now he wasn’t there. And why shouldn’t he be gone, she reasoned. He had known that she was willing to give up her virginity just to get it over with; there was no reason for him to think her anything more than a cheap slut. There was no reason for him to still be there in the morning, she knew his history. She shouldn’t have expected anything else.

With tears stinging her eyes and wondering how on earth she was going to call Lois and tell her a) where she was, b) that she needed her to come and get her, and c) bring her something to wear because her own clothes were ripped. It was a good job that Lois had decided not to go to the prom after all, she decided although she could only imagine how much Lois was going to make fun of her when she found out what she had done.

She looked around the room but couldn’t see her clothing or her bag; it must be in the sitting room. She pulled back the blankets and tried not to cry as she saw the stain on top of them, then slowly got out of bed. She felt stiff and then, Chloe let out a little whimper of pain.

“Chloe”, Lex came bursting through the double doors which led onto the sitting room, “What’s the matter?”

“Lex”, Chloe gasped as she saw him.

“I’ll call you back”, he barked into his phone before turning it off and thrusting it into his pocket as he hurried around to her side. He checked her out for any obvious signs of injury. There was still some bloody between her legs but other than that she looked fine so he guessed that it had just been a shock of some type. He tried to joke, “Who else were you expecting

“My lover”, she attempted a joke in return but felt herself go a little weak as he grasped her upper arms and looked at her with such obvious concern. He hadn’t left her.

“Are you alright?” He asked again.

“Yeah, I’m just being silly. I stood up too quickly and …”

“And you’re sore”, he supplied for her with a grin. “Come on, get back into bed”, he helped her back in and covered her with the covers which was a shame as she was very nice to look at. “You shouldn’t have been trying to get up yet anyway, don’t you know how morning after prom night is supposed to work?” Without waiting for her to reply, he explained, “You are supposed to lounge around in bed and wait for your breakfast to come to you”, he pressed the button on the intercom and informed someone on the other end that she was awake.

Before Chloe had the chance to comment on this, a maid came through with a huge tray of breakfast and freshly brewed coffee and another one followed with linen and a couple of small boxes.

“God that smells good”, Chloe moaned as her stomach rumbled causing Lex to laugh as he ordered, “Breakfast on the bed please” and slipped one of the maids a tip for the both of them.

The second maid whipped off the old top coverlet – which was stained - and replaced it with another one in the blink of an eye causing Chloe to wonder if she had ever been a magician’s assistant. The other then set out the breakfast as Lex was handed the boxes. Once they had gone Lex moved around to his side of the bed and sat down next to Chloe.

“Here you are”, he gave her both boxes, “those pills are the best on the market and shouldn’t cause you any harm or sickness, also they can be taken along with these”, he pointed to the second box, “Nurofen”, Chloe read aloud. “Are you always this thoughtful Lex?”

“No, usually I leave before she wakes up, saves me from having to admit that I don’t remember, or never bothered to ask, her name”, Lex tried to sound conversational as he said this but watched her intently out of the corner of his eye. He wasn’t proud of it but he wanted Chloe to know that this wasn’t normal for him, that she wasn’t just one of the hundreds of girls he had bedded and then forgotten.

“I’m Chloe”, she said holding her hand out for him to shake. She had got his message loud and clear, he wanted to – very gently – inform her that he was an experienced man of the world to whom nights like this meant nothing. She didn’t expect anything from him, she knew that it had just been a one night thing and she would show him that she could be grown up and mature too. She would joke about this and act casually and then she would leave. When she next saw him she would be cool, calm and sophisticated … or as cool, calm and sophisticated as she could manage.

“Lex Luthor”, he smiled as he took her hand and she felt a shot of electricity go straight through her. This was going to be more difficult that she had thought at first.

Trying to find something to distract herself with, she took her tablets with a swing of coffee and a bite of pain au chocolat. “Um this is good”.

“Yeah, it looks it”, he took one and ate it; trying to ignore the temptation to lick the spot of chocolate he could see on her lip from her pastry.

“Are you going to work?” Chloe wondered as she looked over at him, he was dressed very nicely in his grey trousers and that soft blue sweater of his that made her want to forget that last night had been a onetime thing.

“No”, he smiled – he had been doing that a lot that morning – “this is for when we go out today”.

“We are going out today?” Chloe asked in surprise.

“Yes, of course. I am taking you to see your future Universities so that we can have a look around and you can make your decision”, Lex looked at her in confusion, he was sure that he had mentioned that to her before, hadn’t he?

“Really?” Chloe squeaked, she had never been outside of Kansas before and the idea of going all over the country was really exciting but not so much as the thought of the fact that she was going to get to spend an entire day with Lex. She picked up her coffee cup to stop herself throwing her arms around him.

“Yes, really”, he laughed at her obvious enthusiasm. He had never really thought of trips as being much of a treat, they were just par for the cause in his family, but seeing how excited it made Chloe he really wished that he had offered to take her somewhere nice before.

“Um Lex”, Chloe asked hesitantly, “how are we going to do that when you cut my dress?”

“I ordered you some new clothes that are in the sitting room and made sure that they put female products and such like in the bathroom”, he told her, honestly confused that she thought that he wouldn’t have already taken care of everything that she needed.

“Lex you didn’t have to …”

“I ripped it off, it’s my job to replace it”, he said neutrally thinking that this would be better than telling her that he had wanted to.

Although there was nothing particular about his voice, the glint in his eyes told her not to argue with him. “When are we leaving? Do I have time to finish eating before I shower and change?”

“Yeah, of course”, he really couldn’t work out what was going on in her brain, “but the plane leaves when you are ready and not a moment before so just relax”. He was about to point out that there was a Jacuzzi that might help if she was sore but thought that that might test his resolve too much.


~*~

Lex’s resolve had been tested ruthlessly all that day. He was fairly certain that Chloe hadn’t been aware that she was torturing him, she had very little idea of what she could do to him at that point but he had spent the entire day torn between being amazed by her life force and energy, and trying to think of disgusting images so that he wouldn’t get too hard when she laughed, or smiled at him, or even winced a little as she sat down reminding him of what he had done to her.

Even now, five years later and surrounded by people she could still make him crazy with lust.

“My schooling was just fine”, Chloe replied tersely.

“I know it was ba … Chloe”, he tried to assure her that he hadn’t actually meant to insult her education – he knew that she was very proud of it, and so she should be, he damned sure was -, he had just been joking.

She seemed to soften for a moment before looking away, pretending to be bored rather than having to look at him and face the truth. Even after everything, he did care about her.

“Looking for your friends?” He said, trying not to sound jealous even though he was.

“Yeah”.

“What are you going to tell them when they arrive?” He wondered.

“The truth”.

“What is the truth?” Lex wondered.

“That I never stopped being in love with Clark and that now I am back I want to give it another go”.

[TrinityR]

Ok, what?! Are you freaking kidding me?! CHLOE CAN'T BE F** IN LOVE WITH CLARK!!

And Lex, no, the fact that you were her first doesn't give you any rights.

I love it, but Clark... <sputtering> CLARK?!

[trinna]

More please.

[HotCrossedBunny]

*Chapter Ten*

Alexander Luthor came from a long and proud line of liars and cheats. He had been trained from birth to manipulate those around him into bending to his will, to know every move that this opponent was going to make before he did but to never show his own hand, or any emotion. That was the way to get ahead and that was all that mattered.

He had been named after one of – if not the - greatest military leader in history and he had to live up to it. To that end, he had taken down a hundred companies, deceived thousands of people and even taken on – and beaten – his own father. And he had managed it all with a practiced air of nonchalance. Nothing ruffled a hair on Lex’s head, quite literally.

Lex tried to remember all of this as he sat there with his jaw hanging open in a most undignified manner. He was trying desperately to process what was going on around him but without much success.

Chloe’s words, “I never stopped being in love with Clark and that now I am back I want to give it another go”, reverberated in his mind making thought impossible. Every time he tried to drown them out they just screamed back at him louder than before. They would not be ignored.

She loved Clark. She had never stopped loving him.

Lex’s fists clenched and it took what was left of his self-restraint not to get up and start throwing the furniture around. He couldn’t do that; he couldn’t lose what semblance of control he had left. He had to get to the bottom of this.

She couldn’t love Clark. She simply couldn’t.

He grabbed his drink and downed it one gulp hoping that the alcohol would help even though it was terrible. He had to think. There was no way that she could love Clark. Chloe had got over Clark years ago, he just knew that she had. He had seen the proof with his own eyes.


~*~

It was a beautiful early summer’s afternoon and the dazzling sunlight shone down on the red brick courtyard giving everything a rosy romantic glow. Although classes and exams were now officially over there were still quite a few students milling around the place, all laughing and joking now that the stress was over for that year and they were free to enjoy their summer. There was quite a queue in front of the coffee cart but no one seemed to mind, not even a certain bald billionaire.

Lex took the chance to really have a look around the place. It was very nice, homely and warm but still thriving and academic. He had never had a chance to do anything other than study when he had been in University – unless one counted partying and fucking – but he liked the idea of a wholesome afternoon on the lawn of the University. That was an important part of the experience, at least to his mind.

There were plenty of students doing exactly that but however hard he tried to survey the entire campus from his vantage point, his gaze kept wandering back to the blonde beauty lying stretched out on a picnic blanket waiting for him to bring her some coffee from the cart he was queuing up in front of.

Chloe looked radiant. She had been beaming all day long, enjoying visiting each new university more than the last but this one was clearly her favourite. He wasn’t surprised, as he looked around he realised that this was where she belonged. It seemed like a safe and friendly place to be, but with a strong academic reputation. He would be very happy if she were to stay here.

He was so much enjoying the sight of her looking completely unconcerned for once, that he did not realise that it was his turn to order. Man that girl was getting to him; he was never normally the one to lose his bearings. Finally he was forced to turn his back on her for a minute to complete the transaction – he wasn’t sure that Chloe would find her beauty to be a suitable excuse for why he had not brought her coffee.

Coffee purchased, he turned back and saw a young man sitting on his blanket in his space, flirting with Chloe. His jaw clenched as he made his way back over there, trying to remind himself that it was good for her to have the chance to interact normally with her peers and that drop kicking the boy really wasn’t an option … unfortunately.

“Chloe”, he greeted her a little stiffly as he handed her her coffee.

If she noticed his manner, she didn’t comment on it. She beamed up at him accepting her beverage, “My knight in shining armour”, she teased. It had been a running joke with them that day that there was an evil monster known as the Snark and that the brave knight Sir Alexander had to save the beautiful but possessed princess from it by finding the magic potion. To this end they had ordered coffee at each University in turn and Chloe was keeping score – although Lex had assured her that whichever one had the best coffee he would move to wherever she chose to go.

“Oh”, Chloe groaned in a way that reminded Lex forcibly of their activities last night, “This is the best so far”, she announced, apparently unaware of the effect her voice was having on the men in her vicinity.

Hearing a slight cough from her new friend Chloe shook her head and gave an amused little half smile, “Oh sorry, where are my manners. Lex Kip, Kip Lex”, she introduced them.

Lex had to fight back the urge to remind Chloe that to others he was Mr Luthor, a fight that he was in danger of losing until she took another sip and he temporarily lost the ability to speak. He noticed that Kip appeared to be likewise afflicted and reached out and shook the man’s hand with enough force to make him decide that it was time for him to leave.

Chloe giggled even as she waved to a retreating Kip. “I love it here; this is definitely where I am going to go to school”.

“Because of Kip or the coffee?” Lex asked, hoping that it was the coffee.

“Neither, big idiot”, Chloe scoffed at him and Lex felt his stupidity. It was true that Chloe had been toying with the idea of attending MetU for Clark, but he had known him for years and even she admitted that she wouldn’t really have done it. In the end Chloe would have made the sensible decision, with or without him. He was merely smoothing her way a little. He felt guilty for having doubted her sense, even for a few seconds. He just couldn’t help it when the evil green eyed monster of jealousy flared up; he briefly wondered if the Snark could take it.

“Because I love it here, it had great courses, an amazing library and I don’t know … I’m just happy here. It is as if all of that stuff in Smallville, all of that drama didn’t exist”, Chloe tried to explain the way that she was feeling and hoped that she was making some sense.

“What about Clark?” Lex wondered, wanting to know what her feelings for him were after last night rather than because he actually thought that she would consider MetU now.

“Clark is a good friend but nothing more, he never was really. I guess that it was just safer to have that school girl crush to cling on to rather than getting on with my life”, she smiled. “I am certain that I was never in love with him”.

Lex felt his heart leap and he wanted to lean over and kiss her but knew that that was inappropriate and that he could end up alienating her if he did so. So, instead, he said, “I’ll be back in a moment, I have a business call that I have to make. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes”.

“Take as long as you need, I don’t want the world economy to crash just because Lex Luthor wasn’t there to take a phone call”, she teased him.

“If you take economics I’ll give you a hand”, he offered, before he muttered under his breath, “it looks like you could use it”, as he made his way away from the blanket, he couldn’t have Chloe hearing his phone call. When he was far enough away, he looked over his shoulder just to check that she was where he had left her and still alone.

“I want to speak to the chancellor, tell him that it is Lex Luthor calling”, he said into his cell, “Yes, hello I’ve just been walking around your University and noticed that you have one of the largest academic libraries in the western world how would you like it to be the biggest? I thought that that is what you would say. You have offered a full scholarship to an incoming student called Chloe Ann Sullivan. No I don’t fucking want you to revoke her scholarship, any talk like that again and I’ll close down your fucking University.” Lex took a breath as he heard the pleading on the other end of the phone.

“Now I will tell you what I do want. The scholarship she has been awarded covers her student fees, her accommodation in first year and a small amount of money is given to her after that and nothing else. Well, you are going to explain that you have made a mistake. Every first year student is guaranteed accommodation in a basic hall and there are special ones for scholarship students. There was some problem with the one which she was supposed to have but as you are required by law to provide her with accommodation she will be put into the best room you have for all four years with all bills included without her having to pay a penny”, Lex explained as he thought this all out.

Gabe was now making pretty decent money but Chloe’s education would still be difficult after so many years of struggling and he did not want Chloe to have to worry, or even think, about these things. She was going to have the best of everything. Tuition fees were taken care of, accommodation with rates and her meal plan were done, and he knew that Gabe would have taken care of the little extras that she needed that only left one other big thing.

“Tomorrow morning I will send you the most state of the art laptop that money can buy, you will send it to her saying that she won a competition. Make it believable”, he ordered sharply.


~*~

“You can’t mean that”, Lex finally got out, although his voice was far weaker than he would have liked.

He had heard what she had said, her words still echoed in his head, but that didn’t change what he had seen in her eyes all of those years ago. The truth in her eyes when she had said that she never been in love with Clark could not be doubted. She had said those words the night after they had made love. That had to mean something. She couldn’t be going back on that, she just couldn’t.

She had tried to hurt him earlier that night, maybe that was what she was trying to do now. That would make sense. Her back was turned to him as she looked around the room, hiding her face from his view.

“Chloe”, he gasped, reaching out to grab her shoulders. He needed to see her face; then he would be able to tell if she was lying and she had to be lying. She just had to be. Even if she did not care about him as a lover, that did not change the friendship which they had struck up.


~*~

Chloe tottered along the winding hallways back to her apartment, unable to see where she was going as she was carrying so many books. She had been having remarkably good luck with winning things since she had started at University, which was rather strange as she had never had much good fortune with that kind of thing before. First there had been her apartment and meal plan which had both been upgraded for the four years with no extra charge, then her laptop and now she had won all of her school text books for the year in a raffle which she didn’t even remember entering. If she had still been in Smallville she would have started to wonder whether she might not have some sort of meteor freak ability. Chloe was of course delighted with her run of good luck and the fact that she had just been saved several hundred dollars on books, she knew wished that she didn’t have to carry all of them plus her coffee in one go. She couldn’t wait to get back to her apartment and relax.

She smiled a little as she thought of her apartment. It was the most beautiful place that she had ever lived, if you didn’t count the night that she had spent in the mansion with Lex when someone was trying to kill her, or the night in the hotel, also with Lex - which she didn’t as she had only been visiting whereas now she lived there properly. It was a penthouse apartment in the most prestigious apartment block on campus and took up the whole of the top floor. It was large and spacious with hard wood floors, large windows with magnificent views in every direction. It had come ready furnished with pieces that Chloe guessed had cost more than her newly won laptop. She had been to several other apartments in the block and had noticed that while the others were nice, they were no were near as extravagant as hers – and her flatmates’. She knew that she shouldn’t, but she was rather pleased by it. She normally never had the nicest things. It looked like things were turning around for her.

University suited her down to the ground. When her father had driven her up on the first day she had been excited but also a little scared. She had had to remind herself several times that she was Chloe Sullivan, hardened Metropolis-ite, head of The Torch and woman who had thrown down with more meteor freaks than she could shake a stick at. University held no terrors for her.

By the time that Gabe had seen her apartment – and stopped gushing over it -, helped her unpack, gone around the entire University with her checking that she knew where everything was and that all of her paper work was done – even though Lex had already taken care of all of that -, and bid her a tearful goodbye Chloe was fully settled in. She had made some new friends at the coffee cart and continued to do so and expand her social circle in her classes which she found incredibly interesting. Furthermore, the boys were a lot more appreciative of her than they had been back in Smallville – she didn’t know whether it was just because she was running with a different, more educated crowd now, or whether she was simply more confident now that she had shared the Luthor scion’s bed. Whatever it was, life was good.

In fact, everything would have been perfect if the girls she lived with would have been a little nicer. There were four of them in the apartment, the other girls were: Charlotte, Katie and Elizabeth. They were all from rich families and had been lovely to her when she had first come through the door and had even continued to be so when they had seen Gabe in his suit and had found out that he worked with Lex Luthor. However, when they had found out that she was a scholarship student they had decided that Gabe must have meant for, not with, and flatly refused to believe Chloe when they asked if she had ever met the billionaire – thinking to embarrass her – and she had answered in the affirmative. Since then things had been a little frosty between them. They weren’t exactly mean, but they weren’t friendly either. Still, Chloe wouldn’t let them get to her. She had the nicest room anyway and soon she would be inside it.

Chloe was just considering whether she wanted to go out for dinner or order in, trying to keep her mind off the way that her arms were now burning but it wasn’t really working.

“Come on arms, just a little further”, she coaxed them before feeling herself jostle someone. “Sorry”, she called out as her eyes widened as the entire tower began to teeter, she couldn’t manage it. She splayed her fingers as much as possible; maybe if she could get a good enough grip on the ones at the bottom then she could …. It was no good. She could only watch in horror as they began to fall in a perfect line.

She wanted to cry, she knew that it was stupid but she had loved her new books. Normally her books were brought second hand and were already bruised and battered but these had been perfect and now they were going to be scruffy just like everything else she had ever owned.

Blinking in surprise Chloe witnessed a miracle. The person she had bumped into reached out his hands and took them from her, somehow managing to manoeuvre them so that the tower stopped leaning and falling. They were all safe and beautiful.

“Thank-you”, she gasped, clinging onto her coffee cup as she reached out to try to take them back from the stranger.

“Allow me”, a muffled voice came from behind the tower and Chloe had little choice but to acquiesce. They were right in front of her apartment so she ferreted around for her keys and quickly opened her door, “This is my apartment”, she explained lamely and watched as he took the opportunity to enter. Chloe was about to take the top section from him and put them on the side table when her flatmate distracted her.

“Oh the scholarship student is back”, Charlotte greeted her spitefully, then gasped, “Oh my God”.

“What is it?” Chloe asked, turning back around to see what had shocked Charlotte. Surely she didn’t think that someone offering to help Chloe was that strange.

“Lex”, she squealed with delight, her arms flying out to embrace him. She only caught herself at the last moment and clasped them behind her back, wondering, “What are you doing here?”

They hadn’t seen each other since the day that they had been to look at colleges. That evening Lex had taken her back home to Smallville and had even insisted on being there when she told her father of her decision and made the acceptance call and found out about her accommodation upgrade. He had been brilliant. Chloe would have loved to have spent more time with him and had called him the following day to thank him only to have him tell her not to bother as it had been his pleasure and that he had some news for her. She had been offered an internship at The Times and that the Luthor Corp jet would be waiting for her as soon as she had finished packing. With her father’s help Chloe had packed and been in the air in less than half an hour and as much as she had enjoyed her summer in England, part of her wondered what Lex had had to do with her getting the job and whether it was so that he wouldn’t have to see her. She had decided not to call him; he could be the one to decide if they were to have any contact.

“I was just passing through”, he said, not mentioning that he had opened a new enterprise nearby just to make sure that he would always have an excuse to be just passing through. He had waited for her outside her apartment for just over an hour, wondering how she would react when she saw him. He knew that she could have misunderstood his sending her away to England and not having called her since then, not that he had ever called her before that, but sleeping together changed that. Well, actually normally they didn’t for him, but for a woman like Chloe they would.

He had been hoping that she would at least speak to him rather than ignoring him but when he saw her arms go to hug him, his heart soared. He had never hoped for anything that good. He would never have hoped for so much or tried to force a hug on her, but as he took that as an offer he wrapped her in a bear hug and swung her around, asking, “Is that anyway to treat a guest?” It was overly demonstrative for him and he was fairly certain that he had never done anything like that before, but Chloe made him want to do things like that.

Chloe couldn’t answer him for some minutes, as she was lost in the feeling of being in his big strong arms. She never wanted him to let her go. Her time away had been fantastic, but sometimes she did miss home. But as she stood there, cocooned in his warm embrace, breathing in his wonderful Lexy smell, she felt completely safe and relaxed and as if she were exactly where she was supposed to be. This was the feeling of home.

Lex was having much the same feelings, plus a good deal of annoyance as he had not been deaf to the way that Chloe’s living companion had referred to her. That was going to change.

“It’s been ages”, Chloe declared, feeling that she really should say something rather than just staying cuddled up to him.

“Yes”, he agreed., then added, “You look gorgeous”, unable to help himself.

Chloe had let her hair grow a little and had clearly been putting her new found money to good use, she had a new wardrobe which had as much spunk and Chloevage – as he had taken to referring to it – as her old one but was a little more sophisticated.

“Thank-you”, she blushed, “You don’t look too bad yourself”. That had to be the understatement of the millennium. He looked amazing! He was wearing a dark business suit but had taken off his tie and unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt.

“Oh gosh where are my manners?” She closed the door and ushered him inside properly. “Come in. Let me show you my apartment”.

Lex looked around, seeming not to notice that there was another person in the room. “You like it? I mean, nothing is wrong with it, is there?” Everything looked to be in order and the reports that he had got on the place showed that everything down to the heating was perfect.

“Oh no, it’s great”, Chloe assured him, surprised but touched that he cared so much about her living situation and comfort. She had never been so happy to not be living in the scholarship section, she wasn’t generally that house proud but she would have felt awkward showing Lex into something shabby. “You wouldn’t believe it but it is the best in the building, I can’t understand how I got it”. Chloe babbled on for a few minutes.

Lex smiled as Chloe talked and was glad to see that she hadn’t worked it out yet as he was sure that he would catch it when she did, but it would be worth it if she was comfortable. He did another sweep of the room and this time his eyes locked with Charlotte’s. She bet that she could work out exactly how Chloe had got it.

“And everyone is being nice to you?” He gave Charlotte a pointed look.

Chloe looked up at them and noticed what he was doing. “Yes Lex, everyone is being nice enough so you don’t need to bankrupt anyone’s entire family”. She didn’t like Charlotte but she would deal with her on her own, she didn’t want Lex to fight her battles for her – he would probably use a real tank.

“Only too happy to do it”, he said but not entirely for Chloe’s benefit.

“I know”, she assured him, this time glancing over at Charlotte who she was fairly certain she had just witnessed pale. Well Chloe supposed she could hardly blame her. Before Lex could say anything more and make the girl pass out she resolved to get him out of the room.

“Come and see my room, it is amazing. It used to be two rooms – and they were huge even when separated – but there was some sort of problem last year and they had to re do them and they knocked them into one ginormous room. I have a bedroom bigger than my dad’s, an en suite bigger than our family bathroom with a whirlpool, my own study sitting room and mini kitchenette – not that I cook but it is nice to have. I even have my own washing machine. It is great”, Chloe practically skipped into her room.

Lex smirked at her girlish delight and womanly behind before following her through. He knew that he was expected to examine the room and did so. It was good, exactly as he had ordered and Chloe had in essence got her own studio apartment. He was glad to see that Chloe had done it up a little more to her own tastes and that she had made a bit of a mess of it, with books and clothes littering parts of the apartment – it proved to him that she had made herself at home and that she was not having money worries.

“What are your lessons like?” He asked, thinking that that was probably the next obvious question to ask – if he weren’t already getting weekly updates from the professors. Also, he found himself wanting to hear about it from her own lips.

“Fantastic”, Chloe enthused. “There are so many different courses, I am taking literature from so many different genres it is incredible and writing courses and philosophy and languages. It is amazing! Can you believe that you can actually just sit around reading and discussing books and that that is considered work?”

“I’m sure that you do work hard at it”, her enthusiasm was contagious. “What about friends?”

“They’re brilliant too! Everyone here is so nice and open”, certain girls not included of course. “I can’t believe that I only had two real friends throughout the whole of high school and here I had ten in this first week”. An odd expression flashed across Lex’s features and she realised that she had been talking an awful lot about herself. “How is life back home?” She wondered, finding it odd that she still thought of it as home when she was so settled where she was.

“I have moved back to Metropolis, your Dad is in full control of the Smallville plant. I am surprised that he didn’t tell you”, Lex informed her, wishing that they could go back to talking about her. He could listen to her babble about University – or anything else for that matter – for hours with that light in her green eyes.

“He did but I wanted to hear it from you”, Chloe explained thinking that Lex was very funny sometimes. It was as if he thought that people would only talk to him to get something out of him, even if it was just his interpretation of information that they already knew. As she realised that that was probably the case, she felt as if a bucket of cold water had been thrown over her.

Lex stood almost awkwardly for a moment as he saw her expression change. He had wondered if he should have called her, but he wouldn’t have known what to say.

“Would you like some food?” Chloe asked. It seemed a better option than throwing her arms around him and telling him that someone cared about him and wanted him in their life without asking for anything in return.

Chloe opened her cabinet, mini fridge and a draw to reveal her array of snacks. Lex had to admit that he was rather impressed but had to declined, “You see I would like to take you out”.

“Because you want to or because you want to show off in front of Charlotte?” Chloe asked suspiciously.

“Because I want to see you”, Lex answered certainly.

Chloe grinned at him. She looked radiant.


~*~

“Tell me the truth Chloe”, he beseeched her, placing his hands on her shoulders. He felt a shudder go through her but she kept her face hidden from him so that he couldn’t see the glimmer of tears in her eyes or the quiver of her chin.

Forcing her voice not to waiver, she answered, “The truth is that I want that I want to be with Clark, or someone like him”.





A/N: So, what do you think? In general but also does she love Lex? Clark? Or someone else?

[trckyrcky]

Wow with Lex working so hard to help he while she is in college, I wonder what he did that made Chloe so angry with him now?

[Annie13]

great story

[TrinityR]

First of all... your writing is amazing and I wish I could write like that

Second of all: She doesn't love Clark, she just wish she loved someone less complicated than Lex

And I so hope Lex didn;t chear on her!! It doesn't suit him.

[dhh123]

I have to say, what is the point of this story?? It's a tad boring, so to speak.

We all know Reunions don't happen this early on and it's just weird..There was no back-story to this story at all.

[HotCrossedBunny]

A/N: Thank-you for the reviews, they really cheered me up as I am not well. Here is the next chapter dedicated to my three reviewers.

*Chapter Eleven*

“You want to be with Clark, or someone like him?” Lex repeated trying to take that in. It was like a blow to the gut. Deep down he knew that that was probably who she should be with, so why had she chosen to remain alone and lonely for so long? She could have got a new lover in a second.

“Yes!” She said emphatically.

Lex beamed. He recognised that tone of voice, he knew what it meant. She was lying to him.

“You don’t mean that Chloe”, he said more confidently this time as he slid his chair over so that he was sitting right behind her, still not moving his hands from her shoulders.

“I do”, her voice trembled this time.

“No you don’t”, he leant in close enough to whisper in her ear, “I know you too well for that Chloe. I know when you are lying to me”.

“You don’t know me at all Lex”, she denied shaking her head. She tried to focus on scanning the room hoping that that would take her mind off his proximity, off the way that his hands felt against her skin, the way his breath made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

“Yes I do. I know you better than anyone else. You were my first ever real friend”, he told her and a tear trickled down her cheek. She raised her hand to her face so brush it away quickly, anxious for Lex not to see it, even if she knew logically that he couldn’t see it since her face was turned away from him.


~*~

“I can’t believe that this is what you wanted to do to celebrate”, Lex laughed as they sat on the rug in the middle of her private sitting room.

“That is because you are a horrible snob”, Chloe stuck her tongue out at him from a good distance away.

“Damn straight”, he shot back grabbing one of her alarming number of throw pillows and chucking it at her.

“I plan on breaking you of that”, she informed him, catching the pillow and hurling it right back at him.

“Impossible”, he informed her, catching the pillow easily and returning it to its rightful place.

“Difficult but not impossible”, Chloe decided after studying him for a few moments as if giving the matter serious consideration. “And yes, this is absolutely how I want to celebrate. I know, I know you would have been happy to take me out to a fancy restaurant and that would have been nice, I’m sure that I would have enjoyed it but not as much as this. Whenever we go out together we have to worry about whether or not someone is going to take a picture of us, I have to think twice before I hug you and I didn’t want that for tonight.”

“Fair enough”, he beamed at her. The truth was that he was delighted that he had finally found someone who cared about him enough to spend time with him not just when they needed something or when he was treating them to something but just generally hanging out together because they both felt like it.

Chloe was scrupulous about making sure that Lex was included in everything. He came down to do work there every Friday afternoon and she made sure that her Friday nights were always free to spend with him. They went out to dinner, they went to the theatre, the movies, anything he could think of although for the last couple of weeks he had been in the library with her helping her to study.

Friday was fast becoming his favourite day of the week, although it quite often spread into Saturday as Chloe normally had something planned with her friends and always made sure to invite Lex. At first he had refused not wanting to intrude but after Chloe had threatened him he had agreed to come.

Over the course of the year the circle of friends had started to only be involved in about 1 out of 4 of their excursions, it was now just taken for granted that Friday through Saturday was Chloe and Lex’s special time together. They were becoming closer every week although they never mentioned what had happened between them on prom night even though it was becoming increasingly hard not to with every passing day. Neither of them had been with anyone else since then and the need was growing hard to ignore.

“So, does this mean that you want to hug me?” Lex teased her. He had never been very demonstrative before but he was growing extremely used to having an arm around her shoulders all of the time, even when they were out in public – which had caused a few misunderstandings.

“Of course, once we have eaten I plan on putting a movie on and cuddling you”, she replied stabbing an errant piece of broccoli which kept escaping her fork.

“Good. I can’t believe that I am actually seeing Chloe Sullivan willingly eating a green”, he teased her.

Chloe stuck her tongue out at him and scrambled away from him as he lifted his hand to deliver a pat to her thigh.

“Yes, I have become quite fond of vegetables ever since someone practically shoved some down my throat”, she informed him.

“I did not practically shove them down your throat”, he argued, “I just wanted you to try them. I spent ages on that meal”.

“I know you did, and this one”, she took another mouthful, “which is very good by the way.”

“But there was no shoving practical or otherwise”, he complained.

“Oh I beg to differ”, Chloe said crawling over and leaning across him to reach her scrap book.

“Oh no, not this again”, he groaned. There had been a photo in a local paper of them sitting on the lawn having a picnic – prepared by Lex’s own hand – with him trying to feed her some spinach off his fork. The picture did look rather like he was attacking her with the fork and had been placed next to a far gentler one of her being fed chocolate brownies with her eyes closed and a look of utter delight. He couldn’t look at – or even think of - that second picture without getting hard.

“Yes this again”, Chloe said not practically on top of him as she grasped the book and pulled back.

“Don’t you open that book Chloe”, he warned her.

“Or what?” She taunted him as she always did.

“Or I’ll chastise you”, he said calmly. He had made business men quiver but Chloe paid no attention to him as she not only opened it she flipped through it to find the image she wanted.

“Yeah yeah you have been threatening to do that since prom night but you can’t fool me Luthor, you are just a big softy”, she teased.

“Chloe”, he warned, not seeming particularly angry.

“A big sweet soft cuddly teddy bear made just for me”, she said in a sing song voice making no move to pull away from him.

“One more chance Chloe”, he leant towards her lowering his voice to a menacing level.

“Or what?” She asked, “You’ll spank me?”

“Not actually where I was going with this, but it’s a good idea”, he said deciding that being that sassy meant that she didn’t deserve her final chance. “Come here”, he growled, grabbing her around the waist and hauling her into his lap.

“Lex, Lex what are you doing?” She squealed, then started shrieking, “No Lex, no please Lex”.

“I gave you more than enough chances Chloe”, he told her as his fingers ran all over her, tickling her and somehow still holding her in his lap.

Chloe tried to protest at this but she was giggling too much. She had always been incredibly ticklish, a fact that Lex had discovered early on in their friendship. But she wouldn’t give up, she tried to tickle him back only to find herself being lifted up by the arms and placed on the floor, in a trice he was on top of her straddling her hips and holding both of her wrists above her head with one hand and using the other to trail along her body tickling her as he went.

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she wriggled ineffectually in an attempt to get away from him. Lex couldn’t deny that the sight and feel of her underneath him did a lot to him. He had been going crazy for her since he had first had her had her if not before. She was utterly delectable.

He knew that he should give her a chance to give in but he didn’t want to give up his only excuse to touch her in such an intimate manner. He slipped his fingers underneath the fabric of her shirt to skim across her bare skin lightly enough to tickle but still giving her some respite from the hysterics that she had been approaching only moments before.

Slowly Chloe came back to herself. It would have been so easy to close the few inches between them and kiss his soft, tempting lips but she had to force herself not to. They hadn’t spoken about that night, that had to mean something. Sometimes she thought that Lex might want a relationship with her, but if he did then sure he would have said something to that effect; he wasn’t shy. No, it must be all in her head, she was confusing love and friendship and that would never do.

“Lex”, she breathed his name.

“Yes”, he said, damned near hypnotised by her eyes.

“My neck hurts”, she announced, she wasn’t willing to give in but she had to get him off her quickly.

“Oh I’m sorry, is it from thrashing about like that?” He got of her immediately and helped her up.

“No, don’t worry about it. I think that I just sat funnily in my last exam, I was writing at a tiny desk for over five hours”, Chloe explained.

“Poor thing, I should have thought”, Lex said, their meal completely forgotten.

“What are you doing?” Chloe wondered as Lex not only helped her up but moved her as well so that she was sitting in between in legs with her back facing him.

“I’m trying to fix your neck”, he informed her, as if it were obvious.

“Oh Lex, you don’t have to”, Chloe tried to turn around but found herself being held still by the shoulders.

“I know that I don’t have to, but I want to. You always try to make everyone else feel comfortable Chloe, let me try to help you”, he said in a tone which brooked no arguments.

“Okay”, Chloe agreed, thinking that it felt a little off to just be sitting there being lazy while someone else went out of their way to help her.

“Besides, now you can relax a bit for the summer now that you are finished with finals”, Lex returned to their previous topic of conversation.

“Yeah, I am so glad that they are oh”, she moaned and relaxed her neck as she felt him beginning to knead her shoulders. She felt bad seeing as she had made up the pain in her neck. “I’m so glad that they are over, that last one today was a nightmare. I didn’t manage to write down half of what I knew about the subject”.

“Well you passed with flying colours anyway so …”

“We don’t know that”, Chloe pointed out, cutting him off.

“Yes we do, I paid to see the grades in advanced and someone is very smart”, he continued to rub her shoulders carefully as they were full of knots.

“Lex”, she gasped but this time not in pleasure, “you know that I don’t want you interfering!” That sounded harsh she knew but she had to be firm on this point and tried to pull away from him.

“Chloe, I’m sorry but I had to know. I didn’t have anything to do with you getting those grades, I just made sure that your tests were graded first and that I was informed of the grades. I’m sorry if that upsets you but I knew that you would worry about the outcome of the tests so I found out what was going on so that I could tell you. That way you have nothing to worry about.” He felt her trying to pull away and exerted a little extra pressure on her shoulders.

“Oh”, she reacted to the pressure, he was apparently trying to make her melt but she wouldn’t forget her anger. “I don’t want you fixing my life”.

“I’m not, just finding out about things they you did entirely on your own merit so that I can stop you worrying needlessly and so that you will be more amenable to my next suggestion”, he said carefully moving his hands further down her shoulders.

“What is your suggestion?” Chloe asked, temporarily distracted.

“Come to Europe with me this summer”, he offered.

“What?” Chloe exclaimed in complete and utter shock.

“I was talking to the people at The Daily Planet, I swear I was just talking and your name came up. It turns out that the editor and chief is a huge fan of yours, when they took your column away they received thousands of complaints.” He heard her gasp. “Anyway, he had seen you and me in the paper together and guessed that I didn’t hate you and as my father’s power is now limited asked if I would allow them to hire you back and I said that whether you worked for them or not was entirely up to you but I would not oppose it”, he explained being sure to highlight the fact that he had nothing to do with her potential appointment.

“Are you serious?” She gaped.

“Yes”, he answered simply.

“And you are certain that you had absolutely nothing to do with it?” She needed to be absolutely sure before she jumped at the chance.

“Positive, they just really loved you”. He really didn’t know why she was finding this so hard to believe.

“That is fantastic. But how does that tie into me going to Europe with you?” She wondered, unable to deny the fact that the idea appealed to her.

“Well then I asked them exactly what they would want from you as you would probably only be able to work during the holidays and they said that they had an idea for a culture section for you. Going around high society and writing about it, museums, art galleries etc. which I thought that you would like. But I am going around Europe this summer and thought that you might like to come with me and write about what you see”, Lex suggested.

“Wow, I can’t believe this”, Chloe said trying to wrap her mind around everything.

“Really? Haven’t you ever read your own work?” He continued his massage.

“Well yes of course I read my own work and I had always hoped that someday I might get an opportunity like this but this is amazing. I would do anything to write again for a newspaper like that”, Chloe enthused. “You are absolutely sure that you didn’t have anything to do with my appointment?”

“I swear to you Chloe, I didn’t”, he said with perfect honesty, hating to think what would happen if she ever found out that he was responsible for her accommodation etc.

“Alright, then I will accept it”, she grinned.

“What about coming to Europe with me for the summer?” Lex asked.

“I’m not sure Lex”, she admitted. “I would love to go, you have no idea how much but I don’t want to feel like I am using you”.

“You wouldn’t be. I would be delighted to have you with me. Please Chloe, you’re my best friend. Come with me to Europe”.

[trckyrcky]

Hmm a European vacation with Lex! That definitely sounds like fun.

[skyblue78]

The suspense is killing me....what happened to make Chloe mad at Lex?

[TrinityR]

Me like it!

(and you go with the spanking again...)

[hfce]

Okay. I finally caught up. Is Chloe mad because she found out Lex was behind her opportunities? She is a proud and stubborn girl. I wonder what caused the rift? Hmmmm...

[TrinityR]

Okay. I finally caught up. Is Chloe mad because she found out Lex was behind her opportunities? She is a proud and stubborn girl. I wonder what caused the rift? Hmmmm...

I didn't think about that at all! That's a good one! Maybe he'd gone too far with it?

[HotCrossedBunny]

You guessed! *pouts* Well at least the first part.

[hfce]

You guessed! *pouts* Well at least the first part.

LOL! Sorry. :)

[cbrunberg]

I can see why chloe would be mad at lex because she did not earn her opportunities. I don't know I would say she is proud.but she wanted to do it on her own & probably thinks they would not have given her the opportunities if it was not for lex.

[HotCrossedBunny]

Cbrunberg: Indeed although in truth she did earn her opportunities just not her accommodation or books, those were paid for by Lex who we must remember got 54 million dollars along with all of the controlling interests in a multibillion dollar company the day that his father went to jail which would not have happened if it weren't for Chloe.

Hfce: That's alright. :D

SkyBlue78: All will be revealed soon!

[HotCrossedBunny]

*Chapter Twelve: Part One*

“Darling”, Lex started as ran his hands down over her arms squeezing the muscles as he went, and then repeated the procedure in the opposite direction until he was once again kneading her shoulders in the way that normally always made her relax, even when she didn’t want to. It had worked when she had had a tough day but hadn’t wanted to talk about it in case he took it upon himself to help – or interfere as Chloe had unkindly put it. It had worked when she had been mad at him because of his hiring a secretary who Chloe thought was too pretty or rather because Chloe was suffering a rather bad bout of PMS and hadn’t been getting enough protein in Lex’s opinion. And it would work now … or at least Lex hoped that it would.

Chloe could feel her traitorous body giving in to him, she had become so used to Lex’s ministrations over the years that her body didn’t feel right without them and had apparently decided that it was going to enjoy as much of his touch as it could get. Her brain protested but her muscles paid little or rather no attention to her. She had to bite her lip to keep some semblance of a hold on herself and not to let a moan escape her.

“Clark is a good man, possibly the best”, Lex admitted, a little reluctantly, “and if you could really be happy with him and build a life then I love you enough to let you go and do that”, he took a deep breath as he felt her tensing under his fingers.

She froze. “No Lex, don’t do this. Fight for me. FIGHT!” Her brain screamed as a tear slid down her cheek. She didn’t want this! With the very same breath she wanted to yell at him and beg him to love her - she didn’t believe that he loved her if he was willing to let her go – and yet she did neither. She was too proud, she knew that she was about to lose him for but if he didn’t love her enough then this was for the best. “This is for the best”, she whispered, more for herself than for him.

“If being the operative word sweetheart”, Lex told her more calmly than he felt; there was a difference between telling himself that he wasn’t going to lose her and really believing it. “I would be willing to do anything to make you happy, even if that meant giving you up … but luckily for me it doesn’t. I can’t, strike that, I don’t believe that he is really the one that you want”.

Relief flooded through Chloe’s body, he wasn’t leaving her and he had said that he still loved her and not in the airy fairy ‘I love you but I have to leave you’ sense but in the real harsh possessive bastard Lex way – which fortunately was the way that Chloe preferred. She ached for him, those words made her feel better than she had in the month that they had been apart but giving in still wasn’t an option. She had to show him that he couldn’t muck her around and she wasn’t sure if she could risk loving him again.

She should get up and get out of there as soon as possible, she should forget all about waiting for Lana and Clark and just head for the hills as fast as her legs could carry her. She could already feel herself sinking back into the quick sand that was Lex Luthor.

His fingers brushed against the back of her neck where she was most ticklish causing her to shudder. “I know you”, he reminded her. “I know every naughty thought that you have”, he placed a brief kiss on the exposed skin of her shoulder.

Chloe gasped. She wanted to deny it and the words forming a scathing retort were forming on her tongue but at the last second she realised that there was no point, as they both knew that it was the truth. Over the four years they had been together they had explored every one of her fantasies and Lex had never judged her, always ready to please her in anything. She had of course happily returned the favour. Just remembering some of the things that they had done together made her wet and uncomfortably warm.

“I know how your body works”, he massaged the lobes of her ears and any fight left in her body deserted it, and even her brain became less argumentative seeming to believe that it was now time to snuggle up to him and have a nap. She really was rather tired after a month of working night and day. No! She would not, could not give in just because he was a talented lover and knew how to play her body like a baby grand. There would be others who … she lost all ability to think as he hands left her ears and slid down her neck, shoulders, along her arms and then wrapped around her waist pulling Chloe and her chair back so that she was nestled against his chest.

Chloe slammed her eyes shut, her hands closed over his to stop him but she couldn’t help it. Every night for a month she had missed him, it was like a constant ache that she carried around with her, even when she didn’t feel like crying her heart felt bruised. She was tired of feeling miserable, of wanting a hug every second of the day but never getting one. She allowed him to hold onto her for a few seconds longer, it couldn’t make things any worse and she knew that the second she left his arms she would feel broken again.

Her head rested against his shoulder and Lex could see her face. She was gorgeous, she was perfect but she was so obviously hurting. He wanted to kiss her and hug her and make it all better.

He held on to her tightly but lifted one hand up to stroke her cheek and watched as the tension dissolved from her features.

“I know what you like”, he purred in her ear, “What makes you moan”, he gave her a squeeze to prove his point.

~*~

“You want to take me to Europe with you for the entire summer?” Chloe asked incredulously.

“Yes”, he smiled at her. “Just imagine it, three full glorious months in Europe. You can’t tell me that you have never wanted to go, I have seen your little list of places that you would like to visit”, he reminded her that he had seen her dream board – next to her new wall of weird. “I could take you to all of European ones”.

“I know that you would”, Chloe admitted even as she attempted to banish the idea from her mind. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go because she did. It was surprisingly easy to imagine them strolling arm in arm through the streets of Siena, she could almost taste the gelato but she knew that she had to decline.

“But you are not convinced?” It sounded like a question, but it wasn’t really. He could tell that she wasn’t comfortable with the idea, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to go.

“It’s just … it’s all so wonderful that I can’t believe that it is really happening. And I know that I don’t deserve any of this. To be able to get an internship is fantastic but the chance to go to Europe as well …” She broke off. She couldn’t explain it to him, he wouldn’t understand and to be fair there was no reason why he should be able to. To Lex this was just a trip like hundreds if not thousands of other ones he had taken in his life, while to her this was something that she could never have experienced even if she saved up until she was eighty.

Lex smirked, he was going to win; he could beat all of those excuses. “Who says that you don’t deserve this?” He asked taking her hands.

“I do”, Chloe responded simply trying to ignore the way that Lex’s touch made her stomach flip flop. He was very tactile with her these days, she should have been used to it by now but she wasn’t every touch was like the first time, none of the magic had been lost.

“Well who deserves the chance to go to Europe if not you? Me? Lionel? I don’t think so. Look Chloe, I know that you want to earn everything in your life but you have”, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear so that he could see her better. “You are so unbelievably wonderful and you don’t even see it. You got some of the best grades in the country and got into Ivy League colleges with full scholarships whilst managing/writing for your school paper and running around a city full of meteor freaks. No one deserves to be here more than you”. For once Lex was being completely sincere so he didn’t have to worry about his voice or the impression that he was giving.

“You are making it sound far more impressive than it actually was”, she demurred, unable to help the hot blush that was staining her cheeks. She couldn’t believe that Lex thought of her in that way. It was more than she could ever have hoped for.

“No, I’m down playing everything that you have done. Your courage. Your tenacity”, his face broke in to a broad grin, “Your ability to be a complete pain in the butt”.

She laughed at that.

“The paper will be lucky to have you, you are going to be a star some day and they know that”, he meant it too. He had a knack for spotting talent and exploiting it, he was a Luthor after all.

“But what have I done to earn a trip to Europe?” Chloe asked, knowing the answer to be nothing.

“Well technically, you are an exceptionally gifted writer and by sending you to parts of Europe the newspaper would profit but it would be very stressful as they don’t really have the resources. I want to take you with me, if you are worried about the cost then don’t be not just because I have too much money for your maintenance to be an issue or because it would make me happier than anything else in the world but because it won’t cost me anything.” He saw Chloe looking at him doubtfully and so he explained, “I always fly on the private jet and order a suite with at least four bedrooms, having you there won’t cost me a cent extra as you will just be taking up space that I have already paid for but which is normally empty. Likewise, I always order a plate of everything at meals just to try it all out, if you are there with me again it isn’t any more cost”.

Chloe considered this she knew that it was still wrong but she would try her best to rationalise it; she really wanted to go!

“You are certain that this won’t cost you a penny?” She double checked.

“Yes”.

“And you are certain that you had nothing to do with me getting the internship?” That was the other point of concern for her.

“Yes, I am certain that I had nothing to do with it”, he answered honestly. He knew that she would never forgive him if he had ordered them to give her a job.

“And you are absolutely certain that this is really what you want? You aren’t just being a gentleman?” Gosh she hoped that he would answer in the affirmative and then the negative.

“I have never been more certain of anything in my life and I am never a gentleman, you know that”, he gave her a roguish smile. “In fact Miss Sullivan, I am also certain that if you come up with so much as one more ridiculous reason not to let me take you to Europe I am throwing you over my shoulder and putting you on the plane anyway without letting you pack then the only choice you have will be whether to let me buy you a whole new incredibly expensive wardrobe … or spend the entire holiday in the nude. I have to say that I am alright with either option”.

Chloe burst out laughing. He was too funny. She pulled her hands out of the hold he still had on them before throwing her arms around his neck in a familiar manner and pressing a quick peck to his cheek before pulling back and trying to keep a straight face as she said, “Alright Luthor let’s see your packing skills because there is no way that I am letting you spend that kind of money on me and you have to do some work while we’re away and you’ll never manage that if I am wearing nothing”.

Lex groaned at the image she painted, he could imagine only too well trying to work with a very nude Chloe laid stretched out across his desk. He would have no choice but to sell LuthorCorp in order to dedicate all of his time to loving her properly.

He couldn’t help but grin, not only at the image but also at how casually Chloe could now speak of such subjects. They never discussed such matters or what their relationship had been for one night but it was never far from his mind and he was glad to see that that night had clearly given her confidence. He wondered what she looked like without her clothes on now, did she still have the same lush curves? Even through her clothes he was guessing that the answer was yes, although it looked like she had lost a little weight. Well he could at least take her swimming in Europe and see, if he took her to the south of France then that would probably mean topless too.

Chloe was obviously delighted, she radiated happiness, her cheeks were flushed, her breasts jiggled as she bounced and Lex decided that they had better her packed up or he was going to throw her on the on the bed and have his way with her. Not a bad idea in theory, but it was problematic in practice. If he took her to Europe then she would be in his care and he couldn’t take advantage of her, he would have to wait until they got back.

Lex had wanted to start a romantic relationship with her since the night that they had spent together but hadn’t known how she had felt. He had been trying to feel his way over the last year, Europe would be the perfect time to find out if they worked together. He suspected that they did.

“Very true, so we shall pack”, Lex announced, looking around, “So where are your packing materials?”

“Under my bed”, Chloe announced, “I have this room next year so I only need to take clothes, computer stuff and books”, she informed him as she dived under her bed giving him an excellent view of her ass as she wriggled around trying to pull out her suitcases.

“Yes, why don’t you come out from under there and let me get them?” He suggested as he knelt down beside her and grasped her hips and tried to pull her out before she hurt herself.

“Lex, I’m fine”, she assured him giggling a little as he accidently tickled her.

Chloe wriggled her way back out with two large cases and Lex went under for the enormous one trying to avoid noticing how cute she looked with her messy hair and look of sheer delight.

“Got it”, he announced pulling it out. “Alright. So how are we going to do this? Three suitcases. Two for clothes? One for books and other miscellaneous stuff? And computer stuff and documentation in your bag?”

“Sounds good to me. Do you plan for everything?” She wondered. She knew that he was obsessively neat and a compulsive planner, but who planned their packing?

“Yes, how do you pack?” He inquired, not understanding what she found so strange about that.

“Shove everything in and hope for the best”, Chloe said, although in truth she hadn’t been on many holidays or if they were being strictly accurate any.

He shuddered at the thought of the mess she would find when she opened her suitcase, well he was sure that that wouldn’t happen anymore, not after she discovered how nice. “Alright, you get your documents and pack up your laptop as those are the personal things and then go for the um personal things”, he said. “I’ll pack up your books and the summer section of your wardrobe”.

Chloe smiled at him before giving him a salute, “Aye aye captain”.

“Get to work sailor”, he said as he grabbed the largest suitcase and made his way into her walk in wardrobe which luckily she had cleaned up in preparation for the upcoming heat wave and he could find her summer section and started to pack them up neatly trying not to imagine what she would look like in each piece and how much he would like to take them off her.

Once he was finished there he grabbed her other suitcase and filled half of it with books and closed the compartment before going over to the bed and grabbing her teddy bear – Mr Snugglesworth – and then thinking that she would need things like her hairbrush and blow dryer etc so he went to her bedside draw and froze.

Chloe had just finished her part of the packing and turned to see how Lex was getting on only to see him opening her draw, “Lex no”, she started to object but it was too late. Even though she couldn’t see his face, she could tell by the tension in his posture that he was shocked … he must have seen what was in there.

“Oh God”, she groaned as everything started to move in slow motion as if the universe were determined to eke out every moment of her embarrassment.

“Um sorry”, he said as he closed the draw. “I was just looking for your hairbrush etc sorry I should have thought”. Even as he apologised he felt stupid, he couldn’t possibly have known what was in there.

“No, it’s fine. I know that you wouldn’t purposely invade my privacy”, she tried to brush it off. There was no point in making a bigger deal out of this than it was. Because it wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t the end of the world. It wasn’t something that made her want to die right there on the spot just so that she wouldn’t have to deal with this.

“I wouldn’t”, he assured her. He hoped that they could just brush passed this but then when he turned to look her he could tell how embarrassed she was. She looked as if she were actually in some kind of physical pain and as if she were about to cry and he hated it. He knew that being kind to her wouldn’t help in that situation and was more likely to actually make her start crying, he needed to bring the fighter out of her … which seeing as it was Chloe, wasn’t difficult.

“Besides it is nothing to be ashamed of”, he gave a shrug although he guessed that she already knew that.

“I know”, her chin wobbled. This was simply too embarrassing. Why did Lex have to see that? Why did he have to know what he had done to her?

Alright, playing on the idea that she might be ashamed hadn’t worked; he would have to up the game a little. He opened the draw back up, “And it is quite a cute little thing”.

“Lex what the fuck are you doing?” She demanded as he saw him opening the draw once more. She was willing to overlook the first time, but not this and how dare he comment on it?!?

He smirked; she didn’t look embarrassed or upset anymore, just angry. He could deal with angry.

“Just helping you pack”, he said taking it out of its home and playing with it.

“Well don’t”, Chloe snapped at him, trying to grab it out of his hand but he held it out of her reach. She couldn’t bare the sight of it in his long, talented fingers. The fantasies it conjured were too potent.

“My my you see a little tense darling. Been relying on this a little too much lately?” He teased her, unable to resist.

“You bastard”, Chloe jumped trying to reach it but she still wasn’t quite tall enough.

“If you can’t find a man to satisfy those urges then nothing wrong with taking the matter into your own hands”, he suggested.

He knew that Chloe had been on dates but was fairly certain that none of them had got too far as she hadn’t been too impressed and whatever she said about wanting to get it over with, he knew that she wasn’t easy. He was pleased that he was still the only man she had ever been with; otherwise he would not have been able to joke about the matter.

“I find toys infinitely more satisfying”, she informed him coolly. They still hadn’t spoken about what had happened between them but every day that passed she felt herself growing closer to him. At first she had though that he didn’t want to have anything to do with her, but now she wasn’t so sure. Still that didn’t mean that she would let up on the arrogant bastard.

“I think that I am insulted”. There is was, the first time that either of them had referred to it, even if it was in an extremely roundabout way.

Chloe shrugged. She debated what to say for a moment, she felt like she should avoid the subject of their night together and had been planning on doing so, but he had just brought it up and he did deserve to be taken down a peg or two.

“What can I say, I found my only sexual experience to be extremely unsatisfying”, Chloe tried to maintain a haughty demeanour.

Lex should have been insulted but he grinned, his hand still holding her toy above their heads. “Liar”, he said confidently.

She quirked an eyebrow up at him. “Are you sure about that?”

“Yes. Your reactions were a little too …” He was cut off as she moaned.

Chloe let her eyes drift shut and moaned again, this time running her hand up along her neck as she did so. “Oh God yes, Lex please oh fuck me yes”, she panted out and he heard himself groan.

She opened her eyes and beamed at him cheekily. “Don’t believe everything you hear Luthor”, with that she hopped up onto the bed and grabbed her toy from him.

“Fuck”, he breathed. That had seemed so real; she couldn’t have been faking on prom night could she?

She continued to pet her toy as if it had gone through a traumatic ordeal by being held by Lex, as she tried to get her breathing to return to normal. He didn’t need to know that she knew how to make those noises because they were the ones she made every time she came thinking about him … in other words several times a week, more often when he was actually around her.

“I’ll grab your suitcases then”, he said trying to change the subject. He had managed to stop her crying and looking embarrassed but now they were both uncomfortable.

“Why?”

“So that we can go”.

“After this I’m not sure that we can”, Chloe said uncomfortably, “we hey what are you …”

“I warned you about the dangers associated with one more excuse”, he said as she hung over his shoulder and he made his way over to her suitcase with her teddy in, retrieved it and her bag with the documents in before leaving.

Chloe tried to protest but she couldn’t really, she was going to Europe and she should have known better than not to take Lex at his word. She just wished that she had time to um relax with her toy before being confined in an aeroplane with him for ten hours.

[TrinityR]

I think they should clone Michael Rosenbaum and put inside Lex's brain, make him hairless and then multiply him so all of us could get one.
I mean! Where will we find a guy like that?! He's fictional character, but I'm completely in love with him since I started watcuing Smallville!!
(ok, but guessing... love is something we can't control, so when we see the right guy... we'll be head over heels:D:D, let's just hope he'll be as good in bed as Lex:D:D)

I think I will write something, so expect a new story.

[Gaia]

I really can't wait to find out what has gone wrong!

[HotCrossedBunny]

TrinityR: Sounds good to me, sign me up! Would you train the caveman tactics out of him or leave them in?

Gaia: I hope that you won't be too disappointed when you find out what happened between them ... eventually. :)

*Chapter Thirteen*

“No one knows you better than I do”, Lex reminded her keeping her cuddled up against him. “Do you remember that summer we spent together in Europe?”

“Mmm”, she nodded almost sleepily. Somewhere in the back of her mind she remembered that she was angry with him but being in his arms just felt so right. It felt like all of the nights they had spent just holding each other – normally followed by sex because they were both young and attractive -, it was enough to make her forget about their surroundings. It felt like it was just them again.

“That’s good because I remember it perfectly”, he trailed his thumb across her lower lip. “I remember the pout you tried to keep up all of the way on the airplane and how much I wanted to kiss it better”, he nuzzled her neck.


~*~

Chloe tried not to look around the LuthorCorp plane. She had never been on a private jet before and was more than a little impressed by its size and grandeur but she was determined not to let it show. As excited as she was at the thought of going to Europe, she had to remember that she wasn’t there because she had chosen to go, but because Lex had forced her to do it. She dreaded to think what the people still milling around the University had thought when they had witnessed her being carried over the famous billionaire’s shoulder – she noted that no one had made a move to help her or call security, that wasn’t very socially aware of them.

She sighed; she didn’t even have her suitcases, just her bag, her teddy and the toy she had been holding in her hand when he had grabbed her. Embarrassed she slipped it into her pocket and held on to Mr Snugglesworth a little more tightly, shooting Lex her most terrible stare.

Lex leant back in his chair observing Chloe with considerable amusement. She had been pouting ever since he had manhandled her and unfortunately for him, he found the way that her bottom lip jutted out just too adorable for words.

“Has anyone ever told you that you are cute when you sulk?” He wondered.

“I’m not sulking”, she sulked.

“Sure you aren’t”, he teased her.

“I was merely thinking how impolite you have been today”, she ignored the fact that he was taking her to Europe.

Lex raised an eyebrow at her.

“My Dad will probably be worried and I can’t use my phone from within the plane to call him”, Chloe said, that sounded like a good reason and not as babyish as her being forced to do something that she actually wanted to do.

“I called Gabe this afternoon and explained the situation to him. He knows that you are here with me and he is fine with it”, Lex assured her.

Chloe’s expression softened slightly, “Thank-you”, she really had been worried about her father being concerned, “but that was rather arrogant of you”.

“Maybe, or perhaps I just know you”, he suggested.

“Then you should know how you feel about being manhandled”, she wasn’t prepared to let him off the hook just yet.

“Turned on, right?” He asked and grabbed Mr Snugglesworth as he soared towards him. “Is that anyway to treat your beloved cuddly toy?” Lex teased her holding the hippo and patting it on the back as if it were really upset about its treatment.

“It wasn’t him that I was trying to hurt”, Chloe argued as she got up and walked over to him determined this time to smack Lex and retrieve her hippo.

“Oh but you did hurt him”, Lex pretended to console him.

“You jackass”, Chloe said as she stood over him.

Lex tried to cover the toy’s ears but was then forced to defend himself against Chloe.

“Chloe stop that”, he laughed at her childish display as she tried to find exposed bits of him to slap at but without much success as Lex blocked her every attempt.

“No”, she refused.

“Alright”, he said as he grabbed her arms and wrestled her into stillness before pulling her into his lap.

“Umph”, she said as she landed inelegantly and with a thud.

“Calm down and have a cuddle”, he advised her hugging her tightly and placing a kiss against her temples.

Chloe did settle down at that, hiding her face in his chest as if she were just enjoying the hug rather than hiding the blush on her cheeks. She adored him and even a friendly kiss did things to her that she would rather not dwell upon.

Lex smiled at her and rubbed her back. “You know that I am only teasing you, right?”

She looked up at him at that.

“I don’t really talk about emotions and that stuff but you do know that you are my best friend and that I love you dearly, right?” He checked.

“Of course I do you big idiot”, she wrapped her arms around him properly to hug him, he looked like he needed one.

“Good”, he sounded far too relieved. “It is a long flight, there is a bed in the other room if you are tired”.

“Oh no you don’t”, Chloe protested, “you have to pay for teasing me. I am very comfortable where I am thank-you”, she wriggled around a little just to make her point and laid her head on his shoulder, “I’m sleeping right here. That is your punishment for being mean to me” she announced as she closed her eyes, the conversation was clearly over.

Lex grinned, he could deal with this as a punishment he wondered if there was anything else that he could do to make her angry. He took his phone out of his trouser pocket and used his internet via the plane’s super technology. He would choose Chloe’s new wardrobe himself and it would be there waiting for her upon arrival.


~*~

“God you were cute when stroppy and tired”, he grinned as his words weaved a cocoon around them. “I thought that the staff at the hotel in London were going to have a heart attack”.

His voice was calm but he was deliberately trying to create images for her of their trip, of when they had been so desperate to be together but kept apart by their stupid pride. Maybe then Chloe would see how stupid it was for them to let anything keep them apart and that neither of them would ever be happy unless they were together.


~*~

Chloe was well rested and bouncy when they reached the hotel in London although she was dying for a hot shower and a change of clothes, although she knew that the latter wasn’t possible and someone hadn’t thought to bring her clothes. Oh well, Chloe shrugged, she would just borrow something of Lex’s.

The staff fawned all over them and whisked all of Lex’s luggage upstairs and inquired where Chloe’s were, “He didn’t bring them, something about wanting me to go everywhere naked”, she explained helpfully, shooting Lex a sweet smile.

The manager’s jaw almost hit the floor and the youngest of the porter unwisely forgot himself and exclaimed, “This isn’t one of those types of hotels”.

Chloe gave an arrogant smirk, “If a Luthor decides that it is, then it is”.

Lex bit the inside of his cheek to hide his own smile as the manager babbled trying to appease Chloe without basically saying that the hotel was for sale. Finally feeling that it was time to let the poor man off the hook, Lex informed him, “She was only joking. There was an accident at the airport with her suitcases which will be remedied later. At the moment we just want to get up to our suite and I hope that we will find breakfast waiting there and that the bathes have already been drawn as per my specification”.

“Yes Sir Mr Luthor, everything is ready”, the manager assured him.

“Good”, he nodded at the man and placed his hand on Chloe’s lower back, asking, “Shall we?”

The suite was beautiful and had a view of London which took Chloe’s breath away, different aspects of which were visible from every single window including the one in the bathroom. As she relaxed in the bath which Lex had indeed ordered and done perfectly, she wondered if there was anything that he didn’t excel at – at this point; she wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that he was an excellent baker to boot. She amused herself for a little while longer by blowing the lightly scented bubbles as far down the bath as she could and then making them make pretty patterns.

Once she was just starting to prune Chloe got out and wrapped herself in one of the thick bathrobes that had been left for her and went in search of Lex. She moved over to Lex’s room and found the door open, she knocked but received no reply. “Lex”, she called out softly as she poked her head around the side of the door and saw a tall, slim, brunette with obviously fake breasts dressed in the highest fashion standing in his room.

“What are you doing here?” Chloe asked, before she could think better of it.

“I’m Jodie”, the woman said in a posh English accent which made Chloe jealous.

“That doesn’t really answer the question, Lex ordered breakfast not a prostitute”, Chloe huffed. She didn’t think that he would have done something like that in the suite in which she was also staying.

“Mr Luthor”, the brunette tried to explain.

“Doesn’t want you”, Chloe finished for her, “leave now”.

The other woman looked slightly surprised by this and as she heard the sound of the bathroom door opening she looked over at it.

“Lex”, Chloe gasped, seeing the direction of Jodie’s stare.

He smiled and motioned with his head for Jodie to leave.

“That will teach them to send an attractive woman when I ask for a manager to come up to have a word with me”.

“Oh”.


~*~

“Damn I wanted you so badly that night that it hurt. All that plane trip, all that day in the hotel, even at night I swore that if I was quiet enough that I could almost hear you in your bedroom making tiny gasps and whispering my name. It was probably just my imagination, but it drove me crazy”, he kissed her temple and Chloe felt the sparks she always did when his lips touched any part of her body.

The jolt reminded her of where they were and why they were there. She tried to pull away from him but he held on tighter.

“And your way of dealing with that was to try to buy me because you always have to have your own way”, she snapped.

“If I had my own way we wouldn’t be arguing right now”.


~*~

The first half day in England had been spent very leisurely by Lex and Chloe, i.e. in their robes in the suite chatting of this and that. They had thought of going out but they had both had very hard weeks and were exhausted so they had decided to rest up for the next day which Lex had packed to the brim.

When Chloe woke up the next day she remembered that she had no clothes and that she had sent the ones that she had been wearing the day before down for cleaning and had been informed that they would be ready for her before she got up the next day. She went out into the living room but couldn’t find them and so went back into her bedroom wondering if someone had snuck in in the middle of the night and hung them up. What she saw when she opened her wardrobe doors made her jaw hang open … There were hundreds of new outfits all hanging up and all clearly intended for her.

“Lex you bastard, get in here and explain yourself”, Chloe screamed, loudly enough to wake the entire hotel.


~*~

“You enjoyed it when I took you to see Shakespeare in Stratford Upon Avon”, he reminded her, “and when we went sightseeing and met the Queen.”

“I don’t want to remember those things”, she is still struggling, but it didn’t work.

“Why not?”

“Because everything is ruined now. I should have known that it would be then”. She remembered her childish enthusiasm and how quickly she had been talked out of her anger at him buying her all of those new clothes and let him continue to take her places. She remembered beaming with pride as she wrote her articles and sent them in and received glowing words of praise in return.

He knew what she meant but tried to ignore it.

There was silence.

“Do you still think about that summer?”

Seeing that she wasn’t going to get anywhere, Chloe admitted, “I do, all of the time, in fact. However hard I try to forget our time together everything we ever did replays in my mind, the day to day stuff but also our time in Europe that summer”, she sighed. “I could never forget our time in France when we walked along the Seine and you took my hand even though we weren’t dating and looked at me with so much love that I honestly didn’t think that you saw any of the other women checking you out. When we went to the Louvre and all of those other galleries and your eyes were always on me, more interested in my reactions to the art than in the art itself”. She tensed, “And then we went out to dinner and all of those women were all over you. I think about it all of the time”.

“Chloe I …”

“You what Lex? You’re going to talk to me about the time we spent in Germany? The jewellery you brought me in Croatia? The things you showed me in Italy? The people you introduced me to? The articles that I only got to write because of you?” She demanded, blinking back tears.

“No, I was going to talk about that night in Croatia when we went skinny dripping”, her words cut into him. Could she really think that he was only capable of remembering the money which he had spent on her? Couldn’t she see that that was just his way of showing his love, not his way of buying or controlling her?


~*~

“Oh my gosh this is amazing. I could stay here forever”, Chloe sighed in complete contentment as they lay on the beach of their own private island in Croatia as the sun set over the clear Adriatic.

“Well you know if you wanted …”

“Don’t you dare, this has been the perfect day and if you spoil it with some grand gesture I swear I’ll wallop you”, Chloe threatened, pulling her sun glasses down her nose to stare at him severely.

“Hey”, Lex put up his hand defensively. “I was just going to ask if you wanted something else to eat”, he lied, he had of course been about to offer her the island.

“Sure you were”, Chloe returned her sunglasses.

“You know that I just want to make you happy”, he said.

“I know, but I am happy with you. I don’t need anything else, I don’t need all of this luxury – although don’t get me wrong, it is nice. But if you were just a well-educated farm boy and all that we could ever do was hang out in a grotty little apartment, then I would still want to hang out with you”, she said honestly, trying to ignore the fact that that sounded rather more romantic than friendly.

“I know”, Lex assured her reaching out to rub her arm.

Chloe smiled over at him as an idea occurred to her. It was wrong, she knew that but she really wanted to do it and she would probably never get another chance. They had come down there to eat their evening meal, not to go swimming and so hadn’t brought their swimming costumes with them but they had waited over an hour now since eating and she didn’t want to go all of the way back to the house.

“Besides”, she said, thinking about the best way of ensuring his compliance, “It isn’t the amount of money that you spend on someone that shows your affection and friendship, it is the willingness to fall in with their wishes even if it goes against your own natural inclination”.

Lex raised an eyebrow, “What do you want?”

“I want to go swimming”, Chloe said standing up.

“That is easy enough to arrange”, Lex smiled at her, not understanding where the difficulty lay.

“Yes, but I want to do it right now. I don’t want to go all of the way back to the house, get changed and then come back, that will take an hour and I don’t want to miss the sunset”, she kicked off her shoes, making her intentions plain.

“You want me to go back to the house and leave you in peace”, Lex realised as she tugged her dress off over her head.

“No, I want you to join me”, Chloe said as she undid the clasp of her bra but turned before he could see her breasts. She slipped off her panties too and walked confidently into the water.


~*~

“Even when there was nothing sexual between us we were still so good together”, Lex pointed out. He would no longer be satisfied with mere friendship, but at least it was a start.

“Yes but then you betrayed me”, Chloe reminded him, “now I want, no I need someone different”.

[TrinityR]

If Lex is the one being a caveman... I would not train those tactics out of him lol
Sorry, don't have to time to read now, I do it later and then leave a comment.

[HotCrossedBunny]

Ha ha Lex is allowed sins that other men are not, huh?

Don't worry, take your time. :)

[TrinityR]

How did he betray her?! Please, don;t make it too bad:(

[HotCrossedBunny]

*Chapter Fourteen*

Chloe renewed her efforts to get out of Lex’s embrace and this time he inadvertently allowed her to escape him; so utterly shocked that she took what he had done as a genuine betrayal.

“Sweetheart”, he reached out and grasped her hand before she could completely remove herself from him.

She froze, wanting to flee so badly but unable to pull her hand away from his.

Lex was on his feet and next to her in a second. “Please sweetheart, don’t try to leave me like this. Sit down, talk to me”.

“Lex please don’t do this”, she actually looked to be in physical pain, “please don’t call me sweetheart, don’t look at me like that, don’t talk to me as if …” Her voice trailed off as his hand grazed her cheek.

“I can’t look at you any other way my love”, he said seriously, wrapping his arm around her waist so that she was gently pressed against him. “I can’t speak to you any other way”.

Chloe shook her head, slamming her eyes shut and willing the tears quickly gathering there not to fall. This was too much for her to bear, too much for anyone to bear in fact. He was so warm and smelled so wonderful, and with his strong arms wrapped around her she felt safe. She could practically feel the pain from the last month ebbing away from her, which was why it was so hard to believe that he was the source of her agony. To hear him talk one would have thought that he had suffered as much as she had, when in reality it was all his fault.

“My heart, please stop this. I understand if you want to punish me but don’t do this to yourself”, he pleaded with her.

“You assume that being without you is a punishment rather than a delight?” She tried to sound harsh although she knew that they both knew the truth, she was heartbroken.

“I know that you will never be happy with anyone else just as I could never be happy without you. I don’t say that you don’t deserve someone better than me, you do and I meant what I said earlier: if I thought that there was another man who could give you everything you want and make you happy then I would swallow every feeling, stand aside and let you be with him. But I know you Chloe, and I know that you won’t be happy with anyone but me”, he held her trembling body close.

“You don’t know that to be true”, Chloe argued, even though she was in no doubt of the veracity of his statement.

“You have tried being with other men before but it didn’t work. You ended up in my arms”, he reminded her gently.


~*~

Chloe was bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. She was so bored that she could not even think up a synonym for the word bored. If this were an article she would have ripped it up and demanded that it be written anew, but it wasn’t and she couldn’t.

With a forced smile she attempted to return her attention to her date. She examined him closely; he really was very handsome when one looked at him closely. He had beautiful blonde hair, slightly bronzed skin and bright blue eyes. He was tall and with very broad shoulders. She really couldn’t explain why she did not find him in the slightest attractive.

She thought that his hair looked soft but found that she had absolutely no desire to touch it, she did not think that it would feel as nice herself her finger tips as smooth skin. Also, she decided that she didn’t like tanned skin, she wanted skin like cream that tasted delicious as she swirled her tongue along it. She let a little moan escape her at the thought, and the man sitting across from her grinned thinking that it had something to do with him.

His eyes wrinkled up as he laughed good naturedly, he should have been easy to be around, easy to be attracted to but she just couldn’t feel it. She was more comfortable with verbal judo matches, sarcastic comments, dark mutterings, half smiles and raised eyebrows.

Chloe gave him another forced smile in return and poked at her food a little, just to give herself something to do. She wasn’t entirely sure why she had never agreed to go on a date with a man she couldn’t feel any real emotion for. It wasn’t fair to either of them and she knew it. It was just that, she really wanted to feel something. She really wanted to just get over Lex and get on with her life.

For just over a year now there had been only one man who could occupy her thoughts romantically, but unfortunately he did not seem to feel the same way about her. Or rather, sometimes she thought that he might but then was proved wrong … repeatedly.

Chloe started as she felt a hand on her knee.

“You’re not into this are you?” Her date asked.

“I …” She wanted to lie and say that she was having a great time, she knew that he was doing his best and that she really should have been enjoying herself, but he deserved the truth, “No, not really”. She felt terrible, but his smile didn’t waiver.

“So who was he?”

“Sorry?” Chloe asked, not quite understanding him.

“The guy who has clearly been occupying your thoughts for the last hour or so”, he supplied helpfully. “I know that we don’t know each other that well, more friends of friends than anything else but I didn’t know that you had a boyfriend last year. Last I heard there had been a few dates but nothing serious … and yet you have the look of a girl who had just got out of a serious relationship”.

Chloe scoffed, “The pathetic thing is that we were never even in a relationship”.

“Sounds interesting”, he leant back in his chair, obviously getting comfortable. “Go on”.

“You don’t want to hear about this”, Chloe shook her head.

“Sure I do. I’m clearly not getting laid tonight so I at least want a good juicy story”, he grinned at her, showing that he was joking. “Come on, you clearly had something you need to get off your chest”.

She appeared to struggle with herself for a minute before being overcome by his easy manner. “There was this guy, this amazing guy that I met just over five years ago now. I think that I had a crush on him from the first time that I saw him but we weren’t really that close, we almost were at times, but he was my friend’s best friend and I didn’t have all that much to do with him one on one.”

Chloe sighed; it was hard to explain how she had fallen so completely for someone who so clearly wasn’t interested in her. “Then on prom night we grew closer and I lost my virginity to him”, she couldn’t believe that she was telling him all of this, “it was just a one-time thing. After that I thought that he wanted nothing to do with me but then he kept coming to Yale on business and we became best friends last year. We spent the summer together in Europe”, she shook her head. “It was stupid of me but I honestly believed that he invited me on the trip with him because maybe he had feelings for me. But he doesn’t.”

The blonde nodded along with all of that. “You’re sure that he doesn’t?”

“I’m sure”, Chloe said sadly.

“Really? Because in my experience when a guy is friends with a girl who looks like you, he probably has more than just friendly feelings towards her … unless he is gay. Are you sure … ?”

“Yes, I’m sure that he is not gay”, Chloe said.

“Well then, it sounds to me like there is more to this than meets the eye”, he pondered the situation for a few minutes. “This trip you went on, who organised it?”

“He did”, Chloe looked at him oddly.

“Did you have your own ticket or did he keep hold of it?” He wondered.

“He took care of everything”, Chloe explained.

“Hmm”, he nodded, “so in a sense you were his responsibility. Is he a gentleman?”

“Yes, every inch”, Chloe said, almost insulted that someone would imply that Lex was less than a perfect gentleman.

“Then he couldn’t possibly have made a move on you, even if he did want to. Wouldn’t have been the right thing to do”, he announced.

“What are you talking about?” Chloe wondered.

“Look”, he said, sitting up straight. “I have brought you out to a restaurant in my car, but you know where you are. You have money. There are lots of people around. If I make a pass at you and you refuse then there are other options for you other than getting back into a car with me if you don’t feel that I can be trusted. If I took you to a deserted cabin in the woods then that would not be the same, would it? I would be solely responsible for you because I was the one who took you there”.

Chloe looked at him incredulously. “You think that him taking me to a foreign country means that he can’t be attracted to me?”

“No, but I think that him taking you to a foreign country without letting you plan for it, know exactly where you are, having the plane tickets and the money means that he has to be a gentleman to levels only previously aspired to by Jane Austen characters”, he said with a shrug. “It might sound sexist but that is how the world is and if someone took my little sister away like that and tried something they wouldn’t find the body”.

She nodded thoughtfully; she really wanted to believe that. “But he didn’t come down to Yale today”.

“Well, does he normally?”

“Yes, every Friday without fail. This morning I just got a message to say that he probably wouldn’t be here tonight”, Chloe said sadly.

“Which is why you agreed to go out with me”, he concluded. “Very sensible”. He considered the problem for a few more seconds. “Where does he stay when he comes down normally?”

“In a hotel”.

“Do you know which one?”

“Yes”.

“Did you tell him that you had a date?” He wondered.

“Yes”.

An evil grin broke out across his features. “Tell you what, how about we go to that hotel and see if we can’t get a reaction out of him”.

“You have got to be kidding … Oh my God”, Chloe gasped.

“I most certainly am not … what’s the matter?” He turned around to see what had so shocked his date. “Luthor? Lex Luthor is the guy that you are pining over?”

“I’m not pining”, Chloe denied, hoping that her cheeks didn’t flush as she looked at him. He was so unbelievably gorgeous, a little rumpled from travelling and he looked as if he had had a hard week. He really must have been busy, rather than just trying to avoid her.

“If you say so, but he definitely is”, he turned back to her.

“Lex Luthor doesn’t pine”, Chloe said almost sadly as she found her eyes glancing back over at him as if wanting to check.

“No”, she felt her chin being moved so that she was once again paying attention to her date, “don’t look at him. A man like that doesn’t come to a steak house unless he is looking for something that isn’t on the menu. He is clearly here because he knew that you were on a date and wanted to see what I was like and if you were enjoying yourself. If you want his attention, then don’t look at him”.

“I don’t think that that will work”, Chloe mumbled.

“Tell you what I am applying to Harvard Law this year and I hear that you are the best proof reader around, I will bet you one hour of your time that he will be so jealous that you will find yourself in his bed and with him declaring his undying love to you by the end of the night, if only you follow my instructions”, he offered.

Chloe regarded him suspiciously for a few seconds before deciding that she had nothing to lose. “Deal”, she reached out across the table to shake his hand, he raised it to his lips and whispered, “Giggle” as he kissed it.

She was a quick study and by the time that they had finished dessert Lex was about ready to boil over with fury.

“Bloody hell that man must have a will of iron”, the young Yale alumni said as he thought of their next move, “He should have been over here about 30 minutes ago. Time to bring out the big guns”.

“The big guns?” Chloe wondered.

He grinned as he rounded the table to whisper in her ear before grabbing her hand and tugging her out of her seat, giggling as she had been told to she followed him out of the room and yelped as instructed when he patted her bottom just as they were moving through the doorway.

Although Chloe knew that it must just have been her imagination, she thought that she could hear the sound of expensive Italian shoes right behind them but she didn’t look back. “Can you wait until we get back to your room?” She asked.

“Fuck no”, the voice was not her that of her date. They both whirled around to see an extremely angry, extremely sexy looking Lex Luthor staring down at them.

“Lex”, she gasped.

“Don’t give me that innocent look, I know that you saw me when I walked in as did your date here and for both of your sakes this little show you put on had better be just that”, he growled.

“Yup”, her date grinned cheekily, seeming not to be in the slightest fazed by being in the presence of Lex Luthor or his anger. “Thought that I should probably do something to get you off your backside and spurred on into action”.

Lex sneered at him, “Some of us have to work. Had Chloe been a little more patient she would have found out about my intentions in a more conventional way tomorrow evening”.

“Ah well, if you let work get in the way then you could very easily have found her on her back underneath me and then she would have been ruined for you”, he announced cockily.

The look which Lex shot him told him that he quite clearly did not believe that Chloe would ever have allowed that.

Seeming to be able to read the look he answered, “Sure, she wasn’t that into me but she wouldn’t be the first girl to fall into bed with the wrong man because she didn’t realise that the one she actually loved loved her back. You could have made a very big mistake”, he turned to Chloe. “Take it you don’t need me to give you a ride back?”

“No, she doesn’t”, Lex answered for him, through gritted teeth.

“Now now Luthor, in these modern times it is polite to let a lady speak for herself”, he tisked.

“I’ll be fine with Lex”, Chloe assured him.

“Right-oh”, he beamed and sauntered off, happy that he had done his good deed for the day, imagining that it would be all hearts and roses from then on out for the pair. Little did he know that the second he left Lex’s jaw clamped shut and he took Chloe by the top of her arm and steered her out of the restaurant and into his car and drove her back to his hotel without saying a word.

When they arrived there he got out and tossed his keys to the valet before dashing around the side to help her out of the car. This time he grabbed her by the hand as he stormed up the steps to the hotel and across the foyer. Chloe was having problems keeping up and slipped a little on the marble floor in her new, extremely high heeled shoes. Without missing a beat Lex gathered her up in his arms bridal style and marched into the waiting lift.

“Lex, what are you doing?” She asked, as he nodded to the man in the lift indicating that he wanted to go up to his room.

“I’ll talk to you when I get you back to my room”, he informed her shortly.

Chloe fumed silently but didn’t say anything for the moment, she recognised the expression which Lex wore and knew that if she pushed him he was more than capable of having a blazing row right there in the lift in front of witnesses. Whilst that wouldn’t be too bad for her she would not have him gracing the front pages of the gossip columns on her account.

Before she knew it they had arrived on the floor of the penthouse suite and Chloe found herself being carried into his room and thrown on his bed.

“What the fuck did you think that you were doing?” He roared, towering over her.

“I thought that I was having dinner with a very nice man until you interrupted us”, Chloe shot back at him, feeling her own anger rising in response to his.

“Really? Because it didn’t look like you had your mind on eating from where I was sitting. On the contrary, you looked bored out of your skull until you saw me and then started flirting in a shameless manner and were in the midst of leaving with a man you barely knew. What would have happened if I hadn’t interrupted you?” He demanded.

“I image that we would have had sex”, Chloe lied, trying to sound casual.

The look of unadulterated fury on Lex’s face made her back up on the bed even though she knew that he would never raise a hand to her.

“Don’t you dare lie to me Chloe”, his voice was menacing. “What would you have done if I hadn’t intervened?”

“Gone home and cried”, she answered honestly.

Lex stared at her hard, “So you were trying to make me jealous?”

“That is what you seem to believe, rather arrogantly”, she sniped hating that it was entirely true.

“Answer the damn question Chloe”, he shouted.

“Yes, I was trying to make you jealous”, she admitted, feeling a little silly.

“By putting yourself in danger?” He growled.

“I was never in any danger”, she argued.

“No you were playing with a man who was clearly very interested in you and he could be trusted to just let you walk away at the end of the night”, Lex couldn’t get rid of the idea that she had been in some danger.

“He did”, Chloe pointed out.

“Yes, when I was there”, he ground out.

“He would have anyway, he isn’t like that”, Chloe tried to defend him, which only seemed to make Lex even more mad.

“Yes, of course, because rapists always go around with horns and announce the fact”, Lex snorted, “and they never seem like nice ordinary guys”.

“Lex you are being ridiculous. I don’t know what has gotten into you but you have no reason to act like this, you have no right …”

“I have no right? I’m the one you chose to lose your virginity to. I’m the one who has been your best friend for over a year. I’m the one who suffered for three months over the summer to take you around Europe and not take advantage of you. I’m the one who has loved you for at least two and a half years!” Lex was a very private man generally, he didn’t talk about his emotions with anyone and tried to avoid having the media know anything about him, but at that moment he didn’t care that he was not only pouring his heart out but that he could probably be heard all over the hotel.

“You love me? I mean, as more than a friend?” Chloe tried to wrap her mind around the concept. It was simply too good to be true.

“Of course I do, you know that so how you could –“

“I didn’t know that”, she protested.

“Of course you did. You think that I offer to go up against my father for someone I have no feelings for? You think that I try to give the perfect prom night to a girl I’m only luke warm about? I had spent every weekend with you for almost a year and then the first time that I tell you that I have to work …”

“You didn’t tell me that you had to work. You didn’t tell me that you loved me like that before. You didn’t tell me that you suffered not being able to be with romantically over the summer”, Chloe screamed.

He stared at her dumfoundedly.

There were tears in her eyes due to the emotions from which she was suffering. “You didn’t tell me any of that. You told me that you wanted to help me so that you would get more power. When we had sex the next morning you made it clear that you wanted nothing sentimental with me …”

“You were the one to make that clear Chloe, you said that you just wanted to have sex to get it over with. You are the girl, you are the one who decides how far things like that go, not the man. The ball was always in your court”, Lex almost yelled in frustration.

“I thought that it was in yours. I though that you didn’t want me like that. I thought that you didn’t care until you came back into my life. Then you were always so careful about calling me your friend, as if saying that you couldn’t see me as a girlfriend”, her chin wobbled slightly, so she clamped her jaw shut.

“I thought that that was what you wanted”, he was exasperated, “and I was hoping that starting out as friends would be a more solid base for a lasting relationship”.

“Oh. But when we were in Europe sometimes I felt like it could be something more, I gave you chances but you didn’t take them”, this was all getting her too much for her.

“Because we were on a foreign fucking continent, Chloe! I was responsible for you. I couldn’t make a move on you there, it wouldn’t have been right”, he said incredulously. Did she think that he was devoid of any sort of honour?

“That’s what my date said”, Chloe announced more to herself than to Lex.

Lex glared at her.

“When you called this morning you sounded distant and you didn’t say that you were working, just that you weren’t coming. It was the first time that I would have seen you since I hugged you so tightly when we got back from Europe, I thought that that was your way of telling me to back off. I was depressed and then I met a friend of a friend and he asked me out and I thought that it was better to go out with him and try to get over you rather than sitting at home crying into my pillow because you weren’t coming”, Chloe admitted, hating how pathetic that admission made her sound.

He sighed as sat down on the bed, placing his hand on her leg. “I’m sorry Chloe, I never thought that you weren’t aware of my feelings. I thought that it went without saying that if I wasn’t coming today it was only delayed by one day and that it was because I had to work. Nothing else would have kept me away from you. In fact, work wouldn’t normally either. It was just because thousands of jobs were on the line and I knew that you wouldn’t forgive me if I came to see you before dealing with it”.

“Are they dealt with?” Chloe asked.

“Yes, the jobs are safe. I hammered out a deal that the other company will be feeling for years”, he smiled ruefully, “my original plan was far kinder but when I received your voicemail saying not to worry about it and that you had a date … it is a miracle that they have anything left. I knew that I had to get here as quickly as possible”.

“Do I even want to know how you found me?”

“Probably not”, he rubbed her leg. “Did you enjoy your date?”

“No, not really. He was really nice but I only wanted you, the only point it became fun was when he suggested that you might like me and that we should try to make you jealous”.

He smiled, “So that was all for my benefit?”

Chloe nodded.

“Good, that means that I don’t have to have him killed or you locked up”, he leant over her, forcing her to lie back against the bed as he did so. He braced himself on one arm and brushed her hair out of her face and ran his thumb under her eye to catch the glimmer of a tear.

“I’m so sorry, honey”, he murmured, “I love you so much and not just as a friend. I will admit that I tried to hide it, but still I thought that you knew”.

“I didn’t but I am sorry too. I thought that you must see how much I cared for you, that I was practically dying for your touch every time we were together”, she whispered.

He smiled, “This touch?” He stroked her cheek again.

“Uh huh”, Chloe moaned, moving her head against his caress. “Desperate for your kiss”.

“My kiss?” He pretended to consider this for a moment before giving her a peck on the forehead. “Or here?” He kissed her cheeks.

Chloe shook her head giggling.

“Here?” He placed a kiss on her nose.

“No”.

“You can’t possibly want it here”, he ran his thumb over her lower lip. Her lips automatically parted and the lust that clouded her eyes was all of the answer he needed.

Chloe linked her fingers behind his neck and brought him down until their lips met in a gentle caress. It was so different to their first time together, she wasn’t shy or afraid and she knew beyond all shadow of a doubt that this was forever.

“I love you Lex Luthor”, she moaned against his mouth.

“I love you too Chloe Sullivan now and forever”, he promised her, “now let me show you how much”.

He attacked her mouth hungrily drawing gasps and moans from her before turning his attention to her neck. He kissed and licked and nibbled his way down her throat, over her breasts taking the time to tease hem into stiff peaks, over her flat stomach – she had lost a bit of weight since last time –, pulling her clothes off her to clear a path as he went. When he finally installed himself between her legs it took only a few seconds to bring her to a climax.

“Enough teasing”, she growled pulling herself to her knees once she had ridden out the tremors of delight that had coursed through her trembling body. Chloe was far too far gone to be gentle, she had been dying for him for over a year now and the last thing that she wanted was slow and tender. She ripped at his shirt not caring if it ended up destroyed, her dress had after all.

Lex did not appear to be in the slightest perturbed by her zeal and helped her removing all of his clothes in record time only stopping her as she attempted to lean over his erection. “As nice as that would be, and as much as a plan on using your mouth later I can think of better uses for it at the moment”.

“Fine”, Chloe said crawling up the bed so that they would have more room to manoeuvre. “How do you want to do this?” She asked.

He was right behind her and grabbed her hips to still her, “Like this”.

“Works for me”, she said just desperate to have inside her. Lex did not waste any more time and Chloe soon found herself screaming loudly enough for the entire hotel to hear and assuring a very insistent Lex that he was the only one she wanted.


~*~

Chloe placed her hands on Lex’s chest and pushed back, desperate to get at least a few inches of space between them. She was suddenly incredibly hot and had to remember his betrayal not to beg him to take her right then and there.

“Back then I never thought that you could hurt me”, she admitted bitterly. “I thought that what we had was perfect but maybe it was a mistake from the start”.

Those words hurt more than anything else ever had.

“Possessiveness isn’t a good way to start a relationship. It proves that you never saw me as anything more than something you could own”, Chloe said coldly, this time she was aiming to wound him. She knew that it was wrong but she wanted to shatter his heart – if she could -, the way that he had destroyed hers and polluted all of her memories of their time together.

“Honey, you know that that isn’t true”, he tried to tell her once he had found his tongue but she had turned her head.

“Here comes Clark. Let me go or I will give myself to him tonight”, she ordered and his hands left her waist even as he growled that no she fucking wouldn’t if she knew what was good for both of them.

[TrinityR]

I LOVE I! I LOVE IT!

Gosh, if I was Chloe with Lex in Erupe I think I would just throw myself at him:D I don't know, bought some red or purple lignerie and presented it while sitting on his desk lol I'm still surprised that they both managed to get by without any closness!!

And then the date thing, so hillarious! I LOVe jealous LEX!!

But now CLakr had to come;/ I hope we find out soon what Lex did and that they will end up together after all.

[HotCrossedBunny]

Glad that you liked it.

Well she did go skinny dipping in front of him so she did her best but he was a gentleman although I do like your idea.

[HotCrossedBunny]

*Chapter Fifteen*

Chloe shivered at the loss of Lex’s touch even though it was what she had thought that she had wanted, even though she had threatened him into it, she felt that it was a proof of his lack of love for her. If he had really loved her, as he claimed to, then he wouldn’t have given up so easily.

She bristled at the thought but pasted a happy smile on her face as she turned her back on Lex she skipped over to Clark and Lana. “Clark”, she squealed ecstatically and threw her arms around his neck, “It is so good to see you, I’ve been so bored waiting for you”.

Clark laughed as he wrapped her in a bear hug and swung her from side to side, “Hello Chloe, I’m sorry that we were late. It’s great to see you again too”, he put her back down on the ground and held her at arm’s length to get a good look at her. “You look really good”.

Lex grimaced at Chloe’s display trying to remind himself that it was all for his benefit so there was no reason to shoot Clark where he stood, but he still felt his fingers twitching. At the comment about her looking good he snorted. She did not look good, Chloe never looked good. She looked gorgeous, beautiful, she was a creature of such exquisite looks that no artist could never capture half of her wonderfulness. But at that moment she did not look well, still gorgeous but it was obvious that she was sad even when she smiled. He couldn’t believe that Clark had not picked up on it.

If she had come up to Lex looking like that, even if they hadn’t seen each other for years and were no longer really best friends then he would still instantly have known that there was something wrong and have dragged it out of her so that he could fix it.

“Thank-you”, she simpered and Lex’s fists clenched at his sides, “You look pretty good yourself”. Lex couldn’t see her expression but knew from the slightly soppy look on Clark’s face that she was giving him her flirty smile. That smile was only supposed to be for him.

Clark rubbed the back of his neck, blushing furiously.

Chloe’s musical giggle floated around them, as she reached up to stroke Clark’s cheek, “I’m so sorry, I embarrassed you. I keep forgetting that I am back in Kansas where the men are honourable and decent. Too long living in the city I guess”.

Lex knew that that dig should have hurt him but it actually only confirmed that she was really thinking about him. He smirked.

“It has been far too long”, Clark said wrapping an arm around her shoulders, “but now it is almost like old times, we only need Lex and … Lex”, he gasped as his former best friend stepped forwards.

“Yes”, he commented dryly.

“Sorry Lex, I didn’t see you there. I didn’t know that you were coming down for the reunion”, Clark dropped his arm from around Chloe’s shoulders and strode over to the billionaire to shake his hand and then feeling that more was required, gave him a hug.

“That’s alright, I can understand forgetting about everything with Miss Sullivan in the room”, he said, squeezing the other man’s hand and allowing the hug. He looked over his shoulder at Chloe and noticed her scowling at him as she realised that Lex had taken Clark’s attention away from her. They both knew that Lex would not have been so easily distracted from her.

Chloe glowered at them both remembering the number of times that Lex had ignored an important business associate or told someone off because they spoke when she was speaking, even if it was about nothing. It was most vexing to be reminded of such things after what he had done. She crossed her arms, “It is a little odd that you are here seeing as you didn’t attend this High School, and it has been far more than five years since you got out of school”.

Lex gave her a benevolent smile, as if she were a little child having a strop which he was determined not to react to.

Clark looked back over at Chloe, shocked that she was being so rude to Lex. “Lex is very much one of the gang though, and helped us all out a lot over our High School careers”.

Chloe’s eyes were fixed on Lex’s smirking features but she wasn’t going to let him get away with it. “You are so right Clark”, Chloe looked up at him through her lashes in the way that always made Lex go crazy, “I guess that New York is rubbing off on me too much. That was very rude of me, forgive me?”

Crossing his arms, Lex examined the interplay between the two of them. He had to admit that he quite liked Clark, although he had always been annoyed by the way that he had treated Chloe in the past but he was a good guy in general and had tried to include him … but there was no way that he was a match for Chloe.

“It’s alright”, he smiled down at her kindly, “you don’t have to put your tough girl wall up here, you are home”.

Chloe’s eyes misted up a little and Lex longed to reach out to her, whatever Clark might think they both knew that those tears weren’t because she was moved but rather because she was no longer at home. Her home was with Lex and she had walked out of it. He tried to remind himself that it had been her choice to walk out on him, that he should be angry with her for ruining both of their lives but no one had told his feet that. He closed the distance between them ready to take her in his arms when she turned and buried her face in Clark’s chest. Lex felt like a knife had pierced his heart.

Clark looked down at her in some confusion and then up at Lex, “Just overcome with emotion I imagine”, he tried to seem unconcerned.

“Right”, Clark nodded and patted Chloe’s back. Lex scowled, Chloe liked her back to be rubbed not patted, Clark couldn’t do anything right.

“Yeah, sorry”, Chloe said, raising her head and smiled weakly, “long week I guess”.

“Well why don’t we all sit down?” Clark suggested as he led her over to the seat which Lex pulled out and as Chloe sat down he leant down and whispered, “You know that you can home whenever you want”.

She winced at his words as she fought back the urge to throw herself into his arms and tell him that she didn’t care if he was screwing her over, she just wanted to be with him. She wanted to let him make her feel better, but she had too much pride for that so she pretended that she hadn’t heard him and focused her attention on Clark, “So how have you been?”

“Good good”, he beamed at her. “I can’t believe that it has been so long since we have actually seen each other in person, almost six months this time”, he shook his head in disbelief. “But thank-you so much for your advice last year, I got on to that teaching program you recommended and it is fantastic. I love teaching here, I get to stay near home, help out with the farm and coach the football team”.

Chloe smiled at Clark, trying to imagine him travelling around Europe and found that she just couldn’t.

“You’re welcome”, Chloe smiled at him. “I always knew that you would be a great teacher”.

Clark beamed with pride, “Thanks, that really means a lot, especially coming from you so tell me all about your fancy career in the Big Peach”.

“Big Apple honey”, a familiar voice floated over to them and Chloe found two tanned slim arms wrapped around her neck.

“Lana”, Chloe greeted with genuine excitement trying to return the hug before her friend walked around to hug Lex as well. Chloe saw red, Lana wasn’t her friend she was a vile snake, an evil witch. Lex stood up to pull out a seat for Lana and Chloe thought that it was a shame that none of the meteor freaks had never done the princess in.

“You look lovely”, Lex commented politely and Chloe’s foot shot out under the table and kicked them both hard in the shins.

“Oh sorry, I was stretching and my foot slipped”, Chloe apologised, insincerely.

“Oh dear”, Lana said feelingly as she rubbed her sore shin while Lex just raised an eyebrow at her. As he took his seat next to Chloe again he leant over a little as if he were just reaching for the menu on the table but as he did so, whispered low enough that only Chloe could hear, “I would be very careful with that if I were you, I can only imagine what else could slip”.

Chloe swallowed, knowing that that had not been a threat to hit her. She glared at Lex but he appeared unphased and she could hear Clark checking that Lana was alright. She hated all of them.

Lex handed the menu over to Lana saying, “There you go.”

“Thank-you Lex, you look very dashing today, I can’t believe that you came all of the way out here just for a High School reunion. I know that it will mean a lot to the whole town”, she was being sincere.

“Well, there was one woman I wanted very much to see”, Lex said, looking right at Lana and Chloe felt her foot slip again but before it could make contact with Lex’s thigh this time she found that her ankle was being held in a steel grip.

Lana just laughed at the compliment and, seeing that Chloe looked a little off, told her, “Honestly Chloe, don’t worry about it. Everyone misjudges distance sometimes and my leg is fine”.

Chloe tried to smile at how sweet she was and tried not to hate her; it wasn’t her fault that Lex wanted Lana not Chloe. She felt like crying but was going to keep a stiff upper lip and get her foot back.

Clark, Lana and Lex were making small talk and Chloe tried to gently pull her foot back only to find that Lex’s grip would not give. He sat back in his chair, looking unconcerned for all of the world as he chatted of this and that, no one would have suspected that he had Chloe’s foot in his lap, one hand wrapped around her ankle and the other slipping off her shoe.

The blonde put her hand up over her mouth - as if really considering a point that what of them had made, although what it was she had no idea - as she stopped a groan escaping her as Lex’s long, skilled fingers began to massage her the ball of her foot.

He made a bad joke and trailed his fingers over the arch of her foot making her giggle before looking very serious as if she were trying not to laugh – which she was, just not for the reasons that Lana and Clark believed. Lex knew every inch of Chloe’s body, and how to get whatever reaction he wanted out of her including mirth.

Satisfied that she wasn’t going to try to pull away from him again – knowing that it was impossible - he used both hands to discreetly massage her instep which he could feel had been very much abused over the last month with high heels and no one to rub them better. His shoulders had not been that much better off. They had a habit for when they watched the news together at night; Chloe sat behind him rubbing his shoulders with her legs around him so that her feet were in his lap where he worked on them. The news just didn’t hold his interest as much now that he didn’t have a small soft pair of feet in his hands, legs around his waist and Chloe’s body pressed up against his back.

She bit down on her lip hard and covered her mouth with her hands, as if deep in thought as she considered what Lana was saying about what had happened to Smallville in recent years. Lex’s slow, firm ministrations on her feet were relaxing her entire body and turning her into a large puddle. As his hands found their way up her calves she was ready to declare that he was a magician; they had been killing her for weeks now and were making her even more miserable. She was beginning to think that he might just have been teasing her by paying attention to Lana, to get back at her for flirting with Clark a little bit.

As if wanting to confirm her suspicion, he reached just behind her knee. He wanted to go further up but knew that that might break the spell that she was under so instead he quickly moved over to her other knee and pulled her other leg into his lap and held began to massage it. As he began to knead a particularly sore point she whimpered and then, tried to cover it with a cough.

“Are you alright Chloe?” Clark asked, patting her on the back. Between the two of them Chloe and Lex had drank what had been on the table before the others had arrived, “I’ll order the drinks”, Clark announced and Lana nodded.

“It’s alright, I’ll go”, Chloe said once she had recovered from her pretend coughing fit which had just made Lex smirk. This was her chance for escape but Lex kept a hold of her ankle.

“No, no I’ll find the waiter”, Clark said, already on his feet and off to the rescue.

Lana smiled and looked between Lex and Chloe, her expression completely neutral as she said, “It is odd to have a half catered affair isn’t it?”

“Yes”, they both agreed, although Chloe’s answer sounded a little more needy than made sense … if one couldn’t see what Lex was doing to her poor instep under the table.

“So”, Lana continued, “Tell me Chloe, I haven’t had the chance to speak to you properly since we left High School, I never even found out the name of that boyfriend of yours. Are you still together and living in New York?”

“No, but that is a very long story and isn’t particularly interesting … tell me about you”, Chloe suggested.

“I already told you everything that there was to tell you about me, Clark and I are in a sort of on again off again relationship at the moment. Like I told you only a few minutes ago, you looked so intent upon the matter”, Lana’s look was so innocent that Lex thought that Chloe must have given her lessons at some point in the past.

“Yes, of course. Sorry, coughing distracted me”, Chloe tried to cover up her blunder.

“Of course”, Lana smiled sweetly, “So tell me all about your life in New York”.

“Oh, it wouldn’t interest you”, Chloe demurred.

“Yes it would”, both Lex and Lana assured her.

She scowled at Lex but then smiled at Lana and said, “Very well”. Chloe took a deep breath and then began, “You know that while I was at University I was dating someone – well from the second year on – and thought that I loved him dearly but then once I got out of that sheltered environment and into the real world I saw him for what he really was. A nasty, manipulative, double crossing bastard who I would have been better off never having met, so we broke up and I’ve never been ha –ah”, she stopped with a gasp of pain.

Lana looked at her concerned.

“Sorry, pulled a muscle in my leg yesterday and I moved slightly and it hurt”, Chloe said as her hand travelled below the table to where Lex had ruthlessly pinched.

“Oh dear”, Lana sympathised looking over at Lex who didn’t appear to have noticed anything out of the ordinary. “It’s a shame about your leg … and your man”, her eyes were still on Lex. “Especially because I know how happy you were when he asked you to move in with him after you graduated and moved to New York. You said that it was the first time that you had ever really felt …”

“Yes, well that doesn’t matter anymore”, Chloe cut her off. “Maybe I did, maybe I was but it is over now so there is no sense in dwelling on it”.

“Shame he sounded nice”, Lana toyed with her napkin.

“Well, that’s what I thought as well, but I was wrong”, Chloe tried to keep the coolness from her tone. “To quote Bridget Jones, he was a fuckwit”.

“I loved that movie”, Lana said, “especially Mr Darcy”.

“Yes, dark curly hair is always so attractive”, Chloe agreed, shooting Lex a look.

[TrinityR]

I want Chlex to show off them being together in front of Clana, but I know it's not gonna happen, at least not now:(

[HotCrossedBunny]

TrinityR: I wouldn't be so sure. *evil smilie*

Gaia: Hello

[TrinityR]

TrinityR: I wouldn't be so sure. *evil smilie*



I love you;p

[Gaia]

Now I really can't wait. Did Lex really do something, or does Chloe simply think that he did something...

[HotCrossedBunny]

*Chapter Sixteen*

Lana, Chloe and Lex sat in silence while they waited for Clark to return to the table with drinks. Lana appeared to be reading the menu as Chloe pretended to study the crowd and Lex stared unashamedly at Chloe as he continued to massage her foot under the table.

She was a million miles away if her expression was anything to go by. Ever the scientist, Lex decided to conduct an experiment and ran his hands up her calf and over her knee to tease the skin of her thigh. She trembled a little under his touch and automatically moved her leg slightly to allow him better access, but nothing more. Her brain had not realised what was happening; too occupied with other thoughts.


~*~

It had been one of the wettest Julys on record but the day that Chloe Sullivan stood up to get her diploma from Yale there was not a cloud in the sky. Some said that that was because a billionaire had sent up planes to disperse them. Gabe Sullivan said that it was because the weather wouldn’t dare defy his daughter’s wishes. Whatever the reason, it was sunny and the perfect day for a celebration.

After four long but glorious years Chloe had finally graduated with the highest marks and was doing her best to look calm and collected as she glided across the stage when she, and her men in the audience, knew that she really wanted to bounce along.

Once she was finished she dropped the act and hurtled along to the front row where she threw herself into her father’s arms and then into Lex’s. “Did you see me?” She asked them both.

Gabe looked at Lex as if considering the point, “She was the one before the chubby girl, wasn’t she?”

“I’m not sure, there was this brunette in the front row with leg’s up to ouch Gabe didn’t you teach her not to hit?” Lex rubbed his arm; it had not been a playful punch.

“Actually no, I told her to always hit boys whenever the possibility arises”, he grinned looking just as proud of her display of temper as of her degree.

“Fair enough”, Lex said with a shrug, as he wrapped an arm around Chloe and cuddled her.

Gabe was so used to this behaviour by now that it didn’t phase him or stop him from teasing, “I think that I got you, although there wasn’t quite enough tape”, he indicated to his hand held video recorder, “to get through all of the ceremony, you don’t mind if the hand shake was missed out do you? I think that I got at least half of your speech”.

“Don’t worry, I think that my guys got it”, Lex said nodding to the other side of the stage where the first five rows had been commandeered and he had an entire film crew working.

“Subtle Luthor”, Gabe snickered.

“I try”.

“You are both impossible”, Chloe complained with her hands on her hips. “I think that I liked it better when you didn’t get along all that well”.

Gabe pretended not to remember that time, “I don’t think that it was so much that I didn’t like him as I wasn’t sure that I could pay him enough to take you off my hands”.

“True, but we reached a good agreement. When is the cow arriving by the way?” Lex asked.

“Sometime next week”, Gabe informed him.

“Really? Because it’s been three years and I still haven’t got my recompense for dealing with this one”, he gave Chloe a squeeze with one arm and used the other to grab her wrist before she could hit him again, and brought it to his lips.

“Okay, so there is no cow”, Gabe admitted with a sigh, “but you can’t give her back now. The returns policy only last one year and you didn’t buy purchase the extra cover”.

“I wasn’t planning on it”, Lex held her even more tightly.

Gabe took out his other camera and took a picture of them together, he had loads and while part of him did still wish that he could cut Lex out and have a perfect one of his little girl she looked so happy with him that he couldn’t resist.

“Now one with the person that this day is really all about”, he said getting serious … and then handing the hippo over.

“Mr Snugglesworth came”, Chloe cried, accepting and then posing with him.

“Well of course, he went with you on your first day of nursery school, he sat on your desk very proudly so that he could keep an eye on all of the other children and make sure that they were behaving. And let’s not forget your first day of High School although then you kept him at the bottom of your bag. He even went to the final exam here with you”, her father reminded her as he snapped away on his camera.

“I think that he gave her the answers”, Lex said in a stage whisper and then when he saw the dean’s eyebrows raise at the implication of cheating gave him such a look that the dean decided not to investigate.

Click. Gabe had an image of his little girl beside herself with happiness, hugging her hippo, being cuddled by her boyfriend who was looking over her head with a face like thunder. A perfect family picture.

“You want to get in on one of these Gabe?” Lex asked.

“Sure”, Gabe handed the camera over to Chloe, with a “Take it would you darling”, as he stood by Lex and they pulled funny poses for the camera.

“God I don’t know which one of you is worse”, Chloe muttered as she took the photos much to their surprise.

“He is”, they both answered, as Lex took the camera off her and Gabe moved to put his arm around Chloe and smiled for the camera.

Although she complained, deep down she was happy that they got along so well, even if that didn’t always work out as well for her. They had both respected each other in Smallville and her father had taken better than expected to her friendship and subsequent romantic relationship with Lex but they hadn’t really bonded until Chloe had unwisely announced that she had skipped a meal in front of both of them. That day they had discovered that their interest in taking care of Chloe and keeping her chubby united them.

“What are you thinking honey?” Lex asked, as he noticed that she looked pensive.

“I was thinking God help the boyfriends of any little girls we have with the two of you around”, she said honestly.

“Boyfriends?” Both men pulled a face, “Nope, not having it”.

“Not that we are planning on having kids for a few years yet”, Lex assured Gabe. “Chloe has got her chance to work at the New York Times and we will wait until she is so established that they know that they can’t do without her until we think about anything like that”

“So about three weeks”, her father joked, happy to know that they were thinking everything through. He knew that they would have, but it was still nice to hear. To think that at the end of High School he hadn’t know what was going to become of his little angel. Now she was happy, safe and protected and would be whatever happened.


~*~

Two days later, Chloe ran up the stairs ahead of Lex to their new apartment, as she couldn’t be wait for the lift even if it was almost 100 stories high.

“Wait for me”, he laughed as he caught up and wrapped his arms around her. “You know sometimes I think that you run away just to make me chase you and hold on to you extra tight”, he growled in her ear as she fiddled with the lock.

“Maybe”, she admitted, “although in this case I just wanted to get up here”.

“Okay, but I have to warn you that it is a fixer upper”, he explained as she pushed the door open and took his hand.

“You brought something that wasn’t completely done? I’m shocked”, she said, but did not sound displeased.

“I did, wait a second Chloe”. She did and he continued, “I want to build a life with you, not just buy one and this is where I think that we should be right now but if you don’t like it then we can change it”.

“As long as I am with you, I’m happy”, Chloe assured him pulling him down into a tender kiss before giving his bottom a pinch, “now enough with the mushy stuff”.

She turned around to face the apartment and was awestruck. They couldn’t be in New York, not really.

The floor plan of the building was absolutely enormous and it was one of the tallest buildings in the Upper East Side. They were on the uppermost floor and the apartment was huge but did not take up the entire space. The entrance was tucked away in the corner of the one solid wall – which had some other doors in it which Chloe assumed led on to the bedrooms - but the rest of the 6,000 metres squared was just one huge room surrounded on three sides by full sized sliding glass doors which were so thick that she couldn’t hear a thing but which she saw could be folded away completely so as not to ruin the view of the garden. That was right, there in the middle of the urban jungle they had a full garden.

Their apartment was a cube on the roof of the building leaving about fifty meters on every side which was filled with trees and shrubs, grass and little pathways. Chloe ran over to one of the windows and flung it open so that she could get outside. It was incredible. Even outside she couldn’t tell that she wasn’t in the country somewhere, the trees were large enough to block all traces of grey and all sound but still let light into the apartment. The garden was the only part of the apartment that seemed to really have been loved and taken care of but she didn’t care.

“Lex this is fantastic”, she screamed as she ran back inside and flung her arms around him.

“You really like it? You’re not just saying that?” He double checked.

“I don’t like it, I love it. It is the best apartment ever”, she assured him in between kisses.

“Good”, he grinned, “I thought that it would be nice to have a little refuge and like I said and you can see”, he indicated to the large space around them, “it isn’t finished”.

That was when Chloe realised why the garden was the only part that looked finished. He hadn’t bought something that all read existed. He had brought this building and stuck this on top of it, that was why it was in the location. The garden was done because he knew that she knew nothing about gardening and because there weren’t that many options if you wanted to make a little oasis. The inside was a different story.

The twelve foot ceilings were white and had tiny spot lights in them, she knew those. She had seen them in a catalogue and said how cool she thought that they looked. During the day you could barely tell that they were there, but then once they there turned on they were so bright that it felt like a bright sunny day even during the middle of the night and she guessed that those would be necessary here as there was nowhere to hand a normal light as the central 1,000 feet of the ceiling was stained glass and built up in the style of a Victoria greenhouse like the one that Chloe’s grandmother had had and which she had told Lex once she had used to pretend was her own house when Lois had kicked her out of her tree house.

Chloe placed her hand over her mouth, willing herself not to cry as she looked around the apartment again. It was enormous and lovely but a completely blank canvas, Lex had meant what he had said about wanting to build a life together quite literally. He had brought/built the base on a perfect knowledge of what would make her happy and then left the rest of them to do together.

She walked over the hardwood parquet floors that were also just like the ones that had been in her grandmother’s house and which she had always wanted to the one proper wall and looked into every room. There were six of them: two large offices at either end clearly intended for Lex and Chloe, one fully equipped gym, two guest rooms which were already done up like the pictures in a catalogue Chloe had seen and said was pretty while they were still back in Smallville, and then what was clearly the master bedroom.

It was an large room with its own private bit of garden and huge en suite and walk in wardrobes, other than that it was for them to decide together.

Lex had been following her around the house. “I thought that we could sleep in one of the guest rooms until we decide what to do with our bedroom. We’ll have to eat out for a while until you decide which kitchen”, Chloe turned around and kissed him.

“Thank-you Lex, for all of this. I love you so much and we will sleep wherever you think best but right now I want to make love here, in our room. I don’t care that it has to be on the floor. I want to feel you. I want to show you how much I love you”, she sounded desperate and not just with lust.

“Your wish is my command”, he kissed her tenderly this time.

The physical side of their relationship had always been fulfilling but never quite like this. It was always urgent and passionate but this time they felt as if they had the rest of their lives together and could take all of the time they wanted. Slowly they undressed each other, still marvelling at the wonders of each other’s bodies even though they now knew every inch of each other.

The sunlight glared through the windows, highlighting every flaw in both of them but neither cared or felt embarrassed. Chloe knew that when Lex looked at her he saw only complete and utter perfection, it wasn’t that he couldn’t see her freckles, her stretch marks, her wobbly bits or even her pores it was just to him they didn’t detract from her.

Just as she knew that his hands were not as soft as they might be, that his body held a few scares and that he had no hair but God help her she still thought him the sexiest man alive.

She ran her hands along him trying to feel every inch of his body but never letting her lips leave his. She needed to show him how much she loved him more than she needed air. It wasn’t about teasing this time; it was just about feeling him underneath her hands, knowing that he was there with her and always would be. She could have just stood there, wrapped in his arms kissing and caressing him forever.

Unfortunately Lex could not last that long and eventually had to lay her down on the floor only to find that Chloe pushed on his shoulder to indicate that he should roll over onto his back. His hands still travelling ceaselessly across her body, he acquiesced and Chloe reluctantly drew one of her hands away from him just long enough to grab his shirt and stick it under his beautiful head.

His touch had affected her and it was easy for her to position them so that she could let him slip inside of her. They both groaned as the joined more intimately but couldn’t bear to break their kiss. Chloe found herself suddenly very grateful that they were both capable of breathing through their noses.

Slowly she began to move against him, taking her time partly to draw this out but also because she wanted to keep herself completely pressed against him and such a position did not allow for frenetic movements. Lex did not mind, he needed the closeness just as much as she did and let Chloe dictate the pace.

It wasn’t as wild as normal but it was every bit as passionate for them, they rocked together slowly for longer than either of them would normally have thought possible before finally succumbing completely with muffled cries and expletives.

She slumped down on top of him, willing to move as the last tremors of pleasure hummed through her body. As they were lying on the floor smiling like fools Lex reached over and pulled his jacket on top of Chloe to keep her from catching cold and as he did so, something fell out.

“What’s that?” Chloe asked, picking up the small box.

“It’s not what you think … well it is, but don’t worry”, Lex said, cursing himself for his stupidity. “This is not a proposal”, he told her as he opened it and showed her the ring. “I thought for a long time about this, I wanted to propose to you since we made love for the first time on Prom Night, but I knew that that wasn’t the right time and I know that this isn’t either. You are young and want to have a career and have experienced the world before settling down, I understand that. This is just so that when the moment does come, I am prepared.”

“Oh Lex, that is so sweet”, she gave him a kiss on the cheek. “You are right that this isn’t the right time, but not because I’m not sure of my feelings. I can promise you that when you do find the right time I will say yes”.

“You promise?”

“Yes, I Chloe Sullivan, one day Chloe Sullivan Luthor, promise that I will marry you Lex Luthor whenever you ask me to”.

“God I love you”.

“I don’t think that there are even words for how I feel about you”.


~*~

“I come baring gifts”, Clark announced as he returned to the table. “What did I miss?”

They all thanked him as he handed them each a drink and sat down.

“I was just asking Chloe about her job and new apartment”, Lana announced, not wanting to say that they had been having an awkward silence.

Clark turned to Chloe, looking interested.

“Well, as you know I am writing fluff pieces for a paper in New York and live in an apartment there”, Chloe said trying to think of something to add to that other than that her teddy bear was getting a little tired of being hugged and sobbed into over the last month and had tried to call Lex to tell him to come and pick her up because this was more cuddling that he could take. Mr Snugglesworth and Lex had always got along well.

“As you know she had her own column in the New York Times which deals primarily with the art and social scene but somehow always manages to incorporate a scathing political commentary as well”, Lex said, unwilling to sit there and listen to her dismissing her influence.

“I take it that you read her column”, Lana asked, almost teasingly.

“Of course, everyone who is anyone does. We have to in order to know what we are supposed to say and think. I have often heard it said in the last year that Chloe Sullivan defines what is and is not chic. She did a column for fashion week three weeks ago and not only was it so well and humorously written that I didn’t even realise that it was about fashion for ages, it also somehow managed to link what was going on in the fashion world to the political situation with the upcoming elections and full background stories on everyone involved in the fashion week, including how many of them use slave labour and which ones don’t”.

Clark and Lana looked suitably impressed so he continued, “The article after that was on the cartel of fashion retailer and some amazing designers who weren’t allowed through basically because they were too ethical but after being written of by Chloe are now all the rage. She then moved on to anorexia in modelling and said that it wasn’t enough to pretend to be interested in changing things but that we had to actually do it”, he smiled as he remembered the vehemence with which she had written. He had had someone following her and had even attended some of the same events as she did and had seen that she was clearly heartbroken but had still delivered on her work, just as he had known she would.

“That is amazing”, Lana was genuinely in awe of her friend.

“Oh, that isn’t all”, Lex continued now that he was on his favourite subject: Chloe and her accomplishments. “She said that nothing will ever change unless we are unflinchingly honest with ourselves and revealed her measurements and real weight, and dared others to do so. They are actually printing t-shirts with this information on alla Chloe”, he beamed with pride, “Her photo has always been at the top of the column and she moves about in society so we all already know what she looks like but she also changed her official newspaper photo to one taken of her in High School when she was a little heavier and is grinning with a coffee cup and a muffin”. He didn’t add that that was now his screensaver.

“Damn Chloe, I knew that you were going to hit the big time but this is crazy, you didn’t tell us that you got a job at the New York Times”, Lana gasped.

Chloe shrugged, “It’s no big deal”. She could hear the pride in Lex’s voice and hated him for it, he would be proud of the control he had over her.

Lana looked at her friend in concern, she clearly was no happier talking about her job than she was about her former boyfriend. “What about your apartment, you moved last month didn’t you?”

“Yes”, Chloe said with a nod and tried to smile as she thought about leaving Lex and the apartment which had been her home for just over a year at that time. “It is gorgeous, so much better than the one I had before.” She saw Lex wince and so she continued, “It is in the Plaza on Fifth Avenue with a view over Central Park. It is simply exquisite. All of the furniture is in the best style and it is huge, I simply love it”.

Lex continued stroking her legs as she talked about its size, just as he had done when he was talking – almost annoyed that she didn’t seem to have realised what he was doing – and considered her living situation. It had taken some doing as her apartment was not overlooked but he had finally managed to get images of her inside the apartment via a helicopter circling central park all day long and had seen that all she did was work until she was exhausted and then cried herself to sleep into Mr Snugglesworth. He had seen those images a few days ago and had very nearly kicked the door to her apartment in and gone to hug her but he had thought that this might be the better way to ensure their happy ending forever.

“You never get a little lonely?” Lana wondered.

“Never”, Chloe said with conviction and for once that night she was telling the truth, she never got a little lonely.

“Right”, Lana turned to Lex, “So what have you been up to?”

“Meddling and dating brunettes”, Chloe muttered under her breath, only to squeak a moment later as she felt her other thigh being pinched.

[TrinityR]

You know, one thing is odd... a grown up woman who has a boyfriend... and still ows a teddy bear? I threw away mine ages ago!
That just seems... childish a little and I heard... when a man walks into your bedroom and see teddy bears... he's down before he can get it up lol
But I'm saying it in half-joking way, don't be offended.

I LOVE their retrospections! And I'm starting to think that Lex fixed Chl that job in New York

[HotCrossedBunny]

You threw your teddy bear away?!?!?!?! How could you do such a thing? What about it's little feelings? Nah, I'm only kidding. Mine lives in the bottom of my wardrobe with my shoes, she likes it there. That, I imagine is where Chloe's lived, but he came out when she needed him after she walked out on Lex. He does make appearances other than that but it was actually her Dad who brought him there and Lex noticed him and thought he was funny so keeps bringing him up. Actually most girls I know even at Uni still have teddies who live on their beds, they just go on an outing if a boy comes over. ;) Anyway Mr Snugglesworth will be very happy if Lex comes back so that he can go back into retirement.

He might have had something to do with her getting the job but I won't tell you whether he actually fixed it or not.

[HotCrossedBunny]

What about girls with huge amounts of throw pillows on their bed? How do boys feel about that? Does that get them down? I don't have any as I don't like them but it would be interesting to know.

[hfce]

Chloe come on get over it and move back in. Sheesh. You know he makes you happy girl. :)

[HotCrossedBunny]

Even though you don't know what he did? Even if he cheated on her? Even if he fixed her job?

[TrinityR]

Even though you don't know what he did? Even if he cheated on her? Even if he fixed her job?

I don't believe he cheated on her, because he's not the cheating type.

And, no, pillws are fine. Teddys, too, sometimes.... I don't know, it depends lol
I meant I threw mine away as locking him up with other not-used stuff:D

[HotCrossedBunny]

I agree I was just pointing out that Hcfe is placing a lot of faith in Lex - possibly deservedly so. :D

Pillows okay. Teddies probably not. Got it.

Ah ,that makes more sense.

[TrinityR]

I agree I was just pointing out that Hcfe is placing a lot of faith in Lex - possibly deservedly so. :D

Pillows okay. Teddies probably not. Got it.

Ah ,that makes more sense.

Hey, I'm not an expert, I'm just saying what I heard and read. And beware pink pillows lol but after Lana you probably know that:D

Ha! So he didn't cheat on her <bouncing around> /better to make sure:D/

[HotCrossedBunny]

My bedspred is white with a blue flower in the lower corner I think that that would have much the same effect as pink linen. :D

Oh okay, it's not really that much of a spoiler is it? We all know that I wouldn't let Lex cheat on her, but that doesn't mean that Chloe necessarily knows that. *evil smile*

[TrinityR]

My bedspred is white with a blue flower in the lower corner I think that that would have much the same effect as pink linen. :D

Oh okay, it's not really that much of a spoiler is it? We all know that I wouldn't let Lex cheat on her, but that doesn't mean that Chloe necessarily knows that. *evil smile*

Oh, ok stop with that teasing, because it does me no good! My only confort is that it all will end up just fine:)

I would like white and blue, in fact I wish I had bedcovers like that myself!

[HotCrossedBunny]

Oh okay I won't tease anymore, I'll just say that some things have been added to the next chapter just because I know how much you enjoy playing spot the naughty reference. ;P

They are rather nice, but girlie. Which is okay, because I am a girlie.

[TrinityR]

Oh okay I won't tease anymore, I'll just say that some things have been added to the next chapter just because I know how much you enjoy playing spot the naughty reference. ;P

They are rather nice, but girlie. Which is okay, because I am a girlie.

Because you know how much I enjoy it? Oh, I feel special now lol Just kidding:D <patiently waiting>

[HotCrossedBunny]

Indeed! I am typing it up now. Will then go through checking, hopefully up sometime in the next hour so it will be there ready for you tomorrow.

[HotCrossedBunny]

*Chapter Seventeen*

Lana stared at Chloe in concern, “Your leg again?” She asked sympathetically.

Chloe nodded, her cheeks a little flushed as she had finally realised exactly where Lex’s hand had been under the table. She couldn’t believe that he had had the nerve to pinch her again; at least he had lessened his grip as he had done so and in her surprise she had been able to pull her leg away from him.

She crossed one leg over the other to make sure that nothing of that ilk could happen again and rubbed the sore spot gently, using her other hand to swat away Lex’s which was also trying to remedy the ill. As if she needed his help!

“Yeah”, Chloe nodded at Lana, “just tweaked it”.

“I know someone you could see about that”, Lex offered mildly, “he is really good”.

“I don’t want anything from you Luthor”, Chloe spat back at him before noticing the odd looks she was getting from both Clark and Lana. “I mean, I don’t want you to go to any trouble on my account”.

“No trouble I assure you”, he smiled at her in a way that did not belie the fact that his hand was running over her hands, wrists and as much thigh as he could reach under the table.

“I can take care of myself”, Chloe said with a fake smile. “But my little leg problem seems to have prevented you from telling us what you have been doing with your time in New York and I am sure that you would not want to disappoint Lana”, her tone at the end was almost as frosty as her smile.

“Of course”, he said, his tone laced with amusement. He really couldn’t believe that she was getting upset because he had paid a tiny amount of attention to Lana. He had known that the brunette would be a sore point for her because of their history together and Clark’s love for her, but a little over a month ago she would just have rolled her eyes at him knowing that she was the one he wanted.

He took a sip of his drink, this time refraining from commenting on how bad it was. “I haven’t been doing much recently”.

“Really?” Chloe pretended to be shocked, “You are still the head of the LuthorCorp, are you not? Nepotism did favour you in that respect. Still playing with people’s lives like a game of chess?”

He raised an eyebrow at that. “Yes, I am still the head of LuthorCorp as I believe you know very well. I never miss one of your columns and last week when there was some rather negative press about my company I seem to remember you writing an article which started off being about the new exhibition of Leonardo Da Vinci’s works in New York but which then went on to patronage and privilege. You said that with privilege comes responsibility and if memory serves me correctly you used me and my company as an example of that”.

Chloe looked uncomfortable as Clark and Lana regarded them both.

“You wrote that LuthorCorp was one of the largest companies in the world, based on death and suffering and founded by Lucifer himself. You went on to say that the fact that Lionel Luthor had been put in jail and subsequently died was a breath of fresh air for the world but that it had placed a huge burden on one man’s shoulders, mine. You did an in depth look into Luthor and LexCorp and the way in which I operate and declared me to be the most ethical and above board businessman in the country”.

“Yes, well that isn’t say much”, she tried to shrug it off.

“It is to me. Did you really think that I wouldn’t read that?” He asked.

“I … I don’t know. I was just doing my job, I couldn’t write anything bad about the way your business is run when there was nothing negative to report, if there had been I would have brought it to light. Your person I cannot speak so highly of”, she sniffed.

“It still meant a lot to me”, he said with feeling.

“You know that Chloe is always scrupulous in her reporting Lex. If you have impressed her then well done, I always knew that you would run your company will”, Clark congratulated him.

“Thank-you”, Lex said, still unwilling to tear his eyes away from Chloe.

“What about your social life? Is that going well?” Lana asked, watching both Chloe and Lex with hawk like attention.

“Sadly, no.” Lex announced with surprising candour. “My long term partner walked out on me quite recently and I admit to finding myself at a complete loss without her”.

Chloe clenched her fists; she had to remind herself of what he had done to keep herself from throwing herself into his arms and kissing the hurt tone out of his voice. “Well maybe you should have treated her better”, Chloe suggested.

“How do you know that I didn’t?” He asked, as the table’s other occupants gasped.

“Society is full of stories of you Lex. Videos of you in lifts with leggy brunettes, hundreds of women wearing identical pairs of earrings, girls promoted above their ranks over more seasoned professionals just because they pleased you”, her voice was filled with venom.

“You know that that was all over years ago”, he growled, trying to keep his volume down.

“Do I?” Chloe inquired, arching an eyebrow at him. “Funny, I thought that possibly you had had a relapse”.

“Damn it Chloe”, he slammed his fist down on the table causing one of the glasses to tip over and spill all over Lana’s new dress. He wasn’t going to put up with this any longer, he knew that she was hurt and upset and he had to admit that she had a right to be but this was getting ridiculous. She was willing to hurt them both rather than just giving him a chance to explain himself. He was vaguely away of Lana’s yelp of surprise and the sound of movement, possibly Clark’s, but he just sat there staring at Chloe with fury, his knuckles turning white as he held onto the table. He was a hair’s breadth away from giving into all of his worse instincts and telling her that she was either going to sit there and listen to what he had to say without making any more bitchy comments until he was finished or he was going to put her across his knee, audience be damned, spank her until he got her attention and then say what he had to say - and it sure as hell wouldn’t be like the games they had played before -, but one way or the other, she was going to listen to him.

“I see that you have to be able to control everything, don’t you Mr Luthor? Never heard of freedom of expression? Never heard of letting people make their own minds up about their futures?” She needled him, she could see that he was a few seconds away from snapping and when that happened she would know how he really felt. How much would it take before he decided that proving that he still had control over her wasn’t worth this and he just left?

“That’s enough Chloe”, Lex said, getting to his feet and grabbing her upper arm and yanking her up, fully intending to sit back down this time with Chloe unceremoniously draped across his lap.

“Lex, what are you doing?” Clark demanded, from where he somehow stood between them.

Lex looked at his old friend, he really was rather large and looked concerned. His view of Chloe blocked, Lex looked around the room and noticed that he had attracted quite a few odd glances. He sighed, he could fight Clark off and get to Chloe but he wouldn’t really humiliate her in front of all of these people. In all honesty, he wasn’t even sure if he could actually punish her without her specifically saying that it was okay as part of the game that they were playing.

“Her leg hurts, I can tell by the way that she keeps wincing and making bitchy comments”, he explained, “I was going to take her to get it looked at. She can’t continue it pain like that, I can make it go away and be back before dinner is served”.

Clark seemed to think that that was a good enough reason and stepped out from between them and watched as Lex rubbed the part of her arm that he had been gripping. “Will you come with me Chloe? Just ten minutes, no more. Let me take the pain away”.

Chloe looked up into his green eyes and thought that she was going to fall over, she was so moved by what she saw there.

“Chloe?” Clark repeated her name.

“They are serving dinner”, she said as she saw the waiter out of the corner of her eyes – it looked like they were using sophomores for the job. She stared at Lex, begging him to say that he didn’t care and that he still wanted to take her aside for a little while. If he did then she wasn’t sure that she would be able to resist him.

“Alright, after”, Lex agreed, thinking that at least that was something. In truth he wanted to tell her that he didn’t care and that they were going to talk now, but she looked so small in that moment that he thought that maybe she needed the nourishment before they got into it. The sigh she gave as she sank back down into her chair only confirmed that as far as he was concerned.

Lana’s dress must have been cleaned up as she was sitting down primly when Clark and Lex returned to their seats and the food was served. Lex was determined to be kind to Chloe throughout the meal as he didn’t want her to end up with an upset tummy because of him. To this end when he saw that there was cranberry sauce on her plate and only a small portion of carrots on each plate he automatically removed the cranberry sauce on to his food and gave her his carrots. He didn’t realise that he had done anything odd until he saw Lana and Clark regarding him strangely.

“She hates cranberry, she doesn’t even like to see it wobbling as it is removed. It reminds her of a blood clot she once saw”, he explained, as if it were common knowledge.

“I know”, Clark answered, “I just didn’t know that you did”.

“Lex and I had dinner sometimes when I was at Yale, he had some business nearby”, Chloe explained wanting to snap at Lex for interfering with her plate and trying to control her life but she felt exhausted all of a sudden and didn’t want to get into another fight. He didn’t love her, he just wanted to control her and starting another fight would just make her want to cry.

Clark seemed intent on saying something else but Lana gave him a look which silenced him, and that was how the rest of the meal passed … in silence.

Chloe was grateful that she was not called upon to say anything; her thoughts were too full of the past.


~*~

“Has anyone ever told you that you are the most perfect boyfriend in the entire world?” Chloe asked, as she moved to sit down at the dining table next to Lex.

“Plenty of women, but I like to hear it better coming from your lips”, he grinned at her giving her a quick peck as she swatted his shoulder playfully.

“Please, we both know that you only want me. You are whipped”, she pulled a face at him.

“Very true, but I’m not the only one although now that I know that getting rid of the cranberry sauce from your plate and giving you a couple of extra carrots is grounds for being called perfect I will endeavour never to forget again”, he promised her.

“Good”, she replied, as she placed her napkin in her lap. “I can’t believe that they put that on my plate to start with, the new chef is not as good as the last one”.

“She is much better actually”, Lex corrected her, “I just only got through telling her the first 100 or so of your fussy tendencies”.

Chloe stuck her tongue out at him.

“I could fire her if you want”, he offered with a knowing smile.

“No, don’t do that”, Chloe protested just as he had known that she would.

“Well if you aren’t going to eat your dinner I will have to”, he let the threat hang in the air

“No, no I’ll eat”, she said starting in on her food just to prove it to him. Lex hated women not eating, he had gone out with too many girls who ate a lettuce leaf and then threw it up in the bathroom to put up with that again. Logically he knew that Chloe wasn’t like that but strange things happened to girls once they came to the city and she did have the tendency to get so wrapped up in what she was doing that she forget everything else … including eating.

“So, how was your day?” Chloe asked.

“Long, hard and dull”, he informed her, “but coming home to you makes me forget all about even the worse days”.

“Aw”, Chloe gave him a peck on the cheek. “I’ll make you forget about it even more after diner”, she promised. “Is the buyout still causing you problems?”

“Yes, they can’t possibly keep going much longer but that are trying to do so in the hopes that it will somehow push the value up but it won’t, it will decrease and I will get it either way but the way that they are going about keeping it open is ridiculous. They are getting rid of half of their work force and yes these people will get their jobs back in a couple of months when I take over completely but these people are living paycheque to paycheque. They can’t afford to be out of work for up to three months”, he sighed. These were the problems which had been playing through his mind all day ever since he had found out what the other company was planning.

Lex was a brilliant business man and since his father had died, and so wasn’t interfering, had run the company smoothly and cleaned its disreputable past. This was the only major blip they had had in five years but that still made it no easier when he thought of the thousands of families who would be sitting at home right now wondering for how much longer they could keep a roof over their heads, for how much longer they could afford to feed their kids. His steak suddenly wasn’t so appetising.

“Hmm”, Chloe said thoughtfully. “Please don’t think that I am interfering Lex, I know that you want to do everything correctly and above board but have you never thought of giving yourself a little edge?” Chloe asked.

He regarded her with interest.

“Well you told me before that it was Morrison who was causing the problems, everyone else would be willing to sell now and let you take full control properly?” She checked.

“Yes”.

“And Morrison’s career is based on his wife’s money and he signed a prenup which basically says that if he does anything naughty he loses everything?” She remembered Lex showing her the document, it really was rather impressive; it didn’t leave the man anyway out.

“Again yes, but the problem is that my team can’t find anything like that on him. He launders money, he blackmails people and treats his workers like crap but nothing against his wife”, Lex sighed. He had already considered blackmail, but there was nothing that could really hurt him.

“I know, I couldn’t find anything either but then I thought, maybe it isn’t necessary to actually have something on him. Threaten him anyway”, she suggested. “Tell him that you know all about his other woman, if he had one that we just couldn’t find out about then the threat will still work and if he genuinely doesn’t … tell him to prove it. He won’t be able to”.

“That is sneaky”, Lex smirked, “but he could turn it around”.

“If it was just his word against yours then yes he could, but what if you told him that you had got hold of an article that was going to be published in the New York Times society pages which mentioned his name in conjunction with another lady’s? Everyone knows that everything I print is the truth, I would claim that I had to protect my source. He wouldn’t be able to take legal means against me”, she pointed out.

“I don’t want you involved in this Chloe”, he warned her.

“I won’t be. You will tell him that you have a mole somewhere in the New York Times office who found it. It could be a mock-up which I never planned on using for all he knows, and we both know that he won’t act directly against you and by extension me”, she pointed out.

“And where am I going to find this article?” He wondered.

Chloe laid a file on the table with an innocent air and said, “I think that you have a call to make otherwise you will never enjoy your dinner”.

“Thank-you darling”, he kissed her cheek as he grabbed the file and then whipped out his cell phone. As it rang he said, “I don’t know how I am going to repay you, you never cease to amaze me”.

“Oh, I’ll think of a way”, she grinned at him wickedly. She was going to go on but then she heard someone on the other end and motioned for Lex to put it on speaker phone.

Lex acquiesced and Chloe felt herself getting warm as she heard Lex’s stern tone as he manipulated the man on the other side of the phone until he was nothing but a snivelling mess promising whatever he wanted just so long as his wife never found out. Apparently he did indeed have a mistress or rather mister.

“I won’t pay more than half of the price we discussed this morning and you will pay the tax. Furthermore you will send all of the contracts through by tomorrow morning and call the news and explain that you are going to sell to me. I will be sitting down to watch it in less than an hour, if it is not on then I will send this document to the newspapers and to your wife”, he threatened and Chloe decided that he was very sexy when he was annoyed and masterful.

There was more snivelling and promises.

“Furthermore, an email will be sent to every single member of your staff explaining that they will not lose their jobs within the next ten minutes”. Yep, definitely sexy.

With that Lex hung up and announced, “I’m starving”.

“Good, we have cake for pudding”, Chloe beamed at him.

Less than an hour later Chloe was scurrying over to the largest arm chair and placing two large cushions at the back of it and sat down on them spreading her legs so that Lex could sit between them and lean back against her until she was comfortably pushed against the back of the chair and could see over his shoulder as she wrapped her legs snuggly around his waist placing her feet in his lap.

“Bloody hell you are tense”, she commented, as she rubbed his shoulders.

“That is what Morrison will do for you”, Lex said as he turned on the telly before caressing Chloe’s feet to warm them up. “Do you not have any circulation at all?” He wondered, as always they were like blocks of ice.

“Nope”, she answered honestly.

“Another pair of silly shoes”, he asked as he felt how tight they were.

“Yes, but they made my legs look fantastic”, she said before saying, “although of course I didn’t wear them other than in the apartment where no one but you could see them”.

“Sure you didn’t”, he laughed. He knew that she was attractive and that men noticed this. Of course he would have preferred that they didn’t but he knew that it couldn’t be helped and just so long as they were respectful he didn’t order the security detail he had following her to shoot them – although he had considered it a few times.

“Oh, here it comes”, Chloe said as the business section came on and sure enough the first thing was the news that LuthorCorp was buying the company out. “We won”, she grinned and she interrupted her massage for a moment to wrap her arms around his neck in a fierce hug.

“We sure did”, he turned off the T.V., having seen what he wanted to see. “Now, while I try to get some blood flowing into these feet of yours why don’t you whisper in my ear about just want you would like as recompense for all of your hard work today”.


~*~

Chloe work up the next morning and looked around their bedroom groggily, wondering what on earth had woken her up. She looked over at Lex who was lying on his front, his face buried in the pillows still sound asleep. She grinned; it wasn’t surprising that he was tired after what he had been up to for most of the previous night.

“Five times”, she murmured to herself as she looked around for the reason why she was awake.

There was an irritating noise which she recognised to be the sound of a cell phone. She saw one on the floor right by the bed next to a pile of their discarded clothes, it must have fallen out. Not bothering to wonder whose it was Chloe reached out and picked it up and answered it, that way it would stop making noise and she could go back to sleep.

She sat bolt upright as she recognised the voice on the other end and heard the words. She covered her mouth to stop the sob she wanted to emit as her world came crashing around her.

Trembling with fury and hurt she looked over at the sleeping Lex, she wanted to hit him to scream at him but then realised that she didn’t want him to see her like this. Shakily she got to her feet, grabbed her clothes and important documents and left.


~*~

There was a squeal as the microphone came on and the principle stood up and made a short speech which brought Chloe out of her reverie. She realised that the food had been eaten and that that would mean that Lex wanted to talk to her. She gritted her teeth. She wasn’t ready for that. She clung to something that principle said, “I invite you all to get up and dance before dessert”.

Chloe grinned, “Do you know what I have missed? Dancing. And I think that it would do my leg some good”.

Lex beamed at her, his request on the tip of his tongue.

She turned pointedly to Clark, “Do you want to dance Clark?”



A/N: Ah, the things that I add just for TrinityR! :D

[hfce]

Even though you don't know what he did? Even if he cheated on her? Even if he fixed her job?

I don't think he cheated but fixed her job yeah he probably did. LOL!

[TrinityR]

Do you mean the spank remark again? lol That;s your thing!!

Or naughtiness?:D:D

I love the interaction Clana/Chlex

I feel honored, thank you for mentioning me:*


I love the chapter!! And I think I know now what it was all about with their break up.
I always wonder why women in books and movies never let the man explain himself of prove he's innocent. After having watched so many sille romantic comedies I sworeb to myself to never do that. We'll see;p

[TrinityR]

Oh, and I want you to know that as soon as you finish this fanfic it will be recommended on Chlex tumblr! (well, when it will end good, if they won't be together I will not recommend it, just kidding, I know they will!)

[HotCrossedBunny]

The first one because you always notice it which just reminds me to put these things in, creating a vicious cycle. :D Plus the naughtiness. You are welcome for the mention, you deserve it for being such a constant reviewer.

Yeah, I am liking Clana in this one.

I never know that either but I think that Chloe is often a little strange and clingy, AM even commented on that becuase of her mother's leaving her when she was so young. As you have read, Lex was getting a little sick of not being allowed to explain himself and I think showed a remarkable restrain considering that he is a Luthor.

[HotCrossedBunny]

Oh, and I want you to know that as soon as you finish this fanfic it will be recommended on Chlex tumblr! (well, when it will end good, if they won't be together I will not recommend it, just kidding, I know they will!)

Really? *squeak of delight* I will try really really hard now! Although I have to update my other ones first.

[TrinityR]

Yes, really, some of your fics are in line to be added there as well:) I just recommend sth every Friday and go through every fanfic on my list:) Just wait; P

I like to always leave a comment, because I am a writer, too, and I know how much it means to know somebody reads and cares. Not that those 54 members who I can see down the page don;t read and don't care, but commenting - always NICE:)

[HotCrossedBunny]

Oh, yay! So excited now!

Yep, I always leave a comment too. If my name appears at the bottom but without a comment then it means that I have looked at the intro and made a note to read it later. Let's face it, it does mean that they don't care otherwise they would comment although it is not as bad as fanfiction.net. I have some people who have added me to their favourite author list and yet still no comment!

[TrinityR]

Oh, yay! So excited now!

Yep, I always leave a comment too. If my name appears at the bottom but without a comment then it means that I have looked at the intro and made a note to read it later. Let's face it, it does mean that they don't care otherwise they would comment although it is not as bad as fanfiction.net. I have some people who have added me to their favourite author list and yet still no comment!


I feel you pain, at least few times a week a get a message that somebody from fanfiction.net added my story to their favorites... but I want to know what they thought of it and what made them love it:D

[hfce]

Okay so I just read the update. I think it is over a girl but not what she thinks. Am I close to the truth? :)

[trckyrcky]

Ok, this suspense is too much. I have to know why is Chloe so upset with Lex?

[zho9]

Ok, this suspense is too much. I have to know why is Chloe so upset with Lex?

Please, oh, please? Can we have the next chapter now?

[HotCrossedBunny]

I'm working on one now! Glad that you are all liking it! :D I had to update The Resurrection first.

[HotCrossedBunny]

 
*Chapter Eighteen*

Lana sat next to Lex and watched with no small degree of amusement as Chloe wrapped her arms around Clark’s neck, pressing her body against him and rocking slowly from side to side with him.

“Well I think that it is safe to say that Chloe is mad with you. What did you do?” She inquired as she took a sip of her drink. She wasn’t particularly concerned by the way that they were dancing as she knew that Chloe was not interested in Clark and wasn’t trying to take him away from her. As much as she hated to admit it, Chloe was a better person than she was and would never do something like that.

She remembered when Chloe had been in love with – or at least thought that she had been in love with – Clark and yet had still invited Lana to come and live with her and her father thereby effectively squashing any chance she ever had with Clark. Lana was determined to repay the favour if she could.

“You know, don’t you?” Lex asked.

“That Chloe and you have been together for the last four years and that you broke up just over a month ago? Of course”, she stated.

“For how long have you known?” He wondered.

“Well, Chloe was very careful to never actually tell me the name of her boyfriend but I always suspected that it might have been you, I saw the way that you two looked at each other and saw you leaving the prom together, but I figured that Chloe would tell me when she was ready. You can’t force a confidence”, Lana shrugged. “But even if I had not have known, your behaviour tonight would have certainly told me as much”.

Lex snorted as he gulped down his own drink before pulling out a hip flask, he offered her some of the good stuff but she refused so for once he took a swig right out of the bottle rather than pouring it into a glass like a civilised drunk. “We weren’t that subtle?”

“No”, Lana shook her head with a laugh, “you were not subtle at all. Neither is Chloe’s trying to get a rise out of you by dancing with Clark, or the fact that she keeps glancing this way every time she thinks that you are not looking just to check on you and when she saw that flask she looked about ready to come over here and kill you. And don’t even get me started on what you were doing to her under the table to make her keep squeaking like that”.

“I …”

“No”, she held up a hand. “I don’t want to know”.

“Alright”, he nodded.

“So how did you fuck it up?” Lana asked with unusual frankness.

Lex choked a little but then seeing that he had not had anyone to talk to about this gave a sigh and admitted, “It is a long story”.

“I’ve got time, and it is not as if I can help you if you don’t tell me exactly what happened”, she pointed out.

“Once you know, you might not want to help me”, he announced.

“I doubt it. Look, Chloe is obviously miserable and she must still want you back – even if she won’t admit it to herself -, otherwise she wouldn’t still be here. She wouldn’t be flirting with Clark in front of you. She wouldn’t be doing any of this”, Lana explained.

“I don’t want to lose her. I can’t lose her”, Lex clarified.

“Then fill me in”.


~*~

Lex woke up lazily and noticed that Chloe wasn’t still nestled under his arm. He groaned. He wanted his Chloe. He reached out to further across the bed, figuring that she must just have rolled over, but he couldn’t feel her. Bugger, he thought to himself, this meant that he was actually going to have to get up. It was most disagreeable to find that she had risen before him. He buried his face in the pillow for a few minutes before getting up to go into the bathroom but she wasn’t there either.

“Chloe”, he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and went into the main section of the apartment, “Chloe”, he called again looking to see if she was in there. She wasn’t, that was odd. He didn’t have his watch on but he knew that it was still quite early in the morning. He popped his head around the gym door but wasn’t surprised to find that she wasn’t there. “She had better not be working on some story at this time in the morning”, he growled as he banged on her office door and called her name again fully expecting to hear her scrambling around behind the door trying to hide the fact that she was on her second pot of coffee, knowing her and working far too hard.

“Chloe”, he tried again but still receiving no answer he opened the office door, a little afraid lest he found that she had fallen asleep at her desk after having a late night inspiration again. He scanned the room but he couldn’t see her.

This was getting ridiculous, where on earth could she be? He didn’t panic because the thought that she could have left him never occurred to him.

Maybe she had gone on one of her occasional early morning walks and he just hadn’t been paying enough attention when he was in the bedroom. He went back in there and checked both night stands, there was no note. He frowned and went to check the coffee pot, if it was still warm then she might have just popped out for a few minutes to get a paper or something. It was odd, but it wasn’t unheard of.

The coffee pot hadn’t been used. He panicked.

Chloe didn’t leave the house at that time of morning, willingly, without coffee and without leaving a note. The idea flashed through his mind that there might have been an accident concerning her father but he dismissed it, she would have woken him up for that.

He tried to tell himself that there was some sort of reasonable explanation as he chased back into their room stared around for some sign that something was amiss. Everything was as they had left it the night before, including their clothes on the floor the only difference was the lack of Chloe and that his second phone was on the nightstand. He wondered that he had not noticed that before and felt an odd sensation grip his stomach, that was the phone that he used for untraceable business it was always off, what could have happened?

He grabbed the phone and found that it was on. “Fuck!”

His eyes growing wide with fear, he read searched for the last call and saw its contents. “Double fuck!”

Chloe knew.

Lex sprinted to her wardrobe and breathed a slight sigh of relief as he saw that it looked like all of her clothes were still there – minus whatever she was wearing obviously – and more to the point her passport and credit cards were there. She had only taken her every day bag. He was not going to find that she had left the country or anything. This could all be fixed.

He snatched up his regular phone and hit number one on speed dial, barely waiting for it to ring and go to voicemail before he started to beg for a chance to explain and for her to call him back and tell him that she was safe.

It was in fact necessary for him to call back a further ten minutes as her voicemail only allowed extremely – in Lex’s opinion – short messages and he couldn’t get the bare minimum of grovelling in in under two minutes per message.

That done he took the worlds quickest shower and threw his clothes on, all of the time keeping his eye on his phone just in case she called back immediately. He planned on going to find her immediately anyway and used his other phone – wanting to keep the one that Chloe would call free – to call her security team to ask where she was only to find out that as far as they knew she was still in the apartment as she hadn’t told them that she was leaving.

Lex roared at them for the incompetence only stopping because it occurred to him that he might be being so loud that he wouldn’t be able to tell when Chloe called him and they needed to get out there to find her and keep her safe. Just because they were apparently in the middle of an argument that did not mean that she was safe from potential threats.

He wanted to go out and join them in the hunt for her – he had cleverly ensured that only he could track her phone, which he did … and discovered that it was in her closet. He invented a few new swear words. He should be out there trying to find her but she would never forgive him if people lost their jobs because he wasn’t there to sign the contracts.

Growling all of the way he made his way into the office – using the chauffeur driven car so that he didn’t have to take his eyes off his phone -, receiving updates every few seconds on the tracking of Chloe Sullivan. Happily just before he reached the office they found her in the park feeding the swans, drinking coffee and looking pissed off. One agent had tried to get closer to her to confirm that it was her and she had turned – giving them confirmation – and thrown an empty coffee cup at his head, also confirming that she was on her second cup of coffee.

Lex breathed a sigh of relief as he ordered them to keep her safe and not to lose her, he also wanted to know how she seemed emotionally.

He rattled through his business; it took him under an hour to ensure the futures of thousands of families and the future of entire towns but it seemed like far too long to him. He sprinted back to his office after the meeting just to double check all of the information he had received up to date about Chloe’s whereabouts.

He sighed as he wondered what to do. Perhaps it would be better to give her some space and time to cool down, but he didn’t think that he could manage that. He was just about to call for the driver to take him to where he knew Chloe to be when his phone finally rang.

“Chloe?” He asked, unable to believe the caller ID.

“Yes, it’s me”, her voice sounds strange.

“Where are you? Are you alright?” He asked before she could get anything more out.

“You know where I am and that I’m not fine. Your people have been tailing me for hours”, Chloe said – although in reality it had only been just under two hours. “And you know that I am not fine”.

“Well you snuck out this morning without letting anyone know where you were going, do you have any idea what could have happened to you going around in the city by yourself?” He demanded.

“I’m a big girl Lex, I can take care of myself”, she snapped. This was not how this was supposed to go; he was supposed to be grovelling.

“In the normal course of things yes, but like it or not you are the girlfriend of an extremely powerful and rich man and with that comes risks. Risks that I try to protect you against, you know that if someone took you that I would have to give them everything they wanted, even Luthor Corp”, he paced the floor of his office.

“I would never ask you to sacrifice your company for me”, she said bitterly. “And your need to protect and control me is noted but as unwanted as it is unnecessary”.

“Well you are going to get it whether you want it or not. What the hell were you thinking leaving like that this morning? I’ve been worried sick”. He knew that it was the wrong thing to say, he had planned on being conciliatory when he spoke to her but this was too much. She could have put herself in real danger all to punish him or because she was having a strop.

“You don’t get it, do you Lex? I don’t want your protection. You are not my father, you are supposed to be my boyfriend, or at least you were”, she was furious.

“I am your boyfriend”, he corrected her, “if I weren’t you wouldn’t be this angry and you wouldn’t have called me”.

There was silence on the other side of the line and he knew that he had scored a point although she was still pissed off and as much as he hated to admit it, she had a point.

“I’m sorry that I snapped, but I really have been worried. I don’t know what I would do if anything ever happened to you”, he admitted. “I have never loved anyone like I love you and that makes me a little crazy sometimes”.

“I don’t know what to say to that”, she said simply.

“You could try saying that you love me too and that whatever has gone wrong between us we will work our way through”, he prodded.

“God”, she almost moaned, “you have no idea how much I want to say that, but I’m just not sure that I can”.

“You can’t mean that”.

“I don’t know”.

There was silence.

“Please Chloe”, he was desperate, “just talk to me. Shout at me. Swear at me. Just speak”.

“You have no idea how much you have hurt me Lex”, she said quietly.

“Baby, I love you”, he tried to think of something that would make this all alright.

“You think that you do”, she corrected him.

“No, I do love you”, he could not believe that she was actually doubting this. Could she really not see that everything he had done was because he loved her? Or was she just punishing him?

“Lex, if you love someone then you have to respect and trust them. What you did …” She broke off sounding pained, “It just makes it clear that you feel neither one of those things for me”.

“I do”, he tried to cut in but she wouldn’t have it.

“And I’m not sure if I can ever trust you again”, she admitted sadly.

“No, sweetheart that is just your hurt pride talking. Listen, it is me Lex. I know that I have not acted as I should have and that I have fucked things up but things can’t be over between us. I know that you love me just as much as I love you. That doesn’t go away just because you are hurt and angry”, he tried to make her see sense.

She said nothing.

“Think about it”, he pushed on. “In this moment, you are hurt and upset and possibly even feel betrayed but where do you want to be?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, in this terrible moment where do you want to be? What do you think will make you feel better? Do you want to be in your father’s house? Back in Smallville? Or do you want to be here with me? Whose arms do you want to feel wrapped around you? Who do you want to comfort you? Who do you want to kiss the pain away?” He prayed that it was still him.

Chloe’s chin quivered.

“Chloe”, his voice was low and controlled.

“You”, she admitted.

“Then you do trust me”, he finished for her. “I will admit that things seem bad at the moment and I won’t even claim that I didn’t know that you would be mad if you ever found out but it was for the best”.

“Fuck Lex”, she swore, “you just don’t get it do you? It isn’t for you to decide what is best for me! It isn’t for you to play with my life and my future”

“I wasn’t playing and you fucking well know it. I thought it all out very carefully”, he felt his own anger rising.

“So you were playing chess”, she retorted.

“No.”

“Well I don’t want to be your pawn”, she continued, ignoring him.

“You aren’t”, he tried again.

“I don’t want to be the queen on your chess board either”, she barrelled ahead with her metaphor.

“You aren’t that either”, his grip tightened on his phone.

“Then what the hell am I to you?” She demanded.

“You are my girlfriend and the love of my life, you know that!” He was getting frustrated, it would have been much easier if they could have done this face to face.

“A girlfriend whose life you feel compelled to manipulate until if fits your wishes”, she pushed down any warm gooey feeling she had when she heard him call her his girlfriend, even after all of this time it still affected her.

“You think that I wanted you to go to Yale? I wanted you to go to Harvard, I already had work there it was bloody inconvenient to go all of the way to Yale and set up a new business there”, he snapped. She was deliberately making this harder than it had to be.

“I’m so sorry that it was inconvenient that I liked Yale the best”, she was almost happy that he had given her an opening to unleash her anger on him once again, he deserved it and it wasn’t fair that he could talk his way out of anything … although secretly she had been hoping that he would be able to do when she had called him.

“I didn’t mean that”, he rubbed the back of his neck.

“I’m surprised that you didn’t just get my scholarship revoked”, she snarked.

“Chloe, that is enough! I realise that you are angry but you know that I would never do something like that”. She was really pushing the limits of what he would take from here now, even if she was angry and he was in the wrong.

“Oh, so just other people’s to make room for me?” She felt guilt even at the thought that someone else might have missed out because Lex loved her.

“No”, he protested.

“And I suppose that …”

“Shut up”, he roared. “Fuck Chloe you rang me so give me a chance to explain myself.” Much to his surprise she just said, “This had better be good”.

He knew that he should apologise for shouting at her like that, but at that moment he didn’t care. “I did not manipulate the system, I did not interfere with the exam board nor with the judging. You got into all of those Universities fair and square and more importantly you got the scholarships in the same way. I swear to you.”

“Alright”, she said, it was an acknowledgement that she believed him, not that that was in fact alright with her.

“I did not try to change your mind about which University you wanted to go to, I planned on visiting you at whichever one you went to. The same applied to the subject you chose. I spoke to you about those things but I never manipulated you, that was entirely your own choice. We both know that you would have attended an Ivy League one whatever happened, I just gave you something more than brochures to make that decision based on. And I was upfront about it”. He had enough misdeeds on his list without her making ones up to add to it.

“True, you were”, she admitted. “But don’t you dare try to tell me that my accommodation had nothing to do with you”.

“I wasn’t going to”, he said, responding to her accusation. “I don’t know what you want to hear Chloe. You saw the message you know that I threatened Yale into accepting my money to upgrade your accommodation, food and books. I won’t apologise for it either.”

“Well you should” she declared.

“No, I am sorry that you are upset but I did not do anything wrong”, he announced with feeling.

“I can’t believe what I am hearing”, she huffed.

“Sure you can, you know me”, he said almost with a smirk.

She made a noise, to angry to form words.

“I love you and I wanted to take care of you, you know that”, his voice filled with sincerity. “We both know that you would have got the top marks whatever happened but you would not have been so comfortable if you hadn’t had such a nice apartment and had been worried about money. After everything you had been through, I thought that you deserved a little bit of luxury and it is my money so it was my decision”.

“Not mine?”

“You agreed to accept it”, he pointed out.

“Yes, when I thought that the University had made a mistake and wanted to make up for it”, she tried to make him see the difference.

“Well maybe I made a mistake by not making love to you the first time that I saw you and I was making up for that”

She almost laughed at that. “You think that a night with you is worth that much money? Big talk Luthor”.

He smiled. “I didn’t do it to hurt you, and I didn’t force you to accept it. You chose to do that. Now if you feel that you need to take it out on me then go right ahead but we are not breaking up over this and you will be in my arms by tonight, if not before that”.

“Arrogant bastard”, she muttered.

“I love you”.



~*~

“Wow, sounds pretty hard-core. You can be stupid at times Lex, but she could probably get over it. In fact, from what you say she was already half way to being over it by the time that your phone call was over”, Lana pondered the problem.

“Oh yes, but that is not all”.


A/N: Anyone else a little annoyed with Chloe for leaving Lex without a note or telling the security team even if she was angry, or is it just me?

[TrinityR]

Well, Lex is too woried about Chloe:D If I was angry at him I wouldn't leave a note either.

So, that was what I suspected, but more? How more?:( did he sleep with somebody before he was with Chloe? After the prom?
Just speculating.

Lana's insightfulness was a good move as I like her character

[trckyrcky]

Yep, that is what I figure. Chloe found out about what Lex did for her and all those luxury items she was able to enjoy came from Lex. I don't understand why she think it's the end of the world. If I have a boyfriend that will do all those things for me, I will be weeping with joy. I can understand if her pride was hurt, but she still loves Lex and Lex knows she is not a gold digger, that is why he is willing to do so much for her. Why can't she truly believe that he did it all for love?

[HotCrossedBunny]

TrinityR: Yeah, he probably did over react a little in the worried department but knowing that he would react like that I think that I would still have left a note.

He he you will find out soon although if it helps I will say that he did not technically sleep with someone else.*runs for cover* Remember, happy ending!

Yeah, I like Lana here too but not enough to make Lex love her. ;P

TrckyRcky: To start with I think that it was that 1) she felt betrayed that he hadn't told her - although the reasons why he didn't are rather obvious -; 2) because she was worried that other people might have been hurt; 3) she didn't know the extent of his meddling i.e. had she even got into Uni on her own merts; 4) she is even more sensitive to these things because of Moira; 5) her pride was hurt; 6) deep down she probably knows that she should have figured it out and that possibly the fact that she didn't even think about it means that her subconscious knew all along and she thinks that this makes her a bad person. Hence her needing to get out of the apartment then over reacting a little bit, she wanted to have a blow out fight with him but deep down I think that she was hoping that he could find some way to excuse himself. I will say that at that point in the story Chloe is mad, making threats but not actually thinking of leaving him. It is more about punishing him.

Right with you there, I want a man who loves me for me ... but if he could be a billionaire who wants to spoil me as well I wouldn't object in the slightest! :D

[TrinityR]

Yep, that is what I figure. Chloe found out about what Lex did for her and all those luxury items she was able to enjoy came from Lex. I don't understand why she think it's the end of the world. If I have a boyfriend that will do all those things for me, I will be weeping with joy. I can understand if her pride was hurt, but she still loves Lex and Lex knows she is not a gold digger, that is why he is willing to do so much for her. Why can't she truly believe that he did it all for love?


Because some womem are too much of feminists I guess.
On the other side I think it wasn't about the things he did for her, it was about him keeping it from her.

[TrinityR]

So I'm starting to believe he was either drunk and hurt that Chloe seemed not to want a relationshio with him and he kissed someone, stopping at the right moment not to actually sleep with her.
Or... some stupid bimbo threw himself at him, maybe even the menager that Chloe once threw away form the penthouse. Maybe there was something like in season 5 of SV when some student shaved her head and then wanted to seduce him.

[HotCrossedBunny]

P.S. If Chloe didn't love Lex so much, she wouldn't be so hurt and angry that he basically took away from her what - in her opinion - makes her a woman who is his equal and who can one day marry him and be the mother of his children. She likes the idea of being self-sufficient and choosing to be with someone rather than being maintained and possibly slightly manipulated. Plus, let's face it I think that it might be that time of the month for Chloe and we all know how that can be. *chin wobbles at the memory of the onion that wouldn't dice perfectly this afternoon and the packet of biscuits I had to get my Dad to open because they wouldn't for me.* I'm sorry, it's all too much *Runs off over dramatically listening to the rational voice in my head telling the stupid one that it is being stupid, then the stupid one insulting the rational one* Oh great, now they are both crying!

[HotCrossedBunny]

Because some womem are too much of feminists I guess.
On the other side I think it wasn't about the things he did for her, it was about him keeping it from her.


Yep that is part of it but also you have to remember that nearly everything comes back to Moira, her mother was a sponge and she sees the possibility in herself to go that way too so she has to fight it more than a normal person would.

Yes, it is also about him keeping it from her although to be fair to Lex, I think that he did want to tell her but it is a hard thing to tell someone.

[HotCrossedBunny]

So I'm starting to believe he was either drunk and hurt that Chloe seemed not to want a relationshio with him and he kissed someone, stopping at the right moment not to actually sleep with her.
Or... some stupid bimbo threw himself at him, maybe even the menager that Chloe once threw away form the penthouse. Maybe there was something like in season 5 of SV when some student shaved her head and then wanted to seduce him.

I will only say that Lex would never kiss another woman because he is too damned self confident, as far as he is concerned losing Chloe has never been an option - hence him turning up at the reunion. But good ideas, I could see the Lex in the series doing something like that and he has been drinking a lot - something that Chloe will soon be putting a stop too! And there are plenty of women out there ready to try to seduce him and I don't just mean myself and TrinityR. ;P

[Gaia]

 
A/N: Anyone else a little annoyed with Chloe for leaving Lex without a note or telling the security team even if she was angry, or is it just me?


Oh I would have done the same, so not annoyed at all :)

[HotCrossedBunny]

A/N: Pressie for TrinityR for her update of my current favourite story. :D


*Chapter Nineteen*

The band started to play a remix of Sexual Healing and Chloe fixed Clark with a look before giving him a sultry smile, beginning to dance a slightly more provocatively, although still within the bounds of polite society. It was a trick she had learnt from her time with Lex, how to drive a man completely crazy without giving too much away. It was easier to dance with Clark like this as he didn’t know how to respond, Lex always gave as good as he got making it a competition who would pull the other off the dance floor first. She didn’t have to worry about getting overly hot and flustered with Clark, just about making sure that Lex didn’t know that; she wanted him his suffer.

Clark gulped, keeping his hands on her hips and trying to remember why exactly he had only ever seen Chloe as a friend. She moved against him, the gentle friction putting some not entirely wholesome ideas in his head.

“You’re blushing”, Chloe giggled, tossing her curls slightly as she did so.

“Sorry”, he murmured.

“Don’t be sorry, I think that it is sweet”, she assured him. “You know Clark, a girl could really fall for a guy like you after all of those hardened New Yorkers. It is nice to know that honestly and integrity still count for something”. They were still near enough to the table that she was fairly certain that she could be heard, although she wouldn’t give Lex the satisfaction of turning to check.

Clark blushed more at that as he grinned down at her, “You still think of me as that? I mean, as someone who is honest even after everything … all of the secrets?” He had always wondered whether Chloe’s sudden decision to leave after Prom had had something to do with his secret but it wasn’t really something that they could talk about over the phone.

“Yes, of course”, she promised him.

“I can’t tell you how much that means to me”, he beamed pulling her into a tight hug as relief washed over him.

As he released her from the embrace she noticed the look of intense concentration on his face and felt truly sorry for him. Every single physical interaction he had with a person required thought, especially if he was emotional. She thought of how wild and passionate some of her romps with Lex had been and knew that Clark could never have anything like that. It was not that Lex had ever been careless with her, but he knew that he didn’t have to hold back and that he couldn’t hurt her or if he did, it would only be a slight bruise where he had held on too tightly to her hips - and Lex had ended up with his fair share of scratches from Chloe – not crushed bones and battered organs. She didn’t want a superhero who had to go out at all hours of the night to save the world or the man of steel who could never be truly intimate with anyone, she wanted her very own hard assed billionaire with a soft squishy centre.

“Look Clark, I understand why you didn’t tell me earlier I really do and I can’t blame you. I wasn’t always the best person when I was in Smallville and I gave you plenty of reasons not to trust me, I just hope that in the end I didn’t let you down”, she said earnestly.

“You didn’t”, he told her, “but I didn’t tell you because I didn’t trust you, just because that isn’t something that a 14 year old should have had to deal with. I wanted you to have a normal life … well as normal as possible when every day is spent battling meteor freaks”.

She grinned up at him, for a moment lost in their past together. “Sometimes I wish that I could go back to those days …”, she admitted, “but then I remember how big my problems at the time seemed and decide that I don’t fancy it after all actually”.

Clark guffawed and Chloe pulled him closer so that they were hugging as they danced together, more intimate but far less sexy.

“I can’t imagine that you would want to go back to The Torch after the New York Times”, he said.

She shrugged, “At least with The Torch I knew that it was all my own work”, and she didn’t just mean because she was an over caffeinated control freak who wrote half of the articles herself and rewrote the other ones that people submitted and reformulated the layout.

“You don’t like your job?” He asked in surprise, “I would have thought that that would have been your dream job. Not live up to expectations?”

“Oh no, it does. I love my job although I don’t want to be in the style section for the rest of my career it is just that I know that I didn’t get in on my own merits. I was put there so that I could be controlled and reflect favourably on certain people”, she said, pained to have to admit it.

“Then why do you stay?” He wondered, remembering how proud she had sounded of him when he had given up his football scholarship because it wasn’t fair that he should have it.

“Because I want to show them that they cannot manipulate me”, she knew that it sounded petty and that really she should leave, but she just couldn’t make herself do it. She suddenly had far more respect for Clark for not using his abilities; it was easy to say that people shouldn’t use unfair advantages until you were the one with them and everything – or nearly everything – that you wanted within reach. Luckily, Chloe was smart and if there is one thing that smart girls can do, it’s rationalise. “If I left – which was my first reaction when I found out how I was being used – then they would just put someone else in my place and their worlds would continue. If I keep the job then I can write about what I want to and get my revenge on anyone I want”.

Clark was silent for a few moments as he tried to think of how to phrase what he knew that he had to say. “Remember what happened the last time you wanted to get revenge”, he advised. She tensed and he rubbed her back slightly, it was a brotherly gesture rather than a romantic one.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to bring up painful memories for you”, he apologised, “I just wanted to remind you to get all of your facts first and think things through very carefully. You aren’t the type of person who can plot revenge or see people in pain without feeling guilty – even if those people have hurt you”.

“Then what kind of person am I?” She wondered.

“The kind that forgives”, he said simply.

“You mean a weak person”, she said with a frown, worried that his words held more truth than she would like to admit.

“No”.

Chloe blinked up at him in confusion, he had sounded almost like Lex for a moment there he had been so stern. She flushed as she realised that that was the first time that she had reacted to Clark in that way all evening; bloody hell she had it bad.

Lana smirked as she watched the interaction between the two of them, Chloe had been trying to make their dancing seem sexier and had managed for a couple of minutes but hadn’t been able to keep it up the second that her mind was taken off her ‘task’. It really was rather funny, at least to Lana. She doubted that Chloe would have had any problem if she had been dancing with Lex.

“Well as it is clearly very difficult for her to flirt with Clark, so I think that for her own good you had better tell me exactly why she is still so angry with you”, Lana suggested in a manner that made it seem more like a command.

The great and powerful Lex Luthor sighed and did as he was bid. It was amazing what lows one could sink to when in the depths of pathetically pining away over someone.


~*~

Lex collapsed back into his office chair as he finished his conversation with Chloe, rolling his head back and closing his eyes as he tried to make sense of everything that was happening.

Meanwhile, back in the Park, Chloe didn’t know what to do. She walked around for a while trying to think everything through. She was furious with Lex for what he had done he didn’t have the right to decide where she went to University or what she had but as she remembered his words when he had lost his temper, he had not actually controlled her decision or her admittance. He had spent his own money on what he had wanted; the only thing that she could really blame him for was for having tricked her into accepting it.

She took a deep breath as she walked a little further around the park. He was used to having the very best of everything and couldn’t understand how anyone could make do with less. It was in his nature to want the best for those he loved, and she didn’t doubt really that he did love her. Which was rather annoying as she wanted an excuse to hold on to her anger with him for at least another hour; he shouldn’t be allowed to get off this easily.

As much as hated to admit it, his money had made her time at University a lot less stressful and more fun and she would never have accepted it if she had known. She could understand why Lex had done it, she didn’t agree with it, but she couldn’t understand it.

Chloe hadn’t paid much attention to where she was going but found that her feet had led her to right outside LuthorCorp. She smiled. He was an overprotective, controlling, arrogant bastard but he didn’t lie to her. If he said that he hadn’t done anything unfair then she believed him and she could tell him off far more effectively from seated comfortably in his lap with his arms around her and him kissing her neck, than she could in her head so she entered the building.

Lex heard the door open softly and smiled, knowing that there was only one woman who could get in unannounced. His eyes were still closed as he had just been going through a thousand apologies in his head and wondering when he would get the chance to tell her them.

“I knew that you would end up in my arms, get over here”, he said keeping his eyes shut for a few more moments as he thanked God for Chloe – in general, and in that particular moment.

Her hand touched his thigh and his eyes flew open. That wasn’t Chloe.

“Who are you?” He demanded as the strange woman sank to her knees. “Fuck”, he said and jerked back, as she ran her hand up his thigh.

“You saved everyone’s jobs, you are the new Morrison. I know what is expected”, she said with a thick accent.

He just stared down at her in utter shock; even in all of his years in the business world nothing like this had happened to him before. The girl couldn’t have been more than eighteen years old. She was thin, so thin that he thought that it was unlikely that she wasn’t eating enough with dark brown hair, tanned skin but somehow green eyes. She was gorgeous, she could have been on a runway, but she wasn’t Chloe.

“I don’t expect anything from you”, he said, trying to be kind rather than shouting at her or pushing her away which was what he wanted to do and would have if she had just been a forward woman but not to someone who was clearly there against their own better judgment to start with. He felt ill. For men like Morrison – and even more so for Lex - there were always hundreds of money grubbing bitches around only too happy to sleep with them for a pair of earrings. There were plenty of willing women, why had he gone out of his way to take one who wasn’t willing? In Lex’s view, it was as much rape as if she had been held down.

Gently he took her hands and removed them from his thighs. “No one expects anything from you”.

She looked up at him with large eyes, not understanding, he had heard the accent but hadn’t put two and two together until now as he had been too shocked and occupied with thoughts of Chloe.

He thought that she was Spanish and luckily spoke the language; in the language he explained the situation. Another wave of nausea hit him as he watched her stare at him incredulously for several seconds before apparently realising that he really didn’t want her to do anything to him and beaming.

“Gracias, muchas gracias señor Lutor. Dios te benedica”, she gabbled as she tried to get up but her legs were trembling too much and she pitched forwards. Automatically Lex reached out and grabbed her tops of her arms just before her knees hit the floor.

Just then the door opened and Chloe walked in saying, “We need to talk Lex”.

“Fuck”, Lex swore as he looked up at her and saw her standing there frozen, her face a mask of horror. He was under no delusions about what it must appear that they were doing.

“Chloe, I can explain. This isn’t what it looks like”, he protested.

“It never is”, Chloe snapped into action and turned on her heel and left the office. Lex heaved the brunette to her feet so that he could chase after Chloe but the few seconds that it took him to do that and get around his desk were too much. There was no sign of Chloe in the corridor.

“Which way?” He demanded of his secretary, ignoring her confused expression. When she pointed to the end of the corridor where the lifts and stairs lay he took off at a sprint, bellowing over his shoulder that she was to tell security that Miss Sullivan was not to leave the premises. He knew that that would piss Chloe off but he didn’t care, he had to get hold of her and explain.

He sped down the stairs and saw that the lift had been stopped and a security guard was in it. He looked around the foyer but could only see confused business men and security guards shaking their heads to say that they couldn’t find her.

“Find her”, he roared, “whoever brings her to me will never have to work again”. He started to run into every room that led off the foyer to see if she was hiding somewhere there and then repeated the action moving up the building. It took an hour but then it was announced that Chloe Sullivan was nowhere to be found.

Chloe had dashed down the first flight of stairs but she could hear Lex’s footsteps behind her and she didn’t want to do this in front of an audience so she headed back towards the other staircase on the next floor down and then up to the roof top.

As she stepped out into the open air she took a few restoring breaths and willed herself not to cry knowing that Lex would be there in a few more seconds and she didn’t want him to see just how badly he had hurt her. But Lex didn’t come. Not in one minute, not in ten, not at all. Chloe wondered what was going on and leant over the side of the building to see his slut leaving with what appeared to be a bounce in her step.

Chloe sank to her knees as her body wracked with sobs. The bastard had just been chasing her off, then he had gone back to his office to be sucked off by that slut rather than coming after her; he didn’t care at all. He had been lying, every time that he had said that he loved her, every time that he had said that she was beautiful, that he loved her curves, that she was the only woman that he wanted. He had lied. He had probably even lied to her that morning, he probably had screwed over other people to give her those opportunities although why she couldn’t understand as he clearly didn’t care about her as he hadn’t been bothered to come after her.

She hugged herself tightly, partly out of upset and partly because it was freezing on the roof with the wind being so sharp. She hurt more than she knew that it was possible to hurt and the only thing that she could think of that would make this better was to have Lex come to her and wrap his arms around her. At that moment she would willingly have allowed herself to be taken in again and believed whatever he told her, however stupid as long as it ended with him loving her but that wasn’t going to happen. He didn’t love her and he never had.

Feeling miserable and a little melodramatic, she wondered how long it would take for her to die if she just sat there until all that was left was a corpse that would one day be found and Lex would have to explain. She didn’t think that she would survive the night and was just considering if that would make him sorry, when she heard the door to the roof opening and felt her heart leap at the thought that it might somehow be Lex. It wasn’t, of course, it was just one of the security guards and she hated herself even more for allowing herself to get her hopes up only to be let down again.

Unable to support the idea of being humiliated further by being escorted from the building by security she looked around for the fire escape and quickly made her way down it before she could be spotted. It wasn’t an easy feat but she managed it and hailed a cab and made her escape just before Lex stormed out of the building with a team of government agents who were ready to comb the area for her – the pentagon had been informed that their stock market might crash if they did not provide adequate assistance in locating Chloe.

Trying to distract herself Chloe looked at her cell phone and deleted the several hundred texts she had received from Lex demanding to know where she was, she figured that they were actually from his secretary as he couldn’t even be bothered to take the lift to visit her and then saw one from her boss asking her to visit LuthorCorp. That was when she realised that The New York Times was in Lex’s power, as was who they chose to employ.


~*~

Lana stared at the dancing couple and noticed that Chloe shooting them a surreptitious look when she thought that Lex wasn’t observing her. Unable to resist, Lana waved at her letting her know that she was on to her little plan. She bit her lip to keep from laughing as Chloe turned her head to Clark and pretended to flirt with him. It seemed very obviously fake to Lana, but judging by the way that Lex banged back his drink she wasn’t sure that that was quite so obvious to everyone.

“Well, I’m not going to say that you didn’t screw up because you did but she obviously still loves you, otherwise she wouldn’t be going to all of this trouble to make you jealous”, Lana reasoned.

“She might just like dancing with Clark”, he remembered the fuck-me-thong he had felt through her dress earlier and ground his teeth, “and I’m not sure that the display is for me”.

“Only one way to find out”.
 

A/N: Feelings on Chloe's dancing with Clark to get back at Lex. Do they both deserve it? Should he have checked the rooftop? Anyone else inexplicably hate Ana (Spanish girl) even though it wasn't her fault?

[TrinityR]

Favorite? Really? <yay!!!>

I liked that forgiving means being strong, not the other way around

Wow, firing escape on the TOP of LuthorCorp?! Chloe, how many calories you lost while making that trip? Do they even have fire escapes in skyscrapers?

I don't hate Ana, it was all misunderstanding.
Lex really tortured chloe with waiting till the Reunion, and then, he still didn't tell her right away. Let's just say he couldn't think clearly with her around lol

MORE, please?;P;P I loved it!

[HotCrossedBunny]

Yes you are my favourite.

Yep, Lex has one all helicopter landing pads on buildings above a certain height require one and she probably burned quite a few calories and she didn't even get her breakfast that morning!

Oh, that wasn't there last meeting there were several in between then and now.

[Gaia]

It really was not Ana's fault. Chloe was already pissed at Lex and this just made her trust him less and NOT even listen to him. But really, he should have thought that she might have gone up and not down. For a genius he can be so very daft.

[HotCrossedBunny]

Okay, so just me being unfair to Ana. Yes, it was true she was going there to tell him off while allowing him to cuddle her. Yes, although to be fair he did see a glimpse of her going down, so it didn't occur to him to think that she might have gone down one flight, across and then up although Chloe thought that it was obvious. Yep, poor dim genius.

[hfce]

You know I want to hit Chloe right now. She is being ridiculous. UGH!!!

[HotCrossedBunny]

Would it make you feel better if I told you that she was going to go to therapy with Lex in one of my upcoming fics?

Lex would never let you hit her, he just wouldn't even if he is annoyed with her too. Well, he might give her a little pat if she really pushes it but that is as far as Luthor would allow it to go.

[trckyrcky]

It's all just a misunderstanding. Chloe does love Lex and I have hope she will go back to him.

[HotCrossedBunny]

I hope so too! Oh, wait a minute, I am the one writing this, aren't I?

[HotCrossedBunny]

*Chapter Twenty*

Lex smirked as he grabbed Lana’s hand, asking “May I have this dance?” but pulling her chair out before she actually had the chance to answer, not that she thought of refusing.

“Of course”, she grinned at him, “You know I meant that you could ask her whether she liked dancing with Clark not try to make her jealous with me”.

He gave a shrug, “And she could just have let me talk to her rather than running off to dance with Clark and make me crazy. If she feels even a glimmer of what she has made me suffer this evening, good”, he said, but his voice lacked conviction. Chloe could not really think that he was interested in Lana so she couldn’t really be hurt, not even for a few seconds.

Chloe saw them and shot them a filthy look to which Lex just raised an eyebrow. At least if she was angry then she wasn’t upset but it still confirmed that she did indeed still have very real feelings for him. He smiled, he could deal with angry Chloe indifferent Chloe was a different matter entirely. In fact, quite often dealing with angry/slightly miffed Chloe was a lot of fun.

He just had to keep repeating what he had told himself that morning, she was going home with him that night whatever happened. He knew that she was angry and hurt and it killed him, but she was going to listen to him whatever it took and when she saw that he loved her she would let him make all of the pain go away.

“So, what is the plan?” Lana asked as she watched Clark and Chloe slowly dancing away from them.

“We dance our way over there and then swap partners”, he said. “I talk/shout some sense into Chloe or at least enough that she will listen to me leaving you to apologise to you so that you can be on again rather than off again”.

Lana smiled at that, “You really think that he is going to apologise for being dragged onto the floor and danced with by Chloe?”

“Knowing Clark as I do … yes”. As he said this he manoeuvred them around another couple which Chloe had somehow put in their way.

“Is it just coincidence that they seem to be moving away from us?” Lana asked.

“No”, Lex shook his head.

“I don’t get this, if she is so crazy in love with you – which she obviously is – why is she trying to get away from you?” Lana wondered.

“Because when Chloe gets upset she doubts everything, even things that are plain for all to see like my love for her. My guess is that over the last month she convinced herself of some utterly ridiculous notion and is scared now”, he said.

Lana titled her head to the side in a questioning manner.

He sighed. “Her mother left, so did her best friend, her school boy crush sometimes like he loved her then played with her emotions cruelly and you didn’t help”, his tone was not accusatory. “She has a hard time trusting people and that people really care about her. In fact, I think that I was one of the only three people she really trusted”.

Lana nodded in understanding, feeling bad for the way that she had treated Chloe in high school.

“I was the person she came to rely on most. My betrayal of her is one of the worst things that she could imagine and even when faced with the first part of the betrayal she swallowed her pride and came to find me … only to be hurt again”, he looked pained. “I made the wrong decision. I couldn’t find her for a few days after she disappeared and when I finally did I did not rush right to her. I thought that maybe space would help, but it didn’t”.

“You gave her what she said that she wanted”, Lana pointed out, “she wasn’t happy with you paying for things for her, she thought that you were being controlling. You were trying to show that you respected her wishes”.

“I was wrong. I knew that she was in pain but I was afraid that I would make it worse, I should have trusted my gut and gone to her straight away and held her until she let me explain”, his voice was thick was emotion. “I should never have let her suffer like that”.

“You have suffered too”, Lana reminded him.

“Oh, I assure you that I am not being unselfish, it is just that her pain hurts far worse than my own”, he looked over at his beloved and saw her watching him with eyes mixed with anger, fear and hurt.

“I don’t think that she is fairing much better”, his dance partner surmised.

“She is terrified that I am going to tell her that I don’t love her”, he felt his guts clenched. “When I was near her before, aside from the anger I could feel her about to give in she is so used to trusting my love but then something in the back of her mind, something from childhood, whispers in her ear that maybe I am insincere. If someone related to her by blood didn’t love her, what guarantees does she have with me?”

“When we do get to her, what will you do?” Lana asked as they twirled faster, Lex was a far more accomplished dancer and moved Lana around the floor with a speed and grace that Chloe could not inject into Clark however hard she tried.

“Hold her”, was Lex’s simple answer.

Clark watched the way that Chloe’s attention was taken up with Lex and the strange expression on her face which he couldn’t read.

“So what is up with you and Lex?” He asked.

Chloe made some sort of questioning sound but didn’t look up at him.

“There is obviously something going on between you two, even I can see that you love each other and I am historically very bad at recognising the signs”, he tried to joke.

“We broke up”, she said simply, trying to ignore the way her heart felt punctured by those words.

“Can I ask why?”

“Because he cheated on me”, she closed her eyes, and refused to let any emotion show.

“Lex? Are you sure?” Clark asked with shock looking over at the billionaire. Lex had always been loyal to those he loved, and he clearly loved Chloe. There was no way that he could see Lex cheating on her. Maybe something meteor related had affected him.

“No, I’m not sure”, Chloe admitted after a few moments.

“Then I really think that you need to explain”.


~*~

Chloe sat in the back of the taxi having no idea where to go, just knowing that she needed to get away. That was when inspiration hit. Her cousin was in town for a couple of months now that she was in a stable relationship with Oliver Queen, Chloe gave the man the address and sat back trying not to cry as they sped along the streets of New York.

When she turned up on their doorstep she had been ushered inside with quiet sympathy from Oliver and prying questions and dark mutterings about what she would do to Lex when she found out what he had done to Chloe Bear from Lois. Neither of which Chloe found particularly comforting.

Her first glimpse of real comfort had come from Oliver who had finally pried Lois off her as he had shown her to the guest bedroom and asked if there was anything that he could do.

“Don’t tell anyone that I am here and a good glass of scotch”, she had answered with a strained smile.

“No problem”, he had said with a smile providing her with a bottle. It was good stuff, Chloe knew. She recognised it, it smelled like part of Lex and oddly enough that comforted her. Once she was alone she knocked back a glass, which was probably a mistake as she still hadn’t had time to eat anything and had burned a lot of calories shimming down the fire escape of a skyscraper. Added to that she had always been a light weight when it came to alcohol the first glass hit her like a punch and convinced her that it was a good idea to have another glass which led her to changing fits of singing and dancing and sobbing fretfully, culminating in a final – and thankfully forgotten – bout of message checking. She deleted each of Lex’s messages one by one without reading them and then blocked his number. Ha, that would show him! With that she had fallen asleep only to wake up hours later wondering why Lex hadn’t called her and having no memory of blocking his number.

The next few days passed in a detailed investigation into Lex’s paramour and finding out that she was probably not in a long term relationship with him as she had apparently performed the same services for Morrison and she couldn’t believe that Lex would ever take advantage of a girl like that. She would let him explain himself when he called … if he called. To distract herself Chloe buried herself in a sea of work which she did from her new room and sent in via email, avoiding the outside world until she absolutely had to. In other words, until she had to attend a museum opening that she knew Lex would also be at.

She wanted to pretend that she was sick so that she didn’t have to go but she knew that that wasn’t an option. She was the main reason why the opening was even happening as she had convinced the city that art shouldn’t just be for those who could afford it but for everyone and that lesser known artists should have someone to be displayed and that the items that larger museums kept in storage should be leant to the new one so that there was a new display every few weeks. If she didn’t attend, it would be seen as a mark of her lack of faith in the project, plus she was dying to see Lex again whatever the circumstances – with the possible exception of him having sex with someone.

Chloe didn’t consider herself to be a masochist but she had been checking her phone almost hourly and had been trawling the internet for new pictures of her (ex)boyfriend to see what he was up to. He had been out and about in the city quite a bit, always with a face of granite. She briefly thought that he might be looking for her, he went to all of the places she normally went but then why hadn’t he called her? She wondered how he would react when he saw her at the museum event.

The museum opening was a mid-afternoon affair and Chloe was glad of it as it meant that she didn’t have to have a new evening gown made, she could just purchase normal clothes and have them delivered from Saks – she couldn’t borrow from Lois for this opening as she had when she had just been in the house.

It had taken Chloe the best part of the morning to choose her dress out of the load that she had ordered; she wanted to look classy but also extremely sexy. She didn’t want Lex to be able to ignore her. She was angry with him and hurt but deep down she couldn’t fully doubt his love for her. Every time she reminded herself of the time she had spent alone on the roof, the lack of phone calls, the fact that he hadn’t tracked her down she just reminded herself that they had spent years together and that he deserved more than that from her. When she saw him, things would be alright.

“Things will be alright, everything will work itself out”, she repeated to herself as she tugged at the deep blue silk which she had chosen in the end. She thought that purple would have been too obvious but blue looked good on her, especially the way that this one clung to her curves and brought out the blue in her green eyes; Lex would like that.

Chloe continued to tug at her new dress slightly as she made her way through the crowds at the opening looking for one face in particular, she had already made her statement for the press so she couldn’t kid herself any longer that there was any reason for her to stick around other than Lex as she couldn’t appreciate the beautify of the exhibits given the mood that she was in.

She turned down several glasses of champagne with a slight smile as she made her way around the room, schmoozing as she went so that no one would suspect that something was amiss.

Lex stared at her from where he stood in the doorway, transfixed by her beauty. He breathed a sigh of relief, she was safe and from the way that she was moving around and smiling at least reasonably happy. That hurt. His fists clenched, he had been worrying himself sick not just worried that she had left him but waiting to hear that someone had kidnapped her and she had just been playing hide and seek with him.

He had called her at least a thousand times, but she couldn’t pick of the damned phone once to let him know that she was safe?

He gripped his glass of champagne too tightly and it shattered, the glass going into his hand but he was so angry and confused that he didn’t notice.

The person Chloe was speaking with finally let her go and she turned and stared right at him. Chloe was fairly certain that her heart grew at the sight of him. How could she have stayed away from him for so long? Whatever he had done, whatever she had done they could get through it. They had money, they could go to therapy, she only needed some tiny sign that he still loved her. She waited expectantly for him to smile at her or come over and kiss her passionately but he did nothing. There was no sign that he held her in even the slightest regard.

Lex’s features were harsh and angry as he thought of her playing him around and wanting to march over there and demand an explanation of her but he wouldn’t do that to her, not in public. He turned on his heel and left the room, only then noticing the glass which was sticking into his flesh. He would calm down and then he would return and ask her politely to spare him a minute when she got the chance, then he would take her somewhere private and ask her what the fuck she thought that she had been playing at.

Chloe’s face crumpled, reading his reaction as fury at her for being there at all and his leaving as a sign that he didn’t love her.

She had already done her duty in coming there and she decided that it was time to leave, making a comment on her way out to a journalist who asked about large businesses that her next article would be an exposé on LuthorCorp and Lex Luthor in particular. It was childish and she wished that she hadn’t done it, but it had slipped out in the heat of the moment and there was no taking it back. With that she had gone back to the Queen residence and sobbed herself to sleep again as Lex cursed himself for losing her and knew that he couldn’t make contact with her – even though one of his men had had the sense to track her so he now knew where she was and that she was safe – while she was doing the exposé. It could ruin her if it ever got out that she had had contact with him during that period.

“Fuck it”, he roared.

When Chloe finally awoke the second time she found herself unable to move because of the heavy arm draped across her.

“Lex”, she gasped, recognising that arm and the rest of the lean hard body that was pressing into her from behind.

“Of course, who else would it be?” He asked, nuzzling her ear.

“What are you doing here?” She wondered, running her hand over his forearm, forgetting all of her earlier hurt and distress.

“I came to see you of course, did you really think that you could get away from me? Did you really think that I would let you leave me?” He asked her as he rolled her onto her back and hovered over her, bracing his arms either side of her head.

“What about that other girl?” She wondered.

“You know that there was never anything between Ana and I. You know that you are the only one that I want. You are the only one that I love”, he purred as he kissed his gently on the lips.

She smiled, all of her worries washed away.

“Tell me, tell me that you believe me and that you love me”, he demanded, his eyes filled with need.

“I believe you, oh Lex of course I believe you and I love you so much words can’t even … Lex why are you laughing. What’s wrong with Lex?” She asked, reaching out to feel his forehead.

Lex pulled away from her and almost doubled up with mirth for several minutes as tears trickled down his cheeks.

Chloe gave a nervous giggle, “Lex what’s so funny?”

“You”, he said, when he finally got his breath back. “You really thought that I could love you. You really though that you were more than an experiment. You know, before at least I thought that you were intelligent but you saw what we were doing before your very eyes, you know that I haven’ made any effort to contact you and yet still you persist in thinking that I love you when it is so fucking obvious to everyone else in the world that I couldn’t care less about you”, he guffawed.

“No”, Chloe screamed, springing upright in the bed in the Queen apartment, drenched in cold sweat. She stared around the room and saw no Lex and for once wasn’t sure whether that was a good or a bad thing.


~*~

“I believe that he probably didn’t cheat on me with that girl, but he didn’t come after me either. He doesn’t love me even though he told me that he did and the only thing that I can think that he could have wanted from me is my journalist abilities which ties in to him getting me my job”, she almost shook as she admitted this.

“But you have no actual proof that he got you that job?” He checked.

“No”, she was in a small whisper.

“And he has never said that he doesn’t love you? You are just afraid that he doesn’t”, Clark asked, trying to clarify exactly what the situation was.

“Um hm”, was all that Chloe managed to get out this time.

Clark remembered how many times Chloe had assumed that him forgetting something minor had meant that he didn’t care in the slightest about her and that sometimes her reaction to that had been to pull away herself rather than talking the problem out.

He looked over at Lex and gave him a brief nod which meant, ‘I’ll send her over to you but you had better make her happy or in the Phantom Zone you go’.

“I hope that you know at least that I care about you and that you won’t hate me for this”, Clark said as stopped allowing himself to be led around the floor and moved them back several steps before spinning Chloe out to the side and into Lex’s waiting arms.

“Good job honey”, Lana congratulated him as she sidled up to him.

“I just hope that I did the right thing, I don’t want him to hurt her”, Clark said, chewing his bottom lip.

“You did”, Lana patted his arm, “Lex is crazy about her”.

The music changed and Lex couldn’t help but smile at the irony of it as he heard the opening strains of “I can’t believe we’re not in love anymore” filling the gymnasium.

Chloe seemed confused for a few seconds as she realised where she was. She placed her hands on his chest and tried to push away but Lex had forgone the normal style of dancing for the one where he just held her against him.

“Lex”, her voice was small, “please don’t do this to me, not here”.

“I wanted to leave the dance with you earlier but you wouldn’t let me. Will you come with me now?” He asked, his hands running up and down her back hoping to sooth her.

She shook her head even as she buried it into his jacket, not knowing what to do as it was obvious that she stood no chance of getting away – not that she was sure that her body would have obeyed her orders to run even if it had been possible.

“Then you really don’t leave me any choice then, do you?” His voice was soft and warm.

She wanted to be strong, wanted to be able to stand up to him and look him in the eyes and tell him that she didn’t care whether he loved her or not but she couldn’t do it. She kept her hands planted on his chest, feeling him breathing beneath them, her face pressed into the soft expensive material of his jacket, breathing him in and feeling her ire rising as she realised just how much he must have had to drink. When she got him home she was going to put a sharp stop to that.

Chloe almost groaned with pain at that thought. She was never going home again. She didn’t even have most of her possessions anymore as they were still at home – unless Lex had got rid of them. At that moment, surrounded by him she felt safe and loved again and wanted so badly to believe that he did really love her that some times she thought that he did, but then the hurt little girl came out again screaming that if he loved her then he wouldn’t have left her.

She knew that the hurt little girl was right. She was just kidding herself and however much better giving in to his sweet words and caresses made her feel for a few minutes in the end she knew that she would have to face facts. If he had loved her then he would have come after her and nothing that she could do would change that one immutable fact.

Forcing herself to remember the day that she had seen Ana with her head in her lap and the crazy conspiracy theories which she had come up with she held onto her anger and purposefully stoked its embers. It was easier focus on her hatred of him than to focus on the aching in her heart.

“Please just listen to me Chloe”, he stroked her hair and leant down so that he could be sure that she could hear every single word that he had to say without risking being overheard. “Whatever you say I know that you love me and that you have been miserable without me this last month. I know that I hurt you and I am sorry for it, I really am but you have to give me a chance to explain”.

She stayed buried in his jacket; she could feel the strength leaving her body and her brain was too fuzzy to think of a solution.

“You have to know that everything that I did for you while you were at University was with my own money and that no one was hurt, I can understand if you are annoyed because I tricked you into taking it but you would never have let me spend it on you if you had known where it was coming from. I love you so much that I couldn’t bear to see you suffering and I know that you would have forgiven me for that and I swear to you that I didn’t have anything to do with you getting your current job. They were already impressed with you, the fact that you had done that series of articles from around Europe was just the icing on the cake, you would have got the job anyway”, he informed her, all the while petted her back, feeling how tense she was under his hands.

The information poured over Chloe and she tried to take it all in.

“I know that what you saw when you came into my office that morning wasn’t good, I know what it must have looked like but I assure you that doing anything of a sexual nature with that girl was the furthest thing from my mind, you know that I only want you”, he highlighted the main point of the sentence with a kiss on her head.

Chloe’s hands slipped from his chest to around his waist and she clung onto him, desperate to believe him and revel in the comfort which he was providing. Lex smiled as he felt her warming up to him, “I shouldn’t have acted the way that I did. I came after you but I couldn’t find you and” Chloe looked up at him with shock.

“You came after me?” She repeated, that went against everything that she knew to be true.

“Yes of course, but I couldn’t find you. For two fucking days Chloe”, his voice became almost cold as he remembered the panic he had gone through every moment expecting to receive some ransom demand with a video of her being raped and tortured, “you couldn’t have called just to tell me that you were safe? I must have left you thousands of messages”.

Chloe’s eyes narrowed, he hadn’t sent thousands, he had said hundreds in the first few hours and then nothing.

“You ignored me at the museum”, she reminded him.

“I know that that was not the right thing to do”, he gave a bitter laugh. “I tortured myself staring at photos and video footage of you but kept away because I thought that you needed time and space to feel better and I wanted to respect your right to write an exposé. I didn’t want to crowd you and make it worse. I know that I shouldn’t have done that now, I shouldn’t have given a second thought about your reputation, I should have grabbed you at that museum thing and kissed you and hugged you and never stopped”.

“Then people would have known that we were together”, she choked out, wanting to believe him but not quite able to.

“I would be happy for the entire world to know that you are my girl. I love you more than anyone else on this planet, you are everything to me and I know that you have this voice in the back of your head telling you that it isn’t true, that you shouldn’t trust me and I am sorry if I have ever done anything to reinforce that idea but I swear that it isn’t true and deep down you know it. You have been deliberately provoking me all tonight, which means that you know that I have feelings for you and you are just trying to hold on to your anger and punish me because you think that if you let your guard down that I will take back everything I have just said and tell you that I never loved you, but I won’t”, he promised her.

Her bottom lip trembled as she tried to wrap her mind around his words. They were so good, so sincere, she wanted to believe him and 90% of her did, there was just that 10% which was pure hurt little girl who unfortunately had a very loud voice.

“Alright, words aren’t a strong enough proof, maybe this will be”, with that he grabbed her and kissed her.

She sank into his embrace, her eyes drifting shut as she gave into the sensations. She could feel the pain and hurt draining away from her to be replaced by love and warmth. She was almost completely full of the heady sensation of being cherished, she couldn’t remember the last time that she had felt like this.

Her eyes flashed open, yes she did. Her dream.

She pushed away from him and slapped him. He was playing her.



A/N: Is he playing her? Did her dream have hidden meaning? Or is Chloe just being ridiculous and needs therapy and to get over her mommy issues? Should Lex have kissed her like that? Should she had slapped him? What do you think Lex's next move will be? I know, but I like to hear other people's thoughts. :)

[TrinityR]

Are you kidding me?! Of course he's not playing her!!
Dreams are either the manifestations of our bravest desires or our worst fears, so here you have the answer.

I decided to watch Marilyn again tnight and half through the movie I got an e-mail with the update on your story. It was like chosing between favoire children, I was like: read and come back to the movie or watch the movie first? But I decided (not because I love the movie more) to better finish watching, so my mind wouldn't be thinking about two things at once and... awesomness of Allison Mack!

And now... can you really block a phone number? I wished to do that in the past and never could:( Or maybe you can do this only in America??

And I loved Clark's text about the Phanthon Zone:D Only Lex doesn't really know what is it, does he?

I expect some Chlex sex after the reunion lol Just because they deserve it

[skyblue78]

Lex is definitely sincere! Chloe can't hold him responsible for something Dream Lex did! Slapping him is just too much! Poor Lex doesn't deserve that!

[HotCrossedBunny]

Are you kidding me?! Of course he's not playing her!!
Dreams are either the manifestations of our bravest desires or our worst fears, so here you have the answer.

I decided to watch Marilyn again tnight and half through the movie I got an e-mail with the update on your story. It was like chosing between favoire children, I was like: read and come back to the movie or watch the movie first? But I decided (not because I love the movie more) to better finish watching, so my mind wouldn't be thinking about two things at once and... awesomness of Allison Mack!

And now... can you really block a phone number? I wished to do that in the past and never could:( Or maybe you can do this only in America??

And I loved Clark's text about the Phanthon Zone:D Only Lex doesn't really know what is it, does he?

I expect some Chlex sex after the reunion lol Just because they deserve it

Yes, I was kidding you because I don't think that he would play her either. :D Yep, poor little Chloe has some issues and was just worried that her dreams might be trying to tell her something.

Ha ha, that's okay I don't mind coming second to a film.

Yep, you can block phone numbers no problem in England at least, just click on the person's name on your phone and select the block option. Works but it doesn't give any indication that you blocked their number or tell them that they have been blocked - if it did, Lex would have used a pay-phone - so she wouldn't know that she had blocked him unless she went into his name and menu.

It wasn't a text, it was just said with a look and I think that Lex got the gist from that. :D But you are quite right, he doesn't know what the Phantom Zone is ... yet! No, just kidding Lex won't do anything bad.

What about during The Reunion?

[HotCrossedBunny]

Lex is definitely sincere! Chloe can't hold him responsible for something Dream Lex did! Slapping him is just too much! Poor Lex doesn't deserve that!

I think that what thought that Dream Lex was trying to tell her something about actual Lex rather than punishing him for the actions of Dream Lex. Although I agree that he didn't deserve that. If it makes you feel any better I am sure that she will kiss it better A LOT! :D

[hfce]

Chloe needs therapy badly!!

[TrinityR]

During the reunion sounds much better:D

Can I borrow Lex, chloe? I wore high heels today for the first time since last autumn and.. au!!

[HotCrossedBunny]

He he.

If it were up to me I would let you but Chloe is a spoiled only child and you know how they are about sharing and Lex is very attached - in fact I think that he might be scared to look at another girl at the moment. Hope your tootsies feel better soon.

[Gaia]

She....I mean....I just...I want to shake that girl or talk some sense into her. But nothing is working at the moment it seems.

[shuxx]

oh they were so close to sorting things out! really enjoying this!

[HotCrossedBunny]

A/N: Is this enough shaking for you Gaia? :D


*Chapter Twenty-One*

Chloe stared up at him in shock, hardly able to believe what she had just done. She felt terrible. Whatever he had done to her he had never been violent towards her, he didn’t deserve to be treated like that. Without thinking she reached out to brush her fingertips across his cheek, trying to assess the damage.

Lex returned her gaze, equally astonished as that really wasn’t what he had been expecting. He had been slapped, before normally with a lot more force than the tap Chloe had given him which he could hardly feel, but he had never thought that Chloe would end up resorting to physical violence. He closed his eyes as he felt her fingers gently caress his slapped cheek and knew that she cared for him.

“It’s alright baby”, he promised her as he kept her close to him and felt her shudder. Whatever her mind was telling her, her body was reacting to him and he could feel that she was only millimetres away from breaking and giving into him completely.

He ran his fingers through her hair in the way that always made her relax and looked at her face, still a mask of concern and indecision as she rubbed his cheek. He just had to give her a little push over the final precipice. He could practically see her running towards him, just being held back by one tiny hurt little girl bit of Chloe who was hanging on to the anger for dear life.

Lex leant in and kissed her again, more softly this time waiting for her to gasp to take advantage of her parted lips. He licked and nibbled them until he could hear her whimper, before slipping his tongue in to tease hers. His hands were not idle. The one which had been around her waist slowly slipped down to the curve of her bottom, as the one in her hair raked down her back before moving to cover her breast paying no heed to the fact that they were still in public.

“Oh Lex”, she moaned, unable to help herself. She had been without him for so long, and now she was overwhelmed by him. She wanted to sink further into him embrace and switch her brain off completely.

He grinned as he broke their kiss but continued his massage, almost able to feel her getting heavier in his arms as her knees turned to jelly.

“This is happening Chloe, whether here or in private is another question”, he growled in her ear, not willing to back off lest he lose his advantage.

“I … I”, she whispered, dazed but trying to make sense of the situation. He couldn’t have that; if the only way that he could get her to listen to him was to tease her until she was a quivering mass of hormones unable to do without him then that is what he would do. Without a concern for who might be watching them he bent down, scooped her up, and threw her over his shoulder.

Chloe gasped at this treatment and felt herself sobering up from the effects of excessive Lex just enough to remember that she was angry and to accuse him of being a “caveman”.

“Darling, you haven’t seen anything yet”, he said as he strode towards the door, pleased to note that the Luthor name still commanded enough respect/fear in this town that everyone got out of his way and averted their eyes. Had he done this at the Museum opening in New York, he doubted that the same thing would have occurred, more likely there would have been pictures of Chloe’s ass all over the front covers the following morning … in hindsight, he still regretted not having forced the issue though; it would have saved them both a lot of pain.

Lex had had two plans for how they were going to make their escape that night but seeing as Chloe didn’t seem quite won over he made his way out to the front of the school where the limo was parked, all the way Chloe squirmed and complained.

“Yes darling I know that you have a very pretty ass, there is no reason to keep wiggling it just to get me to notice it”, he teased her giving it a gentle pat.

“I wasn’t … I’m not …Grrrr!” Chloe growled in annoyance and wished that such a light touch didn’t have the power to make her tingle all over. Lex smirked. She stopped moving around so much but continued the muttering.

“Bit repetitive for someone who is supposed to be something of a wordsmith, aren’t you?” He inquired mildly as he reached the car and the driver opened the door, “You have used the word dick at least twenty times in the last few minutes, anyone would think that you had sex on the brain”. If she wasn’t going to make this easy on him, he saw no reason why he shouldn’t tease her.

“Sometimes a particular word is so apt that it bears repeating”, Chloe shot back, thinking that he was about to put her down only to find that Lex got into the back of the limo with her still draped over his shoulder, before letting her down, meaning that she was lying on the seat, with him immediately on top of her.

She could see over his shoulder, and watched at the driver shut the door, blocking the school from her sight.

“You know, I didn’t come here for this”, Chloe tried to protest as he squeezed her breast and she had to struggle to catch her breath all of a sudden.

“Sure you didn’t”, he didn’t look convinced as he rubbed his thumbs in tight circles over her nipples feeling the hardened pebbles tightening even more.

“Oh God”, Chloe murmured and gripped his shoulders. She had to hold on to her anger somehow, she had to remember that he had hurt her, she had to ahhhh! Lex leant down and nipped at her through the material of her dress as his hands travelled down to stroke her thighs. She opened for him automatically.

They couldn’t do this, they shouldn’t do this, if they did this then it would be so much harder to get over him the next day. Oh, who was she kidding? She tried to get the words that they needed to stop out but it came out a mew.

Lex smirked and repeated the procedure on the other side.

“If we do this, it is only for one night. Only because I need to feel better”, she tried to regain some control over the situation as controlling her lust and her body clearly wasn’t possible.

“When”, he stressed the word, as one long finger stroked her through her edible undies, “we do this is it because we are going to with together forever, now put this on”. With his other hand, he fumbled in his pocket for a second before pulling out a ring box that Chloe recognised.

“That is how you ask me to marry you?” She balked, because it was the only thing that she could think of saying other than yes.

“That is how I tell you that we are getting married”, Lex’s voice was low and stern. It was the voice that always made her wet and which she found almost impossible to say no to.

“Fuck …. Oh”, she groaned as the hand without the ring box in it pressed its thumb against her.

“Tell me what you want”, he demanded, determined to end this farce of her refusal. “Do you want to live alone? Go out on meaningless dates with hundreds of men”, he tried not to sound furious at the very idea, “or do you want me? Magnificent bastard that I am”.

Chloe stared up at him, into those perfect green eyes. Fuck she was stupid! She had prayed that he would turn up that night and somehow make everything alright but then she had pushed him away all night, like a child acting out to see when they would stop being loved. She couldn’t live without him and she knew it (as did he), now that she listened to her heart and head rather than her pride and deep seated insecurities.

“I want you”, she admitted.

Lex grinned, not even bothering to reply that he wanted her to – that should be obvious! “And do you believe that I love you?”

“Yes”, she breathed without a second’s hesitation.

“And you know that I never felt anything for anyone else”, this wasn’t even a question but she still answered in the affirmative.

He smiled at her tenderly. “I love you so much Chloe. I’m sorry that these last few weeks have been terrible for us both. I won’t apologise for wanting to give you all of those things or even for not telling you in the beginning, but I should have been honest with you once we had moved in together however difficult it was. Also I know now that I shouldn’t have tried to be a gentleman and give you your space … we both know that that just isn’t me”.

She giggled at that.

“I’m so sorry for everything”, he kissed her forehead.

“No Lex, I am the one who is sorry. We love each other and have been together for years now, I shouldn’t have left that morning … I should have hit you with a pillow and demanded that you explain yourself. Deep down, I always knew that you loved me, even when you were ignoring me. I was just so scared but that was because of my issues not you. I should have had more faith in you, in us. This is the 21st century, I could have come after you and demanded that you fill me in”, she pointed out.

“It doesn’t matter now baby, we are together now and forever. And on that note, it is going to take us a while to get to the airport by car and I would like to see you in this”, he opened the box, “and only this”.

She grinned, “Yes please Lex”.

He slipped the ring onto the appropriate finger and kissed her hand.

“Just so that you know, I am not giving up work once we get married Lex. I plan on rising through the ranks and probably offending quite a few of your business contacts and”, Lex cut her off as he kissed the inside of her wrist this time. Then he continued his way up her arm until he reached her shoulder.

“That is enough talking for now, all I want to hear out of you is “Oh fuck yes! Oh Lex, more please, faster, fuck me harder etc”, he said as his hand slipped underneath her back to undo her dress and tugged it up over her head revealing her naked breasts, slim stomach, chocolate thong and stockings. He moved slightly to pull off her stockings and shoes which was when he got a better look at her thong and beamed.

“Chloe”, he said in an obviously leading way, “what are these?”

“Um … it’s an edible thong. I believe that you have been acquainted with them before”, Chloe informed him, shifting uncomfortably until he grasped her hips to keep her still.

“Yes, but earlier this evening – when I first felt this naughty if delicious undergarment – I was led to believe that you had plans for someone else to lick it off you”, he observed Chloe blush, “which would see odd as they appear to have my name on them”, he grinned.

“Um … yeah, well …”

“Tell you what, I will give you some time to formulate a proper reply to that. I will just amuse myself. I haven’t had chocolate for ages”, he said, leaning forwards to lavish attention on her breasts again quickly before getting down the business of eating Chloe … literally in this case.

“Oh fuck Lex”, Chloe cried out as he tasted the chocolate and teased her skin, sometimes nibbling sometimes licking and sucking, all the time allowing his hands to caress her hips and stomach, occasionally going up to her breasts.

Chloe stroked over his bald head sensually with one hand and the other attended to her breasts. “Oh hell yes”, she cried out as he finished the chocolate off after five solid minutes of attention and was now focusing directly to her clit, “Later”, she said between heavy pants, “Suck. You. Dry”.

“Fuck”, he moaned at her words, as she found the breath to describe exactly what she was going to do to him. He slipped a finger inside her and swore again as he felt how tight she was.

“Please Lex”, she groaned as she thrashed about underneath him, finding it hard to catch her breath. Somehow she made it clear what she wanted and needed to relieve the tension that was coiling within her, not that Lex really needed any pointers he just enjoying her not only begging but telling him exactly what she wanted him to do to her. It must be the sick Luthor blood in him but he loved the idea of a woman who looked like an angel talking dirty.

He kissed his way back up her body laughing as she grabbed his shoulders and pulled him up to kiss her, his fingers never ceasing their wriggling, driving her crazy, but never quite hitting the spot she needed … until he could see her face.

“Is this what you wanted?” He asked as he made a come-hither motion and watched as pleasure crashed over her, releasing a string of profanities and lusty cries. He continued to stroke her, trying to draw out the sensations for as long as possible, alternating between kissing her and just staring at her. She was gorgeous, even when her face was distorted with pleasure.

“God I could look at you all day”, he growled.

When she finally calmed down enough to notice the world surrounding her, she grinned up at him and began to busy herself trying to undress him. “You want to watch me while I ..” she was about to suggest something very naughty but was cut off as Lex put her hands over her head and pinned them there with one hand and took over the task of releasing himself from the confines of his trousers and pushed them and his underwear far enough down his legs that cock was free.

“As much as I appreciate the offer darling and would like to take you up on it a little later, right now I want to be inside you”, he explained stroking himself twice and aligning himself. He looked at her and said, “Please baby, I need to hear you say it”. It wasn’t just about his ego, although he knew that she was hot for him he had still effectively kidnapped her and was still holding her down, so he really did need to hear her say that it was alright for him to take her.

She smiled at him tenderly, “I love you and I want to you make love to me … right now if at all possible”.

Without any further preamble, he thrust inside her causing them both to groan.

“Place your hands against the door”, he ordered her as he pulled her legs up so that they were hooked over his shoulders, again causing them both to groan.

Chloe did as she was told and Lex grabbed the edge of the seat behind her head and began to drive into her with a force which only a month without her could cause. Chloe’s breasts seemed ridiculously perky as she braced her hands and pushed back against his thrusts and bounced with the force of his thrusts.

“Love you”, he panted as sweat broke out across his body and he wished that he had let Chloe undress him as she had desired, but he had been afraid of losing all control if she had touched him.

“I’m quite fond of you”, she got out.

He kept up his movements but bent down far enough to pop one of her nipples into his mouth, and swirled his tongue around it.

“I love you, I love you, I love you and only you!” she promised him loudly enough to probably heard back at the reunion.

“Glad to hear it”, Lex ground out, absurdly happy for some reason at the idea of Clark hearing that and probably being able to guess what they were doing - well not exactly what they were doing as Clark was probably not the type to fuck a girl in the back of the limo so hard that she probably wouldn’t be able to walk tomorrow. His muscles were screaming at him to stop but he couldn’t, he wondered if Chloe was fairing much better and was going to ask when he heard the tell-tale sounds which meant another orgasm was fast approaching. He shifted his angle slightly and was rewarded with howls of pleasure and garbled words of praise interspersed with demands that he came too. Well, he wasn’t one to disappoint a lady.

“God that was good, but I am never going so long without you again”, Lex declared, as he propped himself up on his forearms not wanting to collapse on top of her and not seeing any way that he could roll to the side.

“Good, because I am never letting you leave me again”, Chloe said wrapping her arms around his neck and as he let her legs down and rubbed them to make sure that the circulation started again she hugged him with them just to make her point.

“The night is not over yet, just wait until you see the surprise that I have planned for you”.



A/N: Are we annoyed with Lex for semi-kidnapping her? What do we think of their engagement? Can you guess what the surprise is going to be? Did he have to ask permission - I think yes. What do you think?

[Gaia]

Not sure...but good enough :P :)

[HotCrossedBunny]

Well Lex did his best but he is a bit out of practice. ;) He is going to try to rock a plane later.

[TrinityR]

I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT!
Magnificent bastard that I am - THAT WAS AWESOME!

and carrying her to the limo across his shoulder, too. And everybody seeing it, even better.
Sex in there? AMAZING!

The statement that they were going to be married without asking first... genius!

More. please.

[HotCrossedBunny]

I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT!
Magnificent bastard that I am - THAT WAS AWESOME!

and carrying her to the limo across his shoulder, too. And everybody seeing it, even better.
Sex in there? AMAZING!

The statement that they were going to be married without asking first... genius!

More. please.

You loved it? Really? Wow!

Glad that you liked him referring to himself as the magnificent bastard.

Chloe was probably the only woman who would complain about Lex carrying her into a limo.

Well, I don't know if the sex was amazing but they seemed to enjoy it.

He he well to be fair to Lex, she did promise when they moved in together that she would say yes. :D

More coming as soon as I can write it. One chapter coming and then the epilogue then you know what comes after that don't you!

[TrinityR]

Oh, yes, I do and I can't wait:)
Don't doubt you wrote something very good. You really did. I'm surprised when you tell me I did, so I guess we, writers are always a little bit more critical of our own work than the readers:)

[hfce]

I am so glad Lex didn't let a slap get to him. He went and got his girl. Nice! :D That sex scene was HOT!!

[HotCrossedBunny]

She could have pointed a gun at him and I doubt that it would have stopped him - although it was rather more a pat than a slap, she couldn't really hit him. Glad that you liked it.

[cbrunberg]

great chapter. can't wait for next chapter

[TrinityR]

<still waiting for an update>
I may be totally immersed into my new Clark fic but I still want to read this:P

[TrinityR]

Oh! And I wanted to ask, but I forgot! How does edible underwear even works? I mean how can you wear something like that when it melts?
I need some details!!;p

[HotCrossedBunny]

Yeah, sorry that it is taking so long. This last bit is being a pain to write. I have the first little bit done as a draft and am working on the next bit although it will all need rewriting as it all sounds weird. I sat down to do it yesterday but got distracted by Zannie, and now I feel need to rewrite even more strongly hopefully it will be up by Friday.

I have no idea how it works, but it definitely exists. I imagine that they put so many chemicals in it that it doesn't melt as quickly and that you are only really supposed to wear it in the bedroom for a couple of minutes. Candy ones: http://www.annsummers.com/p/candy-g-string/08cfccas1039037 Maybe Lex has a team of specialists on it *snickers* he seems to have one for everything else. Refined meteor rocks or something. It seems to have been a particularly special one if Chloe went to all the trouble of getting them made in his favourite flavour - he likes 85% Venezuelan.

I could ask him. Hang on a second. Sorry, I think that he was trying to answer but he mouth was a bit full at the time and Chloe was being incoherent.

[TrinityR]

lol you always make me laugh so hard, Bunny!
Don't worry! Publish when you feel it's right and you have your muse.
That is interesting. Candy strings I can imagine, but can you imagine how long it would take to lick it off? lol Maybe would be a good challenge for Lex!!
I tought of licking off whipped cream off Clark's chest (in my other fic of course, not chlex) and I think I'll go with it in some chapter lol Now, no, it will be too much of drama around.

[HotCrossedBunny]

I have definitely seen chocolate underwear somewhere. Although I find it odd that whoever makes them for Lex didn't inform him that Chloe had ordered some.

[trckyrcky]

Mmm! Edible chocolate underwear. Did not know Lex likes chocolate, but it's definitely nice that Chloe knows Lex have a sweet tooth.

[HotCrossedBunny]

He like extremely dark Venezuelan chocolate - Chloe got it in his favourite flavor - and he really does like it on Chloe's body apparently.

[HotCrossedBunny]

*Chapter Twenty-Three*

Chloe moaned and wriggled around, she was having one of her nice Lex based dreams. This was one a little different from the normal one where he was fucking her senseless, this time he was just holding her and stroking her hair. She liked it when he did that. During most of their years together, he had woken up a good ten minutes before the alarm and tried to rouse her gently through caresses and sweet nothings, but she wasn’t having it this time. She knew that if she gave in to him and woke up then she would realise that she wasn’t actually in his arms and that she was all alone again.

Well, she was going to try to avoid the disappointment for as long as possible this time; this really was a really good dream! Her brain must be very clever when it came to creating Lexy dreams as she could almost swear that she could actually smell him … although he smelled a little strange, as if they had been fucking hard and he had drunk too much. Her brow furrowed even as she tried terribly hard not to wake up.

Lex smiled down at her little frown, knowing that she was almost fully awake by now. He kissed her forehead and thought that he actually saw her looking a little pained.

He was about to ask her what was wrong when the alarm beeped and he automatically turned it off after one beep just as Chloe made a sound of anguish: “No!”

“It’s alright honey, if you really need a little more sleep then …”

“Lex?!?!” Chloe’s head flew back as she stared up at him, gasping as if he were something as magical as a fairy.

“Yes, Lex. Who were you expecting?” He wondered, she was acting very strange even for a freshly awoken Chloe.

“No one. I thought that you were a dream”, her eyes were large and bewildered. He could feel her hands moving over his chest, as if trying to check that he was really there.

He hugged her tightly, attempting to reassure her. “No, I’m not what dreams are made of. Although it is nice to know that you dream about me”.

Chloe grinned, the Lex she made up in her head would never have put himself like that, she would never have allowed it. That meant that he was really there and everything she remembered from the night before had not just been a dream. She was so happy that she wanted to cuddle up to him and make gushy noises like the simpering cheerleaders who clung onto football players. However, deciding that she would not become like one of them, she opted for, “Your cranium is already rather large, no reason to bloat it”.

“Are you saying that I have a big head?” He demanded as he tickled her sides gently.

“Yes”, she grinned up at him, pulling herself up using his shoulders so that he could kiss his forehead, “A very big”, another kiss to the cheek, “sexily beautiful”, a peck on the nose, “bald head”, she smooched his jaw.

He caught her lips in a bruising kiss, wrapping his arms around her waist and lifting her up as he got up and made his way to the plane’s bathroom. “You know, showers are always more fun with a blonde”.

“I thought that you preferred brunettes”, she reminded him of his earlier bad taste.

“No”, he didn’t like to be reminded of the years he had suffered from his brunette blindness as Chloe had once referred to it, “haven’t you heard? Gentlemen prefer blondes!”

“Since when have you been a gentleman?” Chloe teased, trying to think of something else to say until she was distracted. “Ah”, she whimpered as he squeezed her breast.

“You’d get bored with a gentleman”, he pointed out as they entered the bathroom.


~*~

It was forty minutes later when they returned, both laughing, and Chloe pointed out, “Oh my goodness, I must look a sight and we only have 20 minutes and I haven’t got a hair dryer!”

“You are the most beautiful sight that I have ever seen”, he growled possessively as he held her to him. “And as for the hairdryer and other girlie things, you have some over there”, he pointed over to a bag that he had brought which had her hair dryer from home and her make-up bag.

“Brilliant”, Chloe gave Lex’s bottom a pinch so that she could distract him for just long enough to get out of his arms and over to the bag. She didn’t want to be away from him, but their shower had taken far longer than expected due to his ‘helping’ her get washed, and she didn’t want them to be late seeing as he had clearly spent so long on it and so she set about drying her hair and doing her make-up, “So, I take it that my surprise is definitely formal”.

“I would say so”, Lex smiled as he took out the dress he had picked out for her. He looked over to see Chloe’s reaction and was amused to see that she was speechless.

It was the most beautiful gown that Chloe had ever seen – and since she had been with Lex she had seen quite a few. This one was a strapless, floor length gown made out of perfect white silk with intricate sliver stitching scattered with diamonds. It sparkled. It was beyond gorgeous.

“I … It … I don’t deserve this”, she gasped. Her hair and makeup were now done, and she stood there wearing nothing but a towel and a nervous smile.

“Don’t be so stupid, of course you do. Now, would you like me to help you on with it?” He offered it what he thought was a gentlemanly manner.

She nodded dumbly and sashayed over to him, reaching out and brushing her fingers against the soft material. “It is the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen”, she slipped out of the towel she was wearing.

“I was just thinking the same thing”, Lex muttered, as he unzipped the dress and held it out for her to step into unable to take his eyes off her. He watched the creamy skin disappear as he zipped it back up. The material was soft enough that it wouldn’t irritate her without underwear which was good as they couldn’t risk lines lingerie would leave.

There wasn’t a mirror in the plane other than the small one in Chloe’s make-up bag so she had to trust his judgement. “Do I look alright?”

“You are fucking gorgeous, as always”, he growled.

“So are you”, she blushed, “but as you are only wearing a towel and we have only five minutes before we land …”

“You want to have sex again?”


~*~

“So we are in New York, but we just passed out apartment. Where are we going?” Chloe asked for the twentieth times since they had got out of the plane that night … when Lex wasn’t distracting her with kisses, that is.

As the limo pulled to a stop just outside her favourite part of central park Chloe paid extra attention. There were more people milling around than one would expect for that time of night, and they all appeared to be security guards judging by their uniforms.

“What’s going on?” Chloe wondered as she heard Lex’s side of the limo opening and him running around until she saw him in front of her opening the door and helping her out.

“You’ll see”, he announced as they moved passed the guards who parted for them. Once they were inside the park she couldn’t even see the guards although she knew that they must be all around, it was the only safe way to use the park at that time of night/morning. The pathway they were following was light up and ahead of them Chloe could see that a gazebo was also covered in lights that twinkled like stars.

The flower beds were highlighted and the lake glistened in the moonlight, as people she knew and cared about milled around the grass in between the flower strewn chairs which all faced the gazebo.

“Lex this is amazing”, she breathed as she realised that there was even a string quartet. She scanned the area trying to recognise everyone and squeaked with delight as she noticed her father and Lois. “Lex, what is this?” She cried.

“Whatever you want it to be”, he said, suddenly actually feeling quite nervous. He took both of Chloe’s hands in his, “It can just be a nice party or …” he steeled himself, “a wedding.” Chloe blinked up at him and he charged on, “The choice is yours. No one else knows about the second option so there really is no pressure. If this is too soon”, he tried to make it clear that he wasn’t trying to force her into anything she wasn’t quite ready for or to take advantage of the fact that she was so delighted about their reconciliation. This had seemed like it was a good idea when he had come up with it, but now he thought that he might be rushing her, she might want to plan her own wedding herself …

Chloe grabbed him and pulled him into a searing kiss before ordering him, “Go and wait for me”.

“Really?” It was only his Luthor training that was stopping him from bouncing up and down.

“Yes really”, she sent him on his way with a pat.

Beaming Lex strutted down the aisle as Gabe walked over to Chloe.

“Chloe Bear”, he raced over to her and wrapped her in a fierce hug.

“Hello Daddy”, she returned the hug, delighted but astonished that he was there.

“I was so happy when Lex called me to tell me that you two were getting back together and that you were celebrating”, Gabe said, not realizing that the call had been made more than 12 hours before they had actually made up. He had wondered why Chloe had not called him to tell him, she normally did about exciting things about that but then worked out what they had probably been doing for the last 12 hours and thought that it was better to assume that she had been too busy party planning to call him. Yes, that was it. If he believed that then he would be able to sleep that night.

“Yeah”, Chloe enthused not wanting to divulge any more to her daddy; the full story was only for Lois and for another day. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Lex ushering the people into their seats, talking to a priest she hadn’t even noticed before, and stopping Lois from running down the aisle to cuddle Chloe.

“I gave him a very stern talking to last week about making you happy”, Gabe explained and Chloe tried not to burst out laughing. She could just see her father calling Lex and saying that he didn’t know what the problem was but that he must make her happy until she grew tired of him and traded him in for a younger, richer, hairier model.

“Well, I am happy Dad”, she assured him and “and we are getting married … right now”. She wasn’t sure how he was going to take that, she knew that it was a difficult thing for a daddy to get his head around, but as always, Gabe surprised her, declaring, “Well it’s about time!”

Gabe took her arm in his and prepared to walk down the aisle. He thought that the day that his daughter decided to get married would be much more difficult, but after the last month of seeing her practically wasting away he would do anything to see her this happy again.

He watched as the last few people who were milling around took their seats and Lex stood under the gazebo, trying to look calm and collected although he didn’t take his eyes off Chloe. Not just because she was so beautiful, but there was also a slight look of fear in his eyes.

Chloe felt a little sick, not because she was afraid of walking down the aisle to him but because he still looked nervous – although she was sure that she was the only one who could tell. He still didn’t quite believe that this was all really happening, she wanted to run over to him and hug him and tell him that it was alright. She settled for giving him a big smile and a wave as she took her father’s arm and he made her wait for the beginning of the next bar of music to start to walk.

Lois observed the interaction between the bride and groom from her vantage point on the steps of the gazebo and she smiled. She couldn’t believe that she was going to be the maid of honour at Chloe’s wedding quite so soon, and self-appointed at that. Clearly the threatening notes she had been sending to Luthor had worked.

Chloe was obviously trying to control herself but was walking rather briskly down the aisle and looked stunning although Lois could only imagine how Gabe would react to the fact that Chloe’s wedding dress was quite so sexy. She thought that Lex had probably picked it out, in fact this whole evening appeared to be Lex’s doing. She looked over at the man of the moment.

He was grinning as Chloe came towards them. She was an angel with a halo of golden curls, a perfect face beaming with joy, and a lovely figure encased in the finest silk. Lex tried to control himself as she almost pulled her father along with a bounce in her quick efficient step.

They were only a few steps away from the gazebo when Lex’s restraint broken and his sailed down to kiss Chloe before helping her up the steps. With a smile, Gabe followed them and stood just to the side, opposite Lois and making sure not to obscure the view of the bride; he knew that Lex would have plenty of people recording this.

“We have come together in the presence of God, to witness the marriage of Alexander Joseph Luthor and Chloe Ann Sullivan, to ask his blessing on them, and to share in their joy. Our Lord Jesus Christ was himself a guest at a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and through his Spirit he is with us now”, the vicar started as they held hands although they hadn’t actually been told to. He smiled, he liked to see couples who were obviously truly in love … even if that did mean that they didn’t always exactly follow the protocol.

“In marriage husband and wife belong to one another, and they begin a new life together in the community. It is a way of life that all should honour; and it must not be undertaken carelessly, lightly, or selfishly, but reverently, responsibly, and after serious thought. This is the way of life, created and hallowed by God, that Alexander and Chloe are now to begin. They will each give their consent to the other; they will join hands and exchange solemn vows, and in token of this they will [each] give and receive a ring”, the vicar continued.

Chloe had to keep herself from bouncing up and down as she thought that they were finally going to be truly together. Lex just smiled, as if his face might split in two, he had not known that it was possible to be this happy until he heard the priest’s next words and stopped smiling.

“First, I am required to ask anyone present who knows a reason why these persons may not lawfully marry, to declare it now”.

Lex and the entire Sullivan family turned to the crowd and gave them murderous looks which caused several laughs and several people to run their finger around the inside of their collar. There was a chuckle from behind them and Chloe and Lex turned back to the priest, who was apparently highly amused by the display.

“The vows you are about to take are to be made in the presence of God, who is judge of all and knows all the secrets of our hearts; therefore if either of you knows a reason why you may not lawfully marry, you must declare it now”, he proceeded.

“Don’t you dare”, Chloe whispered, again causing the priest to chuckle, while Lex just gave her hand a squeeze.

“Well, now that is settled. Alexander Joseph Luthor, will you take Chloe Ann Sullivan to be your wife?”

“Yes!”

“You have to wait until the end, and answer I will”, the reverend whispered.

Lex came as close to bushing as a Luthor was permitted and Chloe leant over and kissed him on the cheek.

“Well, now that is settled. Alexander Joseph Luthor, will you take Chloe Ann Sullivan to be your wife? Will you love her, comfort her, honour and protect her, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live? … You can answer in the affirmative now”, the priest got the entire way through this time.

“And it had better be in the affirmative”, Chloe said, loudly enough that only those in the gazebo could hear, and added a wink.

“I will”, Lex sounded extremely certain of his decision.

There was a laugh from the entire congregation and Lex admitted, “I can’t remember exactly why I invited all of these people”.

“Probably the caveman in you, wanting to demonstrate that I am yours now … or being kinder that you wanted to celebrate with everyone”, Chloe smiled.

“Now, Chloe Ann Sullivan, will you take Alexander Joseph Luthor to be your husband? Will you love him, comfort him, honour and protect him, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?” The vicar asked, not expecting her to give anything but a positive answer.

“I will”, Chloe tried not to tear up.

“Will you, the families and friends of Alexander Joseph Luthor and Chloe Ann Sullivan, support and uphold them in their marriage now and in the years to come?”

“We will”, the congregation affirmed, Gabe and Lois loudest of all – and rather impressively managing to shoot Lex warning looks as they did it. Not that it was of much consequence as Lex was blind and deaf to everything except his beloved. It was lucky that he was not required to say anything for a while.

“And now we have the reading, chosen by the groom”.

Chloe raised her eyebrows at him as Lois began to read. “I take for my text the very romantic – who knew that Lex had it in him? – text from Song of Solomon 2.10-13; 8.6,7”.


My beloved speaks and says to me:
'Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away;
for now the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtle dove
is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away.'

Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm;
for love is strong as death,
passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
a raging flame.
Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
If one offered for love
all the wealth of one's house,
it would be utterly scorned.

“Lex”, Chloe’s eyes were definitely getting distinctly misty as she leant over to kiss Lex again, “I love you so much baby”, she whispered.

“Ah so now we know why he chose that one, he thought he could score with it”, Lois joked.

Chloe nodded, to indicate that he would indeed score causing another laugh – from everyone including the priest – except for Gabe who looked uncomfortable and Chloe who blushed as she realised that her Dad was right behind her.

“Perhaps we should get onto the vows now before the honey moon starts early”, the priest suggested. Gabe wasn’t sure whether he should be relieved about that or not.

“Alexander and Chloe, I now invite you to join hands (which you are already doing) and make your vows, in the presence of God and his people”, this was the problem when people were impetuous.

Lex held onto her hands, stroking the backs of them with his thumbs, “I, Alexander Joseph Luthor”, he winced at the use of his full name again, “take you, Chloe Ann Sullivan, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward; for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part; according to God's holy law. In the presence of God I make this vow”.

Chloe somehow made it through her part of the vows without breaking down and kissing him again.

Lex said, slipping the ring on her finger, “I give you this ring as a sign of our marriage. With my body I honour you, all that I am I give to you, and all that I have I share with you, within the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

Chloe did the same, marvelling at the feel of his large hand under hers not even noticing anything about the ring. He was so perfect. She tingled all over as she heard the priest say the words she had been dying to hear for years, “They have declared their marriage by the joining of hands and by the giving and receiving of rings. I therefore proclaim that they are husband and wife.”

They kissed passionately, Gabe averted his eyes.

The vicar smiled and continued, “Those whom God has joined together let no one put asunder … and I suppose that I may as well say that he may kiss the bride as well”.

Now that Lex had permission he ran his hands down her arms and wrapped around her waist and dipped her eliciting awws from most of the people in attendance. Gabe was the only one who looked around, asking, “Did the gardener leave a hose around here? It might come in handy”.

Finally Lex righted her, afraid that Gabe might actually douse them both with cold water and lifted Chloe up into his arms and strode back down the aisle. When they reached the end to thunderous applause and choruses of kiss her again, Lex grudgingly did put her down missing the feel of her in his arms, holding her the normal way just wasn’t quite as good.

“I love you so much Lex”, Chloe said as she pulled him down into another kiss and was fairly certain that she heard fireworks – possibly due to Lex, possibly due to his pyrotechnic team of specialists.

“I’m getting the hose”, Gabe announced, as they reached the end of the aisle as well and waited to find out what was going to happen next, only to be pulled back by Lois, “Let them have their moment … I can see where his hands are, he is still safe”.

Unlike Lex, Chloe was not really afraid that her father might do anything of the sort; he would worry if she got all wet and cold on such a night. In fact, she was waiting for him to try to convince her that a woolly jumper would go well with her dress although she felt perfectly warm, - a little hot if anything - as she finally broke her kiss with her new husband.

As they gazed around them, at the beautiful surroundings and the friends they had made over the last few years who were all there to celebrate with them and cheer them on Chloe looked almost abashed while Lex just grinned. He turned to Gabe and stuck out his hand, “Thank-you so much for coming Gabe. I know that Chloe would never have gone down the aisle without you”.

“Damn”, Gabe looked really upset. “And I had thought that she would just do it without me and I would lose my last chance to tell her to run as we made it down the aisle. If only I had known, well I suppose that it is too late to do anything about it now … actually, no it isn’t run Chloe run”, he encouraged.

“Good idea Dad”, Chloe hopped over to him and they did a mock run away.

“Very funny”, Lex snatched her back against him so that her back was pressed into his chest, he was the only one who wasn’t laughing.

“We try”, Gabe said. “Listen in all seriousness Lex, I will never be happy with my little girl getting married. I always thought that she might go into a nunnery …”

“Uncle Gabe, we aren’t Catholic”, Lois pointed out helpfully.

“I know, but it was a nice dream”, he sighed with a faraway look in his eyes, “a nice big safe nunnery, with nothing dangerous and absolutely no boys”

“And no fun”, Chloe put in.

“Exactly”, Gabe said, “but unfortunately little Chloe Bear had other ideas and is very stubborn. Now, I’m not saying that I will ever like you – nothing personal, just the fact that you are with my baby – but welcome to the family Mr Sullivan”.

“That means a lot to me Gabe”, Lex shook his hand firmly.

“And I trust that what is going to happen to you if you ever upset her again was gone over in sufficient detail yesterday?” He checked.

“Yes”, Lex nodded.

“Hey”, Chloe looked up at him, although she could only really make out his chin, “You mean that this was all just because my father threatened you?” She sounded annoyed, but made no attempt to get out of his arms.

“Not just Gabe, Lois and Oliver were rather vocal as well”, then he added in a stage whisper, “I was most afraid of Lois”.

Lois gave a nod.

Chloe looked a little mushily over at both of them. “I thought that you were both against me getting married”.

“In theory … we are”, Lois started.

“Yes”, Gabe agreed. “In theory I would like it if you came home tomorrow but we both know that that won’t make you happy and I never actually made any reference to marriage that was all Lex’s idea”.

“Aww, you big softy”, Chloe grinned moving her hands behind her to feel his hard sides.

“Not that soft”, he growled/whispered in her ear.

“In the business world / board room”, Lois helped him out.

“Yes, of course that is what he meant”, Gabe said going a little pale. They looked over to see that the chairs were being removed so that the dancing could begin. And the gazebo was getting a cake put on it.

“Oh”, Chloe cooed, “It is all so beautiful”.

“And look, a personal Chloe seized cake”, Gabe said as he watched the 8 tier chocolate praline cake with 4 foot base being loaded.

“Well as much as I try to control her sweet tooth and tendency to eat nothing but crap if left to her own devices”, Lex gave her a squeeze.

“You are still trying that? I gave up years ago”, Gabe admitted.

“Well you don’t have the Luthor evil stare”, Lex said with a shrug.

“Caveman, where do you get off discussing my eating habits with everyone and thinking that you should decide …” She was cut off as Lex’s mouth descended upon hers.

“I think that I may have just ruined the honeymoon”, Gabe said happily.

“I wouldn’t bet on it”.

“Anyway”, Lex said as he eventually stopped - when it got to the point where he either had to stop of have her right there and then - and gave his attention to her entire Sullivan family. “It looks like the dance floor is ready.” Knowing that this would probably be the last time tonight that he got to have a straight conversation with Gabe, he said, “Look, all joking aside, thank-you for being so supportive. You know that I love your daughter more than anything else in the world and will do everything I possibly can to make her happy. I know that I probably should have come to you and asked for permission but not only was I afraid that you might say no, I thought that Chloe would probably kill me”.

“I would have said no”, Gabe admitted, “just on principle. Then told you off for asking for her as if you were buying her. Of course, since you didn’t ask I am going to say that you have no manners and that the least you could have done was ask. You really can’t win.”

“I thought as much”, Lex admitted.

“Well if she absolutely has to go off and get married then I suppose that she could do worse than an obsessive multi billionaire who adores her”, Gabe sighed.

“Standing right here”, Chloe reminded him.

“I know you are”, Gabe said, pinching her nose gently. “Which is wrong, because you should be dancing … and as you know the first one is always with the first man in a girl’s life her daddy, namely me!” He held out his hand.

Chloe smiled and waved to Lex as she moved with Gabe onto the floor and tried to make him understand that her standing on his feet wouldn’t be a good idea anymore, not only because she weighed slightly more than she had when she was three but because she was also wearing heels.

“Come on Luthor, let’s see those dancing skills”, Lois dragged him onto the floor, “and just remember the General’s golden rule – marriage is the only battle where you are allowed to sleep with the enemy.”

“Good to know”.

“Do we need to have a little talk about sex and how to please a woman Luthor?” Lois enquired.

“No, I think that I have that part covered”, he danced with his cousin-in-law.

“Yeah, Chloe told me”, she admitted.

His eye brows shot up, “But you two haven’t been alone since we got here”.

“You did in on the way over here as well?” Lois wondered, she had got a call from Clark so she knew exactly what had happened at the dance.

“Of course”, he shrugged.

“Fair enough. I will give you some tips anyway, first of all there is this little thing called foreplay”, she started and continued getting worse and worse for several minutes until Lex interrupted her, “You are aware that your Uncle is standing right behind you, aren’t you?”

“Yeah right!” Lois scoffed, in an I’m-not-falling-for-that-one tone of scoff.

“Yeah”, said Gabe. “Right”, added Chloe.

“Bugger”, Lois put in but turned to them and gave Chloe a huge hug and said, “I hope that you have a great time honey”, then turned to her uncle and said, “Come on, let’s leave these two love birds alone”.

“Well now that I finally have my wife all to myself, shall we have our first dance?” Lex asked.

“I think that we had better, husband”, she grinned up at him as they moved to the centre of the dance floor – grass – and the music changed from what Chloe recognised as one of Lex’s favourite classical pieces to a rather more up-tempo tune.

“I wasn’t sure what we should have for our first dance but I remembered Gabe telling me that you loved this song when it first came out and danced to it continuously”, he wrapped his arms around her.

Chloe buried her head in his chest in embarrassment.

“Don’t be embarrassed sweetheart, you can tell me anything and that is what I hope that this song, now our song, tells you”.

Just as Lex said this, the opera singer started, “So tell me what you want, what you really really want. So tell me what you want, what you really really want. I wanna I wanna I wanna, I really really wanna zigga zig ah”.

“I love you Mr Sullivan”.

“I love you too, Mrs Luthor”.

A/N: I have no idea whether Chloe and Lex’s denomination was never discussed – to the best of my recollection - but I have decided that they are both Anglican, which seems likely considering their origins. Also, while I know that a religious ceremony has to be in a church Lex got special license.
A/N2: So what did you think? Was it too soon? Did they rush into it? Should they have been more formal? Do we like Gabe?

[TrinityR]

Oh, hell yeah! I loved it!! Only Iif that was me I would make Lex run to actually bring me a real wedding dress:DD
So, epilog's coming up?

[HotCrossedBunny]

Yep, epilogue coming soon-ish. After I have posted the first chapter of my next one - I'll PM you a link when it is up and put it on here.

Ha ha, well it is sort of a real wedding dress just not a poofy one.

[HotCrossedBunny]

New quick story here (http://forums.naughty-seduction.net/showthread.php/8861-Star-Crossed-(R)-Posted-26th-April-2013?p=283283#post283283) if you want to read it.

[HotCrossedBunny]

*Epilogue*

“Fuck”, Lex swore as his silver BMW screeched to a halt outside the Smallville High and he leap out not even bothering to lock the damned thing. It was supposed to the fastest car on the planet and that was before he had had it meteor rock super powered but it had not been anywhere near quick enough tonight. He had broken all records getting there from the airport but the plane had been late and the helicopter was out of action.

He glanced down as his watch as he slammed his shoulder into the door as he raced into the building and tried not to slip on the floor – he guessed that he now knew why it was called break neck speed – before barrelling into the gym.

Lex was not as young as he used to be. He was breathing hard as he pushed his way through the crowds at the tenth high school reunion searching for his quarry.

“Damn”, he exclaimed, as he finally laid eyes on her. She was still the most gorgeous creature that he had ever seen. Her back was to him but that did not keep him from noticing her golden curls, her the lush curves of her hips and bottom. He licked his lips as he made his way over to her, wondering what he was going to say this time … other than trying to kiss her as soon as possible.

In spite of the noise going on around them, Chloe must have heard him approaching as she turned to face him.

His eyes roamed her body of their own accord and he could feel himself getting hard. He wanted to take off his jacket to cover her body, draped as it was in a grey/silver gown which did little to hide the lushness of her curves, he didn’t want other men looking at her.

She was giving him a hard look which made him want to devour her whole but his attention was moved a little lower as she crossed her arms, lifting her perfect breasts at little more, almost as if she were offering them to him. Realising that he was staring, he strove to pay attention to something else and noticed her crossed arms or, to be more precise, her hands.

“Where are your rings?” He demanded, noticing that both her engagement and wedding rings were missing. At the same moment as she asked, “What time do you call this?” trying to inject a harsh tone into her voice.

There was silence for few seconds behind they both broke into grins.

“Come here”, Chloe demanded, as she held her arms out to him and he embraced her enthusiastically but carefully.

“I’m sorry that I was late baby, you wouldn’t believe the day that I have had. The week actually. I missed you so much but it had to be done, this way I can be at home with you every day for the next couple of months. How have you been?” He asked.

“I didn’t like being away from you either, but yes I have been alright since the five page email you demanded from me only an hour ago. Although I will admit that I am more than a little tired, my back hurts and so do my feet and I missed my Lex”, she rubbed his back. “Your progeny have made me so fat that I can’t wear my rings anymore”, she pouted but pointed to where they were on her necklace to show him that she did still have them on.

“Oh”.

“Yeah, I figured that that wouldn’t be where your attention was focused”, she teased him.

“But your face is so cute”, he caressed her cheek, “and your breasts are quite possibly even nicer than before”, his hands skimmed over them briefly before settling on her ass, “and this is rather impressive”. He felt her through her dress, before bringing his hands to her front to stroke her swollen tummy.

“Alexandra and Gabriella missed you, they aren’t even born yet and they are already hopelessly spoilt daddy’s girls; they won’t settle down when I am trying to go to sleep without you there to rub them and tell them stories about Stroppy Princess and the Bald Knight”, she said smiling.

“Ah have you been causing your mommy problems while I was away?” He asked his little angles, tickling Chloe’s sides.

“Yes”, Chloe answered for them, stroking her stomach lovingly.

“Are you really tired, honey?” Lex asked, peering up at Chloe as he gave his girls a kiss.

“Yes, but we can stay and dance, if you want?” Chloe offered. She had really had a terrible week with hardly any sleep but she knew that they had had to be apart as she couldn’t fly in her condition and Lex had had to take care of some business in New York if he was to stay at home in the mansion with her (every single day) for the last two months of her pregnancy and for the first few of months of the babies’ lives. Lex was determined to work from home as much as possible and to be there for the midnight feedings – which he thought would be good bonding opportunities.

“Ah, that was nice but what do you say girlies? Should I take mommy back to the mansion now, give her some peanut butter on toast”, Chloe’s tummy rumbled, “a nice hot bath and a back and foot massage? Then early to bed for the next instalment of Stroppy Princess and the Bald Knight? Would you all like that?”

The twins kicked in tandem.

“I’ll take that as a yes”, he smiled as he straightened and wrapped his arm around Chloe’s waist. “Hopefully they will then fall asleep then so they won’t see what I plan to do to you afterwards”, he whispered into her ear.

Chloe giggled, “Let’s go home baby and have a little reunion of our own”.


The End

A/N: Thank-you to everyone who has read this story and especially those of you who reviewed. My new fic is called Star-Crossed and is in the Romance section. *hint hint*

[TrinityR]

Wow! Twins!! Nice one!! I loved it! It was so sweet and Lex turned into family man <yay!!>

If only you'd posted this few hours ago... then it would've still made it for today's recommendation on Chlex. Well, we'll have to wait a week:) Till next Friday:)

[hfce]

Awww.. What a sweet ending. They are having twins. I am not surprised. LOL! :)

[starmoon]

i loved this story. the ending was perfect.

[cbrunberg]

loved that lex turned into a family man.i suspected a child but not twins.loved story

[TrinityR]

So, I finally added this story to Chlex tumblr:)
(If you finish the Star Crossed epiloque by next Friday, I will add that, too)

[TrinityR]

This story was awesome and I stand by that notion! The chemistry between Lex and Chloe brilliantly described!

[Ami Rose]

i loved this story. the ending was perfect.

That was amazing! The end was the sweetest thing ever lol!