Quote:
Lex looked behind them to check that nobody had followed then hastily closed the doors, shutting them away from the rest of the party. It was his birthday, yes, but he’d spent the last three hours schmoozing the high society. Now he deserved a private celebration with his real friends, well friend, singular, but still.
heh, ok, we’ve established that they are friends, who have snuck away from the main body of the party… they are drunk, and have plans to have even more alcohol. Already this does NOT bode well.
Quote:
They’d ended up in one of the smaller ‘music rooms’. There was a grand piano and some furniture arranged neatly throughout the room in a half circle around it. Lex snorted. He could host a party for Mozart any time he decided to come back from the dead and give a little impromptu concert.
*giggle* I thought it was cute when Lex observed how incredibly pompous this music room was. How many people have a single music room, much less a whole bunch of them under the same roof.
Quote:
One of his hands had gone for her side. It wasn’t fair and it was going to get the bottle broken. She felt Lex’s hot breath on her neck as he was half bent over her body.
I was holding my breath as I imagined them in this drunken embrace. Definitely not good! I’m already seeing warning signs of what’s going to happen later.
Quote:
He had no clue what to play in the first place. He didn’t really play for the tramps like she’d accused him of. Well maybe once or twice. It was a surefire way to get into a woman’s pants, who could blame him?
*disdainful snort* Playboy pig! He probably drips ‘sex me’ without even thinking about it. Chloe never stood a chance :(
Quote:
Walking over to the piano, he flipped the lid and stared at the keys. Lex folded his fingers and cracked his knuckles as he tried to remember how that damn sonata went. Not the moonlight one, that was too depressive. The playful one, with the tinkling cascades and the move that could twist his fingers into knots if he didn’t watch out. Maybe he was too drunk for that one.
Lex looked over at Chloe and the champagne bottle in her hands. Then again, if he did this, he’d impress the shit out of her while he was at it. He was aiming for the slack jawed, wide eyed, ‘Wow, you can really do that?’ face.
LOL! I loved how Lex wanted to impress Chloe with his piano skills, and I was impressed that he had enough working brain cells right now to be able to strategize the best music to be able to do so.
Quote:
So, she sauntered over to the piano and then jumped on top of it. Once settled, she tried to open the bottle. Besides, if he played well her panties just might come off. She and Lex had been flirting pretty hard for the past two hours. Hands had wandered and looks had lingered as the drinks had gone down their throats. And she liked her panties where they were, thank you very much.
Yes, she’d thought about Lex that way but it didn’t mean anything.
This was interesting and VERY good to confirm. Now I know that, previous to their make-out session, Chloe didn’t really have any romantic feelings towards Lex… not consciously anyway.
Quote:
And he still had to think about how the damn sonata started. It always got easier once he was through the first part, but the start was like remembering the first line of a learned poem. You could think of the third one, and the fifth, and the twelfth but the first damn line just wouldn’t come to you.
LOL! I loved this observation… ain’t it the truth? ;)
Quote:
Lex annoyingly placed his hand on top of the piano, one hand on either side of her body. “Fine,” she grumbled. She placed the bottle off to the side and leaned back on her elbows. “Happy? Now play me something Rachmaninoff.”
*impressed with Chloe for her ability to come up with the word ‘Rachmaninoff’ in her drunken state.
Quote:
She leaned further back but lying that way wasn’t really comfortable. After about a minute of repositioning her body, she found herself on her stomach with her head resting on her folded hands. She closed her eyes and felt the reverberations of the music echoing through the bones in her body.
After another two minutes of playing, Lex stopped. She thought that it might have been a break in the movement but he didn’t start again. Chloe opened her eyes and looked over at him. “Why with the stopping?” She shook her head. “No stopping.”
Lex looked at the way she was sprawled all over the piano. The dress was a long, deep red affair with a slit up the side that revealed her leg up to almost her butt and her hair was done in one of those wavy 1920’s revival dos. All that was missing was a vodka glass in her one hand and a cigarette in the other, or dangling from blood red lips. Of course she’d chosen a more subtle lipstick than that.
What the hell?! Is he GAY?! I was just visualizing what an incredibly, striking and sexy image Chloe made stretched out on the piano, and Lex was ‘admiring her aesthetics’ in the most cold, objective way possible… like she was a piece of modern art rather than a sexy, vibrant woman.
My only explanation is that he was SO determined not to see her as a ‘temptation’ that he completely and wilfully shut his mind away from Chloe’s sex appeal.
Quote:
His gaze came back up and he looked at her again, leaning up onto her elbows to look down at him, showing quite a bit of cleavage; very nice, ample cleavage. And she was cocking her head at him just so. If she had red hair, she’d be a perfect rip off of Jessica Rabbit. Lex chuckled to himself. He wondered if she could pull off the attitude, too. That would definitely help to get the men out there to notice.
arrrgh! He’s gay! It’s final! Either that, or he’s blind! As if Chloe needed any kind of ‘improvement’ to be sexy!!! Red hair, indeed! *huffs*
Quote:
Lex’s ‘I suppose’ sounded very put off. Well, he’d just have to suck it up. What was the point of having a hot, older, rich friend if they couldn’t introduce you to others like them? She watched as he concentrated on the keys that his hands were hitting.
ROTFLMAO! This was a VERY interesting perspective. And very true as well. I never considered this as one of the benefits to being friends with Lex Luthor, but I guess it WOULD be true that he ‘could’ introduce you to a whole range of exciting, rich playboys.
Quote:
This obviously didn’t come easy to Lex. People would be surprised to find that that was true of a lot of things for the man seated before her. Most others would never be privy to that, though.
awww, I liked this glimpse into the affection Chloe holds for her ‘dear friend’, Lex. It’s nice that she sees the ‘human’ side of him, and likes him all the more for it. Is it really so surprising that the affection blossomed into something more? I think it was inevitable… probably would have happened even WITHOUT the makeout session.
Quote:
“Richard Meeks, Percy Ennis, Jackson Bloom, Malik Williams, Kenneth Driesden and Brent Casman.” She listed off the men that she’d been looking over for the past hour or so. Only the past hour cause she’d finally gotten drunk enough to start plotting to attack one of them.
ROTFLOL! She actually made a list. Oh MY! LOL!
Quote:
“Okay, let me think,” he contemplated with a longing look towards the champagne bottle near her hip. “Richie is nice, but dull. Really dull.” So dull that Lex had been reduced to drinking an entire pot of coffee during a meeting so he didn’t fall asleep on the guy’s monotonous voice.
“Brent Casman.” He rolled the name on his tongue, trying to match it with a face. Or at least a headline to give him something to start with. “If he’s the blond one with the glasses and the long nose then you wanna stay away from, he’s had some psycho stalk him for a few months now, and they still haven’t put her behind bars.” No need to get Chloe into yet another life or death situation.
Speaking of which. “Kenneth Driesden was on your list? You can strike him out. He’s an asshole, trust me. While the rest of us grew up he just grew worse. You don’t wanna deal with that.”
“Bloom is thirty-six, I’m not hooking you up with someone almost twice your age.” Of course Jackson Bloom had that whole gentleman routine going, he’d be nice enough, Lex supposed and treat Chloe like she deserved on a date. But the man was thirty-six. Way too old.
“And Malik and Percy are an item.” Lex made a face of slight distaste, “At least I think they are. I caught them screwing in the bathroom about twenty minutes after you got here.”
LOL! I thought it was adorable the way every single one of Chloe’s prospects were shot down. All for perfectly reasonable reasons, of course. I really didn’t sense that Lex was actively searching for a reason to throw up obstacles because he was feeling possessive or jealous. He probably would have accommodated Chloe quite amiably… IF any of her choices had been a viable option in his view.
Perhaps he should recommend someone?
Quote:
He stood up and hooked his hand under her thigh to pull her around so she was facing him fully. Some stern talking to was necessary and he couldn’t do that while she looked down on him sideways.
Chloe squeaked in surprise and indignation as her feet landed on the keyboard with a discordant noise. Lex had planted himself firmly in front of her, hands braced beside her hips on the lid of the piano.
“I’m not going to give you a helping hand in finding trouble. I’d sooner let you go out with Bloom, at least he’d make sure to bring you back in one piece and without getting you into a car crash or cause you to end up with a stalker’s knife in your back.”
Lex wasn’t amused by a long shot. He was so far from amused at the idea that he was downright … whatever the most extreme opposite of amused was.
“You are not getting yourself into trouble while you’re under my watch, missy.”
heh, part of me was a little indignant by his presumptuous and condescending attitude towards his ‘helpless female companion’… but another part of me was touched by his concern for his friend.
Quote:
Chloe was also trying her damnest not to laugh. He’d called her ‘missy’ for god’s sake. How was she supposed to keep a straight face?
The words that he’d thrown at her had also made her momentarily forget that he’d moved her around like a doll.
She looked up at his tense, angry, glaring face and found herself smiling. “Ok, Lex, that’ll be your birthday gift.” He didn’t look any happier. Well, maybe he would once he found the actual gift that she’d hidden in his office while he’d been getting dressed.
*giggle* I laughed to see that Chloe was generally good natured about Lex’s ‘ultimatum’ over here. She actually seemed amused by the ‘stern stance’ he was taking. LOL!
Quote:
Chloe pouted a little when his face still looked all scrunched up. “And this.” She leaned forward and upwards and brushed her lips softly against his. She had not expected the bolt of something that accompanied the action. She ignored it.
Pulling back just a little, Chloe turned her eyes to meet Lex’s. “Happy Birthday, Lex.”
Hmmm, so this is how it started. I can see that Chloe ‘techinically’ initiated the kiss… but I can also see she meant it to be a simple friendly peck. Something that was supposed to be finished barely the moment after it was begun. Too bad it didn’t turn out like that.
Quote:
Lex was too stunned to respond. He’d been busy being annoyed and angry for the moment, so he hadn’t even realized she leaned in before her lips had been on his. He’d be a liar if he said he’d never thought of her in a more than friendly way, but he’d never expected anything to happen.
hmmm, so Lex HAD entertained some lusty thoughts of Chloe before this night? HOW lusty are we talking here? Did he find himself picturing her naked once or twice (which is probably something bound to happen)… or did he entertain fantasies of her while he was alone (and erect) in his bed?
Quote:
He licked his lips, tasting something fruity and champagne. Somehow, he’d still not pulled back and that fruity taste was interesting. His eyes were drawn to her lips again. And again he didn’t even notice the part where he leaned in, or she leaned in, or it might have been both of them.
But he did notice the soft lips and the subtle taste of fruit and champagne. He noticed the rough, smooth, slick texture of her tongue as it touched and tangled with his own. He was so busy noticing everything about the kiss, including that odd warm electric feeling that he didn’t notice his hands moving without permission to take hold of her ass and pull her closer.
Chloe wasn’t sure what was happening but she liked it. Maybe a little too much. One of them should probably put a stop to it. But they were both a little too busy letting their hands wander in places that they shouldn’t be.
Uh oh! So this is how and where the trouble started. *sigh* I was looking so forward to blaming it all on Lex, but the truth is that they were BOTH drunk and stupid and indulged in something that they both knew was a bad idea. I can see how the nasty combination of lust, passion and diminished thought led to this grope-session.
Quote:
Her hands ran up and down his back and she wished that she could actually feel him. Lex was having all of the fun, getting to run one of his hands up and down her bare leg as the other rested on the small of her back. Though there was some fun to be had in the feelings said hand was creating.
He pulled back and then they somehow ended up on the piano bench with their mouths fused together again. She was sitting sideways on his lap with her arm wrapped around the back of his neck.
She’d never seen Lex do anything tentatively before. But it was the best word to describe the way in which his left hand came to rest on her upper thigh. Instead of slapping it away she moaned his name into his mouth. That caused all hesitation to disappear from his body.
Lex couldn’t believe what he was doing, but as little as he could believe it he could stop it even less. He couldn’t deny that it was really nice to have Chloe in his lap, cozying up against his chest while they shared a lazy kiss. It was a damn nice birthday gift, possibly one of the best he’d ever gotten. Definitely in the top ten.
*sigh* It WAS a lovely, sweet and sexy make-out session. It seemed to develop so naturally too. Hmmm, it seems like Lex was enjoying the sensations as much as Chloe… I wonder how it ended up with Lex agreeing that it should never happen again, and Chloe left wanting much, MUCH more.
Quote:
Lex pulled away from the kiss immediately, feeling like a complete moron. What the hell was he doing making out with his best friend? It was a sure fire way to fuck things up spectacularly.
“Yes, Enrique,” he inquired as calmly as was possible while he shifted Chloe out of his lap and set her on her own two feet.
ahhhh, now I see. THIS was the moment where Lex completely shut away all alternative possibilities from the forefront of his mind. Chloe was strictly in the category of ‘friend’, and was therefore untouchable… therefore he COULDN’T be attracted to her. I can see him shifting gears into denial right this moment.
Quote:
Enrique had been looking for his employer for the better part of thirty minutes. The cake cutting ceremony was to commence exactly at ten, he’d been informed. Master Luthor wanted the ‘vultures’, his word, not Enrique’s, out of the house as soon as possible.
Which was why he’d been looking for his employer. Had he known what the man was up to, he wouldn’t have interrupted. It looked as if he and Ms. Sullivan were finally on the right track with one another. Instead of nature taking its course, Enrique had seen that he’d caused harm to the situation.
LOL! I thought it was really funny that Enrique has been rooting for a ‘Chlex ending’ for well OVER a year now. I can’t imagine how frustrated he must have been to see Chloe and Lex stepping back into ‘just friends’ again. Not to mention how enraged he must have been when Lex got engaged to another gold-digger that HE DIDN’T EVEN LOVE!!!!
Honestly, this part still confuses me. WHY was Lex so desperate to get married, that he be willing to tie himself to woman that he didn’t love. Did he particularly even LIKE his ex-fiancé?
Quote:
She tried to say something but it was a little difficult what with still feeling Lex’s hands and mouth on her body. What was wrong with her? Lex certainly wasn’t the first man that she’d kissed who had known what he was doing. Then why was her body still hot and tingly? Maybe she was coming down with something.
heh, I’d say she’s coming down with something, all right. I guess this marks the beginning of Chloe’s ‘falling in love’ with Lex Luthor? Or at least, the beginning of her consciously REALIZING that she was in love with Lex.
Quote:
His worst concern was that this could cost him her friendship. It wasn’t that he thought she hadn’t liked it. Hell, it wasn’t even that he hadn’t liked it. The fact of the matter was that it had been wrong and could only end up badly if they started down that way. Chloe was one of his closest friends and that was more important than his goddamn libido. “I think it would be best if we could forget it ever happened.”
Lex looked at her intently, trying to gauge her reaction as his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his pants. “Can we do that?”
“Absolutely,” Chloe said instantaneously. She had no desire to talk about this one thing ad nauseum for god only knew how long.
aaargh! Typical, panicked male reaction. Wanting to sweep everything, emotional repercussion and all under the rug as swiftly as possible. As if getting it over with ‘quickly’ is the best way to resolve the situation.
Chloe certainly didn’t help herself by agreeing to ‘forget the whole thing’. I guess she was in too much shock right now to realize what had happened… it was probably much later… some cold, lonely night… that she realized the full consequences of kissing Lex Luthor.
Quote:
“Well, what do you have to say for yourself? I thought you said that you didn’t have any feelings for her.” He was interested to see how Lex rationalized it. If it was anyone else, Clark would accept the ‘I was drunk’ excuse. But this was Lex he was talking to. The man always knew what he was doing. Always.
Clark knew that he wasn’t being fair but Chloe was the one who was hurting in all of this. He’d be supportive of Lex later.
*squeeeee* I LOVE this Clark. He’s really NOT afraid of confrontation… especially on behalf of a friend.
Quote:
Lex opened his mouth but Clark cut in again. “And don’t give me the old song and dance about how she’s your best friend so of course you have feelings for her. I know that one. I used that one. I wrote that one. And let’s not forget that we were best friends and I never once ended up in your lap.”
ROTFLMAO! Seriously, I was in HYSTERICS from this closing sentence. I was so glad to see that Clark is not going to settle for anything less than a direct answer and full disclosure from Lex. He’s going straight to the heart of the matter, and trying to find out about Lex’s ‘feelings’ towards Chloe…
Clark is undoubtedly hoping to unearth some hidden feelings for Chloe, but I don’t think he’s going to be successful… NOT because there are no feelings to find (because there ‘might’ be)… but because this is an ‘angst’ fic, and there is no way the characters have been put through enough torturous drama yet ;)
This was a fabulous update, BlueSabby! I loved it. There were a LOT of questions answered, and it really helped form a clearer picture about the how and why of Chloe falling in love with Lex when he didn’t return her feelings.
I look forward to story progress. Please update soon.