Getting What You Deserve
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: Lex*tries*to*do something*romantic*for*Chloe. Sounds*simple*enough,*right?
A/N 1: Originally written for the Secret Santa Chlex 2014/2015 for the incredible BabyDee1 based on her prompts.
A/N 2: This is why I haven’t updated much last month.
~*~
Lex paced from one side of his fifty foot living room to the other and then back again, his hands clasped firmly behind his hand to stop them from wringing. He glanced at the clock on the wall for the third time in as many minutes and then made his way over to look out of the window. He saw nothing but the Kansas landscape covered in about a foot of snow. He snarled and resumed his pacing and performed the whole routine again. Just as he had for the last two hours.
He scrutinised the clock above the fire place once more. The damned hands were not moving anywhere near fast enough. Clearly, there was something wrong with it. Piece of Swiss junk! He glanced down at his watch. Whatever was wrong was contagious. Bloody Smallville. Meteor rock filled crater fucking with his clocks.
This was the perfect end to a perfect bloody week. Though by no means sentimental Lex had been looking forward to his first Christmas with someone he loved in years for several months now. They were going to have a traditional holiday filled with laughter, an enormous tree, masses of presents and even more stolen kisses under the mistletoe. A bitter bark of laughter escaped him. That hadn’t happened.
Everything had been planned. It had been a few days to Christmas and Lex’s celebratory plans had been ready to launch in action when bloody Perry White had called at the last second. He had only left the bed for a few minutes to go and get his sleeping angel some coffee to wake up to and when he had got back he had found her awake, half dressed, half packed with her phone attached to her ear. Apparently she was being sent halfway across the globe over Christmas to cover some story which could “make her career”.
Lex had wanted to go with her but she wouldn’t have it. Apparently he would be too “distracting”. All in all he considered himself to be extremely supportive of her career. He just drew the line when it got her in trouble, put her life in danger, took her away from him ... Okay, so he was rather supportive rather than extremely but, he reminded himself, no man was going to be happy about his girlfriend potentially putting herself in harm’s way. And maybe it was true (well, certain actually) that he would have done his very best to distract her from the arduous task of reporting but working too hard could prove bad for the health. So, all things considered, he probably would have been a distraction but that was still no reason for her not to be home over Christmas.And a two week long trip to boot. It was disgusting. Probably unconstitutional. He would have to check.
He had almost done a back flip for joy when he had got a text from her, just before her plane took off that morning to say that she was coming home a week and a half early. Well, she had actually just written “coming back”, but it was the same thing. She had, however, neglected to say what flight she was on, where she was landing, and when she would be arriving so he couldn’t come and get her from the airport nor could he work out what her journey plan was.
As he surveyed the room, he felt his lips twisting bitterly. The entire room was adorned with tasteful decorations, with their newly felled eight foot Christmas tree nestled snugly in a sea of brightly wrapped presents and boxes of ornaments. Everything had been left ready for their romantic Christmas inspired evening, beginning with decorating the tree.
As his eyes travelled over to the impeccably laid out table complete with bouquet of roses and sprigs of mistletoe, his thoughts went to the kitchen full of food prepared. It had taken him five attempts to get his chocolate soufflé to rise. It had probably sunk by now.
He had spent over four hours preparing for his beloved’s arrival by hand and a further two waiting. His annoyance was starting to give way to panic; whatever airline she was using she should have been here an hour ago, at least. And why had she been so impossible to find? Discovering what flight she was on should have been child’s play. Not that he should ever have had to play the guess the flight game. She should have told him so that he could pick her up at the airport. No, strike that, she should never have left in the first place. Especially not without him!
He was done with romance and he was done waiting. Damn her independence and her career and her inconsiderate ways. He was going out to look for her and if she didn’t turn up in the next five minutes then he was sending out a search party. And a rescue helicopter. And if she didn’t like it (finding it too overbearing) then she would just have to lump it.
He stalked out of the room through the winding hallways - moving a little too quickly for his lurking servants. He didn’t bother with his coat, grabbing the handle to the main door -snarling at the mistletoe above it which now seemed to be mocking him - and threw it open to reveal a very beautiful, very wet, diminutive blonde woman.
“Chloe!”
~*~
“No good stupid Perry. Bloody arrogant git. Useless airlines”, Chloe muttered as she rifled around in her purse for her keys. Even through her leather gloves her fingers were frozen and verging on useless. It didn’t help that her keys appeared to have shrunk down to nothing in a bag which hadn’t been the size of a suitcase when she had brought it.
Her tirade was cut short as the door she wanted to open was flung open. Her head snapped up, expecting to see the butler only to be confronted by the man of the house.
“Lex”, his name flew to her lips. Her dear boyfriend. She had missed him so much but the feelings which slammed into her still managed to surprise her. After all that she had gone through over the last four days - and the last ten hours in particular - finally she was back. Light, warmth and something which smelled really good poured out of the castle into the cold night air washing over her a visceral reminder of everything she had been missing. All at once her privations seemed intensified a hundred fold and a million miles away.
She drank in the slight of her adored lover. He was unspeakably handsome (as always) with his gorgeous green eyes were fixed on her and in his shock the emotions were laid bare to her. Shock. Anger. Concern. Love. All of the emotions were there, fighting for dominance but apparently anger was winning.
“Chloe, where the fuck have you been?” Were his first words to her. “Why didn’t you tell me when or how you were coming back? I would have come and got you”.
“For exactly that reason, I didn’t want you putting yourself out and what a nice welcome. ‘Where the fuck have you been?’” She informed him waspishly. “What did you think that ‘Hello darling, how are you?’ was too passée?”
His lips pressed tightly together as he reached out, pulled her inside and slammed the door behind her. “Why are you wet and shivering and how did you get here?” He demanded, not missing a beat.
“Taxi”, came her curt reply. She was still fiddling with her bag. She was going to find those damned keys if it killed her. It was a point of pride.
“I didn't see any taxi”, Lex commented his hand still around her upper arm, as he escorted her into the living room where there was a roaring fire.
“Yeah well he had driven off by then”, she continued her rifling too angry with Lex’s comportment after everything she had been through to risk looking back up at him at that moment. Had she, she would have noticed that his lips were almost invisible.
Apparently with no regard for his personal safety he snapped, “Stop messing around with your bag. You’re inside now you don’t need your keys”. And snatched her reticle from her, chucking it onto the sofa. “Why are you wet Chloe?”
“Because when I got off the stupid plane in Metropolis”, she paused as, without asking, he began to unbutton her coat. Her gaze travelled from his digits’ deft movements to his face and was even more shocked by the smouldering fury she witnessed there. He was in an even worse mood than she was. Which, as she wanted nearly every living thing on the planet dead at that moment, was hard to believe.
She tried to brush his hands away, irrationally irritated by his need to take care of her, but his long skilled fingers continued with their mission until every last button was undone. He circled around her and Chloe allowed the heavy, saturated wool to be eased from her shoulders.
Chloe was uncomfortable aware of his presence behind her. His hot breath on the nape of her neck. His hands brushing against her body. Not because he was trying to seduce her. It was just where he was. Matter of factly ridding her of her water logged burden.
Still, she continued with her story. When Lex decided he wanted to know something, it was easier to comply even if it was none of his business. “I went to my favourite coffee shop to get a latte to cheer myself up after the horridious last four days that I’ve had”, her tone became petulant as she remembered the farce of an article. “I travelled half way around the world for nothing. No story. No lead. Nothing”.
“Chloe”, his tone lacked the sympathy she would have liked.
“I was standing under an oarning just about to get into my taxi with my coffee and the stupid thing gave way and I was covered in about three foot of snow”, she finally explained her appearance as she brought her hands up to her head to smooth her damp hair from her face.
“Are you okay?” Lex asked coming back around to stand in front of her, he reached out to caress her frozen cheek. First bit of affection she had received since returning home. It did something to warm her icicle of a heart. She knew that he loved her as surely as she knew that he was trying very hard not to roar something along the lines of: “What the hell do you think that you have been doing for the last hour sitting around in wet clothes?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just wet and cold tired and pissed off”, she tried to highlight her bad mood rather than her physical discomfort. She knew how easily he became worried about her. She reached out and ran her hand up his forearm in what was supposed to be a comforting gesture but apparently only succeeded in drawing his attention to her extremities and the possibility of frostbite.
He captured both of her hands, tugged off her gloves and sent them to join her bag. He inspected the fingers which had made him roar with pleasure less than a week ago dispassionately. His large masculine hands entwined themselves around her small feminine ones possessively, the heat from his soft flesh almost searing as he warmed her.
“You know, I haven’t had a decent cup of coffee in four days!” Her voice was a little more breathy than she would have liked but she ignored it and fixed her eyes on his handsome visage. He didn’t crack even the ghost of a smile. God help her if he ever found out that four those four days she had subsisted on McDonalds Chicken Nuggets, and not too many of those.
“I should probably have come straight back but when you are told that it is the story of the century, the kind of thing that could make your career and then you get there and there is nothing you don’t think that it is actually nothing, do you? You think that someone must be hiding something. After four days of turning over every single stone”, and a rather dangerous trip into a sewer that she would rather forget and about which Lex was never going to find out, “it is conclusive, Perry got it wrong”.
Still Lex said nothing, He just stood there. His eyes boring into her, his hands scalding hers.
“It was just a bum lead I missed Christmas for nothing and ...” She finally succeeded in explaining herself, why she had been short with him but rather than being met with hugs and kisses and understanding and an apology of his own Lex remained silent. Not quaking with anger. Not pouting. Just silent. She thought that she might have preferred it if he had yelled.
Swallowing uncomfortably, Chloe averted her gaze from his and for the first time she noticed her surroundings. Lex had lead her into the living room where they spent most of their time. Soon after they had begun dating she had put her foot down and dictated that he would use different rooms for working and relaxing and had selected this one out of the plethora of living rooms as it had always been particularly beautiful but tonight it was completely transformed.
“Lex, what is all of this?” She asked with a gasp of wonderment. It all looked so different, so Christmas-y, even with her coat, open bag and gloves flung across the settee. Everything was tastefully and beautifully decorated but with more mathematical precision than artistic flare. This had been done by the hand of a Luthor, not a maid.
A hard ball of guilt began to form in her throat. She didn’t give a damn if the airline ever found her suitcase any more - thankfully her teddy and laptop had been in her carry on. And that had absolutely been the last time that she would ever fly commercial. Next time she wasn’t trying to assert her independence or refrain from putting on Lex. She was letting Lex take care of that stuff, as he would prefer. It was the least that she could do for him and he would have got her back to him much quicker. He had clearly missed her terribly.
Stupidly she hadn’t realised that he was this into Christmas. She knew in the past that he hadn’t celebrated it and hadn’t mentioned it this year so she had left it alone thinking that he wasn’t interested. She had been so stupid. So unfeeling. Such a terrible girlfriend. No wonder he had been so mad. Poor hurt baby.
“Christmas”. Her poor, abused, neglected darling stated simply.
She turned and stared at him taking in for the first time, what he was wearing, and its significance. God she really could be a self-centred bitch at times. He wore no tie with his white shirt, the top two buttons of which were undone. His grey lacks were slightly rumpled as if he had got down on his hands and knees. And he was completely without shoes, his black socks sticking out from under his trousers. She loved him in socks. She didn’t know why, it made him seem so domestic and she just wanted to gobble him up whole.
She was a selfish cow. Going away on Christmas. Leaving her delicious boyfriend all alone.
“I wanted it to be just us and I thought that we should”, he began to explain but she cut him off, moisture gathering in her eyes.
“It’s two days after Christmas”. She had royally fucked up this time. She he had done all of this work not today as she had thought, not for her, but days ago, he had been there all alone on Christmas and ...
“No, no it’s not”, Lex put a stop to her line of thought. He could see where it was headed and the guilt that she would heap on herself. “It’s Christmas Eve. Christmas was delayed this year”.
She blinked back the tears and stared up at him inquisitively.
“Father Christmas and I have a deal”, he promised her with a flash of a wicked grin as he lifted her hands to his lips and covered them with kisses until she smiled back at him. “I’m going to do something about global warming and stop his home from turning to slush and he is going to delay Christmas until you get back and bring you lots of pressies”. Some of which had already been delivered but he planned on spoiling Chloe rotten.
“You blackmailed Father Christmas?” Chloe baulked.
“Well I was hoping to cement my place on the naughty list this year.. I feel that I have been slipping recently. Can’t have that, can we?” He asked as he placed her hands on his chest and slid his arms around her waist, drawing her close to him.
“No baby, we can’t”, she agreed, forgetting about everything except him and how much she loved her irascible, stubborn, overbearing, demanding, ‘won’t admit what a needy so and so he is’, worry wart boyfriend. She flung her arms around him, squishing her sopping wet form into him in a most unladylike manner.
“Come here”, he grinned, burrowing his face in her wet hair even though the only way for him to actually be any closer to her would have been to bury himself inside her. “So, are you done being ridiculously independent, moody, stroppy and stomping around?
Not to mention sliding into flights of morbid fantasy believing me to be missing you so much that I was sitting in an empty house with only a glass of scotch as company verging on suicidal so the last few days?”
“You weren’t were you?” She asked desperately.
“No, of course not. I worked as normal and went to the Kents’. I’ve been more worried about you”, he squeezed her close.
“Now, if I promise to keep the tantrums to a minimum are you going to let me take you upstairs and warm you up properly now?” He demanded.
“You may warm me up”, responded, powerless to refuse.
With a wolfish grin, Lex gathered her up into his arms.
~*~
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