A/N: Just remember that the story is listed as Chlex UST – meaning *unresolved* sexual tension. Sorry to all of you still rooting for that couple in this one.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Chloe and Bruce sat in the formal dining room, seated together at one end of the large, dark table, waiting for food as Alfred proclaimed that they must be famished and insisted that they eat something.
“Are you going to tell me what this is about?” Bruce asked.
Chloe reached out and pressed the rewind button on her tape recorder.
“Lex paid me a visit while I was out driving,” she said quietly and watched as Bruce squared his jaw.
“How did he find you?”
“I have no idea,” Chloe admitted. “But he’s rich, so ---”
“So am I,” Bruce reminded her. “And I couldn’t find you.” She gave him a compensatory smile.
“Yeah, but you don’t use your money to cross the line,” she said. Bruce nodded a couple of times in acceptance of her answer.
“You think he’s becoming like his father,” he observed.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I hope not, but…you should have seen him, Bruce.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No,” Chloe said, “not physically anyway. He just…he scared me. I’ve never seen him like that. He’s usually a pretty nice guy for the most part, but it’s like he’s become obsessed or something. I’m not sure I know how to explain it, because he wasn’t mean or anything, but…he just wasn’t the guy I used to know – although, technically, I guess I never *really* knew him.”
Bruce ran his hands down his face and then stared at her, knowing from the expression on her face that she had something else to say.
“He knows about Clark.”
“Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure. I mean, I suppose he could just *suspect* that Clark has some meteor-enhanced abilities like I do, but ---”
“You think he has proof,” Bruce stated. Chloe nodded sadly.
“If there’s one person other than me in the world who’s willing to search for the truth at all costs, it’s him,” she said and then let out a humorless chuckle. “Clark used to call us the ‘truth seekers’…although he always seemed to say that in a derogatory manner.”
Bruce sighed.
“If Clark’s the super-man you think he is, then why didn’t he save you at Lana and Pete’s wedding rehearsal? Why didn’t he stop the shooters?” he asked.
“Bruce ---”
“I know, I know – we’ve had this discussion,” he said.
“I don’t love Clark – you know that.”
“So does he, but he still should have saved you.”
“You think he didn’t help me because I had just told him to get lost?” Chloe asked incredulously.
“It’s possible.”
“It’s not,” Chloe said and shook her head. “Clark is a good guy – I’ve seen him stick up for people that he doesn’t even like. I don’t know - maybe I’m wrong,” Chloe suggested and then gave him a hint of a smile. “First time for everything, right? Maybe Clark wasn’t affected by the meteor rocks.” Bruce leaned his jaw to rest on his propped up fist.
“Maybe Clark told him - Lex,” he mused aloud. “You said he seemed to know something --- and they’re friends, right?”
“They used to be,” Chloe said. “Lana said that they haven’t been getting along too well for a while now.” She glanced down and saw that the tape had stopped at the beginning. “I didn’t get all of it, only the last of the conversation.” She ran her teeth over her lower lip in hesitation. “If you don’t want to hear it ---”
Bruce reached out and covered her hand, giving it a little squeeze as a silent go ahead. He could take whatever he was about to hear. He might not like it, but he could take it. And if he couldn’t…well, he *had* warned Lex not to show up at the wedding the next day. He would just have to take advantage of that warning. Chloe she pressed the play button with her index finger and Bruce listened intently as Chloe and Lex’s conversation from the car crackled through the small speaker on the tape recorder.
“So, she came up with the killing you thing all by herself?”
“Sadly, yes.”
“No offense, but you have horrible taste in women.”
Lex let out a half-snort and grinned at her.
“Up until now, I would have agreed with you,” he said, an almost endearing tone creeping into his voice. “You’re still going to marry him, aren’t you?”
“I love him.”
“Chloe ---”
“Maybe in another life, or maybe even in this one if you had gotten your act together before I met him…
Chloe cringed and looked over to see Bruce’s reaction to her statement, but, like Lex, he was well adept at keeping an emotionless mask on his face.
“…but I need you to stop this now. I love Bruce and I’m marrying him tomorrow. You need to let it go.”
“I’m not good at that.”
“I’ve noticed…Lex? --- I’m sorry.”
Chloe stared almost absently at the table as she waited for Bruce’s reaction. She hadn’t been able to record the entire conversation, but had reached into her purse to record the ending when she remembered that her tape recorder was in her purse. She figured that if Bruce was going to lose his temper as much as she thought he might, then it might be good to have proof that she hadn’t done anything with Lex other than talk to him.
The recording stopped and Bruce slowly drug his eyes from where the recorder sat on the large table to where Chloe was sitting, her eyes now scanning his face nervously for a reaction.
“Do you love him?”
Chloe closed her eyes as she felt her heart cracking. She knew that Bruce might get the wrong idea from the tape, but she had been honest when she said she didn’t want any more secrets between them. She would have never been able to go through the wedding if she hadn’t told him about it.
“You know I don’t,” she answered.
“How do I know that?” Bruce asked. Chloe’s eyes snapped open and she glared at him. Even as he stood up to loom over her, she kept her eyes focused on him, unthreatened by what might happen. She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off with an increasingly upset voice. “Answer me, Chloe. How do I know that? The man is practically throwing himself at you, so he must think that he still has a chance – not to mention the fact that you used to say his name in your sleep.”
Chloe paled. She remembered the nightmares she used to have about Lex and what might have happened between them, but she hadn’t had them since Bruce asked her to marry him, and he had never told her that she said Lex’s name while she was dreaming. Her gut twisted and her arms crossed over it as if by instinct. She drew a large breath before raising her head to face her fiancé again.
“I don’t love him,” Chloe said. “I don’t know why Lex is acting the way he is, but I promise you that I have never encouraged him - *never*.” She stopped for a second and looked down again, shaking her head. “As for the nightmares, I should have told you about them, but I knew you would be upset and ---”
“Nightmares?” Bruce asked, his previously angry tone now contorted into surprise and worry. Chloe swallowed down a wave of nausea that hit her. It was one thing to mention that she had them, quite another to describe what the content of them was.
“I – um – before we got engaged,” she started, still pale and not looking at him. “I told you that Lex was in my room, waiting for me, on the night we met.” Bruce nodded to encourage her to continue. “I had these dreams. They would start out the same way the night actually happened, but then…” she trailed off as a shudder passed through her body and Bruce immediately knew he wasn’t going to want to hear the rest of what she had to say. “He would start…I tried to push him away, but…” Chloe’s eyes started to water up and her voice started to shake. “I…I don’t feel so well. I think I need to get to bed,” she said, rising from her seat and purposefully avoiding looking at him as she tried to brush by him.
Bruce wrapped his arms around her from behind and leaned down to kiss the nape of her neck.
“I’m sorry, Chloe,” he said. “I had no idea. I never would have brought it up if ---” Chloe started crying and he turned her around in his arms so she could bury her head against his chest. Bruce closed his eyes and stroked the back of her hair. “Shhh. Sweetheart - I’m so sorry.” Chloe continued to cry until it tapered off into a whimpered sniffle and she started to push herself away from him.
Bruce gripped loosely onto her arms and slowly bent his head down to kiss her. Despite, or perhaps because of, all of the emotion pent up inside her, Chloe melted into the kiss, quickly parting her lips to allow their tongues to slide into each other’s mouths. His hands ran over the bottom of her shirt, tilting his head to deepen the kiss as he tugged at the fabric, raising it over her belly until she lifted her arms to take it off. Chloe let out an appreciative hum from deep in her throat as the cool air hit her nipples through the lace of her bra.
In one swift movement, Chloe clutched at the material of Bruce’s shirt and the buttons holding it closed went splaying across the room, tapping like little pebbles as they hit the stone floor. Their mouths met again in a fevered passion and after a mere couple of steps, he pushed her back against the table. Leaning over her, he held himself up on one arm while he tried to unbutton her jeans with his free hand. Chloe raised her hips and started to wiggle free of her jeans when they heard the distinctive sound of a throat clearing in the room.
Chloe and Bruce exchanged startled and slightly embarrassed expressions before turning their heads to see a completely mortified Alfred standing in the doorway.
“My sincerest apologies for *ahem* interrupting you, but there’s a Mr. Kent here to see Miss Chloe.”
“Mr. Kent?” Chloe asked in surprise, propping herself up only to find herself completely covered by Bruce’s bare chest as he shielded her from Alfred’s view. “Jonathan Kent?”
“I believe the young man said his name was Clark, Miss Chloe.”
Bruce cursed under her breath and Chloe blew a huff of air to get some loose hair out of her eyes.
“I told him that you had retired for the evening, but he was rather insistent that he needed to see you right away,” Alfred said. “He claims it to be a matter of life and death.”
Bruce let out a small sigh.
“Show him to my study, Alfred. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
TBC…
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