~*~Part Seventeen~*~
She was a beautiful bride.
Breathtaking.
Spectacular.
Stunning.
Guaranteed to render Lex Luthor speechless.
Or so the cosmetician, hairdresser, Lana, and the maid had all cooed at various points of the morning.
Sometimes more than once…
… an hour.
Chloe gritted her teeth, arming herself with a fake smile as she thanked Lana once again for her compliments. All that hard work she had put into molding Lana into something other than a dimwitted socialite had gone down the drain the moment the morning had dawned and the actual wedding preparations had begun. It was almost frightening, the rate at which Lana had deteriorated, turning into nothing more than another wedding-struck woman.
Hopefully she would return to normal once the day was over.
One could pray, anyway.
“It’s almost that time!” Lana gushed. Her bouquet of pink flowers was clutched tightly in her hand, matching her just-as-pink dress perfectly. She, too, had been given into the delicate hands of the beauticians earlier that day, and now Lana’s hair was up in a twist, threaded through with tiny slivers of pink ribbon.
She looked very… pretty, Chloe had to admit. Pink suited Lana like it suited no one else on the face of this Earth, for all that it was a disturbing, sickening color that reminded Chloe personally of Pepto-Bismol.
Maybe Lana really was a meteor freak, she mused silently. And her power of choice? The ability to make pink look –good-.
“Chloe, aren’t you excited?”
“Very,” Chloe answered automatically with a genuine smile. And she was. She really was. Excited that this day was here. Excited that soon it would be over. And even more excited that, in a short time, she would be flying off to some no doubt wonderful vacation spot to get some Lex lovin’ under the guise of ‘honeymooning.’ “I’m just trying not to get worked up and mess up my hair.”
Lana’s eyes left hers, traveling upward. Chloe knew what she was looking at: the veil that was perched on top of a small, sparkling circlet of diamonds. The hairdresser had assured the two of them that it was secure and wouldn’t be moving an inch during the proceedings or the reception, but Chloe had her doubts. It all seemed so fragile.
“Good idea,” Lana nodded solemnly. “You just… stand there until your dad comes to walk you down the aisle.”
Chloe breathed a sigh of relief as the chatter died away, Lana taking up position in front of the second of two floor length mirrors in the room to make sure that she still looked perfect. The cosmetician and hairdresser were still in the manor, Chloe knew, so if there were any emergencies there was always the chance to get them fixed before the ‘big moment’ came.
Her gaze swept back to the mirror she stood next to. Hard to believe this day was here, but harder still to deny it when the proof of it was right in front of her. The dress was a classic white, hugging the top of her body before expanding into an ocean of skirt at her waist. There were no sleeves, just delicate bands of white lace that encircled a portion of her upper arms. The finest of embroidery adorned the bodice, which was woven through with pearls that Chloe knew to be real.
Nothing but the best for Lex Luthor’s wife-to-be, the dressmaker had smiled knowingly. The dress was worth more than most people in Smallville had paid for their homes.
She felt decadent in it. Never having been much for material things, the dress and headpiece made her feel well and truly like a princess.
And after the ceremony was over, she’d just have to convince Lex to donate the gown and headpiece to a charity to auction off. Maybe then she wouldn’t feel like she had bathed in sin just by wearing it.
~*~*~
Lois slipped through the bushes outside of the Luthor manor, camera in hand. No press had been invited to the festivities, outside of one lone reporter from Chloe’s paper.
And Kent, of course, she amended with a silent growl of frustration. Though he wasn’t likely to be taking pictures or reporting on anything. He had told her as much.
He had also steadfastly refused to bring her as his date to the wedding.
Which meant that, since she had not received an invitation of her own, she was persona non grata at the day’s festivities.
Well, she wasn’t going to let that stop her. Not when she was just as capable of slinking around as the next person.
As she moved toward the festivities, she twisted her ankle on the overgrown root of one of the bushes, stumbling in the freshly watered beds that surrounded the house. Her hands came down in a patch of earth so wet and fresh that it squished through her fingers, mud bubbling up from between them.
“Ugggh,” Lois moaned, lifting one hand to stare at the horrid mess that caked her skin and was already seeping through the knees of her expensive pants suit. So much for trying to slip in unnoticed with a group of guests.
“Ms. Lane.”
Lois’ head snapped up, eyes widening. Security. Crap. Two, big, strong security men, at that. The kind of guys that screamed “goon”. Of course Lex Luthor would have goons, she groaned silently. She thought briefly of trying to make a run for it. Then for another few seconds pondered on whether or not she could sweet talk them into just leaving her be. But the hard, cold expressions on their faces said everything she needed to know.
“We were told you might show up,” Goon Number Two smirked.
“Yeah, yeah,” Lois snapped, climbing out of the mud. The camera’s loose swinging around her neck was halted by one of Goon Number One’s beefy hands. She stiffened as he calmly flipped open the film holder, pulling the light sensitive roll into the sunlight.
“I hadn’t taken any yet,” she fumed.
“I care.” The cold smile on his lips said otherwise, but she wasn’t going to argue and risk the two of them making a play for removing her from the premises roughly. Somehow she doubted Superman would be thrilled if he had to fly all the way from Metropolis to save her. And the last thing she needed was him glaring at her in that reproachful way. It was something he had to have learned from Clark, or vice versa, because the two of them were just too damn good at it.
“Of course you do,” Lois forced out through clenched teeth. She debated once more, briefly, the wisdom of trying to get them to let her stay, and then gave up with a sigh. “Care to escort a girl off the property?”
~*~*~
“Are you sure about this?”
Gabe Sullivan watched his daughter ponder the question for all of two seconds before she nodded, flashing him a brilliant smile. He wasn’t sure what had happened years ago for Lex to fall out of her good favor so suddenly, nor was he sure what Lex had done now to win back her affections.
But it was plain to see that she was head over heels in love.
And, as a father, all he had ever wanted her to be was happy.
“Positive,” she nodded once, decisively.
He wasn’t going to get teary-eyed, Gabe told himself as he took Chloe’s arm in his, the Wedding March beginning even as they took their places to begin the walk. He cast one more glance at her, noting the way she practically glowed.
She looked beautiful, but then again, she had always looked beautiful to him.
~*~*~
He refused to fidget or shift nervously.
Luthors did not fidget. It was eerie how well he could still hear his father’s voice, in his head, even to this day.
He looked up the aisle at the doors that would open any moment now. Everything had gone smoothly up to this point and he was anxious, if not eager, for the ceremony to be at an end. Only then would he feel like things were finalized.
At some silent cue, the wedding march began to play. The rich, deepness of the organ washed over the gathered crowd, demanding attention as the doors swung open.
And… then…
… beautiful.
Chloe was breathtaking. Some would say that it was the gown, he knew. Those same some would ‘ooo’ and ‘ahh’ over how extravagant it was. They would ask how much it had cost and concentrate on all the wrong things.
The dress meant nothing, as far as he was concerned. Chloe could have damn well walked up to the altar naked and she still would have been the most beautiful woman on the face of the earth.
Although, perhaps they would reenact this ceremony privately at a later date.
And she could wear the veil… and nothing else.
Body flaming, heart aching to hold her once again, Lex did the one thing he had promised himself he wasn’t going to do.
He fidgeted.
Nervously.
~*~*~
Chloe met Lex’s eyes as she took her first step onto the satiny smoothness of the aisle. She let herself fall into those steely blue depths and wrapped herself up in the emotion that she found there.
Lex loved her.
She clutched her father’s arm like a lifeline, afraid for one moment that she might drown in Lex’s eyes and the passion and caring that she saw there. There would never be anyone but Lex, she knew for a fact. She didn’t believe in fate or destiny – but that didn’t stop her from knowing, just the same, that this man was her other half.
It took a supreme effort of will not to giggle when Lex began to show his impatience in the form of shifting, albeit discreetly, from foot to foot. A part of her hoped that the wedding videographer was getting some of it on tape, for no one would likely ever see Lex Luthor so uncomposed ever again in their lifetime.
Chloe kept time with the music, her gown swishing quietly behind her as she fought the urge to run down the aisle to join him.
She succeeded.
But only just barely.
~*~*~
In his seat, Clark clenched his hands, watching as the girl he had once considered one of his best friends make what had to be the biggest mistake of her life. He didn’t doubt that Lex loved her – not after seeing the way that Lex acted around her. But that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t end up getting hurt by Lex. Intentionally or unintentionally, she would bear the brunt of one of Luthor’s less than legal schemes. It was as inevitable as the sun rising. He had come with the intent to rise up and be that person that would object to everything. Before God and these witnesses, he had been prepared to try one last time to get Chloe to see reason.
But her happiness had stopped him. The look on her face when he had used his x-ray vision to see her in the hall right before the wedding processional began and the doors opened had been radiant.
No matter what he thought of Lex, Chloe was happy with him.
Which made not standing up and not saying his piece one last time that much harder.
His gaze moved from Chloe to Lana. If anything, the girl that had held his heart for most of his high school days was beaming just as brightly as Chloe was.
His mother patted his knee reassuringly and he glanced over at her. She seemed just as serene as ever – a perfect point of calmness in the ever-roughening ocean that was his life. Things were only going to get worse from here, he could feel it, and yet she continued to look on the bright side of things. Lex had said he wasn’t going to tell anyone. That it would serve no purpose.
That didn’t mean that he wouldn’t one day use the knowledge of Clark’s secret identity for ill gain.
Clark knew he would.
His father knew he would, too, which was why Jonathan Kent was at home, safely away from Lex Luthor and the temptation that he represented.
In a perfect world, they would all still be friends with one another, Clark mused, shifting in his seat.
But this wasn’t a perfect world.
“I now pronounce you man and wife – you may kiss the bride.”
And that was that.
“I’m going to skip the reception,” he murmured to his mom, leaning over so that she could hear him as the gathered ‘friends and family’ stood to clap for the newly married couple. He joined in automatically, already thinking about getting out of there, out of Smallville, out of the country.
His mother raised her eyebrows, lips pressing tightly together, but didn’t comment.
How could he explain to her that he was finally starting to feel what Chloe and Lana seemed to have wanted him to feel?
That he had been the one to screw up.
And that empty ache inside of him wasn’t getting any better with every passing moment that he sat here, on the outside of their happiness, looking in.
~*~*~
“Jonathan Kent didn’t show up.”
Chloe smirked, nodding. “But I hear from your security people that my cousin did. How fortuitous it was that you had those plant beds watered so heavily this morning.”
He pulled her closer as they swirled leisurely around the dance floor. It was the first dance and all eyes were on them, probably assuming that they were speaking sweet words of love and affection to one another.
“We can get out of here soon,” Chloe whispered against his ear, her breath sending delightful shivers running up and down his spine, like soft little fingers dancing along his skin.
Not for the first time in days, he was all too eager for the entire wedding affair to be over and done with.
“Another hour, tops,” he murmured in reply, bending his head low so that his forehead was touching hers. He knew what they looked like, to the wedding guests who watched them from the sidelines. Two people, in love. It was the type of thing that, once upon a time ago, he would have scoffed at and silently mocked.
Not now.
So long as it was he and Chloe, that was. Other couples could still bear the brunt of his mocking derision if they were sappy in public.
“Let’s just leave now,” Chloe whispered in response, shifting so that her mouth was now next to his ear. Her warm breath tickled carelessly along the tender lobe of flesh, sending shivers along his spine.
Lex knew they should stay.
Knew that the guests would expect them not to run off at the first chance they had, newlyweds or not.
He also knew that it would take some adjusting to get his private jet prepared for takeoff earlier than he had informed his flight crew and the airport.
“Please?”
He bit off a groan at Chloe’s husky purr of entreaty, nodding sharply once.
Fuck it.
What was the use in having money if he couldn’t throw it around?
They could damn well get the jet ready in the time it took for him and Chloe to get from the manor to Metropolis.
“Should we make an excuse or just run for it?”
“I don’t picture you as the running type, Luthor,” Chloe smirked. “I say we just walk sedately out of here. No muss, no fuss.”
Lex stepped back and took her hand in his. He lifted it to his mouth, grazing his lips across the skin of her knuckles. “Shall we, then, Mrs. Luthor?”
Walk out of the reception without even an excuse?
Sounded like a good plan from where he was standing.
And that was just what they did.
~*~End Fic: Epilogue to Come~*~
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by tthjinni
Re: Signed, Sealed... R, Ch 17, 03/05
.jpg "Krysia's Avatar"){kind=avatar}
Bookmarks