Buyouts, Hostile Takeovers & Matchmaking (PG-13/R)

[Nicki]

i think that it would be fun to see Chloe go on a date and Lex find out and get all mad

[apollo]

i think that both lex should just get it over with and admit that he is interested in chole, and has feelings for her.

[Xebeche]

Any chance of an update now that Christmas is nearly over and we're all eagerly awaiting to see what happens next? Please? Because the mess they're in needs to be sorted out and Gabe definitely needs to do something about Celeste. Or Celeste about Gabe. Whichever.

[BlueSabby]

A/N: Blue: Hello, all. Here's the first part of the meeting of Chloe and Lex. Excuse the awkward stop in the chapter, it was difficult to find one. I'm flying solo this week so you'll get no words of wisdom from Sabby. But I'm sure she'd want you do Enjoy so please do so.


“Coming,” Chloe called out as she made her way towards the front door. She had already heard the bell ring once before but she had been half naked in the bathroom in no state to answer the door.

She jogged to the door, careful not to slip on the polished floors with her damp feet. Chloe had gotten home a little after eight, torn her clothes off and taken a shower. She had slipped on a pair of Princeton shorts and a tank top that she had in numerous colors. It had a bra sewn into it so she didn’t have to deal with underwire. They were a godsend. For some reason, though, the right strap on this one constantly fell off her shoulder. She fixed it again before pulling open the door.

“You’re early,” she said by way of a greeting. Her hair was still damp and the place was a mess. She had another ten minutes before Lex was supposed to arrive. She was supposed to look as if she didn’t have a care in the world when she opened the door, not as if she had been running around the apartment. Chloe hadn’t even had time to give her hair the once over with the blowdryer so it was in that untamable wavy state.

Lex's brows rose as he took in Chloe's disheveled state from top to bottom. She was wearing extremely short shorts that couldn't have been as tiny when he'd still gone to Princeton. The dean would have had a heart attack. Her legs were still slightly damp and as he looked up, his eyes got snagged on a drop of water that slid down her throat to vanish under the tight fitting strap shirt.

Shaking himself out of his stupor he looked up to meet her eyes with a smile. “Hello to you, too,” he greeted then lifted the bag he was holding in his left hand. “I come bearing take out, would that be enough to forgive me?”

He was already cursing himself inside his mind for the blatant ogling. He'd really have to stop that since it wasn't fair to Chloe. Lex had vowed on his drive here that he would stop all flirting and suggestive innuendo, stop checking her out and most importantly stop invading her personal space. The last one was more theoretical, since she was actually the one to breach personal space limits nine out of ten times.

As Lex was preoccupied with running his eyes over her body Chloe rolled her eyes. She hadn’t expected such a reaction from him because it was typical of a man. Sometimes, it was a little difficult to remember that underneath the breeding and the etiquette, Lex was still a guy who reacted to certain stimuli in the most predictable way possible. She just hoped that he would get it out of his system now.

Being with him would be hard enough with trying to ignore what had happened the other night without him checking her out. Chloe had decided that it was a momentary aberration in her rational thought and was ready to get past it and act normal again.

She leaned against the doorjamb and said, “It depends what’s in the bag.” She tilted her head and smiled up at him. “If anything in there,” she pointed at the bag, “has tentacles or eyes you had best turn around and go back home. If not, you’re forgiven and feel free to come in.”

Chloe turned around and walked back into her apartment. She knew that there was no way that Lex would bring anything of the like for them to eat so she wasn’t surprised when she heard him walk into her place and shut the door behind him.

When the door snicked shut, she realized that she hadn’t locked it after she had gotten home. Chloe hoped that Lex hadn’t noticed that no locks were flicked before she opened the door to him. She didn’t feel like another lecture.

Lex examined the door and noticed that there was a bolt lock underneath the normal one as well as a smaller safety lock and a chain attached to the sturdy would. Now if only she'd actually use them, the place wasn't so bad.

He turned around and took in the spacious room in front of him, much wider than her old apartment had been. The walls were still empty and the hardwood floor was pretty much covered in boxes.

“You really didn't get to unpack, yet,” he commented absently as he stepped further into the room.

“No,” she said, “I just actually got over here yesterday with my stuff.” Chloe made her way over to the kitchen. She had unpacked her dinnerware so they wouldn’t have to rip the boxes open in order to get at them. Her kitchen set had been delivered at an ungodly hour this morning so they were set on that as well.

The rest of the place, however, needed a great amount of work. Boxes were still scattered around. She had dragged the ones with her clothes into her room in order to make some space but it had not helped much. Pictures to be hung were leaned against the walls that she wanted them on.

She was on her tippy toes, reaching for the glasses, and felt Lex’s eyes on her. She turned around and couldn’t read the look on his face. “Don’t start,” she said. Because of the counter, he couldn’t see what she reached for and put next to her.

Chloe went up on the first step of the step stool that she had bought and could now easily reach the glasses. “See, now you don’t have to worry about me dropping heavy objects on my head as I get them off of the shelves.”

She placed the two glasses on the counter top and jumped a little as a few drops of water made their way from the back of her neck down between her shoulders. “Do you want the grand tour?”

Lex had been transfixed for a moment by the sliver of skin that had peeked out between the hemline of her shirt and the waistband of those way too short shorts as she'd stretched to reach for the glasses. However, he had instantly forced himself to move his gaze somewhere else and not notice.

He had almost cursed under his breath at his incapability of sticking to simple ground rules he had set for himself. It was high time he went out and got laid. He'd planned to do so for a while, but during the last week he'd been distracted too much by worrying about this new twist in his friendship with Chloe.

“Yes, if you don't mind,” he answered her question as she came towards him from the other side of the counter. “I have to know the area before I can secure it, after all.”

Chloe snorted in an unladylike way before brushing past Lex. “Secure the area,” she mocked, gruffly. “Me man, me take care of womenfolk.” She walked a little down the hallway and flipped on the light.

She opened one of the doors. “Linen closet.” She gestured to the small space that had five shelves. “A little too tight a fit for anyone to jam themselves into in order to kill me.”

Shutting the door, she continued down the hallway. “Bathroom,” she said, tilting her head towards it. It was medium sized and pretty bare as of now. When she saw Lex’s eyes scanning the area and fixing on the window, she shook her head.

As she turned off the light she said, “You know, you could always keep me chained in your basement to ensure my safety.” She knew that both she and Lex had been kidnapped more times than she could count but he was being very silly about the whole thing. Besides, she hadn’t been abducted in ages.

She continued down the hall and had to actually go into the next room in order to turn on the light. It was on the far wall and Chloe bumped against one of the boxes and had to pinwheel her arms in order not to fall. She heard Lex stride towards her to steady her but she regained her balance before he reached her.

Looking over her shoulder, her eyes still not adjusted to the dark she said, “I’m good,” before flicking the light on. “Office,” she stated.

Lex followed had followed her silently through the rooms, letting her have her snarky comments as he mentally checked out all possible entrances an intruder might use. There was just no good reason to be foolish when you never knew. The idea about chaining her in his basement had sounded pretty good for a second, until he remembered what she'd done with the catalysator fluid.

When he'd seen her stumble over something in the dark, his hands had automatically reached out to stabilize her, but she'd caught herself. At her short statements he took another step back, casting his eyes around the now lit room.

“You should have another light switch installed near the door. No need to risk breaking your neck every time you set foot in here,” he commented.

“I’ve already spoken to the super about it,” Chloe said. It was nice to see that Lex was concerned about her but she often wondered just how dumb he thought she was.

There was nothing in the office as of now. She had placed her order for a desk and a leather chair. Her father had insisted on paying for those two items. Chloe had tried to get around it but he wouldn’t budge. He, of course, had magically picked the second and third most expensive items to pay for. The first had been her bed.

Lex was looking over her shoulder at another window. She decided not to point out that she was on the 17th floor so it was very unlikely that someone would break in that way. She didn’t think it would do any good.

He nodded to himself and she guessed that he was done in this room. Chloe considered handing him a pen and paper but she wasn’t sure she wanted to encourage him any more. She flipped the light off again and took the hand that Lex offered her as he guided them out of the room.

Chloe was sure to drop his hand when she could see again. They didn’t need to be holding hands, especially since she was now leading him into her bedroom. It had been the clincher in taking the place. It was almost twice the size of her old one.

Plenty of closet space for her clothes and she could fit a vanity table and another dresser or two if she wanted to. Even with all of that furniture, Chloe had a plethora of space left for her bed, which was the centerpiece of the room. She’d upgraded to a king. “Bedroom,” she said, simply.

Thankfully, she’d done a cursory sweep of this room before Lex had gotten there. The bed was made and most of her clothes were in their place. The outfit that she had been wearing that day, complete with her bra, was thrown on the bed but that wasn’t too bad. Before the cleanup, clothes were all over the place.

She circled the bed and flipped on the light in the bathroom, “Master bathroom,” she said. “If you’re going in there, watch your step, it might still be damp.”

Having Lex slip and crack his skull open wasn’t very appealing to her.

He threw a glance into the master bathroom, trying to ignore the damn towels and general clutter that spoke of a recent shower. He noticed that this room had no window, so that was one less room to worry about. It was held in muted grays and blues and seemed practically oriented, not offering a double sink.

This was obviously a single oriented apartment all in all. No surprise there. If he had children, no money in the world would be able to convince him to live several hundred feet above ground. So it was likely to think that this kind of apartment was cut out for singles who didn't have to worry about any such thing.

The rooms were spacious and probably well lit during the day through the large windows on one side of the wall. He could imagine Chloe doing well in this setting. The apartment suited her much better than the old one had.

He flicked out the bathroom light and gave the bedroom another cursory glance. He noticed the clothes thrown together onto the mattress. A habit he remembered well from one of his ex-wives. Ironically, she had never bothered to actually hang the clothes up later on. After they'd spent a few hours lying on the mattress they had went directly into the hamper. He wondered if Chloe did the same.

“Well then, now that I know what I'm dealing with, how about dinner and then I can help you with some of those boxes,” he offered.

He'd had some experience with unpacking boxes by now, since he'd moved several times within the span of the last ten years. From Metropolis to Smallville, back to Metropolis into the Penthouse and from there to his own house.

Chloe’s stomach took the opportunity to pipe up and let the room know what it thought of that plan. She slapped her hands over it and blushed. “That sounds like an excellent idea,” she said. Of course, she could only imagine what Lex would think of the stuff she took out of the boxes.

She had gotten rid of the excess clutter that she didn’t need from the old place but she still had a lot of things that she knew he would consider junk.

Picking up the suit on the bed and stuffing it into a dry cleaning bag, she said, “And then we can also discuss just what you have in mind for my security.” She picked up her bra and put it in the zippered small bag that was designated for items to be hand washed.

Not quite the hamper, but pretty close. He didn't make a comment about it and fought down the grin that threatened, knowing that it would take too long to explain. Instead he settled on an amused smirk.

“Alright then,” he said as he stepped back out into the hallway and started walking back towards the living room and the kitchen. “I already have a few ideas in mind.”

It was basically the same things he had wanted to install in the old apartment, as unobtrusive as possible for the tenant but hell on any wanna be intruder. “Oh and I brought Chinese.”

He'd made a trip to Chinatown and visited MaiMai. When she'd asked him about the amount of food he was taking he'd told her that he was going to meet a friend. Perceptive little vixen that she was, she'd at once guessed that it was a female friend, though he had no idea why. She'd tried to wheedle information on Chloe out of him, but Lex had simply reiterated that she was a friend and refused to give any further comment.

Chloe followed Lex down the hall, her fingertips trailing against the wall as she went. She couldn’t decide on a color just yet but knew that any painting that was to be done should be done soon. Once her furniture had been moved in, it would make the process more difficult.

Chinese Chloe could deal with. Thankfully Lex hadn’t brought Thai. The next time it was her turn for dinner she knew that there would be pizza involved. She’d found the best place the other day when she was wandering around Little Italy.

“Just please don’t tell me that your ideas have to do with a trick remote,” she said, fixing him with a look as she picked up their plates. They could eat in the kitchen but she felt like sitting on the floor. She pushed some boxes out of the way with her foot, they were already half empty, to make room in front of the coffee table.

Some were too heavy so Chloe had to bend at the waist and push against them with her hands. She supposed this type of motion was good for some muscle or other.

Lex was next to her in an instant but she said, “Those were the last of them. We can sit now.” The strap had fallen down again on her top and she fixed it before going back into the kitchen. She heard Lex taking out their food along with the plastic utensils. The glasses were already on the table so she grabbed some napkins and asked, “What’s your poison?”

Lex considered the unknown options and went for the most simple solution. “Whatever you're having is fine by me,” he answered.

He couldn't imagine that Chloe would be drinking anything that he would find completely disgusting so whatever it was would be alright. He'd been a bit slow to catch up when she had started moving boxes aside, but made a mental note now which boxes had been the heavier ones so he could set that mistake to right later.

He'd also steadfastly kept his gaze on something else when she had bent over and was not looking at her below the neck line. It was harder than he would have expected. Somehow he had gotten used to freely checking Chloe out without much intention behind it. He'd simply appreciated her physique before, now he had to be careful about not giving her the wrong idea.

As he settled down across from Chloe on the living room carpet, he remembered that she'd asked him about the security measures.

“No remote control,” he hummed as he reorganized some of the planned contraptions, “That's going to require some creative thinking, then. And for you to remember a few codes.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Chloe said as she rejoined Lex by the coffee table. She had brought a bottle of red wine that she had been given at work for Lex and a beer for herself. The year for the wine was supposed to be excellent and it seemed a pity to her that the bottle would go to waste.

“Mind like a steel trap,” she said, tapping on the side of her temple with her pointer finger, careful not to drop the bottle of wine. The motion caused her strap to fall again, annoying her.

She plunked the bottle down in front of Lex, fixed her strap, and said, “Do you like this brand? If not, I’ve got more beer or water or some sparkling ale crap.”

Lex looked at the label and nodded so she settled herself across from him, Indian style. Thankfully her skin was dry enough so she wasn’t sticking to the floor. Thinking about her last words she said, “I don’t think I’m selling the ale too well.”

She popped open her beer and said, “Lois sent it to me as a joke.”

Lex looked up from the open bottle of wine and arched an eyebrow in question. “I'm not sure if I even want to know what kind of joke would involve sparkling ale,” he said evenly.

Of course now that his mind had started thinking about it, he was curious as to what the joke could possibly be. Knowing Lois Lane it was probably both disgusting and void of any real humor, though.

He poured a glass of wine and held it up against the artificial light, knowing he wouldn't be able to judge the color correctly because of it, but old habits died hard. Taking a wiff of the aroma, he brought the glass to his lips and took a first sip.

“Passable,” he declared.

A smile broke over Chloe’s face and then she started to laugh. “It must be very hard for you to slum it with me.” She reached over the table and grabbed one of the paper containers and peered inside. She didn’t recognize the dish but it smelled wonderful so she dumped some of it onto her plate.

Careful to avoid all of the breakables, Chloe leaned forward until she could grab the other box as well. Lex had stopped inspecting the glass and was looking at her strangely now. “I don’t need help, I can actually reach it myself,” she said.

Lex opened the plastic container with the rice and poured some onto Chloe's plate before he tended to himself. She'd grabbed the Lo Mein, which meant there was still some Chicken Bamboo and somewhere his Duck in Pineapple and sweet sauce.

Instinctively he made a grab for the one on his left, his lips curling in a satisfied grin when it turned out to be the duck. He heaped some onto his plate before answering Chloe's question.

“Oh this is not slumming it,” he shook his head. “Believe me in comparison to some of the places I've been, not even your old apartment constituted as slumming it.”

Chloe laughed again. “Thanks for the high compliment Richie Rich.” She made sure that Lex knew she was joking. She suspected that he would be sensitive if she poked fun too hard at the fact that he could be a tad bit snobbish.

She dug into her food and made a sound of praise in the back of her throat. The food was very hot and, as usual, she burned her tongue. She took a sip of her beer and said, “This is from the same place as last time, right?” When Lex nodded she said, “I’m going to have to get the address out of you. It’s fantastic.”

Her posture was ramrod straight being that she didn’t have anything to prop herself up against. It didn’t seem to bother Lex but she surmised that was because he had been trained to sit perfectly. That reminded her of something.

“You were right about the couch,” she said, poking another piece of chicken with her fork. “There is no new edition and the old ones are all out of stock,” she grumbled.

“Really,” he asked. He was truly surprised by that, being as the couch hadn't been a special order. “Hrm, then I suppose we have a bit of a problem.”

He had no intention of letting go of his own couch, however he was pretty sure that wouldn't be necessary anyway. There was always the option of getting the instructions and have it built for her. Lex was sure his interior designer could take care of that.

“Don't worry about it,” he said with a nod. “I'll take care of that. Do you want the same color or something lighter?”

If he went as far as having the couch custom made, there was no reason to make them furbish it in brown leather if Chloe wanted to stick to a different color scheme entirely.

Here is where Chloe thought things were going to get tricky. She knew that for Lex money was no object and that he was more than happy to throw it around on her if he could. But, she thought about it in a very different manner. If you had always had money, it was hard to understand what it was like not having it. And vice versa.

She didn’t want to throw Lex’s generous offer back in his face but she wanted to make clear that he wouldn’t be paying for everything. She shrugged one shoulder, the strap slithering down again, and said, “I haven’t decided yet. But once you put me in touch with your decorator, we’ll see what he or she can do on my budget.”

Lex shook his head and ate a spoonful of duck and rice before he answered. “Why can't you just think of the couch as a house warming gift,” he asked. “It was intended as such anyway, so it will definitely not go on your budget. I insist.”

He pointed the empty fork in her direction for emphasis. Thankfully she hadn't opted for chopsticks, that would have been far less threatening. He knew that Chloe's budget was a lot less tight now, since she could afford this new apartment that had to be several classes above her old one in terms of rent. However, that didn't mean he wouldn't do her a favor, if he could and helping her out with the interior designer was the least he could do.

“And he, Jean Pierre to be specific,” he said then brandished the fork at her once more. “Not one word,” he admonished.

Chloe ran a hand through her hair. She could tell that Lex was starting to get a little testy over the couch. As was she. But she didn’t want it to become another fight. “Lex, a plant is a housewarming gift. Something for the kitchen is a housewarming gift. Not a five thousand dollar couch.”

He opened his mouth but Chloe held up her hand. “However, I will let you do this because I don’t want to start another fight. Just please remember this moment the next time we start sniping at each other.”

She turned back to her food and almost mentioned that she should get extra points for not laughing at the image of Lex and some French guy strolling around his house talking about color schemes.

“And thank you very much for everything that you’re doing for me,” she said, looking back up at him. “It’s very sweet of you.”

'Sweet' was not exactly what he'd set out to achieve, but he would deal with it. He was almost tempted to tell Chloe that it had taken her less than three second to get to the 'next time' they started sniping at each other. Instead he merely inclined his head and reached for the take out bag.

A plant for a housewarming gift, he scoffed inwardly. How uninspired could one get to give somebody greenery for a gift in any fashion? Shaking it off he reached into the bag and pulled out a handful of fortune cookies. Maybe those had given him away to MaiMai. Little traitors.

“Let's see what the cookies say about all this, shall we,” he said as he offered Chloe the hand filled with the small packages.

“I doubt these cookies are going to tell us which one of us is right and which one of us is stubborn.” He looked at her for a moment before she amended, “Ok, morestubborn.”

She looked at the four that he had in his hand and carefully chose one of the wrapped cookies. She snapped it in half and read the fortune aloud before reading it to herself. Big mistake.

“What you want most is staring you in the face.” Well, great, this wasn’t too awkward or anything. She crumpled up the paper and threw it on the coffee table.

After starting to nibble on the cookie, she asked, “What did you get?”

Hopefully, Lex’s would be more along the lines of the trite, clichéd verses that were usually inside the cookies.

“With a clouded mind it is impossible to see even those things that are impossible to miss,” he read out loud.

Shaking his head, he crumpled the little note as well and cast it aside. “One thing's clear. Those two absolutely don't work with the 'in bed' game,” he deadpanned.

He was almost sure that those two weren't regular run of the mill fortunes. If the lines hadn't given them away, the fact that they were handwritten surely did. He was going to have a word with MaiMai about that.

“Want to try another,” he asked.

Being that Lex didn’t seem too thrown by the weird fortunes, she shrugged her shoulders and grabbed the other one from his hand. “Let’s see if this one is any better for that,” she said, with a smile.

She got settled back on the floor and stretched out her legs to get more comfortable. “Oh my,” she murmured so low that she was sure Lex couldn’t hear her before reading it out loud.

[Kit Merlot]

This was an awesome update! Lex noticing Chloe's body, and reacting to what he sawis a very good thing.

And I liked his giving himself the peptalk about not leading Chloe on, but he's the one getting uncomfortable with his attataction to her--I lov eit

[kimmie]

What did it say? whatt did it say? Get back here, please!

I'm glad Lex is noticing how hot Chloe is, the shorts were a brilliant idea!!!

Want more SOON!!!

Kimmie

[BellaMR]

This was an excellant chapter even if your partner in crime was missing.

Chloe was so cruel wearing those short shorts and strappy shirt around Lex. It's bad enough her hair was dripping, but her strap kept slipping too. That's just mean.

I particularly loved this:

This was obviously a single oriented apartment all in all. No surprise there. If he had children, no money in the world would be able to convince him to live several hundred feet above ground.

Lex could be such a family man if he let himself. He'd make an amazing dad. It makes it even sadder that he has given up on the idea of marriage.

I also loved the idea of locking Chloe in the basement. Definate possibilities there.

[darkangel]

Wow. Lex must have been blind to not notice how hot cloe was b4. Please give us anothe new chapter soon.

[star del mar]

I think I like MaiMai...she is one clever girl And the fortune's were very fitting. I'm glad that Lex is noticing that even though he might not "mean" it that's he's sending out signals too, checking out Chloe like she's free game. Hello? Why not do something about it then? I can't wait to see the new fortune, judging from Chloe's reaction it's probably a juicy one Great update!

Steph*

[Kikina]

It´s sooo good the way the relationship moves slowly forward . please update soon