A/N: Ugh. I know I promised you smut in this one, but my stupid muse had other ideas. Sorry.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“Lex,” Chloe interrupted, taking a step backward and holding her hands up as a defensive warning, “Tell you what, let’s just pretend this whole thing never ---”
“The curse doesn’t have anything to do with my feelings for you,” he uncharacteristically blurted out. Chloe furrowed her brow.
“What?”
“It doesn’t. Ask Lucas if you don’t believe me,” he said. Chloe crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, causing Lex to give her a lopsided grin in understanding. “Sabrina then.” Chloe shook her head lightly and smiled, but she tried to push it down as she started to speak.
“Lex ---” she was cut off by the distinctive sound of her cell phone ringing loudly through her bag. Lex sighed and ran a hand over his scalp as he watched her walk over to it.
‘With the way my luck’s going, it’ll be Sean – calling to profess his undying love for her,’ he thought and then bit back a small groan.
“Hello?” she answered, not daring to peek over to see what Lex’s reaction to her taking a phone call right in the middle of what could become a heated discussion was. ‘Heated in more than one sense of the word,’ she thought, immediately followed by, ‘Mind out of the gutter, Sullivan.’ Chloe heard a familiar tsking sound coming through the phone and her lips spread in a smile.
“I’ve only been gone a short while and you’ve already forgotten the proper phone etiquette I taught you,” Lionel teased.
“Answering the phone with my last name isn’t considered proper phone etiquette,” she jokingly argued. Lex couldn’t stop the cringe that swept through his body with her words. There was no mistaking who was on the other line now, and it was definitely worse than if Sean had been the one to call her. “And besides, this is my *personal* cell phone – not my business one. I can answer it any way I want to.” Lionel chuckled and she could practically hear him smirk at her through the phone.
“Of course, dear.”
“So – what’s up?”
“Just calling to check in, make sure you haven’t made anyone angry in my absence,” Lionel said smugly with a hint of teasing in his voice. Chloe laughed.
“No one that I know of,” she said and then glanced at Lex. Seeing the disturbed yet inquisitive look on his face, she amended her statement. “Nobody business-wise anyway.”
“Things not going well with the Callaghan boy then I take it?” Lionel asked, although it came out as more of a statement. “You know, I *did* warn you about long distance relationships.”
“You’re the one who gave him my phone number to begin with!” Chloe objected.
“True,” he conceded, “But I never meant for it to be any sort of relationship. I just thought with all the stress you’re under that you might need a…tryst…so to speak.” Chloe’s mouth opened in shock, but she quickly snapped it shut.
“You thought I needed to get laid?!” she half-screamed, ignoring the way Lex’s eyes threatened to pop out of his head. “I can’t believe you! God, remind me never to tell my dad that. He’d never let me come to work again.” Lionel smiled and barely held back his laughter at Chloe’s outburst.
“Speaking of work, how has Lex been doing?”
Chloe looked over at Lex, running her teeth over her bottom lip nervously.
“Fine. You want to talk to him?” she asked, desperately hoping that he would say yes so she wouldn’t have to be the one to tell her boss about the curse that was put on his son. ‘Not that he’d believe me anyway,’ she thought.
“He’s with you?” Lionel asked in surprise. “It’s Friday night, Chloe. Shouldn’t you be ---”
“Hold on,” she interrupted and quickly made her way over to Lex, practically shoving the phone at him. Lex quirked an eyebrow, but held the phone up to his ear.
“Dad?”
“Lex,” Lionel greeted somewhat coolly and full of suspicion. “Why do I get the distinct impression that Chloe didn’t want to talk to me anymore?”
“I can’t imagine,” Lex said sarcastically. “What was that about you trying to get her laid?” Lionel smirked.
“Where is your brother?” he asked, skillfully dodging the question.
“I have no idea.” Lex heard his father grumble through the phone and his lips curled into a half-smile. He knew he would probably catch hell for what he was about to do, but it would be worth it. “Now that we know what’s wrong with me, Chloe has taken over what Lucas was so affectionately referring to as ‘Lex duty’.”
“What?” Lionel asked. Lex managed to stifle his laughter, but just barely. “You know ---”
“Apparently my beloved brother, with the assistance of his girlfriend, decided to put a curse on me,” Lex said.
“A curse?” Lionel asked, the disbelief evident in his voice.
“Mmm,” Lex hummed in affirmation, flashing a bright and mischievous smile at Chloe, who was sitting in a lounge chair looking completely mortified with the situation. “It’s supposed to make me develop an addiction ---” Lionel cut him off with a snort.
“I shouldn’t think they’d need a curse for that.”
“--- to Chloe,” Lex finished smugly. He pictured his father’s jaw squaring and his lips pursing in anger. “It was supposed to develop slowly, but since I didn’t have as much exposure to her over the first week as they had planned – well, it didn’t work out that way.”
“I see,” Lionel said through gritted teeth. “Put Chloe back on the line, would you?” Lex smirked.
“I would, but she just got back in the pool,” he lied. “And I don’t want to risk electrocution. I’ll tell her you said goodbye though.”
“Lex,” Lionel growled.
“Bye Dad,” Lex said cheerfully and hung up Chloe’s phone, pressing the button to shut off the power completely so Lionel couldn’t call back on that particular phone. Chloe groaned and buried her head in her hands.
“I’m going to get fired,” she said and shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m going to get fired over this. I’m a good worker, I ---”
“Chloe?”
Chloe jerked out of her rambling monologue to look up at Lex, who was staring back down at her with a bemused grin on his face.
“You’re not going to get fired.”
“But ---”
“He seemed more concerned about you than he did about me,” Lex admitted, sitting down next to her. “It was a little disturbing actually.” Chloe let out a huff of a breath.
“You’re not going to start calling me ‘sis’ like Lucas was; are you?” she asked. “Because I can guarantee that I’m not your ---” Lex reached up and brushed a few strands of damp hair behind her ear and Chloe had to desperately search for the words she had been about to say, “--- sister.”
“I know.”
“Listen Lex,” she started, ducking her head slightly so she wouldn’t have to meet his eyes, “About earlier – maybe we should just ---” she trailed off when she felt his hand skim along her side and rest on her hip.
“You kissed me back,” he said, efficiently resuming their earlier conversation. Chloe sucked in a breath. There was no way she could say what she wanted to say without it crossing the boundaries of their friendship forever; kisses were easier to ignore than words – at least that’s how it had been in her friendship with Clark.
“I like you,” she said quietly. Lex was close enough to her now for her to feel his breath against her wet hair and skin. She closed her eyes as she nibbled her lower lip, nervously waiting for his reaction.
“Then why are we arguing?” he asked. Chloe began to raise her face and Lex met her halfway, their lips briefly brushing against each others before the kiss turned into something considerably more substantial.
They parted their lips at the same time, their tongues reaching out to taste one another and becoming entangled as they slid against each other. Chloe felt his warm hand against the cool dampness of her bikini top and let out a moan as he cupped her breast, teasing her nipple through the thin piece of fabric. When they pulled apart to breathe, Lex stared at her through a haze of lust and desire, along with something that Chloe couldn’t put her finger on – at least, not until he spoke again.
“Call him,” he said through panted breaths.
“What?”
“Call Sean,” he said. There was no pleading quality to his voice – it was a command, pure and simple. “Tell him whatever you had with him is over.” Chloe opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off with the answer to her unspoken question. “I won’t share you.”
TBC…
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