Chapter 2
Clark pushed away the mess of hair on her face and whispered "Wake up."
Without warning Chloe woke up suddenly, bleary eyed and confused as she looked over at his smiling form.
"What the--? Where am I?"
"My room. You fell asleep last night after we spoke." He added helpfully. He noticed the recognition in her eyes and the anger that settled directly afterward.
"You do realize that its barely 7 o'clock on a Saturday and you are knowingly depriving me, the girl who rarely if ever takes a break, of sleep. Yes?" she asked crankily with one eye involuntarily closed.
"We still need to talk." Her eyes fluttered in an effort to stay awake.
"Talk? Unless you're going to tell me that I'm dreaming right now, I suggest you reserve all in depth conversations for a later time when I've had my coffee and am actually running on more than one cylinder. k, thanks." She fell back onto the bed and within seconds she was asleep again.
He crawled onto the bed and began tickling her viciously.
"Hey-He-y Stop. Stop. Stop it." Chloe futilely pushed at his shoulders. She was writhing so violently he wasn't completely sure he wasn't killing her.
Her amiable laughter turned cold, as she looked him square in the eyes. "I swear Clark, if you don't stop I'm going to stomp you to death with kryptonite refined heels."
He ceased the attack then not out of sincere fear but because the hilarity of the situation had left him. He was on his knees beside her and being that close…He couldn't help but notice her.
Caught in the sunlight, her eyes glistened with fire and her whole body took on an illusive satiated glow.
He wondered again if she was an angel.
Clark bent his head slowly and dropped a soft kiss on her forehead. He pulled away hesitantly and bowed his head in embarrassment. After going through this last night, he knew she wasn't ready to start a new relationship, not with anyone. He looked up at her as he moved further away.
"You get some rest then. I'll be down stairs if you need me." He lunged forward slightly as he moved his legs from under him so he could get off the bed and later wallow in his idiocy.
But she kissed his cheek before he could start to depart. Frozen to the spot, he did manage to turn his face back to her. There was a definite change in her that apart from wishful thinking appeared assuredly inviting. He'd thought about this so many times before. Chloe here in his bed after they finally were open about they're emotions. Never in any version was he unsure about what he would do next. He would make love to her, again and again until he knew he could call her his without any doubt between them.
The difference was that everything was still so unresolved that he wasn't sure whether or not this would make things clearer or screw things up more. Not to mention that this was REALITY and here he could hurt Chloe terribly in the throes. He had so much pent up passion in him right now; restraint would be far harder than usual.
Knowing all this he couldn't bring himself to leave either, because every time he looked down at her he imagined the pleasure that would come from taking this step, and the possibility that this would solidify their feelings for one another.
"I could hurt you."
"You won't." She didn't blink an eye. "I trust you."
Her hand slowly reached out, falling upon his cheek in a delicate gesture. His heart thundered in his ears in a way that slowly thawed his frozen indecision. He wanted this, wanted her so painfully that there was no way he could deny her.
Without waiting for him to make up his mind, Chloe allowed her hands to travel southward to the buttons on his plaid shirt. The cotton felt heavenly beneath her fingertips.
One by one the fastens fell away as she pried the clothing open, revealing to her an expanse of skin and muscle that had for so long preoccupied her thoughts. Here he was, giving her passage to a part of him that had long since been obstructed.
He wanted her to touch, but she still couldn't. Not yet, not until she could fully enjoy the moment before everything changed.
When the unexplored became the conquered…again and again.
She leaned in and kissed his collarbone, starting there and then traveling upward leaving small kisses in her wake.
It was unsatisfactory torture. An insubstantial precursor of things to come. A glacial pace, for two people who lived their lives in hyper drive.
It was frustrating, yet building anticipation. It was the rising action in the story of their relationship.
So much had led to it, so many days, months, and years all in successive mounting.
She pulled back then, providing him access to her for the first time. His mouth descended up on hers without as much ease as she had managed. Her mouth immediately opened to welcome him as he pressed forward until she lay flat on her back with him decidedly on top of her.
Breaking away, he removed her shirt with certain hands and discarded it to the floor in a mound that now included his own shirt and subsequently her bra along with their pants.
She was exposed to him entirely now, and an involuntary redness colored her cheeks in the seconds before she caught his enamored stare. His amazed, awestruck, suggestive gaze told her how he felt far more eloquently than she ever could have expected to come from his mouth.
It was the change.
The change; A passing millisecond in a life that can be as trivial as any other, as ordinary and unremarkable as some entire lives are. Or that can shatter entire beliefs, can be groundbreaking, can transform one life…or the lives of many people forever.
The change…the apex of a friendship now transitioned into something far more concrete, far more celestial.
Almost on cue she pulled him down from his reverence atop her aggressively, permitting herself to indulge, to touch, to take.
Her cries grew higher pitched, a symphony of pleasure as he thrust harder, and faster into her. The final seconds came as she rattled repeatedly beneath his powerful demanding hands, as she called his name in such utter helplessness. His hips cradled by the legs she wrapped around him were now jerking violently as he sought solace in her, as he found connection to humanity in her. They carried on until another eruption tore through her and he could no longer fight the ecstasy that was now sufficiently consuming him.
They reached the zenith of their climax simultaneously, savoring the sensations. Their sweating bodies, their pounding hearts. The way her nipples brushed against his chest every time she inhaled, the way he rested inside her.
Clark brushed away the hair matted to her forehead.
"You okay?"
"Yeah-Yeah…" She took a deep breath. "That was-"
He cut her off, knowing what she was about to say.
"Yeah. I thought so too." He nuzzled against her neck and into her hair. She smelled of vanilla, spice, and pure sex. He lifted his already too heavy head up and kissed her lightly.
After several more minutes passed, Clark began to suspect that he was crushing her. He retreated to the spot on the bed next to her flat on his back.
"So…wanna be just friends?" The color quickly left Chloe's face as she looked over at his resting form.
Then Clark broke out in his wide stupidly toothy grin of his. He started laughing and she hit him on the shoulder. "Jerk." He chuckled again, then returned to his sleeping state beside her.
Chloe's playful demeanor was lost as she hurriedly blurted out, "I love you." His eyes shot open and he immediately turned his head back to her. "I don't know if that changes anything for you or what but I just need you to know that."
She was looking away from him valiantly and with ever fiber of will power she had in her body.
"It doesn't matter if this is the last time or if you really want this…you need to know that. I've loved you more than anyone else, for longer, and with more absolution than anyone has ever loved you."
"If you really want me, to be with me I mean, its going to have to be for real. Because even though I love you, I've also learned how to be without you. I'd be happier with this as the end than have it dragged out just for you to wake up one day and tell me you still want Lana."
He thought about what to say to her. These past few days he'd been so conflicted about the whole thing, about their status, and about what to label his feelings. He determined it to be somewhere between crush and love. Maybe he wasn't looking close enough.
When Chloe hadn't been picking up his phone calls this week he experienced such a loss. It was weird how simply not hearing her voice would make it a less than satisfactory day. It was funny that he couldn't stop thinking about her whenever he was without her for too long. It was terrifying when he virtually saw her die in his arms and thought he would never see a happy day again.
It was when he was without that he truly saw her meaning to him.
What really was the difference between loving someone and being in love with that person? Wasn't it just how one thought of the person? Wasn't it all the same emotions thought of in a different perspective? He'd always loved her as a friend but when it's not just as a friend…when its more… is that love?
Yes…yes, it is.
"Did I tell you that Lana asked me to be with her?" She shook her head in response. "She came to my loft after the whole Linda Lake incident happened. She asked if I would and I said no."
"Do you know why?"
"Because of the baby?"
"Not really, though it certainly didn't help matters much." He turned his attention to the ceiling. "Lana loves a man she thinks I am just as I've loved this image of a perfect woman I thought she was. But really, we both don't know a thing about each other. The relationship we had wasn't real, because we were both living lies. I loved this normalcy I thought she gave me and she loved the protection I gave her. That's not the kind of relationship I want. I don't think it's what she wants either."
He rested on his side to look at her again, placing his hand on hers to assure her.
"What we have is real. We see each other's flaws and we accept them. We encourage each other to be better than we think we can be. We have a balance that compliments us. All of that, our strong friendship, makes the other stuff more real than anything I've ever known."
He paused, unsure of how to fully describe the change in him.
"Chloe, I think I'm falling in love with you."
"Don't say that, not because of what I said." She pulled her hand away. "Don't say it unless you mean it."
