Chapter Five: Revelation



He stepped forward, a single tulip in his hand; she automatically reached out and took it when he handed it to her. Without taking his eyes off of hers, he reached for the gardenia behind her ear.

"This isn't quite true anymore," he said taking the bloom. A grin spread over his face as he brought it to his nose and inhaled its scent.

Chloe's eyes narrowed. "You said you were allergic."

"I lied," Lex shrugged gracefully, his eyes dancing with amusement. "I had to be sure you wouldn't figure out it was me before I was ready for you to know."

"Why all this?" she asked him, bewildered. "Why not just tell me, Lex? Don't tell me you were afraid of rejection."

"I once told Clark that the hardest thing in the world is telling the girl you love, that you like her. At the time, I thought it was just a handy line to get him to make a move on Lana; it wasn't until recently that I knew how true it was. As for why all of this," he gestured around, "sometimes it's less frightening to make a big, dramatic gesture than it is to just say a few simple words." Chloe's brain didn't seem to be working quite right, and she struggled to form a response.

"But…but I'm not even your type," she protested. Lex raised an eyebrow.

"I assume you're referring to the type of women I usually date? No, Chloe, you're not at all like them. The kinds of relationships I usually have with those women are easy. You both use each other for what you want. You know that's how it works, you acknowledge it, you get what you want and you move on. It's infinitely more difficult when you actually care about the other person . . . when you actually want them to care about you back."

For the first time since she could remember, Chloe Sullivan was speechless. She had the mad urge to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming—things like this just didn't happen to her. Confronted with actually getting what she had been longing for, she didn't know how to react. Of course, it didn't help that Lex was standing less than a foot from her, his obviously expensive silk shirt and tailored black pants draped sexily over his form, and his cologne drifting towards her, invading her body with every breath she took. In an effort to regain her composure, Chloe turned her back. Maybe if she weren't looking at him she would be able to form a coherent sentence or two. Lex, however, misinterpreted the movement.

"I meant what I said in the Talon, Chloe." His voice was now as emotionless as he could make it, and when she turned to him again his face was a match. "If you don't think you could be happy with me . . . if you don't think you can trust me not to hurt you, then I'll understand. But I want you to know that I will always make sure you're safe, even from me." The emotionless mask he had slipped on was one perfected over a lifetime of living with his father, and only his eyes revealed a spark of his feelings as he looked at her. "Do you want me to go?"

"Lex…" Chloe hoped that her powers of speech would come back someday; on the other hand, sometimes actions spoke louder than words. She closed the space between them and caught his mouth beneath hers, her hands fisting in the fabric covering his chest.

This was the last thing Lex had expected, but he wasn't about to pass up the opportunity. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her even closer, and he swiftly took control of the kiss, determined to drive any lingering doubts out of her head altogether.

Lord, she was drowning, and she didn't care in the least. Her arms began to creep upward, twining around his neck. He nipped at her bottom lip; when she gasped slightly, he took the opportunity to slip past her parted lips. His tongue ran over the straight line of her teeth and traced the inside of her lips, drawing a small sound from the back of her throat. He pulled away then with one small, light kiss and looked down on her slightly glazed eyes, the hint of a smirk playing around his mouth.

"So should I take that as a no, then?" She met his smirk with one of her own.

"You should take that as an emphatic no," she confirmed. "I just…I was a little overwhelmed by all of this, especially with everything happening over a total span of two days."

"Well, I couldn't afford to wait any longer to let you know how I feel." He pulled her a bit closer and began to feather kisses along her jaw. "I must admit," he said between kisses, "when I heard that someone had asked you out last weekend, I was afraid I had lost my chance."

Chloe's eyes, which had been drifting closed again, opened in her confusion. She leaned back to look into his face.

"What?" She shook her head slightly. "No one asked me out." Lex looked baffled for a moment but soon narrowed his eyes as realization hit.

"Clark," he said to himself with a rueful chuckle. "Never would've thought you'd have it in you." Seeing the confusion still lining Chloe's face, he chuckled again and began to explain. "Clark must have known how I felt about you, or at least suspected. When he dropped off my produce order earlier this week he casually mentioned that someone had asked you out over the weekend." He smirked again. "I suppose he was hoping it would spur me into action."

"That little sneak!" Without being entirely sure why, Chloe felt vaguely affronted. "I can't believe he would make something like that up, just to—"

"Chloe," Lex interrupted her rant before she could really get going, drawing her gaze up to his own pale blue eyes. "Are you really upset?" His mouth moved to the side of her head where he nipped lightly at her ear before continuing in a husky whisper, "Because I'm not."

"Well, when you put it like that…" she grinned at him before pulling his lips back down to hers. His tongue ran across her bottom lip, pleading for entry, and she opened for him without hesitation. Their tongues tangled together, and when she sucked gently on the tip of his she gloried in the sound he made. Who would have thought that she could make Lex Luthor moan like that?

On the other side of the door, Connor watched as the two embraced. He had arrived at the school looking for Chloe, planning on asking her out, when he had run into Clark. And even though Clark had told him about Chloe and Lex, Connor had to see for himself. Now he looked at them for a moment more before turning away. There was nothing he could do about it now—he wasn't going to betray Chloe by trying to break up a relationship that obviously made her happy. But as he walked away, he promised himself that if Luthor ever hurt her . . . he would be there.

Back in the Torch office Lex and Chloe finally broke apart, heads swimming from lack of oxygen and the sensations of the kiss. Lex drew her against him, and she was more than happy to curl up against his chest as they both caught their breath. Chloe lightly licked her lips; she could still taste him on her mouth. When her breathing returned to normal, she sighed contentedly.

"So what do we do now?" she asked. It took an effort, but Lex managed to push past most of the vivid images her question brought to mind.

"Now," he answered, "if you're interested, we go to Metropolis for dinner." She looked up at him, surprised.

"Metropolis?" A smile lit up her face only to have it quickly fall again. "I'd really love to, but my dad—"

"Insists that you be back by no later than one o'clock, giving us time to drive there, have dinner, and drive back—at a reasonable speed." Chloe's eyes widened.

"You talked to my dad?"

"I did," he nodded. "I like your dad, Chloe. He's one of the few people in this town who doesn't treat me like a pariah, and he's been willing to give me a chance independent of my father or my last name. I respect him, and I didn't want to lose any respect he had for me. While he wasn't thrilled about the idea of his teenaged daughter dating his boss," he smiled wryly, "I did manage to convince him to let me prove myself, if you'd have me."

"Ok, now I'm really impressed. You spent a small fortune on flowers, left me poetry, and got my father's blessing to date his seventeen-year-old daughter. You do know he has a gun, right?"

"I figured there was a good possibility." He grinned. "That's why I talked to him at work."

Chloe laughed, then tilted her head at the flowers. "If we go to Metropolis, what are we going to do with these?"

"Clark's going to take them to your house," he smirked. "I convinced him he owed us for so shamelessly manipulating the situation."

"Good ol' Clark," Chloe laughed. "If nothing else, you have to appreciate how easy it is to guilt trip the boy." She threw another glance at the flowers around them. "But you know, you didn't have to go to such extremes to get your point across," she teased.

"Hey, the last flowers I gave you, you compared to a Kentucky Derby prize. I felt I had to redeem my reputation."

"Is that so? I'll have to remember to insult your taste more often if this is the result. But I think you can consider yourself well and truly redeemed." She smiled up at him. "Now, I believe you mentioned something about dinner?"

"So I did." He loosened his hold on her but kept one arm wrapped around her waist as he turned and walked with her out into the fading daylight.

"I was thinking," she said slowly, slipping her own arm around his waist. She shot him a mischievous grin. "We'd have more time for...dinner...if we sped just a little bit."

Lex gave a shout of laughter and kissed the top of her head as he helped her into the car, a grin of his own spread over his face.

"Anything for you, Chloe."


THE END

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There you go! That's the end, folks. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I started out with this one pretty much just wanting to prove to myself that I could end a story without having the two of them falling into bed together at the end. I managed it, but boy was it a struggle--Lex in bed is not an easy thing to turn down. ^_~ Thanks again to everyone who's been reviewing. It feeds my muse, and she's much less inclined to slap me around when she's not hungry. Happy New Year, everyone!