Everything In This World

By Viv

*~*~ Part Thirty-Two ~*~*

Lex chuckled at Chloe as she fought off a yawn. "Tired, I take it?"

Chloe smiled sheepishly, covering her mouth in anticipation of yet another yawn. "Kind of ... dead tired. It's funny, I didn't do all that much, but I guess all that primping and strapping myself inside this," she gestured down at her slightly rumpled dress, still hugging very effectively to the curves of her body despite the late stage of the night, "kind of took a lot out of me. Plus the worrying about stuff and then the dancing ..." She shrugged a little more casually than usual. "Maybe I just need some caffeine?"

Lex's appreciative gaze trailed down the length of her body, seemingly rooted to an invisible spot somewhere in the vicinity of her chest.

Who was she kidding? He was staring right at her chest - Chloe shifted uncomfortably, suddenly wondering whether it had been such a good idea to wear a dress that showed this much cleavage. Sure she looked great, but ...

Chloe cleared her throat conspicuously. "So I was saying ... maybe I just need some caffeine?"

"I'm sorry, what?" He jerked to attention, shaking himself out of his daze. She looked askance at him, feigned annoyance clouding her features.

"You know for a sophisticated Metropolis-bred playboy, your society host radar seems sadly non-functional."

"I'm sorry." He smiled dryly, shaking his head again. "I wasn't listening." He admitted.

"Well d'uh." She sighed, resting her head against his taut frame. He seemed tense all of a sudden which was a pity, since he had loosened up so much tonight. "I was just saying how it'd be nice to get some coffee. You know, in the interests of me staying awake to enjoy your brilliant company and all."

After the prom had ended, Pete had asked them whether they had wanted to go to a party near Crater Lake, but Chloe had declined. As much as Chloe wanted to freeze her butt off, there were plenty of places where she could do that with Lex - alone. Plus, watching a bunch of jocks and their obligatory pom-pom squad dates get drunk and then hurl the entire contents of their stomachs wasn't really Chloe's idea of fun. And she had this funny feeling that it wasn't Lex's idea either.

So Lex's driver had dropped Clark, Lana, Pete and his date off, and Chloe and Lex had ended up here. Here being the picturesque greenery of the Luthor estate grounds, the moon casting imbuing their surroundings with a silverly glow.

They had chatted for a while as they strolled through the moonlit walk, until it had petered off into a comfortable silence. Chloe reflected that it was really nice sometimes to not speak, to absorb the absolute tranquillity and comfort of the moment.

"Something wrong?" She asked quietly as she observed his subdued expression.

"No." He sounded surprised by his own admission. "That's just it." He came to a stop and stepped in front of her, his form haloed by the pearly glow of the moon. "Nothing's wrong. There's absolutely nothing wrong with you or me or tonight." He chuckled self-consciously. "I'm just having a hard time accepting it."

"What, that there's nothing wrong? Or that there's something wrong with the fact that there isn't anything wrong? And I think I just confused myself there so I have no idea what I'm talking about." Chloe frowned, trying to puzzle out what exactly he was trying to say.

"Yeah." Off Chloe's confusion, he smiled wryly and elaborated. "I'm so used to moping about, feeling angry at the world, it's really ... different to feel good."

Although she had a difficult time associating Lex with moping, she kind of understood what he meant. Having his baldness as a result of the meteor showers, losing his mother when he had been so young, having such a seriously distorted relationship with his father - his life hadn't exactly been anyone's idea of a fairy tale, despite his untold of riches and off-the-chart intelligence.

"You, moping?" Chloe asked lightly, as a small laugh escaped her lips. "Did you catch that condition from Clark?" The smile slid off her face as she continued in a more serious tone. "You felt angry?"

He nodded as he looked up toward the stars, inhaling the breezy scent of the freshly mowed grass. "Growing up, I hated my mother sometimes, for leaving me alone with my father. I hated the way he made me feel, like there was something ... unworthy about me, because of this." He ran long fingers through his bare scalp. "I learnt to embrace it but he ... he could never see past this. And because he couldn't I thought that no one else could either." His eyes bored into hers with a fire that almost made her reel with its intensity. "Until Clark ... and you."

Chloe had never known anyone who could emote like Lex. She secretly thought that it was an incredible thing to witness, to see this flower of personality and passion blossom in front of your very eyes. Especially when all that power and intensity were levelled directly at you.

She gulped. She hoped that she wasn't making her 'roadrunner, I'm out of here' look on her face. Because even though a part of her definitely felt that way, there was that stubborn, curious part that revelled in the fact that Lex was telling her - and only her - these things.

"That was cathartic." He said, sarcasm heavily lacing his voice.

"Cathar what?"

He shook his head, a wry smile crossing over his face. "Never mind." He embraced her with one of his rare, hearty hugs that threatened to literally bowl Chloe over with its sheer emotional force. Chloe privately thought that it was like being assaulted by a very sophisticated gale. "I'm just really glad you're here tonight Chloe."

Chloe remained silent as she hugged him tightly back, oblivious to the beautiful radiance of the starlit night.

* * *

"Lex." Chloe reluctantly disentangled herself from Lex's almost possessive hold, launching herself off the elegantly appointed Breuer chair almost petulantly. She paced impatiently in front of the fireplace, the firelight dancing off the play of conflicting emotions across her face.

Lex waited patiently, leaning back into the soft leather feel of the couch. He sipped silently at his scotch while Chloe looked on, agitatedly wondering how he could be so passionate one second and so cool and calm the next. It was one of the few mindlessly infuriating qualities about Lex that Chloe admired despite her irritation at it.

"What are you doing?" Chloe asked brazenly, crossing her arms over her chest.

Lex's mouth curled into a delightfully puzzled smile. "I'm ... sitting here with you?" Off her exasperated exasperation, he tried again. "I'm ... drinking my scotch and admiring how gorgeously feisty you look right now?" He sipped the glass almost insolently. "By the way, compliments for finding the dress. It's absolutely," he licked his lips lavishly, "stunning."

Chloe flickered with pleasure but she held her face immobile, managing not to waver. Her determination to get through whatever it was that she wanted to say was written clearly over her face. Of course, part of the determination had to do with having absolutely no idea what she actually wanted to say to Lex, but she hoped that it would eventually find its way through the convoluted labyrinths of her mind and out of her mouth.

She had been pretty content to just revel in her new found closeness with Lex for the past couple of months. Part of her still couldn't believe that she was really here, in Lex's spacious and elegantly appointed study being this close and feeling so comfortable around him. If someone had told Chloe six months ago that she would be going out with Lex now, she would have laughed hysterically, then rapped them sharply across the head with the nearest blunt object before delivering them straight to Metropolis General, because clearly they would have been certifiably insane.

So for the past couple of months she had been content to just flow with the newly discovered river of feelings that she now shared with Lex. But now she was feeling a sudden, inexplicable itch to do swirl the waters about. She wanted to break the glimmering surface to see what they really had. She wanted to clarify whatever it was that she had with Lex - maybe she even wanted to splash around and play with it and see what she could do before the inevitable tide turned.

"Lex." She repeated, this time with much more force. "What are you doing with me?"

He leaned forward, gently placing his scotch down onto the table in front of him. "Has anyone ever told you you're a great mood killer?" He sighed as he took in the stony set of her face. "What are you talking about?" He asked finally.

"You've been treating me like I'm made of glass of something." Chloe felt a fire ignite within her, threatening to burn its way up to the surface. "Treating me like ... " She struggled through the recesses of her mind to come up with an appropriate adjective. "Like a kid." She fumbled. "I'm dressed like this," she gestured down at her stunningly scarlet dress, "and all you want to do is make out."

Lex frowned incredulously, completely shocked by her sudden aggression. "So I'm not supposed to want to kiss you?" He swallowed before continuing, the volume of his voice rising dangerously. "I'm not supposed to want to take things slowly between us because I care about you, and I want to make sure you knew what you were doing?" He rounded the table and was instantly before her so that their faces were now barely inches apart. "Maybe you'd prefer it if we got straight into this." He grabbed her roughly on the arms and forced his tongue into her mouth, licking and plundering with aggressive abandon. Chloe gasped for breath in his iron-tight hold grip but Lex didn't let up as his tongue continued to taste every sensuous niche in the cavern of her mouth.

Finally he let go of her and Chloe sprang away from him, her hand flying unwittingly to her swollen lips. She pursed them hard, her throat suddenly dry and parched.

A pregnant silence hung in the air between them.

Okay, what the hell had just happened here, she screamed silently to herself. Her heart thumped erratically and she swore that she could almost hear the blood pumping furiously to her extremities, willing her body to regain some control over the situation. Chloe found that any modicum of control she had before the moment had disappeared, leaving a kaleidoscope of intense emotions rampaging throughout her body.

Lex's eyes were wide with shock as he gaped in open astonishment. He stepped forward, making Chloe instinctively back away. "I'm sorry Chloe." He whispered, desperation filtering through to her still shocked senses. "I'm sorry, I don't know what ... "

Chloe found herself fascinated by the vulnerability so plainly written across his features. For the first time that she could remember, Lex didn't resemble the powerful and dangerously controlled individual that he had always been to her. Instead he looked lost amidst a sea of conflicting emotions running rampant inside him.

His vulnerability was like a siren song to her.

Chloe came forward, her steps slow and steady. She tilted her face up to catch his downcast eyes that were half hidden in shadow, awkwardly touching his arm. His gaze resolutely avoided hers as Chloe ran her hand gingerly across the pale, marble-like smoothness of his lower arm. They were so close now that she was sure that their breaths were heating each other's skin. And still she felt the rising warmth spread across her body, making her breathing erratic and harsh.

Lex's breaths almost scorched her with its intensity. Half languorously, half awkwardly, Chloe's hands trailed down Lex's lower body until they came to rest at the buckle of his belt. She deftly undid it and fumbled for the zip, anxiously chastising herself for not having practiced the manoeuvre before now.

In her haste her hand accidentally brushed against him, eliciting an involuntary hiss of pleasure before he anxiously flinched away. He placed a firm but gentle hold on her wrist. "Are you sure?" He whispered, urgency and gentleness mixing in an awkward blend of desperation, something so wildly out of control that it almost halted Chloe mid-fly.

Almost, but not quite. "Just be gentle." Was all Chloe whispered in reply as she tilted her face up in readiness for Lex's hungry kiss.

He didn't disappoint. Chloe found herself smiling into the fiery abandon that now consumed them, white hot molten passion unchecked in the crackling stillness of the night. She allowed Lex to guide them to the floor, revelling in the unique and searing sensation of his body pressing urgently against hers as she descended into a vortex of Lex-induced bliss.

Boy, when sparks flew between them, they really flew. Not that she wasn't a poster child for gratefulness or anything because at this very moment, she was beyond grateful. And of course, excited as hell.

That was pretty much the last coherent thought that ran through her mind as she allowed herself to become lost in the reckless passion of the night.

(c) October 2002