Everything In This World
By Viv
*~*~ Part Forty-Two ~*~*
"Ready to go?"
Chloe jerked awake, her head slipping ungracefully from its perch on her hand. Not that she would ever admit to Lex that she had been sadly lacking in energy since mid-morning and needed some artificial sustenance in the form of caffeine. Because that would have been a predictable weakness and Chloe had finally decided that she hated being predictable.
"What?" She frowned as she wiped away imaginary rivulets of drool which she fervently hoped was not in evidence before Lex because - how much of a turn off would that be, having your girlfriend drool over a couch that probably cost more than her house?
She rubbed her hazy vision, blinking in sudden confusion.
Lex chuckled appreciatively as he gazed at her form, reclined on the Bauhaus-styled leather couch. "Rise and shine. Or seeing as it's almost dinner - I think just rise would be in order."
"What time is it?" Startled, Chloe suddenly bounced off the couch and yanked the drapes back, not even having the presence of mind to marvel at the multicoloured horizon from her unique viewpoint in her astonishment. "It's almost dark." She pouted.
"I'm told that does tend to happen most days." He said as he came up behind her.
Chloe pretended to not notice his closeness as he pressed up gently against her back. "You let me sleep the afternoon away? You promised to wake me after twenty minutes! What kind of an upstanding boyfriend are you?" At his delighted chuckle, she huffed. "I could have been exploring the Metropolis Museum of Art or going on a campus tour of Metropolis U. Or going experimental shopping downtown, not to mention - mildly disturbing as it sounds - hopping on a bus and going to the State Library."
Lex smiled as he placed his hands in his pockets. "I didn't wake you because you looked so sweet just lying there. You're not the museum type, you can go on a campus tour with your father any time, what's experimental shopping, and - why would you go to the library during summer?"
"I've decided I need to broaden my horizons." She snarked as she wheeled back into the shadows. "What do you think? It appeals to my warped sense of interest. Besides the fact that I'm Metropolis born and bred - picturesque postcards with dancing bears and American flags just don't do it for me."
"They don't do it for you?" Lex draped his lean frame around her as he possessively wrapped lean arms around her waist. He lifted a single brow suggestively. "And what exactly does it for you?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Chloe giggled, dancing out of his arms. She could hardly believe that she was actually capable of talking this way to Lex. Not that she would rank it up there with walking on water or having miracle babies, but a few months ago she would never have dared to say anything as daringly provocative as she had just said. Not that it was all that particularly daring or provocative for anyone other than Chloe, with her dismal almost non-existent dating record. "What are we going to do tonight?"
"We stay in and I get to work out what really does it for you?"
Chloe valiantly tried to keep the blush that crept onto her face, but it advanced steadily until it stubbornly covered every inch of exposed skin. Had she just been marvelling at her extreme cool in a face of a rampaging Lex just an instant ago? She was a fraud and clearly guilty of counting her eggs before they had hatched, which probably earned herself an 'F' in scintillatingly sexy dialogue 101.
She cleared her throat, irritated at his smug confidence yet helpless as she melted in a puddle of jello from his hungry gaze. "No, I mean - presumably, we're off to dinner because frankly I can eat an entire cow right now - but afterward?"
Lex cocked his head nonchalantly. "And this would be my responsibility ... why?"
"Because it's all your fault that I've slept the afternoon away and so you should make it up to me by taking me out to some extremely fun and happening place." Chloe said cheekily.
"A fun and happening place?"
"Yes, you know those places where people of our generation regularly congregate and have fun and generally behave in a happening and free way. Bonus Chloe coupons for taking me somewhere I don't usually go." She added hopefully, half-seriously batting her eyelashes at him, a technique she had learned from Lana, the batting eyelash queen herself. "What about the places you used to frequent in your halcyon days of rebellious youth?"
"Trust me Chloe, you wouldn't want to go to those kind of places."
"Those kind of places?" She mimicked, grinning like a particularly demented Cheshire cat. "I hate to break this to you Lex, but I'm not exactly Snow White in that department. I've sneaked into my fair share of clubs in my irresponsible youth. Of course, I wasn't very good at it - but contrary to my pristine Smallville image I have been known to engage in such activities before my father pulled his wayward daughter to the leafy little hamlet we both know and love."
"Pristine?" Lex carefully hid his smile as he scrutinised her animated features. "So in non-Chloe, what you just said roughly translates into 'you want to go and have fun'."
"Yes." Chloe exploded. "Call it ... responsible clubbing." She danced across and wrapped him in a bear hug, something she hadn't done to anyone since that time she hugged her dad before her fourth birthday party and discovered that she was much too sensible to do anything as ridiculously silly as that.
Chloe gazed up at him from beneath her lashes. "Come on Lex, show me the fun." She dropped her gaze as she fingered the buttons on his shirt. "Look you've even got me referencing Tom Cruise and you know how much I hate doting on the ego of that particular American screen idol."
"Responsible clubbing. Isn't that an oxymoron of hugely ironic proportions?"
"Yes. But well worth the irony. So - where are we going?" She asked expectantly.
It took a few seconds for Lex to answer her. "Well, there was this place - are you sure about this?" He asked hesitantly.
"Okay, this is creepy. You're actually exhibiting freakish resemblance to my dad which is seriously disturbing my mental equilibrium. Lex, will you lighten up already? And also - stop channelling my dad."
"I ... you're right." Lex sighed in defeat.
"Of course I am." Chloe brightened again, devilishly enjoying the look of utter discomfort that spread across his features. "Now I'm going to change into something less comfortable and hopefully way more flattering, and I suggest you do the same. You know, in the interests of the feminist movement, equality for all thing."
"Okay." Lex frowned quizzically as if wondering how Chloe effectively manipulated him into taking her out to dinner and other entertaining stuff. Not that she really had to manipulate or persuade - it was just a revelation that she could twist Lex around her finger. It was a new and not entirely uncomfortable thought. "I'll just go change."
"You do that." Chloe grinned almost maniacally as she watched his figure ascend the stairs and disappear into his bachelor suite. Call her optimistic and counting her eggs way before they were even eggs and able to be hatched, but Chloe felt sure that she was going to have a spectacularly okay night tonight.
And that was more than okay by her.
* * *
"Chloe, are you ready?"
Chloe threw the National Geographic down onto the glass coffee table in front of her and crossed her arms petulantly. "Am I ready?" She quipped. "I've only been ready for the last fifteen minutes. You know, I'm beginning to see a whole new side of you Lex - the dawdling and generally behaving like a woman side of you and whoa -"
Chloe halted mid sentence, unable to continue due to the small fact that her mouth had ludicrously refused to stop working. She was losing all control of her essential motor functions and for once in her life she thought that looking liked a stunned fish in the face of a drought was justified. Because anyone with even a minuscule portion of a half-functional brain would have understood what exactly had rendered her entire body inoperative in one gorgeously delicious swoop.
Two words - Lex Luthor. Or more accurately - as Chloe's dazed mind attempted to wrap around the image she saw in front of her now - Lex Luthor in black leather. Lots and lots of black leather.
She had seen Lex clothed - and unclothed - in a variety of situations. She had seen fertiliser plant wear Lex, she had seen suave and sophisticated Lex, she had seen sweaty and athletic Lex and had even been privileged to see hunting for mutant fish Lex.
But all those Lex's couldn't hold a very small candle to the Lex standing before her now - in terms of being sexy-as-all seven circles of hell.
Lex stood, gazing mischievously up at her with his deceptively come-hither pale blue eyes as Chloe swallowed down unreasonably blind panic.
He had on a pair of leather pants that hugged the curves of his form without being obnoxiously tight. He had teamed that singularly spectacular fashion item with a comfortable multicoloured pinstriped shirt, which bizarrely - almost drew Chloe's attention away from the leather.
Almost, but not quite. Because to Chloe it was all about the leather, especially when it happened to be plastered onto Lex.
Chloe reflected that it would probably take more than two words to explain away her masquerading as a mental patient look.
"Lex?" She squeaked, not even having the capacity to control the girlish tint to her voice. "You look ... nice." She frowned lamely.
Lex smiled impishly, looking down on what Chloe was calling his ungodly sexy form - not that he really would have referred to himself that way. "You mean this?" He swirled around on the spot, holding his arms up in order to give her a better view, prompting Chloe to almost faint and simultaneously attempt to thank the gods of several major religions at her extreme good luck. "It isn't really me any more, but this is the kind of stuff I used to wear when I was in Metropolis doing the clubbing circuit. I admit it may be a little ... much."
Chloe cleared her throat as inconspicuously as possible, hoping Lex would conveniently skip the whole noticing how hot and sweaty she was getting thing. "Well - I wouldn't say that." She frantically swallowed air, hoping that it would somehow find its way through her body and cool it down just a little. "I mean you've got your leather and," her eyes trailed down the length of his form, becoming fixated onto a tiny spot just below his belt -
"Chloe?" She jerked her attention back to Lex's face, surreptitiously checking for drool with her hand. "You were saying?"
"I was saying ..." She expelled a harassed breath, causing tendrils of blond hair to fly upwards. "I was saying how you have the leather, and I'm feeling decidedly underdressed. I mean, not under-dressed in terms of having clothes - because obviously I'm wearing clothes. But," Chloe looked down at her form ruefully, thinking that her azure blue top and short black skirt weren't really going to cut it besides the sexy as all out Lex standing in front of her. "Maybe I should change? Because you have the leather and I have nylon - or some weird cotton polyester blend type thing - which isn't really the point I guess, the point being ... it's not too much. The leather I mean. Do you think I should change? Exhibit more of the sexy?" She ran a hand down her clothes uncertainly.
"Good. And please, don't change." Lex unleashed a devilish smile that telegraphed to Chloe his satisfaction at having thrown her for a loop or curve ball or whatever type of sporty ball there was to throw because Lex had most definitely thrown one at her. Good God, was she really going out with this man? "You want to head out now?"
Chloe blinked, her senses recovering basic functionality enough to allow her a modicum of control over her most important weapon - her mouth. "If that's okay with you."
Lex grinned as he took her hand in his, his eyes glinting with barely concealed anticipation.
(c) December 2002