Disclaimer: See chapter one

A/N: I'm on a roll. Hopefully I can post this today too. Anyway I know y'all wanna know what Chloe's gonna say so….

Ch. 10

Matrimony

"You can't be serious," said Chloe, dryly. "Don't play with my emotions Alexander Joseph Luthor."

"See you'll make a fine wife, you're already nagging me," he said, smiling broadly at her.

"Lex I know you feel responsible for me, but I'm not going to force you to marry me. That's a big commitment."

"You're not forcing me to do anything," he said, sitting on the bed facing her. "If I didn't want to marry you I would not have asked."

Chloe wrinkled her brow in thought. "Lex there are other ways to do this, why can't I just move in to your mansion? I mean it's not like my dad and I are one big happy family. Besides he has Lana now," she spat bitterly.

"Lana's not his daughter. Your Father loves you Chloe, he may be disappointed in what you did, but that doesn't change how he feels about you," he said, squeezing her thigh, reassuringly. "Besides, if you move in with me, it won't draw enough attention to us as a couple. We want the general public to think that I'm fully committed to my young bride."

"So you want to marry me to protect me?" she asked, staring at her hands. For a fleeting moment, Chloe hoped that he wanted to marry her because he loved her. Deep inside she remembered telling Lex that she didn't want to love him and she didn't want him to love her. All of a sudden, it seemed as though that had changed.

She did love him.

"Partially, yes. I have other reasons Chloe," he said sincerely.

'Ones that he's not willing to share,' she thought.

"But if you're looking for love, I just, I can't give that to you right now. After what happened with Helen I-"

"Yes," Chloe interrupted.

"That wasn't a question," said Lex.

"No, I mean yes I'll marry you Lex. I understand your reasoning. Besides it's just marriage and when this all over we can get a quick annulment. Actually we don't even need to stay married long. I'm sure as an ex-Luthor I'll get a lot of media coverage for a short time after our split," she said quickly. 'There goes that defense mechanism,' Chloe thought to herself. 'Good job Sullivan, make him think you don't love him either.'

Lex searched her eyes for a while. He knew what she was doing. He was pretty sure of how she felt. Not wanting to distress her, he decided to keep his observations to himself.

"So it looks like we're engaged," said Lex.

"Yea, looks that way."

Lionel Luthor sat frowning in his office as his assistant barged through the door hurriedly.

"You called, sir?"

"Yes, I did," Lionel snapped, " have you seen this?" he asked, throwing a newspaper clipping toward Charles.

Bald Billionaire Bachelor Lex Luthor to Wed, Again

December 8, 2003- Lex Luthor, son of businessman Lionel Luthor and apparent heir to the Luthor money belt is to wed small town girl Chloe Sullivan, the daughter of the local plant manager. The couple announced their engagement two days after the soon to be Mrs. Luthor was discharged from the hospital for reasons unknown. Lex seemed exuberant over his new love interest saying, "I couldn't believe it when she walked into my life, it was like walking into a dream. I can't believe God has blessed me with one of his angels."

The wedding is set for December 24, Christmas Eve at the Luthor mansion in Smallville, Kansas. The theme of the wedding is a winter wonderland, filled with ice sculptures, swans, and of course everyone's favorite, snow. All guests have been asked to wear white to the ceremony and reception, which will be in the grand ballroom of the Luthor mansion. It is rumored that Lex Luthor has asked longtime friend Bruce Wayne to be his best man.

Surely, women across America are saddened by this news, but don't fret ladies. If this marriage lasts as long as his others, then you have nothing to worry about. Lex's publicist Marie Moore stated that Lex has not asked his wife to be to sign a pre-nup. Is this man crazy or is he crazy? Perhaps this could be the one. Only time will tell.

"Well, what do you have to say about that?" asked Lionel as Charles looked at him with astonishment on his face.

"It looks as though Lex is striking back."

"Yes, it looks that way. He's a smart boy and marrying her is certainly a smart move. I suppose this puts a damper on my plans of putting the fear of God into her."

"There is always plan B, sir," said Charles.

"Yes, there is," he said, eyeing Charles meaningfully. "What are you waiting for? Get to it."

"I can't believe my baby is getting married," gushed Chloe's mother through the phone.

"Neither can I," Chloe mumbled.

The last two days had been crazy. The minute Chloe had been discharged, Lex held a press conference where he announced their engagement. Chloe didn't attend as she was "still recuperating from her ailments."

Her wedding was less than sixteen days away and she was frantically looking for a dress, trying to arrange a flower combination, pick out a cake, plan a menu, and arrange decorations among finishing her schoolwork and send out her college applications.

Her life was turning into a madhouse.

"Mom," she said, interrupting her mother between her 'I'm so prouds and my baby girl is all grown up. "I have to go, the wedding planner is on her way, but your invitation and plane tickets should be there in the next few days."

"Okay dear. Oh congratulations!"

"Thanks mom, bye."

"Bye, sweetheart."

"Hello my wife to be," said Lex cheerfully, as he walked into the room and set some papers on the desk.

"Hello yourself," she said smiling at him. "Sixteen days until we're married and the wedding planner is seven minutes late," she said, staring at her watch.

"Calm down, Chloe, it'll be fine. You worry too much."

"You don't worry enough, it's not enough that my family will be there, hopefully," she said. The news didn't quite sit well with her Father. Their relationship had mended since her hospital stay, but this whole marriage thing was really hard on him. She didn't think it was the marriage necessarily, but the person she was getting married to. "And have you forgotten that all major news papers will be there, including the daily planet, you know my dream job? If this wedding is a disaster then they'll never hire me on the grounds that I'm not competent enough to plan a wedding, let alone write for their paper."

"If it helps, I'll buy you the paper after we're married," he said as he looked through some files.

"You can do that?" she asked, flopping into the chair across from him.

"For the right price," he said looking up and smirking at her. "Which reminds me. Where do you want to honeymoon?"

"It doesn't matter, it's not like any of this is real."

"Well we have to make it look that way."

"Really, Lex it doesn't matter, surprise me," she said, shrugging her shoulder as her sleeve slid down and pale skin peaked its way out of the gray fabric. Her hair was pushed back into a pony tail and small wavy tendrils escaped and fell around her face. His eyes fell to her creamy white legs that sat tucked under her. He smiled and couldn't help but think that he had the most beautiful fiancée in the world.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked, her head cocked to the side.

"I told you, I'd always look at you like this."

"Miss Sullivan," said the secretary from behind the door, "the wedding planner is here and Mr. Luthor, you're publicist is on line one."

"Thank you," they said in unison.

"Was that the girl I punched?" she asked, rising from her chair.

"Yes, that would be her," said Lex grinning.

"Well she healed nicely," she said, walking from the room.

"So the flower arrangement is done," said Diana. "Have you decided on the menu yet, Miss Sullivan?"

Chloe didn't answer, instead she sat there with her knees resting on her chest and her head in between them.

"Serve whatever you want as long as it isn't fish," she said. "I don't like the way it smells, even when it's cooked."

"I can identify with that," smiled Diana, "it kind of smells like, like-"

"Camel piss," Chloe said dryly.

"Well I wouldn't go that far, but its anything but pleasant. Anyway, I was thinking an ambrosia salad; a shrimp cocktail followed by beef wellington and glazed duck and something for our kosher and vegan guests. Maybe some Tiramisu with the cappuccino and of course the wedding cake, which we need to pick," Diana said jovially. Chloe rolled her eyes. "Also Miss Sullivan, you have an appointment with Vera Wang tomorrow at six for your dress."

"I didn't make that appointment," said Chloe, raising her head from her legs.

"Lex did, early this morning," Diana said, "he said you'd mentioned something about liking the way she designed dresses and had me make an appointment. He said you had enough to think about."

'Bless him,' Chloe thought, as she began grinning stupidly.

"The menu sounds great, Diana," she said, her bad mood lifting, "and I already found a cake. It was from Giovanni's. It's a six tier ivory colored cake. Each layer sits on a bed of red and white roses. It'll match the flower arrangements and my dress," she said happily. "Lex said he already took care of the photographers and the publicity, so all I need is my dress and the dresses of the wedding party. Note that Gisela Morales is coming down the 20th to be fitted for her dress as my maid of honor."

"What about the girl that lives with you?"

"What about her?" Chloe asked, her mood darkening a bit.

"Well is she you sister?"

Chloe scoffed. "No, just a homeless girl my Father took pity on."

"Oh," said Diana, shifting in her seat. " Any brides maids?"

"Two, a few friends from overseas. They'll be arriving with Gisela."

"Okay, I'll write that down. Looks like we're all done," she said, gathering her things, "Don't forget about your appointment tomorrow Chloe."

"I won't," she said, moving to walk her toward the entrance.

"And congratulations, I wish I found a man who loves me as much as Lex loves you," she said as Chloe leaned on the door and pressed it closed.

"I bet you do," she murmured, as she raised her head at the sound of footsteps coming from the steps.

"You look exhausted," said Lex, sympathetically.

"You have no idea," she said, unmoving.

"Let me help you," he said, moving toward her and throwing her over his shoulder.

"Lex," she whined, "this isn't how I pictured you carrying me up the stairs."

He responded by gently smacking her butt.

His bedroom door opened as he entered with Chloe still slung across his shoulder.

"You know this is the first time I've been in here," she said.

"I know, but it won't be the last," he said as he bent over and laid her on the bed. She grabbed his neck to keep from falling to roughly and resulted in him falling on top of her.

"Oops," she said, as she laughed heartily, her eyes closing.

Slowly she caught her breath and realized that Lex was still on top of her. Her eyes fluttered open, to see his blue orbs staring into her own.

"Lex, I can't breathe," she said into his ear.

She felt a hand snake down to her thighs as a knee fell between her closed legs and eased them open. He settled his weight in the space between them.

His breath was warm on her face as it inched closer to hers. His lip brushed her own and the result was electric. She lifted her head up to deepen the kiss as his hand wrapped around her neck. His tongue brushed against her lips and she moaned against him. He pressed her head down into the stain below with his lips crushing himself against her as her hands scratched softly down his back until they reached his leather belt.

For once in her life, she stopped thinking with her brain and started with her heart. Her hand found its way into his belt and she squeezed the skin on his lower buttocks gently. He exhaled loudly as he broke the kiss. His lips moved to her cheek as he pressed peppery kiss along her jaw line, atop her eyelids. He began to gently nibble her earlobe as her hands pulled his shirt from his pants. Her warm fingers traced circles along his back as she breathed his name slowly.

She didn't know what else to do. For the moment, Lex was the only word she could remember.

He could hear her voice swimming around in his head. A head that was telling him no, that he should get up and walk from the room and leave her to rest. But something more powerful than his head was talking and his reasoning was drowned out by his desire for this blonde spitfire writhing beneath him.

His gentle biting moved from her ears to her neck and began to suck on that supple skin.

"Lex," she breathed lowly, gripping his shirt and pushing it higher up his back. His body was overheating as she slowly began to grind her hips against his growing erection her hands squeezing his back.

Lex knew if he didn't stop that this was going to lead somewhere it shouldn't. And as his pants got tighter his brain began to function faster. With a deep breath, he extracted himself from her grip and walked quickly from the room closing the door behind him, leaving a very bewildered Chloe Sullivan still pressed into his bed.

He leaned against the wall beside his bedroom door and pinched the bridge of his nose. He hadn't meant to have taken it that far. "She pulled you on top of her," he said quietly to himself.

He could still taste her in his mouth. He desperately wanted to walk back in that bedroom to find her waiting for him in nothing but her underwear. To feel her lips on his and get lost in her dizzying in her kisses.

His head turned toward the bedroom door. He distinctively heard water running.

She was taking a shower, which meant she was naked.

He left the wall with a groan.

"I knew this was a bad idea," she said, as the hot water ran in lines across her body. She picked up the soap and ran it across her belly button, her hands falling to a place that was producing great amounts of heat.

She was wet and it wasn't from the shower.

"Stupid, stupid, Chloe," she said frustrated. "You can't just fall in love with men you can't have, no, you have to go and agree to marry them! Once again you've outdone yourself in the love department."

Her hands stayed where they were, and moved slowly as she pressed a finger to a swelling bundle of nerves hiding inside her nether regions as thoughts of Lex ran through her head.

"Not today, Sullivan," she said moving her hands quickly. "You're not that desperate," she said, running her hands through her wet hair.

Lex passed the bedroom door on the way to the room adjacent to it to play some billiards. For some reason that game always helped him think.

It was at least two in the morning when he went to bed and as he entered his room, he could see the outline of Chloe lying peacefully in his bed. He pulled off his clothes quietly and slipped silently next to her, peering over her shoulder to see if she was asleep. She turned her body to face him unconsciously, feeling a body in close proximity to her's in this bed. Lex thought that although this bed was a king, it wasn't nearly large enough.

Her body felt warm against his and he pulled her closer.

'No sex,' he said to himself.

Gripping her tightly, he drifted into a sleep full of dreams of the sleeping beauty beside him.

The weeks before their wedding were little more than hell for Lex. She was in his bed every night and he couldn't touch her.

Not that he had a lot of energy to dwell on it.

Yet, when he awoke in the middle of the night and found her next to him, he, more than any other time in his life, wanted to make love to the woman beside him.

'Not make love,' he thought one night. 'You reserve that term for someone your in love with.' Part of him figured that she, in a way loved him, but he wasn't ready to return the gesture.

Pain will do that to you.

Despite both of their internal conflicts, everything came together and December 24th dawned gracefully.

"All I'm saying Luthor is don't pass out up there," said a handsome dark-haired man, around the same age as Lex.

"Why would I pass out, it's only a wedding," he said nonchalantly, "And if you're going to offer that: You're signing your life away bull shit, save it for some other sap, Bruce."

"Whatever you say, Lex. Men tend to act strangely when they see their wives in wedding dresses. My Father cried."

Lex chuckled. "I've only cried once in my life and I doubt my wedding day will be the second. Rest assured Bruce," he said as he fixed his tie ivory silk tie.

"Let me help with that," said Bruce Wayne, as he stepped forward and began to shift Lex's tie.

"Be careful, that's imported silk," said Lex, tightly.

"As if you don't have a hundred more?" scoffed Bruce.

"Chloe you look beautiful," said her mother, and she secured the final clasp on her white dress.

"Si, eres muy bonita, Chloe," offered Gisela, as she fixed her champagne gown.

Chloe didn't speak. She was staring at herslef in the mirror. She looked petrified.

There were a million reasons why she shouldn't go through with this and only one why she should. She breathed deeply. 'Smile,' she told herself. 'This is your wedding day.

She almost burst into tears.

She wanted him to love her. She wanted him to touch her.

They had a discussion the night before. Actually, it was more like Lex murmuring to her that they weren't going to have sex. She smiled sweetly, although she felt as if she were dying inside.

No sex. Lex had sex with anything with a vagina in the past yet he didn't want to have sex with her.

Her dear husband.

A knock on the door steered her from her thoughts.

"Who is it?" her mother yelled.

"Lex," the voice said.

"Ooh, you know you can't be here, it's tradition," said her mother cracking the door.

"I want to talk to Chloe," he said simply, as if that solved everything.

"I'm here Lex," she called to him.

"You sound beautiful," he said sweetly.

She grinned. "So do you."

"Is everything okay?"

"It's fine." 'Wonderful, peachy, perfect,' she thought sarcastically.

"Good, the ceremony is scheduled to start in two minutes."

"I'll be there," she said and listened for his retreating form. 'Whether I want to or not."

"Lex stop fidgeting," whispered Bruce upon surveying Lex's constant movements.

"I'm not fidgeting," snapped Lex, "I'm adjusting myself."

The wedding turned out beautiful. Among the white pews there were endless bouquets of roses, red and white, and champagne candles. There was artificial snow resting across the lawn and ice sculptures ranging from swans to doves. Lex glanced at the white carpet that drifted to the double doors.

He didn't really notice when the flower girl came out, he was giddy with apprehension by the time the brides maids walked out. He blinked a moment as Bruce's hand gripped his shoulder as his words repeated themselves in his head.

Now he knew why Bruce Wayne's father had cried.

His breath hitched in his throat as she walked from behind those doors.

He took in her skin, the way it glowed angelically. Her dress was strapless, and was tight throughout her waist, and flared out into a long train at the bottom. Diamonds glistened as they sat atop her neck and graced her ears, and Lex realized that their wasn't a stone in the world precious enough to sit on her neck. Her veil was lace and was sown into her hair along with diamond clips that pushed her honey ringlets behind her ears as they rested gracefully against her back.

She glided like an angel toward him, with a large grin painted across her face.

His heartbeat sped up. He was really marrying an angel.

His eyes felt hot and they prickled gently as one tear slid slowly down the side of his cheek.

For the second time in his life, Lex Luthor cried.