15.

Her phone was ringing. She had to change that ring tone, it was starting to drive her batty. Checking the Caller-Id, she smiled. He was right on schedule. Smirking the trademark quirk of her lips that her lover often sported she answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Don't be coy, I know that you have call display." He smirked through the speaker.

"I didn't say that I didn't know it was you." She snarked back. Smirking she continued, "where are we meeting for our rendezvous?"

"Tsk tsk Chloe, I didn't know that you were that - needy." His voice gloated from the other end.

"When it comes to you..." she said, letting her voice drift away softly.

"No holds bar?" His voice smirked on the other end.

"Almost." She said letting her voice waver faintly.

"I'm at my apartment in Metropolis. Only almost?"

"Well, we do have the whole cloak and dagger routine going on right now."

"Is that what you've been worried about?"

"I just have a lot on my mind right about now, Lex, that's all."

"Like Operation, Ment?"

"Mant. I can tell that you've been highly observant lately."

"I just have a lot on my mind right about now, Chloe, that's all." He quoted her previous words.

"Hey, that's just not fair, Lex. You are the reason that my life's so complicated."

"You think that I complicate things." He stated firmly.

"No, Lex, it's just that -"

"I don't need excuses from you Chloe."

"I'm just tired of hiding Lex. I'm tired of hiding things from people. Tired of giving excuses to people for things that I want to be happy about, things that I don't want to be making excuses for."

"If our relationship is bothering you that much, maybe we should just stop seeing each other." He spoke the words concisely and carefully. And just like that Chloe could have sworn that she felt her heart shatter instantly.

"I don't want to lose you Lex. Please don't say that."

"You don't want to lose me, but you don't like what we have?" She could tell, just by the tone of his voice that he was smirking, and that his eyebrow was raised high above those adorable blue eyes of his.

"Lex, I want to go public. About us."

"You know what that could do to everything that we have hoped for? Everything that you have helped me plan?"

"Is that it? Is that all you can think about? Plans, and hopes? I know that your reputation is at stake Lex. I just thought that I was more important than what the people would think of you." 'Hit him where it hurts Sullivan, that will really make him want you.' Her inner voice was rolling it's eyes at her in a vain attempt to salvage what she and Lex had, what ever it was.

"I thinking about you Chloe. But if you're thinking about us that way, I can reconsider what I was thinking."

"Lex, don't do this. I need you."

"Again with the 'need' word. I'd say that's one of your weaknesses." Chloe was quiet on her end. So Lex continued, "I love you Chloe." He said softly.

Chloe's car swerved slightly on the road. "What? I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you." She had to have heard him wrong. She was just imagining what he said. There was no way that he had said -

"I love you. There is no other way to explain how I feel about you Chloe." His voice was quiet, cautious.

Chloe was rendered into a lack of words at his words.

"Chloe Sullivan, speachless, is that a good thing, or a bad thing? Who are the proper authorities that I have to contact?"

"I'm sorry Lex, it's just that you really sent me on a spin here."

"You still haven't told me who the proper authorities to contact." His voice was chuckling on the other end.

"Quit laughing at me." She said turning alongside the curb outside the penthouse.

"I'm not laughing at you Chloe. Is that you already?"

"Could be." She said nodding at the door man. He just smiled in return.

"It is you isn't it." He smiled on the other end.

Using the spare key that Lex had graciously given her at their last get together in the penthouse, Chloe began to unlock the door.

"It's unlocked." He said.

"How do you know it's me?" She asked with a smirk.

"Intuition." He said opening the door. She smiled up at him from her place at the doorway. Taking her phone away from her ear, she looked up at him.

"Then I'd say that your intuition is pretty in tune." She took a step into the entry way.

Locking eyes, they both turned their respective phones off.

"Did you mean, what you said? Before, I mean."

"Which part." He took a step towards her.

"The part where you said those three magickal words."

"Who'll I contact?"

"No, before that."

"You mean when I said that I liked you?"

She beamed her trademark 1000 watt smile up at him before reaching her hand out to touch his shoulder. "You said that you loved me."

"You sure?" His eyebrow rose, "I'm sure that I said that I liked you."

"I love you too Lex." She said before grabbing his shoulders and pulling him down towards her.

(Meanwhile back at the barn... tee hee)

"Alex, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that, I was out of line." Clark moved away from her quickly. So quickly in fact, that he failed to notice the randomly hovering objects slowly go back to where Alex thought that they belonged. A pen, over here, a shoe over there.

"It's alright Clark. You weren't out of line at all." She said looking at him. "In fact, you were completely in line." She smiled at him before pulling him down for another kiss.

----------

Clark smiled to himself before quickly pulling away. Heat was pooling in his retinas. 'Shit.' His heat vision was activating, and he didn't want to "Alex, go into the house." She looked at him like he was nuts.

"Why?"

"You forgot the ice cream." He lied quickly. "Go, hurry before the pie gets cold." He said smiling.

"Ok, I'll be right back then." She said holding her hands up in defeat. She hurried out of loft, in time for his vision to ignite a barrel.

"Shit." Clark said running towards a barrel of water. A bucket of water hovered near the fire before abruptly dumping itself onto the blaze.

"How did you do that? With the fire, I mean."

Clark turned around to face the one person he thought that he had gotten rid of. "Alex?