Lex woke up slowly, feeling muzzy-headed and confused. He blinked a few times, pushing information through to his brain, though he felt surprisingly good. He was sitting in a car, parked in what looked like a motel parking lot. The motel was familiar and it took him a moment to think about why. Then as his mind began to clear his eyes snapped to seat next to him. In the driver's seat was Chloe.
She looked dead.
"Oh God, Chloe!" He reached for her, seeking a pulse at her neck. Her skin felt cool and clammy, and he couldn't tell if there was a beat. Frantically, he held his hand under her nose, to see if he could feel any breath. Again, he couldn't be sure. His eyes searched the parking lot of the hotel for something that might help. If she wasn't breathing and had no pulse, by the time he found and got her to a hospital, it might be too late.
It might already be too late.
No! He couldn't think like that. He had taken the bullets, so why was she...
He seized the keys from the car ignition, where Chloe had thoughtfully attached the motel room key. He clambered out of the car, realizing as he did so that his clothes were stiff with blood. He ignored the sensation because it didn't hinder his movements. In fact, he felt strangely strong. He rushed up to the room and unlocked the door, glad they had somehow ended up back in front of the rooms they had booked. He flung the door wide, then raced back to the car. Carefully, he lifted Chloe out of the car. He was surprised how light she was. Someone with such a smart mouth and so full of self-righteousness should feel more solid, heavier. But quiet in his arms, her tiny form felt feather-light.
Did she feel warmer or was that just wishful thinking?
He carried her into the room and laid her down on the bed. Leaning over her still form, he searched for a pulse again and almost thought he felt something.
There! He had! That was a definite beat!
To his amazement, he watched as she took a deep breath and color rushed into her cheeks. Lashes fluttered and he suddenly found himself looking into the clearest and most beautiful green eyes from just inches away.
He didn't remember making the conscious decision, but suddenly he was kissing her. There wasn't any surprise or hesitation from her this time. She was just kissing him back. Her skin warming fast as he moved his lips over hers, willing more life and breath and heat into her. He had enough of all three for both of them. The hand that had felt the first hesitant beat of life in her throat stayed still as he felt the pulse under it accelerate.
It was strange, but even after all the near-deaths she'd had over the years, he had never really thought of Chloe Sullivan as someone that could actually die. Not even when he took those bullets for her. His own actions were just more proof. There was always some last minute rescue, some mysterious circumstance, to save her.
Then he had seen her cold and waxy in the car. He wasn't sure why it had affected him so. Her death shouldn't mean anything to him. No, scratch that, he should be joyous at her death. She was an obstacle, a fly in the ointment of his schemes, she was the saboteur in the shadows, and a meteor freak.
He should be glad to have survived when she hadn't, because that would mean he had ultimately won and she had lost.
But seeing her so still and small, suddenly he hadn't been able to imagine his life without her moving to counter him.
The kiss grew more and more heated and he was climbing up onto the bed and stretching out next to her. He pulled her body close to his, willing more warmth into the body that had seemed dead and lifeless moments before. The heat built quickly, and he suddenly felt feverish. He stripped the bloody jacket from his shoulders and tossed it away. Hers followed a moment later. Small hands fumbled at the bottom his equally bloody tee shirt. He suddenly found a new appreciation for the silly "PHOTOGRAPHERS DO IT WHILE EXPOSING" T-shirt she wore when he stripped it from her with a single motion. He knew he was making it more difficult for her to undo his own clothes, but when the tops of full and creamy breasts nestled in a shockingly red and lacy bra became visible, he had to explore them. He remembered a lifetime ago - no FOUR lifetimes ago - when she would be dressed in clothes too tight and low when he saw her. He hadn't consciously realized how much he had resented her change to cutesy and modest clothes until now. But then again, why would he think about that? That was another world. A world before he had fired her father and experimented on her mother. A world before he had sought Lana as a replacement for the people he had lost. A world when he had thought that the right thing and what needed to be done could be the same thing.
How strange that he felt that world could be his again.
He buried his face in the swelling flesh of her chest as he felt her finally stripping his shirt from his body. It stuck unpleasantly around his shoulder where the blood had dried into a stiff and sticky mess, but she tore it away. He nipped her in gentle retaliation for the sting of the shirt pulling his skin. She gasped in mixed pain/pleasure, and dug short nails into his back. This felt like them, felt like something they would do - trading pain for pain...but he wanted to explore trading pleasure for pleasure. He trailed his lips up her neck and teased at the spot under her ear that made her gasp as his hand massaged the firm flesh of her breast. Her nails were now running up and down his bare back in a way that was no pain and all pleasure. He moved on top of her to give her more access to his back. This also aligned their bodies in a way that was most intriguing and he rotated his hips against hers, letting her feel the thrusting hardness of him through their clothes. Working his way back down her body, he found the swell of her breasts once more. The small clasp between the mounds was all that held them in check, as her chest rose with her excited breathing. With a twist of his wrist, he released them.
God, she had beautiful breasts. They seemed to beg for a man's mouth.
His mouth.
He took one tight bud between his lips and sucked and pulled at the sensitive flesh. She gasped and grasped onto his head, her fingers spasming as ripples of pleasure shot through her.
God, she was responsive.
A wave of greed flashed through him. That reaction was for him. This was his.
And he had to have more.
His hands moved to her jeans and he undid the button and fly without fumbling. Most of the women he had been with were the skirts and dresses type, but there was little he didn't know about getting clothes off of a woman. He pushed the denim down until she lifted her hips and he could free her of the confining fabric. He smiled at the revelation before him. A red lace-trimmed panty covered her center. He brushed a hand down the fabric and was pleased to find the fabric slightly dark and wet when he explored between her legs. He buried his nose in the fabric to take in the scent of her arousal as he teased at her through the thin barrier of lace and cotton. He blew gently over the damp fabric and she let out a wordless cry and raised her hips in response. He gazed up along the length of her body. Her skin was warm and flushed now, all signs of the frightening stillness and cold gone. All she was now was heat.
He wanted that heat.
He pushed the small barrier of damp fabric away and watched her face as he slid a single long finger into her.
"Christ!" she cried, as her body tightened around him.
She was so reactive. He wondered if anyone but him had ever touched her right. He doubted it. Who else but him could?
There was a reason they had always moved to counter the other. They were the same. She was his untarnished foil. Perfectly matched sides of the same coin.
She was his.
Before her hips could settle back, he wrapped his lips around her and sucked. Her thighs clamped around his head, blocking out some of his hearing, but he still heard wordless cries as she pressed herself into him. He teased her with lips and tongue and suction as his finger plunged into her. Her felt her body thrumming with tension as she wound tighter and tighter. Her voice was nothing but high-pitched squeaking as he held her hovering over the edge. When he didn't think she could take any more he wrapped his lips around her again and hummed at the same time his finger scraped the secret spot inside.
She came apart.
She let out a scream that could probably be heard back in Smallville, and her entire body shook. His. This was his. This was his due. He had saved the f***ing day, and this was his reward.
But not his only reward.
She was still shuddering as he stripped the red cotton and lace panty from her. His own jeans were quickly opened and stripped along with the designer boxer briefs he wore under them.
"Chloe," he gritted out, catching her attention from the daze of pleasure where she still drifted. He wanted to see her expressive eyes as he claimed her. No other woman had ever driven him quite like she had - from the heights of rage at her interference to this insane, driving need. Years of trial and maneuvering against each other were finally culminating in this.
He couldn't remember the last time he had wanted a woman this badly, but he needed her to look at him. He needed Chloe Sullivan to know that it was Lex Luthor f***ing her. Lex Luthor's heat in hers. Lex Luthor claiming what could have been his all along if only things had gone another way.
His head pounded with lust as her brilliant green gaze locked with his. Lightning seared his body as he watched the fires burn in the green depths of her eyes. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. "Lex..." she said thickly, but he didn't wait to see what she would say. He knew it wasn't "No," so anything else she would say could wait for later.
He plunged into her in a single hard push.
She cried out, arching her back to encourage him deeper as her body tightened and clung to him.
He had intended to go slow, to build her up again gradually, before letting her crash down, but he couldn't hold back. Not when everything in her was rushing him fast towards climax. Her body was tight and pulsing around his as she welcomed his hard invasion. He couldn't have held back from her anymore than he could have held back the tide. His body moved, pushing hard and fast into her as her felt her growing tighter and tighter around him. Her legs locked and pulled at him, drawing him even deeper as he felt pressure build between his eyes. He wasn't sure he could make it when he felt her clamp down around him with another piercing wail of pleasure as her body spasmed around his. He felt curses fall from his lips as he mindlessly rutted with her, as his own orgasm wiped his mind blank and he emptied into her.
Chloe woke slowly, not really wanting to leave the delicious dreams behind. Impossible dreams that should have been disturbing, but instead had her body flushing with warmth. As awareness slowly returned, despite her fight against it, strange sensations filtered into her mind. She was warm...and wrapped in male arms and pulled firmly into a hard, lean body. Her eyes flew open, but otherwise, she kept herself still. Slowly she turned her head until she could look over her shoulder at the man that held her so tight, even in sleep.
She was confronted by the sleeping form of Lex Luthor.
It hadn't been a dream. She'd had sex with Lex Luthor...and actually slept with him too. That almost felt stranger than the sex. You didn't fall asleep in the arms of an enemy.
In sleep, his hard, unforgiving expression was something softer. Something more like the man that had first come to Smallville seven years before. As her eyes roamed over his face, she thought of who he had been then. The man that smiled at her when the fireworks he had arranged for Clark's party went off. The man that teased her about verbal judo when she interviewed him. The man that sent her a lucky horse-shoe shaped flower arrangement after she had survived falling from the third floor of his mansion.
She was so lost in looking at that man she had thought gone, that it took her a moment to realize he was looking back at her with clear blue eyes. For once, she didn't see anything shading his expression. There was no arrogance, no smirking judgement, no hardness. He was simply looking at her look at him.
Turning in his arms to face him full on, she continued to meet his clear eyes. Neither one of them said a word for long moments as they each evaluated the other.
Chloe wasn't sure what he saw in her gaze, but she knew what she saw in his. A moment lost in time, something strange and rare and precious that should be seized just so you can prove it really existed.
She was looking into his eyes, and Lex couldn't help being mesmerized by hers. There was a depth there than made him feel like he could fall through them. It made him feel he could see through the woman she was now to the girl he had seen before. He could see the girl that had given him a surprisingly genuine smile when they first met. He could see the driven champion that became his ally against his father. He could see the isolated, but still determined girl in the safehouse. He remembered how they would play scrabble and she would yell at him for trying to play Latin or French words.
He could see the darker parts too. Darker parts that he had in many ways caused. He could see the girl with the straight spine that had walked away after he had hurt her, when he had only thought to protect her. He saw her fighting him as her dragged her into the caves. He saw her fear and pain as his teams tested her for her meteor ability.
Still holding his eyes, he heard her soft whisper. "This isn't real."
And suddenly all he wanted to do was dive through that pain to what he had seen first. Before he had tried to tear her apart, but had only made her stronger.
He moved slowly closer, his eyes dropping to her lips, as he replied just as softly. "Alright."
Lex's lips didn't seize hers, so much as they merged with hers. The pressure soft at first, but as more of him met more of her, the pressure grew. His body moved to press against hers, as if they were trying to merge as much skin as possible. When the sheets tangled between them, Lex pulled them away, but in an unhurried manner that dragged the fabric across their bodies. When the sheets were gone, Chloe thought she would be cold, but she wasn't. Lex's body was hot and hard and pressing against hers. He wasn't hugely built like Clark, but lithe and lean with the long muscles of a swimmer. His tight body was a smooth expanse of skin from the top of his trademark scalp to his feet. She felt the hardness of him against her belly where they pressed together. She wanted to touch it, to see if the skin felt as smooth and silky as it had seemed last night. Her hand moved between them and she wrapped her small hand around the velvet-covered-steel of him. He gasped at her touch, and she saw his eyes open, but he didn't pull away from her lips. As her fingers explored the shape of him, her teeth nibbled at his lower lip. His hands were moving in paths of fire over her side and back, encouraging her in her own touching. She heard Lex's breath hitch and darted her tongue between his lips. She was surprised he was acting so docile, letting her lead. It was so very un-Lex-like. But then, they had agreed this wasn't real. This had nothing to do with who they were or what they might do when this moment ended.
That was why neither of them spoke.
If they spoke, they would know. They would remember who they were, and all the damage they had done to each other. Then the moment would be gone.
But that couldn't happen until they let it.
Her hand was wrapped around him, teasing and testing him. He didn't even try to hold back his groans of pleasure as he felt her small, warm hands move on him.
Without thought, his own hands began to move across her body, tracing the curves and dips of her perfect satiny skin.
Lex had lived his whole life surrounded by luxury, to the point that he rarely noticed the individual trappings of wealth around him. Except for a very few things, he rarely took note of the excessive luxuries in his life. One of those trappings that he really, truly enjoyed were custom-fit handmade gloves by a tiny shop in Paris. The tiny glove maker's shop had been making its outrageously expensive wares since the reign of Louis XIV. They used only the most delicate and buttery smooth leathers and the softest, plushest furs in their hand-stitched gloves. He had had to fly out to the shop in person so they could make a custom molding of his hands, but it was worth it. His fingers were extremely sensitive and nothing else had ever felt as smooth and supple to his hands as those gloves.
That was until he felt Chloe Sullivan's warm skin.
Suddenly those expensive leather-and-fur gloves felt as raw and coarse and clumsy as mittens made out of sandpaper.
His lips glided across one of her smooth cheeks to tease the spot below her ear that had made her groan last night. He liked that spot. He could bury his nose in the clean scent of her hair and warmed skin while feeling her shiver. His hands roamed the smooth warm expanse of her body as his hips began to pulse with the movements of hers on him. When he felt himself building to an orgasm, his opened his eyes again, and stilled her hand on him. He didn't want to come like that. He wanted to be inside.
His eyes caught her widely dilated green ones and she must have read his thoughts there, for she pushed him over onto his back. He didn't resist. Normally he liked being on top, liked the control it gave him, but he was seized by a sudden desire to look up at Chloe as she moved on him.
Silken thighs moved to either side of his hips and she slowly sank herself down onto him.
When he slid into her, it felt like every warm feeling in the world. It felt like sitting warm by the fire while watching a storm rage outside. It was the first clear breath after an extended head cold. It was the barely remembered embrace of someone that truly loved him after a long separation.
It felt like coming home.
A loud groan of satisfaction and completion tore from his throat, as he felt a similar one echo from her chest.
Lex closed his eyes again and sank into the feeling as she began to move on him.
Chloe closed her eyes at the incredible sensation of Lex filling her. She had thought most of what happened last night was imagination, that there was no way that anything could feel that good. Especially not Lex.
Lex was corrupt and evil and twisted. So how could he possibly feel this good? It was like her body was built to accept his.
He was big, but her body stretched to accommodate him, and as it did, she found she was able to take him even deeper. She pressed her hips down until he was sunk into her to the hilt. She opened her eyes and caught his. His blue irises had gone brilliant and stormy with intensity. Holding his gaze, she raised her hips and sank back down, watching his lids fall, veiling his eyes as his head tipped back in ecstasy. Placing her hands on his smooth muscular chest, she balanced herself as she began to move on him.
Meeting her movements, his hips moved back and pressed forward again and she pushed her own down to meet his. She would never know how it happened, how they communicated when and how to move together so perfectly, but they increased their paces together, pressing their hips to meet, allowing him to sink as deep as possible with each thrust.
The sensations were incredible. It was so much better than the fumbling, unsatisfying couplings she had with Jimmy. Even better than the little pocket vibrator she used when she filled her mind with Clark.
This was Lex Luthor - her enemy and ally - and it was incredible.
The slide of him hit a spot deep inside that pulsed with sensation, building a pressure within that had her grasping him tighter and tighter. Small squeaky noises came from her throat uncalled as she sought something just out of reach but getting closer. Lex moved one of his hands to where there bodies joined and began teasing at her and the pressure amplified a thousandfold. Her hips began moving on him in a faster and faster tempo as she felt the pressure pounding in her core, behind her eyes, against her heart.
She wanted to speak, wanted to say his name, to beg, to plead, but they had agreed to no words. So instead she choked out a begging sound, knowing he would understand. She wanted to release, but she just couldn't break.
She felt a hand on her face and her eyes snapped open. The eyes that met hers were still the same bright, stormy blue, but deeper now with passion. She felt his hips pull back with a portentous movement and as he pushed forward hard as she sank down onto him, giving her just what she needed.
Keening with an almost animal cry, she let go. Through the explosion of fireworks that were going off in every nerve ending, she heard Lex shout and go rigid in her. The sensation of him pulsing set off a new wave of bursting pleasure and she joined him as she went over the edge again.
They still didn't speak for a long time after. Not even when Lex withdrew from her and got up from the bed. He opened his mouth as if the speak, but closed it again without saying anything. Then he moved toward the bathroom and closed the door. A moment later, she heard the shower run.
Chloe collected her clothes from where they were scattered all over the floor and dressed. She snatched the car keys that also had her room keys attached from the dresser where Lex must have discarded them last night. Letting the door close audibly behind her, Chloe left Lex's room and walked next door to her own. She needed to shower and change as well.
What the hell was that? Lex thought to himself as the hot water flowed over him. He'd heard the door slam almost ten minutes ago, but he was still just standing here under the pouring water.
The...sex? F***ing? - he shied away from calling it anything else - had been incredibly hot and the orgasm had nearly caused him to black out, but...that wasn't how he f***ed.
That had been something else.
And damned if he had any idea what it was.
He had felt right and possessive and...complete in a way he never had before. Not with any of the thousand nameless women he bedded, not with Desiree or Helen. Not even with the prize he had fought so hard to win - only to find he had made a grievous error - Lana.
He thought Chloe might have had the right of it when she had whispered, "This isn't real."
He had no idea what that was, but it couldn't have been real. Not the real her. Not the real him.
Unless it was...
God damn it.
An hour later, Chloe heard a knock on her room's door and moved to answer it.
Lex was dressed back in one of his normal dark suits with a crisp lilac shirt underneath. She saw him look over her own outfit, which was also back to her normal style - a patterned top with a pair of slacks.
"My jet will be meeting us at a little airstrip about 30 minutes from here to take us back to Smallville. Are you ready to go?" he asked.
"Yes, " she replied as she picked up her bag.
She didn't ask if Lex had checked them out from the small motel or if he had packed up all their camera and surveillance gear. He wouldn't have knocked if anything else needed to be done.
Under an hour later, they were airborne on their way back to Smallville.