A/N - Sorry for the delay; I have been rewriting some of this. If you are on N-S, please review there. Thanks!

Playing House – Chapter 13

Lex disappeared into the bathroom while Chloe looked around the bedroom. This is it. I'm his bedroom and I'm going to sleep with Lex Luthor. I wonder what he expects from all of this. He's said he's falling in love with me.

Taking her by the arm, Lex startled her out of her thoughts. "Chloe, it was just a game. As much as I would love for you to," he paused as he wrapped his arms around her and balanced his head on her shoulder. "I'm not going to force you."

Chloe pulled out of his arms and turned to look at him. Without saying a word, she walked out the door. Lowering his head, Lex closed his eyes. This is so not the way I wanted this to end. He bit his lip and pulled the sheets back on the bed. Exhaling, he turned the lights off and crawled into bed.

A few minutes later he blinked and saw the lights come back on. In front of him stood the woman he never imagined being with carrying her bag. She walked across the room and set her bag just inside of his closet and smiled. "I double dare you to let me stay the weekend in your room." Lex jumped out of bed and wrapped his arms around her. Chloe looked up in his eyes. She closed hers as he pulled her closer and kissed her, sliding his tongue past hers and into her mouth.

Picking her up off the floor still kissing her, he sat her down of the bed and broke the kiss. "I'll take that dare." She smiled at him and crawled into bed. He turned the lights out and crawled in next to her.

She had never been in bed with another man all night, not even in bed for a few hours. She faced the window and watched the shadows outside. She shuddered when Lex wrapped his arms around her. She could feel him nuzzle his head in her hair. "Thank you," he whispered. "Are you ok; I mean comfortable?"

Turning slightly, she responded, "I don't see why any woman wouldn't be comfortable in your arms." She turned back around and pulled his arms in even closer to her, not even concerned about his hand rubbing up against her breast. She exhaled one more time and fell into a rhythm of listening to Lex's breathing. He was already asleep.

Lex woke up and looked around. He noticed the indention of where she was last night in his bed and wondered what would have scared her off. Looking at the clock, he sighed as he heard Julian start to scream. He went in and changed his son and headed down to the kitchen with him. "You hungry," he asked and somewhat giggled as Julian bit down on his finger.

He walked down the stairs and heard the clanking of dishes in the kitchen. Oh good, at last there will be breakfast. He walked in and didn't see Denise. Pulling a bottle out of the refrigerator, he stuck it in the microwave. "Good morning."

Turning around, he noticed Chloe, still in her nightclothes, opening the oven and looking in on what looked like biscuits. "Good morning; where's Denise?"

He watched as she shut the oven and went back to rip open the package of bacon. "Oh, I guess I should tell you that I told all the employees to go home and let us have the weekend to ourselves. I was kind of surprised when they actually listened to me. I think most of them are pretty sure they aren't going to be allowed back on Monday."

Lex pulled the bottle out and sat down with Julian to feed him. "You sent my staff home?"

Cracking four eggs in a pan, she looked at him. "Yeah, I figured if we were going to play house this weekend, we shouldn't cheat and have the staff do everything for us. I know it's not exactly your way, but I think we'll manage." She turned around from concentrating on the stove and smiled at him. "You sleep ok?"

Lex was floored. "Yeah, are you sure you want to do this?" He was watching her and couldn't believe how he felt. He had always hoped to see a woman other than his servants in his presence doing work but never imagined this. He had tried with Helen, with Desiree, even with Victoria, but they were not anywhere near domestic. He smiled down at Julian as he finished the bottle. Whispering to him, he grinned even bigger, "Look, there's your future mommy."

"What?" She turned around and looked at him.

"Nothing, I was just talking to Julian."

The two enjoyed breakfast and shared in cleaning the kitchen. Lex took advantage of the thin shirt that she wore to bed to splash her with water. He just laughed at the dirty look that she gave him before pulling Julian out of his seat. "Got to go to work – you know after you kept me from it last night."

"I kept you from it? Lex, I think I …" She turned toward him to just feel his lips touch hers. Closing her eyes, she let him deepen the kiss as she ran her fingers down Julian's back.

Pulling out of the kiss, he laughed. "Relax. I'm kidding. We're going to be in the office when you want to join us." He left Chloe standing in the middle of the kitchen.

She sat on the couch in the office while she worked on a couple of different minor stories for the Daily Planet and some homework for school. Occasionally she glanced over at Julian who played quietly with the floor mobile and sometimes grunted while batting the small hanging items with his feet. She looked over and saw that Lex would periodically look over at his son and then return to work.

Lex watched as Chloe left the room. Taking the time of her absence, he turned on the stereo to play some soft classical music and sat down on the blanket with Julian. He pushed the hanging figurines around and watched Julian kick at them, his eyes big and bright as he followed the different shapes. Pulling the mobile out of the way, he turned him over on his stomach and laid down on the floor in front of him. He observed as Julian tried to push up on his knuckles just to fall back down.

Chloe started in the office and noticed Lex missing from the desk. She watched from the doorway. He's such a great father; too bad he wasn't treated as well as a kid. Lex is totally different with him. Even sitting at his desk, he looks more relaxed if just for small moments when he looks at him, like Julian is this small peace in his world. And he's in love with me, or so he says. I could spend my days like this. Chloe thought about her feelings for a minute and smiled. She suddenly imagined her name. Chloe Luthor. She took a quick breath to knock herself back to reality.

"Hey you two; I got us dinner." Chloe sat the boxes down on the coffee table and started toward the door. Looking back at Lex's face, she giggled. "You can eat pizza like any other person Mr. Luthor. I'm going to go get him a bottle." Chloe returned and saw Lex sitting Julian up in his arms against the side of the couch. He took the bottle as Chloe pulled part of a slice off in her fingers. "Open your mouth."

Lex looked at her and followed her instruction. Chloe's body shivered as he took not only the pizza in his mouth but the tips of her fingers. Backing off, Chloe took a slice as well. "It's good. More gourmet – I take it you ordered something out of the ordinary for my benefit."

"I figured if I wanted pizza and you wanted whatever you usually eat, we could meet in the middle." Chloe fed him another piece while he continued feeding Julian and then finished eating her own.

"I'm going to go put him in bed. You going to disappear again?"

"I think I'm going to go take a bath after I carry the rest to the kitchen." Lex nodded and walked up the stairs with Julian. Chloe followed several minutes later and walked into his bedroom. Digging through her things, she found night clothes and pulled the bathroom door to. She stared in awe as the bathtub filled with water. She was even more amused that her favorite fragrance had magically appeared next to bathtub since the night before. Even with her trying to live normally with the man for a weekend, he still called in a favor or two from his staff. Stepping into the tub, her body disappeared into the abyss of warm water and bubbles. Closing her eyes, she let her scent glands take over.

Pushing the door open slightly, he watched her. He knew in the back of his mind that what he was doing was so wrong. Walking away from the door, he changed in his closet and snuck into the bathroom. Sitting on the same step as Chloe did the night before, he watched as she laid in the bath with her eyes closed.

"Oh God!" Chloe let out at the sight of Lex in an unbuttoned silk shirt and pants.