He decided to wait until he got back to his loft apartment before continuing his search into Chloe Sullivan. This felt like something he should do privately.
For once, he returned home alone.
He told his staff he wanted no distractions or interruptions.
He would shower, then take a meal in his bedroom.
Tonight he was going to find Chloe.
Lex stood under the powerful blasts of the body jets in his shower. He wasn't sure why, but he almost felt as if he was going to meet her tonight. That feeling was what sent him to the shower before starting the search. He had even used his most expensive body wash, the one he reserved for use only around those with the ability to recognize it. Would she know it when he found her? They say that scent and memory were closely linked.
As he washed, his anticipation in finding Chloe coiled and shifted in him, showing physically in his hardened body. He'd been hard since seeing her face on the computer screen this morning. He felt like she was finally within his grasp. The endless meetings between now and then had been almost unendurable.
Maybe I should have taken new Gina up on her offer before leaving the office...
No...that isn't what he really wanted. He wanted Chloe.
He leaned one hand against the shower wall for stability. Without conscious thought, his free hand grasped himself and began stroking. The thick foam of the wash was a heady lubricant.
If he tracked her down tonight, how long would it be before she would be here with him, in person?
The thought sent a shudder of pleasure through him. He let his mind drift as his hand moved on himself.
He had seen all seven wonders of the modern world, and decided they all paled in comparison to a soaking wet Chloe Sullivan in a bikini.
Well, at least I'm getting some context for that bikini on the table vision... it must have happened here. Wherever "here" was...
As usual, most of the scene was blurred outside her immediate vicinity. She was standing in a lake, with water lapping gently just below her navel. As the water moved, it played peek-a-boo with the bright red bows over the hips of her bikini bottom. She must have just gone under, because she was pushing wet hair back from her face. It was late evening or night, judging by the moonlight turning the water to silver. The soft glow also caught the water droplets on her skin, making them sparkle like diamonds. He was standing on the shore watching her.
A lake...where the hell is there a lake we would have visited? This didn't feel like the local swimming hole...
She turned to face him once her wet hair was securely tucked behind her ears. "You just going to stand there all night, Luthor?" she mocked, moving into deeper water.
He felt his usual mocking smile settle on his features. Mouthy wench. He moved slowly into the surprisingly warm water until it hit his waist. He smiled at her in challenge, then he arched forward into a shallow dive. He was am exceptional swimmer. His lean muscle was partly a result of many hours spent in the mansion pool.
Circling around her, he surfaced in a riot of water right in front of her. He grinned in victory as she squealed loudly at being drenched. Then it was his turn to be hit with a rush of water as she used both hands to splash him with a great wave. Now it was her grinning.
He narrowed his still-dripping eyelids and sank into the water until just his eyes and nose were visible. She must have sensed her danger because she turned tail and ran for the shore. She didn't stand a chance. He dove under and sliced through the water, catching her behind the knees after only a few steps. She tumbled into the water with a spluttering burst. He found himself laughing as he couldn't remember doing since he was a child as she she splashed and floundered to the surface. She didn't have anything like his grace in the water. Throwing his head back, he let the sound of his laughter carry across the quiet lake. She cursed him vilely, pushing wet hair from her eyes again, setting off another round of laughter. He had to hold his stomach with his arms to steady himself.
He was too busy laughing to catch the dangerous look in her eye once she was steady on her feet again. She didn't sneak, didn't dive. She tackled. All five-feet-two of her tackled him.
He was so startled by finding the tiny blonde attacking him that he fell back with a splash equal to hers. This time it was her laughing when he surfaced.
He was surprised to find that, for once, he wasn't annoyed at being beaten. Actually, quite the opposite. This was... fun. When had he last really had fun?
Probably with her...
She was still laughing when she moved within his reach again. Should he try for the upper hand again? The way he counted it, they were now even. When her hands reached out and she gently began wiping the clinging water drops from his face he decided a tie was fine... for now. She was grinning madly as she wiped water drops off his skin. Watching her, his attention was caught by a particular drop on her own skin. It slid from her hairline by her ear, around her cheek, down her throat, over her chest, and finally disappeared into the valley of her breasts. His arms reached out and slowly dragged her against his body. Her body still vibrated with her chortles. His lips sought the spot by her ear where the drop had originated and followed its trail down her neck. Her laughter halted abruptly with an indrawn breath. His tongue flicked out over her collarbone, catching other warm droplets on his tongue. Instinctively, she shifted slightly, aligning her hips with his. Even in the warmth of the water, the heat of her drew him. Her hips cradling the shape of his hardness through his swim trunks. His tongue finally completed its task of collecting all the sparkling water drops from her neck and upper chest. He let his lips move into the welcoming valley between her breasts.
A woman like this was the reason bikinis existed.
The black fabric with its white polka dots and cheerful little bows beautifully set off the pale creaminess of her skin and its healthy glow. He had been with more than his fair share of models, but he always found their bodies too bony and their skin and hair lacked luster. Not Chloe. She was beautifully rounded in all the best places...all the places where his male mind wished to grab. Using his thumbs, he pushed down the cups of her top, exposing her beautiful breats. Seeing the shine of water on the delicate flesh, he blew gently. Chloe gasped at the sudden coolness where before there was heat. Finding that single fat drop that had escaped between her breasts, he leaned forward and licked it away. She shivered.
God, he loved watching her. Loved exposing her to new pleasures. He doubted she had any sort of experience like this. He found a small mocking smile tug up the corner of his mouth. He had enough experience with water sex for twenty men. He'd been f***ing in pools and hot tubs since he was sixteen. Though he did think this was his first time in a lake. It was certainly the first time in this lake.
Wait..where exactly were they?
His hands reached behind her to open her bikini clasp. It came away easily in his practiced hands. He slid the wet, clingy material of the cheerful bikini top down her arms, delighting in her shiver. Once free of her wrists, he sent it flying it back towards the shore. He didn't look, but heard it hit with a wet plop. He let his hands dip into the water again, then palmed her fantastic breasts with wet hands. She shivered at the contact, even though both the water and his hands were warm. His head dipped to take her breast in his mouth, but this time it was him groaning. She was licking water drops from his sensitive scalp. Her hands found his ears and used them to tilt his head so she could tongue bathe every inch. The feeling was incredible. His hardened body was pulsing desperately against the front of his trunks, seeking her warmth. When she was done and sense returned, he let his hands find the sides of her bottoms. When he encountered the shape of the little bows there, he smilingly tugged them open. It made him feel like he was unwrapping a particularly wonderful gift. Then sliding his thumbs up and around, he caught the sides of the stretchy material and pulled gently but firmly downward. He didn't want to damage such a delightful piece of clothing. As he dragged, he felt her own hands working on the drawstring of his own suit. Once undone, she dragged it down his hips, being careful to work the material around his him. First she, then he, stepped out of their respective bottoms. Smiling at each other, they threw them back towards the shore with a pair of wet splats. Moving forward, she held his gaze. With a very deliberate maneuver, she wrapped her fingers around him under the water. Her hand grasped him firmly and slowly began to slide up and down his steel length. He couldn't recall the last time a woman had given him a handj*b, but he was sure it wasn't nearly this good. His eyes slid closed and his head tilted back. Her pace increased as did the pressure of her fingers. The feeling reminded him of that first plunge into her body - that tight grasping, milking, tension. Blindly reaching out, he grabbed her rear, and dug his fingers into the firm globes as his hips pumped into her hand. He felt his vision blurring with oncoming orgasm.
"Chloe, I'm..."
His words were cut off when she shifted. His eyes shot open. Instead of pulsing up into her hand, he plunged into her body. She had aligned him, but he hadn't even realized, lost as he had been. With the first hard push, she cried out at the pleasurable invasion. He shifted his grip from her rear to her thighs, lifting them to wrap around his waist. The water provided incredible buoyancy, giving him the ability to withdraw from her almost completely before slamming her back down onto himself. Hard. Her cries carried over the quiet water as she moved with him. He felt her body teetered on the edge. His own was responding in kind, his vision fuzzing white around the edges as the pressure mounted. His pace turned uneven and frantic as he balanced on a knife edge with her. His tension finally snapped at the same instant as hers. He shouted as his hips pounded desperately into her as he released into her. Just when he thought it was almost over, her body would squeeze him again and he would find himself releasing more. He had no idea how long that went on. No idea how long it took before his poor tortured body could no longer respond to the still rushing waves of her orgasms. He held her limp, shaking form still wrapped around his, and walked them toward the shallows. Once he reached a lesser depth, his knees gave out and he sank into a sitting position on the soft, sandy bottom of the shallows. They sat quietly like that for a long time, letting their heartbeats return to normal. Every so often a new aftershock would ripple through Chloe's body, causing his still buried body to stir. He was starting to feel sleepy and considering bestirring when he heard Chloe's soft voice just a decibel or two above the sound of the lapping water.
"Thank you."
He couldn't help the mocking, satisfied smile in his voice. "Well, that's new. Never had a woman actually thank me for an orgasm before." He looked down at her, but she wasn't smiling. Her expression was very intense.
"That's not why I said it, Lex. Thank you for bringing me here." She waved a hand around to indicate their surroundings. "Thank you for sharing this with me."
He felt his mocking smile fade at her sincerity. He held her beautiful green eyes.
"You're welcome."
Two hours later, he was frustrated by the conflicting results of his search. Had he really taken her...THERE? Was it really the place he thought it was? He couldn't find any evidence to support the vision. In fact, he could barely find evidence of Chloe Sullivan at all.
Chloe Sullivan showed up in a number of his searches, teasing and tantalizing him with a snippet of text or a single blurred image, but as soon as he tried to dig deeper, the trails wrapped back upon themselves or disappeared into cyberspace. It looked as if she had been scrubbed from records a number of times, with each scrubbing overlaying and confusing the previous trails.
Chloe Sullivan showed up in snippets of conflicting records all over the USA and the world, but he was unable determine how or why or even if they were all Her. The trails made no sense.
It also looked like she had been declared dead at least twice.
Who was this woman?
He ran down false leads well into the wee hours. He didn't remember closing his eyes, but suddenly he was with Her again in another vision.
"I'm not sure what sort of article you expect me to write way out here, Lex."
He smiled, looking at the cozy little 2-bedroom cabin next to the lake. For once the scene was completely clear.
Oh God. They really had been THERE. I know that cabin, know that lake. This place was buried in the deep inside himself, behind the walls where he kept his childhood memories.
"A travel piece, of course. The joys of nature and such," he replied, waving a hand at the idyllic location.
She looked at him suspiciously for several moments, before replying slowly. "Ok...then mind telling me where the hell we are?"
"Wyoming."
"Wyoming?" She asked incredulously. "Why the hell are we in Wyoming?"
"This is my mother's cabin," he told her.
"What?" she looked up at him in surprise.
"When I was very small, my mother would take me away here for a few days at a time. After she...got sick, we stopped coming. Then when she died, she left this place directly to me." He lips twisted in bitterness. "Unlike the ranch my father sold."
Chloe stood quietly beside him, looking at the lovely rustic house. The water of the lake was a shining blue mirror behind it. "It's beautiful, Lex." She paused, then continued. "I've never heard you mention this place before, did you come here with..." Her voice trailed off, as if she decided against her question in mid-sentence.
"I haven't been back since my mother died, but I couldn't bear to sell it." He smiled wryly. "So no, I've never brought anyone here before." He looked down at her. "Until now."
Chloe was speechless.
God, he loved when he managed that. It was so rare, that he felt the victory flow through him. He felt his face stretch oddly again - into a grin. He felt suddenly...giddy?
No, don't be ridiculous. I don't do giddy.
But he couldn't think of another word when he grabbed her hand and started running for the cabin, dragging a laughing Chloe behind.
When he awoke, a completely new and unexpected thought hit him. It was such a shock that he found himself frozen momentarily.
They had both broken the rules. Both of them had.
He realized as he watched her in his memories at his mother's cabin that what he felt for her... she had felt for him too. Maybe not to the same degree, but she had wanted him, and he had been there.
Thinking back on all their encounters, he realized the clues had been there all along. That driving, insatiable sexual need he had for her...her need for him had been just as great.
Sex. Love. Need.
It was all tied together.
He had been so caught up in his weakness of loving her, that he never realized her own weakness for him.
He had been a fool.
He had kept trying to find a hold over her, with money, with fear, by lording over her. Each had failed, just pushing her farther from him. Not bringing her closer.
It has never occurred to him that the times when she was closest was when he was simply just...there. No fancy meals or exclusive events, no elaborate and expensive favors, not even the hot and frantic sex. It was when they were like this. The sex was just part of the basic need to connect, to give himself to her and receive from her in turn. It wasn't about power, or even orgasm. It was about connection.
His day went by in a haze. He hadn't been able to fall back asleep after his revelation. The loss of sleep and his lack of success in his search weighed him down. He should have been able to find her by now. After all, wasn't that the point of the memory leaks? To drive him to find her?
If he couldn't find her, why was he having these visions at all?
What was locked in his subconscious that was trying so desperately to break free?
For a second night, he went home alone and buried himself in his bedroom. Feeling heavy, he went straight to bed even though the sun was still sending out a fiery blaze as it sank below the horizon.
In his vision, everything was surreally washed in red, unhealthy gold, and blinding orange.
He heard the suppressed tears in her voice. This time he knew it was because of him.
"You lied to me, Lex. You did it, and you lied!" she raged at him.
He reached for her, grabbing her arms and giving her a hard shake.
She had to understand! his vision self thought.
His eyes bored into hers, pressing her with the entire force of his will to MAKE her understand. "A war is brewing, Chloe. Make sure you are on the right side."
Breaking free from his hard grip, she panted and stared back at him with hard eyes. Even now, she showed no fear. Her voice was tight and angry. "You're insane."
He stood straight and held her gaze unflinchingly. "No, but I will do whatever I have to to make sure this world is safe. You, of all people, should understand that."
He reached for her arm again, meaning to drag her to him. When she was in his arms, everything made sense between them.
She pulled her arm back before he could grasp it, and suddenly he saw stars. He stumbled back in shock and pain, but managed to maintain his balance. He stared at her in disbelief. She had hit him with a surprisingly powerful right hook.
Well, you knew how firm her muscles were under that deceptively supple skin.
She stood looking at him, her face a complex mask of emotion. Her voice was quieter, calmer, but not the least bit yielding. "You're wrong, Lex. Just...wrong." She turned on her heel and walked away without a backward glance. Her heard her whisper softly to herself just before she was gone. "And I'm a fool."
No! He couldn't let it end like this! She was the only bright spot in his life, he couldn't...lose her.
No. She would come to understand. She had to. He would make sure she was protected until she saw he was right.
He would have her taken somewhere safe.
Black Creek.
He shot bolt upright in his large empty bed and ran his hands over his face. Sweat sprang out over his entire body even though the room was cool.
Oh, God.
He had her sent to Black Creek. He knew about Black Creek and the...experiments there from his project research.
Why had he thought she would be safe there?
His subconscious knew she wasn't dead, but what if she was...worse than dead?
That would help explain the mess of her records during his searches. He would have had to scrub the records of the illegal facility and her going there. If something had...happened to her, Luthorcorp would have scrubbed her records again.
Even if she was alive, she was probably...not the woman he knew in these visions.
Not after Black Creek.
He didn't need to find her now. There was no point. She might as well actually be dead.
He had foolishly excised her from his life by trying to cage her.
Her bright smile - gone. Her stimulating presence - gone.
His soul... gone.
He threw himself into work. He couldn't bear to continue the search for her, knowing what he was likely to find. If she indeed lived, she wouldn't be His Chloe anymore.
There were no more dreams.
That vision of him condemning her to Black Creek had been the last. Whatever message his corrupted mind was trying to send was done.
But why? Why did she bleed through? Why torture him with visions of light and life with her, only to show him how hopeless it all was?
It didn't make sense.
He continued to pursue the women of Metropolis, but laconically. He didn't choose by specific type or category anymore. He brought home whoever struck his mild fancy that night. It was more out of habit than true lust now.
Then one night the unthinkable happened.
He couldn't perform.
Not once in his entire life had he failed in the bedroom.
His companion was very understanding.
It made him feel sick.
Looking at his unresponsive body, he thought, This is something that happened to ordinary men, and I am nothing close to ordinary. I am Lex Luthor, damn it!
Enough was enough.
He decided to push the whole thing from his mind. Pretend it never happened.
Love was weakness. He didn't need it.
He would f*** the women of Metropolis raw. He would crush his corporate rivals. He would pursue his shady off-book projects. He would build an empire of technology, money, and most of all - power.
He was a Phoenix. He would burn all against him to ash.
He was Lex Luthor.
He didn't need her.
She was nothing but a memory.
He was Lex Luthor.
He didn't need a soul.
Author's Note:
While I would LOVE to be able to claim Lex sending Chloe to Black Creek as an original idea, I have to give credit where it is due - canon and (even better IMO) Apeygirl! Canon indicates that Lex had Chloe seized and sent there, especially from what Tess has to say about Black Creek in season 8. What canon does not indicate is his exact motivation for doing so. That part is up to us for interpretation, and with a character as complex as Lex, there are soooo many great options!
For a Chlexer story, it was Apeygirl and her wonderful story, "The Depths we sink to" that introduces the idea of Lex sending Chloe away to protect her. While my story has him doing this to keep her safe until she can "come to her senses" as he sees it, the idea of Black Creek originally being a good thing in his mind originated with her. Though, of course, once he is "gone," things at Black Creek do not proceed as he planned in any storyline - canon, mine, or Apeygirl's...
