Part Five
"Mmm", Chloe murmured as she stirred. She felt so wonderfully relaxed, she had slept very well but she was not quite ready to open her eyes yet. Considering how soundly she had clearly been asleep it was a bit of a shock to realise that she was starting to bestir herself at all. She wondered what could have caused it.
As if in answer she felt a warm hand slide across her stomach and a soft pair of her lips placing kisses on her neck.
Another moan. She could get used to waking up like this. Her brain was trying to tell her something but she thought that she could ignore it for a while yet. She had the feeling that once her mind turned on properly her day was going to be very stressful, she would just lie here a little longer.
Noticing that she was obviously waking up the hand and lips became more adventurous the latter trailing kisses up her neck and across her cheek before caressing her own. Okay, so this was clearly a dream but she thought that she would enjoy it anyway, "Clark", she whispered, her eyes still closed.
Her lower lip was captured and held gently, almost in warning before being released. She felt Clark retreating, muttered his name once more reaching out her hands to bring him back to her, but instead of curls she felt nothing but smooth skin.
"No", there was a low growl as both of her hands were moved above her head. Chloe's eyes flashed open to find herself being pinned down by none other than Lex Luthor.
"Lex", she gasped, her eyes wide with shock.
"Oh so that is how you want to play it, is it?" He smirked down at her, as he somehow produced the one of his silk ties and bound her wrists to the head board.
To her surprise, Chloe noticed that her body would not fight against him, in fact as he drew back and ran his hands along her arms she had to bite her lip to keep from moaning.
Lex noticed this and his smirk grew. He leant back down as if to kiss her but stopped mere inches away, she craned her neck up but he was still just out of her reach. He placed a kiss tantalizing close to her mouth before moving to whisper in her ear: "You and I both know that you forgot about Kent months ago".
She gasped and he nibbled on her earlobe, "But as I think that you know by now, I am happy to play any little games you like", he caressed her below the blanket, "so, if you want to be the good shocked girl in evil Luthor's bedroom, still pining for her high school love then I am more than happy to oblige". As if to make his point, he squeezed her breast gently.
Chloe's head felt back as she arched. Lex's teeth ran along her throat and then, in the same voice like dark chocolate, "After all, it is the least I can do after that naughty school girl fantasy".
Then he sat back up and she groaned at the loss of contact. She looked up at him, taking in all that she could see of him. He really was a very fine specimen of a man, she noted. His stomach was hard and flat, his chest and shoulders were broad, and his arms looked strong. He looked powerful but warm and like his skin would be very soft to touch, she tried to confirm this – for the sake of journalism, of course - but found herself hampered by his tie. Then her eyes travelled up to his face. His expression was dark and he when he spoke his voice held a sneer.
"Really Miss Sullivan I would have thought that you would have realised by now that you are never going to be with Clark Kent".
She looked up at him with large wounded eyes, how could he be so nice one minute and mean the next?
"You are mine", he growled and Chloe felt a strange tugging sensation in her stomach.
"And as you seem to be having problems remembering that and in whose bed you are lying, I suppose that I will just have to remind you". His grin was wicked and he turned his attention once more to her throat.
He thought that she was playing a game with him. That was how he could change so quickly. Unfortunately Chloe was not quite sure how she had managed to enter this game, a frequent occurrence with the Luthors, and this time she was bound with no way to win.
Lex did not seem to want to hurt her, on the contrary he seemed to believe that she wanted to be there and was intent on pleasing her and as much as Chloe hated to admit it, he was doing a good job.
As his lips found her breast, she found herself not caring about winning or getting free, by the time that his head had travelled passed her stomach she couldn't have cared less if the entire world had ended provided that he didn't stop.
So much for being in control.
Chloe bolted up right, breathing hard, a thin sheen of perspiration clinging to her body. Her eyes were unaccustomed to so much light, having been so deeply asleep, and for a minute she blinked only seeing dots swirling in front of her eyes.
"What the hell was that?" Chloe wondered. She had had dreams about Lex before but they had never been quite that vivid and she normally didn't wake up before the really good bits.
As she finally got her sight back, she began to look around the room. Even before she had been able to see she had known that this was not her room. Her room was never this bright in the morning, the windows were only single glazed and they had to be careful with the central heating costs so they had used the thickest curtains they had on all of the windows. Furthermore, her bed was not so large nor half as comfortable. Well, that was not quite true, the one which she had had to leave in the large house they had had last year had been, but the one in the apartment certainly wasn't. What was more, she couldn't hear her Dad through the thin walls as he padded around the living room which he used as a bedroom. It was the creaking of the sofa bed under her father's bulk that always woke her up – except when she was at Lois' … then it was her cousin trying to spoon her in her sleep.
This room could only be in the Luthor mansion, even threw the white curtains she could make out the stained glass windows which coloured the light which filled the room. A room which was large and opulent, Chloe would not only have killed for the bed that she was lying in but also the large mahogany desk which sat across from it. Somehow she thought that anything written on that desk would be good. She had stayed here once before, in this very room, and had had the same feelings about the desk then too. There could be no doubt as to her location, the question was why she was there.
She racked her brains, something must have happened the night before. She never was good for anything before her morning coffee. She remembered that she was following a lead in Metropolis and had gone to a club, she had wanted to find out who the owner was …
"Damn it". It all came to her, not in a flood but drop by drop. It had been Lex, he had held her close to him, he had taken her away from the club, he had been an arrogant ass and sweeter than she would ever have thought possible. She remembered being in the helicopter but could not remember the journey nor how she had got into the mansion, let alone into bed and removed her boots. She vaguely had a recollection of hovering off in the air and being cuddled by a massive teddy bear but she assumed that that had been a dream.
"Maybe it was all a dream", Chloe muttered to herself as she ran a hand through her hair. But then how had she got there? She couldn't remember anything after the hot chocolate, maybe it had been drugged. But why would Lex do something like that? He didn't care about her and she didn't have anything that could be of use to him … except for the recording.
Chloe looked around frantically for her bag and found it on the floor next to the bed. She rummaged for her phone and almost screamed when she saw that the evidence she had found had been deleted, it must have been deleted because all of the missed calls from Lois were logged there so it was not as if she could have imagined the entire episode.
"I'm going to kill him", she growled. He had made her loose her lead. In Chloe's anger over this she forgot her intention to tell him what was going on and bring the circle to justice. Clearly Lex was not to be trusted; she would have to do this by herself. She had to go and research.
She tried to leap from the bed but that just ended with her on the floor, apparently her feet were very cosy in bed and reluctant to leave it. She hauled herself up and winced as she caught a glimpse of herself in the ornate full length mirror right by the bed. Her hair was a mess, her make-up was smudged, her clothes were rumpled and she appeared to still be wearing Lex's jacket.
Figuring that there was no harm in washing her face before she left, Chloe headed into the en suite where she found soap and a hair brush and set about making herself a little more presentable. It wouldn't do for her Dad to see her like this and she would have to go home before school to get changed, but that would mean that she would have to explain what she was doing home so much earlier than she said that she would be and why she was dressed like she was. Her father was very lenient but she was fairly certain that she would be grounded until she was his age if he ever found out that she had been to a club and more to the point, she did not want to upset or worry him. He had enough on his plate.
When she got back to their tiny apartment with its walls which continued to look grubby however many times she scrubbed them and stained carpet, there would be a new pile of letters which her father would open one by one each time hoping that they offered him a job and becoming steadily more disheartened when all he received were rejection letters and bills. When he saw her he would smile and try to make the best of it, but he could not fool her. He felt like a failure because he could not provide her with all of the things that he wanted for her. They had never been rich, her mother had seen to that in the divorce settlement, but he had always been able to provide her with a roof over her head and a college fund … now both were practically gone.
Chloe sighed and berated herself for being a coward as she opted not to go home but straight to school. No one else would be there at this time and she could grab a shower in the gym, she had a spare change of clothes in her locker there due to her almost meteor-freak like ability to spill coffee down herself, especially when it was a new top.
Heading back into the bedroom, figuring that there was only so much she could do with her appearance at the moment, she made the bed again and placed Lex's jacket neatly on it. And then proceeded to undo her neat job of tucking in the corners by sitting on it to put on her boots. Without the coat she realised that she really missed the smell, being wrapped up in it as she had been was probably the real reason for her dream, nothing to do with her feelings for Lex. Nothing to do with the way he looked at her or …
"No", she hissed. She didn't have time to dwell on that now; she had a story to uncover.
As Chloe grabbed her bag and left she wondered whether she should leave a note, or would that look too presumptuous? Would Lex care? She decided that he probably wouldn't and had probably been annoyed, she could only assume that she had invited herself to stay.
In the hallway she could not but help look around her, her natural curiosity could be all consuming at times. She could remember her way back from last time when she had had a full tour of the house, but then there had always been a guard at her side for her protection then, this was the first time that she had had completely unfettered access. It was cool! It was something that any report dreamed of but she couldn't indulge herself right then, she had a job to do.
Just then she heard footsteps coming towards her from behind and froze, although she knew that she had not broken in she still felt as if she didn't belong there and that anyone who found her there would know as much. She hoped that it wasn't Lex; she wasn't sure how she would face him as she was then.
"Miss Sullivan?"
Phew! It wasn't Lex.
Chloe turned around and fixed the confused looking maid with her most winning smile.
"You are awake", the maid continued now looking a little worried. "I am so sorry that I was not there to wait on you, I did not think that you would be up until at least 7, I was just bringing your clothes now".
Chloe looked down at the black bag in her arms.
Seeing her perplexed look the maid continued, "Mr Luthor said that we were to get some clothes in your size as you hadn't any luggage".
"Um, that is very kind but I don't need any clothes". The considering her appearance at that moment she added, "Okay, clearly I do but will get them at school, I won't accept clothes from Lex".
The maid paled, she had offended the girl and the master of the house would be angry when he found out about the clothes. She should apologise, but if she did that then she would just draw attention to what she had done. "Is there anything that I can do for you Miss?"
"Please call me Chloe and no, not unless you have a bus timetable", she smiled, not wanting the woman to feel hurt because she had not accepted the garments.
"A bus timetable? Did you not bring your car?"
"No, I didn't".
"Then I will call the chauffeur to take you wherever you want to go".
"That won't be necessary", Chloe explained.
"Yes, it will. Mr Luthor wouldn't like it …" That obviously wasn't going to get her anywhere. She thought of what she had been told about Miss Sullivan, and tried, "If you went in the chauffer driven car it would take him 5 minutes to be ready, in which time I could make you some coffee".
Lex woke up in his own room at his normal 5am to see the warm sunlight filling the room. In some ways he was sad to awake considering the dreams that he had been having but for once morning meant that he would be going to see Chloe which compensated for losing his dreams of her, although he wasn't sure how he was going to survive until he next got to see her knowing how close she was to him. He thought that she would need her sleep, she had looked exceedingly tired the night before, waking her up directly was out of the question. He would wait until 8 o'clock, she couldn't be planning on going to school as she wasn't even meant to be back in Smallville by that time. Yes, 8 would be the right time to send in the maid with her breakfast but that was three hours away, maybe she would have got enough sleep by 7:30.
He got out of bed, showered and dressed in what he considered to be a casual manner – charcoal slacks and his baby blue jumper which always drew the ladies' attention. He was in rather a good mood when he entered his study as normal at 20 past 5 and sent a text to one of his assistants to the effect that he would be working from home that day.
Luckily he didn't actually have any LuthorCorp work to do that day, he had accomplished everything that he had needed to when he had been in Metropolis and he could delegate some of the day to day stuff to others, that was what they were there for after all. His only concern was getting to the bottom of Lionel's twisted games, and thanks to Chloe he knew where to look. Once he had sorted out a few Chloe related problems first.
Calling Chloe's security detail and threatening to make them disappear if anything like that happened again as well as demanding a full investigation did ruin his mood a little but nowhere near as much as the call to her doctor did. He had hesitated for a minute before calling him at this time of the morning, but only for a minute, after all he paid the man enough to keep him informed and to convince Chloe and her father that it was normal LuthorCorp policy that all former employees and their families got 2 years free health cover. It was good that he had called; the man had not done his job. Neither Chloe nor her father had been in to see him, not even for their six month check-up never mind that it was the first thing that they should have done when they got out of hiding.
"Why didn't you call them and tell them that they needed to get checked out?" Lex bellowed down the phone.
"I did, but they said that it wasn't necessary".
"You should have made them understand that it was necessary", Lex roared. "I will not put up with incompetence. Your job is to make sure that they are both healthy, how the hell can you do that if you don't know what could possibly be wrong with them?"
"With all due respect, if they don't want to come in then they don't have to. I cannot drag them in here and force them to get a check-up", the doctor protested, a tremor in his voice.
Lex was about to ask why not when he realised that they man was not a Luthor. He took a breath and, trying to remain calm, inquired, "Could you not have made them understand that LuthorCorp requires regular health checks in order to keep paying their bills or something?"
"Maybe they don't want anything from LuthorCorp", the man muttered under his breath but Lex heard it.
He ground his teeth and asked, "What do you know about Chloe's health?" The rest of the conversation was not much more heartening, whilst Chloe had always been a healthy girl the doctor thought that it sounded like she wasn't taking care of herself and had been concerned about her father's heart for years, if he was eschewing doctors he would not meet a happy end.
Lex felt drained when he hung the phone back up, he had always known that Gabe was a bit tubby, overworked and underappreciated – by everyone except his daughter – but it had never really occurred to him that this might cause heart difficulties. Well, soon all of his worries would be taken care of, Lex had only a few matters to attend to this morning, this afternoon he would make sure that Gabe was alright.
Before going to sleep the night before Lex had told his people to dig up everything they could find on the club so he could now peruse them. It wasn't good; there was far more to this than first met the eye. Lex listened to the audio track again and swore as he began to get the bigger picture, it was time to make the call.
By the time that that call was over it was 7 am. That was almost 7:30, maybe it was breakfast time for his guest.
Just as he was thinking this, there came a knock at his study door. His heart leapt a little thinking that maybe it was Chloe and Lex had to try to hide his disappointment as the door swung open to reveal the maid he had told to take care of Chloe.
He gave her a tight smile and said, "Please have breakfast for Miss Sullivan prepared immediately and taken to her room".
"That is what I was coming to tell you Mr Luthor, I can't. She just left over an hour ago. I thought that you might like to know.
"Damn it", he swore, wondering why the woman had waited an hour to inform him of this. Well there was no way that Chloe was going to get away with just running away from him. He grabbed his keys and stormed out of the door.