Actually still on Sleeper, but at least the Chimmy parts are over.
Chapter 30
Moments ago from this car, he'd seen their shadows moving in front of the window, moving from the living room, moving to what he knew, from experience, was her bed.
And that? Olsen couldn't have.
He texted him to meet him at The Planet. He wouldn't be there. But Regan would. Or he would now. He smiled as he saw Jimmy leave, then dialed. "Regan, scrap the Ace of Clubs. We're done there I need you to meet Jimmy Olsen at The Planet."
"Well... alright, Sir. What am I meeting him for?"
"To keep him busy," he said lightly. "Give him assignments out of town, late nights, whatever it takes until I get back. And remind him he owes me as often as possible." He hung up, knowing Regan wouldn't fail him. He was an asshole, but he was an efficient one.
Still... he stared at the still-lit window and his good mood evaporated as he thought of her up there, alone and beaten. And for what?
He opened his door and moved to the driver's side window, tapped on it. "I need an hour."
"But your flight, Sir..."
"It's my jet. I'd like to think it can wait. This can't."
Or maybe it could... or should. He just didn't want it to.
He slammed his door and moved toward the Talon.
He didn't bother to dig for his keys. He didn't see Olsen bother to lock up. Just the kind of idiot he was. He shouldn't complain. If Olsen had left one door unlocked, chances were he'd left another. And since she'd changed the locks... He should have got on that right away. But there was only so fucking much he could do.
He found he was right when he moved up the stairs and the knob turned with no resistance. He felt angry, even at that. She was left unguarded, after a night getting beaten bloody. If she were his... of course, she wasn't. If she were, none of this would have happened. He wouldn't have let it.
And the worst part of it all was that, if she were to guard herself against anything, it would be him.
He turned the knob softly and opened the door, wincing at a slight creak.
"Back so soon?"
He stepped in, squeezing his eyes shut, waiting for her to realize it was him, waiting for the screams and knick-knacks lobbed at his head.
None of that came and he opened his eyes to see her lying on the bed, a washcloth over her eyes. He approached her, wondering if he was insane to be here. Maybe. He wasn't sure where he fell on the sanity scale, should such a thing exist, these days. But he had to see her. Especially after tonight, after what had happened to her. He had no idea what would happen in Zurich. He needed to speak to her one more time, see if he could make her see reason just one last time.
He approached the bed, almost wincing as she spoke.
"Jimmy, I'm sorry I'm not better company." Her breath lifted the wet washcloth as she spoke. "I don't think I'm up for more than sleeping right now."
Good. Not that Jimmy was here, but it was good all the same. She reached a hand out and he, perhaps stupidly, took it and perched on the edge of the bed, unable to stop himself from being near her again, however she might react.
"I'm glad you understand. I've been through a lot tonight."
Yes, she had. And for what? For fucking what?
A part of him knew for what. He knew that, whatever he did, she was right behind him somehow, working against him. Sometimes he was positive it was all about Clark. But then again, there was more to Sullivan. She was meteor infected. She had other suspicious loyalties he'd suspected. What the hell was she doing?
He wanted to grab her, shake her, make her stop this. But this would end all too soon. This closeness that didn't even belong to him. He'd take it, just for now. He ran his thumb lightly over hers, back and forth until her breath hitched.
And she stiffened. Even as she did so, even as she tried to pull her hand away, he was satisfied in one thing: she knew his touch.
"Lex..." She ripped the washcloth away.
"Why do you do it?" he asked, not giving her a chance to scream at him.
"Don't speak to me." She pulled her hand harder, trying to release it from his grip.
He held on. "What the hell is worth this to you?"
She pushed at his chest and freed herself, stumbling off the bed and landing unsteadily on her feet. "What makes you think I'd tell you anything?"
He rose himself, facing her on the other side. "You don't even have to tell me why. Just tell me if it's worth it?"
"Well, it is." She straightened, tugged at her dress, still bloody in spots... and her blood, from what he knew. And It pissed him off.
"So you getting beat up is just some inconvenient little..."
"How do you even know?"
"You ran afoul of a government agent. In a town like this, anyone with even a little power could know." He stepped around the bed, lifting a hand to her face. "How could you..."
She slapped his hand away. "Don't act like you care," she cut in, stalking toward the living room. "That doesn't work with me anymore."
"I'm not saying I do," he said tightly, on her heels. "But I see what happens in my back yard and you are playing with things you shouldn't."
She whirled on him. "In case you missed it, Lex, I have no intention of speaking to you." She moved to the door and jerked it open. "Leave."
"Then don't speak." He moved toward her. "Maybe you should just listen."
"I'm not going to do that, either, so..."
"No. You'll hear this." He move to her quickly. pushed the door and let it swing closed with her against it, against him. There was a haze in her eyes and he knew he was taking advantage of the fact that she couldn't fight him with her wounds, her exhaustion, but he didn't care, as long as she listened. "I've held your life in my hands, Sullivan, quite a few times now. So maybe you can accept that I have some kind of investment in whether you live or die..."
She pushed weakly at him. "Lex..."
"Whatever the fuck you think I feel, I'd rather you live. Just for the record."
"I can't stand..."
"Yes. You can't stand me and I don't fucking care," he said, still gripping her arms.
"No. I can't... stand. Let me go," she said, trying to push him, but only sagging against him.
"Jesus." He released her arms and slid one arm across her back, bending the other to slide behind her knees before he straightened, lifting her.
"Get off..."
"No. Got a fucking death wish," he muttered, holding her and striding to the bed, resisting the urge to toss her on it, lowering her slowly to it instead. "Does it hurt?" He drew back, but still perched on the edge of the bed. "Don't expect me to feel sorry for you."
"Shut up," she groaned, turning away from him.
"You did this to yourself."
"God! Shut up!" She suddenly sat up, grappling with her skirts. "I'm not talking to you." She pulled at the straps of her shoes.
"So you keep saying to me. Loudly." He nearly smiled at that. He gripped her ankle. "Just let me..."
She pushed at him. "No. You don't get to touch me anymore."
"I'm hardly touching you," he said sharply, grabbing the wet wash cloth from the bed and tossing it her, "now lay down."
"God, I don't even have the strength to care right now," she said, slapping the cloth over her eyes and landing on the pillows.
"Rough night?"
"Don't act like you don't know," she mumbled, then lifted the washcloth slightly. "You try getting the crap beat out of you after dancing a damned tango, and doing it all in heels."
"Oh, yes. Your tango." He scoffed.
"You saw?" she groaned. "Of course you saw. You sick, peeping..."
"Looks like someone took a beginners course at Arthur Murray."
"It was a couple's special. Jimmy and I have been trying new things to get the spar..." She shut her mouth.
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
Bullshit. The manchild was leaving her cold. Hardly surprising. But it made him smile to have it so nearly confirmed.
"Are you done yet? Jimmy's going to be home any minute."
He smiled wider, knowing that wasn't true. Wouldn't be for some time, if he could help it.
"Almost done." He worked at her strap, pulling it slowly out. "We never danced together, you and me."
"Oh, well we spent all our time at fancy clubs," she sneered. "How did we manage to get around it?"
"I wouldn't have minded if we did," he said taking his time pulling the strappy shoe off. It had cut into her skin. He ran a finger over a welt.
She hissed and sat up slightly. "I wouldn't have been seen out with you."
"Still... I wouldn't have minded a dance with you. You're soft on your feet, graceful. You could use a better partner. What I saw was a little vanilla for my tastes." And damned silly looking.
"Everything's vanilla to your tastes."
"Not you. Not inside." He slipped off the other shoe gently, sliding his thumb over the welts again. "You have unplumbed depths, Sullivan. I'd see it in your eyes, think of the places I could take you..."
"Like the gutter with you?"
"Don't confuse me with my father," he sneered, gripping her ankle harder.
She sat up and tried to pull away. "I didn't used to. There was a time when Lionel killed anything in his way."
"And I protected you from him!"
"You've become him! I look at you now and I see what I saw in him then."
He drew back, startled at her words. "I'm nothing like him."
"Whatever you say." She scooted to the other side of the bed, getting up haltingly, holding her side. "Why don't we stop this right now? Because I don't think you want to hear about your father and what I think of what you did to him. I've been beat up once tonight."
"You think I'd hurt you?" He started toward her and she turned, backing to her dresser, holding up a hand.
"I don't know what you'd do anymore. So you just keep away from me."
"Let me tell you about my father, Chloe. He was a barely educated man who killed his parents for money..."
She let out a harsh bark.
"Then spent all his time using his blood money to build his empire. And he did it. He even acquired the perfect wife, a loving spirited woman until he beat that out of her, cheated on her, turned her into something weak and monstrous, made her resent even me, made her have another child even when she was too fragile to do it. He poisoned everything he touched. Luckily for her, she died after only 14 years. I clocked more than 30 years with the bastard."
"It doesn't mean you had the right to kill him," she said, her voice shaky as she stared away from him
He took a deep breath. "Careful, Sullivan. That sounds like a baseless accusation."
"We both know it's not." She kept her eyes somewhere off to his side. "And whatever Lionel might have done in the past, you still had no right. You should pay for what you did."
"Whatever you think I did," he said, staring at her cuts and runny eyes that refused to land on him. "I'll pay for it. I've started now with you. You won't even look at me."
"What's the point of looking at you? All I see is a killer."
"Or a savior? Sometimes you have to kill in times of war, Chloe."
"Well, I'm more of a pacifist, so that doesn't fly with me. And, unless you're about to enlist and run off to the Middle East, you aren't at war, so..."
"Did you ever think I know things you don't?" He moved closer. "That everything I'm doing is to stop something worse?"
She cast her eyes down. "And what if you are the something worse? Have you thought of that, Lex?"
The words shook him and he moved to her, moved faster now, grabbed her by the shoulders before she could pull away. "Look at me!"
She struggled weakly before she sagged against her dresser, closing her eyes. "For someone who says he wouldn't hurt me, you're doing a pretty good job."
"But I wouldn't." He loosened his grip just a little, knowing she was too weak to shake him off. "Do you know how many times I've held your life in my hands?"
"Well, I held your life in my hands, too." She opened her eyes and, finally, met his. They were damp. "And I want to think I chose right. But you don't make it easy."
"What are you..."
"You know why I don't want to look at you? Because all I see is a killer now. And I didn't want to," she said, her voice hitching. "I think about that night and how I didn't care if I died and I thought, if you lived, then maybe what I did would make it okay..." She closed her eyes again. "God, what am I..."
"Sullivan, what are you talking about?"
"Nothing," she growled. "I'm delirious. I probably have a damned concussion. Just..." She opened her eyes suddenly and gripped his arms. "Lex, you could stop now. You could just go away. If you did, then maybe I could remember something better in you, remember why I..." She drew in a shaky breath. "I don't want to remember you like this in the end."
"What the hell are you into?" he demanded, angry now.
"Don't..."
"No. You talk about dying. You don't need to. There'd be no question of it if you stood by me. You want me to go away? Then you come with me." his hands had moved now, nearly without his say-so, one around her back, the other up her neck. "I have a jet ready right now. I could make it happen." Maybe he didn't have to go to Zurich. It was his fucking jet. He could go anywhere. "I could take you away."
"Don't do this, Lex. You know I won't. Not now." But she leaned into him. He felt it.
Should he? He knew, were she not beaten and tired, he might be pepper sprayed and in a heap outside her door right now. But he'd taken advantage of a weakened Chloe Sullivan before. He slid his hand to the back of her neck and pulled her upwards, pressing his lips to hers. She made tiny grunts, pushed at first, but he knew her by now. He knew she wouldn't last long. And she didn't. She sagged against him after her token efforts and he pulled her closer, delved just inside her mouth, tasted champagne and the slight tang of blood. She was still limp under him and he wondered with a start if she was actually unconscious before her mouth opened under his, her hands gripped him harder.
*************************************
She was half concussed. That had to be why. There was no other excuse. The fact that her heart was pounding all over her body, seeming to pulse hardest between her legs... that was no excuse. But it felt like it should be.
No kiss with Jimmy had given her this. And she'd tried to catch it, tried to make this happen inside because he deserved it. Lex didn't, not after all he'd done.
The thought of that, of Jimmy, had her nearly ripping away, but he caught her, burying his face in her neck this time, biting lightly up and down until he reached a tender spot that made her wince. He did stop, but only to lick, laving the spot softly until she let out a strangled moan.
He grunted and pulled her closer until she could feel him hard against her stomach. Even that made her hungry for more of him. With Jimmy, she often felt pressured at feeling him, like she had to or she'd lose him, like there was something she should be feeling even if she...
All thoughts of Jimmy fled as Lex bent to her, gripping her waist and pulling down her bodice and her bra with it, dragging his lips roughly against her breasts.
She was tender in many places. Her ribs still felt like they might crack under her skin, but damned if she wanted him to let up.
She should. She really should for a million reasons. But she didn't.
She gripped the back of his head and pressed him harder against her. He responded quickly, lips finding her nipple and surrounding it as he blindly dragged her backwards to the bed.
She opened her eyes, pushing him just a little to the right until they fell in a heap of limbs and lips and hands.
So wrong. So fucking wrong. She knew that then and she knew it especially now. But it had been a night of pain. Didn't she deserve some pleasure? Wherever it came from, didn't she deserve something to ease her tonight?
Her eyes rolled backwards as he rolled on top of her, hand already sliding over her panties... the right way. That sort of teasing way he did, fingers dancing up and down over the fabric until she...
"Ahhhh!"
That was when he dove in. When his fingers found her slick and wet underneath. He knew her body. Sometimes, she thought her knew more than that. His head lifted from her breast and his eyes found hers. Heated and dark, they were. They bore into hers as his fingers worked her, as her mouth opened on a long gasp, as his words echoed in her ears...
You have unplumbed depths, Sullivan. I'd see it in your eyes.
Did she? Deep down, was she just as desperate as he was? Desperate to be touched? She saw it in him, too. She knew what depths he'd go to to get what he wanted. And what was she doing? Joining him. Betraying the man she... she hoped to love.
"No," she breathed even as her body quickened.
"Chloe..."
"No," she said louder, her hands moving from under his shirt to push against his chest, using what strength she had left after this night to push him off her.
He rolled to the side and she could hear his breath, as harsh and labored as hers, her body still trying to grasp the climax she was denying it.
The room was silent but for their rasping breath. He broke it, speaking first. "You were never going to go with me."
"Not now," she ground out, squeezing her eyes shut against the ceiling.
"Not ever. Don't toy with me and pretend I would have... ever been good enough."
"But you could have been," she said, nearly sobbing it. "If you tried... If you were a better man..."
"No fucking point," he said, launching himself off the bed.
She waited for his footsteps to fade, for the door to slam before she turned over, burying her face in her pillow and letting her tears fall.
*******************************
"I don't accept that," Lex said sharply into his cell.
"Mr. Luthor, to be fair, you left Zurich abruptly and..."
"Anyone would have," Lex nearly shouted. The extremely large, deep-voiced man had barely let him escape with his life, giving him only You aren't one of them as an answer. Lex should have waited for more of an explanation, but the damned man was huge and had been pretty well set on killing him. He figured it was best to hit him over the head before he finished his task and get out of there with the... whatever the fuck it was he had now. It looked like dials or cogs or... He shook himself and turned his attention back to Fucking Regan, still justifying his ineptitude. God, he missed Gina. And he could hardly wait for Tess.
"...didn't have time to get a detail in Zurich. The man has disappeared and no one can seem to..."
"The guy wanted me dead," Lex cut in. "Find out who he is and see if he's connected to whatever I'm dealing with Quebec."
Of course, he would be. These days he found out every fucking thing was connected.
Speaking of that, here was Jimmy Olsen, creeping into his office.
"Busy?"
"Mr. Olsen, I was expecting you." As many other things as he had on his plate, he hadn't forgotten Jimmy Olsen and the very important task of keeping him very, very busy.
If you were a better man. That's what she'd said. Like this one? This man hiding secret deals from her? "I take it Chloe doesn't know how desperate you are," he said, moving around the desk to take his chair. "I mean, she would never let a friend crawl across burning coals for my help." He wondered ho
w she'd react if she knew that he, not her simple paragon of a boyfriend, had cleared her name. Probably not well. Not that he cared anymore. That aside, he'd let Jimmy have it, keep his secret for now. not just so Jimmy would toe his line, but because he didn't want her to know. If she knew, then she'd know he did it for more than Jimmy's agreeableness. She'd know he'd done it for her. He didn't want her to have that kind of power. He'd given her too much already.
"You're a Luthor -- build and burn political ladders for sport." Lex found himself arrested by the cut below Jimmy's right eye, wondered that it was still so fresh. He'd seen Chloe this morning, walking past his car as he drove to The Planet. Her wounds had seemed fairly healed. "... well, you have pull with these people, and I thought that maybe a string here or a handshake there..."
He realized the boy was still rambling. "You can stop now," he said cutting him off. "I cleared Chloe's name from that suspiciously high-ranking government arrest warrant. Special Agent Webber has decided to drop her investigation." Hell, he'd got that over with before even Zurich.
Where he almost didn't go. And for her. He was not about to forget that. Maybe he should let this manchild have her. Keep her away from him. It would be for the best.
"Uh, thank you," Jimmy was saying. "But... there's not that many people eating lunch on Lex Luthor's dime. Why are you helping me?"
No. Never. "No catch," he said, trying to smile. "You see, Jimmy, in light of recent events, I'd like to think of my employees as my new family. Families help each other. And I know if I ever needed something from you... you'd be more than willing to be there for me."
Jimmy only nodded, looking strangely scared as he walked out, leaving the door swinging.
Lex didn't see why. The manboy had no bearing on anything. Just on her... He steeled himself and pulled out his spoils from Zurich. She would mean nothing, either. Less than nothing. He wouldn't be distracted again.
PREVIOUS CHAPTER
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
NOW we're done with Sleeper... okay mostly.
There's one bit from the very end I'm going to reference while dealing with Apocalypse. I just didn't want to put it in here as it didn't fit, story-wise with what I'm doing.
Apocalypse is next. There's very little real-time Chlex in it, but I may be adding a thing or too in "missing scenes."
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