Coda Part 3

3.

Lois found out. Two weeks into it.

It sparked one helluva fight. It had started with the age old question, “Are you crazy!”

Chloe stood in the bathroom of the Daily Planet’s basement, watching her cousin pace the floor. Chloe remained calm, and listened to all the reasons why she should be hating Lex, not bedding him.

“This is kind of rich, coming from you,” Chloe shot back, “the woman who slept with Lex’s brother, who was also her boss. I’m not doing anything you haven’t done, so you can’t stand there and judge me, Lois.”

“This isn’t about Lex being our boss, Chloe. This is about Lex being an evil bastard who tortured you and aunt Moira! Or have you forgotten what he did to your own mother?”

“I have to go. Lex is waiting.”

“You’re not serious!”

Chloe rounded on Lois. “So…what. You tell me Lex is bad and I’m supposed to stop seeing him?”

“You know him, Chloe. You know he’s not capable of loving you!”

“I’m not after Lex Luthor’s love, Lois. This is about sex, plain and simple.”

Lois put her hands over her face, as though she were trying to reign in her patience after having been given the task of trying to teach the average kindergartner algebra.

“When I told you to forget about Clark, and told you that there are men out there who’d appreciate you, Chloe, Lex wasn’t at the top of the list. Fuck, he wasn’t even on the list! I’m telling Clark about this. He’ll talk some—”

“You do that, Lois, and I’ll never speak to you again. I’m not some unruly teenager who needs uncle Clark to give her a good talkin’ to. I’m a grown woman, I know what I want, and I’m going for it. Now stay out of this! I can handle myself, and I can handle Lex.”

“How can you stand having his hands on you. How can you make love to that evil son of a bitch?”

“It’s very easy, actually. He’s evil. He’s dangerous. He’s conniving, calculating, and rotten to his core, and that makes me crazy for him.”

She turned away, left the bathroom, and headed for her desk to shut down her computer. Lex said he had something for her. She shut down the computer and Clark arrived on a breeze. He had a dozen roses in his hands.

“Get those with the money Lana stole from Lex?” she asked, eying the roses coolly. Clark looked hurt.

She loved it. She took feral pleasure from it, even as she accepted the flowers.

“I bought them with my own money, actually,” he said. “I thought we could grab dinner.”

“You’re over a month late for that dinner date.”

Clark’s eyes widened. “Oh, God, Chloe! I completely forgot!”

“I know.”

“That’s why you’re so upset with me.”

“Because you totally forgot our dinner plans? Hell no. You’re just going to have accept that I’m not your doormat anymore, Clark. I’m not your walking, talking search engine. You want something to eat, go get something to eat. I’m sure Lana will be happy to prepare a nice dinner for you. I certainly don’t need to be there to watch you suck it down.”

She dropped his roses into the trash bin and walked around Clark, who stood speechless.

“Chloe—”

“If you’ll excuse me, I have a date.”

He forcefully took hold of her arms and turned her to face him. He looked deep into her eyes, as though x-raying them. “What’s wrong with you?”

Chloe burst into mirthful laughter, tickled for the first time in ages. Even though the laughter was real, it sounded so ugly it cut at Clark, and she took some measure of satisfaction from that. She wanted to hurt him the way he'd hurt her so many times since she'd known him. She wanted to turn the tables for awhile, and let him be the one left hurting, and crying, while she walked away uncaring about it.

“I’m over you. I don’t see that as wrong, but you might, if you can’t use me anymore to solve your problems. Not that you’ve used me lately. You've had Lana for that, haven't you? Let go of me. Now.”

Clark released her. “I’ve never used—”

“Bye, Clark.”

She turned, and walked away.

****

The sex was better than it had been all month. Her confrontation with Clark had left her feeling hurt, angry, guilty, and liberated all at once. Now Lex, Clark’s sworn enemy, was pounding her into the bed of an apartment he’d gotten for her. After all, they needed a place for their trysts, and it would save her the expense of driving back and forth between Smallville and Metropolis.

She rolled him over and rode him hard and fast until she screamed her release, feeling Lex push up into her. She looked down at him and he rolled her over again, thrusting into her as though he wanted to hurt her. She loved every move. It was angry, feral, animalistic, and beautiful.

She hated him.

She desired him.

Lex's body stiffened as he came, spilling his release into her. Once he relaxed, he rolled off of her. They lay there, staring at the vaulted glass ceiling of the penthouse bedroom. The phone rang, and Chloe picked it up. Perry White was on the other end of the line.

“Sullivan, I just read this article you wrote about child labor using illegal immigrant children in sweatshops all over Metropolis. Do you know what this will do to several business owners when they’re exposed?”

“I have a pretty good idea,” Chloe said, feeling Lex run a hand up her thigh and into her sticky folds. She moaned, and his lips found her neck.

“You okay, Sullivan?”

“Fine, sir,” she said, while Lex ran his fingers, dripping with her juices, up her stomach and gripped one of her breasts. She wondered if Lana missed having sex this good, or if Clark could hold his own in the bedroom against. Maybe he was a world class lover. She wouldn’t know. Clark had never given her the chance to find out. She felt a moment of bitterness. “My back is hurting.”

Lex snorted.

“You’ve been turning in some fantastic work lately, Sullivan,” Perry said. “I mean really great stuff. This is cutting edge writing. I don’t know what sparked the change in you, but I notice it.”

I no longer spend all my time kissing Clark’s ass, that’s what’s come over me, Chloe thought.

“I’m promoting you.”

Chloe almost dropped the phone.

“What?”

“You heard me,” Perry said, laughing. “You’re moving to the fifteenth floor, the bullpen, first thing Monday morning.”

He said his goodbye’s, and Chloe hung up, turned to Lex, and slapped the hell out of him.

“What the fuck!” Lex shouted, grabbing her hand before she could hit him a second time.

“A penthouse apartment, and now a job promotion!” Chloe shouted. Her hand throbbed from the force he put on her wrist, cutting off the blood.

“What job promotion?”

“Don’t play stupid, Lex. I know what you’ve done.”

“I haven’t done anything.”

“You didn’t tell Perry to promote me?”

“No.”

“Liar. I’m not your whore!”

He stared into her eyes. “You have zero self-esteem, don’t you, Chloe? I’ve read your work. It’s great stuff. Perry thinks so too, because he gave you a promotion that I knew nothing about. I don’t have to lie to you about this…but you are my whore.”

She let out a growl of rage and took a swing with her other hand. He was hard again, and he thrust into her savagely, hurting her at first, but making her wetter with each thrust, until she whimpered with the contractions deep in her pussy from each deep thrust.

“You’re my whore. My filthy, filthy little whore.”

She bit him hard on the neck.

****

Clark Kent stood on the back porch, looking out over the back forty. The moon was high, looking crisp and clear whenever his breath didn’t fog up and blur it in the cool night air. He could hear Kara and Lana laughing about something in the kitchen as the cleared away the dinner dishes. Kara could have done it superspeed, but she and Lana usually used the time to talk, since he took up most of Lana’s time at night.

The ring with the small chunk of blue kryptonite he kept by the bed had opened up so many new possibilities between him and Lana, allowing them to be together, and be happy, for the first time in their lives. He’d spent the past month mostly on the farm, enjoying the kind of life he’d seen his parents have. He’d work, and then come home to family. He’d make love to his woman at night, and wake up to her in the morning. It had been so perfect.

Then he ran into Chloe at the Talon, and he realized that there’d been something missing in all the domestic bliss—and he hadn’t noticed that what he'd been missing was Chloe, until he’d almost plowed her over. He couldn’t wipe the image of Chloe’s eyes from his mind. He realized now that he was supposed to have taken her out for dinner, and hung out with the woman who’d been his best friend and confidante for years.

And he’d half-forgotten.

He tried to lie to himself and say he’d totally forgotten, but that wasn’t true. He never forgot anything, not really. He’d remembered, but Lana had wanted to stay in bed since Kara was out with Jimmy, and Clark hadn’t been able to resist. So while Chloe had been waiting at the Daily Planet for him to pick her up, he’d been home, in bed with Lana. Then they’d gone for coffee, and he’d meant to call Chloe, but again, he’d put it off to be with Lana.

After that, he’d gotten too busy, meaning to call Chloe, meaning to connect with her, but Oliver had needed help, and Lana had the resources to assist him, and he’d thought it would be a good idea to work with Lana for a change. It would bring them closer, and close was what he wanted to be with Lana. He wanted to be as close to someone as his father had been with his mother. Days went by, and he’d seen Chloe, and he realized he’d been a lousy friend lately. He'd tried stopping by to see her, to get her to talk to him, and thought that eventually she'd cool off and talk to him, but it wasn’t until his run-in with her at the Planet earlier that evening that he realized just how bad the situation really was.

The back door opened, and Lana came out, holding two steaming mugs of hot chocolate. She gave one to Clark, who took it without drinking. They sat down on the porch steps together, Lana looping her arm through his.

“You were quiet all through dinner,” Lana said. “Let me guess—you’re thinking about Chloe. Why won’t you tell me what she said at the paper?”

Clark repeated the encounter. She stayed quiet when he finished.

“Chloe and I…we’re in real danger,” Clark said. “I didn’t see it until it was too late.”

“It’s not too late, Clark. This is Chloe we’re talking about.”

He laughed, short, and bitter. “Good ole Chloe, always there ready to forgive me. Not this time, Lana. You didn’t see what I did. She hates me.”

“That’s not true, Clark.”

“I know loathing when I see it. She’s more than angry, she’s fed up, she’s through. She’s closing the door on our friendship, and I don’t think there’s anything I’m going to be able to say that will change that.”

“I’ll talk to her—”

But Clark was shaking his head. “Do you really think you can get through to her when I couldn’t? Lana, Chloe was only ever your friend because of me, and we both know that. You’re the last person who’ll be able to bring her around. I’m going to give her some space, and hope to God that when she’s had time to cool off, she’ll be ready to talk. Maybe then we can be friends again.”

Lana's reaction was perfect. Maybe a little too perfect. She looked hurt, and a little angry, and said, "Chloe and I would have been friends whether we knew you or not."

Clark studied her intently, and for a moment he was convinced Lana was putting on. Did she really care about Chloe? He knew she didn't in the same way he did, but did she truly care? Something in the back of his mind doubted it.

"I'll be up later," he said, and turned to stare at the moon.

Lana nodded, and headed upstairs to bed. Clark remained on the porch, feeling the chocolate grow cold in the cup, and wondering who this mystery man of Chloe’s was. Was she with him now? What was she doing? How much had she turned on him? Would they ever be friends again?

Clark knew he had to do something soon, get Chloe to open up, or they were finished—forever—and that thought scared the hell out of him.

Chapter 4