Never Let Me Go, Chapter 4

Clark/Chloe
Season 5, following my story "Here Without You," which followed two other stories and "Void"
Rating: Adult. If you're under eighteen, please go elsewhere now.
Disclaimer: These characters belong to the WB and DC Comics, not to me

Chloe:
"So we're lifebonded now? What does that mean, exactly?"

Clark's eyes flickered open. He'd been lying there in an inert heap for the past five minutes. Not that I could blame him. I wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but it had been incredibly overpowering.

"Beats the hell out of me," he answered, a wry twist to his mouth. "All I know is that it's for life."

"Hence the name."

He rolled his eyes at my snark. "Yeah. I guess. All I know is that lifebonded Kryptonians didn't have to live together. They just couldn't mate with anyone else."

"So I'm stuck with you."

I meant the words as a joke, but his face hardened. "I'm afraid so."

For a guy with superpowers, Clark could be seriously insecure. "Clark," I said softly, reaching out and putting an arm around him. "I'm just kidding. I want to be stuck with you. I mean, I've loved you for years. You know that, right?"

He sighed. "I just hate that you somehow got, well, coerced into this, Chlo. Bonding with someone for life is something that you need to think about carefully beforehand. A commitment of that magnitude isn't something you should rush into."

I thought I heard echoes of Jonathan Kent in his words, and it made me smile a little. I had been coerced, in a manner of speaking, since the words had simply poured out of my mouth, an irresistible compulsion rather than a voluntary choice. But it wasn't like Clark himself had coerced me-- he'd had even less choice in the matter than I had. And it all felt so right, so inevitable, that I wasn't inclined to be upset about it.

"Evidently Kryptonians didn't agree," I pointed out. "Maybe they thought love was more emotional than logical."

He exhaled, blowing the heavy bangs off his forehead. "Maybe."

I leaned my head against his chest, and he tightened his arms around me. "So exactly what happened when I said the words back to you, Clark?"

"I'm not sure," he answered. "It felt like it had something to do with our electromagnetic fields, though."

"Our what? You mean your aura thing? The field that makes you invulnerable?"

He nodded."Well, maybe it involved your aura. But I'm not Kryptonian, Clark. I don't have an electromagnetic field."

"Actually," he said, "I've done some research, and humans have them too. They're a lot weaker, but your body generates an electromagnetic field, same as mine does. I'm not sure exactly what just happened, but it felt like our electromagnetic fields got sort of retuned so they... resonate."

"Resonate?"

"It's like our energy fields are on the same frequency now. I don't know exactly how to describe it. But we're linked somehow, and I'm pretty sure it has to do with our EM fields."

I thought about that. "I'm not suddenly going to develop invulnerability or anything, am I?"

"I don't think so. Your body doesn't work that way. And you have to remember that Kryptonians apparently didn't have these powers on Krypton, either."

"It has something to do with the sun here, right?"

"Yeah. On Krypton, the electromagnetic fields didn't protect Kryptonians, or make them invulnerable. I've been lying here trying to sort through the information the cave downloaded me with, and I think on Krypton the EM fields just bonded two people together."

"So is that going to happen every time we make love? Are our electromagnetic fields going to... resonate... more every time? Or was it just that once?"

He looked at me a long moment, his eyes serious, then grinned that wide, bright smile that I loved so much.

"There's only one way to find out," he answered.

Clark propped himself up on an elbow, caught my hair in his hand, and lowered his head. I tried to wiggle away before he could kiss me.

"Hey," I said. "We really need to talk."

"Later," he answered, his eyes already heavy-lidded and dark.

"You're becoming a sex maniac," I accused.

"You have a problem with this?"

His lips brushed over mine, very lightly, and a shock of electricity rushed through me. It felt different, more intense than usual, and I wondered if he was actually right about our electromagnetic fields being in tune somehow.

It sounded crazy. But then again, the simple fact that my boyfriend's an alien sounds crazy. So what did I know?

"No," I whispered. "I guess not. But you really need to eat, Clark."

"Later."

I reached up and stroked my hand lightly over his cheekbone. It seemed a lot more prominent and sharply defined than usual. I really wanted to get several thousand calories into the boy, but I could tell it was a losing battle.

Clark just wasn't interested in food right now.

He moaned softly at the touch of my hand and kept kissing me lightly. I got the impression he was trying to go slowly, which, after last time, was fine with me. Not that I hadn't enjoyed it, but it had been kind of... violent. I wanted to make love to Clark slowly, taking the time to explore him and touch him. Because sex with Clark Kent is really not something that should be rushed.

I reached down and started trying to shove his pants off. I'd unfastened them earlier, but we hadn't taken the time to get them off, which annoyed me just a bit. Making love to Clark with clothes on was sort of like playing with a toy while it was still in the box. When a guy looks like Clark does, it's a crying shame not to touch him everywhere.

All of a sudden he was totally naked, from head to toes. "Clark," I complained. "I wish you'd quit doing that. You could let me take your clothes off for once."

"Takes too long." He grinned wickedly. "Come on, Chlo. Admit it. I've got some useful skills."

Honestly, it no longer really freaked me out when he did stuff like that. I remember the first time I was talking to him on the phone, and all of a sudden he whooshed into my dorm room, having zoomed all the way from Smallville to Metropolis. I hadn't realized he was quite that fast, and his sudden appearance practically gave me a heart attack. But I'd gotten used to being around Speedy Gonzalez, and having him remove his clothes, or mine, at high speed no longer truly shocked me.

He was right, actually. It was kind of a useful skill for a boyfriend to have.

I ran my hands over his shoulders, feeling the heavy swell of muscle beneath the skin, and he closed his eyes and arched his head back and made a long, soft noise of pleasure. I let my hands roam all over his back, and the little sounds kept rolling out of his throat.

He no longer sounded frantic for sex, the way he had before I'd said the bonding ritual to him. But he did sound like it felt pretty good. I wondered if his skin felt unusually sensitive, the way mine did.

He lowered his head and started kissing my throat, then my collarbones, and I felt warmth gather between my thighs. All Clark ever had to do was touch me, and I got turned on. I'd always reacted to him that way. Honestly, I have no idea how I kept my hands off him all those years, when we were supposedly just "friends." The man is seriously sexy.

He had a hand on either side of me to avoid flattening me like a bug under a shoe, but even so, his big body pressed mine into the mattress. I could feel his chest against mine, one of his legs wedged between mine. Everywhere our skin pressed together, I could feel a weird sort of tingling. Weird in a good way, I mean. It felt really nice, so nice that I couldn't help but shudder a little.

All of a sudden he lifted his head and looked into my eyes, looking surprised. Beneath my hands, I felt a shiver run through him.

"You feel that too?" I whispered.

"Yeah," he said, his eyebrows drawing together. "What the hell?"

"Our electromagnetic fields, I'm guessing."

"Yeah, but..." He broke off and dropped his head against my shoulder, which is his usual reaction to extreme pleasure. His voice sounded hoarse. "It feels kind of... different."

I ran my hands over his lower back, across the tight curves of his ass, and he shivered harder. "So maybe it's not a one-time thing," I suggested. "Maybe our EM fields will keep retuning every time we make love, at least for a while."

"Um." He made a little gasping sound against my shoulder as I touched him. "I don't think I'd mind."

"Yeah," I said softly. His hand moved across my hip and down my thigh, and it felt like a shower of sparks trailed in its wake. Heat washed over me, filling my veins with fire. "I think I'd be okay with it, too."

All of a sudden we couldn't seem to keep our hands off each other. Everywhere he touched me, little trails of fire seemed to follow, and before long I was gasping and moaning against him. Judging from his reactions, my caresses affected him exactly the same way.

He lifted his head and started kissing me again, wet, hot, hungry kisses that made me sigh into his mouth, that made my body arch up eagerly against his. My nerves tingled everywhere his skin pressed against mine, overloading my nervous system until I shuddered.

I could feel his erection pressing against my thigh, searingly hot and as hard as stone, and I felt an overwhelming urge to grab his hips and pull him inside of me with absolutely no protection. Which was crazy. Clark's not human, but there was still no guarantee he couldn't get me pregnant. I'm not that much of a risk taker, and never have been.

But right now, I wanted very much to take that risk.

I forced my eyes open before I could do something I might regret. "Clark," I said. "You really need to..."

I trailed off, and he opened his eyes and looked down at me, apparently seeing the shock on my face. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Your skin," I said. "It's... glowing."

He looked down at his arm and gave a sudden jolt of surprise.

"Uh," he said, sliding a glance at me, then looking away hastily. "I don't think it's my skin, exactly. I think it's the EM field. All the, um, energy flowing through us."

"Has that ever happened before?"

"No." He flicked a tentative glance in my direction, as if afraid I was going to suddenly yell Freak! and run away screaming for help.

I spoke as calmly as I could. "I'm not glowing. Am I?"

"No. But I told you, humans don't have as strong an EM field." He started to back away from me, vulnerability shadowing his eyes, but I wrapped my arms around his waist.

"Hold it, Clark. Where are you going?"

"I just..." He looked down at me, stark unhappiness in his gaze. "You looked kind of freaked out."

"I was surprised," I said gently, reaching up and stroking his hair. You can always count on Clark to assume that any new display of powers will be met with revulsion and horror, even by me. He simply can't seem to get it through his thick skull that different isn't the same as freakish. "Just a little surprised. That's all, Clark."

Actually the glow was kind of cool. He had a sort of golden aura around his body that made him look almost like a Greek god. It only made him look more gorgeous than ever. But he didn't seem to realize that I was impressed by it. In fact he looked seriously upset.

"I don't blame you for being surprised," he said miserably. "This is totally bizarre."

"Not bizarre. Just new. But it's no big deal."

"No big deal," he repeated skeptically. "So you're perfectly okay with the fact that I glow in the dark while having sex?"

"Well, it's not terribly helpful right now," I said. "But after the sun goes down it'll help me find everything."

He stared at me for a minute, his green eyes wide. Suddenly he broke out laughing, so hard that he fell forward, onto me. I winced.

"Ow. Clark, you may be glowing, but you still weigh a ton."

"Sorry," he gasped, rolling to the side and still laughing.

"You know, it wasn't that funny. I don't think I'm going to be quitting my day job and working as a standup comedian any time soon."

"It's just... you," he sputtered, wiping his eyes. "You're the only woman I know who'd make a joke about something like this, instead of freaking out.""

I've seen a lot of strange stuff over the years, Clark. A glowing boyfriend hardly registers on my weirdar."

He wrapped his arms around me and yanked me against him. "Anyone else," he said into my hair, "would be screaming and running out the door about now."

"I think it's cool."

"I think you're deluded."

"Biased, maybe. But not deluded." I pulled away slightly and put my hand against his chest, noting with interest that his skin actually glowed more brightly beneath my touch. Apparently the effect really did have something to do with the interaction of our two EM fields.

Cool. I'd never turned a guy on so much that it made him glow. Clark was really doing wonders for my ego.

"You're deluded," he said firmly. "I don't believe any other woman on the face of the planet would think this was cool."

"Then you're lucky you have me."

He looked down at me, and all the humor left his eyes. All of a sudden he looked very serious. Almost solemn.

"Yeah," he agreed softly. "I definitely am lucky to have you."

Read Chapter 5 here.