Ruby Red, Chapter 3

Kal/Chloe futurefic
Rating: Adult. If you're under eighteen, please go elsewhere now.
Disclaimer: These characters belong to the CW and DC Comics, not to me.

"You never told me you could fly!"

After a few seconds in superspeed, Clark had slowed down to a more sedate velocity, and now they were drifting gently, several hundred feet in the air, passing slowly over rural fields and forests. On the horizon, the tall spires of Metropolis were barely visible. Ordinarily, he didn't fly slowly in the daytime because there was too much chance of being seen. But today, with Chloe in his arms, he felt reckless.

"We haven't talked much in the past few months," he answered. "I bet there are a lot of things you haven't told me, either."

"Nothing quite as big as flying." Her hands dug into his shoulders, clinging to the flannel of his shirt as if it would be enough to keep her from falling if he let go of her.

"You're full of crap." He looked down at her, his eyes narrowed. "You didn't even bother to pick up a phone and tell me when you got engaged. I had to hear it through the grapevine."

"I just got engaged last night!"

He spoke through his teeth. "There was a time when I would have been the first person you called."

"Yeah, well, those days are over. Deal with it, Clark."

He drifted quietly for a moment, then spoke. "You know, you wouldn't think you'd want to piss off the guy who's holding you five hundred feet in the air."

She gasped and clutched at him harder. "Reason number one why I should choose Jimmy Olsen instead of you," she snapped. "Jimmy wouldn't threaten to drop me."

Stung by the sharp rebuke, he let his arms tighten around her. "I wouldn't drop you," he assured her softly. "I'll never let you go, Chloe. Trust me."

He felt her relax in his arms, just a bit. "I do trust you," she answered. "At least, I trust you when you're not on red K."

"You can trust me all the time. I won't let anything happen to you. Not ever."

She relaxed still further, and he rubbed the small of her back in a gentle, reassuring motion until her head dropped onto his shoulder in a clear gesture of trust... and affection. There had been a time when the two of them had touched each other in a casual, platonic way on a daily basis, when they'd hugged each other frequently, but he hadn't held her in his arms for months. He held her closer, enjoying her warm softness, and turned his head, brushing a kiss over her forehead.

Instantly she went rigid again. "Hey," she said. "Knock it off. I'm engaged."

"Chloe." He kissed her temple. "Just let me kiss you. I haven't kissed you in forever."

Her voice was tart. "That was your decision, not mine."

She sounded annoyed, but he heard her heartbeat accelerate, heard the soft, rapid rasp of her breathing, and he knew she didn't really object to being kissed. He brushed light kisses across her cheek, all the way down to the three little moles at her jawline, and she clenched her hands in his shirt again.

"Are you paying attention to your flying?"

"Don't really have to pay attention," he said against her skin. "It just kind of happens."

Just like kissing you, he could have added, but decided to keep that thought to himself for now. Despite the fact that they were "just friends," the two of them had shared an awful lot of kisses over the years. He'd never really set out to kiss her, but sometimes it had just... happened. But he'd always pulled away, backed off before things got too out of hand.

Until now, anyway.

Right now, he wanted things to get out of hand. He'd let his relationship with Chloe fall apart over the past year, just stood back and watched in quiet sorrow as she slowly turned to Jimmy instead of him, more and more often, until he hardly saw her at all. That had been a mistake, and he had to fix it somehow.

Kissing her seemed like the best way to begin fixing the mess he'd made.

His mouth trailed down to the side of her neck, and she leaned her head back a little, in a gesture of submission and encouragement. Her brain might really believe she didn't want him to kiss her, but her body had other ideas.

He touched his lips to her throat, drawing in a deep breath. She smelled incredible, like fresh air and sunshine and fields of flowers, and he wondered how she tasted. He let his tongue slide out to trace the tendons beneath the delicate skin, and she jumped.

"Hey!"

"You taste good," he said hoarsely, and did it again, tasting a little salt on her skin. She was beginning to sweat, and so was he. He could feel moisture starting to bead on his skin, and it wasn't because of the summer sun beating down on them, or the hot breeze that blew over them. He was sweating because of her.

"Unnnhhh." One of her hands slid up and dug into his hair, holding him close to her. "Clark... this isn't right. We need to stop. I'm engaged."

"You took the ring off," he said reasonably, his mouth still against her throat. "So you're not engaged right now."

"That is the lamest excuse I ever heard... ohhh. Clark."

He liked the way she uttered his name. He hadn't heard her say his name like that, in a breathless, sexy whisper, for a long, long time. He ran his tongue over her again, stroking across the hollow at the base of her throat, and she moved restlessly in his arms and moaned softly.

He shifted position in midair, moving from horizontal to vertical, so that they were standing together in midair-- or maybe it was more like dancing. His arms slid around her waist, holding her protectively against him, and her arms remained tightly around his shoulders. He felt her legs hook around his calves, in what felt like a very sexual position, although he realized vaguely she was clinging to him out of fear more than sexual arousal.

But having her body pressed against his, all the way down, felt so good he couldn't stop himself from moving against her. The pressure of her body against his erection sent shivers over his skin and heat through his veins, and he uttered a low, soft groan, then reached down and cupped her ass in his hands, pulling her against him harder.

"Don't let go." She clung to him. "Do not let go."

"I told you before," he said softly. "I won't ever let you go."

He lowered his head and kissed her, gently at first. But then her lips opened and her tongue found his, and suddenly he was kissing her ferociously, as if he'd been locked up in a cell for years and hadn't even seen a woman in all that time. His body moved against hers in a relentless, steady rhythm, and he felt her hips moving under his hands as she responded, pressing against him just as desperately.

"Clark." Her words were muffled against his lips. "We have to stop."

He lifted his head and blinked at her. "Why?"

"Um... well, for one thing, we're five hundred feet in the air. I don't want you to get distracted."

"I told you, we won't fall."

"And besides, there's Jimmy." He thought he saw a shadow of sorrow and regret in her hazel eyes. "I'm engaged, Clark. I can't do this to Jimmy."

Right now he didn't give a good goddamn about Jimmy. All he could think about was Chloe. He bent his head and kissed her more aggressively than before, his tongue delving fiercely into her mouth, his hands roaming all over her body. It was a kiss that declared he was in control of the situation, in control of her mind and body and emotions. It was a kiss that declared she was his.

She moaned softly, surrendering to him, her hands moving over his back and his ass and his shoulders, her body moving against his in a decidedly sexual way. At last he lifted his head and looked straight into her eyes.

"Reason number two you should choose me instead of Jimmy Olsen," he said. "Jimmy can't make love to you in midair."

Read Chapter 4 here.