Not Quite Enough, Chapter 2

Clark/Chloe
Chapter 6, after "Labyrinth"
Rating: Adult. If you're under eighteen, please go elsewhere now.
Disclaimer: These characters belong to the CW and DC Comics, not to me.

She could feel the bed dip under his weight as he sat on the very edge of the mattress, carefully maintaining as much space between them as possible. That was typical of Clark. Despite how close they'd become, despite the unmistakable intimacy of their friendship, he struggled to keep what he saw as an appropriate amount of space between them.

But sometimes, no matter how much they tried to keep that space between them, they just couldn't.

"Lie down," she said softly.

"Chloe..."

"Lie down."

He blew out his breath, then stretched out on the mattress, very carefully not touching her. The bed creaked beneath his weight. It was a double bed, but his big, broad-shouldered frame took up a good deal of the available space.

His voice sounded hoarse. "I'm actually not sure this is going to help me get to sleep."

"Probably not." She rolled toward him, just a bit, and put her hand on his chest. Through the fabric of his t-shirt his skin burned hot, and his chest felt smooth and powerfully muscled. "But this is."

He jolted violently at the touch of her hand. "Chlo..."

"Oh, for heaven's sakes, Clark." She allowed her voice to get just a bit sharp. "Did you really think I asked you to come over here just so we could sleep?"

"We shouldn't..." She began rubbing the center of his chest, very softly, and his voice faded out.

"Probably not," she agreed. "We never do anything we shouldn't, do we, Clark? We've always been great friends, but we've never ever let ourselves admit there might be anything else between us."

She could feel his heart pounding rapidly beneath her hand. "Chloe," he said at last. "I just don't want you to think..."

"I don't think that," she interrupted, trying to keep the impatience out of her voice. "I know where we stand, Clark. After the phantom took you over, you told me you were still in love with Lana. I haven't forgotten that, believe me." She began moving her hand in careful circles. "But that doesn't mean there isn't something going on between us, too."

His body moved as if he was stretching in pleasure, his spine arching, his muscles rippling beneath her hand. She enlarged the circles she was making on his chest, just a little. Her fingers slipped across one of his nipples, and even through the t-shirt she could feel it was taut. He jumped as her hand brushed over it.

"Chlo," he whispered again, and now he wasn't just stretching beneath her hand, but shivering and twisting at every brush of her fingers. She wondered how long it had been since someone had explored his body this way, since a woman had put her hands on him with anything other than platonic affection. Quite a while, she suspected, based on the way he was reacting.

She slid her hand downward just a little, and began drawing the same sort of circles on the flat planes of his stomach, her hand sliding to the waistband of his jeans, but no further. He writhed silently beneath her hand, and she could hear the bed beginning to creak as his hips moved in a steady, unmistakable rhythm. She smiled in the darkness, amused. God, he was easy.

She wondered if it was because he'd burned for her as long as she'd burned for him, or if it was just that he was lonely, and desperately needed to be touched.

She pushed the question away, deciding it didn't really matter. Clark was in her bed, letting her touch him, obviously aching for her touch.

And right now, that was enough for her.

*****

She could feel the muscles of his belly flexing beneath her hand as his hips moved. Judging from the urgency of his movements, she suspected he wanted her to move her hand downward, but instead she moved it upward along the bare skin of his arm, exploring the muscles of his forearm and his biceps. His muscles bulged beneath his damp skin, shifting and rippling as she touched him. As her hand slid up over his shoulder and began to gently caress his throat, his body arched hard, in helpless reaction.

Evidently he liked that a whole lot. She traced the tendons of his throat, the strong, square line of his jaw, the whorls of his ear, and he shivered, grinding his teeth together so hard that she could hear it. He was apparently fighting really hard to keep silent, which was also totally typical of Clark. He tended to go through life without showing reaction as much as possible. At least until he couldn't help showing a reaction.

She was pretty sure he was reaching that point now. As her fingers stroked over the soft skin of his earlobe, he jerked and made a little sound in his throat-- the first sound he'd made, beyond his soft inhalations and the few efforts he'd made to speak.

Evidently he liked that. She caressed his earlobe again, and he actually squirmed, rolling his head back and forth on the pillow and moaning.

Interesting, she thought. He was reacting like she was touching him somewhere very intimate. She guessed that was a reflection of how desperate he was to be touched, but it might just be a Kryptonian thing, for all she knew. Maybe Kryptonians had unusually sensitive earlobes.

With that thought in mind, she leaned toward him and brushed her lips over his earlobe. He gave a long, sobbing noise, then suddenly grabbed her and rolled her over. All of a sudden she found herself pinned to the mattress, with two hundred and twenty pounds of hot, hard male pressed right up against her.

"Chloe." His voice was rough in her ear. "I thought I'd lost you the other night. I never want to lose you, Chlo."

The very clear pain in his voice made tears burn her eyes. She locked her arms around his neck and kissed his earlobe again, and he groaned and shuddered.

"I don't know what's going to happen in the future," she told him softly. "You might lose me someday. But tonight, if you want me... you can have me."

Read Chapter 3 here.