Promise Me, Chapter 7

Clark/Chloe
Season 6, "Promise"
Rating: Adult. If you're under eighteen, please go elsewhere now.
Disclaimer: These characters belong to the CW and DC Comics, not to me.
Read Chapter 6 here.
Read the story from the beginning here.

Reluctantly, Chloe lifted her hands to Clark's shoulders, trying to push him away. "I guess you need to go talk to her," she said softly. "Make sure she doesn't spill the beans to Lex."

He tilted his head briefly, and she knew he was listening to the activity in the big old mansion. "Lex isn't even in the house."

"What if she leaves to find him?"

"She's not heading for the garage. She's going upstairs." He frowned a little. "She's crying."

Chloe closed her eyes in frustration. Somehow Lana always managed to get between her and Clark. Whenever things were getting interesting, whenever she thought she might have gotten through to him-- Lana was right there, pushing them apart again.

"I guess you better go try to make her feel better," she said, knowing she didn't even need to suggest it, really. Clark's first impulse was always to protect and comfort Lana.

But he frowned down at her, looking puzzled. "Why?"

"Um, because she's upset?"

He quirked an eyebrow. "She's upset because she tricked us and spied on us, Chlo. And she's got no reason to be upset because she saw us kissing, anyway. I mean, she's marrying Lex today, so she really shouldn't care, right? Why would I want to go console her?"

She hesitated. The truth was that Clark rarely applied any sort of logic to a situation involving Lana, and she was a little taken aback. "Um... well..."

"Anyway," he said, pressing his body into hers, so she felt the heat and strength of him. "I don't want to go after her right now. We were kind of in the middle of something."

"Clark." She couldn't restrain a little gasp of shock... and lust. "You are not seriously thinking about... I mean, she knows we're down here."

"So what? She doesn't have superhearing, does she?" He grinned and rubbed against her harder, pressing her back into the brick wall. She could feel his hard-on rapidly swelling again.

She tried very hard to keep her mind functioning, but her body was beginning to override any logical thoughts. Suddenly she realized how wet she was, and how badly she still ached for him. But she tried one more time to inject a little logic.

"But she might, I don't know, call Lex or something."

"I can hear her upstairs," he said. "If she calls him, I'll know."

His big, solid body felt good against hers, and her fingers curled into his shoulders without any direction from her brain. "I don't suppose she'd tell Lex about you, anyhow. I mean, she'd never betray you that way."

He looked down at her, his eyes serious. "Chlo," he said, "the honest truth is I don't have the slightest idea what Lana might do. It looks like she deliberately locked you into a wine cellar just so she could find out my secret. She betrayed us both, Chloe."

"I think she was just curious," Chloe answered, unsure why she was still trying to defend Lana. Habit, she supposed.

"Maybe. But she's marrying Lex, who hates my guts. If she's upset enough to be crying, do you really think there's any guarantee she'll protect my secret from him?"

Her body moved against his in an instinctive rhythm. He was fully hard now. She could feel his enormous erection straining against his jeans. "She loves you, Clark."

"She has a funny way of showing it," he answered, his tone full of a dark cynicism she'd never heard before.

She sighed. "I was curious about your secret too, Clark."

"But you didn't try to trick it out of me. And when you learned it, you didn't even tell me you knew it for months. I always knew I could trust you, Chlo. But I don't think I can trust her. She's not like you. And deep down, I think I've always known that."

Warmth blossomed inside her, and she smiled. "I'm glad you really trust me, Clark."

"I trust you with my life, Chlo," he said with soft sincerity. "Literally. I know you'll never do anything to betray me. But I'm not sure about Lana. I never was... and now I trust her even less than before."

*****

Lana flung herself down on the enormous, high-posted bed in her room. Pain and humiliation and a sick feeling of betrayal swirled inside her, finding release in hot, angry tears.

She let herself cry for a moment, then wiped the tears away. Clark had just been using Chloe, she assured herself. He was upset about Lana's upcoming wedding, and he'd wanted solace. That was all.

And now that he knew Lana still cared about him, he'd follow her upstairs and drop to his knees in front of her, begging her forgiveness and asking her to leave with him. Maybe even asking her to marry him.

She'd make him squirm, but in the long run, she knew she'd agree. Because she loved Clark, and Clark loved her, and they were meant to be together.

But long moments ticked by, and she didn't hear his booted feet on the staircase. The huge house was still, perfectly quiet but for the ticking of the clock on the mantel.

She realized with a cold sinking sensation that Clark hadn't decided to follow her. She guessed he was making love to Chloe in the wine cellar.

Lana remembered his hands sliding all over Chloe, remembered the little yearning sounds he'd made, remembered the desperate way he'd thrust against her hand, as if he were so hungry for her he just couldn't help it. A slow, simmering rage began to boil in her mind and heart, hot and bitter and unforgiving.

All this time she'd thought that deep down, Clark was in love with her. All this time she'd thought she could have him back, any time she wanted.

But instead, deep down he'd wanted Chloe.

He didn't want her. Not at all.

Anger pounded through her with every beat of her heart. Clark was hers, damn it. He'd always been hers. It ought to be her there with him in the wine cellar, not Chloe. She wanted to hurt Chloe for betraying her this way.

And she wanted to hurt Clark even more.

But if Clark could rip steel doors off their hinges, she had a suspicion that there was very little she could do to hurt him, at least physically.

She thought about that a moment longer, feeling the tears burning in her eyes, while fury burned in her soul. Lex, she knew, hated Clark too. Once upon a time they'd been friends, but Lex and Clark had grown apart, and now they were enemies.

She'd explored Lex's private files enough to know that he'd been running some sort of experiments on meteor freaks for quite some time. He knew far more about them than she did, and he had the money to continue to experiment, and to learn even more. He had secret labs where he could keep freaks confined while he experimented on them. Lex had resources she didn't.

And she had knowledge about Clark that Lex didn't.

If they worked together, she thought slowly, the two of them could find a way to hurt Clark. Not just emotionally, but physically. The way he deserved to be hurt.

She imagined Clark writhing in agony at her hands, sobbing in pain, begging for mercy, and low in her abdomen, she felt a warm feeling of satisfaction began to build. It was a sexual sensation, almost orgasmic in its intensity.

She closed her eyes and reveled in the sensation. Yes, she thought. Working together, she and Lex could find a way to give Clark exactly what he deserved.

Her mind made up, she stood up and stalked toward her enormous walk-in closet.

Her wedding dress was waiting for her.

Read Chapter 8 here.