Tessellation

Tess/Chloe
Season 8
Rating: Adult (femslash). If you're under eighteen, please go elsewhere now.
Screencap from keakack.

"I need your talents, Ms. Sullivan."

Seated at her desk at the Isis Foundation, Chloe Sullivan looked back over her shoulder. Tess Mercer, CEO of LuthorCorp and current editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet, stood there, watching her.

"And I already told you," Chloe said coolly. "I don't work for LuthorCorp."

"I'm in need of good journalists, Ms. Sullivan. I'll make it worth your while."

"Go to hell," Chloe answered, very politely, and turned back to her work.

Behind her, she heard soft laughter. "I see why you aren't willing to return to the Planet, Ms. Sullivan. You aren't the type who'll quietly work for the enemy, are you?"

"You ruined the Planet," Chloe said, typing rapidly. "You and Lex. It used to be a great newspaper, but now... now I wouldn't work there for a million dollars and a front page headline."

"And yet your cousin and best friend don't mind working there."

"They haven't realized how badly you've corrupted it yet."

"You wound me, Ms. Sullivan. I haven't corrupted it. I've improved it."

"Please. I've seen the crap you publish nowadays. Puff pieces. Nothing substantive. Nothing real." Chloe took a deep breath, trying to calm down. What happened with the Planet nowadays was not her concern. "Get out, Tess. I have work to do."

"I can't do that. I told you, I need you to work for me. It's really very unfortunate that Mr. Luthor let you go, because your writing talents are simply too good to allow to go to waste. If you would come back to the Planet..."

"Not in a million years."

"Ms. Sullivan. Please. I realize we got off on the wrong foot, but I think we could work well together."

Chloe swiveled around in her chair and glared. "You have nothing I want, Tess. There is nothing you could offer me that I would want."

"Nonsense." Tess took a step closer. Her hair fell around her shoulders in a dark red cascade, a sensual contrast to the dark, professional suit she wore. "I know what you want most, Ms. Sullivan."

Chloe rolled her eyes and turned back to the computer. "A LuthorCorp-free Daily Planet?"

"No." Tess stepped even closer and paused, only inches away. Her voice was low and husky. "Sexual release."

Chloe's hands froze on the keyboard, and she felt her shoulders stiffen. "Excuse me?"

"Please, Ms. Sullivan. Drop the offended act. We both know Mr. Olsen doesn't do it for you. You need much more than that little boy can offer you. You're a roiling mass of tension, all the time."

Chloe scowled at the keyboard. "I'm perfectly happy with Jimmy, thank you very much."

"No. You're not." Tess' hand dropped onto her shoulder and began kneading it, very softly, through her blouse. Chloe stiffened further, annoyed by this intrusion into her personal space.

She wanted to smack Tess' hand away. But somehow... she couldn't.

"You need someone who actually pays attention to your needs," Tess whispered. "Someone who'll truly satisfy you."

Chloe blinked at her computer, confused and a little freaked out. It almost sounded like... but no. Tess Mercer was not trying to seduce her. She couldn't be.

But then Tess' hand slid down and brushed over her nipple, and Chloe had to admit to herself that seduction was exactly what Tess was up to.

She jolted, startled by the intimate touch of Tess' hand. Tess cupped her breast and began brushing her thumb back and forth over the nipple, and Chloe had to bite down on a moan. Sudden, intense warmth pooled between her legs.

"Stop it," she snapped, trying to sound forceful. "I'm not interested in this. I'm not interested in you."

"Of course you are." Tess had lowered her head, and Chloe could feel the warmth of her breath against her ear. She shivered despite herself. "You want what I'm offering, Ms. Sullivan. You want it very badly."

"No. I'm trying to get my work done here, Tess."

"You don't care about this work. Not that much. Not like you cared about the Daily Planet." Tess' thumb stroked faster, relentless, and Chloe was uncomfortably aware that her nipples were both swelling and hardening at the attention. Her other breast suddenly ached to be touched, too, and she wanted to beg Tess to touch her there. She could barely hold back the words.

But even without words, Tess apparently already knew. Her other hand reached down, and both thumbs began to stroke, and Chloe fought to remain still. She wanted to writhe with pleasure, because it felt so good.

God, she could come just from this.

"This... is... my... job," she ground out. "This is what I do now. And it matters."

"But not as much as exposing the truth," Tess said softly, her thumbs continuing to caress Chloe's hard, aching nipples. "Here you're only saving one person at a time. At the Planet, you could save hundreds. You could sway public opinion in favor of meteor freaks, make people realize they aren't all dangerous. Think of all the good you could do there."

"I'm not working for the--"

"Young Mr. Olsen doesn't spend enough time on foreplay, does he?" Apparently Tess had grown tired of the argument, because she abruptly changed the subject, her voice husky and sexual. "He doesn't give you what you really need. He never has."

"Have you been spying on us?"

"Of course not." Tess' thumbs continued to stroke, and she squeezed Chloe's breasts in her hands, playing with them, lavishing attention on them in a way Jimmy never had. "But I've observed him in other venues. He's a nice enough boy, but he doesn't pay attention to detail."

She moved her right hand slightly and began squeezing Chloe's nipple between thumb and forefinger, gently but firmly. Chloe jerked involuntarily, and only barely swallowed back a cry of pleasure.

"It's so good," Tess whispered. "Isn't it?"

Even through a blouse and a bra, it was very, very good. But Chloe wasn't about to admit it. "I told you," she muttered. "I have... work to do..."

"Work that you don't love. Work that only reminds you of what you no longer have. Where is your passion, Ms. Sullivan? Did you leave it at the Daily Planet?"

Chloe shut her eyes, trying not to pant. Of course journalism had always been her passion. But she'd thought she'd left it behind her, in the past, where it belonged.

And yet there was an ache in her spirit, almost as sharp as the sexual ache Tess was creating in her body. She couldn't deny she missed journalism, missed it so badly it hurt.

"I'm done with the Daily Planet," she whispered. "And I don't miss it. Not at all."

Tess uttered her low, sexy laugh. "You are a terrible liar, Ms. Sullivan."

Chloe shifted in her chair, squeezing her thighs together in an effort to hold back the pleasure that kept building, relentless, unstoppable. Tess must have noticed the movement, because one of her hands dropped to Chloe's thigh. She pushed up the gray fabric of her skirt and began to slowly stroke her hand up and down, while her other hand continued to play with Chloe's nipple. Chloe quivered all over.

"Open your legs for me, Ms. Sullivan."

Chloe obeyed the low whisper. She couldn't have done anything else. Tess' hand slipped to the inside of her thigh and began stroking up and down, so lightly it almost tickled. But not quite. Heat and moisture gathered between her thighs, and she quivered all over.

"You need this," Tess whispered in her ear. "For once, let yourself have something you want, Chloe. Let yourself have what you need."

Chloe wasn't sure if they were talking about sex, or the Daily Planet, or both. But right now, she didn't much care. She leaned her head back against Tess' shoulder in a gesture of submission, and a moan rose from somewhere deep inside her. She didn't try to hold it back.

"You're wet for me, aren't you?" Tess' fingers slid upward, teasingly, stroking Chloe's inner thigh, so close to her panties that Chloe couldn't stop herself from writhing. "Wet and hot and ready for this."

She was so ready, and she didn't know why. She'd never thought of herself as anything other than heterosexual, never realized how little Jimmy turned her on. Nothing Jimmy had ever done to her had excited her as much as Tess' gentle, questing hand.

And then Tess' index finger brushed very lightly across the front of her panties, and Chloe jerked and sobbed.

"Right there," Tess whispered in her ear. "That's what you want."

She did it again, and Chloe's mouth fell open as she gasped out words.

"Yes... yes..."

Tess' left hand continued to squeeze Chloe's nipple, almost brutally, and her finger began brushing over Chloe's clit, faster and faster, and Chloe fell back against her, arching her back, spreading her legs wide, giving herself over entirely to the pleasure that spun through her. Nothing in her life had ever felt this good. Nothing had ever been this irresistible.

Tess stroked her until her inner muscles clenched with a desperate need, until her panties were soaked with warm cream.

And then, as Chloe trembled on the edge of orgasm, she stopped.

Chloe dragged her eyelids open, despite the fact that they seemed to weigh a ton. She blinked at the banks of computer monitors, seeing her flushed face, and Tess' cool, composed, calculating one, reflected over and over in the monitors, in an endless tessellation.

"Don't stop," she whispered. Her voice sounded hoarse and desperate even to her own ears.

"I need you to work for me, Ms. Sullivan."

Hell, no. After this, there was no way she was working for Tess Mercer. She'd been angry with her cousin Lois last year for sleeping with the boss, and she wouldn't let her own career be tainted that way. She couldn't.

One of these days, maybe she'd go back to the Planet. But on her own terms.

"No," she answered shortly.

"Oh, Ms. Sullivan. You disappoint me." Tess' finger moved, very slowly, and Chloe moaned despite herself. "But you don't surprise me, not really. You've always been so very stubborn."

She hooked a finger in the elastic of Chloe's panties, and then drew them down. Chloe shifted in the chair, helping, and kicked them off, along with her shoes. Now she was naked, vulnerable, more at Tess' mercy than ever.

And part of her really liked that.

Tess' fingers explored her a little more intimately, delving into her moisture, then lightly stroking directly over her clit. Chloe jerked at the touch. If being touched through satin had been hot, this was blazing.

"That's it." Tess' other hand released her nipple and slid down between her legs. "Lift your legs for me, Ms. Sullivan."

Chloe propped her bare feet on the desk in front of her and spread her legs, opening herself, making herself vulnerable, and slowly, Tess began working a finger inside Chloe. Chloe looked down, watching Tess's finger slide into her. She was stunned at how excited the sight made her.

Tess worked in one finger, then two, filling her, stretching her. Very slowly, she began thrusting her fingers into Chloe, satisfying a deep ache, while her other hand teased Chloe's clit, stroking very slowly. Chloe let her eyes drift shut and gave into the pleasure again.

It was so good, so much better than anything she'd ever felt or imagined. So intense.

Tess' fingers thrust into her, over and over again, and her index finger caressed Chloe's clit in circles, and Chloe felt her thighs beginning to tremble. A long, wild sound rose from her throat.

"You're going to come for me," Tess whispered in her ear. "All over my hand."

"Yes." Her hips moved frantically, out of her control.

"And then you're going to come back to work for me at the Planet."

"No." Chloe bared her teeth, annoyed. "I'm not working for you, damn it."

"Of course you are." Tess' hand slowed, just enough to hold back Chloe's impending orgasm, and Chloe sobbed with frustration.

"I told you, I'm going to make you an editor," Tess said softly. "You'll have everything you ever wanted, Chloe."

"Except... I won't be... printing... the truth."

"There is more than one kind of truth, Chloe." Tess's finger moved in slow, relentless circles, keeping Chloe poised right on the sharp edge of release. "You'll be printing the truth. Perhaps not every facet of the truth, but the truth nonetheless."

"That isn't enough."

"It's more than enough, Chloe." Tess' finger moved a little faster. "What you want more than anything is to be back at the Daily Planet. You know it. I know it."

"But why..." Chloe could barely get the words out. "Why do you want me there?"

"I have my reasons." Tess' finger caressed her relentlessly. "But you don't need to worry about that. You can have everything you ever wanted, Chloe. You can be back at the Planet. And to be an editor there-- it's a dream come true for you. Let yourself have it."

Her fingers fucked Chloe, hard and fast, and her other finger stroked vulnerable, swollen flesh, and Chloe felt her inner muscles contract hard.

"You're mine now," Tess whispered.

And God help her, it was true.

Chloe came in a searing rush of ecstasy, trembling all over, wailing with pleasure. Heat spilled through her like flame, burning her from the inside out. Tess didn't let up, and she came again, and then again, harder and longer each time.

At last Tess pulled her hands away, and Chloe collapsed back in her chair, gasping for breath, still shaking. Embarrassment heated her cheeks, and she closed her eyes so she didn't have to look at the endless reflections of herself and Tess.

"You start Monday." Tess' voice was no longer soft and sensual, but cool and detached. "I'll see you at nine o'clock sharp. Report to me."

No, Chloe wanted to say. I don't work for you. I won't ever work for you.

But she couldn't seem to find the words.

Tess turned away and walked from the office, closing the door behind her. And Chloe slumped in her chair, satiated and warm and relaxed... and defeated.

She'd lost, and she knew it.

She belonged to Tess now.

-The End-