babydee1 | Chlark/Kaloe Fanfic: Temptress, Chapter 13

babydee1

Another Friday, another update. Woot!

Chapter 13 of Temptress is up.

Enjoy!

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m_strangchild, used with kind permission.

Title: Temptress

Author: BabyDee
Pairing: Chlark/Kaloe

Rating: PG13 (this chapter; fic is rated NC-17)

Warnings: Foul language
Timeline: Season 4 (after Spell)

Disclaimer: All characters belong to the CW & DC comics.

Summary: Clark buys Chloe some perfume as a pressie. But the red tint of the scent wasn’t gotten from rose petals. Oops.

Feedback: With ice-cream and sugar on it. And a cherry. And sprinkles. J

Read previous chapter here.

Read story from the beginning here.

Chapter 13

Clark stared at her wildly, looking as guilty as a kid who’d gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“Chloe!” he exclaimed, and immediately reached for a blanket to cover himself with. Only he was already lying on top of it, so he was groping empty space.

The situation would have been comical if Chloe were in a laughing mood. As it was, Scenario Two was winning the sweepstakes, and to say she was not amused would be a gross understatement.

Clark finally gave up the search for the non-existent blanket and used his hands to cover his sex.

“Chloe…I, uh…” he lifted a hand to run through his hair, but slammed it back down again when he realised it left his very impressive credentials partially exposed.

“Oh God, not again,” he groaned. “Chloe, I…”

“You can explain?” she said coolly, her voice belying the barely controlled rage that was simmering beneath the surface. She gestured for him to continue. “Please. I’m all ears.”

“The, uh…the thing is…” he stammered.

“Yes?” she prompted dryly.

“I, uh…I’m…”

She looked at her watch. “While we’re young, Clark.”

He swallowed. “I’m, uh…sort of, uh…”

She exhaled roughly. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, just spit it out, will you?” she hissed.

“Chloe…” he sighed, lost for words.

“Clearly your vocabulary has taken a walk,” she said coldly, “so I’ll make this easy for you. Did you have sex with me this afternoon of your own free will, or were you under the influence of some kind of mood altering substance?”

Clarks gaze dropped, and his skin reddened.

Chloe pursed her lips. “I thought so.”

“Chloe, it’s not what you think!” he said defensively, lifting a hand to gesticulate but dropping it back into his lap again.

“What I think?” she said, her voice rising dangerously. “What I think?? Clark, you’re such a fucking mess of contradictions that I don’t know what to think!”

“Just give me a chance to explain -”

“Were you on something when you had sex with me?” she asked bluntly.

“Chloe-”

“Answer the question!” she yelled.

This time he did lift his hand and ran it nervously through his rumpled hair. “It’s complicated -”

“So explain to me!” she cried desperately. “Please!”

Clark gulped. “I’m trying to figure out where to begin...” he started hesitantly.

Chloe felt her last sliver of hope beginning to slip away. “Come on, Clark, you owe me that much, at least,” she pleaded. “Why do you have to be so hopped up on drugs before you can bring yourself to touch me?”

“I told you, Chloe, it’s not like that!” he protested.

“Then how is it?” she challenged.

He sighed deeply. “It’s kinda hard to explain -” he began.

She threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. “You know what? Forget it. I’m outta here.” She headed towards the door.

“Chloe, no!” he shouted, abandoning all modesty and jumping out of bed. He grabbed her upper arms just as she got to the top of the stairs. “Please don’t go, not like this.”

“Screw you, Clark!” she spat.

Been there, done that, an inner voice mocked.

“Chloe I can explain, honestly, but just give me a minute to -”

“Give you a minute to do what?” she cried, pushing his arms away and heading for the staircase. “Cook up a convincing story?”

He ran after her as she thundered down the stairs. “No! I just -”

“Concoct a convenient lie?” she continued derisively as she retrieved her panties from the kitchen floor and wriggled into them.

He sighed in irritation. “If you would just listen -”

“Oh, kiss my ass, Clark!” she said scathingly.

His face reddened, and her cheeks flamed as they both remembered him doing exactly that a few short hours ago. Damn it, did everything have to come back to haunt her so cruelly?

“Chloe, please don’t go like this,” he said softly.

She ignored him and grabbed her purse and coat from the kitchen floor, then reached for the door handle.

“Chloe, please…” he begged.

The sincerity in his voice stopped her. Slowly, she turned to look at him.

“I’ll tell you everything,” he said quietly.

Her eyes widened. For the first time since this whole bizarre episode had started, Clark had offered to tell the truth. He stood before her, exposed and open in more ways than one. Her gaze ran over him, pausing when she got to his sex which, even at rest, was an impressive sight. A now-familiar yearning beginning to infuse her insides, and she squeezed her eyes shut to avoid temptation.

It was hopeless. When it came to Clark, she lost all objectivity and perspective. She was weak, with no self-control whatsoever. It didn’t matter what he was going to say; all it would take was one touch from him, and she was screwed. If she didn’t cut and run now, she would end up back in that bed, and she knew it.

Her gaze travelled over him one more time, and then she spoke.

“Cover yourself up, Clark,” she said, her voice laced with contempt. “You look like a slut.”

Then she yanked open the door, stormed out and slammed it shut behind her.

***

Clark stood rooted to the spot, staring at the door Chloe had exited but a moment ago. Within seconds she had fired up her engine and driven away so quickly he could smell the rubber from her squealing tyres all the way from where he was standing.

He collapsed into a chair with a groan and buried his head in his hands.

What the hell was wrong with him? It was clear by now that something was activating his dormant hedonistic side, and that the trigger was somehow connected to Chloe, otherwise he’d have been chasing skirts from here to Metropolis like an alley cat. It was also clear that Kal wasn’t doing anything he, Clark, didn’t want to do, as he had no regrets whatsoever about taking Chloe to bed. But he needed to figure out what was sending signals to Kal to come out to play before he went after Chloe, otherwise there was every chance they’d get…distracted…and this already complicated situation would spiral way out of control.

He headed upstairs and went into the bathroom, stopping short at the retained warmth of the room and the smell of shower gel in the air. Chloe must have taken a shower, he realised. He stepped into the tub himself, turned on the hot water and stood under the steaming jets, deep in thought.

The first time he’d gone after Chloe had been when he’d spotted her on the dance floor with Raul at the Salsa club. He specifically remembered how good Chloe smelled wearing the perfume he’d given her for her birthday…heck, that perfume mixed with the scent of her arousal had driven him wild. True to form, his body tightened and reacted at the memory of Chloe in his arms wearing that sinfully red dress.

With grim amusement he turned the temperature dial on the faucet to ‘cold’. Not that it would make much of a difference…

He blinked slowly and dragged his mind back on topic. After Chloe had said that having sex with him was a mistake he’d stormed off, superspeeding home. He’d been back at the farm less than five minutes before it occurred to him that screwing his best friend against a wall in a public cloakroom probably hadn’t been the wisest thing to do.

Then there was this afternoon. Chloe had gone upstairs – ostensibly to use the bathroom, but probably to have a good cry – and had come downstairs and made to leave, but Kal had busted loose and made a beeline for her again…only this time it had been more than just sex. They’d fallen asleep, then he’d woken to find Chloe staring at him, and freaked out.

Briefly he thought that sleep might have neutralised Kal, but dismissed it almost immediately; he hadn’t needed to fall asleep yesterday before realising the enormity of his actions, after all.

He sighed and shut of the water – and then it hit him.

The shower. Chloe had taken a shower. After which he’d woken up as his normal self. She’d smelled different, because…

Temptress. She’d washed it off when she had the shower. When she’d come down the stairs earlier, the sweet, sultry fragrance had hit him like a punch, and the rest, as they say, had been history.

He stepped out of the shower and dried off. It had to be the perfume. What he couldn’t figure out was why he hadn’t had a reaction when he’d tested it at the shop. Maybe he had to be around Chloe for it to take effect? Or maybe the finished product had an added ingredient. Either way, he needed to tell Chloe the truth – the whole truth.

The perfume may have been the reason they’d ended up in bed together, but all it had been was a catalyst, activating feelings that were already simmering within him beneath the surface. He had, after all, experienced a flare of jealously at the Salsa bar before he’d smelt the perfume on Chloe, and again when she mentioned that she’d had sex in the past.

He laughed at himself and shook his head wryly. It was just as Kat, the saleslady had said: Chloe was his. What they said about a woman’s intuition must be true; Kat had picked up the hidden signals in his body language that said that Chloe was more than just a friend to him. She’d been perplexed that Chloe wasn’t his girlfriend. And now, he was just as perplexed himself, wondering exactly that.

But he knew why. It was the reason he’d waffled so much when it came to Lana, and it was the reason he’d buried his burgeoning feelings for Chloe…

His damned secret.

There was no way he could begin an honest relationship with anyone without telling them the truth about himself first. And the last time he told someone his secret, it hadn’t ended well.

Heck, it hadn’t even started well. He’d told Pete that he was an alien from another planet, hoping that Pete would accept him for who he was. But Pete had circled him, staring at him as though he might sprout horns and a little green tail.

“Pete, one of the reasons why I never told you is that I had a feeling you’d look at me the way you’re doing now,” he said, uncomfortable under his friend’s incredulous gaze.

“And how’s that?” Pete had asked scornfully.

“Like I’m some kind of freak,” he’d replied, angry and hurt beyond words.

“Aren’t you?” Pete had challenged.

Clark wanted to run far away, but he resolutely stood his ground and tried to reason with him. “Pete, I’m the same person you’ve had over for Sunday lunch every week since we were five,” he said quietly. “I’m the same guy that played basketball with you and your brothers…nothing’s changed.”

“Oh, it’s changed,” he’d sneered. “Everything’s changed. It’s like I don’t even know you anymore.”

Eventually Pete had come round, but his harsh words had been indelibly stamped in Clark’s brain. He’d resolved there and then to never tell another soul his secret, for far worse than the threat of discovery and exposure was the fear of rejection. He couldn’t bear to have another person look at him like that again. If he told Chloe that he wasn’t human, and she looked at him with the same fear and loathing in her eyes that Pete had…

Clark shook his head, feeling numb and cold as the blood in his veins seemed to freeze. After everything they’d shared, could admit to himself that it would break his heart if Chloe rejected him. The situation was made even more complicated by the fact that Chloe had made a name for herself by unearthing and exposing the weird and unexplained. It was no surprise that he was also terrified he’d become just another statistic on her Wall of Weird.

But the moment he’d touched Chloe and made love to her, he’d crossed a line. There was no going back to the way things were, and certainly no moving forward unless and until she knew the truth. He liked to think that Chloe would accept him for who he was, no questions asked, but she wasn’t Smallville High’s intrepid reporter for nothing. With Chloe, the story always came first, whether or not she had a personal interest in the subject. If he were lucky, maybe she’d agree not to put him up on that wall of hers. If not…

He sighed and returned to his bedroom to put on fresh clothes. There was no going back now. He was going to tell Chloe the truth, and tell her today. It was a risk, a huge risk…but one he was more than ready to take.

***

Chapter 14…