(no subject)
Chapter Eighteen
Chloe couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so hassled.
She was hassled every morning, in trying to get Gabrielle up, fed, and relatively content in time for Stella to arrive, which was when Chloe herself could finally rush through a shower and get dressed to go to work.
But this morning was worse than normal. She’d gotten up late. Then Stella had called to say she’d be fifteen minutes later than usual. Plus Gabrielle had been unusually wild, running around and getting into any trouble she could-culminating in a screaming temper fit when Chloe had tried to change her diaper. And Lex had been discoursing intently on the phone since the moment she’d stumbled out of bed.
Which meant, of course, that he hadn't been any help at all.
Not a good morning. Particularly since Chloe was having to deal with all of it after only half a cup of coffee.
Chloe ignored the outraged screaming that ensued as she began to pull off Gabrielle’s dirty diaper, working around the toddler’s flailing arms and legs.
As she was trying to wipe Gabrielle’s little bottom, Lex came to the door of the nursery and announced that he’d have to go out of town again that weekend.
Chloe whirled around in instinctive annoyance, since he’d been out of town the previous weekend too. Deciding she’d better take another sip of coffee before she told Lex exactly what she thought of his announcement, Chloe took a sip and tried to replace the mug on top of the little bookcase filled with Gabrielle’s books.
Chloe should have been paying more attention. She clumsily slammed the mug down, slopping coffee all over the antique wood. When she started to move the mug out of the puddle she'd made, the wet handle slipped out of her fingers. Chloe caught it again before it fell to the floor, but the rest of the coffee splashed down onto Gabrielle’s favorite lavender blanket, which had been dropped on the floor in the midst of the temper fit.
Biting off a curse, Chloe managed not to scream. She was about to give a curt reply to Lex’s announcement when his phone rang again and he stepped away from the doorway in order to answer it.
Chloe tried even harder not to scream.
She looked at the mess of coffee on the bookcase and the blanket, and she groaned out loud.
Gabrielle was still screaming her head off, and-trying to decide between competing urgencies-Chloe quickly put a clean diaper on her daughter and carried her out of the nursery so she wouldn’t see that her favorite blanket was now covered with coffee.
Leaving Gabrielle with Lex, who was still talking on the phone but had at least made it into the kitchen, Chloe returned to the nursery to wipe the coffee off the bookcase before it stained the gorgeous wood.
Lex had cleared out one of the guest rooms in his penthouse to use as a nursery when Chloe and Gabrielle moved in with him just after Gabrielle’s first birthday. The new nursery was gorgeous, convenient, and comfortable, but Chloe was always slightly nervous because of the expense of all of the furnishings.
Babies were messy. And Chloe had been known to be occasionally clumsy herself. She didn't know the exact total that Lex had spent on redecorating the nursery, but just imagining that amount of money--and the damage she or her daughter could conceivably do it--made Chloe feel kind of sick.
She was wiping up the spill when Lex came back into the nursery, evidently finally having finished his phone call.
“You know you don’t have to do that,” he began, his voice cool and slightly impatient. Evidently, he wasn’t in the best of moods himself.
“I made the mess,” Chloe gritted out. “I can clean it up.” She’d thought it best she not look at him for the moment, or else she might make him the target of her rising annoyance with the world this morning.
“I have a domestic staff. They are paid to do these kinds of chores,” Lex pronounced.
Chloe finished wiping up her spill and yanked the coffee-stained blanket off the floor in an angry jerk. “Is that right?” she bit out. “How nice for you. But I don’t need someone following me around, cleaning up all of my messes.”
Despite her resolve, she had to look in his direction to leave the nursery. Lex was slick and professional in his dark suit and purple tie. He looked as handsome as normal, but she really didn't want to see him at the moment. Something about his immaculate, sophisticated appearance just made her mad.
Brushing past him, she took the blanket to the laundry room, which was off behind the kitchen in a part of the penthouse into which Lex never ventured.
“Chloe,” Lex persisted. He'd followed right on her heels until he saw that she was turning on the washing machine. “Chloe, there is no reason for you to do that. You’re already running late . . .”
“I know that,” she snarled, whirling around to glare at him. “But I’m not going to leave it for someone else to do later. Gabrielle will look for it soon, and then Stella would have to put up with her tantrum.”
Lex opened up his mouth to reply, but, before he could speak, Chloe slammed the washing machine closed and then started out of the room.
“I do things for myself. I’m not used to living in the lap of luxury, and I don't expect everything to be done for me. I don't like for everything to be done for me.” She had paused in front of Lex on her way back to the kitchen, but, when she finished her declaration, she continued out, hoping to leave him and this whole topic of discussion behind her.
Obviously, Lex wasn't ready to drop it yet.
With an annoyed sound in his throat, he walked with her. “It’s their job,” he insisted gruffly. “That is what my staff is paid for. They’re paid well and treated respectfully. No one is being taken advantage of.”
“I don’t care,” Chloe countered grumpily. “It doesn’t feel natural to me.”
She was still wearing her pajama pants and a sweatshirt, since the morning was chilly and she hadn’t gotten to take a shower yet. Stopping abruptly, she snapped, “Where’s Gabrielle? You were supposed to . . .”
“She’s fine,” Lex murmured, rubbing a frustrated hand over his smooth scalp. “She was playing with . . .”
Gabrielle appeared in the kitchen at that moment, giggling and scampering toward them clumsily. She was walking better now, and she’d even learned to run short distances without falling.
At the moment she was incongruously naked from the waist down. And carrying a diaper.
The new diaper Chloe had just put on her.
“She took her diaper off,” Chloe sighed, trying not to groan in frustration. “When did she learn to do that?”
“I don’t know,” Lex began, drawing his brows together. “Although . . . “
“Well, do you mind catching her and putting a diaper and clothes on her before she pees all over your antique rugs?” Chloe asked in increasing exasperation. “I have to get her breakfast together, and I’m running out of time.”
Lex pressed his lips together-obviously not happy about the events of the morning-but he moved toward Gabrielle, who had started wobbling toward the nursery, waving the diaper in front of her.
Chloe got a new cup of coffee. Sipped it and tried to calm down her agitated nerves. Then she got the Cheerios out for Gabrielle and poured milk into a sippy cup.
In just a minute, Lex came into the kitchen, hauling a dressed and happily squealing Gabrielle over his shoulder. He put her in her highchair and then went to pour himself a cup of coffee.
Chloe gave Gabrielle her milk and Cheerios, and then watched as the toddler started to clumsily pick up O by O and stick them dutifully into her mouth.
Gabrielle had grown a lot in the last six months. She was a very pretty little girl, with big blue eyes and round, rosy cheeks. Her hair was still reddish gold, and it had gotten a lot thicker and now waved into little kinks around her face. Chloe had long ago resigned herself to the fact that her daughter was going to look more like Lex than like her.
Joining her at the counter, Lex said in a low voice, “Chloe, there’s no reason for us to go through this kind of hassle every morning. We can hire a live-in nanny, who would watch Gabrielle while . . .”
“I don’t want a live-in nanny,” Chloe snapped, speaking softly as well, so Gabrielle wouldn’t hear. “You know that. Stella is our nanny, and she doesn’t want to . . .”
“Well, we could ask her to come earlier in the mornings,” Lex suggested, his jaw clenching in a sure sign that he wasn’t happy with Chloe. “You’re late to work almost every morning, and half the time I . . .”
“If you don’t want to mess with us in the mornings,” Chloe gritted out, still keeping half an eye on Gabrielle. “Then you can get up at five and head out to your office. You do that half the time anyway." Fisting and then unfisting one hand, she added, "This is what happens when you have a daughter who’s sixteen months old.”
Lex tightened his lips and gave her a cold glare.
“Dada,” Gabrielle said suddenly. "Ohs."
They both turned to focus on their daughter in her highchair, and saw that she was holding out a couple of Cheerios toward Lex.
“Thank you,” Lex said politely, his face changing as he addressed Gabrielle. “But those are your Cheerios. You’d better eat them yourself.”
Studying the proffered Cheerios intently, Gabrielle shifted her hand toward Chloe instead. “Momma,” she offered.
Chloe smiled, her annoyance fading temporarily. “Thank you, pumpkin. That’s very sweet,” she responded. “But don’t you want them yourself?”
Gabrielle frowned thoughtfully and stuck her hand out to Lex again, “Dada ohs!”
With a sigh, Lex stepped over to take the offered cereal. “Thank you,” he said again. “I’ll eat these if you’ll eat the rest.”
Gabrielle watched observantly as Lex brought the four Cheerios to his lips. When she saw him put them in his mouth and start chewing, she once more started placing the rest-which were spread out on the tray of the highchair-into her little mouth.
Lex returned to stand in front of Chloe. He kind of loomed before her, trapping her between his body and the counter. Looking down at her from only inches away, he murmured, almost under his breath, “Is there something you’d like to say to me?”
“No,” she whispered, sticking out her chin. “I’ve said what I wanted to say. This is the way it works with a kid. It’s normal. I don’t care how much money you have-I’m not going to let someone else do everything, particularly about raising our daughter. I told you when we moved in. We're not going to change our entire lives, just because we’re living in your penthouse.”
She glanced beyond Lex to make sure Gabrielle was eating okay. She was happily sipping her milk and peering at the space above a far counter where the plasma TV was hidden unless it was in use.
Lex reached out and grabbed Chloe by the upper arms, bringing her attention back to him. “Chloe,” he said thickly. “Chloe, this isn’t just my penthouse. This is supposed to be your home now. You’ve been living here for more than four months. When are you going to start thinking about it like that, instead of acting like you're staying at some sort of hotel?”
“I’m sorry,” she snapped-wondering why the hell they were getting into all of this right now, when they really should be getting ready for work. Her voice was dripping with sarcasm. “I’m so sorry it’s taking me a while to adjust to an entirely different lifestyle. I’ve told you from the beginning; I don’t want to live like a billionaire.”
“I am a billionaire,” Lex bit out. “Are you expecting me to pretend I'm not?” He glanced behind him unexpectedly, glancing over at Gabrielle, who was swirling her Cheerios on the tray of the high chair and babbling cheerfully.
Chloe blew out an infuriated breath. Had to struggle to hold back her temper, since she didn’t want to explode in front of Gabrielle. “No. Of course, not. But that’s who you are. Not me. I’m not a billionaire. I'm just . . . me. And so a lot of this feels . . . feels foreign and, and . . . unnatural.”
Lex closed down.
She should have expected it. Whenever they argued, he would be cold and controlled, but still real and passionate . . . until she managed to hurt him in some way. Then he always shut down. Turned blank. Closed her out completely. “I see,” he said curtly. He dumped the rest of his coffee in the sink, staring as the dark liquid spilled down the drain. “You know, no one is forcing you to stay.”
Watching him, Chloe groaned and felt a surge of guilt. Which just made her even madder. She knew that Lex still had a kind of fragility about his heart-after years of letting nothing touch it at all. And so, whenever it was threatened, he automatically put up his defenses again.
But sometimes it was damned irritating to always feel guilty whenever she unintentionally wounded him.
“Lex, don’t be stupid,” she grumbled, putting a hand on his shoulder to pull him back around to face her. “I’m not going anywhere. But I love you. I don’t love every single thing that come along with you. I’m trying to get used to all of this, but it’s not going to happen overnight.”
Lex nodded, the blankness disappearing from his face. He looked grumpy again and tired. But at least he was really with her. “I wouldn’t think that learning to live with a few more . . . conveniences would really be that difficult to adjust to.”
Chloe made an indignant, guttural noise. “That’s because you’ve never done it. I know it sounds like living with a billionaire is a dream come true, but it’s not. This lifestyle just doesn't match me. You think I feel like I can put my feet up on a ten-thousand dollar couch? Or that I can relax when my daughter is playing on a three hundred year old rug? I know you can buy new things if you have to, but that’s not the point. I love you. I want to be with you. But this still doesn’t feel like my home. And it’s hard not to feel like Gabrielle and I are going to barge in and, and . . . mess up your perfect, privileged life.”
She was panting when she finished speaking, and her eyes were burning painfully. She couldn’t believe she’d actually said that. She’d thought about it a lot since she’d moved in with Lex, but it had never seemed like such a big issue that she’d want to open up the whole can of worms.
But now the words were said. And she felt hot, embarassed, and like she was acting like an idiot.
Everything she’d said was true, but she wished she hadn’t even brought it up.
Before Lex could reply, Gabrielle started whimpering. She had a couple of Cheerios stuck to her hands, but she was holding out both arms toward Chloe. And her face had started to crumple up. In the midst of her whimpers, Chloe could hear her mumble out, “Momma.”
Understanding immediately, Chloe hurried over to the highchair. “Mommy’s all right,” she murmured comfortingly. “Mommy’s not sad.” She made herself smile and sit down in a chair so she was on Gabrielle’s level. “Mommy and Daddy are happy. Happy.”
Gabrielle smiled in response, her little face relaxing in relief, and she offered Chloe one sticky hand. Chloe wiped it down with a napkin and said, “Are you finished with your Cheerios? Do you want more?”
“Mo!” Gabrielle pronounced, looking up at the counter expectantly.
Lex poured out a few more Cheerios and laid them on the tray of the highchair. After he put the box down, he turned back toward Chloe. Asked under his breath, “Chloe?”
Chloe shook her head. Had neither the time, energy, or desire to deal with all of this now. She was more than a half-hour late as it was. “We can talk about it later. I have an interview at 9:00.”
Glancing at his watch, Lex raised his eyebrows. Then skimmed his eyes over Chloe’s flannel pajama pants, sweatshirt, and bare feet. “It’s almost eight o’clock already. You’re going to have to hurry.”
Rolling her eyes, Chloe muttered sarcastically, “Really?” Swallowing and trying not to jump down Lex throat over every little thing, she mumbled, “Sorry.” She turned toward Gabrielle. “Sweetie? Are you finished with your Cheerios?”
Gabrielle nodded resolutely. “Ohs.”
“Yes,” Chloe agreed. “Your ohs. Are you done?”
Gabrielle paused. Then nodded again. “Ess.”
With a sigh of relief, Chloe lifted her daughter out of the high chair. She couldn’t help but smile when Gabrielle snuggled affectionately against her. Hugging her tightly, Chloe whispered, “Mommy loves you. Lots and lots.”
“Momma,” Gabrielle mumbled, her face rubbing against Chloe’s shoulder. “Ots.”
“Lots,” Chloe repeated, giving her daughter one more squeeze. “Lots and lots.”
“Ots,” Gabrielle agreed. She was fisting Chloe’s sweatshirt in her tiny hands.
Lex was watching them silently, and Chloe had to look away from the expression in his eyes.
She just couldn’t deal with any sort of emotion this morning.
And that expression would leave her very emotional.
When Chloe put Gabrielle onto the floor and straightened up again, Lex had returned to his usual, professional persona. “I need to get to work,” he told her. “I’m already late.”
Chloe swallowed. The brief, loving interlude had vanished completely. “You're not the only one. I have a very important interview this morning with the winner of the Metropolis Spelling Bee.” She scowled as she spoke, feeling a rise of bitterness in her throat.
Lex narrowed his eyes. “There’s no sense in complaining about it. If you don’t like your job, then quit and find another one.”
Chloe didn’t like her job. Not anymore, anyway. In a way, it was Lex’s fault. At least, it was because of her relationship with him. She had no more credibility when reporting anything associated with Lex, LuthorCorp, or anything that had any connection to him.
Which meant she couldn’t report any hard news in Metropolis. Yes, there could be a few stories she could have been able to tackle, but not enough for her to really do what she'd always done.
This was Metroplis. And Lex and LuthorCorp were everywhere.
So she’d been writing fluff pieces for months now. Assumed that was what she’d be doing for the rest of her career.
“I’d deal with the same problems in any position I find in Metropolis,” she said tersely. “If a decent paper is even willing to hire me, it will merely be as a novelty. Not because I'm a good journalist.”
Lex’s face was tense and unpleasant. “Then do something else. There's no reason to continue in a job that makes you miserable. Surely there’s something you can do that will make you happy. You know you don’t even have to . . .”
Chloe almost snarled. “Don’t even suggest it. I’m not going to not work.” She had more to say on this subject--a lot more--but she bit back the words. “Why are we even getting into this? Neither of us has time this morning.”
“Right,” Lex agreed. “I need to get going.”
“Is there any way,” she said slowly, trying her best to be reasonable. “That you can stay for a few more minutes so I can start my shower. Stella’s going to be late.”
Lex made a face. “Can’t you ask . . .”
“I’m not going to ask any of your staff,” Chloe interrupted. “Watching Gabrielle is not their job.”
Lex didn’t object, since he obviously knew this was true. But he hesitated. Looked at his watch again. Clearly wasn’t excited about delaying his work day.
He was actually pretty good about doing his share with Gabrielle. But he also had a very committed attitude toward his work. However, all he said was, “All right. I don’t have a meeting first thing this morning. Just don't take too long.”
With a sigh of relief, Chloe ran to the master bathroom before Lex changed his mind. She was out of the bathroom in less than ten minutes. Heard Stella’s voice, so she came out to the main hallway in her bathrobe.
“Hi,” she said in relief, as Stella caught up Gabrielle in a big hug. “We’re a mess this morning. Sorry. And Gabrielle’s blanket is in the washing machine.”
Stella nodded, greeted her cheerfully, and efficiently began picking up a couple of Gabrielle’s toys, which the toddler had pulled into the hall this morning.
Lex glanced at his watch again. “I’m going to get going then.” His words were addressed to Chloe, and he held her eyes with a significant look.
Chloe nodded. “Okay. Thanks for staying late.”
Lex returned her nod and went into his office to get his stuff together. When he came back into the hall, he scooped up Gabrielle, who’d been sitting on the floor playing with her socks. “Goodbye, Gabrielle,” Lex murmured. “I’ll see you this evening.”
“Dada,” Gabrielle babbled happily, grinning as Lex kissed her on the cheek. “Bye bye.”
When he put her down, she gave his shin a big hug.
After she’d released him, Lex looked back over at Chloe. “I’ll be back before dinner tonight.”
“Good,” she grumbled, remembering another source of resentment. “You’d better. If you’re going to be gone this weekend too.”
Lex shook his head. “It will just be Friday evening and most of Saturday. As soon as this one negotiation is . . .”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
Lex was on his way out the door, and Chloe had walked to the door with him. Before he reached for the doorknob, Lex leaned down and kissed Chloe on the lips. “I love you.”
Chloe sighed. Patted him on the chest, her hand stroking over his ridiculously expensive suit. “Yeah,” she admitted, returning his kiss, tugging on his lower lip with both of hers. “I love you too.”
Lex started to open the door. Then he paused. Looked back at her. "You know, Chloe, that I never had a privileged, perfect life."
Meeting his deep, intent gaze, she nodded reluctantly.
"And you and Gabrielle have made it . . . better," he continued. He sounded slightly stiff, which was to be expected, since he was expressing something very intimate. And not in the bedroom, but on a random morning on the way to work.
Chloe nodded again, her expression softening a little.
“We’ll talk about the rest of this tonight,” Lex concluded, stepping out the door.
“Yeah,” Chloe agreed resignedly, staring the smooth curve of the back of his skull. “I can’t wait.”
She looked at the closed door after Lex had departed. Felt exhausted and confused and like she really didn’t want to start her day.
She loved Lex. Really loved him. Wanted to spend her life with him and was so glad that they were a family now.
But getting together with the rich, handsome prince--even if you genuinely loved him--was rather more complicated than the stories would have one believe.
* * *
“So he just disappeared? In the middle of the night?” Chloe stared at Lois, keeping her eyes wide and innocent, still having to hide this particular secret. Even after all this time. Even from one of the people she loved and trusted most in the world.
But promises still meant something to Chloe. And so did Clark, despite . . . everything.
Lois nodded and rolled her eyes. “Asshole that he is. No explanation. I didn’t even feel him get up. He was just gone.”
“So what did you do?” Chloe asked, studying the mustard-yellow leather sofa in front of her to distract herself from her lingering guilt about her inability to tell Lois the secret that would explain everything.
“I screamed at him for about an hour when he finally got back.” Lois made a face and stroked the back of an expensive black leather sofa thoughtfully.
“And then what did he do?”
“He apologized very humbly. Agreed that he’d been entirely at fault. Then said I had every right to dump his sorry ass.”
Chloe quirked her mouth, feeling better at the ironic amusement that was now tingeing Lois’s voice. “I assume you didn’t. Dump him, I mean.”
“Nope,” Lois admitted. “I yelled at him some more for agreeing with me so obnoxiously. Then we made up.”
“Make-up sex and everything?”
Lois smirked. “Oh, yeah. It was great. You know, sometimes I think that his stamina is some sort of miracle. He had me going . . .”
Chloe cleared her throat and tried not to laugh. “I'll trust you. I don't need the visual."
Snorting, Lois mumbled, “Hmph.”
Chloe snickered at Lois’s disappointment, but she really wanted to move on to her next question. “So things are all right now between you and Clark? Even though he’s an asshole?”
Lois sighed and pushed a hand through her hair. “Yeah. Things are all right. Not that he deserved to be forgiven. But . . .”
“Uh huh,” Chloe murmured laughingly, catching fleeting evidence of sentiment in her cousin's expression.
Lois shrugged. Looked a little sheepish. “What can I say? He’s a secretive, infuriating asshole sometimes.” She shrugged again. “But . . .”
Chloe snickered again. “Uh huh.”
Lois made a face at Chloe but ended up snickering too. Then she changed the subject back to the topic at hand. “What about this one?”
Looking at the comfortable brown sofa that Lois had pointed out, Chloe thought for a minute. “It looks really nice. But I’m not sure I want leather furniture. I was thinking something softer and cozier.”
Lois wrinkled her nose. “This could be cozy. And this leather is amazing.”
“Yeah,” Chloe admitted, stroking the leather with an appreciative sigh. “But it just doesn’t feel like what I had in mind.”
“All right,” Lois agreed reluctantly. “This section of the store is all leather.” She peered around the huge showroom filled with a wide assortment of furniture. “The other stuff is over there.”
Chloe nodded, seeing the section of non-leather living room furniture a distance away. They navigated their way through the cluttered groupings of couches, coffee tables, and chairs, and Chloe started scanning for something that matched her vision for this room.
“Are you sure Lex didn’t want to be here to help us choose? It is a room in his penthouse, after all.” Lois glanced over at Chloe, her eyebrows arching quizzically.
Chloe nodded. “I told him there was no hurry and that I could wait until he gets back into town. But he said he’ll be happy with whatever I decide and that he’d only interfere with the mission to find comfortable, non-stressful, family-room furniture.” Chloe smiled a little as she thought back on the conversation. “Then he said quite snidely that he was happy to have less expensive furniture in the new family room, if it made me more comfortable, but he had no desire to spend hours wandering around establishments that sell such items.”
Lois made an ironic sound in her throat. “Nice. He’s such a snob.”
“No argument here,” Chloe agreed, although her face was still rather fond. “He can be about some things. But in this case I think he was just trying to get me to believe that was his reason.”
"Then what was his real reason for not shopping with us?”
Chloe glanced down at a red and blue plaid sofa. Felt absurdly embarrassed for no reason, but managed to murmur, “I think he was afraid that-if he did this with me-I wouldn’t feel comfortable buying the things I would normally gravitate toward.”
Lois’s eyes were narrowed as she studied her cousin. “Would you?”
“I don’t know,” Chloe admitted. “But I think he might have been right. Can you really imagine Lex and I picking out a couch in this huge outlet?”
Snorting, Lois replied, “Huh uh. No way. I think I’d have a heart attack if I saw Lex in a place like this.”
“Exactly. So would I. So I would feel weird about the whole thing and start to wonder if he was just humoring me or giving me a pat on the head, while he was secretly wishing that he could go back to his ritzy world of sleek modern lines and priceless art.”
“Do you think he is just humoring you?”
Chloe shook her head. “No. I don’t think he is. He really wants me and Gabrielle to be comfortable in his home, and I’m sure he would have been happy to pick things out with me. But he didn’t want his presence to pressure me into making Lex kind of purchases.”
Smiling wistfully, Chloe visualized his dry, bland expression when he’d said that he was going to clear out one of the rooms in his penthouse so they could have some sort of family room that Chloe might feel more comfortable in. A room she could think of as theirs rather than his. A room where she wouldn’t be scared of Gabrielle messing everything up.
The whole thing was so Lex-like. Brooding over a dilemma--no matter how incongruous--until he came up with a way to most efficiently address the problem.
In fact, the gesture itself was a lot more important to Chloe than the room would probably be. Although she was happy about the room too. It would be a huge relief to be able to hang out with Gabrielle without worrying about which priceless painting she would throw her applesauce at.
Evidently, Lois noticed the fond expression on Chloe’s face. Because she said ironically, “Please tell me you’re not going to start to gush mushily about how sweet and adorable your handsome, bald prince is.”
Chloe snorted. “No danger of that. After going out of town on business three weekends in a row, he hasn’t earned a lot of bonus points from me.” Then her face softened, “Although, I do think the room was a very sweet gesture. Lex has his moments.” Realizing she was falling into embarrassing sappiness, Chloe quickly pulled herself out of it. “What don’t you buy this couch for Clark? It's just his style.”
It was the blue and red plaid couch they’d been standing over for the last few minutes, and it looked a lot like one of Clark’s favorite shirts in high school.
Lois chortled appreciatively. Then remarked as they started moving through the sofas again, “I’m surprised Lex didn’t offer to redecorate the entire penthouse with you.”
“He did,” Chloe confessed, pausing over a green chenille overstuffed chair. “That was his first offer. But he loves that penthouse, and he loves all of the art and furnishings in it, even though he offered to gut it and start all over. It’s his home too. And I don’t want him to feel like he has to rethink his entire life just because we’re living together.”
Then she curled up her lip. “But I’m thinking we might redo the bedroom pretty soon. All those shades of gray are starting to depress me.”
Lois chuckled appreciatively and paused over a denim couch. “What about this?” she asked, the corner of her mouth quivering a little.
Chloe burst out in a huff of amused astonishment. “Yeah,” she agreed facetiously. “That would be perfect. Lex won’t even wear denim. But let’s stick an enormous piece of denim furniture into his beautiful penthouse.”
“Could be fun,” Lois drawled, her eyes sparking with mischief. “Maybe we could pick out the furniture we think he’d hate the most, just to see how he’d react.”
Chloe laughed too, imagining how Lex would react. But then she said, “Poor thing. He’d try so hard to pretend he was all right with it, since he’d made such a big deal about my picking out whatever made me comfortable. I can just see him, suppressing his disgust.”
Even though he was halfway across the world at the moment, she absurdly wanted to give Lex a hug. Just because she could imagine so clearly how hard he would try to pretend he was happy with whatever choice she ended up making--no matter how appalling.
“What room is the family room going to be, anyway?” Lois asked, as they moved away from the denim pieces and toward the subtle styles and colors that Chloe had originally had in mind. Even if she was picking less expensive and more practical pieces, she didn't want anything that would look outrageously out of place in the penthouse.
She didn't want the family room to become a whole different world from the rest of their home.
“The music room,” Chloe replied, accidentally running into a side table and almost knocking down a lamp in her distraction. “It wasn't really a music room, but it was the one with the grand piano. That’s basically all that was in there except for some art.”
“He doesn’t want his piano anymore?”
Chloe made a reluctant face. “I’m afraid he kind of does. But there’s not really any other good place for it in the penthouse. It's just so huge. So he’s moving it to his estate outside of Metropolis, where he’ll still be able to have access to it if he wants.” She sighed, feeling a little pull of guilt. “I wish he hadn’t had to get rid of it just so we could have our family room.”
“I’m sure it was worth the sacrifice. It seems like he’d do a lot more than that to make you happy,” Lois murmured, giving Chloe a slanting look.
“Yeah,” Chloe agreed, feeling slightly self-conscious again. “I think he would. And he never had much time to play that piano anyway.” Taking a deep breath, she concluded, “I still feel a little guilty, but I’m trying to get over it. I’ve realized I still have this lingering fear that-if Lex has to change too much about his life or if he faces too many inconveniences in dealing with me and Gabrielle-then he’ll decide it’s just not worth it after all. I know that’s not true, but sometimes I still catch myself feeling it.”
Lois nodded, for once not mocking Chloe’s earnestness. “I can see why you would. It’s one thing to be in a relationship with a man who’s . . . sort of like you are. But Lex Luthor? He's from a different world than us. If it were me, I’d always be asking myself why the fuck he’d fallen in love with me.”
“Exactly.” Chloe brushed her hair out of her face and sat down to test out a sofa that seemed to have potential.
“I used to think it would be great to fall in love with a really wealthy man,” Lois continued. “I mean, why not? You could suddenly have everything you wanted. But after watching the adjustments you’ve had to go through with Lex, I’m kind of glad that Clark is usually broke.”
Chloe giggled at Lois’s dry tone. Was glad that Lois, at least, could understand how hard it had been for her.
“But otherwise things are going all right between you and Lex?” Lois pursued, shifting beyond the family-room topic now. “You’re feeling pretty . . . settled?”
Chloe peered up at her cousin. “In terms of the relationship, yes. Absolutely. It’s just been a little hard to settle into a home so unlike the homes I’ve always made for myself.”
“And any sign of those flying, in-love feelings you were missing before?” Lois added, dropping onto the sofa next to Chloe.
With a low groan, Chloe slouched back against the soft cushions. “No. Not a trace. But I don’t even worry about it any more. As much as I hate to admit it, you were right about that.”
Lois’s brows shot up. “I was? How delightful. And what piece of my brilliance turned out to be right?”
“When you said that I somehow had this romanticized idea about love,” Chloe admitted, able to think about it objectively now-at long last. “I didn’t consciously. I mean, I knew that love wasn’t really like it. But that’s how my love for Clark in high school had felt, and since it was all I’d ever experienced of real romantic love, I was just unconsciously assuming that’s always what love would feel like. But what I have with Lex is so much better. It’s love-it’s just a real love, if you know what I mean.”
“I do,” Lois acknowledged, a thoughtful look on her face as she peered at Chloe. “And you aren’t still hoping for some flying feelings?”
Chloe shrugged. “Not really. I mean, they’re nice for as long as they last. But I feel so much more for Lex. I have all kinds of great feelings: passion, and compatibility, and ironic humor, and family, and mushy feelings and, and . . . deep understanding. Not to mention really, really good sex.”
“Oh?” Lois drawled, twitching her eyebrows.
With a snicker, Chloe continued, “Indeed. But I won't bore you with the details." Before Lois could complain, Chloe continued, "It’s so complicated, now that I think back on everything that brought us together. I’m not sure when exactly I fell in love with him, but I know I wasn’t in love all along. It wasn’t that I was in denial and just couldn’t admit it. The love itself was actually . . . slow. And it took a really long time before we finally got to the place where we really could love each other . . . and mean it.”
“Very profound,” Lois mused blandly.
Chloe rolled her eyes. “You’re the one who asked.”
“Right. And so here you are picking out furniture for a Lex-Chloe-pumpkin family room.”
Chloe released a happy sigh. “Yeah. Crazy, isn’t it?”
They got up off the sofa and started making the rounds again, peering at the various options. About fifteen minutes later, Lois remarked, “It’s been two hours since we left your dad with babysitting duties, and you haven’t even called to check on him. I’d say that’s definite progress.”
Chloe scowled, but without much heat. “I’m sure both he and Gabrielle are having a ball. But maybe . . .” Then she sucked in a breath. Forgot about calling to check on Gabrielle. “Oh," she exclaimed. "I didn’t tell you about Stella!”
Apparently, her dramatic tone roused Lois’s attention. Lois stopped abruptly and her mouth dropped open. “Tell me what?” she demanded.
Chloe felt a rise of amused excitement but managed to stifle it until she told the story. “For some reason, I had mentioned the other day that last year Lex and I were a little suspicious of her because she seemed like the absolutely perfect nanny for us. That was when the news was just coming out about Lex having a child, and he was afraid Stella might have had an underlying agenda. So he did a lot of investigation of her background.”
“I remember,” Lois mentioned, her forehead wrinkling in curiosity. “But her background was flawless, wasn't it?”
“Right,” Chloe agreed. “So I had mentioned that to Stella and was laughing about how crazy we were to ever suspect her, since she was so clearly what she seemed to be--just a really good nanny. Well, anyway, she must have started to feel guilty about this secret she's been keeping because she finally fessed up.”
Lois blinked. “Fessed up? About what? You mean she actually did have an underlying agenda for being your nanny?”
Chloe nodded, the laughter bursting out in breathy hisses as she tried to restrain her delighted humor at this unforeseen turn of events. “Yep. She didn’t come to us just as a nanny. She applied for the job partly for another reason.”
For once, Lois was absolutely dumbfounded. She breathed, “Well, it must not have been bad, if you’re about to laugh about it. Don’t leave me hanging. What is it?”
Opening her mouth to reply, Chloe burst into giggles instead. Before Lois could complain, she managed to choke out, “You remember, my dad was the one who found her for us. Well, she had evidently met my dad before she’d even heard of the possibility of the job.” Chloe paused. Waited to see if Lois would piece it together on her own.
Lois stared down, obviously thinking hard. Then finally she gasped and looked back up to Chloe. “What? You’re kidding! Stella has . . . the hots . . . for Gabe?”
Chloe burst into hysterical laughter, managing to nod her head to affirm that Lois was right. At Lois’s flabbergasted expression, she laughed even harder. “Yep,” she finally gasped. “She was apparently . . . very interested in dad. Plus, she realized she wasn’t really in the financial situation to retire yet anyway. So what better combination of both interests, than to be Gabrielle’s nanny?”
They share astonished giggles for about five minutes about this piece of news, until Lois asked, “But is your dad at all interested in her?”
Chloe shook her head. “I’m almost positive that he has no idea she’s even interested. She apparently thinks she’s always throwing herself at him, but she never flirts at all. I’m sure he has absolutely no idea.”
They gossiped about the best way to figure out if Gabe could possibly be interested in Stella until they made it through the entire stock of living room furniture at the store.
Having finished their search, both of them were sitting on the muted green sofa that was Chloe’s top pick when Lois asked into a companionable silence, “So how’s work?”
Chloe made a face. Felt a familiar sinking in her gut, the shift in mood almost nauseating. “Not great.”
“So there’s no chance of . . .”
She shook her head. “I can’t even really blame them. If they want to be a credible news source, then it would be risky to give me stories that . . .”
“Yeah,” Lois agreed. They were silent a long time. Then, “So what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” Chloe admitted, feeling a stupid lump in her throat. She hated getting emotional about this kind of thing. “I guess I’m probably going to have to quit. This is just not what I want to be doing. And it’s getting harder and harder to leave Gabrielle all day for a job that’s basically crap.”
There was another long pause. Until Lois asked carefully, “So . . . will you try to find another one?”
“Yeah,” Chloe sighed. “I need to. Something, at least. But being a reporter is basically out of the question for me now. So I’ll have to find something else. I just don’t know what.”
She hated this. Hated feeling a loss that almost felt like grief-for a career that had never had been what she’d dreamed it would be anyway. But it had been hers. And there had always been the tiny chance that her lifetime ambitions might miraculously be achieved after all.
Now there was no chance at all.
So she swallowed hard over the ache in her throat. Blinked so her eyes wouldn’t burn. “All I’ve ever wanted to do was journalism. And now I . . . can’t.” Her voice broke on the last word.
For just a moment, Lois’s face was almost torn with sympathy and understanding. “Damn,” she whispered, turning away briefly.
Chloe shook her head roughly, trying to dispel the poignant mood. “I’m really trying not to feel sorry for myself. It’s a shame, but it’s not the end of the world. I have it really, really good. Some women would kill to be able to stay home with their kids. I’m just not sure . . . I don’t know. I just have to think of what I want to do with my life now . . . in addition to being a mother.”
Lois smiled and leaned back against the sofa. “Well, you have some time to figure it out, given that you’re living with a billionaire.”
Chloe snorted, actually feeling better.
Straightening up at last, Lois nodded her head resolutely. “And I really think that you should get this couch.”
* * *
Chloe felt ridiculously nervous as she turned her head to look at Lex over her shoulder. “Now, I’m serious. You have to tell me if you don’t like it.”
Lex was standing behind her, looking unusually casual in a long-sleeved, crew-neck gray shirt. “Chloe, of course, I’m going to like it.”
“It’s not really finished yet,” Chloe went on, shifting from foot to foot with her hand on the door. There were actually double doors into the new family room and most of the time they would remain open, since they were primarily decorative. But Chloe had shut them earlier this morning so she could surprise Lex with her work on the room. “I left some finishing touches undone, so you could help me with those. It’s your room too, so I didn’t want to decide everything myself.”
Gabrielle was at their feet. She’d been playing with the new stuffed bunny Lex had brought home for her after his trip last weekend, but now it lay forgotten on the floor of the hall. She must have been infected by Chloe’s excitement because she was doing a clumsy little jig now and banging excitedly on the door with the palms of her hands in her eagerness to get inside. “In,” she declared, staring up at her mother and father. “In!”
Lex smiled dryly and nodded his head. “Precisely. In.” He gave Chloe a significant look. “Chloe, I can’t let you know how much I like the room unless you actually let us in.” When she still hesitated, he added, “If you’re this attached to the room, Chloe, then there’s no question about whether I’ll love it too.”
Chloe smiled warmly in response-feeling a deep swell of love for this man, who was hovering behind her with an arrogant look-but all she said was, “I seem to recall feeling equally attached to Gabrielle’s nursery in my old apartment. And you came in and called it brown.”
Lex arched one eyebrow. “Are you ever going to let me forget that?”
With a deep breath, Chloe pushed open the door to their new family room. “Not likely,” she replied flippantly. Then stepped into the room she’d spent the last week working on in preparation for this moment.
Gabrielle burst into the room after her, stopping abruptly as she stared around at the new space, her eyes landing delightedly on the low shelves in the corner where Chloe had arranged some of the toddler’s toys. Gabrielle squealed in excitement and scampered over there to exult in her treasures.
But Chloe’s eyes were focused only on Lex’s expression, as he stepped in and gazed around the new room.
His face was calm and observant, but she knew it well by now. And, to her relief, she couldn’t find the tiniest twinge of disappointment or distaste in his eyes as he studied his surroundings.
She was really excited about the new room. She’d ended up furnishing it in subtle greens, golds, and neutrals, and there was a thick area rug covering most of the polished, exotic hardwood, so Gabrielle could play on the floor comfortably. And, although she had tried to make sure everything was practical and livable, she had also tried to keep Lex’s tastes in mind. The task had been more fun than she’d been expecting-and the result ended up being the kind of room she’d have wanted for her old apartment, had she ever had the money to redo her living room from top to bottom.
Chloe couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so hassled.
She was hassled every morning, in trying to get Gabrielle up, fed, and relatively content in time for Stella to arrive, which was when Chloe herself could finally rush through a shower and get dressed to go to work.
But this morning was worse than normal. She’d gotten up late. Then Stella had called to say she’d be fifteen minutes later than usual. Plus Gabrielle had been unusually wild, running around and getting into any trouble she could-culminating in a screaming temper fit when Chloe had tried to change her diaper. And Lex had been discoursing intently on the phone since the moment she’d stumbled out of bed.
Which meant, of course, that he hadn't been any help at all.
Not a good morning. Particularly since Chloe was having to deal with all of it after only half a cup of coffee.
Chloe ignored the outraged screaming that ensued as she began to pull off Gabrielle’s dirty diaper, working around the toddler’s flailing arms and legs.
As she was trying to wipe Gabrielle’s little bottom, Lex came to the door of the nursery and announced that he’d have to go out of town again that weekend.
Chloe whirled around in instinctive annoyance, since he’d been out of town the previous weekend too. Deciding she’d better take another sip of coffee before she told Lex exactly what she thought of his announcement, Chloe took a sip and tried to replace the mug on top of the little bookcase filled with Gabrielle’s books.
Chloe should have been paying more attention. She clumsily slammed the mug down, slopping coffee all over the antique wood. When she started to move the mug out of the puddle she'd made, the wet handle slipped out of her fingers. Chloe caught it again before it fell to the floor, but the rest of the coffee splashed down onto Gabrielle’s favorite lavender blanket, which had been dropped on the floor in the midst of the temper fit.
Biting off a curse, Chloe managed not to scream. She was about to give a curt reply to Lex’s announcement when his phone rang again and he stepped away from the doorway in order to answer it.
Chloe tried even harder not to scream.
She looked at the mess of coffee on the bookcase and the blanket, and she groaned out loud.
Gabrielle was still screaming her head off, and-trying to decide between competing urgencies-Chloe quickly put a clean diaper on her daughter and carried her out of the nursery so she wouldn’t see that her favorite blanket was now covered with coffee.
Leaving Gabrielle with Lex, who was still talking on the phone but had at least made it into the kitchen, Chloe returned to the nursery to wipe the coffee off the bookcase before it stained the gorgeous wood.
Lex had cleared out one of the guest rooms in his penthouse to use as a nursery when Chloe and Gabrielle moved in with him just after Gabrielle’s first birthday. The new nursery was gorgeous, convenient, and comfortable, but Chloe was always slightly nervous because of the expense of all of the furnishings.
Babies were messy. And Chloe had been known to be occasionally clumsy herself. She didn't know the exact total that Lex had spent on redecorating the nursery, but just imagining that amount of money--and the damage she or her daughter could conceivably do it--made Chloe feel kind of sick.
She was wiping up the spill when Lex came back into the nursery, evidently finally having finished his phone call.
“You know you don’t have to do that,” he began, his voice cool and slightly impatient. Evidently, he wasn’t in the best of moods himself.
“I made the mess,” Chloe gritted out. “I can clean it up.” She’d thought it best she not look at him for the moment, or else she might make him the target of her rising annoyance with the world this morning.
“I have a domestic staff. They are paid to do these kinds of chores,” Lex pronounced.
Chloe finished wiping up her spill and yanked the coffee-stained blanket off the floor in an angry jerk. “Is that right?” she bit out. “How nice for you. But I don’t need someone following me around, cleaning up all of my messes.”
Despite her resolve, she had to look in his direction to leave the nursery. Lex was slick and professional in his dark suit and purple tie. He looked as handsome as normal, but she really didn't want to see him at the moment. Something about his immaculate, sophisticated appearance just made her mad.
Brushing past him, she took the blanket to the laundry room, which was off behind the kitchen in a part of the penthouse into which Lex never ventured.
“Chloe,” Lex persisted. He'd followed right on her heels until he saw that she was turning on the washing machine. “Chloe, there is no reason for you to do that. You’re already running late . . .”
“I know that,” she snarled, whirling around to glare at him. “But I’m not going to leave it for someone else to do later. Gabrielle will look for it soon, and then Stella would have to put up with her tantrum.”
Lex opened up his mouth to reply, but, before he could speak, Chloe slammed the washing machine closed and then started out of the room.
“I do things for myself. I’m not used to living in the lap of luxury, and I don't expect everything to be done for me. I don't like for everything to be done for me.” She had paused in front of Lex on her way back to the kitchen, but, when she finished her declaration, she continued out, hoping to leave him and this whole topic of discussion behind her.
Obviously, Lex wasn't ready to drop it yet.
With an annoyed sound in his throat, he walked with her. “It’s their job,” he insisted gruffly. “That is what my staff is paid for. They’re paid well and treated respectfully. No one is being taken advantage of.”
“I don’t care,” Chloe countered grumpily. “It doesn’t feel natural to me.”
She was still wearing her pajama pants and a sweatshirt, since the morning was chilly and she hadn’t gotten to take a shower yet. Stopping abruptly, she snapped, “Where’s Gabrielle? You were supposed to . . .”
“She’s fine,” Lex murmured, rubbing a frustrated hand over his smooth scalp. “She was playing with . . .”
Gabrielle appeared in the kitchen at that moment, giggling and scampering toward them clumsily. She was walking better now, and she’d even learned to run short distances without falling.
At the moment she was incongruously naked from the waist down. And carrying a diaper.
The new diaper Chloe had just put on her.
“She took her diaper off,” Chloe sighed, trying not to groan in frustration. “When did she learn to do that?”
“I don’t know,” Lex began, drawing his brows together. “Although . . . “
“Well, do you mind catching her and putting a diaper and clothes on her before she pees all over your antique rugs?” Chloe asked in increasing exasperation. “I have to get her breakfast together, and I’m running out of time.”
Lex pressed his lips together-obviously not happy about the events of the morning-but he moved toward Gabrielle, who had started wobbling toward the nursery, waving the diaper in front of her.
Chloe got a new cup of coffee. Sipped it and tried to calm down her agitated nerves. Then she got the Cheerios out for Gabrielle and poured milk into a sippy cup.
In just a minute, Lex came into the kitchen, hauling a dressed and happily squealing Gabrielle over his shoulder. He put her in her highchair and then went to pour himself a cup of coffee.
Chloe gave Gabrielle her milk and Cheerios, and then watched as the toddler started to clumsily pick up O by O and stick them dutifully into her mouth.
Gabrielle had grown a lot in the last six months. She was a very pretty little girl, with big blue eyes and round, rosy cheeks. Her hair was still reddish gold, and it had gotten a lot thicker and now waved into little kinks around her face. Chloe had long ago resigned herself to the fact that her daughter was going to look more like Lex than like her.
Joining her at the counter, Lex said in a low voice, “Chloe, there’s no reason for us to go through this kind of hassle every morning. We can hire a live-in nanny, who would watch Gabrielle while . . .”
“I don’t want a live-in nanny,” Chloe snapped, speaking softly as well, so Gabrielle wouldn’t hear. “You know that. Stella is our nanny, and she doesn’t want to . . .”
“Well, we could ask her to come earlier in the mornings,” Lex suggested, his jaw clenching in a sure sign that he wasn’t happy with Chloe. “You’re late to work almost every morning, and half the time I . . .”
“If you don’t want to mess with us in the mornings,” Chloe gritted out, still keeping half an eye on Gabrielle. “Then you can get up at five and head out to your office. You do that half the time anyway." Fisting and then unfisting one hand, she added, "This is what happens when you have a daughter who’s sixteen months old.”
Lex tightened his lips and gave her a cold glare.
“Dada,” Gabrielle said suddenly. "Ohs."
They both turned to focus on their daughter in her highchair, and saw that she was holding out a couple of Cheerios toward Lex.
“Thank you,” Lex said politely, his face changing as he addressed Gabrielle. “But those are your Cheerios. You’d better eat them yourself.”
Studying the proffered Cheerios intently, Gabrielle shifted her hand toward Chloe instead. “Momma,” she offered.
Chloe smiled, her annoyance fading temporarily. “Thank you, pumpkin. That’s very sweet,” she responded. “But don’t you want them yourself?”
Gabrielle frowned thoughtfully and stuck her hand out to Lex again, “Dada ohs!”
With a sigh, Lex stepped over to take the offered cereal. “Thank you,” he said again. “I’ll eat these if you’ll eat the rest.”
Gabrielle watched observantly as Lex brought the four Cheerios to his lips. When she saw him put them in his mouth and start chewing, she once more started placing the rest-which were spread out on the tray of the highchair-into her little mouth.
Lex returned to stand in front of Chloe. He kind of loomed before her, trapping her between his body and the counter. Looking down at her from only inches away, he murmured, almost under his breath, “Is there something you’d like to say to me?”
“No,” she whispered, sticking out her chin. “I’ve said what I wanted to say. This is the way it works with a kid. It’s normal. I don’t care how much money you have-I’m not going to let someone else do everything, particularly about raising our daughter. I told you when we moved in. We're not going to change our entire lives, just because we’re living in your penthouse.”
She glanced beyond Lex to make sure Gabrielle was eating okay. She was happily sipping her milk and peering at the space above a far counter where the plasma TV was hidden unless it was in use.
Lex reached out and grabbed Chloe by the upper arms, bringing her attention back to him. “Chloe,” he said thickly. “Chloe, this isn’t just my penthouse. This is supposed to be your home now. You’ve been living here for more than four months. When are you going to start thinking about it like that, instead of acting like you're staying at some sort of hotel?”
“I’m sorry,” she snapped-wondering why the hell they were getting into all of this right now, when they really should be getting ready for work. Her voice was dripping with sarcasm. “I’m so sorry it’s taking me a while to adjust to an entirely different lifestyle. I’ve told you from the beginning; I don’t want to live like a billionaire.”
“I am a billionaire,” Lex bit out. “Are you expecting me to pretend I'm not?” He glanced behind him unexpectedly, glancing over at Gabrielle, who was swirling her Cheerios on the tray of the high chair and babbling cheerfully.
Chloe blew out an infuriated breath. Had to struggle to hold back her temper, since she didn’t want to explode in front of Gabrielle. “No. Of course, not. But that’s who you are. Not me. I’m not a billionaire. I'm just . . . me. And so a lot of this feels . . . feels foreign and, and . . . unnatural.”
Lex closed down.
She should have expected it. Whenever they argued, he would be cold and controlled, but still real and passionate . . . until she managed to hurt him in some way. Then he always shut down. Turned blank. Closed her out completely. “I see,” he said curtly. He dumped the rest of his coffee in the sink, staring as the dark liquid spilled down the drain. “You know, no one is forcing you to stay.”
Watching him, Chloe groaned and felt a surge of guilt. Which just made her even madder. She knew that Lex still had a kind of fragility about his heart-after years of letting nothing touch it at all. And so, whenever it was threatened, he automatically put up his defenses again.
But sometimes it was damned irritating to always feel guilty whenever she unintentionally wounded him.
“Lex, don’t be stupid,” she grumbled, putting a hand on his shoulder to pull him back around to face her. “I’m not going anywhere. But I love you. I don’t love every single thing that come along with you. I’m trying to get used to all of this, but it’s not going to happen overnight.”
Lex nodded, the blankness disappearing from his face. He looked grumpy again and tired. But at least he was really with her. “I wouldn’t think that learning to live with a few more . . . conveniences would really be that difficult to adjust to.”
Chloe made an indignant, guttural noise. “That’s because you’ve never done it. I know it sounds like living with a billionaire is a dream come true, but it’s not. This lifestyle just doesn't match me. You think I feel like I can put my feet up on a ten-thousand dollar couch? Or that I can relax when my daughter is playing on a three hundred year old rug? I know you can buy new things if you have to, but that’s not the point. I love you. I want to be with you. But this still doesn’t feel like my home. And it’s hard not to feel like Gabrielle and I are going to barge in and, and . . . mess up your perfect, privileged life.”
She was panting when she finished speaking, and her eyes were burning painfully. She couldn’t believe she’d actually said that. She’d thought about it a lot since she’d moved in with Lex, but it had never seemed like such a big issue that she’d want to open up the whole can of worms.
But now the words were said. And she felt hot, embarassed, and like she was acting like an idiot.
Everything she’d said was true, but she wished she hadn’t even brought it up.
Before Lex could reply, Gabrielle started whimpering. She had a couple of Cheerios stuck to her hands, but she was holding out both arms toward Chloe. And her face had started to crumple up. In the midst of her whimpers, Chloe could hear her mumble out, “Momma.”
Understanding immediately, Chloe hurried over to the highchair. “Mommy’s all right,” she murmured comfortingly. “Mommy’s not sad.” She made herself smile and sit down in a chair so she was on Gabrielle’s level. “Mommy and Daddy are happy. Happy.”
Gabrielle smiled in response, her little face relaxing in relief, and she offered Chloe one sticky hand. Chloe wiped it down with a napkin and said, “Are you finished with your Cheerios? Do you want more?”
“Mo!” Gabrielle pronounced, looking up at the counter expectantly.
Lex poured out a few more Cheerios and laid them on the tray of the highchair. After he put the box down, he turned back toward Chloe. Asked under his breath, “Chloe?”
Chloe shook her head. Had neither the time, energy, or desire to deal with all of this now. She was more than a half-hour late as it was. “We can talk about it later. I have an interview at 9:00.”
Glancing at his watch, Lex raised his eyebrows. Then skimmed his eyes over Chloe’s flannel pajama pants, sweatshirt, and bare feet. “It’s almost eight o’clock already. You’re going to have to hurry.”
Rolling her eyes, Chloe muttered sarcastically, “Really?” Swallowing and trying not to jump down Lex throat over every little thing, she mumbled, “Sorry.” She turned toward Gabrielle. “Sweetie? Are you finished with your Cheerios?”
Gabrielle nodded resolutely. “Ohs.”
“Yes,” Chloe agreed. “Your ohs. Are you done?”
Gabrielle paused. Then nodded again. “Ess.”
With a sigh of relief, Chloe lifted her daughter out of the high chair. She couldn’t help but smile when Gabrielle snuggled affectionately against her. Hugging her tightly, Chloe whispered, “Mommy loves you. Lots and lots.”
“Momma,” Gabrielle mumbled, her face rubbing against Chloe’s shoulder. “Ots.”
“Lots,” Chloe repeated, giving her daughter one more squeeze. “Lots and lots.”
“Ots,” Gabrielle agreed. She was fisting Chloe’s sweatshirt in her tiny hands.
Lex was watching them silently, and Chloe had to look away from the expression in his eyes.
She just couldn’t deal with any sort of emotion this morning.
And that expression would leave her very emotional.
When Chloe put Gabrielle onto the floor and straightened up again, Lex had returned to his usual, professional persona. “I need to get to work,” he told her. “I’m already late.”
Chloe swallowed. The brief, loving interlude had vanished completely. “You're not the only one. I have a very important interview this morning with the winner of the Metropolis Spelling Bee.” She scowled as she spoke, feeling a rise of bitterness in her throat.
Lex narrowed his eyes. “There’s no sense in complaining about it. If you don’t like your job, then quit and find another one.”
Chloe didn’t like her job. Not anymore, anyway. In a way, it was Lex’s fault. At least, it was because of her relationship with him. She had no more credibility when reporting anything associated with Lex, LuthorCorp, or anything that had any connection to him.
Which meant she couldn’t report any hard news in Metropolis. Yes, there could be a few stories she could have been able to tackle, but not enough for her to really do what she'd always done.
This was Metroplis. And Lex and LuthorCorp were everywhere.
So she’d been writing fluff pieces for months now. Assumed that was what she’d be doing for the rest of her career.
“I’d deal with the same problems in any position I find in Metropolis,” she said tersely. “If a decent paper is even willing to hire me, it will merely be as a novelty. Not because I'm a good journalist.”
Lex’s face was tense and unpleasant. “Then do something else. There's no reason to continue in a job that makes you miserable. Surely there’s something you can do that will make you happy. You know you don’t even have to . . .”
Chloe almost snarled. “Don’t even suggest it. I’m not going to not work.” She had more to say on this subject--a lot more--but she bit back the words. “Why are we even getting into this? Neither of us has time this morning.”
“Right,” Lex agreed. “I need to get going.”
“Is there any way,” she said slowly, trying her best to be reasonable. “That you can stay for a few more minutes so I can start my shower. Stella’s going to be late.”
Lex made a face. “Can’t you ask . . .”
“I’m not going to ask any of your staff,” Chloe interrupted. “Watching Gabrielle is not their job.”
Lex didn’t object, since he obviously knew this was true. But he hesitated. Looked at his watch again. Clearly wasn’t excited about delaying his work day.
He was actually pretty good about doing his share with Gabrielle. But he also had a very committed attitude toward his work. However, all he said was, “All right. I don’t have a meeting first thing this morning. Just don't take too long.”
With a sigh of relief, Chloe ran to the master bathroom before Lex changed his mind. She was out of the bathroom in less than ten minutes. Heard Stella’s voice, so she came out to the main hallway in her bathrobe.
“Hi,” she said in relief, as Stella caught up Gabrielle in a big hug. “We’re a mess this morning. Sorry. And Gabrielle’s blanket is in the washing machine.”
Stella nodded, greeted her cheerfully, and efficiently began picking up a couple of Gabrielle’s toys, which the toddler had pulled into the hall this morning.
Lex glanced at his watch again. “I’m going to get going then.” His words were addressed to Chloe, and he held her eyes with a significant look.
Chloe nodded. “Okay. Thanks for staying late.”
Lex returned her nod and went into his office to get his stuff together. When he came back into the hall, he scooped up Gabrielle, who’d been sitting on the floor playing with her socks. “Goodbye, Gabrielle,” Lex murmured. “I’ll see you this evening.”
“Dada,” Gabrielle babbled happily, grinning as Lex kissed her on the cheek. “Bye bye.”
When he put her down, she gave his shin a big hug.
After she’d released him, Lex looked back over at Chloe. “I’ll be back before dinner tonight.”
“Good,” she grumbled, remembering another source of resentment. “You’d better. If you’re going to be gone this weekend too.”
Lex shook his head. “It will just be Friday evening and most of Saturday. As soon as this one negotiation is . . .”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
Lex was on his way out the door, and Chloe had walked to the door with him. Before he reached for the doorknob, Lex leaned down and kissed Chloe on the lips. “I love you.”
Chloe sighed. Patted him on the chest, her hand stroking over his ridiculously expensive suit. “Yeah,” she admitted, returning his kiss, tugging on his lower lip with both of hers. “I love you too.”
Lex started to open the door. Then he paused. Looked back at her. "You know, Chloe, that I never had a privileged, perfect life."
Meeting his deep, intent gaze, she nodded reluctantly.
"And you and Gabrielle have made it . . . better," he continued. He sounded slightly stiff, which was to be expected, since he was expressing something very intimate. And not in the bedroom, but on a random morning on the way to work.
Chloe nodded again, her expression softening a little.
“We’ll talk about the rest of this tonight,” Lex concluded, stepping out the door.
“Yeah,” Chloe agreed resignedly, staring the smooth curve of the back of his skull. “I can’t wait.”
She looked at the closed door after Lex had departed. Felt exhausted and confused and like she really didn’t want to start her day.
She loved Lex. Really loved him. Wanted to spend her life with him and was so glad that they were a family now.
But getting together with the rich, handsome prince--even if you genuinely loved him--was rather more complicated than the stories would have one believe.
* * *
“So he just disappeared? In the middle of the night?” Chloe stared at Lois, keeping her eyes wide and innocent, still having to hide this particular secret. Even after all this time. Even from one of the people she loved and trusted most in the world.
But promises still meant something to Chloe. And so did Clark, despite . . . everything.
Lois nodded and rolled her eyes. “Asshole that he is. No explanation. I didn’t even feel him get up. He was just gone.”
“So what did you do?” Chloe asked, studying the mustard-yellow leather sofa in front of her to distract herself from her lingering guilt about her inability to tell Lois the secret that would explain everything.
“I screamed at him for about an hour when he finally got back.” Lois made a face and stroked the back of an expensive black leather sofa thoughtfully.
“And then what did he do?”
“He apologized very humbly. Agreed that he’d been entirely at fault. Then said I had every right to dump his sorry ass.”
Chloe quirked her mouth, feeling better at the ironic amusement that was now tingeing Lois’s voice. “I assume you didn’t. Dump him, I mean.”
“Nope,” Lois admitted. “I yelled at him some more for agreeing with me so obnoxiously. Then we made up.”
“Make-up sex and everything?”
Lois smirked. “Oh, yeah. It was great. You know, sometimes I think that his stamina is some sort of miracle. He had me going . . .”
Chloe cleared her throat and tried not to laugh. “I'll trust you. I don't need the visual."
Snorting, Lois mumbled, “Hmph.”
Chloe snickered at Lois’s disappointment, but she really wanted to move on to her next question. “So things are all right now between you and Clark? Even though he’s an asshole?”
Lois sighed and pushed a hand through her hair. “Yeah. Things are all right. Not that he deserved to be forgiven. But . . .”
“Uh huh,” Chloe murmured laughingly, catching fleeting evidence of sentiment in her cousin's expression.
Lois shrugged. Looked a little sheepish. “What can I say? He’s a secretive, infuriating asshole sometimes.” She shrugged again. “But . . .”
Chloe snickered again. “Uh huh.”
Lois made a face at Chloe but ended up snickering too. Then she changed the subject back to the topic at hand. “What about this one?”
Looking at the comfortable brown sofa that Lois had pointed out, Chloe thought for a minute. “It looks really nice. But I’m not sure I want leather furniture. I was thinking something softer and cozier.”
Lois wrinkled her nose. “This could be cozy. And this leather is amazing.”
“Yeah,” Chloe admitted, stroking the leather with an appreciative sigh. “But it just doesn’t feel like what I had in mind.”
“All right,” Lois agreed reluctantly. “This section of the store is all leather.” She peered around the huge showroom filled with a wide assortment of furniture. “The other stuff is over there.”
Chloe nodded, seeing the section of non-leather living room furniture a distance away. They navigated their way through the cluttered groupings of couches, coffee tables, and chairs, and Chloe started scanning for something that matched her vision for this room.
“Are you sure Lex didn’t want to be here to help us choose? It is a room in his penthouse, after all.” Lois glanced over at Chloe, her eyebrows arching quizzically.
Chloe nodded. “I told him there was no hurry and that I could wait until he gets back into town. But he said he’ll be happy with whatever I decide and that he’d only interfere with the mission to find comfortable, non-stressful, family-room furniture.” Chloe smiled a little as she thought back on the conversation. “Then he said quite snidely that he was happy to have less expensive furniture in the new family room, if it made me more comfortable, but he had no desire to spend hours wandering around establishments that sell such items.”
Lois made an ironic sound in her throat. “Nice. He’s such a snob.”
“No argument here,” Chloe agreed, although her face was still rather fond. “He can be about some things. But in this case I think he was just trying to get me to believe that was his reason.”
"Then what was his real reason for not shopping with us?”
Chloe glanced down at a red and blue plaid sofa. Felt absurdly embarrassed for no reason, but managed to murmur, “I think he was afraid that-if he did this with me-I wouldn’t feel comfortable buying the things I would normally gravitate toward.”
Lois’s eyes were narrowed as she studied her cousin. “Would you?”
“I don’t know,” Chloe admitted. “But I think he might have been right. Can you really imagine Lex and I picking out a couch in this huge outlet?”
Snorting, Lois replied, “Huh uh. No way. I think I’d have a heart attack if I saw Lex in a place like this.”
“Exactly. So would I. So I would feel weird about the whole thing and start to wonder if he was just humoring me or giving me a pat on the head, while he was secretly wishing that he could go back to his ritzy world of sleek modern lines and priceless art.”
“Do you think he is just humoring you?”
Chloe shook her head. “No. I don’t think he is. He really wants me and Gabrielle to be comfortable in his home, and I’m sure he would have been happy to pick things out with me. But he didn’t want his presence to pressure me into making Lex kind of purchases.”
Smiling wistfully, Chloe visualized his dry, bland expression when he’d said that he was going to clear out one of the rooms in his penthouse so they could have some sort of family room that Chloe might feel more comfortable in. A room she could think of as theirs rather than his. A room where she wouldn’t be scared of Gabrielle messing everything up.
The whole thing was so Lex-like. Brooding over a dilemma--no matter how incongruous--until he came up with a way to most efficiently address the problem.
In fact, the gesture itself was a lot more important to Chloe than the room would probably be. Although she was happy about the room too. It would be a huge relief to be able to hang out with Gabrielle without worrying about which priceless painting she would throw her applesauce at.
Evidently, Lois noticed the fond expression on Chloe’s face. Because she said ironically, “Please tell me you’re not going to start to gush mushily about how sweet and adorable your handsome, bald prince is.”
Chloe snorted. “No danger of that. After going out of town on business three weekends in a row, he hasn’t earned a lot of bonus points from me.” Then her face softened, “Although, I do think the room was a very sweet gesture. Lex has his moments.” Realizing she was falling into embarrassing sappiness, Chloe quickly pulled herself out of it. “What don’t you buy this couch for Clark? It's just his style.”
It was the blue and red plaid couch they’d been standing over for the last few minutes, and it looked a lot like one of Clark’s favorite shirts in high school.
Lois chortled appreciatively. Then remarked as they started moving through the sofas again, “I’m surprised Lex didn’t offer to redecorate the entire penthouse with you.”
“He did,” Chloe confessed, pausing over a green chenille overstuffed chair. “That was his first offer. But he loves that penthouse, and he loves all of the art and furnishings in it, even though he offered to gut it and start all over. It’s his home too. And I don’t want him to feel like he has to rethink his entire life just because we’re living together.”
Then she curled up her lip. “But I’m thinking we might redo the bedroom pretty soon. All those shades of gray are starting to depress me.”
Lois chuckled appreciatively and paused over a denim couch. “What about this?” she asked, the corner of her mouth quivering a little.
Chloe burst out in a huff of amused astonishment. “Yeah,” she agreed facetiously. “That would be perfect. Lex won’t even wear denim. But let’s stick an enormous piece of denim furniture into his beautiful penthouse.”
“Could be fun,” Lois drawled, her eyes sparking with mischief. “Maybe we could pick out the furniture we think he’d hate the most, just to see how he’d react.”
Chloe laughed too, imagining how Lex would react. But then she said, “Poor thing. He’d try so hard to pretend he was all right with it, since he’d made such a big deal about my picking out whatever made me comfortable. I can just see him, suppressing his disgust.”
Even though he was halfway across the world at the moment, she absurdly wanted to give Lex a hug. Just because she could imagine so clearly how hard he would try to pretend he was happy with whatever choice she ended up making--no matter how appalling.
“What room is the family room going to be, anyway?” Lois asked, as they moved away from the denim pieces and toward the subtle styles and colors that Chloe had originally had in mind. Even if she was picking less expensive and more practical pieces, she didn't want anything that would look outrageously out of place in the penthouse.
She didn't want the family room to become a whole different world from the rest of their home.
“The music room,” Chloe replied, accidentally running into a side table and almost knocking down a lamp in her distraction. “It wasn't really a music room, but it was the one with the grand piano. That’s basically all that was in there except for some art.”
“He doesn’t want his piano anymore?”
Chloe made a reluctant face. “I’m afraid he kind of does. But there’s not really any other good place for it in the penthouse. It's just so huge. So he’s moving it to his estate outside of Metropolis, where he’ll still be able to have access to it if he wants.” She sighed, feeling a little pull of guilt. “I wish he hadn’t had to get rid of it just so we could have our family room.”
“I’m sure it was worth the sacrifice. It seems like he’d do a lot more than that to make you happy,” Lois murmured, giving Chloe a slanting look.
“Yeah,” Chloe agreed, feeling slightly self-conscious again. “I think he would. And he never had much time to play that piano anyway.” Taking a deep breath, she concluded, “I still feel a little guilty, but I’m trying to get over it. I’ve realized I still have this lingering fear that-if Lex has to change too much about his life or if he faces too many inconveniences in dealing with me and Gabrielle-then he’ll decide it’s just not worth it after all. I know that’s not true, but sometimes I still catch myself feeling it.”
Lois nodded, for once not mocking Chloe’s earnestness. “I can see why you would. It’s one thing to be in a relationship with a man who’s . . . sort of like you are. But Lex Luthor? He's from a different world than us. If it were me, I’d always be asking myself why the fuck he’d fallen in love with me.”
“Exactly.” Chloe brushed her hair out of her face and sat down to test out a sofa that seemed to have potential.
“I used to think it would be great to fall in love with a really wealthy man,” Lois continued. “I mean, why not? You could suddenly have everything you wanted. But after watching the adjustments you’ve had to go through with Lex, I’m kind of glad that Clark is usually broke.”
Chloe giggled at Lois’s dry tone. Was glad that Lois, at least, could understand how hard it had been for her.
“But otherwise things are going all right between you and Lex?” Lois pursued, shifting beyond the family-room topic now. “You’re feeling pretty . . . settled?”
Chloe peered up at her cousin. “In terms of the relationship, yes. Absolutely. It’s just been a little hard to settle into a home so unlike the homes I’ve always made for myself.”
“And any sign of those flying, in-love feelings you were missing before?” Lois added, dropping onto the sofa next to Chloe.
With a low groan, Chloe slouched back against the soft cushions. “No. Not a trace. But I don’t even worry about it any more. As much as I hate to admit it, you were right about that.”
Lois’s brows shot up. “I was? How delightful. And what piece of my brilliance turned out to be right?”
“When you said that I somehow had this romanticized idea about love,” Chloe admitted, able to think about it objectively now-at long last. “I didn’t consciously. I mean, I knew that love wasn’t really like it. But that’s how my love for Clark in high school had felt, and since it was all I’d ever experienced of real romantic love, I was just unconsciously assuming that’s always what love would feel like. But what I have with Lex is so much better. It’s love-it’s just a real love, if you know what I mean.”
“I do,” Lois acknowledged, a thoughtful look on her face as she peered at Chloe. “And you aren’t still hoping for some flying feelings?”
Chloe shrugged. “Not really. I mean, they’re nice for as long as they last. But I feel so much more for Lex. I have all kinds of great feelings: passion, and compatibility, and ironic humor, and family, and mushy feelings and, and . . . deep understanding. Not to mention really, really good sex.”
“Oh?” Lois drawled, twitching her eyebrows.
With a snicker, Chloe continued, “Indeed. But I won't bore you with the details." Before Lois could complain, Chloe continued, "It’s so complicated, now that I think back on everything that brought us together. I’m not sure when exactly I fell in love with him, but I know I wasn’t in love all along. It wasn’t that I was in denial and just couldn’t admit it. The love itself was actually . . . slow. And it took a really long time before we finally got to the place where we really could love each other . . . and mean it.”
“Very profound,” Lois mused blandly.
Chloe rolled her eyes. “You’re the one who asked.”
“Right. And so here you are picking out furniture for a Lex-Chloe-pumpkin family room.”
Chloe released a happy sigh. “Yeah. Crazy, isn’t it?”
They got up off the sofa and started making the rounds again, peering at the various options. About fifteen minutes later, Lois remarked, “It’s been two hours since we left your dad with babysitting duties, and you haven’t even called to check on him. I’d say that’s definite progress.”
Chloe scowled, but without much heat. “I’m sure both he and Gabrielle are having a ball. But maybe . . .” Then she sucked in a breath. Forgot about calling to check on Gabrielle. “Oh," she exclaimed. "I didn’t tell you about Stella!”
Apparently, her dramatic tone roused Lois’s attention. Lois stopped abruptly and her mouth dropped open. “Tell me what?” she demanded.
Chloe felt a rise of amused excitement but managed to stifle it until she told the story. “For some reason, I had mentioned the other day that last year Lex and I were a little suspicious of her because she seemed like the absolutely perfect nanny for us. That was when the news was just coming out about Lex having a child, and he was afraid Stella might have had an underlying agenda. So he did a lot of investigation of her background.”
“I remember,” Lois mentioned, her forehead wrinkling in curiosity. “But her background was flawless, wasn't it?”
“Right,” Chloe agreed. “So I had mentioned that to Stella and was laughing about how crazy we were to ever suspect her, since she was so clearly what she seemed to be--just a really good nanny. Well, anyway, she must have started to feel guilty about this secret she's been keeping because she finally fessed up.”
Lois blinked. “Fessed up? About what? You mean she actually did have an underlying agenda for being your nanny?”
Chloe nodded, the laughter bursting out in breathy hisses as she tried to restrain her delighted humor at this unforeseen turn of events. “Yep. She didn’t come to us just as a nanny. She applied for the job partly for another reason.”
For once, Lois was absolutely dumbfounded. She breathed, “Well, it must not have been bad, if you’re about to laugh about it. Don’t leave me hanging. What is it?”
Opening her mouth to reply, Chloe burst into giggles instead. Before Lois could complain, she managed to choke out, “You remember, my dad was the one who found her for us. Well, she had evidently met my dad before she’d even heard of the possibility of the job.” Chloe paused. Waited to see if Lois would piece it together on her own.
Lois stared down, obviously thinking hard. Then finally she gasped and looked back up to Chloe. “What? You’re kidding! Stella has . . . the hots . . . for Gabe?”
Chloe burst into hysterical laughter, managing to nod her head to affirm that Lois was right. At Lois’s flabbergasted expression, she laughed even harder. “Yep,” she finally gasped. “She was apparently . . . very interested in dad. Plus, she realized she wasn’t really in the financial situation to retire yet anyway. So what better combination of both interests, than to be Gabrielle’s nanny?”
They share astonished giggles for about five minutes about this piece of news, until Lois asked, “But is your dad at all interested in her?”
Chloe shook her head. “I’m almost positive that he has no idea she’s even interested. She apparently thinks she’s always throwing herself at him, but she never flirts at all. I’m sure he has absolutely no idea.”
They gossiped about the best way to figure out if Gabe could possibly be interested in Stella until they made it through the entire stock of living room furniture at the store.
Having finished their search, both of them were sitting on the muted green sofa that was Chloe’s top pick when Lois asked into a companionable silence, “So how’s work?”
Chloe made a face. Felt a familiar sinking in her gut, the shift in mood almost nauseating. “Not great.”
“So there’s no chance of . . .”
She shook her head. “I can’t even really blame them. If they want to be a credible news source, then it would be risky to give me stories that . . .”
“Yeah,” Lois agreed. They were silent a long time. Then, “So what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” Chloe admitted, feeling a stupid lump in her throat. She hated getting emotional about this kind of thing. “I guess I’m probably going to have to quit. This is just not what I want to be doing. And it’s getting harder and harder to leave Gabrielle all day for a job that’s basically crap.”
There was another long pause. Until Lois asked carefully, “So . . . will you try to find another one?”
“Yeah,” Chloe sighed. “I need to. Something, at least. But being a reporter is basically out of the question for me now. So I’ll have to find something else. I just don’t know what.”
She hated this. Hated feeling a loss that almost felt like grief-for a career that had never had been what she’d dreamed it would be anyway. But it had been hers. And there had always been the tiny chance that her lifetime ambitions might miraculously be achieved after all.
Now there was no chance at all.
So she swallowed hard over the ache in her throat. Blinked so her eyes wouldn’t burn. “All I’ve ever wanted to do was journalism. And now I . . . can’t.” Her voice broke on the last word.
For just a moment, Lois’s face was almost torn with sympathy and understanding. “Damn,” she whispered, turning away briefly.
Chloe shook her head roughly, trying to dispel the poignant mood. “I’m really trying not to feel sorry for myself. It’s a shame, but it’s not the end of the world. I have it really, really good. Some women would kill to be able to stay home with their kids. I’m just not sure . . . I don’t know. I just have to think of what I want to do with my life now . . . in addition to being a mother.”
Lois smiled and leaned back against the sofa. “Well, you have some time to figure it out, given that you’re living with a billionaire.”
Chloe snorted, actually feeling better.
Straightening up at last, Lois nodded her head resolutely. “And I really think that you should get this couch.”
* * *
Chloe felt ridiculously nervous as she turned her head to look at Lex over her shoulder. “Now, I’m serious. You have to tell me if you don’t like it.”
Lex was standing behind her, looking unusually casual in a long-sleeved, crew-neck gray shirt. “Chloe, of course, I’m going to like it.”
“It’s not really finished yet,” Chloe went on, shifting from foot to foot with her hand on the door. There were actually double doors into the new family room and most of the time they would remain open, since they were primarily decorative. But Chloe had shut them earlier this morning so she could surprise Lex with her work on the room. “I left some finishing touches undone, so you could help me with those. It’s your room too, so I didn’t want to decide everything myself.”
Gabrielle was at their feet. She’d been playing with the new stuffed bunny Lex had brought home for her after his trip last weekend, but now it lay forgotten on the floor of the hall. She must have been infected by Chloe’s excitement because she was doing a clumsy little jig now and banging excitedly on the door with the palms of her hands in her eagerness to get inside. “In,” she declared, staring up at her mother and father. “In!”
Lex smiled dryly and nodded his head. “Precisely. In.” He gave Chloe a significant look. “Chloe, I can’t let you know how much I like the room unless you actually let us in.” When she still hesitated, he added, “If you’re this attached to the room, Chloe, then there’s no question about whether I’ll love it too.”
Chloe smiled warmly in response-feeling a deep swell of love for this man, who was hovering behind her with an arrogant look-but all she said was, “I seem to recall feeling equally attached to Gabrielle’s nursery in my old apartment. And you came in and called it brown.”
Lex arched one eyebrow. “Are you ever going to let me forget that?”
With a deep breath, Chloe pushed open the door to their new family room. “Not likely,” she replied flippantly. Then stepped into the room she’d spent the last week working on in preparation for this moment.
Gabrielle burst into the room after her, stopping abruptly as she stared around at the new space, her eyes landing delightedly on the low shelves in the corner where Chloe had arranged some of the toddler’s toys. Gabrielle squealed in excitement and scampered over there to exult in her treasures.
But Chloe’s eyes were focused only on Lex’s expression, as he stepped in and gazed around the new room.
His face was calm and observant, but she knew it well by now. And, to her relief, she couldn’t find the tiniest twinge of disappointment or distaste in his eyes as he studied his surroundings.
She was really excited about the new room. She’d ended up furnishing it in subtle greens, golds, and neutrals, and there was a thick area rug covering most of the polished, exotic hardwood, so Gabrielle could play on the floor comfortably. And, although she had tried to make sure everything was practical and livable, she had also tried to keep Lex’s tastes in mind. The task had been more fun than she’d been expecting-and the result ended up being the kind of room she’d have wanted for her old apartment, had she ever had the money to redo her living room from top to bottom.