(no subject)
Lex’s face was calm and oddly quiet. “Maybe I come in for a minute?”
Narrowing her eyes, Chloe clenched her hands on the edge of her desk. “If you’ve come to throw more offensive accusations at me, then don’t bother.”
He shook his head. He must have stopped over from work, since he was dressed in a gray business suit and looked sleek and coolly attractive. But his expression wasn’t cold. Just set-as if he’d had to will himself into this. “That’s not why I'm here. Please?”
It was the fact that he’d said "please" that caused Chloe to blankly nod her head in agreement. She’d never seen Lex so unassuming before. He wasn’t exactly humble-she couldn’t ever imagine him as that-but he was acting like he really wanted to talk to her and so was willing to do it on her terms.
He stepped inside her office and closed the door behind him. He stood, slightly awkward, in the middle of the floor, but he didn’t get any closer to her. He opened his mouth. Then closed it again without saying anything.
Chloe wrinkled her forehead and tried to figure out what his game was. He was acting almost nervous, but that was ridiculous.
Lionel would never have acted the way Lex was acting now.
When the silence started to weigh on her nerves, Chloe prompted coldly, “Last time we saw each other, you accused me of whoring away my will, and then you tried to use me as a whore to outdo your father. Did you have something similar in mind today?”
Lex inhaled harshly and ran a restless hand over his smooth scalp. “No. Of course not. I treated you abominably. It won’t happen again.”
Chloe actually gasped. It hadn’t exactly been an apology, but it had been much closer to one than she’d ever, ever expected to hear from a Luthor. “What?”
His left eyebrow went up slightly-a much subtler gesture than his father’s characteristic expression. “Did you need me to repeat it?”
His dry tone almost got to her. She had to keep her lip from twitching in ironic response.
But this was Lex. And she couldn't trust him. And she had no idea what he was doing here.
“What do you want, Lex? I’m busy.” It was a lie, but he didn’t need to know it.
He glanced around her office, his observant eyes noticing everything-from her nearly blank daytimer, to the almost empty in-box on her desk, to the stress ball she’d taken to squeezing so she wouldn’t chew her fingernails.
Something about his look made Chloe nervous. He’d appeared to see through her, like he immediately knew the nature of her job here and how much she hated it. And it wasn’t from reading her mind-the way Lionel seemed able to do. Lex’s insight into her must come from his effortless gift at putting the pieces together--like the whole world was a puzzle he could solve.
Swallowing hard, she made herself meet his eyes. “Lex?”
He cleared his throat. “You were right about most of what you said to me last month. My motives were not . . . worthy of you. Or of me. So I wanted to make you the same offer, but with more appropriate intentions.”
Chloe felt like she might choke. “What?”
His eyes had been darting around the office, but he met her gaze now with eyes that were almost wary. “I can understand why you might want to discount everything I said to you before. But not all of it was ungrounded. You're in a very precarious situation, Chloe.”
She licked her lips and shrugged, feeling an almost claustrophobic clench in her chest. “I’m okay. You aren’t responsible for me.”
“And yet I feel like I am.” Lex shifted slightly from foot to foot, and she suddenly realized that he was uncomfortable. Awkward or nervous or reluctant or something.
He would definitely rather be somewhere else.
The knowledge of his discomfort triggered an instinct to take advantage of it-to point it out or use it against him. But Chloe stopped herself before she opened her mouth.
He might still have ulterior motives, but Lex had treated her respectfully today, and he’d almost apologized. He didn’t deserve to be attacked just because she was feeling particularly defensive lately.
“I’m not here to argue with you. But, Chloe, you said it yourself. Even if it’s a choice you made willingly, you’re trapped in this relationship. How can that be something you’re willing to accept?”
She didn’t have an answer to that question-didn’t even want to think about it. So she shifted the direction of the conversation. “You assume that your father is just using me. Has it never occurred to you that he might actually . . . have feelings for me?”
It still seemed to impossible that it was true, but what if it were? What if Lionel Luthor had fallen--just a little bit--for Chloe Sullivan? The question made her brain, her chest, and all the rest of her want to explode.
She saw Lex swallow and take a slow breath. “How would that change the situation?”
Chloe made a surprised noise in her throat. “Your point was that he’s dangerous to me. My point was that maybe he cares about me.”
Lex shook his head, and something deeply poignant flickered in his eyes. “It wouldn’t matter. He’s most dangerous to those he cares about.”
Chloe just stared at him. Had no idea what to say.
“Chloe, I won’t pretend to know his feelings for you, but if he does care for you then you’re more trapped than ever. My father is not incapable of feeling, but everything he feels-even love-is channeled through selfishness. Every relationship he’s ever been in has always been about him. If he was just having a good time with you, then maybe you could get out of this unscathed. But if he’s serious, and if you ever decide you want out . . .” Lex’s voice trailed off, but the unsaid words still lingered hauntingly in the stale air of the office.
Those had been Chloe’s exact thoughts, as she’d discovered that her faint, subconscious hope of inevitable escape was an impossibility.
But Lex might as well be a stranger to her. And she wasn’t about to admit to him her deepest insecurities. “You’re still assuming that I’ll ever want out.”
“Maybe you won’t.” His eyelids slid down, as if he were burdened and exhausted. “But I think you will, if you’re still the Chloe I remember.”
She started to snap back a response to his presumption, but decided it wasn’t even worth it. With a long sigh, she asked, “Is that all?”
“No, it’s not all.” Lex took a step forward, but he didn’t try to approach her. “I want to make you the same offer I made last month, but this time without all the baggage. If you ever decide you want out and can’t figure out a way to do so on your own, let me know. I’ll help you.”
Something strange started churning in her belly, but she tried to ignore it. Instead, she huffed out a sarcastic, “Yeah. I’m sure your offer is purely selfless and won’t give you any sort of advantage over your dad.”
Lex gave a half-shrug. “It’s not intended as an act against my father. Should you ever come to me for help, I give you my word that I’ll make every effort-not just to protect you-but to avoid letting my father know I was even involved. I’d never taunt him with it. I’d never bring it up. He would never know from me that I was responsible for your escape. It wouldn’t become a weapon I’d ever use.”
Chloe’s eyes were burning for some reason, but she made herself sniff disdainfully. “He’d know it was you. You wouldn’t have to hit him over the head with it. He'd still know."
“Maybe,” Lex acknowledged. “But I’d do everything I could to keep you out of it.”
“Because you’re just so noble that way?” Her eyes were actually blurring over, and it felt like there was a lump in her throat.
She had no idea what was wrong with her, but it was really starting to annoy her.
He shook his head and huffed out a faint laugh. “No one has ever accused me of being noble. It wouldn’t be motivated by any sort of selfless hero complex. But I wouldn’t be manipulating you for my own agenda, either.”
Chloe gulped. Felt like her office was spinning around her, so she clung to the edge of the desk even harder. “So why?”
Lex’s face was unemotional, matter-of-fact, and somehow more comforting because of it. “You were right about what you said before. You were a pawn for me and my father, and as such both of us misused you.”
There was a long pause. Lex could have been-and probably was-referring to the months during which he’d used her to testify against his father, making her think he cared about her wellbeing when he only cared about the service she could perform.
But Chloe’s mind flew immediately to one night, at the very end of that sequence of months. And the lump in her throat threatened to strangle her. She closed her eyes. Couldn’t bear to look at him.
“Chloe.” Lex’s voice was suddenly thicker, rougher than before. “About that night . . .”
“Don’t,” she burst out, her hand instinctively covering her eyes. “Just don’t. It’s not important.”
It wasn’t important. It hadn’t been traumatic or life-changing. It hadn’t been a violent assault or a devastating heartbreak. It had just been . . . one of those things.
One of those things that proved how worthless she was to Lex.
“Okay. But I have some things to make up for, from back then.”
Chloe dropped her hand and opened her eyes. Saw he’d moved back to the door.
“I also feel a certain obligation to keep my father from chewing up any more innocent victims. Those are my true motivations.”
He was about to leave, with a sigh and an exhausted shake of his head. And Chloe suddenly started to panic for no good reason. “Lex,” she said sharply, stopping him as he turned away from her. “Lex, I’m fine. I don’t want your help.”
His lips tightened, almost imperceptibly. “I’m sure you don’t. But, at some point later, you might not have a choice.”
He put his hand on the doorknob, but he glanced over his shoulder at her before he left. “Keep it in mind. It’s a standing offer.” His eyes held hers for a minute. “If you decide to take me up on it, I promise you this. I’ll keep you safe. I won’t intentionally use your decision as a weapon against my father. And I’ll never touch you again.”
She gasped again, at his last words, but he was gone before she could fully process them.
There was so much Chloe didn’t know about Lex, but for some reason she knew-she was absolutely certain-he was serious. He was speaking the truth. He was willing to help her, and he’d managed to address every possible selfish agenda she might hold against him.
But none of it helped Chloe become any clearer about where her life was going or where she even wanted it to go.
It just wasn’t as simple as Lex being the good guy who was trying to help her get away from a monster.
Chloe wasn’t sure she wanted to get away from her monster. And being trapped had a way of taking away the burden of making decisions.
It seemed, in some ways, absurd to plan her escape from a man who called her his girlfriend. A man who’d touched her more intimately than any man ever had. A man who’d given her more pleasure than she’d ever experienced. A man who sometimes slept by her side all night.
A man she'd betrayed, in a very real way, by having the conversation she'd just had with his son.
Maybe, if someone else was looking into her life from the outside, it would seem like the answers were easy or simple.
But there wasn’t anything simple about this.
And Lex had just made it more complicated.
* * *
Chloe didn’t go over to Lionel’s until late that evening. When she arrived, Lionel was sitting next to the fire in his living room and drinking what looked like brandy. He wasn’t working, wasn’t reading, wasn’t watching TV or listening to music.
He was just sitting there. Staring at the fireplace.
“Hi,” she said at last, when he hadn’t even glanced over at her.
He gave a leisurely smile that sent shivers up her spine. “Good evening.”
“Sorry I’m so late. Did you get my message?”
“I did.” Lionel took another slow swallow and didn’t move his eyes from the flames. “Did you have a good day?”
Lionel had never been a normal guy, and it was always hard to predict his mood. But he was really acting weird tonight, and it was starting to make Chloe nervous. “Yeah. It was fine. Just the usual. Kind of boring.”
Lionel lowered his hand to the arm of the chair and stared at the amber liquid as he swirled it in the glass. His skin glowed almost orange in the blaze from the fireplace. “So nothing noteworthy happened?”
Chloe wasn’t about to mention that Lex had dropped by to offer her a means of escape, so she shrugged. “Not really. Work is work. It sucks most of the time.”
Finally, Lionel turned his head in her direction. So slowly it was almost mesmerizing. Then he pinned her with knowing eyes.
He drawled, the words freezing Chloe in place, “So my son’s visit to your office wasn’t worth mentioning?”
* * *
It took Chloe a full minute to find her voice.
She was frozen by a surge of panic, irrational guilt, and claustrophobia. She wanted to run, to never come back, but she couldn’t get her feet to move. The blood drained out of her face, and she felt a chilled sweat break out on her forehead and the back of her neck.
Lionel knew about her conversation with Lex.
Maybe he knew about everything.
Maybe he would never forgive her.
Maybe she would never get away.
“Chloe?” Lionel prompted, his face still weirdly lit by the gold and red light of the fire.
She swallowed. It felt like her tongue was filling her whole mouth. “Lionel . . .”
“You didn’t find the conversation worth mentioning to me? You don’t think it was something I’d be interested in knowing?” His voice was still low, still silky, and it sounded like it was slithering through the thick air of the warm room.
Chloe blinked. Then blinked again. And suddenly her spine stiffened. Her stomach was still churning with guilt and fear, but something else started to force its hard way through the roiling in her mind.
She hadn’t done anything wrong. And she was getting tired of being pushed around-by forceful personalities and by her own tumultuous feelings.
She was tired . . . of everything.
Inhaling sharply, she scowled at Lionel. “I didn’t care if you were interested in knowing about it. I’m not in the habit of running home and tattling to daddy.”
Lionel’s eyebrows shot up, and some of the deadly slow lethargy cleared from his lined face.
Clearly, she’d surprised him, and-despite herself-Chloe experienced a flutter of satisfaction. Her initial resistance, based on base instinct as much as anything else, was starting to take shape into a real rebellion.
Lionel was dangerous and unpredictable. But he was a man, not an all-knowing god. And she wasn’t going to balk before his power or kneel to his questionable authority.
“Daddy?” Finishing off his drink, he turned the empty glass with lean, deft fingers.
“Well,” Chloe mumbled, shifting slightly and feeling suddenly uncomfortable. “Not my daddy, thank God. I don’t owe you obedience, and I resent the fact you think I do.”
His eyes narrowed, his face growing thoughtful. And he didn’t respond immediately. “You don’t owe me obedience, no. But we’re a couple-aren’t we? I had thought you might owe me . . . faithfulness.”
Chloe gaped at him. “Faithfulness? Are you kidding me? You think me and Lex . . . right there in my office . . . . in less than ten minutes . . . in the middle of the day?”
It might have been the flickering light and the shadows on Lionel’s face, but she could have sworn that his mouth twitched just slightly. He cleared his throat again. “Honestly, I hadn’t actually suspected the two of you engaging in such a sloppy affair. No.” His eyes slid slowly up and down her body, and Chloe didn’t miss the possessiveness that burned in his gaze. “If I’d thought, for a moment, that you’d given yourself to him . . .”
“For God’s sake, Lionel,” Chloe burst out, her chest relaxing slightly as she saw that Lionel was actually behaving more reasonably than she’d initially feared. She wasn't quite sure what she had thought he would do. But it had scared her. A lot.
But this was the Lionel she knew. Knew very well, as it happened. Possessive and demanding and manipulative. Nothing new there.
“I can barely keep up with all the sex you and I have. How could I manage even more on the side? And, really, if I were looking for extra-curricular entertainment, I’d probably look outside of the Luthor family tree.”
“Would you?’ He’d steepled his fingers in front of his chin, and he was peering at her over them.
Chloe rolled her eyes. “Is there some sort of insinuation there that you’d like to follow through on? Or was that just a snide vaguery based on absolutely nothing?”
She scowled at him, refusing to break the connection of their gazes.
Until he finally looked back down to the fire with a soft huff of ironic laughter. “The latter,” he admitted. He glanced back to her, and she caught a glimmer of admiration in the shadings of his eyes.
She felt another thrill of pleasure-not just at having stood up for herself but at having impressed him the way she had. It spurred her on.
“I was not cheating on you with Lex. I’m not cheating on you at all. And I don’t owe you any explanation.”
His lips tightened, and the brief softness in his eyes vanished completely. “And yet I still find myself . . . curious about what you and Lex would have to talk about. And why you weren’t going to tell me.”
A new clench of anxiety tightened in her gut. She couldn’t tell Lionel the truth. But she couldn’t think of any kind of convincing lie. She felt trapped again. And the heat from the fireplace became sweltering.
“Chloe,” Lionel continued, his tone as hard and smooth as steel, “Why the secrecy about your conversation with my son?”
Her fingers were trembling slightly, so she clenched them at her sides. Had barely enough courage to quip dryly, “We were planning your birthday party?”
The tense moment shuddered in the air, and it seemed to stretch out endlessly as the silent room and Chloe’s breath froze in forced expectation.
The moment was so perfectly balanced that it could have gone either way.
Then Lionel’s face suddenly relaxed. And a hoarse chuckle escaped from his throat. He shook his head, his expression almost resigned. “Nice.”
Chloe let out a breath it felt like she’d been holding forever. She felt weird standing in the middle of the room by herself, so she moved over to flop into the opposite chair near to the fire. “Lionel,” she began, her voice changing as she tried to figure out what to say.
The amusement left his expression and his voice, but he wasn’t so tightly wound anymore. “Very nicely played, Chloe. But I still need to know.”
“I know you want to know. And I can understand why. But I wasn’t unfaithful to you. And there are some things that are better if they aren’t dragged into the open yet again.”
Lionel’s brows drew together slightly as he observed her face. Then his forehead smoothed out and his lips parted slightly. “I see. He must have tried to convince you of the woeful error of your ways.”
This was true, and it wasn’t particularly dangerous. So Chloe let her expression reveal an affirmative answer.
“And did he convince you of how perilous and unnatural a relationship this is for you?” His face was fully relaxed, now that he believed himself to have a full grasp of the situation and that he was thus capable of controlling it.
Chloe sniffed. “What do you think?”
Lionel leaned back in his chair, his eyes never leaving her face. “I think that you’ve been pulling away from me for the last few weeks. I think you’re worrying about something and haven’t yet told me what it is. And so I'm not entirely sure what Lex might be able to persuade you to believe.”
Gulping, Chloe crossed her arms across her stomach protectively. Felt a familiar sick anxiety awake again. Not the sharp panic of before. Just heavy and seemingly endless.
When she didn’t respond, Lionel leaned forward. “Chloe. Is there anything you want to tell me?”
Chloe’s face twisted before she could stop it. It seemed so much like Lionel was sincere. Like he was genuinely worried about the state of their relationship. Like he wanted her to tell him what was wrong so he could help her get through it.
“I don’t know,” she admitted, rubbing her face with her hands. “I’ve just been on edge lately. It’s nothing specific. Nothing I can really put my finger on. Everything just feels like a mess.”
“Why does it feel like a mess?”
“I don’t know.” The repeated words were almost a groan this time. She slumped back in her chair and stared at him. “Just everything. I hadn’t really . . . I mean, when we got together at first, I just thought . . . I had assumed . . . it was never going to go anywhere.”
She had to stop to swallow hard, and she darted a quick look at Lionel’s face to make sure he wasn’t closing up. When she saw he was just watching her quietly, she babbled on, “I mean, look at us. We make no sense at all. I mean, no sense. At all. But now . . . I mean, since it seems like . . .”
She groaned again. Wanted to curl up into a mortified ball and hide under her chair.
“Because it didn’t end when you thought it would, you’re starting to rethink the relationship?”
Chloe stiffened. “I didn’t have a particular timetable in mind, but yeah . . . I never expected it to . . . get this far.”
“So do you want out?”
Fifteen minutes ago, Chloe might have said “yes.” She’d been so confused and scared and trapped, and she hadn’t seen any good way out.
But things might be different now. Lionel hadn’t gone crazy. Hadn’t been heartless or vicious, despite the way he must have initially reacted to the news that she had met with Lex. She would have expected a far more significant explosion, or a much more ruthless display of his will, but he’d actually been . . . reasonable. As if he was really trying to make it work between them.
She was sure he still wanted to know more details about what had happened this afternoon with Lex. And she wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to persuade or manipulate her into telling him more later on. She had no doubts he’d begin to needle Lex about it as soon as possible.
But he hadn’t pressured her now. And he’d sounded almost concerned about what she’d been going through for the last few weeks.
Lionel didn’t want this to end. And Chloe didn’t want to end it.
And she was starting to hope that maybe she wouldn’t have to.
Lionel would never be an average man, and he’d never be loving or schmoopy. But that didn’t mean he didn’t have feelings for her.
And that was what she wanted. Didn’t she?
She’d been staring at the fire as she thought, but now she raised her eyes to his face. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
He let out an almost imperceptible breath. “Yes. You’re here.”
They just looked at each other for a long time, and Chloe had the sudden recognition-inevitable, irrevocable, final-that something had been decided between them.
At last, she asked, “How did you know about Lex?” When he cocked an eyebrow, she hurried on, “You don’t have me under surveillance or anything, do you? Because, I’m not sure I’m willing to . . .”
“I don’t have you under surveillance,” Lionel interrupted. “I got a call from one of your colleagues.”
“Who?” Chloe demanded, stiffening in resentment. “You mean there’s some snitch there, sneaking around and . . .”
“Chloe, Lex stopped by your office in the middle of the day. Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?”
“Oh.” Chloe thought about it. “Well, maybe,” she finally allowed. “If you guys were normal, I’d say no. But given the state of affairs, I guess maybe Lex knew . . .” She stopped suddenly, a very unpleasant idea entering her mind for the first time.
“Of course, he knew. Did he make some sort of vow of objectivity and purity of motive?” Lionel’s mouth turned up into a sneer. “You couldn’t have been foolish enough to buy such nonsense. He had to know I’d find out about his little visit. He must have known I’d be suspicious and that I’d confront you about it. Every act is an act of war. Did it never occur to you that he was trying to initiate conflict between you and me, perhaps with the purpose of destroying our relationship?”
Chloe’s mind was whirling again, and she was just too overwhelmed with everything else to even begin to know what to do with this possibility. Rubbing her eyes, she muttered, “Who cares about Lex? Do we have to keep obsessing about him?”
“Certainly not.” Lionel relaxed again and smiled at her, a hint of promise in his expression. “What would you prefer to do?”
Chloe released a ragged sigh. What she really wanted to do was crawl under the covers, cuddle a little, and sleep for days. “I don’t know.”
"Are you hungry?"
"Not really."
“Chloe, do you want me to take you to bed?”
Looking up with a gasp, Chloe felt an unexpected warmth spread out through her chest and belly. “Yeah,” she whispered. “Take me to bed.”
* * *
Chloe decided to take a shower first, since she felt sweaty and icky after such a long, stressful day. The warm water-coming from a variety of different shower heads-felt amazing as it streamed over her tired body and hit with steady pressure against various points on her small frame.
Even after all these months, she hadn’t grown accustomed to the delights of this incredible shower.
After a few minutes, Lionel joined her in the shower, shifting the spray some as he began to lather himself up.
She scowled at him-more for effect than out of any real bad temper-and he gave her a wolfish grin in response.
He wasn’t a young man, and he didn’t look like one. But he was in pretty good shape for a man of his age-without looking artificially buff-and his naked body had lean lines and toned muscles.
He wasn’t remotely self-conscious about his nakedness as he rinsed off efficiently. Not even when he slowly began to develop an erection, after he began to help Chloe lather up too.
He was very thorough in his attention to Chloe’s body. Extremely thorough. He even cleaned a few places that made Chloe squeal in surprise.
When he’d finally finished, they were kissing urgently as the shower heads pounded them from various directions.
And Chloe had decided that some quiet missionary sex under the covers as part of the cuddling would be a very appropriate addition to her original agenda for the evening.
Nothing too strenuous or dramatic. She was still tired, and the stress of so many weeks had finally caught up to her, leaving her wiped out mentally, emotionally, and physically.
But she felt newly settled about their relationship: part acceptance, part satisfaction, part relief. And it would be nice to express that with Lionel in a more tangible way.
Besides, she was turned on now, and a nice orgasm would be just the thing to help her sleep.
So, when Lionel turned off the water, Chloe reached over and stroked his wet, still hardening cock. “I know it’s only nine o’clock, but if you want to come to bed with me, I’ll help you find something to do with that.”
Lionel arched an eyebrow and reached for a towel. “Nine o’clock is a perfectly acceptable bedtime.”
Chloe giggled, and they dried themselves off-both of them towel-drying their hair as much as they could, so they wouldn’t soak the pillows.
When they got into the bedroom, Chloe collapsed into Lionel’s large bed. “Oh, God,” she groaned, pulling the covers up over her and stretching out her body against the silky soft sheets. “Can I just stay here forever? I never want to get up.”
Lionel got into bed beside her and propped himself up on a bent arm. “You won’t get any arguments from me.”
Chloe laughed appreciatively and held out her arms to him. “Weren’t we in the middle of something? I think I was supposed to help you find something to do with a particular part of your anatomy.”
When Lionel moved over on top of her, they picked up where they’d left off. They kissed a long time, until Chloe was breathless and excited again. Then Lionel started to move down her body, trailing kisses in provocative lines along the swells and dips of her neck, breasts and belly, punctuating the attention with strokes with his skillful fingers or nips with his teeth.
When he’d reached the very sensitive skin on the right side of Chloe’s belly, she was panting and squirming and very, very wet. Lionel brushed his jaw along the soft flesh there, scraping the skin with his bristles, and Chloe cried out from the jolt of sensation the move ignited.
Trying not to whimper, Chloe reached her arms down to Lionel, whose body was positioned between her legs and whose head was just above her belly. “Come back up here,” she demanded, wanting to pull him back into an embrace. “No need to pull out all the stops tonight. One orgasm will be plenty. I just want to feel you inside me.”
“You will,” he promised, something new flaring up in his eyes. “You will.”
She whined weakly when he didn’t move up over her again. He instead scooted down even farther, until he was scraping his rough jaw along her inner thigh.
“Oh, God,” she gasped, as she felt him nuzzling her arousal. She wanted to grind herself against his face, but she managed to hold her hips still.
She could feel his warm breath, blowing against the coarse curls between her legs. Gripping the sheets beside her, she started to unconsciously hold her breath, in eager anticipation of his touch.
When he just nuzzled her again-on a long taken breath, as if he were drinking in her scent-and pulled up into a sitting position, Chloe mewed out a wordless complaint and snuck her own hand down to attend to her throbbing clit.
Shaking his head slowly, Lionel eyed her in amusement and slowly reached to pull away her hand.
“Lionel, please.” She let him move her hand back to where it had been earlier, clutching at the bedding. “I’m not in the mood to be tortured tonight.”
“No torture,” he murmured, reaching over to the bedside table, opening a small drawer, and retrieving a small, smoothly curved vibrator. “Just pleasure.”
Chloe’s eyes widened as he turned it on and brought it down between her legs. With a jump in her gut, she tried to bring her thighs together as she sat up. Holding onto his shoulders, she began, “You don’t need that. I’m perfectly happy with . . .”
“I know I don’t need it,” Lionel murmured huskily, his free hand moving up to tangle in her hair, curve around the back of her skull, and somehow encourage her to recline back down to the pillow. “Lie down, baby. I’m going to make you feel so good.”
Who would object to that? Chloe didn’t know why she should want to, and she didn’t have the energy to try.
She relaxed back on the bed and opened her legs again, bringing her arms up to the headboard to stretch out her torso, so her breasts wouldn’t droop quite so strangely. “No torture?” she whispered, gazing up Lionel.
“No torture,” he repeated, putting down the vibrator for a minute so he could stroke her inner thighs with both hands.
“You’ll let me come?” she persisted, wondering why she was suddenly nervous. Nothing was different here. They’d had sex in this bed-often with toys-innumerable times before.
Lionel let out a breath. Then he leaned over her chest to kiss her on the lips. He murmured against her mouth, “I’ll let you come. Again.”
He moved down her body, but paused at her breasts. Taking the right one in his mouth, he teased the left one between his finger and thumb. He murmured against her nipple, “And again.”
He moved further down her body, nuzzling the heat of her arousal. Murmured against the curls there, “And again..”
Chloe had been momentarily lulled by the soothing cadence of his voice and the softness of his touch. But then her eyes popped open abruptly. “Lionel . . .” she began.
She really wasn't up to an endless cycle of orgasms tonight.
Lionel had eased open the folds of her flesh with his finger, and he was stroking a slow line from top to bottom, gathering moisture as he went. At the sound of his name, he shifted his eyes from between her legs to her face, as if he were waiting for her to finish.
Before she could shape the words she was trying to articulate, he’d turned the vibrator on again. “Let me give you this.”
She didn’t know if it was a question or an instruction, but she didn’t have the will to object. When she felt him rubbing the tip of the vibrator across her inner folds, she whimpered softly. “Yeah.”
He dipped the smooth head of the vibrator into her channel, holding it just at her sensitive entrance. “How’s that?”
“Eh,” she huffed, pumping her hips in an instinctive need for more stimulation. She couldn’t feel quite enough of the penetration, and the indirect vibrations were driving her insane. “You said no torture.”
Lionel chuckled faintly as he readjusted his position between her legs, lowering his head until he could kiss her quivering belly. “You’re right.” He raised his shoulders. “Pull your legs up, baby. And spread them wider.”
Chloe grabbed her knees and pulled them up toward her chest, parting her thighs more as she did so. And she cried out in relief as she felt him sink the vibrator into her all the way. It was small-not nearly as substantial as his cock-but she could feel it intensely inside her.
“Is that what you wanted?” he asked, speaking in his familiar, seductive drawl.
What Chloe had wanted was a little orgasm and some cuddling. In fact, she would have been perfectly willing to give up the orgasm.
But she had this instead.
Lionel was sliding the slick device inside her wet channel, and he shifted the angle so that the strategic curve hit her g-spot.
“Ah!” Chloe gasped out, still clutching at her knees and trying to keep her legs apart. “Yeah! God, yeah.”
He hadn’t lied about not torturing her by delaying her orgasm tonight. He’d already sped up the rhythm with which he was pumping the vibrator inside her, and he made sure to hit her g-spot hard on every slide.
Chloe was unconsciously trying to buck up her hips to meet the little thrusts and was grunting out silly sounds with the rhythm. Her intimate walls were pulsing from the steady vibrations, but the penetration didn’t fill her enough to be truly fulfilling.
The pressure was building up quickly, but the stimulation wasn’t quite right for release. As the sensations kept collecting without relief, Chloe’s grunts changed to agonized whines.
As if in response, Lionel adjusted his arms so that he could use the finger and thumb of his free hand to hold her the folds of her flesh apart.
As the air hit her clit, Chloe gasped out, “Ah hah hah!” She clung to her knees, wished she weren’t in quite such a helpless position.
Then Lionel blew onto her clit as he accelerated the speed of the vibrator’s thrusts. “Ah!” Chloe cried, the pleasure so sharp it almost hurt. “Fuck, Lionel, please! Make me come!”
He lowered his face even more, until he was able to flick her clit with his tongue-timing it at the end of a sequence of hard hits inside her.