Guardian Devil

CHAPTER SIX: SHOCKS AND DELIGHTS

Lex sat behind his desk in his study, one hand lightly grasping a tumbler full of scotch. His blue-gray eyes were looking at nothing, his gaze turned inward. His expression was almost peaceful. So it was somewhat of a shock when he whipped the glass across the room at the wall where it shattered spraying 50-year-old liquor everywhere. The smell of peat moss filled the room.

Lex let his eyelids shut then put his face in his hands. “Fuck.”

Other than the exclamation, he remained motionless for a few moments until the phone on his desk began to ring. He looked at the caller-id.

“Double fuck.”

'Great, it’s Lionel. Just what I need, another person that makes me lose control.' Lex toyed with the idea of not answering it, but decided he would rather know what his father was doing than not, and, hopefully, what his father was doing did not include making his way to Smallville to stop the guardianship. Although Dominic would have had plenty of time to call him by now, but maybe even he had some sort of conscience after seeing that cellar to know that Clark had to get away from the Kents. 'Maybe he’ll wait to after the signing to tattle to daddy.'

With a sigh, Lex answered the phone, “Hello, father, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

Lionel’s snort managed to raise Lex’s hackles. He gripped the edge of the desk and concentrated on breathing slowly. He could hear faint traffic noises coming over the line. 'So he’s driving somewhere. Please let it not be here.'

“Pleasure, Lex? I’m sure you’re so pleased to hear from me. But I have no time for our normal repartee tonight, charming as it is. I need you to come to Metropolis tomorrow for a lunch meeting. I’m driving there from Gotham tonight.”

Lex released the breath he didn’t know he was holding. He doesn’t know about the guardianship … yet.
“Can’t. Busy. Important things to do.” 'And even if all I had to do were wash my non-existent hair I’d still be too busy for you.'

“This is non-negotiable, son.”

“Everything’s negotiable, dad. Isn’t that what you’ve drilled into my head for the last 22 years?”

Lionel was quiet. Lex could hear the faint exhale his father made and the creak of his leather gloves as he adjusted the phone to his ear. “This is an exception to that rule.”

Lex’s urge to laugh at his father’s seeming endless exceptions to rules he created was quelled by the odd tone in his father’s voice. If Lex didn’t know better, Lionel sounded … anxious. “It’s that important, huh?”

“Yes.” Another tension-edged silence. “I want you to look … nice … tomorrow, Lex.”

Lex felt icy, oily sickness rise up in him from his stomach and sweat form above his upper lip. He gripped the phone tight until he heard the plastic squeak in protest. 'It’s been so long since he’s asked me that. I can’t … won’t … do that again.'

“Why? Another business opportunity’s daughter you want me to seduce, is that it? You seem to be able to do the seducing quite well on your own.”

But Lex knew that his father never asked him to look nice for the daughters. He only asked when …

“No, Lex. I don’t believe he even has any children. And he … asked specifically for you … to be there.”

Lex caught another note of that unease roiling through Lionel’s voice. The bastard was not his normal collected self and it had nothing to do with asking his son to whore himself out to a potential business partner.

Lex shut his eyes tight and counted to ten. He tried not to think of Clark up in the boy’s new bedroom, tried not to think of those pleading green eyes, begging to be loved and touched. If Clark understood fully how Lex had been raised, what he had been told were normal filial acts like sucking off Lionel’s business prospects, would Clark ever trust Lex to be his guardian or his lover? Probably not. That’s why Lex didn’t intend to tell him the full Luthor legacy. 'But then again I’ve misread Clark so far, his pain was hidden from me, he was willing to undergo beatings to keep seeing me. Maybe he would still love and want me even if he knew all of it.'

Lex determined that pissing Lionel off, though it felt good initially, in the long run it might make the man decide to take a detour from Metropolis and come to Smallville. Better to humor him, make promises Lex didn’t intend to keep or put his father off somehow.

“Who is it that you want me to look … nice… for?” Lex was amazed his voice didn’t quiver, amazed he didn’t start screaming and throw the phone across the room.

“The owner of A/L Import-Export.”

“What?” Lex was suddenly bolt upright in his chair. “But that’s … that’s unbelievable.”

Lex’s mind ran through at lightening speed what he knew of A/L and its enigmatic owner. The man was never mentioned in the news even though he had the ears of most of the world’s leaders, all of those that counted anyways. He was never listed in Forbes as the world’s richest person even though he was. He was never interviewed about any of his companies’ actions, though the companies were so vast and interconnected that not one country on the planet was unaffected by the behemoth that was A/L. The owner of A/L was a presence that was felt, but never seen, known but never talked about. To get a meeting with him was like having Zeus step down from Mount Olympus into your living room.

Lionel chuckled at Lex’s outburst, but the sound seemed muted. “He wants to do some business with LuthorCorp.”

'And LexCorp if I have anything to say about it. And if I fully have my way then he’ll just deal with LexCorp.' Lex smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes, which had gone the color of steel.

Lex realized that he’d made up his mind the instant A/L was mentioned that he would go to the meeting and that he’d do whatever it took to get the head of A/L to invest in his fledgling endeavor. To make a deal with A/L would mean true freedom from his father. The more power Lex had the more safety he could assure for Clark A/L could lead Lex to another level of influence in one deal than he would be able to achieve in a decade on his own. Lex felt his heart pound in his chest. His mouth was dry and he wished he hadn’t tossed his drink. He drummed his fingers on the desktop.

“When and where?” Lex asked.

“Noon at La Delacroix. Wear something that brings out the color of your eyes, Lex. That seemed to be the feature that most impressed him.”

Lex hung up the phone without comment. He rubbed his chin with one hand as he thought about how he would make the head of A/L see him as more than a pretty pair of eyes and how he could screw Lionel out of the deal altogether. His gaze caught the time and realized it had been 45 minutes since he’d brought Clark home. He shot up out of his seat. Clark should be finished showering and changing by now. Maybe he was waiting for Lex to come get him. Hopefully he wasn’t too upset about the forced end to their kissing and caresses. Lex would make it up to him somehow.

His right hand brushed against the lump in this pocket. The case with the necklace. Not wanting to have this evil piece of rock by Clark again even in its safe lead-lined case, he put it in the drawer where his gun was normally kept. Just thinking of the gun made his draw it out of the back of the waistband of his pants. He had forgotten it was there, felt comforted by the weight, even though it wasn’t the smartest place to keep it. He placed it beside the case in the drawer and locked them up. Two deadly weapons safely stored away. Then he walked swiftly from the room, humming to himself at the thought of seeing Clark.

When Lex heard the sound of the shower as he reached the top of the stairs he grinned. 'Clark will be naked, wet, soapy and slick/soft to the touch right about now. I can dream if not touch … yet.' The Luthor slither was never fully repressed, but Lex felt better that he could control it, had controlled it and would control it. 'I didn’t take him on the foyer floor and that’s a start.'

Lex frowned though at the thought of Clark being in the shower this long. The door to Clark’s new bedroom was open as was the door to the attached bathroom. Yellow light spilled across the threshold.

“Clark?”

There was no answer. Not even the sound of splashing, just the patter of the water hitting the marble shower floor. Too still. Too quiet. The coat Lex had lentClark was lying across the marble vanity. Lex felt his gorge rise at the sight of dried blood adhering to the silk lining. Clark’s blood. His angel’s blood. Lex wrenched his gaze away from it.

“Clark? Are you all right? I’m coming in, so don’t be … alarmed.”

Lex walked over the bathroom’s threshold. The glass enclosed shower stall was filled with steam, but even so he should have been able to see some of Clark. Lex’s breath caught in his throat: had Clark run away, turned on the shower to cover his escape and then taken off, because Lex had turned away his advances? Tendrils of panic made Lex’s movements jerky rather than filled with his natural grace. He yanked open the sheet glass shower door and waved away the steam that billowed out.

“Lex?” A small voice came from down by the floor.

Clark was huddled in the corner of the stall, knees drawn up to his chest, long arms wrapped around his legs. The boy was shaking, his teeth chattering. Clark’s lips looked blue.

“Angel! What’s wrong?” Lex turned off the water as fast as he could, soaking the arm of his silk shirt and nearly scalding himself on the faucet handle. He was down on his knees beside the teenager, his hands hovering in front of him, wondering where it was okay to touch that naked glorious skin. What am I thinking? Just touch him. Help him! Lex’s hands rested on Clark’s forearms. His skin was hardly warm though it should have been burning after being under the hot spray for so long.

“I ca … ca … can’t get warm, Le … Lex.”

“You’re in shock, Clark.” I’m such a fool. He seemed okay when we … when we kissed, but the whole experience hadn’t fully sunk in yet, or maybe the kissing held back all the badness, but after I … sent him away … rejected him …what have I done?

“But Le … Lex … I don’t fe … feel the co … cold. Another … al … alien thing.”

“Shock is … is different. And with your physiology … we’ve got to get you warm, beloved.”

Lex didn’t see the luminous green eyes widen at his term of endearment or how the shivers reduced almost immediately. Lex grabbed a huge thick towel and wrapped it around the trembling boy. Lex was down on his knees again holding the towel around Clark, while vigorously rubbing Clark’s shoulders, forearms, calves, thighs and back, anywhere he could reach around the tight ball that Clark had pushed himself into. More often than not the towel would slip out of Lex’s hands and his palms and fingers would be skating across the silken expanses of Clark’s golden skin. The shivering seemed to reduce further when he did that.

“How do you feel? Is that better?” Lex asked as he continued to rub down Clark’s body.

“A … a little, yeah,” Clark managed to get out, his lips still trembled. Color had come back into Clark’s cheeks.

“I think we need to get you in bed,” Lex’s eyes flicked up to Clark’s and they shared a weak smile at the double entendre.

Clark was heavier and taller than Lex and layered in muscle, while Lex had more whipcord lean strength, so it was a struggle to get the boy out of the stall. Lex wrapped the trembling form of his beloved in the towel as Clark struggled to stand, his legs shaking like a newborn colt’s. Clark leaned heavily on Lex as the older man lead him out into the bedroom towards the large four-poster bed.

“Get under the covers, Clark,” Lex said as he stripped the plush comforter down to the 1000 count Egyptian cotton sheets.

Clark sat heavily down on the side of the bed. Lex stripped the now soaked, cooling towel off of his beloved. Clark’s body washed of the blood and sweat was breath-taking: chiseled abs and pecs, the ripple of lean muscles in his thighs, calves and forearms, the broad shoulders and tapered waist. And then there was Clark’s uncut manhood, slightly erect with the tip glistening with fluid that wasn’t water from the shower.
Lex knew he was staring, knew he had to get Clark under the covers, but his eyes continued to devour the boy until he saw Clark’s body twitch from another impending round of chills. Lex leaned down and helped Clark swing his legs up onto the bed. Lex tried to ignore the feel of Clark’s muscles under the silken skin of his calves, tried to ignore his own straining erection. He pulled the covers up around his ward and tried to give a comforting smile.

As soon as Lex’s hands were gone from him, Clark started to shake again. Lex’s brow furrowed and he began to rub Clark’s body again through the covers. Clark just watched him with wide, dark eyes as tremors coursed through him. Lex grabbed the phone and called down to the staff.

“I need something warm for Clark to drink and more blankets … an electric blanket would be best.”
Clark had been almost an instant favorite with the staff since he began bringing over the produce from the farm and not only because Lex’s mood improved one hundred fold because of his visits. The boy’s courtesy and easy smile couldn’t help but win him admirers. So Lex knew that the alacrity with which the staff normally obeyed him would be even greater.

“You have a strange look on your face, Lex. What are you thinking about?” Clark asked softly and Lex could see him grit his teeth afterwards to stop the chattering. He rubbed Clark’s body harder through the covers.

“I was thinking about you.”

Clark cocked one eyebrow at that.

Lex continued, “I was thinking how much the staff like you … how you won every heart in this damn castle.”

“Hey, its your damn castle. You shouldn’t knock it.”

“Actually its our damn castle now.” Lex gave one of those brilliant smiles that had no smirk edge to it that Clark adored and felt so privileged to see.

“I wish … wish I could make you smile like that all the time, Lex,” Clark said and wrapped his arms tightly around his body both to stem the trembling and the desire to pull Lex down on top of him and cradle him in his arms.

Lex’s right hand traveled up the blanket to Clark’s face. He traced the outline of Clark’s full lips, glided along the sculpted edge of Clark’s jaw then up to his left cheekbone to the delicate orbit of his eye. Lex then let his hand slide up into Clark’s hair, carding through it.

“You know that you are my beloved, don’t you?” Lex’s voice was whisper quiet, but it seemed to fill the room.

Clark nodded after a moment, his eyes filled with some emotion so complex that Lex couldn’t figure it out totally.

“You do know that, but you’re afraid to believe it. Afraid it couldn't possibly be true especially after how those who were supposed to love you ... betrayed you,” Lex continued in that soft cadenced tone.
Clark’s nod was jerky this time as if to acknowledge this fear was to make it real.

“I’m afraid, too, of so many things, angel. I’m afraid that I’ll wake up and you’ll still be at the farm and I’ll be trying to think up excuses to see you … excuses to have you spend just one more minute with me. Afraid that you won't want to spend that moment. Afraid you'll disappear from my life and it will be empty like before.”

Clark shook his head violently in response. Clark’s hands began touching Lex through the blankets, petting his side and thigh and the arm that wasn’t playing with Clark’s hair.

"Those are only our fears speaking to us, Clark. The reality is that you are here with me, never going back to that farm. And the reality is that you have all my love and devotion. All of me is yours.” The Luthor voice chimed inside Lex’s head, ‘And all of you is mine; I will never let you go.’ Lex knew better than to speak those words out loud just yet, so he said, “Those are the things that will keep both of us warm, Clark.”
Clark’s tremors that had been quieting as Lex spoke, stopped altogether.

“Lex, I …,” Clark struggled with the words. “I’ve always felt … that I belonged to … I mean with … you, but I never thought that you would feel so much for me back.”

Lex felt that dark fire in him flare with Clark’s unconscious word choice: 'You do belong to and with me angel.'

“It’s the least you deserve, Clark.”

Lex leaned down and kissed Clark’s forehead. He licked his lips after the chaste kiss to taste Clark’s skin on his mouth. There was a hint of salt and sweet. He meant to get up from the bed then. Meant to move away to a safe distance. Only he didn’t do either of those things. Instead he leaned back down and kissed Clark’s temples, feeling Clark’s heartbeat there with his lips. His good, strong heart that seemed to beat in time with Lex’s own. He heard Clark’s harsh exhale, felt the boy’s sweet breath trace the skin of his neck.
Clark was scrabbling under the blankets to get his arms out so he could touch Lex, but Lex held the top of the blanket firmly down across Clark’s chest, keeping the boy pinned beneath it. Clark stopped struggling and searched Lex’s face for the reason.

“Lex?”

“Shhh, angel, just let me … let me be the one in control.”

Clark nodded and Lex felt him relax. Lex followed the edges of his cheekbones and the line of his firm jaw with soft closed-mouth kisses. He sucked gently on Clark’s skin, the taste of honey, vanilla and citrus flooded his mouth. He made a pathway down Clark’s chin to the hollow of his throat with his tongue, noting that the honey flavor seemed to increase as he neared the boy’s chest. He lapped at the hollow where Clark’s skin seemed so fragile and tasted the most sweet. Clark arched his body into Lex’s touch.

“Lex … ah … so good!”

When Lex raised his head, his eyes were burning silver. Clark tried to reach Lex’s mouth with his own. Lex shook his head gently and gave him more kisses and nips along the planes of his cheeks and hairline.

“You’re teasing me, Lex! I thought you said we couldn’t … oh, right there, that’s … that’s oh, God, so good!”
Lex had begun nipping and kissing one of Clark’s ears then blowing lightly on the saliva he left behind.
“I knew … knew you’d be … ah, oh! … so good at this, Lex! As perfect at this as you … oh, God! … are at everything.”

'Clark is so responsive. So beautifully responsive. I could teach him to be even more so … train him to orgasm from my slightest touch.' Lex shivered.

Lex moved so that his lips were only inches from Clark’s. The boy looked dazed beneath him. His pupils dilated with need and desire, his body moving fitfully under the covers. Lex allowed himself to drop down those few inches and gave Clark’s full soft lips a pure closed-mouth kiss. He felt Clark’s mouth open beneath his and the slightest touch of Clark’s tongue against his lips, but Clark instinctively understood that if he were to change the kiss from closed to open mouthed it meant taking control back and Lex wanted to keep control.

Clark’s tongue retreated into his mouth, but Lex chased it with his own. He mapped the interior of Clark’s mouth, the slickness of his teeth, the supple palate, the silky skin of his inner cheeks. He only stopped when he needed air. It was a lucky thing, because that was when they both heard the discreet knock on the door. Lex practically jumped off of Clark and didn’t stop moving until he was a few feet from the bed. His loose pants thankfully hid his arousal.

Lex darted one last glance over at his ward, and was relieved to see that Clark had managed to make himself look less kiss-tortured. He relaxed and said, “Come in.”

Enrique entered with an armful of blankets, including an electric one. Mathilda, the cook, followed close behind with a steaming cup of cocoa if the chocolaty smell in the air was correct. Lex helped Enrique spread the new blankets over Clark and found an outlet for the electric one. Then he took the cup of cocoa from Mathilda’s hands, intending to help feed Clark the sweet drink once he dismissed the servants.

“Thanks … oooh, whipped cream … awesome,” Clark said after catching a glimpse of the top of the cup. Both servants smiled but still looked concerned at how pale the boy looked.

“Clark is going to be staying with me permanently as my ward,” Lex explained to the servants. “When he asks for something, it is to be treated as if I were asking. I would appreciate it if you told everyone that. ”

The smiles got broader and the servants quickly exited as soon as Lex dismissed them. Lex sat down on the edge of the bed again and helped Clark to sit up so that he could sip some cocoa. Lex saw Clark’s eyes dart from Lex’s mouth to the cocoa and back again. He doesn’t know which sweet he wants more. Lex watched as the boy licked his lips unconsciously.

“I thought … thought you said that we couldn’t be together now that I’m going to be your ward,” Clark’s tone was mischievous.

“I did and I still intend to follow through with that,” Lex answered quietly and fed him a mouthful of the sweet drink.

Clark licked his lips again, but this time it was to get the whipped cream that coated his mouth, but it was just as seductive and suggestive. I could follow through with my plan to be good more easily if you weren’t so maddeningly desirable and I didn’t love you so much.

“Well, I haven't changed my mind either. I intend for you to be my lover and my guardian.” Clark’s green eyes fixed on Lex and the older boy felt the weight of that gaze, resolute, the gaze of a person who could endure torture to keep what he wanted. Lex felt a shiver of pleasure run through him.

“So we’re both clear as to our positions then on this matter,” Lex responded and placed the cup of cocoa to Clark’s gorgeous mouth for him to take another sip.

“Perfectly,” Clark answered softly.

He took the cup from Lex’s hands, placing it gently on the nightstand. Lex’s arms flopped down by his sides. Clark leaned towards Lex and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips and drew back. Just a taste of chocolate and cream. Lex unconsciously moved towards him, wanting to follow those lips anywhere. But Clark put a restraining hand on his chest and chuckled.

“I think you are very sympathetic to my position, Lex.”

Lex blinked when he realized what he had been doing and said, “But my position is the right one, Clark.”
“This is right … us … together … like this.”

Clark moved his hands from Lex’s chest to his shoulders and pulled the older man against his chest as he gave him a breath-stealing kiss. When Clark released him, Lex didn’t move at first, his eyes still shut, his own tongue tracing the places where Clark’s had been in his mouth. Finally, his eyes fluttered open. Clark was watching him a mixture of concern and desire on his face.

“I’m not a good person, angel. And with you I have … questionable self-control. If you persist in this … playing with fire … I will take everything I want … maybe more than you’ll want to give or even understand you’re giving.”

“I want to give you everything.”

Lex shuddered and felt all the saliva leave his mouth. 'This boy … oh, fuck, this beautiful boy does not have a clue what he’s saying.'

“Clark, we’ll talk about this further, but not tonight.”

“As long as you aren’t ruling anything out I guess I’ll have to be okay with that. For now anyways.” Clark gave him a sweet smile, which belied the strength of his last words.

Lex laughed and at Clark’s quizical look explained, “I just wondered if there wasn’t a chance that offering to be your guardian somehow transferred some Luther blood into your veins. That was a very Luthor-like last comment.”

At that moment, Lex’s cell phone went off in his pocket. Lex pulled out the phone out and flipped it open. The caller-id identified the caller as Lex’s attorneys. He touched the talk button and listened as the head partner said that everything was ready for signing.

Clark watched Lex murmur yes, and thank you and we’ll be right there. Clark trembled a little. “Well?” Clark asked though he already knew the answer.

“It’s time, Clark. Everything’s ready for me to become your guardian. There's no need for you to come to the signing. After everything, perhaps its best if you stay here and keep warm.”

“No, Lex,” Clark gripped the older boy’s forearm. “I have to be there. It’ll make it … more real for me. Do you understand?”

Lex nodded although he was not happy about the thought of Clark in the cold again even if it appeared the chill he suffered from earlier was emotional rather than truly physical.

Lex’s eyes searched Clark’s one last time. “Are you sure you want the … the guardianship, angel?”

“It’s our destiny, Lex, and I want it more than anything.”