Title: Unstoppable
Authors: Lex's Lady & Mistress Ace
E-mail: winter@sapphire-dragon.net & rosewood@inreach.com
Feedback: It's the icing on the cake. We write because the story demands to be told. Feedback lets us know if we struck a chord with you.
Distribution: Our website, of course, www.fandomwriters.com. The list archives are welcome to it also. Anyone else, please ask first. We'd like to know where our fic is going.
Rating: NC-17 (eventually – or maybe quickly depending on the whim of the muses)
Category: Crossover, Romance, Angst
Spoilers: All of season 1 of Smallville and season 6 of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer
Pairings: Buffy/Clark/Lex, m/f, m/m
Disclaimer: We don't own the characters at all (however much we might wish we did). Buffy and all references to BTVS are property of the great god Joss Whedon, et al. Clark, Lex and the Smallville storyline belong to Miller-Gough et al. We're just borrowing them for a while. We promise to put them back unharmed and perhaps a little happier.
Notes: ** denotes internal thought, * = italics.
Summary: What if the Summers girls moved to Smallville? What if Buffy discovered that Clark had a secret and thought he could use a confidant?
Dedications: From Em: To Ace, for her never-ending support and her willingness to work on this with me. She writes both Clark and Lex in a way I could never hope to achieve, and I couldn't possibly have done this on my own.
From Ace: To Em for reminding me why I love Buffy. To Beth for being my Smallville watching partner even when the scripts were awful. To the whole Clark/Lex list for opening my eyes to the potential here. And finally to Christina for her great story; Runaway Trains at 3 A.M. which was part of our inspiration. You can find it at: this site.

Chapter 34

Lex called down to the kitchen for lunch and had it delivered so they could finish their projects in relative peace. In the distance, they could hear the whine of electric saws and the occasional thump but most of those noises faded after Lex closed the outer windows.

Buffy didn't have a computer here, but she did have the printout of the document she was proofing. And Lex's study was full of books; she'd found a number she thought she could use as references for the business information she was lacking. They were still working, true, but she was much more comfortable here. Fewer concerns about who might see them or what anyone might read into the occasional look or touch.

She finished making minor corrections to the document she was reading; nothing major, but it looked like whoever wrote it initially had been more concerned with getting thoughts down and in order than with spelling, grammar, or wording. So she fixed what she could and all she would have to do when she got back to the office was go into the file and make the corrections.

Lex rose from his desk, easing his shoulders back as he ambled over to the table. He leaned over Buffy's shoulder, dropped a warm kiss right below her ear and murmured, "Almost done?" The prospectus was the last item on the agenda. Once she'd made the corrections, then the rest of the afternoon was free.

With that in mind, Lex ran his hands down her arms, enjoying the way she trembled. There was nothing hidden with Buffy, no elegant turn of her head or demur away from the passion they both felt. No chasing through the mazes of human interaction to reach their mutual goal. Which was quite simple.

One another's pleasure.

"I just finished," she said softly; she leaned back in her chair until her head rested against his arm. "I'll just have to retype the corrections when I've got a computer handy. Won't take long." Maybe she should start carrying Willow's laptop around. Might be easier, with files on disks and all.

Lex was very handily distracting her from working, though. His hands were sending tingles of sensation along her arms and she wanted to get them both naked so he could do that to the rest of her body. And she could do it to his.

"If you need it done right away, maybe I could use your laptop? I have the disk..." She trailed off, a little uncertain, but still pretty relaxed because they were alone.

He flicked through the pages, noting the changes and nodding. "Feel free. I have a few items I need to take care of." One last kiss on the back of her neck sent a hard shiver through both of them before Lex eased away. He opened to the door that led to his bedroom and smiled over his shoulder. "When you're done... come join me."

Buffy smiled back at him and nodded. "I'll be in shortly," she promised. She headed over to his desk as he left the room and slipped the disk into the drive.

It took about ten minutes, perhaps a little more, to scroll through the document and make the changes she needed to make. She saved it and took the disk out, setting it aside for later. She didn't see a printer in the room, so she assumed the file would be sent to its destination via e-mail.

She was definitely getting curious about what Lex was doing, though. It had been very quiet in the room since he left, and the look in his eyes assured her that whatever he was doing, they would enjoy the results.

Buffy pushed away from the desk and got up. Crossing to the door was a matter of a few steps, and she tapped lightly before opening it and going in. She closed it behind her, then leaned back against its solid support while her eyes searched the room for him.

The room was full of shadows and music. A cool breeze ghosted past the drapes as the first crescendo of Beethoven's Ninth rolled over her. On the nightstand, there was a single rose and a fire crackled in the dimness, casting even more shadows into the depths of the room.

As Buffy moved further in, she caught the first sign of movement. Lex stood in the shadows by the bed, his suit having been discarded in favor of a shimmering robe that left no doubt to his intent. His eyes locked with hers as he pushed off from the post and stalked her. Predatory moves, slight tilt of his head followed by the flash of his tongue over the scar on his lip.

With anyone else, the set-up would have been over-done. But Lex... Lex was in his element. Every move calculated to draw the attention of his lover and capture her long enough for him to step in close. To lift her chin and make her mouth his own.

From the moment their gazes locked, Buffy stood frozen. His eyes... God, they burned into her, tied her insides up in knots. Then he kissed her possessively and she melted against him. Returned his kiss, their tongues tangled together and her arms wound tightly around his waist.

The romantic ambiance in the room complimented Lex's behavior; it was a room to seduce, to claim, to possess... and she was all his. Anything at all that he wanted, he could have.

While their mouths met and parted and met again, Lex busied himself with the task of undressing her. The blouse came undone, sliding smoothly off her shoulders to pool around her wrists. Expert fingers undid the catch on her skirt, slid the zipper down even as Lex sucked on her lower lip. It fell to the floor, the surressation of its passing lost in the second movement of the symphony.

He drew her forward two steps by moving away from a kiss. As she followed, her feet cleared the puddle of fabric. Ignoring the garment she found so offensive, his hand pressed against her stomach, insinuating itself between warm skin and the confines of nylon and silk.

Buffy released him just long enough to let her shirt slip off her wrists and fall to the floor. Then she wrapped her arms around him again, holding tightly while the warmth of his palm pressed into her skin made her shiver lightly again.

She wanted this... needed this, needed him. Loved the way he felt, the way he made her feel. His hands on her body and the music in the background a secondary thing but like a caress on its own. He was good... he was very good. And despite the brief length of time they'd been together, he knew how to play her perfectly. Knew how to make her want and need him more than anything.

The tight stretch of nylon rolled down his wrist as he turned it. First thing tomorrow, Lex was going to change the dress code. And not just because Buffy hated panty-hose. Kansas was blazingly hot in the summertime and parts of the plant weren't air-conditioned. He wasn't going to have his employees suffer because of some out-dated sense of fashion.

Heat enveloped his fingers, a sigh filled his mouth as Buffy arched up into that touch. Lex flicked open the front catch of her bra, smiling into their kiss as he felt the press of her breasts against his skin. Pulling back to tease her with a light lick across her upper lip, he murmured, "Beauty... can I have you now?"

"Yes," she breathed. His voice rolled over her body, and there was no way she could possibly deny him. "Anything you want. I want you so much..." She lifted her chin and caught his mouth in another kiss, this one deep and needy.

When that kiss ended, Lex rolled the combination of nylon and silk down her legs. The bra fluttered to the floor as Buffy stepped out of her shoes and the final remnants of her clothes. A deft tug later had his robe open. Without further preliminaries, Lex lifted Buffy until her slender legs locked around his waist.

The softest of silk caressed her ankles, her calves and draped over her thighs as she felt the first slow push in. Warm and thick and perfectly aimed. Joined at last, his mouth buried in the curve of her shoulder while he drew her down onto him.

Her legs tightened around his waist and his arms pressed tightly into her back as he held her and pulled her down onto his body. She'd forgotten how good this could feel, to know that the only thing holding her up was him and that she had to trust him to keep her safe.

For the briefest of moments, her mind threatened to flashback to her first time with Spike, but this was nothing like that. Lex was careful, slow and tender and making her feel so incredibly good. There were no threats, no outright violence, and no beating each other into walls. No pain, no heartache, only pleasure and love and her arms around his neck while she kissed and licked the smooth skin on his head.

It had been so long since he'd had such a tiny lover. One that he could pick up like this without awkward fumbling. She was a natural too, moving to every single one of his unspoken commands. Tightening around him as he helped gravity along, pulling her all the way down and stopping. Smiling at her as he concentrated... and flexed, the muscles of his stomach hollowing while his cock surged within her.

So easy to tell her that he loved this, that he loved her. Not as deeply and completely as he loved Clark but Lex could feel it coming on. Obsession was part of his nature and the signs were already there. His memorization of every mole, every freckle on her right shoulder and then on the left. The innate knowledge that a jog of his hips would have her crying out and when she leaned back, her legs would be strong enough to keep her impaled on him even when she let go of his shoulders.

The angle changed, shifting into something that he could only manage for a few strokes. Pleasure so strong that it bordered on pain. It set his teeth of edge, drew a deep moan from somewhere inside as well as the unceasing repetition of her name. "Buffy... ah god... Buffy. Buffy."

Buffy moaned, her legs tightening and releasing fractionally as she rocked her hips just a little. Meeting him, matching him as best she could, and God did it feel good. Pleasure licked through her body on tongues of flame, centered deep within her and radiating outward. So good that it was all she could do to answer his repeated use of her name with his own. "Lex... Lex, yes. God..."

Her head tipped back as her body arched, but she held on tightly so she wouldn't unbalance him. She was just barely aware enough to do it, and her awareness was more of reflexes than anything else.

He shifted his weight to maintain their balance, letting her lean even further back and catching sight of them reflected in one of the mirrors. Tiny girl, every muscle stretched taut as an errant sunbeam shimmered past the curtains to illuminate the golden spill of her hair. Held up only by her legs and the hands locked on her hips. Abandoning the mirror, his gaze dropped to where their bodies joined.

Lex watched as he shifted back, moving within the orbit of her hips. Fascinated by the slide of his cock out and then back into the tight clasp of her body, the glimmer of what he knew would be musky and sweet in his mouth coated him. Sex in its rawest form transcending into something else. Going from merely physical pleasure to an expression of his affection for her... his love for her.

The look in Lex's eyes changed briefly, and the change startled her. For a moment he almost looked... but no. It couldn't be. Her eyes were playing tricks on her, was all. Lex loved Clark and Clark wasn't here. So she couldn't be seeing a momentary flash of love in his eyes.

To cover her confusion, Buffy lifted herself back up and found Lex's mouth with her own. Kissed him deeply, passionately, and clung to him as the pleasure in her body began to spiral out of control. Her hands found his shoulders and held tightly. Tightly enough to leave bruises if she left them there long enough, but she couldn't seem to make herself care. She just needed to hold on, to have something solid to hold onto when she came.

Because she knew that peak was coming up fast. She was getting close, she could feel it.

Tightness all around him, rhythmic waves caressing from base to tip. No need to hear the quick intake of breath or see her eyes widen. This was something his cock never lied about. Buffy was about to come and come hard.

Which was the point in the first place. The dull ache in his shoulders from her too-hard grip was an exquisite touch. Just enough of pain's harsh kiss to keep him riding the edge. She rose against him again, that movement rewarded by a nip right below her ear and a whispered command.

"Come for me."

The tone underlying the whisper, the command itself pushed Buffy closer to the edge. And one more stroke within her pushed her over. She was gone, her body locked up tight around him and her breathing cut off as a cry tore through her and spilled out of her mouth.

Pleasure washed over Buffy's body, enveloped her mind in a haze of powerful sensation that had everything to do with the hard body she was wrapped around and the way her channel milked his cock. And he didn't stop. Lex just kept going, pushing her deeper into the sea of sensation. And all she could do was hold on and let him sweep her away.

Yesterday had been an exercise in losing control. Today was the opposite. Lex held onto Buffy, enjoying the sight and sound and feel of her climax while keeping his own in strict abeyance. When her breathing eased and she looked up at him with confusion marring her perfect brow, Lex smiled. "Not yet... I hate down time."

Rather than explain himself further, he turned and walked them over to the bed. The soft slide of the coverlet encompassed her back as he laid her down. And began thrusting again, the edge of the bed being the absolute perfect height for this. It had been built with just this activity in mind.

Okay, perfectly clear now why the bed was up so high. Buffy moaned his name, her body more sensitive than before. And she realized what he meant when she saw his expression of satisfaction over her response to him.

He didn't want a quick fuck; this was about more than that. It was about making it more than that, about keeping them together for as long as possible without stopping. It was about her pleasure and his, and theirs. And good God, he was incredible. Once again, she could almost mistake the look in his eyes for love. But she knew that with all her issues and all of his, she would never be able to believe it unless he told her.

Half a dozen hard thrusts before he pulled out. The moan from Buffy almost enough to derail his agenda but not quite. While she reached to pull him back in, Lex shook his head then dropped to his knees. His shoulders slid under her legs and he breathed over damp curls.

The tip of his tongue traced the outer edges, gathering up her taste for him to savor. Which he did, stopping every few moments to swirl it into his mouth and swallow. He teased the inner folds in the same manner before turning his head slightly to open her up. Somewhere between calling his name and trying to move closer, Buffy got what she wanted.

Lex's mouth open over her, his tongue deep inside only to be followed by fingers while he sucked and licked and bit. Teasing her, challenging her... if she wanted him then she would have to take him.

Buffy let him touch and taste for a few long, torturous moments. But she needed him, badly, and she couldn't take any more of this. As much as she loved the way it felt, having his tongue on her, in her, she wanted his cock back inside her. She wanted it now. And after their little talk in the car, she thought she might know what he was doing.

Or, more specifically, trying to get her to do.

She grabbed his arms with her hands and pulled until he was laid out on top of her body. She caught his mouth in a blatantly needy kiss as she scooted them a little farther onto the bed. Then she flipped them over so she was on top. In one smooth move she straddled him and impaled herself on his cock again. Her hands found his and fingers twined together as she sat up and began to rock her hips.

Her eyes glimmered at him and silently asked him if he was happy now? Was this what he wanted?

His answer was to draw their joined hands up above his head. Lex watched her until she released her grip on one hand. He wrapped it around his opposite wrist and moaned in silent approval as she pressed both wrists down into the bed. The silken robe bunched up around his waist, its pearly grey tone a perfect frame for his pale skin.

His hips rose to meet hers, his knees raising to give her back support if she needed it. Her show of force was probably as much as she could manage right now. But some night he'd drag out the serious toys. Show her the extra features of his bed, the metal loops for threading ropes through or chains, the reinforced frame that could probably withstand even Kal's most concerted efforts to fuck either one of them through the mattress and into the floor.

The intent look shifted into a smile when Lex felt the sharp rake of nails along his ribs. Pain, his old friend, shimmered through his veins as the girl above him watched and waited. "Yours, Beauty, yours. Do anything you want to me."

Buffy grinned and nodded. Her eyes closed briefly and she let loose just a little of the wild streak that was part of the Slayer. When her eyes opened again, they flashed at him and if she hadn't already been riding him she'd have pounced on him instantly. Instead she dove in for a deep, possessive kiss, claimed his mouth and his body with hers.

His wrists were still held tightly together with one hand. Her other dug carefully filed fingernails into his side, her thumbnail pressed in just below his nipple. Marking him with little crescent-shapes deep enough to need time to fade. Her hips rocked sharply against his, and something in her reveled in the light smacking sound as their bodies came together.

God, yes. Eyes closed, Lex turned his head to the side. Bared his throat in the ultimate act of submission. Alpha male baring his throat to the other pack leader. To his mate as she took him deeper and deeper.

Any minute, he expected to feel her teeth in his skin. Any minute. His whole body was tensed. Waiting for it, for the sharp sting of the claiming bite. It was the one thing that would break his control. The one thing that would have him coming in the time between one breath and the next.

For a split second, the nature of the Slayer was at odds with the nature of a possessive lover. Lex might not know it, but baring his neck like that was a vampire's act of submission to a lover or a sire. And Slayers weren't vampires, they didn't bite people's necks.

But she wanted to.

God did she want to.

Wanted to mark him like he had marked her. Wanted to leave her own mark on his neck, in the same place hers was.

It only took a heartbeat before she was moving. "Mine," she almost-growled at him, her lips under his ear before moving downward. Moving in, her teeth sharp on his neck. And she only recalled herself when she tasted the sharp, coppery flavor on her tongue.

She'd blooded him. Sliced right through his skin and before he could do anything to stop it, Lex felt the hard pulse in his cock. As his blood spilled into her mouth, his come spilled into that sweet sheath. Utterly silent in his climax, his heels digging into the bed, his back arched... spending into her.

White-hot pleasure entwined with white-hot pain. Electricity under his skin, breath coming in short sobs, tears rolling down his face as he cut his tongue on his teeth. Sharing the same copper that filled her mouth now.

Vicky was beyond insipid in the face of this. Emilie with her soft hands, soft mouth and tight pussy had nothing on this addictive mix. Even Paolo with his canes and a dick that rivaled Clark's for sheer size had never made Lex feel this... possessed. This owned... Whether he said it or not, he was Buffy's willing slave for as long as she would have him.

Lex was bleeding. Oh, God, she'd bitten him and he was bleeding. And coming hard, harder than she'd ever seen anyone come before. And that was the only thing that stemmed her panic; he really did get off on pain, and given his reaction she hadn't hurt him badly enough to be dangerous.

So instead of pulling away and berating herself for losing control, she gentled the bite with her tongue until the bleeding stopped, then lifted her head to kiss away his tears. But she seemed to keep missing some of them, and it took her a moment before she realized the additional ones were hers. She hadn't even felt them as they fell, but there they were, and she continued to ignore them as she spread kisses all over Lex's face.

He turned into her mouth, moaning as his declaration of devotion was swallowed by a kiss. His cock continued to twitch, the orgasm extended beyond normal limits as the sweet siren of pain wrapped round his nerves. He loved her. God, how he loved her.

Not as much as Clark. There was no one he could love as much as Clark but she came close. Lex licked at her mouth when she tried to pull away, begging without words for her stay. To never leave him alone again.

Not only had he come but he was still hard. When the grip on his hands loosened, Lex rolled them both over without breaking the kiss. Pain had another effect on him. It wiped out the down-time.

Buffy moaned into his mouth and wrapped her legs around his waist again when his hips resumed motion. She used her legs to help her raise her hips to meet each of his downward thrusts.

And suddenly, she wanted to know. Wanted him to make her understand what he felt, why he liked it. She didn't care if pain wasn't a kink she had... she had no reason to believe that anything would be the same with Lex as it had been with anybody else. She just wanted to understand him, to be able to know when and where and how, to know what he wanted without actually needing him to tell her.

She just... wanted to get into his head, to be part of him.

"Yours, baby, yours." Spoken against her mouth, the buzz of the words followed by his tongue as he licked at each corner. "You can do anything to me. Anything... I don't care. Never going to touch another woman again... only you."

Strong legs around his back, strong arms around his neck and Lex was sucking on her tongue even as he continued to move over her. Craving more restraint, he slipped his hands in between the headboard and the mattress. When their mouths parted, his pain-dazed eyes met her own. "You're perfect. Everything I ever wanted."

"I've never known anyone else like you, Lex. And now I can't imagine my life without you in it." Her eyes caught and held his with a fierce intensity that lent weight to her soft words. "Never before have I wanted to know every little thing about a person. Never before have I wanted to know even the smallest detail of what you like, never wanted to experience it for myself and know what it makes you feel."

She bit lightly at his lips without ever taking her eyes from his or stopping the movement of her body beneath his. Her fingers slid down his back, red lines following the path of her nails. "But I do want that. I want all of it, everything. With you, for you, because of you. With you and Clark, if he wants to. And no one else will ever touch me again, for the rest of my life."

"I'll tell you everything. Anything you want to know." Lex arched into the kiss of her nails, that movement digging them deeper into his skin. "I love this... love being with you, being inside you."

Control was a thing of the past. He would tell her everything. Tell her about losing Julian, his mother, Pamela... how he lost everyone he loved. How pain was the only thing that took his mind off that loss. He'd tell her about that alley when he was fourteen. He'd tell her about the silken bedrooms and the slums, about hard brick against his face as his pants were pulled down and how anyone... everyone was given access to at least one of the Luthors.

His father had been untouchable, unreachable. The only way to get to him was by dragging the family's good name through the mud. Teenage rebellion, combined with a brilliant mind and a sex drive off the scale had made for a very rocky road to Hell.

It didn't stop until L.A. Until Lex came face-to-face with something worse than his father. When he survived his first vampire, Lex finally understood that trying to impress his father this way would only end up with him dead.

"I want to know everything. As much as you want to know about me, I want to know about you. Everything you can teach me, I want to learn. Everything you can show me, I want to try. Anything." Words poured out of her, springing from her heart, her soul, and she meant every syllable. Her voice softened as she went on, not because she was afraid or unsure, but because she wanted so badly and didn't know how to express it.

"Like you said to me, you can do anything to me. Anything at all. Touch me, tease me, make love to me, fuck me," her voice faltered on the word 'fuck,' in a way that only showed how little she used it, "anything. If you want to hurt me, you can. Because I want to know for myself how it feels to you. I want to know if I can enjoy it the way you do. And if that makes me twisted and sick in some people's opinions, I couldn't care less."

More of an outpouring of devotion that he'd received from anyone in his life. There was no denying how he felt even though it was too damn early to be saying what he knew he was going to say. Lex looked down into her eyes, the movement of his hips stilling as he gazed at her. "Oh Christ... I'll do that, Beauty. I'll teach you. I'll show you everything."

His emotional nature was going to be the death of him but in the face of her utter honesty, Lex didn't care. Caution had been thrown to the wind the instant he'd first kissed her. So it was fitting that his confession be framed with a kiss. Mouth against hers, he finally said it. "I love you. I love you so much."

Buffy almost couldn't believe it. Almost. But she did. She could see it in the outpouring of emotion in his eyes, hear it in his voice, feel it in the way his body pressed into hers. Her eyes widened, flooded with pure joy as she held him tighter and kissed him with all the love in her heart. "Now I am complete," she whispered. "I love you too, Lex. I always will."

Even though their bodies were intertwined, sex really didn't have a place in this. Lex considered pulling out but when he tried to move, the arms around his neck and the legs around his waist held him tighter.

It was strange. He thought his love for her stemmed from his love for Clark but that wasn't the case. This time alone with her and knowing she went against her own instincts to indulge what he needed proved that he could love her an a whole different level. On one that didn't even involve Clark.

Buffy felt him try to move and only clung tighter to him. "Don't go... don't, please," she pleaded with him. He was right where she wanted him, their bodies as closely linked as possible. Her need wasn't about sex, though, so much as having their bodies as closely linked as their emotions.

She pulled him closer until he rested fully on her, cradled against her body and in her arms. Her legs slid down from his hips, over his ass, and down to twine with his legs. Gentle, loving, warm closeness. "It's not about sex, love... I just want you as near to me as possible, to be able to hold you. Please?"

"Of course. Anything you want." Lex relaxed, letting go of the headboard so he could stroke her cheek with reverent fingertips. He said nothing, simply traced the line of each feature as though trying to memorize her.

Which is what he was doing, engraving every inch of her skin in his memory. Something to hold onto when the world slowed down and he could take the time to think and savor this. Maybe forty years from now, or fifty. When they were all old and gray and the passions of youth had faded.

Buffy gave him a gentle smile and let him take his time, touching and memorizing if that's what he was doing. She just enjoyed it; the soft, gentle touches and the reverent feeling in his fingers and in his eyes. "You make me feel like someone special," she whispered softly. "Will you tell me what you're thinking?"

"You are someone special." Soft kiss on her cheek, warm skin and the scent of her filling in the empty places in his soul. "You will be as beautiful as your mother. I want to be there to see it. How is it that we've only known each other for a day and I want to spend my life with you? The rest of my life with you."

"For some few lucky people, it just happens. Their souls meet and connect, and it happens so fast that they couldn't have stopped it if they wanted to." She smiled and kissed him very softly. "And we weren't fighting it at all. I really couldn't be happier, love. I have everything now that I need to make my life worth living, to make me happy. And I want to spend the rest of my life this way, too. With you."

Lex nodded, his smile matching hers. He returned that kiss with one of his own, feeling regret as natural law took over. Momentum and lack of movement as well as the after-glow of a powerful orgasm meant only one thing. He was slipping slowly out of her, unable to make it stop.

But as Buffy said, this wasn't about sex. That could come later. This was about love and trust - two things so rare in his life that Lex wasn't sure what to do next.

Buffy caught the lost look that flickered in Lex's eyes briefly and just held him closer. "It's okay, love," she soothed gently. "Just hold me. Be with me. Talk to me. Anything at all. I just want to soak up this feeling until I've forgotten that I ever felt anything else."

She wanted to let love fill her up until it buried and healed all the hopelessness, the pain and bitterness, the heartache. She wanted to forget the past, forget what Spike had ever done to her and how it felt like hell to be alive again. She just wanted to feel this blissful happiness, the peace and contentment that went with it.

Holding her he could do. Lex wrapped his arms around Buffy and rolled until they were side by side. One of his legs rode between hers and he skimmed his hand down along her arm. Intimacy on this scale was foreign; normally after sex he would get up and shower before sending his partner home. But that was his past and Buffy, she was his future.

Talking about their past would probably disturb Buffy given that she wanted to soak up love. Nothing in his life really equated to love so that was out. Lex propped himself up on one elbow, his gaze sweeping the room and coming to rest on a French tapestry. There was a subject of conversation. "Beauty, have you ever been to Paris?"

Buffy shook her head slowly. "No. Unless you count a drive over the border to Mexico for a weekend, I've never been out of the country. Have you been there?" She was curious, hoping he would tell her about it. She'd always wanted to travel and never been able to. After being Called, she hadn't been able to leave Sunnydale for more than a little while. Had to guard the Hellmouth and all.

"I've been. Spent a month or two. I'll take you there. We have a place on the Rive Gauche." Lex's hand came to rest on her hip, palm down, fingers curving around to caress her. "I'll show you everything. Food, wine, song... we'll cross all the bridges. Climb Notre Dame if you like, although I'm partial to L'Arc du Triomphe."

The light in her eyes was fascinating. It was like the whole world was opening up in front of her as he spoke. "Paris, Rome, London, Athens... wherever you want to go, we can go."

"Can we really?" She knew her eyes were wide and she sounded like an excited little girl, and she couldn't bring herself to care. "I've always wanted to travel. Always wanted to see other places, learn new languages. It was a dream I held on to until it hurt too much." She closed her eyes and snuggled against him, letting his warmth banish the memory of lost dreams. "To be able to go anywhere... that would be so incredible."

"I'll take you everywhere. Australia, Bangkok... although we better wait on that one until Clark's old enough. Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, Cairo. Name a city and I'll take you there." He brushed back her hair and kissed her forehead. "We have a conference in Geneva next month. I don't think Dad will object if I bring my new assistant along. Damien's not on his favorite people list... which is why I normally bring him. But I'd rather take you."

"I'd love to go... it'll be so much fun, even if it's for business. We won't be working all the time, right? We can take some time and look around?" She'd explore, even if she had to get up in the middle of the night to do it. Buffy was used to functioning fully on minimal sleep, after all.

"We can take time to be tourists." His chuckle was muffled as Lex buried his face in her hair. The excesses of the past few days were starting to catch up with him. After a moment or two, the laughter turned into a yawn. He tried to hide it by stretching and pulling her closer. "June is the best time to see Switzerland unless you like to ski."

Buffy smiled and relaxed in Lex's arms. Her eyes were starting to feel heavy and she let them close. "I've never been skiing. California born and bred, remember? I'm sure it'll be lovely while we're there." Her fingertips stroked idly against his back, just the smallest back and forth motion. "And I'd like to take you to England sometime. You and Clark both. So you can meet the rest of my 'family.'"

"Mmmm... I'd like that." Lex heard and felt her muffle a yawn against his chest. "Sleep, love. I'll be here when you wake up. I promise."

Before he closed his eyes, Lex managed to get the coverlet up around both of them. Buffy settled back down into the circle of his arms, sighing and snuggling. Actions that less than two days ago would have turned his stomach. But now Lex found himself relaxing into the whole cuddling experience and actually enjoying it.

Buffy felt Lex relaxing in her arms and smiled against his chest. "I'm glad you feel comfortable with this, love," she murmured. "It feels so nice that I'm glad I don't have to give it up. I like being close to you, even just casually."

"Mmmmm," was his only response. Morpheus was tugging on his eyelids, weighing them down to the point where they could no longer be kept open. Hades had his Persephone, Hephaestus his Aphrodite and Alexander lay on his back with his beloved wrapped in his arms. The only thing that would make this perfect would be to feel Hephaestion beside him. To lie in comfort between the warm bodies of those he loved until the call to war came again.

Unaware that his thoughts, his fantasies, were forming into words, Lex drifted off to sleep. He nuzzled closer to Buffy, sighing happily into her hair.

Oh, God... did he really think of her that way? Persephone or Aphrodite? No wonder he made her feel like a goddess sometimes. It took her sleepy mind a few minutes longer to place the name Hephaestion. But it was another name out of Greek history/mythology. Hephaestion was the lover of Alexander the Great... interesting way to characterize himself and Clark, but then, Lex did seem to have a thing for the Greeks. He'd mentioned it yesterday, too.

She snuggled as close to him as she could as her mind at last began to drift into sleep. A soft, happy sigh sent a warm breath across Lex's chest, but neither of them was awake to feel it anymore.

*****

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