Lex held him with a steady gaze while his tongue flicked out, licking lips that curled into a sexy smile Clark felt in his knees. “I’m game.”

Before Clark could respond, Lex nodded at their waiter, who smiled back at them and sped from the main room. He watched the tuxedoed man disappear, very aware that Lex was tucking the ring back into his pocket. The waiter came into his view, reappearing with a generous dish of tira misu, another of his favorites.

He looked up from the dessert to see Lex watching him expectantly, waiting for a concession about the ring. Clark thought about rambling off the list of reasons he wasn’t going to wear it.

It was too dangerous, too uncertain, too unpredictable. There was no way to stop the effects unless he removed the ring himself. Unless… but somehow, Clark didn’t think Lex kept a sledgehammer in the penthouse. Lex seemed so pleased with the gift, the idea. Clark didn’t want to ruin their dinner or their anniversary, but he couldn’t say yes either. “I’ll think about it.”

But it wasn’t even an option, not really. Even with some maturity and life experience under his belt, there was no way to predict what wearing that ring might do to him now.

Halfway through the dessert, Clark dropped the spoon and sat back, unable to finish. Food was a rude, thick reminder of the only real necessity in his life. Lex’s gray eyes glinted with a quiet devotion that seemed enough to make Clark forget about the ring he didn’t get tonight, the ring so much of him had craved, needed.

The ring that would be more than a toy.

Lex smiled gently and leaned forward, a full body gesture, and Clark knew anyone watching had no doubts about the nature of their relationship.

“Let’s go home, Clark.” That fast, Lex stood, inclined his head at the waiter and pulled out his wallet.

The cheque paid, their coats were brought to them and Clark watched as Lex slid into his, donning it like a second skin.

Long black overcoat hanging open like he was too sexy to ever get cold, Lex blazed a trail through the restaurant. The door was opened for them and Lex didn’t pause to thank anyone, but Clark nodded his appreciation to the doorman on the way out.

Outside, the air was cool and clean, the sleek black limo gleaming with raindrops. Streetlights threw a muted sheen on oily pavement, and big, cold drops continued to fall so steadily that Clark felt himself grinning at the promise of snowfall overnight.

It wasn’t the childish prospect of escaping Met U for a snow day, but a guilty secret desire that the morning would find the roads too icy to drive, and he might have Lex all to himself for the entire day. The last time that happened it hadn’t taken long for Lex’s ever-present laptop and mobile phone to be forgotten at the foot of the bed.

He fell in beside Lex on the deep rear seat, the heavy door closing with a discrete thunk. The warmth of the interior wrapped around him, a visceral pleasure; he imagined it enveloping them like the thick down comforter on Lex’s bed—a quiet shared intimacy.

The ride home was always a relief to Clark after their “romantic dinners.” Like tonight, he was used to them being anything but romantic. The attention Lex drew wherever he went made their public outings together date-simulations at best, the lie compounded, made all the more painful each time they marked their anniversary. He understood all the reasons for the charade; agreed with them most of the time, even. But still, it made him ache even more for the freedom to be honest about his life. He knew Lex understood his melancholy mood on such nights even if they rarely talked about it.

Recessed bulbs bathed the compartment in a dim, golden glow that Clark absently reached to completely extinguish as the car pulled away from the curb. His attention turned to the patterns streaking down the dark glass, rivulets charting ever-changing landscapes. Fat, beaded drops slid down, prisming the light from neon signs and traffic signals. Sharp, glittering jewel tones that wouldn’t let him forget the ring he hadn’t been able to accept at dinner. The ring Lex had taken off the table and returned to his pocket – ostensibly forgotten, but probably weighing as heavily on Lex’s mind as it was on his own.

Heavy like the weight of Lex’s patient regard, and when Clark finally turned to face him, his heart tripped in acknowledgment of the stark beauty before him.

Lex’s face never ceased to fascinate him. He could sometimes just look up and catch Lex in a random moment—sensual lips quirking at some private thought while he read the paper over his morning coffee, slate eyes lively with genuine laughter when he scored off Clark during a rare Playstation marathon. Or like right now, when the hunger he felt for Clark lay raw and vulnerable in his expression. In those unexpected moments, Clark would be struck momentarily dumb by his good fortune, by his love for Lex.

Light and shadow from passing headlights and streaming rain were in constant play across pale features. Shadowy streams moved on Lex’s cheeks, nose, lips and chin, tempting Clark to reach out, to wipe at the flowing lines. The images transferred to the back of his hand as he rubbed along Lex’s jawline, curving his fingers along the milky neck.

They leaned forward in unison, lips brushing in the softest of kisses, a brief, chaste caress before he gently pushed Lex back onto the seat. He loved the feel of Lex’s body moving under his while his lover took the kiss ever deeper, slick tongue stroking into him, tasting him, taking pleasure in him. Lex’s hands went to his face and pushed him up, separating them for a moment. He rubbed his hips against Lex’s, grinding down into hard flesh and muscle as he tried to keep his balance on the slick leather of the seat.

Lex gazed up into his eyes, the unspoken words there, strong and sure, almost enough to make up for never hearing them aloud. He believed the look in Lex’s eyes, in the firm hold on his body, but sometimes he needed the kind of proof Lex always demanded from him.

Clark slipped his hands into the heat under Lex’s jacket, massaging lean ribs. A giddy rush of emotion caught his breath as hard muscles shifted and rippled under the fine silk shirt, under skin he knew to be just as soft and lustrous as the material covering it. Tongues sliding fast and wet against each other, long legs tangled together, pressed against the side of the car. He moved his thigh down into Lex’s growing arousal just to feel Lex gasp into his mouth.

Teeth bit hard into his lip and long fingers pushed against his shoulders, pushed him back. Lex stared up at him with kiss-swollen lips and heavy-lidded eyes and Clark was in his good fortune place again, all heavy breathing and stupid grin and thrusting hips.

A hand tangled in his hair, keeping inches of space between their lips as Lex spoke. “You’re so quiet tonight. I want to hear you, Clark. Tell me all the things you want me to do to you. All the things you know I’m going to do to you when I get you home.”

Clark captured Lex’s lips in another frantic kiss, groaning his frustration into the other man, but knew he didn’t stand a chance. Lex was fascinated with his mouth—hard not to figure that out the way he sometimes watched Clark speak; watched Clark shape every word, and Lex especially liked the dirty ones. He might even have gotten off on hearing what Clark really wanted to do, but that didn’t mean he’d let him do it. And Clark couldn’t ask again, couldn’t bear to be told no again.

“I want you to – oh fuck – yes.” The words stuck in his throat, finally spilling out as a moan when strong hands tightened on his ass, pulling him down to grind harder between Lex’s legs. Such a mean thing for Lex to tease him with, and he groaned his frustration, rubbing in slow, rhythmic motions, the leather creaking beneath his knees.

Lex’s slow, knowing smile made his cock jump, and there was a big hand sliding over his stomach, inching between them, rubbing him through his slacks. Lex’s hot mouth on his throat, sucking just hard enough to pull the needy whimpers from him that made him want to scream yes and more and harder and fuck. Anything, everything Lex wanted to hear. Couldn’t manage anything sexier than, “Yes, Lex. Yes.”

Teeth grazed their way along the line of his jaw and Lex’s tongue was deep in his ear, sending a shiver all the way down his body. He threw his head back with a throaty moan, his hands moving down to cover Lex’s hips, hold them still while he thrust hard, forcing Lex’s legs up. Thighs gripping his waist and he pumped harder, pushing Lex deeper into the seat beneath them.

Lex breathed into his ear, “So sexy… Three years, Clark, and I want you more every day.”

“Oh, God.”

“Talk to me, Clark. We’re almost to the penthouse. What are we going to do tonight?”

Ragged breathing echoed in the small space, their bodies frozen in the erotic pose. He slid his cock between Lex’s legs, material a hated thing now. He wouldn’t dare try anything like this naked, Lex would never let him.

Clark swallowed the lump in his throat and licked his lips. He loved Lex like this, hanging breathless on his every word. “I’m going to- I want you to fuck me, Lex. I want you to fuck me for hours.” It was almost what he really wanted to say. Not really a lie. All the right pronouns were present anyway. “Fuck me, Lex. I want you inside me.”

The limo glided to a halt and Lex pushed him up and off before Clark could get his feet under him, hand clutching at his sleeve.

Lex flung open the door, startling the approaching doorman, and climbed out of the limo, pulling Clark behind him. Ten steps passed in six and they were in out of the drizzling rain, jacket shoulders barely spotted from the drops. The elevator was never empty, a fact that Lex lamented often and from the look on his face, was silently cursing as they rode the long haul to the penthouse. In the mirrored doors, he saw Lex grin at the back of the elevator attendant’s head, then felt Lex’s hand sweep over his ass.

Clark shot him a scandalized look because he knew he was supposed to, then smiled and looked back to the doors of the elevator.

Inside the penthouse, Lex’s hands were on him before the door even clicked shut, tugging at the buttons of his stiff dress shirt, sliding Lex’s own silk tie from Clark’s collar, dropped forgotten to the floor. Pulling and groping their way down the hall between desperately breathless kisses against the walls, they stumbled into the bedroom.

Clark caressed the smooth naked skin of Lex’s throat, neck and scalp, so soft under his fingers. The fine silk of his shirt didn’t compare to Lex’s skin and he had to touch what was exposed, had to satisfy that familiar, urgent need before he could concentrate on exposing more. Lex’s hands connected low on his stomach, brushing, almost tickling there, then moving on the zipper of his pants, knuckles grazing his erection. Clark pressed his lips into the fragrant hollow beneath Lex’s perfectly-shaped ear.

Clark toed off his shoes and stretched down to peel off his socks while Lex claimed his mouth again, probing the dark recess behind his upper lip before sucking first it and then the lower into his mouth to be teased with teeth and tongue. Pants slipping off his hips and pooling at his ankles, he kicked them aside. He started to protest the loss of contact when Lex pushed him away with both hands on his chest, but the sensual promise in blue-gray eyes silenced him. He let himself be guided back, didn’t look over his shoulder to see where he was going, just let Lex move him. He fell onto the thick bedding when Lex gave another light push.

Lex stepped back and Christ, he could have been a stripper, because he knew exactly how to turn buttons into sexy, lewd objects and zippers into phallic playthings. Shirt buttons flicked open under nimble fingers before cuff links were slowly, methodically removed, shirt cuffs hanging open around strong, elegantly-boned wrists. Just more skin Clark’s hands were itching to touch.

Lex’s smug look told Clark that he knew exactly the effect he was having, and with Clark’s boxers tenting he guessed it wasn’t that big a mystery, but the way Lex looked. Small, secret smile and knowing eyes, and fuck, pink tongue lingering in the groove of the forever-fascinating scar, wetting lips Clark could still taste from the kisses they’d shared earlier, licking right where Clark wanted to be.

“There’s one more thing I want to give you, Clark.”

Anything. Clark wanted it all, wanted everything Lex was with an intensity that eclipsed everything else.

His senses were firing, completely attuned to every rasp of fabric, every shift of muscle, to the ebb and flow of blood through Lex’s rapidly-beating heart. Pale purple silk skittered along perfect, smooth skin as it slid down Lex’s arms and that was his new favorite sound, although it would probably lose rank when Lex spoke again.

Black pants that would shred under his eager hands right now whispered along Lex’s legs instead, falling in a rush to the floor, and the sight of Lex totally naked was something he would never, ever get enough of. There was something so sexy about the way clothes just melted off of him, the way Lex left them lying on the floor instead of bending to pick them up. Like habits and things were so easily forgotten when Lex was undressing, thinking about him.

Blinking was a foreign concept now, something he used to do, because he couldn’t miss a second of Lex crawling over his body. Lex’s fingers hooked inside the waistband of his boxers and slid them down, then he moved up, licking and sucking his way from hipbones to collar bone. Even achingly hard, Clark wanted it like this, slow and sensual and exactly how Lex always was.

Lex climbed up his body, chest moving above Clark’s face as he stretched up for something above their heads. Lex’s nipple brushed his cheek and Clark couldn’t help but arch up into the strength, the heat that hovered over him, his body begging for contact, his lips burning to pull that tempting flesh into his mouth for one brief taste.

A soft, soothing voice vibrated into his neck, sending ripples of pleasure down into his chest as Lex tucked a pillow under his head. “Relax, Clark.”

Somewhere along Lex’s slick, wet journey from ear to cock, Clark closed his eyes. Nipples sucked, rolled between teeth and that made the trip as much fun as the destination. Warmth, damp and familiar, wrapped slowly around his cock. Clark sank into the bed, losing himself in the tight pull, in the lips that circled him, sliding up and down over desperately sensitive skin.

So easy to just open his eyes and watch Lex, but one moment of gray eyes seducing his own and there would be nothing left of his agonizingly slow, deliriously good self-torture. He’d come hot and hard down Lex’s throat and it would be over way too soon.

So he squeezed his eyes tighter, willing his brain to steer clear of any accidental x-ray moments, focusing on the push of Lex’s fingers into his thighs. He gave into the pressure there and spread them further apart, feet sliding against the cool sheets. Insistent hands urging his thighs higher and he knew Lex was looking, knew he was seeing every part of him and hesitated. Lex moaned around his cock and Clark let go, let the shyness melt out of him and puddle on the floor. He reached down and wrapped his hands around the front of his own ankles, lifting his legs up against the sides of his chest.

The mouth on his cock disappeared, leaving it to slap gently against his stomach. Lex licked his own fingers and Clark pumped into thin air at the wet sound. Fingers slid against his ass, behind his balls, trailing wetness wherever they touched, pressed. Arched up and remembered to squeeze his eyelids tight again. Couldn’t look, couldn’t watch this if he wanted to come with Lex in him, and he did. Christ, he did.

Teeth scraped along the juncture of leg and torso and Clark bucked up into them, every muscle tense with anticipation. Lex’s tongue, flat and wide, licking once over his cock, pressure hard and wonderful. Down the length and Lex could just do that a few more times and this would be over. Lips kneading his balls, mouthing them wet and slippery, then the warmth, the wetness moving lower, moving too low, sending a shock through his body and he almost, almost didn’t jerk away from it. But then he opened his eyes, saw Lex’s eyes closed, his tongue darting out to taste him and he felt his body heat with stinging embarrassment, dropped his legs to thwart Lex’s intentions.

Lex’s hands tightened on his thighs, a clear attempt at restraint and one he would normally defer to, even though they both knew Lex was no match for him.

“Clark, please. I want- I want to do this.” Lex’s head nuzzled between his legs, hands pushing them insistently apart and the hot tongue swiped across him again. He bolted up, pulling gently at Lex’s shoulders, trying to get his arms around Lex and move him before Lex could respond.

“Clark, don’t. Let me give this to you.”

Clark’s stomach dropped for the second time tonight. Another unwelcome anniversary gift, but he didn’t want to be upset, didn’t want to feel resentment tonight. Lex was generous to a fault with him, and he would never harbor a selfish motive, not with him. Lex wanted him to enjoy this, wanted him to feel good and wanted them to know each other in every possible way. Clark knew it was true, even if it didn’t feel that way.

Lex’s hand released his thigh and brushed at his arm. Clark relented, hands dropping heavily down on the bed. Lex’s mouth reconnected at his hip, sliding lower with each dizzying second and he wanted it, needed to give Lex what he wanted, but couldn’t bear to think of Lex’s tongue on him there. Lex’s lips didn’t stop moving though. Didn’t stop slipping lower and down, sucking thin skin gently between them.

“Lex, I- it’s…” Clark shook his head, couldn’t call something that felt that good ‘disgusting.’

He pulled at Lex’s arms again, not quite hard enough to actually move him, but hard enough that Lex should definitely get the hint. Lex’s tongue licked a slow, lazy circle and Clark gasped, panting a protest. “No, stop.. it’s—”

The warmth jolting his body stopped and he looked down to see Lex smiling up at him. “It’s what, Clark? I just want to taste you.” The words sounded so fucking sexy and Lex could seduce anyone with words like “taste” and “want.” Clark let his eyes fall closed and he stifled a moan when the tongue returned to the inside of his thigh, slipping back to the one place he’d never let Lex explore this way.

“Shh. Just relax, Clark. Let me show you how good it can feel.” One long swipe and he clutched the sheets in his fists for a torturously electric moment, veins pulsing with pleasure and the thrill of something that his mind couldn’t wrap completely around, couldn’t allow him to enjoy, because it just wasn’t right.

He sucked in a quick breath and he could smell himself, could practically taste what Lex was tasting. The realization, the knowledge that Lex was pushing his tongue inside him sent shivers over his body. He slid back on the bed, pushing away from Lex, and sat up, praying that Lex wouldn’t be angry this time. “Lex, please. Just… don’t, okay?”

Lex slowly moved to sit back on his heels, eyes closed, head thrown back with a deep exasperated sigh, and not. Saying. Anything.

“Lex, don’t be mad. You know I get embarrassed—”

Lex opened his eyes, lowering them to meet his and there was frustration there, but such obvious tenderness, too. He did want to please Lex, desperately, but he was asking for things Clark couldn’t give him. Why was he making Clark deny him?

“Yes, I know you get embarrassed.” Lex reached out to soothe, palming his hand down Clark’s thigh to finger the sensitive flesh behind his knee while he continued. “Clark, I don’t want to pressure you to do something you’re not comfortable with, but this is why I thought the ring might be a good idea. I just want you to relax. To lose some of your inhibitions. I just want you to enjoy everything that we can do together.”

Lex shifted to lean over the side of the bed and retrieve his suit jacket from the floor. Clark watched as Lex reached in the pocket and pulled out the small blue velvet box. Temptation in a perfect little package.

The lid opened with a distinct snap and he knew it was only a trick of the light, but the stone seemed to glow from within.

Clark tore his eyes away to look back at Lex, whose shallow breath was coming faster, eyes fixed intently now, willing him to rise to this challenge, and Lex wanted this more than he had guessed. Lex wanted this and Clark knew he’d do anything, he’d give anything Lex asked of him, even this. Looking up into the gray eyes that blinked slowly with a seductive patience, Clark wondered if there had ever really been any doubt. He licked his suddenly dry lips and hesitantly nodded his assent.

The smile that lit Lex’s face steeled his conviction, and Clark offered his hand for the transformation. He watched breathless as Lex slipped the beautiful and terrible thing onto his finger and let himself imagine for one moment how it would feel when he and Lex shared an exchanging of rings that would represent their commitment, rings that meant they were bound to each other forever. Someday maybe the ring Lex slid onto his finger would be more than a game or a gift.

It would be everything.

He savored the dream of forever for a too-short moment before the meteor’s effects swept through him in an exhilarating rush of primal awareness.

Lex smoothed the ring onto a long tanned finger and shook off the surge of misgiving he felt, slowly raising his eyes to search Clark’s face for signs of alteration.

Clark stared back unflinchingly, changeable eyes warm amber tonight, and Lex couldn’t help but think of a large cat, Clark’s languid pose a mirage shimmering with the promise of explosive power. Power that was always an element with Clark’s long muscular limbs laid bare, but it was suddenly palpable in the air and Lex felt his own cock swelling in response.

Lex opened his mouth to ask him how he felt and Clark’s legs fell open suggestively, brow raised in mocking invitation. Lex’s cock jumped.

“Clark?”

“Do it, Lex. Lick me.” Clark’s hand moved to tug on his own hardening cock. “I want it. Now.”

Lex’s brain fizzled under the heat radiating from Clark’s eyes and his body, and now from his mouth, too. Beautiful lips spilling hard, dirty words that Clark knew he craved, and he didn’t waste any time complying with Clark’s demand.

He stretched out on his stomach between wide-spread thighs as Clark’s hands lifted them up, pulling them further apart, and Lex moaned, buried his face deep in the heat between Clark’s legs. Breathed Clark’s smell—sharp, unadulterated essence of pure, sweet boy, and he flicked his tongue reverently over the dark center.

Clark didn’t pull away, didn’t push him away. This time Clark moaned and lifted his hips off the bed, not trying to escape but begging for more, and Lex was eager to give it. He lapped at the surface like a cat with cream until he felt the tight ring of resistance begin to unfurl under his attention. His tongue pushed deep into the clenching center. Acutely aware of Clark jacking hard on his own cock, Lex stretched his tongue in as far as he could, nose and mouth sealed closed against the cloying flesh.

“Oh, fuck, yes. Deeper, Lex.”

He watched Clark writhe, pinching and pulling at his nipples with his free hand. Lex thrust his tongue hard into his lover, sliding it slowly in and out, again and again, until he was forced to pull back and gasp for breath.

“Fuck, don’t stop. Harder, Lex. Make me come.”

Lex took another deep breath and filled his mouth with Clark’s balls, rolling and tonguing them, watching Clark pump his cock. Watching Clark watching him with an avarice that fed his own. Felt himself drooling, and pulled back to lick his saliva from between Clark’s legs, lips and tongue sucking and slurping down again, down for another taste of heaven, groaning his bliss into Clark.

“I want to fuck you, Lex.” And Clark was arching up, shaking the bed, coming hard, groaning the words. Words he had heard from Clark before, but never like that.

He pulled back and savored the sight as Clark’s body rippled with the aftershocks of orgasm. Wiped his chin with the back of his hand and drank in the sight of Clark, spread out before him, open and confident. They’d had sex too many times for Clark to qualify as newly-debauched, but that was exactly how he appeared, angelic features flushed with sweat and sex, eyes heavy lidded in satiated afterglow, lips ripe and swollen. Lex loved that he could do this to Clark. His cock loved that he could this to Clark, and now it was demanding equal attention.

“Turn over for me, Clark.” His voice shook with tightly reined lust, and damn, but that ring was proving worth every penny.

Clark pushed up on his elbows, negligently wiping his stomach clean with a corner of the soft comforter in favor of the tissues that were kept so easily within reach. His foot rubbed long lines along Lex’s thigh, chin tilting up and a wide smile spreading his lips. “Not this time, Lex. You turn over for me.” Clark challenged, licking red lips, eyes like hot hands moving greedily over Lex’s body.

“What?” He laughed softly, admiring Clark’s audacity. Sexy as hell delivered out of that soft, fuckable mouth.

Clark was still touching himself, the sated cock quickly returning to a more demanding state under the rough strokes. He could stay right there, just watching Clark’s body respond to his own touches, for hours.

“Come on, Lex, we’re just getting started,” he waggled his ring finger, catching the room’s soft light in the glowing stone. “I’m going to give you what you paid for.”

For one heart-stopping moment, Lex’s chest tightened with the certainty that this was a mistake. Clark sounded bitter, almost angry, and Lex did not want to see Clark angry in bed, especially not while wearing that particular ring. He inhaled deeply, eyes trying to a read the face that was usually so open and… There – there it was. Familiar hazel eyes filled with obvious amusement as they roamed unabashedly over Lex’s body. Lust edging Clark’s features, but something more too. Something slightly wicked, but he didn’t think that was a bad thing. So, okay, no need to rush things. If Clark still wanted to play, they could play.

Lex considered the body spread boneless before him; his own private playground. Hell, Clark’s body was a fucking amusement park, and right now he couldn’t decide which attraction was most deserving of his attention.

He leaned down to press another kiss on the soft inner face of Clark’s thigh before swiping his tongue across the weeping cock head. His neck strained with the effort to brace himself over slim hips when Clark’s hand stopped working the shaft and reached out to pull him all the way down on its length.

His entire body tensed until he realized just how pointless any resistance was. A low chuckle above his head told him that particular fact had not gone unnoticed by Clark, either. The hand palming the back of his head urged him down again and he opened his throat, letting Clark slide deeper. One thrust became five in a brutal, dizzying rhythm and just like that Clark was trying to fuck his way to another orgasm. Lex wasn’t having it; as much as he was enjoying the new aggressiveness, Clark still wasn’t running this show—super-powers be damned. On the next outstroke, he pushed the warm hand away and pulled off Clark with a wet pop.

He smirked at the clearly frustrated boy and crawled his way up Clark’s body, leaving a wet trail of rapidly-vanishing bite marks across the tight abdomen and ribs, relishing every little twitch and quiver under his mouth. Clark was making him work for each reaction, swallowing all the sweet mewling sounds that normally accompanied their sex play.

He had just started teasing Clark’s taut nipples when he found himself flat on his back. Lex’s brain caught up with his body and he felt heavy limbs suddenly pinning him to the bed. Flashes of hiding in closets, feeling small and weak and he could almost remember being there, not that he wanted to. Not when Clark’s sharp teeth bit hard into his shoulder.

The pain shot through his neck and back, his body shuddering, a strangled cry escaping his lips. “Jesus, Clark! Yes, do that again.” And again, and again, because Clark wasn’t holding back now, wasn’t being careful, and Lex had dreamed of this. It didn’t even matter that Clark was looking at him like he was the alien here. Fuck that because yeah, biting’s a kink, but it wasn’t like Clark hadn’t known about it since day one.

“Do it, Clark.” He was not pleading, except this Clark was starting to feel like a tease.

“You want me to hurt you, Lex?”

“Yes.” Emphatically. “Christ, it feels so good.”

Clark’s teeth sank into his skin again at the same bruised juncture of neck and shoulder, breaking the surface this time and ripping a hoarse scream from him. A dizzying rush of air and the world went black, his pained ecstatic cry muffled by a pillow. One large hand, strong between his shoulder blades, pressing him down into the mattress. His face flattened, Lex sucked breath desperately through thick cotton. Before he could form thoughts or words, a second hand snaked around his belly and yanked, lifting his ass high in the air.

Clark leaned over him, cock grinding into the cleft of Lex’s ass, and murmured, “Then you’re going to feel this everywhere, Lex.”

Sharp blade of panic cutting deep before he remembered that, ring or not, this was still Clark. “Clark, stop. You know that’s not what I meant.”

“Don’t worry, I know just what you meant. You’ve been teaching me for three years how to interpret your hidden meanings, haven’t you, Lex?”

The bitterness in Clark’s voice sent a chill down his spine. He’d heard bitterness before, was a self-acknowledged expert on it, but he’d never heard that brand of sarcasm from Clark’s lips. He wasn’t sure how to react. Hell, he wasn’t even entirely sure what the problem was, and he definitely wasn’t in a position to soothe his frustration.

Clark obviously had other ideas for working out his feelings, hips pumping against his ass, rubbing the length of his cock roughly across the sensitized flesh of his hole, Hurt feelings be damned, Clark knew the rules. He found himself moving, clutching at the sheets, making a real effort to get away—out from under arms and hands that gripped like steel. He was not going to panic. Clark was not going to fuck him. Clark knew him, knew fucking him wasn’t an option. He relaxed back into the motions and Clark’s hand stroked soothingly down his body. The thrusts slowed and he lifted his head, drew in a deep breath.

It was a short-lived reprieve, because Clark was suddenly teasing him with a spit-slicked finger. He jerked in the unyielding embrace. “Whoa, Lex, easy. You wanted me to enjoy myself, didn’t you? Isn’t that what my anniversary present was all about?”

“Clark, I said stop! This is not a game.”

Clark’s low laugh raised goosebumps on Lex’s spine. “It’s always a game, Lex, and you always win.” A blunt finger slipped inside him; fucking him gently; making him shiver. “But not this time.”

“Clark, you know I don’t do that.” He spoke with every iota of Luthor authority he could muster, satisfied by the even tone of command.

“Where’s your ring, Lex?”

His mouth snapped shut on three completely inadequate responses before conceding to himself that Clark’s point was valid. Not that he’d concede it to Clark. He didn’t do that. Period and end of discussion.

Clark’s finger disappeared as he sat back on his heels and wrapped both arms tightly around him.

Lex’s mind calmed under the balm of silky curls and hot breath caressing his back, sliding low and lower. Clark’s face buried in the small of his back, licking cool stripes there, moaning frustration against his spine. “I want inside you, Lex. Please, I want all of you.”

Even with the mouth sucking low on his back, he was pretty sure Clark was talking about something other than fucking now. Or something in addition to fucking. Either way, he wasn’t prepared. Like a bad dream, he was on the spot and had nothing fucking prepared. He was opening his mouth to say God knows what when he felt Clark’s tongue move lower, move deliberately against him, and what came out of his mouth was as incoherent to him as to Clark, he was sure.

Clark’s tongue laved against him and relief crashed through his body. And fuck yes, unspeakable pleasure too. Clark’s mouth on his asshole, and he never would have imagined that even red meteorite could overcome that particular inhibition, but so much the better.

Lex’s chest and shoulders sank, relaxing into the soft bedding, tension draining away, and he was offering himself freely now because Clark was playing nice, giving again. Giving him something he’d been asking for for years.

Clark’s face pressed hard against his ass, tongue circling and pushing its way past the resistant ring of muscle, delving deep inside. The vibrations of a moan Lex could feel in his spine made his body tense with ripples of pleasure, his feet flexed with the urge to move, push down onto Clark’s mouth. Too soon, the slick fullness was gone and Clark’s breath ghosted up over his back. “Mmm, Lex. You taste so good. Tell me again why we didn’t do this sooner?”

“Fuck, Clark.” Lex’s muffled groan was all the response he could manage as he clenched his stomach, turning his head to the side, sucking in a breath heavy with the scent of Clark and sex and himself. It was a rhetorical question, anyway. Clark knew damned well why they’d never done this before, and it wasn’t Lex’s hang-up.

He wanted to say that to Clark, but that mouth was back on him, sucking and biting at his very core, and all he could do was writhe down into the white-hot desire that multiplied with every thrust of Clark’s tongue. So fucking good and damn, when Clark decided to try something new, he gave it his all. Jesus Christ, one touch and he knew he wouldn’t need anything else, he was going to come from just this. Moved to wrap his fist around his throbbing cock, but Clark caught both his hands behind his back in a tight grasp. He yanked at the vice-like grip on his wrists, hoping Clark would relent. “Clark, I need …”

Couldn’t talk, couldn’t fucking speak when Clark thrust deeper inside him and laughed, laughed against his skin, then pulled back and nipped the flesh of his ass with a quick bite. Lex bucked helplessly, thrusting into nothing but air, his brain and cock pleading for contact with skin, sheets – fuck – anything because he needed more. Or Christ, maybe he didn’t, maybe he could come just from this, from Clark’s tormenting him this way, if he didn’t go mad first.

“You like that, Lex?” Clark’s open mouth soothed his stinging flesh before biting hard again, and Lex’s eyes watered with the delirious pain. “Biting or licking – which do like more?” Clark’s tongue dipped in to tease Lex’s spasming, and what the fuck was Clark asking? Which one? Why the hell did he have to choose? “Clark, please...”

“Don’t even think about fighting me, Lex. We both know you’ll lose.” Clark’s free hand swept possessively over the planes of his back and buttocks, twisting skin painfully between his strong fingers, jolts of raw sensation that lashed at his painful erection. One arm snaked around his neck, squeezing his throat hard, and Clark pulled him upright, his sweat-slick back sliding against Clark’s chest, his still-trapped hands bumping on Clark’s hard cock.

“Or is that what you want?” Clark’s voice a low growl that made him quiver in anticipation and trepidation, both. “It is, isn’t it? You want to lose. You want me to rip the pleasure from you. Force you to feel it. That’s what I think you need, Lex.”

The bones of his wrists ground together in Clark’s tight grip. The arm around his neck slacked, smeared sweat across his chest, then disappeared, only to close powerfully on the back of his neck, shoving him forward on the bed. There was nowhere to go but the wall and his cheek hit the paint there with a loud slap. His mind was racing a thousand directions at once. There was no way to know what Clark had in mind, but so far he couldn’t complain. Clark was obviously having fun and hell, he’d play along just to see where this was going.

Clark’s breath hot and moist in his ear as he whispered “Did you like that, Lex? Is this what you bargained for?”

Turning his head, Lex laughed over his shoulder. “Fuck, yes, Clark. You’re so fucking hot like this.” Hell if he was going to let Clark think his little mind games had him fazed.

“Yeah? Then you’re going to love this…”

Hard, tight press of Clark’s body against his back, sharp carvings of the wooden headboard digging into his chest, and fuck, he couldn’t move. Not at all, not with Clark’s fingers denting the flesh low on his neck, holding him easily in place. A brief, childish “not fair” thought flew across his brain, leaving the corners of his mouth turned up in a grin. “You know, Clark—”

Warm, flesh pressed over his nose and mouth and he mumbled another word before stopping, knowing the effort would be lost behind the wall of Clark’s hand. Couldn’t speak now, couldn’t resist whatever Clark was going to do. Clark’s mouth sucking high on the back of his neck, marking him and fuck that was just… fuck, Clark knew better, knew that wasn’t allowed. Marked for everyone, everyone with sight, to see.

The lips released his throat and licked across the bruised skin, across to linger just under his ear. “You were right, Lex. I am enjoying myself.”

He knew this game intimately, had played it before, but not with Clark. The removal of freedoms, one by one. First, freedom of movement. That was always first, always the hardest for him to bear, the sweetest to fight for, fight against. The most incredibly high feeling when he finally let go of the fear, let go and just gave himself up to whatever, whoever was taking it from him.

He struggled, twisting a little against the painful hold on his neck, and Clark’s deep voice rumbled against his ear again. “Give up, Lex. We both know you can’t get away.”

His mind raced with options as his muscles worked futilely against a solid wall of flesh behind him, each plan had to be crossed off as a failure. Sweat beaded on his face, slid down and traced the edge of Clark’s fingers before falling to cool, wet on his chest. Liquid proof of his effort and the physical manifestation of fear was the sexiest fucking thing ever. He wanted to stretch down and lick it off of himself, taste what Clark was doing to him, doing to his mind.

Asthma used to be his worst enemy, and now it was Clark’s hand closed tightly over his face, denying him breath and words. Hot breath tickled his ear and brushed along his cheek, taunting him, and Clark had to know what he was doing, had to know the breath on Lex’s face just made him crave air more. So this was the real Clark Kent, or at least one version.

Lex embraced the claustrophobia that burned in his chest. Claustrophobia? No. His lungs were burning from the lack of oxygen, not fear. His head lightened gloriously and if Clark hadn’t done this before, he couldn’t tell. Clark seemed eerily calm behind him, the hand not holding him in place gently stroking his thigh in rhythmic lines, squeezing, kneading the muscles there when they began to shake. Clark wasn’t holding his wrists, didn’t need to, and Lex reached up and clutched at the headboard to steady himself. His muscles rebelled and he cursed himself as he relaxed back into the solid form he knew wouldn’t let him fall. Not even if he passed out and ruined the fun.

Desperation forced his lungs to work and he sucked hard against the hand on his face, nose closing tight and teeth clamping down on the flesh of Clark’s palm when it didn’t give, didn’t move. Body stinging from the deprivation, veins pulling, pulsing with the denial that Clark seemed so eager to continue.

Couldn’t help but jump at the broken silence, the smug voice he didn’t know, didn’t recognize, not even that close to his ear. “I never understood why you like having control so much, Lex. Until now.”

Clark’s hand yanked back on his face and familiar, delicious pink lips moved to kiss him on his temple. He strained to see the mouth he longed to kiss as Clark whispered. “I could kill you right now. Take back the life I gave you. How’s that for control, Lex?”

Under the wave of irrational fear, Lex tried to swallow, his brain lashing out when he realized he couldn’t even swallow without breath. He closed his eyes, willing calm, rational thoughts to return to him. Clark would never hurt him, never let anything happen to him. Not even with the ring. Clark could kill him, but he wouldn’t. Why would he? The ring wasn’t supposed to change him, it was just supposed to give him the confidence to be the person he couldn’t let himself be otherwise. The person that took, the person that could let himself explore kinks like this. Harmless kinks, he reminded himself. Kinks like his own, taking pleasure in pain and fear. He and Clark grew more alike with every breath he didn’t take.

His body shook with the need to breathe, and his neck went slack, head laying heavily back on Clark’s shoulder. He was losing the fight, losing the will to fight. Couldn’t grasp a thought beyond the strangely-familiar feeling of drowning.

The hand on his thigh drifted slowly around, first cupping his balls gently, then wrapping tightly around his half-hard cock, stroking steadily. Clark was rubbing his cock; was that supposed to be reassuring? Maybe if he could breathe it would feel… fuck, it felt good anyway. It felt incredible because he couldn’t breathe, because he couldn’t move, couldn’t get away.

Clark’s hips moved away from his ass, then pumped hard into it, knocking him against the wood, joints of the bed screaming in protest. Clark’s arm pressed painfully against his hipbone, wedged between his stomach and the headboard, but the hand on his cock never stopped pumping. Blood coursed through his body, pooling heavily under the gracious hand, under the only thing Clark was allowing him now.

A wet swipe of Clark’s tongue over his ear, then hot breath too loud there, sending chills down his spine. “Why won’t you let me fuck you, Lex?”

His eyes rolled heavily under their lids and he was falling, going under, succomebing to the fate Clark would choose for him. Body leaving his mind behind and some numbly-aroused part of him wanted to scream, wanted to break away and retaliate, wanted to sink down onto the bed, off his aching thighs, draw in breath after breath and pound into Clark, come deep inside him, shaking with orgasm instead of lack of oxygen. Would kill to be able to talk and threaten and force something like this on Clark right now because hell, turnabout was fair play.

A last pitiful smirk under the thick hand and he felt himself sliding into unconsciousness, the hands moving from his face and cock, Clark’s arms curling under his own, lifting him, propping him back up against the headboard. Raking air in without restraint, coming back to a place he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to be again, wasn’t sure he wanted to ever leave. Hoarse voice cutting the silence and it couldn’t be his, couldn’t be him because he could barely think between gulping breaths. “Jesus… Clark…”

“Why, Lex?”

Why? Why the fuck what? Jesus, Clark wanted to talk? Fuck. Fine. He’d talk. “Why what?”

Clark’s arms wrapped too tight around his chest, damn, his chest and he couldn’t draw a full breath again now, maybe not ever at this rate. Clark’s teeth bit gently, tugging at his earlobe. “Why won’t you let me fuck you?”

Christ, this was an old argument, one he didn’t have the patience or the breath to waste on right now. His cock bobbed against the headboard, sweeping a wet streak on the wood. They should be fucking, not arguing. Not tonight. Not after that.

Carefully filling his lungs, air like sweet wine and fresher than should be possible with sex in the air, Lex pulled himself straight, summoning the dignity he’d had torn from him in a wave of sexual sensory overload. “You know, Clark.”

Clark’s low chuckle made his skin crawl. “I know you said you didn’t like being fucked, but you’ve never been fucked by me, Lex. I think you’d like me fucking you.”

Lex’s cock twitched against the headboard like it was listening to Clark and liked what it was hearing and Christ, that was fucked up on so many levels. He dropped his head to look at it, swollen and pressed tight between his stomach and the wood in front of him, and it looked back, mocking him.

Couldn’t help but turn into the warm breath on his ear, biting his lower lip to silence the words his cock was screaming. Closing his eyes against the temptation that churned his stomach. “Drop it, Clark. It’s not going to happen.”

The arms circling his chest released him and he struggled to fill his lungs silently, deeply, now that he could. Clark’s hands slid up his back, grasping his shoulders and holding him still. A solid thigh forced his knees apart, the bed rocking as Clark moved to kneel between them.

Clark’s chest pushed him forward, the heated flesh against his back a stark contrast to the cool of the wood he was pinned against. Big hands reached around and clasped the front of his legs, running up over them roughly. Fingers splayed out, palms flat against him, like Clark was planning on touching every inch of his skin as the roaming hands slid up, pulling him back away from the headboard. He was being explored, felt up, groped, and that was fine. Anything was fine, as long as Clark’s hands kept moving, smoothing over his belly, under his cock, up his sides, drawling huge, ticklish ovals over his chest. After pawing everything he could reach, Clark finally relented, his touch gentling. Lex leaned back heavily against him, eyes closing and head tilting back to offer his neck up to Clark’s stroking fingers.

He gasped, didn’t have time to do anything but, as Clark’s chest peeled off his back and the hands on his throat circled it in a loose threat. “I could take it from you, you know.”

Lex swallowed hard and hated himself for it, hated Clark’s hands for being witness to that small concession. He opened his eyes, sobering from the dizzy-drunkenness of unreleased sexual tension, straightening up, bracing his hands tightly on the headboard. Ready for battle. “Yes. You could. But I’d think twice about that, Clark.”

A puff of air hit his neck as Clark scoffed. “Think twice, Lex? I think about it every day.”

Every day? Fuck. And this was Clark uninhibited. Telling him he wanted to fuck him, spouting truths that Lex wasn’t prepared to deal with, at least not with a raging hard on, in bed, on their anniversary.

Couldn’t just tell him to fuck off, couldn’t do that to Clark. To anyone else, yes, but not to him, especially not when the ring he’d bought was eliciting all this anger. “It’s not going to happen, Clark.”

“You can’t just give it to me, can you? And I know why.” Sarcastic voice sharp behind him and he wanted to move, to look into hazel eyes and see his Clark, not this one, looking back at him.

No challenges, no demands, no ring. Just Clark, simple and pure. Wouldn’t give this Clark the satisfaction though, wouldn’t let Clark see what this was doing to him. And fuck, holding one’s breath is not the way to hide fear. He exhaled slowly, his lungs still aching from the divine torture of the night.

Ventured a move, tilting to one side, intending to pull a foot out from under himself and push off the bed, but Clark’s hand warned him with a hard squeeze on his shoulder and he felt capillaries break, blood heating his skin under the fingers. “I’m not the blind man in your life, Lex. I know what your problem is – what he did to you.”

He? Who? Stupid question. Lionel, of course. Clark thought this was Lionel’s fault, and this night was going all kinds of unexpected places. Too incensed to trust himself to speak, Lex looked up into eyes that held a darkness his lover’s had never possessed.

“Fucked you over one too many times, hasn’t he, Lex?” Clark grabbed his hips and thrust against them and Lex jerked away, blood boiling at the crude insinuation, fists clenching at his sides. Any other man and his fist would be covered in blood by now, but punching Clark would do no good anyway, even if he could bring himself to do it.

“Screwed you again and again, until everything in your life was about NOT getting screwed. You could never just give someone that kind of power, could you?”

Clark didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about.

His father had taught him the importance of control—over oneself and others, but Lex hadn’t really understood the danger inherent in yielding someone else control until-

Sharp sudden panic pooled heavy in his gut as his mind cautiously touched on the memory that had to be avoided at all costs. Sixteen and stupid, he’d thought he was in love. A teacher, a confidant – a pretty, wild young man with lying eyes that Lex hadn’t seen until it was too late.

He shook his head in mute denial, but the old humiliation was on him, crashing through the fissure Clark had opened. He felt his face heating with the shame of it, of letting himself be taken and used.

He’d done everything, everything he’d been told to do. Sucked, fucked, whipped, humiliated. Him. Lex Luthor, on his knees, on his back, tied down, gagged. A foggy daze of pain and pleasure and he’d let it happen – had let himself be used. Had begged for more, desperately willing it to be something he wanted because his lover wanted it. The sex, the humiliation, all of it had been a whirlwind of concession, a production in which he’d played the subservient role his father had taught him to despise.

Lex had given that man everything. His gifts, his emotions, his body.

And for all his gifts, he’d gotten the gift of humility in return. He’d been made a fool of. Manipulated into buying ever more expensive trinkets that were displayed like trophies in the city’s nightclubs and private rooms. All the while his lover had been spilling loathsome tales of Lex’s childhood, his kinks and, most demeaning of all, his vulnerability. The stories of his childhood had been heavily embellished for dramatic effect, to twist the knife that much deeper, Lex supposed. The kinks and the vulnerability hadn’t needed elaboration. The day he’d found out about the betrayal, Lex had gotten his first glimpse of the real world, the world where no one ever gets what they need.

He’d learned a lesson then that he didn’t need to be taught twice. He’d naively imagined letting himself be fucked was about trust, and… maybe more, but it wasn’t.

Fucking wasn’t about love. It was about power.

Now Clark wanted the power. More power. Because, Christ, Lex could admit it to himself—Clark already held more power over him than anyone else ever had.

So, yeah, he’d keep his comfort zone, his barriers, his fucking walls that would stay up no matter who was knocking on the other side. Battering ram or bloody knuckles, he wouldn’t let them in.

His sweaty palms slid on the headboard and he needed to move, needed to get the fuck away from one more person who would never, ever understand.

Clark’s hands traced down from his throat, over his chest, the fingers of one hand digging into his ribs while the others closed around his half-hard cock and started pumping again. Arousal surged through Lex and he fought back a moan, tensed his legs and tried to keep his body from reacting to the pleasure that rippled through it. “Clark, stop. I don’t—”

Clark’s voice rumbled against his ear and Lex struggled to keep his eyes open, to focus on staying alert. “Shh. Just let me do this, Lex. Let me show you it doesn’t have to be that way. Let me erase what he did to you.”

Three years of Luthor corruption and Clark was still schoolboy naive. Lex shook his head and scoffed over his shoulder. “You have no fucking clue, Clark.”

The hand on his cock twisted hard and he bucked into it. Blood rushed from his head to his cock as Clark whispered into his ear. “I have no clue? Whose fault is that? Tell me what happened, Lex. Tell me something.”

Panting breaths stung in Lex’s chest, lungs bruised deep inside, muscles aching from the rollercoaster of arousal and pain, from the strain of trying to control this.

Control this. This situation he’d created. Clark hadn’t wanted this, hadn’t wanted control. Clark wanted him, not power over him. He opened his mouth but couldn’t find the words, didn’t know where to start.

Clark’s fingers curled tighter on his side and Lex felt the tension flow from his body. They rocked together, moving in tandem with the hand on his cock. Foggy awareness dulled the words Clark was whispering low in his ear and he strained to pull himself from the haze. He wanted to hear every word.

“Whoever he was, whoever did this to you, I’m not him…”

Lex sank back, thighs exhausted and shaking, his ass pressing down against Clark’s lap. Clark’s arousal painted a cool streak across the small of his back, sending a jolt of anticipation straight to his cock.

A moan vibrated against his scalp and he closed his eyes, let himself drift between the pseudo-reality of Clark hard behind him and the rhythmic heat pumping his cock, quickening his heart.

Clark whispered low in his ear, the words echoing in his brain before he could understand them, before he froze and his eyes shot open. “I’m not him, Lex, but I can be. If that’s what it takes.”

The comforter rose up fast to meet his back and his body bounced twice before Clark was on top of him, between his thighs and Lex would never, ever get used to being moved. “Clark, take it easy. I’m not going anywhere.”

“No, you’re not. You’re staying right where I want you.”

Wet heat finally, tightly closing around his cock and he couldn’t do anything but buck up into the soft mouth, his cock pulsing with every nudge against Clark’s throat. Breath hot against his stomach and this, this is his reward for everything he’s endured tonight. “God yes, Clark. Don’t stop.”

Floating on a river of sensation, moving fast towards oblivion, finally close to arriving at his destination, and then it was gone, Clark’s mouth gone and he thought he might scream from the frustration, the agony, the cruelty Clark was inflicting on him.

Clark’s mouth not sucking him, not anywhere near him now and, hadn’t Clark heard him? He was sure he’d said ‘Don’t stop.’ Hands curling futilely over Clark’s shoulders, hoping he wouldn’t raise up further but he did and fuck, this was way beyond torture.

Clark’s expression detached, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Anything you say, Lex, but you know that already, don’t you?”

Lex dropped his head back on the pillows and wondered again what he’d gotten himself into. Deep, cleansing breathes, and what he really needed was half a bottle of single malt, but this smug fucking cocktease probably wouldn’t let him leave the bed. “Christ, Clark. Let me come… please.”

Apparently this night is all about Clark. Fuck. What was it with beautiful young men wanting to hear Luthors beg?

Fine.

Bracing his arms flat on the bed, Lex arched up, lifting his hips high off the bed, thrusting, bumping his cock against Clark’s lips, leaving a wet trail behind. Was that obvious enough? How about some words? “Christ, Clark. Need you. Fuck, I’m so close.”

Clark smiled in response to his urgency and wrapped one large hand around his throbbing cock, jacking him far too slowly to bring anything resembling relief, reaching forward and pushing fingers into his mouth. Lex sucked enthusiastically for one brief moment before he spat the fingers out, threw his head back on the pillow and lifted his hips in an obvious demand for satisfaction.

Clark pushed a finger inside him on a moan and Lex bucked up into the tight fist. “What would it take, Lex?”

Lex pressed his head back into the pillow for leverage and fucked himself on Clark’s finger, body arching, cock leaking in the beautifully slick tunnel of Clark’s hand. “That’s… Yes, fuck, Clark, that’s all it’ll take. Just don’t stop. Christ… don’t stop.”

A second thick, rough finger slipped inside him, and his body screamed for the release that shouldn’t be this far away. The hand on his cock squeezed him too tightly, not letting him come and this wasn’t happening.

“You can’t keep me at a distance anymore, Lex.”

Clark was still talking? Fucking insane, both of them this hard, this close and Clark expected him to think, to have a fucking conversation right now? The fingers scissored inside him, stretching muscles that clenched with the need for something, anything more. Lex’s hips fell hard to the bed and he wadded the blanket beneath him in his fists. “What… whatever this is… can we just talk about it later? Please?!”

Clark scoffed and that was not a good sign. Lex was sure the hand on his cock tightened but Clark still wasn’t jacking him, wasn’t giving him anything but—Christ—another finger fucking him, burning in beside the first two.

“No, Lex. We can’t. This is it.”

Lex struggled to wrap his mind around Clark’s words – it? What? Near impossible to think with fingers rubbing raw along his prostate, flashes like roman candles burning behind his eyes, body twisting with his unconscious plea. “What? Clark – what the Hell?”

Lex raised his head, stomach muscles tightening with the effort to see, and watched as Clark’s head lowered, chin digging into his stomach, breath caressing over his skin in a twisted, comforting way as Clark spoke. “You heard me, Lex. This is it. I’m leaving in the morning. I’m sick of waiting for you to give me as much as I give you.” Lex opened his mouth, wiped at his eyes in an effort to clear the scene, to make sense of the words.

Clark was smiling up at him, a sharp, confident and patronizing tone in his voice. “Poor little rich kid with the asshole father and the dead mother. It’s bullshit, Lex. If you were capable of loving me, it might be different.”

And fuck, those words – those words were coming from Clark. His Clark. From the mouth he’d kissed a hundred thousand times, the mouth that opened, sliding over his cock, working his shaft, sucking him in.

Scorching wetness pulling him down, sparking fires through his hyper-sensitized body. Clark’s fingers fucking him and all he had to do was thrust down Clark’s throat and he’d be there, but Lex felt sick.

This wasn’t right, this wasn’t Clark; it couldn’t be. Lex’s body still strained for completion, but somehow his mind disconnected, the pain of physical denial a rapidly fading memory.

Clark knew how he felt, he had to because… because he just had to. Clark should God damned well know how he felt by now, but he’d say it, he’d hold Clark’s hand if he had to. ”Clark, I do.”

The warm sheath of Clark’s mouth slid up and off and Lex shouldn’t care, didn’t care because Clark was laughing, biting his stomach with sharp teeth and laughing like this was a joke.

Clark knelt up, fingers pushing in hard enough to hurt, far enough to reach his spine maybe and Clark’s face changed. Anger like it was wiped on the gorgeous features and that fast, the joke was over. “You can’t even say it. Three years and you’ve never fucking said it.”

“Clark, you know—”

Hard gleaming eyes and curling lips answered him, “I know you’ll never let me inside.”

That’s what this whole night had been about then. And Lex thought it’d been about fucking, wished now that’s all it had been about. Wished it desperately, because Clark already had everything he could give.

The truth knotted his tongue but he forced it out, praying it was what Clark wanted to hear. “You’re more inside than anyone.”

The fingers inside him thrust harder and a soft lick slid across the head of his cock, catching his liquid frustration, lapping it up. Clark’s cold gaze locked on his eyes and Lex willed the eyes to thaw, the thrusting in his ass to gentle.

“You’re pathetic, Lex.”

His brain stuck on the words like a scratched record and all he could think was the name, the name of the man he knew, the man he mourned the loss of. This wasn’t his…

“Clark.”

The long, golden body kneeling between his legs was Clark’s, but everything else was foreign to him.

Faint menace in a cool regard, fingers pulling out of him too fast. An unmistakable command in the hand that pressed into his solar plexus, holding him immobile while Clark reached into the nightstand, and Lex’s tongue couldn’t wrap around a single one of the million or so thoughts that flew through his brain. Limbs numb with the shock of seeing…

This. Clark slicking his own cock, grinning down at him with cold eyes. Lex rolled his head in mute denial, closing his eyes against the possibility. Clark wouldn’t do this.

“I could break you, Lex.”

His eyes flew open, cock jumping in response to the reality before him. Clark’s huge, wet hand wrapping around his own cock, the other moving between Lex’s own legs, fingers working, pushing back inside the emptiness the errant hand left behind.

Lex managed to lift a shaky hand to Clark’s chest. Clark stilled and Lex took a deep breath. He was still in control and he could handle this. “Wait. Listen to me, Clark. We need to talk. I want you to take the ring off for a minute.”

Clark’s eyes narrowed down at him and Lex’s hand slid down the sweaty chest as it moved. The bed tilted and Clark was kneeling between his thighs, stroking himself, fingers massaging deeper inside.

Christ. Preparing him.

“I could break you, Lex. It might take a while, but I could.”

The room blurred and Lex fought for breath. Had to remain calm, had to remember that Clark wasn’t thinking straight. He stopped the dizzying shake of his head long enough to push up on his elbows. Shifted his feet, in some semblance of an effort to slide off of Clark’s fingers a little, but they crooked, hooking into him, hitting the white-lightening spot, leveling him from toes to scalp. His body screamed against the commands his mind was blurting out. No way he could ignore the electric shock of pleasure, no matter how hard he tried.

He cried out, cock jetting slick arousal, not making his case. Perspiration stung his eyes, and he panted with need. With fear, and fuck. Clark was getting off on this.

Solid muscle and flesh, unearthly strength holding still above him, waiting for him to come back around, and Lex shook his head sharply, willing his brain to clear of the hazy realization of what Clark was doing to him. Not breaking him. Taking him.

Clark shooting him a sly grin from under a sweat soaked tousle of hair. “How ‘bout it, Lex? Are you game?”

Couldn’t, wouldn’t fall into the eyes that taunted him, wouldn’t surrender to the fingers pushing, pulling the pleasure from him, the slide of tan skin low across his belly. “Stop, Clark.”

Sweat splattered his chest and face as Clark shook his head fast. “No. I think deep down you really want this, Lex, and I’m going to give it to you.”

Lex blinked hard, his chest tight with the effort to just. Remain. Calm. “Clark, I said stop.”

“And I said no. Call it a going away present.” Clark’s fingers slid out of him slowly and his ass tightened around the sudden nothingness that filled him. His mind fought against the current of yearning, grasping for the ability to reason, the will to challenge Clark as the legs between his pushed his thighs apart. His feet were lifted off the bed as unforgiving hands hooked under his knees, moving his weak legs up until they circled Clark’s hips.

This was not going to happen.

Clark’s body moved down, covering his own and now all of it, the stomach crushing his cock, the breath on his neck, the slick head of Clark’s cock slipping between his legs, every fucking touch was making him rage. Strength tore through his limbs and he pushed, shoved against the body that was so close to taking what he’d never even considered giving before. “Stop, Clark. You are not leaving me. This isn’t you, it’s the God damned ring. Get the fuck off of me and take. It. Off.”

“That’s the thing, Lex, this is me. I just didn’t have the guts to say these things before.” Lex took the full weight of the sweat-slick body pressing him into the mattress. Clark easily subdued him, stretching both his arms above his head, but Lex struggled under the restraint, unwilling to yield.

“Shh, Lex,” Clark murmured, lapping sweat from his temples, his brow, his throat, easing his panic but not his anger. Clark’s hips moved, cock nudging deep between his legs “Don’t fight me.”

And he couldn’t fight, could barely move or think or feel any of this because his brain was shorting out. Arms pinned over his head, hips trapped under the weight of Clark. There was nothing left to do but wait for him to play this out. Clark’s lush mouth moved on his, tongue teasing into his mouth when he tried to turn away.

He gulped in breath when Clark’s mouth released his, caught his breath and managed a hoarse, choked-out laugh, “Jesus Clark, are you really this unhappy with me?”

Clark’s hand crushed his arms into the mattress above their heads as he rose up to look down at him. “I won’t be happy until you give me everything. I want all of you, Lex, not just the things you choose to give me.”

Hipbones dug into his thighs as Clark shifted down, and one hand stretched around his forearms, pinning them there. The other hand moved down, rubbing over their stomachs as Clark reached between their legs to. Fuck.

Position his cock.

Lex frantically shifted his hips, and fuck, that just made it worse because Clark’s cock slid along his ass, slick enthusiasm swiping across his balls and Christ, it felt so good.

Cock aching again despite his fear, his anger. Maybe because of it. He wouldn’t give in to this. Couldn’t let Clark take this from him. “Clark, you know I don’t work that way. You’ve known that from the beginning.”

The blunt head of Clark’s cock was right there.

“I’ve earned this, Lex. I’ve earned all of you.”

Earned it. Fucking earned it.

So Clark thought he’d paid his dues, and now he wanted in? Lex’s breath caught in his chest as Clark glared down at him, but the fierce look in the foreign eyes of this altered, demanding Clark…

Lied.

Lex felt the lie in the telltale thumb stroking lightly on his still-trapped wrist, in the hesitation of the cock against his ass. This had nothing to do with the union of their bodies.

The realization crashed like a wave of cold water on his body, like raging flames consuming him from feet to scalp.

Earned it.

And Clark had. More than anyone ever. Clark had paid his dues every day, with love and patience. Shared every burden Lex had endured and had always been willing, ready to share more. Share everything.

Clark had given himself to Lex long ago, made concession after concession. Played the part of best friend everywhere but here in the penthouse and never asked for anything in return. Except Lex.

He’d been denying Clark the only thing he’d ever asked for. Himself.

Out of fear.

Fear of getting fucked, of letting anybody, even Clark get that close.

Jesus, how could he have been so blind? He wanted to give Clark the world, and all Clark wanted was to get inside him, was literally about to force his way inside as a consolation for the intimacy he truly craved.

Clark’s hand tightened around his wrists, a cold flash of panic yanking Lex from his thoughts and Clark was pressing into him. This was something Lex needed to give, had to find a way to be able to give it or… fuck.

No. It couldn’t happen like this. “Clark, wait a minute. Just…just give me a minute.”

His mind racing, Lex squeezed his thighs together, trying to buy some time and Clark wriggled down, forcing them open again, the head of his cock pressing hard against Lex’s clenched ass.

Clark’s voice vibrated deep in his chest, edged with the struggle to push inside. “Haven’t you been listening? I’m through waiting Lex.” The hand between their legs brushed under Lex’s thigh then clasped hard, squeezing the tendons on the back of his knee as his leg was lifted into the air.

Desperation taking over and he didn’t care if he was begging anymore. This had to stop before it was too late. Before any real damage was done. “No, no… Clark I can do this… just… I have to think.”

“Stop thinking, Lex. I want you to feel this.”

“I love you, Clark.”

The words burned in Lex’s throat. Truth stung his eyes. Body, mind and heart full, overflowing with the release of denied emotion. Overcome with the need to give.

Everything.

“Take off the ring.”

The first electric twinge of pain took his breath away as Clark pushed against him insistently.

“Please, Clark. Don’t do this. I love you.”

The heavy body stilled on top of him. Dark curls brushed Lex’s skin as Clark lifted his head to search his eyes, his face etched with uncertainty and disbelief.

Lex’s wrists stung with the blood that rushed to his fingers as Clark released his arms. Sweat and sex, relief and gratitude hung between them for a long moment before the bed rocked and shook with the motions of Clark tugging the ring from his finger and dropping it over the side of the bed. It rang there, circling, the chime of it spinning on the wooden floor echoing through the room.

Clark settled back over him, propped up on elbows on either side of Lex’s head, eyes closed and head shaking slightly, face pained and twisted. Their chests heaved against each other, the almost-taken advantage frozen in time, held in place between Lex’s legs. Clark’s head fell to his shoulder, flushed face heating the skin there. Shaking, sobbing, and the slight movements of Clark’s regret seemed like earthquakes under his hands.

Clark’s heated, moist breath burned against his neck. Soft hair ghosted against the raw skin of his wrist as he reached up to stroke, hoping to quiet the sobs. Wrapping his legs around Clark’s hips, his arms around the rippling back, he held Clark there, as close as he could, tight enough for maybe even Clark to feel secure. The silence magnified everything, and his painfully exhausted brain could only think of one thing.

Making this better.

The breeze of his whisper fluttered through Clark’s hair. “Shhh, it’s okay, Clark. It’s okay.”