Title: The Fire in Earnest
Author:  ElleEstTrois
Rating:  NC-17
Feedback: elleesttrois@mindspring.com
Notes: Part of the Clex Fuh-Q-Fest at http://www.kardasi.com/Lexclusive/ClexFest
Spoilers: None that I can recall
Challenge: Lex invites Clark over for a late night booty call, unbeknownst to Clark, Lex has 'acquired' some green meteor rock laced ropes for the occasion. (Christine)
Author Notes: Many thanks to MOSS and Jade for the rushed beta. Any remaining mistakes are my own.

THE FIRE IN EARNEST

He had had the dream again.  Clark paused in eating his cereal, spoon halfway to his mouth.

He was still tied to the cross in Riley’s field, rope burning, searing , into his skin, head hung limply like that of a heavily seeded sunflower.  He remembered the burning pain in his legs, the stretch and pull in his arms.  The weakness…  Rarely felt, difficult to recall.  But in this dream…

Then Lex, breaking through the corn stalks, turning his flashlight and blue eyes on Clark’s nearly naked frame.  Dream Lex had stepped forward, looking up at Clark and reached out, running a cool hand over the burning muscles in his legs.  He shivered slightly at the recollection.

Gaze hot, hands sliding up his legs, Lex had whispered, “We have a destiny, Clark.”  The tip of his tongue shone wetly.

The sound of the spoon clanging against his bowl startled Clark out of his reverie.

“Where were you, son?” asked Jonathan.  He was standing by the sink, sipping coffee out of his favorite yellow mug with horses cavorting around the side.  One blonde eyebrow raised slightly.

"Must be typical teen angst.  He’s been mooning for about 15 minutes," Martha said.  She winked and noted the slight tint to her son’s cheek.

“Well, somebody needs to quit ‘mooning’ if he wants to catch his bus,” said Jonathan.
 
 

Clark sighed quietly. He turned his head toward Chloe and tipped his wrist at her in a watch checking pantomime.  Chloe rolled her eyes at him and whispered, "Five minutes since the last time you checked."  

Mr. Kavoberne tuned away from the chalkboard and fixed a piercing gaze on the two friends.  "I don't mean to interrupt you two.  How about enlightening the rest of the class regarding what's more important than the geography we are trying to learn."

Chloe flashed her most charming smile.  "Just wondering when your clock will be fixed."

"Because you have a pressing engagement?"  he queried.  "I think the bell's warning enough, Miss Sullivan."

As Mr. Kavoberne turned back to the board, Chloe darted a death-ray look at Clark.  She caved slightly as Clark shrugged his shoulders in a meek apology, eyes puppy-dog wide.

Clark blanked Kavoberne's drone out as he slipped into daydream mode.  He was back in the Riley's field with Lex looking up at him with bright, eager eyes.  

"Clark," said Lex, low and familiar, causing Clark to jump just a little.  He was so out of it that he didn't even see Lex entering the Talon.

"Lex.  Hi."
 

"What's up?" asked Lex, sliding into the booth across from Clark and leaning forward.  "You seem nervy lately."  The corners of Lex's lips quirked a little in amusement.

"Sorry.  Just weird dreams.  They don't leave me alone when I'm awake either."

"I have dreams like that.  Although, I'm certain the content varies greatly from yours.  Why don't you tell me about them."  

Clark sighed.   "Well...Just... Do you ever have, like, erotic dreams that you're not sure you understand?"  Clark lowered his voice. " I mean like kinky sorts of dreams?"

Lex smiled.  "Sure.  But I've catered to my kinks in my dissolute youth.  Why?  What kind of 'kinky sorts of dreams' are you having?"

Clark did his typical head tilt indicating uneasiness.  "Uhm... You remember when Whitney and his pals hung me up in Riley field?"  Clark's eyes went slightly unfocused as he remembered.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can recall."  Lex smirked.

Clark smiled reflexively.  He leaned forward and his voice dropped to a whisper.  "Well, I sort of dream about being tied up, you know."

"Oh, I know a little about being tied up.  Care to elaborate?  Tell me more about the dream."

Clark's eyes went distant and hazy.  "I'm still tied in Riley's field, weak and shaking.  But I know you are coming.  Instead of releasing me when you find me, you caress me.  It makes me shiver through to my bones.  And it's so real.  I just, you know.  I'm not used to feeling weak and powerless.  But I did then and dreaming about it...well, just, you know, turns me on. I..I think I want that.  You know, when we have sex."

Lex's pale eyebrows climbed during the relation of the tale.  "Let me get this straight--you want me to tie you up?"

A blush crept over Clark's face.  He sucked his bottom lip in, glanced down then back up, meeting Lex's eyes slightly challenging.  "Uhm, yeah?"     

"Huh," Lex grunted noncommittally, but Clark noted a certain spark in Lex's eyes.  The spark usually told of Lex's brain shifting into overdrive, thinking, ticking, sorting and weighing.  "Maybe we can indulge this dream image.  A little light bondage.  See what happens."

"But, Lex, nothing can really hold me.  I mean I can hold myself back, but the whole thing seems to be about a loss of control.  Not holding back, struggling and not escaping.  I don't know how to explain it."

"Yeah, I guess you're not likely to be held by any standard handcuffs."

Clark blushed again. "I don't know what it is.  I just want--need it, sort of."  He spread his hands in a helpless gesture.

"I can relate."

"So you've done this before?"

"Yep," Lex grinned.  "I've ventured into bondage territory a few times before."

"So, uh, maybe we can do that sometime."  Clark's  lips curved in a small, secret smile.

"Sure," purred Lex.

Clark grinned, liking the sound of that.  Something Lex did with his voice just made him instantaneously hard.

"When?" he asked, grinning wider.

"I'll surprise you.  But right now, I just want to suck you off."  

Lex's answering grin turned positively feral as Clark's eyebrows shot up in surprise, pupils dilating and mouth dropping open slightly.  Clark looked around.  "Leexxx, I have to walk out of here."

"I'm sure that you have had plenty of practice hiding impromptu erections -- you're 17."

Clark nodded. "Point taken.  So back to Lex Luthor's Den of Iniquity?"

"Let's go," said Lex, already moving at Porsche speed.

Despite Lex's assurance of a little "bondage light," Clark's dreams continued to plague him.  His parents thought he has finally succumbed to full-on teen angst.  Offers to talk, reassurances of love and trust kept popping up.  But Clark knew he could not  relate his needs to them.  He just smiled and said he was okay.

Lex had been particularly enigmatic lately, ever since Clark had told him about the dream of being tied in Riley's field.  Clark felt like he was breathlessly awaiting the other shoe to drop.  Their relationship was fine.  The sex was still awesome, mind-blowing, in fact.  Lex just seemed slightly preoccupied.  He'd called Clark up at dinner and invited him over.  
 

When Clark walked into the den, he could sense something was different.  

"Hey, what's up?"  He dipped his head just a little to brush his lips to Lex's.  

Lex smiled at him.  "Come on."

Clark's 'weird-o-meter' redlined.  And it had a workout living in Smallville.  

Lex led him upstairs, but instead of heading down the hall leading to his suite of rooms, he took another hallway. He paused before an unremarkable door, unlocked it, and turned around.

"You trust me, right Clark?"

Clark nodded and swallowed.  "Of course, Lex." 

Lex walked behind Clark. He slid a long-fingered hand up Clark's arm.  "Good."  Lex slid something over his eyes.  "No x-ray," he whispered in Clark's ear.  Lex's exhaled breath caused Clark to shiver all over. Silk whispered over the cotton of Clark's shirt as Lex reached around him to open the door. The long fingers were back around his arm, the other hand at his back as Lex led Clark slowly into the room.  
 

Clark's breathing notched up, but he didn't say anything.  He felt a little weird.  Breathless; not like anything he's used to.

Lex left him standing in the center of the room.  Clark could hear him moving about.  It was minutes before Lex touched him again.  Despite his hearing, Clark was surprised and jumped a little.  He felt off balance and leaned slightly into Lex's touch.  Lex loosened his grip, remaining elusive.  

Clark's feeling of unsteadiness increased, almost to the point of nausea.  "Lex...?"

"You're okay, Clark," Lex soothed.  "Just relax."  

Lex ran his fingers delicately over Clark's chest and began unbuttoning his shirt.  Clark felt his other senses trying to reciprocate for the loss of sight.  He could feel Lex's heat radiating from his body, smell the subtle cologne, brandy and something that was uniquely Lex, and hear him shift as cloth slid over cloth and skin..  Lex pulled Clark's T-shirt over his head, taking care not to disturb the blindfold.  Next, nimble fingers dipped to his belt and he can't help but gasp.  Knuckles brushed tantalizingly over his stomach and lightly over his aching cock as Lex unbuckled, unbuttoned and unzipped.

Lex knelt, then, held onto Clark's knees as he removed his boots.  Clark still felt slightly unbalanced as he lifted his legs to facilitate boot and pants removal.  He was surprised that being blindfolded made him feel so off kilter.   

Lex moved away again only to return with lined cuffs of some sort.  Clark smelled leather and when Lex finished buckling the cuffs and released his hands, Clark felt just how heavy they were.  He doubted that they could really hold him, but he desperately wanted the fantasy.  

Naked, hard and aching, he was led to the bed.  

"Kneel in the center," whispered Lex at his shoulder, breath ghosting over the short hairs on his neck.  Clark shivered and complied.  

Lex attached the cuffs to a chain and pulled Clark's arms above his head.  The chain rattled loudly through the rings on the cuffs, thrumming through Clark's joints.  

Clark was breathing like a racehorse now.  He recognized the weirdness from earlier for what it really was--there was meteorite somewhere--maybe in the bonds Lex had attached.

Clark swayed and then surged down, pulling with all his strength.  He was caught back by the chain that held against desperate strength.  He panicked a moment, gasping for breath.  Clark fell forward, pinioned by the chains, effectively caught as he had been in Riley's field.  The weakness seeped deep into his muscles, his bones.  He grimaced, but quieted.  It's what he wanted, right?  Lex was only doing what he'd asked.  Somehow his definition of "light bondage" didn't seem to gel right at the moment.  Trapped, alone--and still achingly aroused, body like an offering at an unholy altar, he petitioned his captor.

"Lex," he gritted out.  

Hands calmed and steadied him.  "Tell me if it's too much, Clark."

Clark shuddered, jangling the links, and hung weakly from the chains, the effort to hold himself upright in the bonds too much.  He was sweating, rare for him unless he was running full tilt.  But despite the discomfort, hell, the pain, the burning in his muscles, breath searing in his lungs, he wanted, no, needed the hands on him, to feel Lex in him as never before.
 

"No, Lex.  I'm all right.  It was just ... unexpected."

 Lex's hands went from soothing to arousing, caressing Clark's chest, over peaked nipples, over his throat to bury themselves in his hair.  Lex's lips captured his in a searing, possessive kiss. Clark drew a ragged breath when Lex released his mouth and attacked his neck with the same burning fervor, alternately biting and sucking.  

Clark strained against his bonds simultaneously needing to touch and to be restrained from touching. With a final bite to Clark's earlobe, Lex slipped off the bed.  Clark whipped his head back and forth, sweating and panting.  "Lex!" he cried.

He relaxed again and hanging onto the chains and strained to hear what Lex was doing.  The bed dipped again as Lex slipped up behind him, but didn't touch.  Clark tilted his head back arching his neck and hoping his offering of his body would be accepted.  He panted as moments ticked by and nothing, but...was that cinnamon that he smelled?  

When he dropped his head, properly penitent, something hot was poured onto his shoulder.  It seared its way down his back feeling almost the way blood felt that one time he had lost his powers.  It dribbled down his shoulder blade and curved, cooling, down his buttock then into the crevice of his ass.  Breath, exhaled over the liquid caused it to heat again, like a wound that, when probed, hurts like it did when first received.  Then, Lex licked his way up Clark's shoulder and back down over his ass, following the path of the hot liquid.  He spread his cheeks and delved deep into his ass.  Clark surged forward, spreading his thighs as far apart as he could to accommodate Lex and his fervid tongue.  He panted and arched his back.  He was so hard he was aching; he desperately needed Lex to touch his cock.  

"Please, please," he begged, blinking, eyelashes brushing against the fabric of the blindfold.  He was startled to notice dampness.  

Lex pulled away momentarily only to return and give his chest the same treatment as his back.  This time Lex's tongue traced a path over taut nipples, over the terrain of super sensitive ribs, dipped into the valley of his navel and along the ticklish softness where thigh met body.  Then finally, finally over his acutely throbbing cock.  Clark arched into the wet velvet heat of Lex's mouth, thrusting without his usual control as he chanted Lex's name over and over.  He couldn't help himself.  Just as his climax was rolling up through him, overtaking his other senses, threatening to overwhelm him like a breath held too long, Lex released his cock.  Clark moaned his disappointment.
 

Lex moved behind him, nestling his cock between Clark's shaking thighs.  He petted his back, shoulders and chest, kissing wetly up and down his neck.  Lex slid his hands over Clark's trembling biceps then stretched up to fold his hands over Clark's bound ones.  Lex ran a hot, wet tongue over Clark's ear, sucking on the lobe.

"Clark, I'm going to fuck you now."
 

"Yes," he panted.  "Oh, God, Lex, please."

Lex eased the head of his slickened penis into Clark, causing a sweet burn.  Eager hands gripped his hips as Lex slid in deep. Clark groaned, feeling the searing cock at his very center.  Then Lex tugged the blindfold loose.  "Look,"  he said huskily.  "Look at us, Clark."  

Clark turned his head, blinking wetly.  He saw them, pressed tightly to each other, reflected in a large mirror beside the bed.  He was shocked at the wanton, needy look on his face.

With his cock fully seated, Lex pressed himself against Clark, scorching him where their skin touched.  An equally hot hand gripped Clark's cock and stroked, sliding the foreskin over the sensitized head of his penis.  Hot breath lifted his damp hair as Lex increased the speed of his stroke over the whole length of Clark's cock to match the speed of his thrusting.  Clark panted, thrusting his hips in time to Lex's rhythm. He tossed his head wildly, moaning deep in his throat.  
 

Clark wrapped his hands around the chains as he watched himself riding Lex's thrusts.  Giving himself over, he was possessed by Lex, impaled on him, forced to his rhythm, malleable as steel hot from the forge.  Sweat poured off them and glistened in the dimly lit reflection.  The rhythm became ragged and Lex panted Clark's name in counterpoint to Clark's harsh cries.  His final thrusts were deep, and Lex came with a cry, his seed searing Clark through and through, sending him crashing over.  Clark came, spilling hotly over Lex's hand.

Later, after the meteorite was safely locked away behind lead, Clark's eyes slit open to take in Lex wrapped around him, arm draped bonelessly, possessively across his waist, tapered fingers brushing lightly over his hip.  

Clark believed the dreams would leave him alone now.  He knew that Lex, not the dreams, would ignite the fire next time.

Note:  Title appropriated from Louise Gluck’s “Gretel in Darkness,” which I looked up after reading RivkaT’s “The Presence of Fire,” a fantastic future AU fic.