Cherry Wine {lex luthor}

chapter fifty

The second after the gate slammed shut was fraught with tension. I looked at Lex, and then at the gate. I leapt to my feet. Lex caught my arm.

"I'm just going to say goodbye." I explained. "He seemed upset."

Lex nodded, and let go. "Be quick, yes?"

I didn't answer, and ran out the gate. Benji was already halfway around the house, walking intently.

"Benji!" I called, and he turned. "Wait!"

"What are you doing?" Benji asked, as I caught up to him.

"I-listen. If there's something going on, I need to know." My voice came out in gasps. "I'm worried. Lex-"

"It's none of your business, Ruth." Benji cut me off. "Lex and I can handle it."

His tone was the sharpest I had ever heard him use. I blinked, taken slightly aback, and scrutinized him. There were bags under his eyes, and his jaw was so tight it looked like it might crack.

"I know you think I'm a child." I snapped. "But I'm not. I've been through more than you could possibly imagine. Lex and I are engaged. I deserve to know."

"Then why don't you take this up with him?" Benji retorted. "If you're so worried, why don't you ask your fiancé? I don't have time for these little girl games." His voice was like a whip. The playful Benji I adored was gone.

"I'm not playing a game." I protested. "And I'm not a child."

"You could have fooled me." Benji said. "Let me answer your question with one of my own." He stepped closer to me, and my heart began to pound. "How long do you really think this will last?" He gestured at me, and then to the pool area.

"What?" I asked.

"You and Lex. How long until the damsel in distress act becomes tired? Or the naive teenager? How long, Ruth?"

He was voicing fears I had held hidden for far too long. "Enough." I blinked away tears. "You don't understand."

"And I don't think I ever will." His face softened. "But I don't want to be there when this breaks. And it will break. It's already beginning, since you can't trust Lex to tell you the truth."

"Forget it." I wiped at my eyes. "Just go."

"Gladly." Benji reached up, and stroked my cheek with his thumb. "No one loves the way you two do. That only means an unfathomable heartbreak."

I stared after him in disbelief, his cryptic words bouncing around my head. There was something deeply wrong if even Benji was sad. I waited until he had gone around the corner and disappeared from sight before turning away.

Lex took one look at my reddened face and held out his arms. "He upset you?" His tone was high and even.

"No." I sighed into his shoulder. "Well, yes."

"Do you want to tell me?"

I shook my head, and Lex leaned away, his eyes roving over my face. He seemed to be debating with himself. He reached behind me, and took the bottle of whiskey from the table, alone with both glasses. I watched in fascination as he poured some out, and handed me a glass. The alcohol smelled almost sweet. I hesitated.

"It's fine." Lex tapped my knee. "Drink. I'm here." The whiskey burned my mouth and throat, and I gave a little cough. Lex laughed at my expression.

After I'd taken a few sips, I felt the tension leach from my shoulders, leaving only sadness. I watched Lex, the way the sunlight dappled across his high cheekbones. He was truly beautiful, like a renaissance painting; almost unearthly.

Unfathomable heartbreak.

Lex turned, and caught my eye. "Are you ready now?"

I set my empty glass down. The liquor was hot in my stomach, heavy and heady in an entirely new way. The champagne and wine I had tried had left me giddy and lightheaded. This made me want to lay in the sun, let my eyelids droop closed.

"It's the same argument." I sighed. "You want to protect me. I want to help you."

Lex quirked a brow me. "And Benji said that?"

"No." I took a deep breath. "He-he sort of said some stuff I've been thinking about for a while."

I took a second to gather my thoughts. My head was cottony, my synapses firing slowly. 

"How long until you're tired of looking after me?" I managed to get out. "Before it becomes too much?"

Lex grabbed my shoulder, and cupped my chin in his other hand. His gaze was fervent, almost fanatical. "It will never be too much." He said lowly. "Never, Ruth."

"You can't tell me half of what's going on in your life." My voice was barely above a whisper. "What happens when you want someone you can trust?"

"Ruth." Lex's face was inches from mine. My heart beat rapidly in my chest. "You're the only person I trust. I will never get tired of you. Not in a million years. Not when you're so old you can't remember who I am. Not ever."

"But-"

He closed the space between us. I was intoxicated, drunk on alcohol and on the feel of his mouth on mine. He pulled away for a brief second. "Not ever, Ruth."

"Never." I agreed.

The sun was blazing hot. My hair was still damp from the pool, the shirt I was wearing translucent and plastered to my skin. The alcohol in my system made me feel slow, like a cat stretching languidly.

Lex's hands moved from my face to run down my back, pulling me closer to him. He brushed the hair from my neck, and I tilted my head sideways.

"We're leaving here." He murmured against my warm skin. "Not now. Soon. From this god forsaken country."

"Where will we go?" I asked, sitting back. My face was flushed, my lips bruised. Lex looked ruffled, his collar popped and two bright spots of colour on his cheeks.

"I don't know. Thailand. Trinidad. Croatia. Wherever you want. Somewhere where it can be just us."

I tucked my hair behind my ear, the image of us cloistered somewhere warm humming through me. I registered faintly that this, this was what Benji had been arguing about. Lex was running from something.

"As long as I'm with you, I'll be happy." I smiled, and leaned in to kiss him once more.