Saved Chapter Nine: A Vulnerable Slip

Bane nodded his thanks at her offer for the potent amber alcohol. She passed him a squat cut-crystal glass more than half-full.

He couldn't help the repugnance at the decadent glassware wash over his face, he was unable to conceal the disgust at the heavy glass for people that lived in Ivory Towers and filled in holes in the ground with poison and stony soil.

Helena filled her glass again and forced herself to take two burning swallows before she spoke, her words sharp, capable of penetrating flesh.

"My great-grandmother managed to keep those through one of the camps, there were originally four, but she left Dachau alive with two glasses and I only use them when," she paused and added acidly. "When I'm trying to make a situation mean something, when I want to assign significance."

Bane rose to his feet and quickly closed the distance between them. He pulled her glass free of her hand and wrapped her up in his embrace. The strength of his arms and masculine aroma was suffocating and nearly overwhelming, Bane cut off any chance for Helena to speak as he crushed his lips to hers.

Bane felt the delicious sensation of Helena's breasts pressed against his broad chest as one of his hands traveled up the length of her spine, over the protruding vertebral bumps on the back of her neck and up to cradle her skull in his rough palm.

His strong fingertips wove through the silken fall of her hair, individual strands snagging on his ragged cuticles.

"That was a trained reaction," Bane admitted softly before he returned his lips to hers. "I was broken to believe all items of decadence and worth belonged to the opposition," he murmured, his lips centimeters over hers. Helena was breathless under his admission, his ragged exhales washed over her flushed face.

Helena felt her body fighting a plethora of reasons to want to fight or flight, she was dangerously stuck in frozen, an uncertain place.

Bane saw her teetering on the precipice and whispered as he smoothed his hand from the silken fall of her hair. He cupped her jaw, brushing his thumb across her lower lip as he murmured.

"I accompanied Talia here to shatter your life before I knew who you were, I ceased to question her and cannot change much of anything that has happened, but I vow to create a way for you to live again."

As Helena let Bane's words filter through her brain and absorb each syllable, further and further away, Talia tapped her fingertips on the tops of her thighs as Chris pulled the car into a numerical chain hotel.

Talia's eyes found Barsad filling the faux wood ice bucket near the ground floor room.

Barsad fixed his face into one of subservience and didn't try and meet her eyes. Talia felt an overinflated sense of self at Barsad's perceived penitence. She nodded her approval as she walked past him into the sparsely decorated room.

Barsad suppressed the urge to smile broadly when she poured herself a cup of coffee and dumped a handful of the artificially sweetened filled blue packets into the ceramic cup. Ryan and Chris followed suit with coffee and some of the open whiskey.

Barsad's generous buffet included some breakfast pastries and Talia felt smugness engorge her ego as she emptied her mug. She had no idea as she refilled her mug that he had added a nearly tasteless opiate powder to both the coffee and alcohol. He had even swirled some into the cream cheese that was adorned with a bright green pile of diced chives.

Barsad drank from his personal flask that he'd carried close to his side for decades and watched the trio noisily eat and drink, simply waiting for them to go to sleep for a while.

As Talia slowly sipped her spiked coffee, back in the sprawling Lang kitchen, Helena wiggled a hand free from Bane's massive embrace and laid her palm over his. She nodded, not trusting her ability to speak.

Bane couldn't keep relief from filling his face before he dropped his lips to hers and kissed her until she was breathless.

He knew that he wouldn't be able to keep his hands from stripping her clothes free if he didn't move away from her.

Bane lessened his hold and pressed his lips to the crown of her head, trying to get his breathing under control.

Helena turned her head and rested her face against his broad chest, hearing his heart pounding under his dense musculature.

"Would you like to help?" she finally murmured.

"I'd rather sit and watch you instead," he stated as he ran his hands up and down her back.

Helena paused and fought a blush that kept itself contained to the apples of her cheeks.

"Could you at least open the wine and shell the walnuts if you're going to sit?"

He chuckled, the sound vibrating through his chest and filling her ear.

Bane eventually forced himself to move away from her and grab the twist-tied bag of walnuts and shell huller before resuming his place at the kitchen table.

Helena bustled around for a few pans and skillets as he worked through each shell.

"What's on the menu?" he asked as she wiped off a marble cutting block.

"I'm going to have a king crab leg appetizer and some melon wrapped proscuitto. My uncle is allergic to tomatoes so I'm making clam chowder and to kind of complete the theme, some halibut with rice pilaf and an apricot, plum chutney."

Bane continued with the shelling before he spoke. "That sounds like a dinner to look forward to, I feel privileged to be able to share your company."

Helena smiled to herself and returned her attention to coarsely chopping a pile of dried plums and Turkish apricots.

"What's for dessert?" he asked as he walked to the counter and plucked a bottle of pricey red wine off the counter and twisted the corkscrew into the crumbly cork.

Helena scooped up the dried fruit and dumped them in a small saucepan to begin simmering and reducing in a sugar and lemon juice bath.

"I baked some shortbread shells yesterday and am going to make a Bavarian cream custard with fresh berries and mint."

Bane smiled and leveled his gaze at her as his face held an unreadable expression. He stared until she squirmed under his wordless stare.

"I'm going to change and get ready for dinner after I finish the appetizers," she murmured nervously.

"Do you need to run your clothes through the laundry before dinner? I have some shirts and slacks that I bought for dad in the wrong size, would you like to see if they'll fit and then I can clean those?" she asked as she gestured at him with her silicone spoon, dripping sticky sweetness on the stovetop.

Bane looked down at his shirt and jacket. "Yes, a run through the laundry would good."

Helena let go of the bunch of mint she was chopping as he walked around to stand behind her and pin her to the countertop with his formidable bulk.

"A shower too," he said on a ragged whisper as he brushed her hair away from the curve of her neck and pressed his lips to her flushed skin and demanded on a strangled groan as he tugged her away from the countertop. "Turn off the stove."

"I have so much I have to do," Helena stammered as he tugged more insistently.

"I'm afraid I have to insist," he growled as he yanked her back into his arms and crushed her against his chest.

As Bane reached past Helena and shut off the stove burners before pulling her towards the living room and the closest soft surface, still thinking somewhat of her comfort before his reptilian brain took over, Talia, Ryan and Chris all succumbed to the heavy tranquilizer that Barsad had roofied them with.

Barsad took a slow sip from his flask before scrolling through the television guide and finding a playoff game before sending a message to Bane on the cheap burner phone.

He tapped out in shorthand that essentially the trio was subdued for now and he would await further instructions. Barsad had booked the room for three nights to start, plenty of time to adjust and cleanup if necessary.

As Barsad zip-tied the drugged trio's hands, ankles and duct-taped their mouths, back in the Lang household, Bane practically shoved Helena belly down to the smooth surface of the suede ottoman.

"Don't turn around," he groaned when she started to shift onto her elbows and rise.

"I'm," Helena started to say before a growl emerged from his broad chest and silenced her.

She froze when he closed his arms around her and pulled her back against his hard, formidable frame.

"Wait," she murmured as he smoothed a hand down the front of her pants.

"Shhh," he soothed.

Bane slid his fingers under the thin silken layer of her panties and found her bare, intimate flesh. He teased her feminine folds until they were wet and slid his fingertips along her soaked slit until his cock threatened to bust through his worn pants.

She shook her head as he moved his index finger in methodical circles around her clit until she could barely breathe underneath him.

Helena heard him fumble at his zipper and soft moans as he stroked his cock once it was free of the confines of his too tight pants.

Bane grunted and shifted above her, forcing the breath from her lungs as he yanked down her pants and thin panties.

"This won't take long," he growled and licked a wet line up the length of her back as he plunged his cock into her without letting her offer much in the way of resistance.

She cried out in time with each of his rough thrusts. Bane molded himself against her and moaned as their intimate flesh wetly kissed.

He knew he wouldn't last much longer and slipped his fingertips to return to her clit before he climaxed.

Bane felt himself hypnotized by the sound of Helena's ragged breathing and the feeling of her sweaty skin under his palms. His orgasm washed over him as his knees grew weak and he let his cock stay firmly inside her until it softened and slid out on its own.

He let his forehead rest against the back of her shoulder as he caught his breath.

Helena sagged under him after her body clenched under him as he pushed her into an orgasmic abyss. She froze when the words he murmured against her shoulder blade reached her ears.

"I love you," he felt slip out of his lips and felt uncertainty slow the very movement of red blood cells in his veins.