Chapter Seven: Day Three at Sea: Intimate Reasoning

Lena found her voice, albeit shaky, as she breathlessly spoke when Bane began to pull off his clothes in a reptilian fluidity that made her forget her discomfort for a moment. The shadows he did allow to touch him, etched deep grooves in his muscular body.

"What are you doing?" Lena asked with rhetorical cringe-worthiness.

Bane smiled behind his mask, with his enhanced senses, he watched her smooth skin break out in goosebumps as her heart began to beat faster as she struggled to keep her breathing even.

Bane ignored her question, keeping his movements calm and deliberate even as his nervous system was churning with lust-charged energy as he continued slipping out of his clothes until he was a naked topographical map of scar tissue in ridged rivulets across thick scarred musculature.

"Was that woman your wife?" Lena asked abruptly, changing the tone in the cargo container as he pulled back the layers of heavy, smooth linen.

Bane swallowed hard, struggling to stay neutral in the veritable shift of the tide.

"No," Bane finally answered in a baritone grumble.

"Who was she?" Lena pressed and scooted herself backwards until the backboard offered her support.

A frustrated sound fell from between Bane's lips as he dismissed her question. "Did you have a husband die in the fire?"

Lena shook her head, "no. Who was she?"

"Did you have a lover perish in the flames?"

"No, who was she?" Lena peppered.

For more than three minutes Bane stared at Lena in utter silence, his stare was steady and impassive but inside his head, his nerve endings fired rapidly as he tried to process an answer.

"She was a soldier, a compatriot, but she changed the rules of engagement," Bane finally answered vaguely.

"Are you in love with her?"

"She is dead."

"Did you love her when she was alive? Is that why you were at the truck with her?"

Bane held her gaze, he desperately wanted to force her to take back her words, to make her physically ingest them. He was all at once pyroclastic anger and roiling rage as Lena continued. "Was she your lover?"

Lena felt her mouth run dry at the shadow that eclipsed Bane's eyes at her question as he blatantly ignored her question. She pawed for the silken top sheet and tugged it over her nudity.

Bane remained silent as he slid under the covers and tried to yank the sheet from her hands, growling when she tightened her grip and risked reinjury as she began to thrash with his growing closeness.

"Have I not given you adequate time to collect yourself?" Bane finally asked, his tony lyrically heavy.

Lena didn't trust her voice and only moved her head in a non-committal manner that could've been from mimicking an owl to possibly having a grand-mal seizure.

"Haven't I?" Bane hissed in a reptilian tune. His simple harmonious syllables and sustained eye contact made it very clear to Lena how opposite the short boat ride here would've been if he'd been a different type of man.

"No, I'm still alive. For now," Lena added.

Bane pulled more assertively on the sheet, "do you believe I still have plans to kill you?"

"I have no idea what you could be planning," Lena sputtered as she began to lose the game of tug-of-war between control of the silken sheet.

Bane nodded his silent concession as he suddenly abandoned his hold on the top sheet and shifted with ferocious swiftness, forcing her to gasp with shock when his hands landed on her hips, squeezing briefly.

"Have I taken too much?" Bane asked on a ragged exhale as he smoothed his hands to the roundest, fullest part of her smooth bottom and shifted until he could insinuate himself between her legs, pushing her thighs further apart, being mindful of her freshly healing wound.

Lena froze under his touch and felt her mouth fall open, "you've taken everything," she sputtered as she tore her eyes from his and slowly dragged her gaze down the front of his scarred, naked flesh. She felt her face grow red like an overripe tomato as her eyes circled his belly button and dropped to his heavy, hardening cock hanging between his thighs. Lena bit her lip to suppress an involuntary moan as he dropped his hips closer, the glossy, plump end of his cock was centimeters away from kissing her pink intimacy.

"You are alive," Bane grumbled musically as he looked down the length of her naked body as he slid one hand to rest on her intimate softness. "Aren't you?" Bane asked as he moved the rough pad of his thumb in slow circles around her swelling, sensitive clit.

Lena ignored his question and pushed at his wrist, unable to think with the heated sparks his touch created, her nervous system a wildfire waiting to happen.

Bane gave a feral growl from a time before men were completely upright and hunted prey with their bare hands, eating the flesh of their animal enemies on the field of battle, as he captured her wrists and slammed her hands to the top of the plush mattress. He shifted his grip of her thin wrists to one of his larger, scarred hands. Bane's breathing was ragged as he returned his free hand to her exposed intimacy and teased apart the blush pink lips of her pussy, his cock pulsing with impossible hardness as he longed to fill her to the hilt.

"You can't take any more from me, you can't, you've taken everything else," Lena stammered as Bane pretended to not hear her as he teased moisture to make her folds slick under his intimate touch. "Everything," she gasped, trying, and losing to control her breathing as Bane kept her eyes locked under his, the swirling depths of brassy browns and warm caramels swirled in his unblinking irises as he brushed the rough pad of his index finger against her tight, wet opening.

"I am not her," Lena spit as she spoke to Bane's masked face. Drops of her saliva clung to the mesh front of Bane's mask as he remained silent but pressed his hips closer, spreading her thighs as far as they would go, letting the bulk of his weight crush her to the bed.

"I'm not Talia," Lena howled, fighting to not thrust her hips up against his palm.

"I know you're not Talia," Bane finally rasped, his voice of a strained, nervous violin soloist as he lifted his hand from her bare intimacy and gripped his thick rigidity and stroked himself until he was painfully hard.

"Then why are you doing this?" Lena managed between gasps as Bane teased the plump, glistening end of his cock along her soaked shell-pink intimate folds.

"Because of you," Bane stated with musical simplicity as he poked the end of his heavy cock at her tight opening. "Because you're not Talia, no longer will someone keep me from whom I desire," Bane murmured raggedly.

Lena was trapped in Bane's gaze as his cock bobbed at her tight, wet opening.

"Did you love her?" Lena asked breathlessly, seeing a wave of tension wash over him, not waning his rigidity in any way.

Bane slowly sank his thick length inside Lena, forcing her body to stretch with his intimate invasion, not stopping until their intimate flesh prevented him from burying himself deeper. "No," Bane growled as he began to thrust with an ardent rhythm, forcing involuntary tears to spring from Lena's eyes, her body overwhelmed by the feeling of Bane filling her. Lena was certain she could feel her lower organs being poked from his invading cock, adjusting themselves to make room for him.

Lena squeezed her eyes shut as Bane increased his pace, enthusiasm taking the reins and forcing a strangled cry from her at the end of each thrust. "You're alive," she told herself. "You take this obligation freely," Lena thought.

Bane watched her beautiful features contort under the physical strain of being underneath him, desperately trying to ignore the pleasure his touch brought.

"Do you wish this to end?" Bane asked on a musical moan as he plunged into her abruptly, pausing as he kept her stretched around his thickness.

Lena's eyes flew open, her orbs filled with inky black dilated pupils, not able to nod quick enough.

"Acceptance ends the struggle," Bane whispered as he lowered his tone, his words scraped Lena's nerve center raw, made a choice to live equate to being complicit in crimes against humanity.

Lena squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm not ready to die," she thought and sniffed hard as she continued nodding, defeat filled the translucent tears that rolled down her flushed cheeks.

"I want you to make a vow to me," Bane murmured raggedly. He felt himself starting to lose control of his undomesticated roots of being raised in the dark and fending for his life with the broken rib bones of his enemies. Rib bones Bane had shattered, gnawed clean the intercostal muscles until they were as smooth as toothpicks to sustain his life a little longer before sharpening the ends so it could slide through flesh.

Lena scoffed, "no, I'm not giving you anything else."

"It's not an oath of service," Bane groaned and slowed his pace until he slipped in and out of her sore, wet center with excruciatingly slowness, teasing her tight core in a way that made her middle toes twitch and she would've bet real money she smelled lemon kitchen cleaner. "What's the vow?" Lena managed.

"I vow to stay next to you until you die. To share your life, bed, and soul," Bane groaned as he dropped his head to the curve of Lena's shoulder, wishing he could press his scarred lips against her warm skin, flick his tongue against her rapid carotid pulse under the smooth skin of her neck. "I want you to vow the same to me," Bane added in a dangerous melodical tone just shy of demanding.

"I never loved her," Bane added in a strangled groan and felt Lena tense as he shifted until the end of his engorged, girthy cock was stretching her intimate walls to their very limit while the bulbous tip poked the spongy nerve cluster deep inside her. Bane's breathing began to outpace his medicinal, mechanical inhalations as he stabbed the excitable nerve cells until lightning bolts of pleasures knocked Lena closer to an orgasmic bliss.

"I'm not ready to die, even with everything gone," Lena thought shamefully, torn between feeling so shallow and broken but also positively electric with Bane's hands on her body and his cock buried deep inside her, their intimate flesh wet when it loudly kissed.

Lena's features were strained as she spoke rapidly, stumbling over the words. "I vow to stay, to, next to you. Until. Until you die," she stammered. Hating that he was making her body react with such wanton primitiveness. Lena felt involuntary tears spring to her eyes as she continued. "To share your, your, life and, and, bed and soul," she added quickly, hoping he'd heard enough.

Bane released her wrists and dropped his hands to her supple hips as he subtly shifted her under his urgent thrusting. He narrowed his eyes and saw Lena's full lips twitch when his probing cock brushed against her innermost sensitivity.

"I said everything that you wanted," Lena managed, unsure of where to put her hands now that they were free.

Bane nodded as he looked down between their bodies as he thrust his girthy rigidity into her wet opening, stretching her intimacy to accommodate his stabbing depth.

Bane murmured incoherently as he raised a large hand to cup her face, his thumb brushing across her full lower lip.

Lena's body took over at that moment, disregarding anything she may have wanted.

Bane pulled Lena close as she involuntarily tightened her thighs around him, oblivious to her burned leg as she was forced into a seemingly endless orgasmic abyss. Lena tried to keep her moans subdued as his erratic plunging pace turned frantic as he approached his own knee-weakening orgasm.

Bane dropped his masked face to her shoulder; strands of her hair teased through the mesh front of his mask and kissed the scarred skin underneath. He growled as he felt Lena's pussy tighten and strangle his thrusting cock. He finally lost control and emptied his hot, sticky seed deep inside her.

As Bane collapsed on top of Lena, back in the burning remnants of Gotham City, Talia's remaining trace cellular life vibrated with angry, radioactive energy at the severed connection of domination and enslavement she held over Bane.

The rest of Gotham was only alive in the form of flames, gas leaks and broken water pipes that involuntarily staunched what flames they could.

Lena didn't leave a husband, boyfriend, lover or even a casual fuck behind in the city that steadily burned to the ground.

Lena left behind cremated parents, buried side-by-side, their ashes were scorched once more, she left unanswered emails, unreturned phone calls and a twenty-dollar winning lottery ticket.

On the cargo ship in the plush container, Lena stared up at Bane and fought to keep a wince off her face as his cock softened and he slid out of her, a flood of wetness painted the inside of her thighs and soaked the edges of the gauze bandages.

Lena couldn't help but hiss as she became aware of the pulsing pain under the once sterile square dressing.

Bane chastised himself for chafing her wound with his rigorous thrusting and slid his hand to cup the back of her thigh and tug at the end of the tape with the other.

Lena futilely attempted to tug her thigh free, freezing as Bane's hands froze and he spoke on a strangled wheeze.

"My benevolence allows you the perception of choice, do not mistake that for more than the thin deception it is Officer Fischer."

Lena felt her surging adrenaline subside like a capped oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico before she sagged against the opulent tangled linen. Bane remained silent and let her swim in her swirling sea of thoughts as he peeled away her stained bandage and began cleaning the wound.

Lena watched as his large fingers moved with deftness and she barely registered extra discomfort under his touch.

"How did you learn that?" Lena asked as Bane allowed her to adjust the silken pillows under her head and shoulders.

Bane waited until he brushed a burn ointment around the wound edges until it glistened in the soft light taking a deep, ragged breath before speaking.

"There were only crude doctors where I was born, professional men that let their animal side takeover in the dark. They forgot the people they operated on were living beings, composed of more than flesh and blood," Bane whispered as he dabbed at the deadening skin of the burn.

Lena watched Bane pluck another pre-filled syringe from the bedside and swab alcohol on the curve of her hip before jabbing the needle into her supple skin and delivering another dose of a broad-spectrum antibiotic before he continued, omitting Talia from the retelling of his origin, past and how he came to be there in that moment.

"I took my eyes away from the living shadows for just a moment and fell into the hands of men whose minds had been warped by the deprivation of light, society and any sense of decorum. I was nearly robbed of life and left in a partially dug hole, my lungs nearly filled with decrepit earth," Bane whispered as he covered the tiny injection site with a round band-aid.

"I had to learn quickly how to stop blood loss and eventually was able to crawl on my elbows to a man who hadn't lost his essence of humanity. He helped me create this apparatus, allowing me to continue breathing and keep the bulk of debilitating pain at bay."

Lena nodded as her eyes moved over the titanium mask and coils surrounding the mesh that covered his scarred lips.

Bane froze, a majestic and towering redwood as Lena raised a hand and traced the curved tubing that kept him alive.

"Why didn't you leave a husband behind in the fire?" Bane asked as Lena continued touching the various knobs and buttons that matching the titanium of the main faceplate of the mask.

Lena chuckled, "I don't know, no one asked?" she asked on a lilt.

"Did you ever allow anyone the opportunity?" he quickly asked.

Lena flinched as the medicated swab brushed a sensitive spot as she thought of her handful of short-term disastrous relationships, each one would've made for an even worse spouse and shrugged noncommittally.

Bane continued regardless of her silence. "Did you ever give anyone a chance to slip a band of forged metal around your finger?" he asked continuing as he traced the tip of his index finger around the perimeter of her wound, speaking as he looked up and met her eyes. "Given someone a chance to mark you as their own?"

"Stop it," Lena mewled weakly, hating the begging exuding on her very exhale as Bane's tone turned as heavy as a fleece coat in the middle of the Mohave as he moved a free hand to stroke his mostly flaccid length, a purr rumbling through his broad chest as he found his cock still slick from the spilled wetness he had forced from her.

Bane snaked his other hand out with inhuman speed and captured her wrist as she began to lower it from his masked face. He squeezed Lena's wrist and was rewarded with earning a girlish squeal that sent a tingling tease to the base of his balls.

"Will you wear a ring that everyone can see when you're not under me?" Bane rasped as he longed to press his fingers to her bare ring finger. Adding as his cock felt a renewal of throbbing blood flow when his next question made Lena gasp. "Will you wear mine so everyone will know you're mine when I'm not inside of you?"

Lena's full lips parted and nothing coherent spilled out as Bane released her wrist and danced his fingertips up the inside of her unburned thigh until he reached her wet center. "Will you?" Bane repeated on a strangled moan as he dipped his index inside her tight opening, coating his scarred finger with his spilled seed. He brought forth a flood of more slick wetness as he shallowly finger-fucked her, making her gasp as he was stopped by the end of his knuckle, the webbing of his fingers grew wet as he repeated himself with every saturated plunge inside her.

"Will you?"

"Will you?"

"Will you?"

"Will you?" Bane repeated as he added teasing her still swollen and sensitive clit until Lena thought her mind would melt as her cunt wanted to call him home.

"Yes, yes I will, just please stop doing that," Lena begged as she tried to shrink and crumble away from him.

The smile behind Bane's mask reached his eyes and spoke of the many ways he wanted to touch her, to make them both feel good. His turmoil-filled orbs begged louder for acceptance, to be wanted and needed. Lena saw his vulnerability, sudden exposure, the soft, pale underbelly of a turtle stuck on its back as bloodthirsty coyotes approached along with winged carrion eaters circling as they patiently waited their turn.

Lena reached back up to rest her smooth fingertips on the front of his mask as Bane varied his rhythm and pushed her into a sudden and sharp peak of pleasure, gathering her up as her spine bent her into an adult fetus as her pussy clutched at his finger.

Lena's fingernails gave a series of metallic tings as they scratched at his mask, pleasure twisting her limbs as Bane fought the urge to take a deep enough breath that he could disconnect his mask, press his lips to hers until he could taste the lining of her lungs and reconnect his mask before the chemically suppressed pain brought him to his knees.

Bane resisted the basal desire to taste her as he sat back enough to tear open a sterile four-by-four square gauze and loosely tape the edges over her slowly healing branded skin.

"What kind of life can I expect with you?" Lena asked on a breathless gasp after he secured the last piece of paper tape.