Chapter Eleven: A Tough Q&A

As Bane answered, he fumbled with his zipper and took longer than he'd like to free his painfully hard cock, he didn't want to stop touching her. He watched Helena's face, gauging her reaction to his idea of what her date night response might be.

"You said you were looking for an intelligent man who had a sense of humor. You said a good job and living conditions were a must. I pressed you though on what you wanted from a man besides them being employed and financially solvent. I asked you what really mattered to you most of all?"

Bane made Helena utter incoherently as he moved his hands to her hips and shifted her until he could impale her on his hard cock. "What did I say was paramount?" she moaned as he urged her to rock her hips and make him fill her from different angles.

"You said more than anything you wanted a man that would never hurt you or make you cry, you said you wanted a man that would keep you safe," Bane groaned as he sat up further and forced a cry from her at the sudden shift in their intimate flesh kissing.

"What did you say to that?" Helena whispered as she dropped her hands to grip the tops of his muscular shoulders.

"It isn't important what I said, but what I did," he growled cryptically as he felt himself nearing his orgasmic precipice.

"What did you do?" she barely managed as he tightened his fingers into the smooth flesh of her hips and made her bounce with more enthusiasm until each plunge became close to painful as he violently filled her.

Bane yanked her down until he completely filled her, their intimate skin touched as he crushed his mouth to hers. Helena cried out into his mouth as he returned his thumb to making frantic circles on her swollen, sensitive clit.

Helena felt herself surrender under his kiss, which prompted Bane to pull her closer. He broke the kiss as the heat of her body and passion in the reciprocity of her kiss was near-overwhelming and made his orgasm wash over him. He shuddered as he filled her hotly and stickily.

Bane kissed a path down her neck as he coaxed Helena's body to coil and clench around him where he remained firmly sheathed inside her wet center. He groaned as her tight wetness clenched around his cock.

Helena sighed raggedly, reveling in the feeling of his lips moving down her neck in a hot path as her breathing was slow to return to normal. Bane could feel her pulse pounding under his lips, her heart pumping blood through her body fast, leaving her flushed in his arms.

Bane reveled in the knowledge that the rapid rise and fall of her chest was because of his penetrating touch.

He groaned when his cock softened to the point that it wetly slid out of her.

Helena shifted in his lap as he tightened his grip around her. "I'll never hurt you," he murmured as he pressed his lips to the center of her sternum.

She folded her arms around him and rested the side of her face against the top of his head.

"How did our date end?" she murmured as he danced his fingertips up and down the length of her spine.

"Where did I leave off?" he asked casually and smoothed his hands down to squeeze her thighs until oval bruises would be visible and vividly purple within four hours.

"You said we had dinner and talked shop as well as shared our dreams and goals."

"Anything else?" he murmured as he fought a growl that his cock wasn't remaining hard with his still surging lust.

"Well," she said slowly, "you might've asked me what I was seeking in a prospective man. Then you might have kissed me."

"Then what?" Bane asked as he leaned back and looked up at her.

"I don't know, you didn't get to that," she said returning his assessing gaze.

"What do you think happened next?" he pressed. "Tell me how you think the evening ended," he practically begged.

Helena was quiet for a while as she considered his words and shifted, giving a delicious hiss as a jolt shot through her femininity when their intimate flesh brushed against each other.

"It's not important what happened in the fabricated past. What's important is what's happening now," she said slowly.

The emphasis on the word important was not missed by Bane as she further elaborated. "I want to look at what's happening now, I want to start by sorting fact from fiction."

"Where do you propose we start?" he asked genuinely intrigued with her statement but also hesitant to agree to whatever she had in mind, being raw and vulnerable was unfamiliar territory to him.

"You're completely blinding," Bane thought as he slid his hands up the smooth skin of her sides and danced his fingertips around her pink nipples until they grew hard enough to cut glass. He cupped his hands around the warm flesh of her breasts and squeezed rhythmically as she struggled to speak under the distraction his touch created.

Helena covered a smile and chuckle as she looked away from him. Bane caught her wrist and pulled her hand away from her mouth. "Don't hide from me."

She cleared her throat before she spoke. "How did you know about Daphne's?"

He smiled lazily up at her. "We passed it on the way in from the city," he murmured and dropped his strong hands to her hips.

As Bane continued to stare up at her, hours away in the rundown hotel room, Talia began to stir from her drugged cup of coffee which had quite the opposite of a caffeine pick-me-up.

Barsad looked up from the tv screen of fuzzy porn as Talia gave a series of groans before she opened her eyes and nearly fell off the bed as she sat up too fast and got light-headed.

She squinted around the room and tried to focus on Barsad.

"What is, where….?" Talia stammered before Barsad switched off the tv before he spoke.

"There's been a change of plans," Barsad started easily and watched Talia try to process his words as Chris and Ryan remained oblivious to the conscious world.

"A change? What are you talking about and where are we?"

Barsad shocked Talia when he closed the distance between them in two long strides and slapped her beautiful face. His open palm smacked loudly on the smooth skin over her sculpted cheekbones. The force made the inside of her cheek kiss her molars and cut the tender flesh and the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth in the wake of his stinging contact.

A startled cry fell from Talia's utterly shocked, full lips and she raised a hand to cup the burning side of her face. "Just what…?" she started and soon fell silent and cowered when Barsad raised his hand again.

"Shut your mouth, it's now your turn to listen."

"You can't talk to me like this, my father is Ras Al Ghul and I am," Talia shouted, her voice growing strong until Barsad eviscerated her capacity for words when he soon had a titanium short-barreled .45 pointed in the center of her forehead.

"Your father was a warrior and a man," Barsad said and added dryly. "You are a disappointment as a daughter and woman. You use your cunt as currency and possess only the smallest sliver of the honor and strength your father possessed."

"My father was a fucking God!" Talia screeched. "You are being paid to kill that whore."

"She has done nothing to you Talia, you are angry that your father proved to be a man. He descended the mountaintop for her mother."

"Her whore mother seduced my father," Talia screeched before Barsad's blatant chuckling paused her words and she stared at him with wide eyes. "What is this?!" she sputtered. "You are not demonstrating honor, you are a fool, seduced by that useless slit," she hissed.

Barsad's laughter stopped and he held Talia's eyes as he spoke. "I secured a bigger paycheck; your words mean nothing."

Talia began to laugh at him. "Now who's buying into that cunt?" she chuckled and shook her head.

Barsad's ears rang painfully at the sound of her shrill laughter.

Talia screamed and fell into a rigid, petrified silence when two gunshots rang out next to her, closely followed by a third.

She was frightened to such stiffness that she had a hard time turning her head. She saw enough when a sidelong glance revealed Ryan's grey matter shining dully under the yellow lights. Talia held her breath as she listened to Chris's ragged breathing slow until he just stopped living.

"Talia."

She looked up into Barsad's bright, blue unblinking eyes.

He remained quiet for a few moments, wordlessly holding her paralyzed under the weight of his gaze.

"Do you wish to remain living?"

Talia nodded, not trusting her voice.

"Then I demand silence and obedience."

Talia bobbed her head, her bladder tightening as fear settled deep inside her.

As Talia fought a wave of nausea, hours away in Helena's spacious bedroom, Bane didn't want to let go of Helena when she tried to get up to wash her face and change into something much more comfortable.

He reluctantly let her climb off his nearly naked lap and watched her push her dress back down her thighs before she disappeared behind the bathroom door.

Bane brushed a hand against his flaccid cock and knew that if he pushed open the door, he wouldn't be able to get hard enough to fuck her. He zipped himself back up and slipped back on his tank-style undershirt before pulling out his burner phone and tapping out a request for an update from Barsad.

He had no sooner put the phone away and resumed sitting on the edge of the bed before he heard the faint vibration indicating a new message. Bane finished unlacing and kicking off his shoes before reading Barsad's quick reply.

"The children became a problem and I put them down. She's cooperating."

Bane smirked and tapped out a message to keep things as status quo and to keep Talia confused, guessing and afraid.

Helena emerged from the bathroom in a pair of capri style loose sweats and short-sleeved shirt with the album cover of a musical group that measured the length of their wall hardware.

Helena's eyes fell on him under the covers, sitting up straight against the headboard. The linen was pulled up to his lap and all she could see was his bare skin. She tugged at the hem of her shirt. "It gets cold at night and the heater doesn't work well," she said almost apologetically.

Bane smiled slowly, his eyes full of naked lust as he pulled the covers back and wordlessly patted the bare space beside him.

Helena settled next to him as he pulled the covers up and around her. She cleared her throat nervously. "I like to watch the news before bed, do you mind?" she asked reaching for the remote.

Bane slid down further in the bed as he shook his head, "please watch what you'd like."

Helena scrolled through the channels until she found her favorite anchor and skimmed the ticker tape with news from around the world. "Did you hear about the fires in…?" she started to ask him and stopped speaking when she found his eyes and face filled with something unreadable.

"Are you okay?" she asked before turning down the volume of the news program.

He nodded, not realizing he'd been staring. She had caught him lost in thought. "Are you okay after your uncle towards the end of dinner?"

Helena rolled her eyes as she settled under the covers next to him. "That always happens when he's drunk, he never remembers."

Bane pulled the remote from her hand and switched off the tv. He grabbed her left hand after he tossed the plastic remote to land softly on the carpeted floor.

"What would you say if I asked you to marry me?" Bane whispered as he pressed his lips to her naked ring finger.