"Us?"
Bane remained silent in the face of her question, wordlessly walking closer, a small smile pulled at the corners of his lips behind his mask at the tension that filled Clara within the time span of a butterfly flapping its wings.
She walked laterally towards the bar, refilling the glass to the crystal rim, forgoing an olive, citrus wedge or even an ice cube when Bane settled in one of the plush chairs.
Despite Clara's growing level of intoxication, the energy pouring off Bane made her primordial DNA alert.
"Who was I being given to?" Clara asked, the ugly question sour on her tongue.
Bane watched the skin of her throat undulate as she swallowed the strong liquor, waiting until she heavily set the glass down before he explained how Barsad was retrieving the dollhouse in exchange for her.
Clara shuddered, Barsad frightened her.
Clara could exploit the dark web, strip mine it for cryptocurrency and sodomize algorithms.
But, standing in front of Bane was not a code she could manipulate with keystrokes, behind anonymity, he wasn't alphanumeric language that she could manipulate. She didn't know how to talk to him.
Bane's eyes penetrated deeper.
Clara dropped her eyes to her glass as she spoke, "this new reality is far from here?"
"It's a long way from here, pack a single bag with only the sheer necessities," Bane stated, drumming his fingertips on the arms of the ultra-luxurious chair, adding. "I will replace anything you are unable to bring, travel space is limited."
"Why are you doing this?" Clara asked as she raised her eyes to his, finding his gaze still focused upon her.
"Because you have something I want."
"Money right, how much do you want?"
"Not money."
"Then what, is there someone in prison you want released?"
"No Clara, something only you can give," Bane murmured on a dangerous mechanical melody.
Clara felt her face fill with color as Bane rose from the designer chair's cushion and began to undo the buttons of his coat, letting it slip off his broad frame, draping it over the arm of the chair.
Bane pulled a folded sheet of paper from his pants pocket, walking slowly towards her to set the note on top of the glass bar before taking a few steps back.
Clara unfolded the well-creased piece of paper, finding an aerial view of a vast forested area of land, moving bodies of water shown in the photo as well as a dark-roofed home and fire-engine red barn.
"That's where we're going," Bane stated when Clara looked up from the sheet of paper. "All of it is yours," he rasped, adding in a rush, "I know I'm not the type of man you associate with, and you're used to more."
Clara heard the fear in his voice that she might reject whatever he presented because of where he felt his station in life was. She couldn't help but smile as she thought about the benefit galas and how he'd fit in.
A resolute rhino charging across the ballet stage.
Bane was nervous, a foreign sensation.
He knew that the life on that paper was on a different planet than how Clara Leroux had lived her entire life until being thrown over his shoulder.
"So you're also going to treat me as some kind of whore?" Clara asked, angry, refilling her glass, liquor splashing on the bar top as she added in an angry hiss. "It sounds like each choice involves my only value being my virginity."
Bane walked towards her at a casual pace, his body electric with the increased blood flow from his rapidly beating heart. "Except here," he said as he pointed to the photo. "You will retain value; you do not need to be a brood mare."
Clara lifted the glass, gasping when Bane's hand snaked out and captured her wrist. "There is not a lot of time to squander Clara," he growled as he caught her other wrist and tugged her across the room towards her bedroom.
Clara uselessly tried to shake herself free of Bane's unbreakable hold.
He yanked her through the doorway, adjusting his grip so he could flick on the flight, bathing the room with light.
Bane wanted to see all of her.
Clara clawed at his muscular forearms as he picked her up and carried her to the neatly made bed, assertively pushing her back to the buttery soft surface of the silk duvet cover before his hands moved deftly, pushing her nightgown up past her hips.
Clara tried to pull her gown down as Bane shifted, settling his hands on her kneecaps before pushing her thighs apart, exposing her naked intimacy to his gaze, having not been wearing anything under her satin nightgown.
"Lovely," he growled mechanically as he let his eyes memorize the shell pink intimate folds of her feminine center.
She tried to bring her trembling knees back together, hide from him somehow.
Bane murmured a few low words in a dead language, attempting to soothe as he kept her legs apart, exposed, smoothing one hand along the flushed skin of her inner thigh. She shivered as he traced his fingertips along her naked skin, just grazing her intimate flesh.
"No more hiding," he rasped as he teased the tip of his finger around her clit, enjoying the explosion of color that erupted from his touch. "You'll keep nothing from me," Bane added, his strained tone close to a demand as he dragged his finger lower to bob at her center, closely watching Clara's exquisite face as he touched her.
Clara was overwhelmed with Bane's touch and the heat of his gaze as he lowered his weight, pushing her thighs further apart. He reached a hand down in between them and fumbled at his zipper, freeing his rapidly hardening cock.
He gripped his thick length, dragging the rounded, sensitive head through her delicate pink folds. His continued touch forced Clara's body to respond, her intimacy growing slick under his touch.
Clara pulled her eyes away from Bane, looking down to where he gripped his hardening length. Her breath caught in her throat as her eyes moved over his thickness, the rigid tissue pulsating with his surging, pyroclastic lust.
"The discomfort will only be temporary," Bane rasped as he began to slide his painfully hard length inside her, stretching her tightness until she was certain he was going to tear her apart, that'd he'd impale her internal organs as he was stopped from sinking further when their bodies wetly kissed.
It didn't stop hurting as her body was compelled to accept his thrusting thickness.
Bane smoothed his hands up the outside of Clara's trembling thighs, settling on the supple flesh of her hips, pulling her upwards to meet his plunging cock.
His grip turned painful, making Clara gasp, his urgency was fueled by the irrational fear that she would disappear.
Bane was terrified he would look away from Clara too long and she'd vanish, as though she was never there.
Leaving him wanting.
Needing.
Empty.
The moment Bane had seen Clara Leroux, he'd wanted her all for himself.
She had ripped open a long-healed scab in his center, all his desires, needs and wants came rushing to the surface.
"It will not always be this uncomfortable, rushed or brief," Bane rasped, his breath hitching out of sequence with his assisted breathing apparatus.
Clara didn't have the wherewithal to form a reply as she stared up at Bane, locked in his gaze as he wetly filled her to the hilt.
The moment that Bane slid his rigidity into Clara's tight, intimate center, he spoiled her value.
Each deep plunge as he seated his cock rendered her worthless in illicit marketplaces and criminal auctions.
A low moan escaped from between Clara's lip with each of Bane's deep thrusts, squeezing her eyes shut in an effort to avoid his seeking eyes.
"Open your eyes Clara," Bane demanded, his palm soon cupping her cheek. She opened her eyes as Bane traced the pad of his scarred thumbs around her parted lips. "You will want for nothing."
"What do you want in return?" Clara stumbled over, her body on fire from all the new sensations.
"I want your acceptance," he rasped as he trailed his eyes down the front of her body to where he slid his thick length inside her, adding as he fully seated himself with a guttural groan. "We'll share every part of our lives; my hope is that one day you'll desire me in return."
In the space before Clara could muster the ability to speak, Bane became hypnotized watching himself fully possess her body. He had a sudden and overwhelming urge to taste her, a surging desire so strong that he began to consider removing his mask for just a quick taste.
Bane decided the pain was worth it to be without his breathing support and combination of analgesic gases.
Clara cried out in shock and delicious stimulation as Bane fumbled his mask free, pulling his hard cock abruptly from her wet, sore center to slide down her body and trace his fingertips through her intimate silken folds.
He inhaled deeply as he licked her swollen folds before dipping his tongue into her aching center.
Clara felt herself wanting to thrust her pelvis up to meet Bane's face as he teased his tongue in circles around her clit in an irregular rhythm before dipping down to poke inside her, reveling in the taste of her intimate wetness and metallic aftertaste from her broken innocence.
Bane's damaged lungs threatened to implode from depending on room air, he growled angrily and shoved his mask back into pace with a series of grunts, rising up, his hands scrabbling at her supple flesh and tugging her closer.
His exhale was mechanically strangled as he sank his cock back inside her, his shaft practically pulsating from the excess blood flow.
She struggled with her congested thoughts, distracted each time he sheathed himself in her center.
"Your family doesn't want you," Clara thought as she raised her hands, hesitatingly settling them on the outside of his muscular upper arms. "This is a chance for something different," she thought as she squeezed his dense flesh, the defined horseshoes-shaped triceps muscle palpable under her palms.
She couldn't deny the feelings he'd created inside of her; the joining of their bodies was the only sound while she tried to gather her thoughts, had to teach herself how to speak as his touch made her body cry out.
"I'll try," Clara gasped in between the sharp jolt that spread through her body each time the rounded end of his cock poked into the spongy nerve cluster deep inside of her. "I'll try," she repeated breathlessly as Bane dropped to his elbows, bringing his masked face closer.
"Thank you," Bane said on a grunt as he felt his climax became imminent. "Thank you Clara," he repeated on a broken series of hitched growls as his cock twitched, spasming as he filled her wet center with his sticky seed.
There wasn't much time remaining for conversation after they caught their breath, Clara packed the single bag he'd requested before leaving South America.
Bane would safely escort Clara to the helicopter pad where a decommissioned sea knight waited, Stanislavski behind the controls, the engine roaring loudly, prepared to leave the ground.
Clara wouldn't talk much on the helicopter ride to another runway, this time to a prop plane that flew them the rest of the way to the place in the faded, folded photograph.
Bane and Clara would make a home in the low-population town of The Rivers of the Forest.
They'd enjoy two years of peace before it was shattered, their lives threatened.
Until then.