Bad Habits (7/7)

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~~~~~~~~~~~

7:  Love Slave

Max gave him an injection just before dinner and he wowed Kyle by removing the mask beforehand.

“Does your face hurt when you eat, Bang?”

“The mask keeps it from hurting.  But your mommy gave me some medicine so that I could eat dinner with you.”

Kyle turned his bright blue eyes on his mother.  Max smiled back.  “Go on and eat, now.”

While Kyle ate, he continued to talk to Bane.  Max watched him interact with his father, her feelings bittersweet.  She wondered if she could rekindle things with Tammaro and let him know that she wanted to be with him.  He was a good man, and she was very fond of him.  Max hoped that Bane hadn’t scared him away.  She might have to go out of her way to earn his forgiveness, but she could do it.  She would do it.

After dinner, Kyle took a bath while Max cleaned her kitchen.  Bane watched her from across the room, a myriad of emotions swirling in his head.  Max’s world was peaceful.  Yes, they argued and yes, she fought him tooth and nail until she had no choice but to yield.  But he still found harmony in her anger because it was for love of her child—their child.  No matter where his experiences took him or what they stripped him of, there would always be a part of him that would be loved unconditionally.  Bane had to take comfort in knowing that, in Kyle, he left the best of him behind and in the care of a miraculous, marvelous woman who wanted nothing more than to love and raise him.

He was going to miss them and ruefully, he thought that the knowing, the absence, was going to make him even more brutal and ruthless than before. 

After Kyle had his bath and Max got him ready for bed, he asked Bane to read him a story.  Bane looked at Max, deferring to her.  Max nodded.  “That’s fine, honey.  But one story and then you have to tell Bane goodbye.”

“Will you come back tomorrow, Bang?”

“No.  I have to leave tonight.”

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“Will you come and visit me again someday?”

“I don’t know, Kyle.”

“I like you, Bang.  You should come back tomorrow so I can show you my trains.”

Max took a deep breath as Kyle settled into bed to listen to his story.  Max went to take a shower and while looking up into the head, she let herself cry for her child.  Truth be told, she cried for Bane and for herself.  Had he never came back, this wouldn’t have happened.  But things occurred for a reason and there was a simple rationale for this.  Because if this weekend taught her anything, it was that she was being selfish by not having a man in her son’s life.  She couldn’t allow Kyle to form any lasting connection with his dad because it would only lead to heartache, and she would do anything to keep her son from that kind of pain.  But he needed a father figure and she wasn’t going to deny him that.

When she got out of the shower, she put on a robe and tied it as she went into her son’s room.  Kyle was dozing off and she leaned forward to kiss his forehead and tuck him in.  Bane sat at the foot of the bed.  “I want to watch him for a little while, if that’s fine with you.”

“All right.  Let me know when you’re ready to leave.”

She returned to her bedroom, put on a T-shirt and set about twisting her hair up as she got ready for bed.  The entire day had been a rollercoaster ride of emotion and she was exhausted.  But she could rest easy knowing that when she woke up tomorrow, her life would be somewhat back to normal.  She was going to send an email out to her students to let them know classes were canceled for the week and they could access their notes from the website. 

Then she knew she wasn’t alone.  Bane was behind her.  She stared at their reflection.  “You have to be gone before he wakes up.”

“My weakness isn’t just my son.”

“I’ve figured that out.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to leave you alone completely, Max.  I’m safe with you.”

“It’s so odd, hearing you say something like that.”

“I don’t know how to be anything but what I am.  But I love my son.  He’s perfect, just like you said.  He’s pure; he’s the best part of me.  I won’t ruin him.”

“That was all I ever wanted, Bane.”

“I will do my  best not to bother you again after tonight.  But don’t leave Positano.  Don’t uproot our son.”  They would be guarded for the rest of their lives.  “They won’t come for you here.  If I need to, I’ll surface in Africa or Asia, or even South America.  Somewhere far enough away that you’ll be safe.”

“Thank you.  I have a question.”

“What?”

“What did you do with Kirrah?”

“I didn’t use her.  I haven’t yet, anyway.”

“Where is she?”

“Secured in a stronghold in a remote part of the world.  She’s safe.”

Max nodded as he came closer.  If he had used Kirrah, she would have known about it.

“I can’t leave just yet.”

“I know.  Don’t think this is easy for me, Bane, because it’s not.  This thing between us simultaneously makes no sense and perfect sense.  I’m not disturbed or bothered by what you’ve done, even though I should be.  I just don’t want it tainting my—our child.  If you’d never left me in Macau, then things would have been different.  If I hadn’t gotten pregnant, I probably would have followed you and been your bad-ass Girl Friday.  I might have gotten killed, but that’s the risk, right?”

“You considered following me?”

“I did.  We’re kindred spirits, or we were at the time.  I had enough rage in me that I thought I could do some of the things you described.  But then I went to the doctor and my life changed.  Part of me went with you that day and part of me will leave with you tonight.  I can’t lie to you about that.”

He put his hands on her waist and pulled her close.  She smelled sweet and her skin was warm and she was so soft and feminine and she was the only woman who had ever made him feel the way a man was supposed to feel.  “I can’t leave here without...”

“I know,” she said.  “I wouldn’t have allowed it, at any rate.”

He put the mask on the dresser.  “I don’t want to wear it right now.”

“Tell me what you want, Bane.”

“Your mouth.”

She turned to look at him.  “Is that all?”

“Of course not.  Before I met you, no other ever kissed me like that or wanted to.  It was one of the things I missed most when I was gone and sometimes I wondered if it was something I’d ever have again.  I’m not that man, but when I’m in your presence, I don’t have to be.  I don’t have to be anything with you and that’s a relief.”

Max put her hands on his cheeks and used her thumbs to massage his lips.  “I love kissing you,” she said.  “I don’t care about any of this.” She ran the back of her fingers over his scars.  “It never bothered me and it still doesn’t.  I love the heat of your mouth and the sweet taste of your lips.  Where the skin has grown over is a different texture and it tickles my face.  The first time I kissed you, I felt like I took the virginity of your mouth and I'm just greedy now.  If you want my mouth, my lips, then I’ll smother you in kisses.”

“Smother me in something else too,” he said.

Max started kissing him and soon, he was as weak as a newborn.  She captured the upper corner of his lip and ran her tongue underneath it and over his teeth.  She put her hands on his cheeks and kissed her way across his upper lip.  Then she gave him an Eskimo kiss before planting a fat, juicy smacker against the tip of his nose.  He made an unfamiliar noise that she found sexy.

“You’d better sit down,” she said, nudging him towards the bed.  “Take off your vest.”

He unstrapped the Kevlar and threw it on the floor.  Then, staring at Max, he removed his shirt.  She touched his chest.  “I’ll be careful, here.”  Then she reached down and unfastened his fatigues as she pushed him down on the bed.  “We can’t make any noise because it’ll wake the baby and I don’t need him wandering in here and seeing Mommy blow Bang's mind.”

Bane nodded dumbly as he grabbed Max’s head and brought it close to his.  She giggled.  “Impatient?  Relax, honey.”

Max straddled him, pressing her pussy against his abs and began covering his face and neck with slow, delirious kisses.  He slipped his hands under her shirt, wondering why the fuck did she even have it on, but also losing himself in the softness of her body and the curve of her back.  His hands moved of their own accord, up and down, down and up and over.  She took one of his earlobes between her teeth and gently tugged on it before licking the pinna.  Max glided her fingers over the contours of his face, touching, kneading, tickling, stroking, caressing, and when his mouth opened at the sheer ecstasy of her ministrations, she slid her fingers into it.  Instinctively, he sucked her fingertips, growling again, harder than a sack of diamonds as she moved over him.  She was so, so soft and he decided he wanted her breasts touching him as well.  In a sudden, violent move, Bane ripped her T-shirt right down the middle. 

“Don’t…don’t tease me like that…”

Max giggled.  “Well, don’t be half-assed about it then.  Rip it off completely, you big stud.”

And then, all was as it should be.  Max moved over him, kissing his face and neck while rubbing her soft body against his blessed hard one.  Neither of her lovers had a body like Bane; they were both downright skinny by comparison.  But this, this was good.  His hands were on her back and his eyes were closed and she was pulling unfamiliar rumbles from his throat and with each utterance, his fingers pressed harder into her skin.  She adjusted so that she could slip a hand inside his trousers and get him off.  With the way he was sounding and the tension in his muscles, all it would take was a couple of gentle pulls and he would come all over her hand.  That was fine with her.  She wrapped her fingers around him and moved her kisses to his chest, taking care with his injury.  Max sucked on one of Bane’s nipples while stroking his erection.  He continued to make erotic indistinguishable sounds as Max drew him into his private, secret place.  It was so good…

A few moments later, Max licked her way up his chest, following the cut of his muscles.  Her hands were spread wide, cupped around his arms, caressing his biceps.  Bane lay on her bed, flat on his back, at Max’s command.  She kissed his chin as she brought her arms around his neck.  Then while drifting even more kisses over his nose, forehead, and eyes, Max slipped her foot into his trousers to stimulate him even further.  He had no clue as to what she was doing to him.  He was completely unmanned; broken down, reduced, putty in her hands.  He would have literally followed Max into the abyss, into a place of eternal darkness if she chose to go.

“Max,” he said.  Her name was all he could say.  “Max…Maaaax…!”

Max moved her toes over his dick and he groaned, curling his hands into the covers as she continued to smother his face in sweet, hot kisses.  And when he was hard again—bless it, the man didn’t fuck around—she pushed up on her arms and looked at him.

“Tell me what you want, baby.”

He stared at her, lips parted, barely able to comprehend the question.  Max continued to stroke him as he made an attempt to speak.  When, after a few seconds, he still couldn’t verbalize anything more than a growl, Max grinned wickedly.  She felt like an omnipotent goddess bringing a god to his knees and she was drunk with the power.  Max put her hands on his chest and made her way down, replacing her foot with her hands and mouth.  He grabbed her by the hair and pulled and Max allowed it, taking care to move slowly so that he didn’t tear out her hair.  She liked giving him head; his responses were pure, undiluted lust.  He moved his hips in time and once she started caressing his balls, it was only a matter of time before he blew like Vesuvius.  She took the time to taste him and wiped her mouth with an avaricious gleam in her eyes.  Bane stared at her as his heartbeat slowed; wondering if this was what love felt like.

His breath came in hitches.  “Max,” he moaned.  “Max…”

“Turn over,” she said as she removed his pants.  After he took a moment to breathe, he did just what she instructed.  Max sat on his ass and began massaging his back.  Bane lay flat, hands in fists, eyes closed.  There was nothing to say and nothing to do other than what she told him to.  There would likely never be another night like this and he was going to savor every delectable thing she did to him.

“Are you all right, baby?  Does your chest hurt?”

“No,” he said.

She made fists and rolled them up the broad muscles of his back.  “I’m so fucking horny right now,” she murmured.  “But I like this.  I like pleasing you, Bane.  This shit is right on so many levels.”  Max silently thanked God for the tubal ligation, because had she not gotten it, she probably would get pregnant again.  This was one of those nights.

She adjusted and bent over him, running her finger along the scar that ran up his spine.  The man had endured unimaginable hurt and torture and she hated that he had to suffer at the whims of God knew who or what…and that there wasn’t a clear rationale for his pain always infuriated her.  Then, in only the way she could, Max licked his scar from his tailbone up to the back of his head.  Bane trembled as she kissed the scar’s terminus and got back on top of him so that she could press her body against his.

“Max,” he said.  There was finally enough spit in his mouth to form words.  “How do you…expect me to leave here after this?”

“I don’t blame you if you don’t want to, but what you want and what must occur are two different things, baby.  I told you my skills are legendary.  Besides, we’re not through.  You’re running up in me before I let you go; you know this, right?  I mean, let’s not kid each other.  I love pleasing you, but we’ve never half-stepped when it comes to sex.”

He murmured some sound of agreement.  It was preposterous to think that he would leave this woman’s life without being buried inside of her at least one more time.

“You feel so good,” he said, burrowing his face into the pillow.  Max balanced herself on his shoulders and adjusted so that her pussy was flush against his back.  Then in a move worthy of a gymnast, she moved backwards, scraping his spine with juice.  She decided a second later that the sound he made and the move he executed would never leave her memory.  And he also ejaculated on the covers.  There was that.

Oh, she felt powerful! 

Max repeated the move in reverse, grinning wickedly as she watched his muscles tighten.  Then she leaned over and whispered, “Turn over.  You can do it with me sitting on top of you, right?”

The man rolled over slowly and Max lifted herself ever so slightly.  She smiled into his face and slid all the way up, straddling his head.

“You wanted me to smother you.”  She caressed his skull as he opened his mouth.  “Die happy, now…”

Bane curled his muscular arms around her thighs and sighed.  There was no measurement that could describe how much he wanted Max at that moment.  She grabbed her headboard and closed her eyes, losing herself to the pleasure of his mouth.

A few minutes later, Max got off the bed and walked over to her table, where she kept a pitcher of water and a glass.  She stood in the doorway that led to her terrace and leaned against it, sipping as she watched Bane pull himself together.  When it looked like he had, he rolled over and sat up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand while staring at her like he was starving to death.  Max finished her water and walked backwards until she bumped the rail, giving Bane a smile that made the pit of his stomach fall out.  He stood up and walked towards her, closing the distance in what seemed like less than a nanosecond.

“Let’s do this outside, what do you say?” she asked, spreading her arms to embrace him.  That way, they wouldn’t wake Kyle.



Later, much later, they were on her bed, exhausted.  Max's hair was a complete fuckup and her headache had returned, but it wasn't as bad as it was earlier.  The knot had gone down.  She lay beside Bane, one bare leg thrown across his naked torso.  She was caressing his face and turned his head so that she could look at him.  Bane stared at her, tired as all get out, and beyond anything he'd ever experienced in this life.  This was not the same as the love he felt for Talia.  This was something other.

Max kissed his nose.  "My name is Vanessa.  Vanessa Stewart."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He left her house by boat, under cover of darkness.  Bane, accompanied by his soldiers, left Positano early in the morning with plans to head for Florence.  From there, they planned to head east.  He was going to put as much distance between Max and Kyle as he could, just in case.  There was no telling what was happening in Gotham; he had been off the grid for a few days.  His soldiers reported that there was indeed a massive manhunt and one suggested the idea that he fake his death.  It wasn’t a bad idea; it would give him some time to think and it would definitely draw any heat away from Max and their son if people thought he was dead.  And, loyal to the core, one of his men volunteered for the cause.  Even more fortunately, he had his old mask to help pull off the charade if he decided to go through with it.  Whether authorities would buy it was a different story.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Bane watched from a distance; both near and far, but always from a distance.  When he was far away, he got pictures delivered at random intervals at his request.  He would stare at them in moments of silence and remember what it was like, and then he would burn the photos and bury the ashes.  But when he could get closer, he did.  Never so close as to be seen, but close enough to see for himself that she was happy and he was happy, and that she was giving their child the life he never had.  There was eventually a man; a husband, a father, and only in his most private of moments would he allow himself to grieve.  It might not have been the path he would have willingly chose, but it was the one he walked and it was destined to take him far away from the woman he considered home.

Unless he did decide to fake his death.

done.

 Soundtrack

“Walk on By” Sybil
"Obsession" Animotion

“Stroke You Up” Changing Faces

“Love of My Life” Erykah Badu

“U Got it Bad” Usher

“Don’t You Forget About Me” Simple Minds

“Give Me Your Love” Curtis Mayfield

“Inside My Love” Trina Broussard

“Seconds of Pleasure” Van Hunt

“Said Enough” Jill Scott & Ron Isley

“Would You Mind” Janet Jackson