Bane collapses his weight back over me, burying his head in my breasts.
“Jesus woman,” he grunts. “Who the hell are you?”
I chuckle, stretching luxuriously beneath him.
“Actually, don’t answer that,” he says. “We’ll make up an answer together today. I’m taking you with me to meet Blair and get our fake passports.” He cocks an eyebrow playfully, accusingly. “You’re not gonna try and run away on me again, are you?”
I smirk at him. “Tried that. Didn’t go well.”
He chuckles. “You can say that again. Got a new name you want to try out for your new identity? Medusa? Beetlejuice? You gotta have a monster name, if you fuck like a fucking monster.”
“Hey, asshole!” I tug his hair in vengeance, making him laugh. “I’m the one fucking a Beast.”
“It takes one to know one.”
He playfully bites my nipple for emphasis, making me jump and laugh. He growls, wrestling me down, but I give him a good fight that ends with another deep, prowling kiss.
“You make me pretty crazy, you know that?” Bane grunts when he finally pulls up. He pushes to sit and rolls up to his feet on the side of the bed, glancing over me. “Cray-zee. Get up. Come on. Let’s go. Time’s a wastin. If we’re not fucking, we’re making hay.”
I laugh. “Making hay? What are you, from Kansas?”
“Newark.” He struts over to his dresser and pulls on a pair of boxers before smacking himself in the head. “Shit, clothes. I don’t have any clothes for you. I can get some from Tink.”
“No!”
Surprised at my own vehemence, I turn a little pink when Bane arcs an eyebrow at me.
“You wanna go in your birthday suit?” he asks.
“No.”
His poker face is on. “Then what’s the problem?”
Now I’m bright orange and feeling a little humiliated. I remember Amy, the blue-eyed slave from the clubhouse, telling me about all the sweetbutts vying for first place in Bane’s bed. Coco. Trinity. Tink.
And now me, I guess.
Bane’s eyes grow harder as my silence stretches out, but I can’t quite bring myself to say out loud that I don’t even want him talking to any of the sweetbutts. And the thought of him borrowing clothes for me from another woman he fucks makes my stomach turn.
I try to tell myself that Bane is not exactly a one-woman kind of guy. Sure, I conveniently forgot that last night and this morning, lost in the fantasy that my own feelings for him were reciprocal. But after all, he never said this wasn’t just sex.
“God dammit Ava,” Bane growls, “You’re gonna have to say what’s on your mind. I’m not gonna play twenty questions with you.”
He steps into his ripped up jeans and buttons them, his back to me. I watch a tight gray t-shirt swallow up his Death Layer tattoos before he stomps back over to sit next to me, the bed dipping under his weight as he pulls on socks and shoes.
Now he’s fully dressed and I am fully naked. Which is just fucking perfect, because it’s just how I feel. Bane stares at me impatiently, that cold calculation back in his expression. Shit, he can sure go from tender to terrifying real fast.
“Um,” I stall.
I swallow, desperately trying to think of something believable I could say other than the truth. But my brain is blank. I force myself to meet his eyes and see a flicker of amusement.
Fuck! He’s toying with me, probably reading me like a goddamn open book.
“Can’t I just wear one of your shirts?” I plead. “Exercise shorts?”
He shakes his head deliberately, his expression unchanged. “Try again.”
Frustrated, I drive my fist into the bed. “God, don’t patronize me!”
“Then don’t act like a fucking baby.”
Scoffing, I turn away but Bane grabs my shoulders and forces me to look him in the eye.
“Hey!” He shakes me lightly, staring me down. “Don’t bail on me here. What do I have to do to fucking earn your trust, huh?”
I stare, open-mouthed.
“I-I do trust you,” I stammer, knowing deep down it’s true. I’m clearly not acting like it, though. I’m being a total pussy, afraid to admit my feelings. But hey, who ever said feelings are logical?
Bane rolls his eyes, his jaw working and his voice husky. “Come on. Let me in, damn it. I’m not going to ask again. All or nothing, Ava. That’s the deal.”
My pulse gallops nervously in my throat and I frown at him. “All or nothing?” I say. “What do you mean, all? My all or your all?”
Bane growls. “What the fuck are you talking about? All means all! Nothing means nothing!”
I growl right back. “What are you talking about?”
“Jesus.” Bane rubs his hand over his face. “Why are you acting like this?”
Okay, now I am miserable. Admitting the truth can’t possibly be worse than trying to keep it in.
“Because I’m fucking terrified, ok?” I shout, exasperated. I point at the bedroom door. “Outside this room are a bunch of psychopaths who want to kill you and rape me. And the women—fuck—the women all want to rape you and kill me! And you’re just going to go ask one of them to lend you a, what, leather bra and maybe a fucking g-string? Maybe they should model it for you first. Maybe they already have!”
This makes Bane laugh until tears leak out of the corner of his eyes.
“That’s pretty accurate,” he chuckles, wiping his eyes. “That’s pretty good.”
I’m not amused. “I don’t see what’s so funny.”
“You are, Red.” He leans in and kisses me lightly, still laughing. “You can’t even admit you’re jealous.”
Seething, I pull back from his kiss and clench my jaw. “I’m not jealous.”
“Yes you are.”
I fume. “I’m not jealous!”
Bane is enjoying this too much. “You are one green-eyed, snarling jealous beast.”
“Fine. Maybe I’m a little.” My face burns neon pink with shamed embarrassment and my voice becomes a tiny squeak that makes me wince. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”
Now Bane’s face is serious and his fingers knead my shoulders. His voice grows softer.
“Ava, I don’t make it a habit to risk my life for pussy, though yours is pretty grade-A. Do I have to spell it out for you? I killed Smokey because he touched you and it made me insane. I went into the ring, gladly, to keep you out of it. You think I would get you a fake passport and take you with me just for the hell of it? What do you think all this is, what happened between us last night? When I asked you if you wanted all of me, what did you think I meant?”