Chapter 22
PINK
Six months seemed to fly by smoothly.
In general, Bane accepted me as a human and although it wasn’t the love match I wanted and his friendship would never satiate my real cravings, I accepted it. It allowed me to find something maybe even more valuable in my life.
I found me.
I found friends.
I found who I wanted to be.
Because sometimes chasing a love so toxic and all-consuming drowns you and you’re not able to realize that love for yourself should be found first.
Maybe Bane always wanted that for us both, or maybe he was just trying to survive us, but either way, I found happiness outside of him and my family.
I found my Oracle App gave me pretty good therapy advice after Bane had reprogrammed it, and he also sent a therapist and psychiatrist to talk to me once a week.
I wanted to ignore the sessions and write them off until I didn’t. Once I got over thinking I didn’t need them, those conversations became something I couldn’t live without.
Therapy wasn’t a crutch or a weakness the way my father would have said it was. I learned that therapy is a lantern helping guide us through the dark, a life raft to help stay afloat, a compass to keep us from getting lost.
The man was thorough with that. But I saw him trying in other ways to keep me happy too. He kept his word on letting me work in the resort, or rather, I went to work and he didn’t balk.
It was there that I found my first real friend outside of the syndicate while working on makeup.
I had started with simple tasks at the spa, then moved into doing makeup for the dancers, then dressing them, and before long, I was doing makeup for everyone who walked in. Celebrities. Models. Influencers.
Keelani came to the resort for a singing residency, and I found her to be resilient, loyal, and real where others hadn’t been.
I helped her change her brand from the clean-cut childhood star who wore her long brown hair in a bun to a rock star with smoky eyes, curls that were wild, and a soul that she owned.
Olive was a close friend of hers with cute glasses and a kind personality.
We became a trio even while Bane hovered, consistently checking on us.
They’d found she had a stalker and while I was twisted enough to want a stalker like Bane, I knew she didn’t want this one.
For months, we grew closer, and I learned to trust her and the man who wanted to keep her safe. Dex Hardy had become a partner at the Black Diamond resorts, and he and his brothers had so many connections that I think even Bane and his brothers were impressed enough to do business with them.
Between Kee being around to talk to and Bane coming to my room almost daily, I was happier. Especially when I enjoyed living in the moment rather than focusing on what was inevitably to come.
I may have had to marry his brother in a couple years, but for now, Bane would come talk to me, listen when I whined about nothing, and even would work in my room while I did nonsense tasks like painting my nails all different colors and trying to stick rhinestones on them.
Then, I’d ask him if he liked the nails or the new makeup tutorial I tried, and he’d glance up from his computer, but I would see his smirk every now and then.
One particular day, I made him watch Carrie. “You’re not even looking at the screen.”
“I’m listening,” He rolled his eyes with that black top resting on him. He sat on the leather couch next to me, but he didn’t relax at all. His brothers texted him tirelessly about work, and I knew for a fact the day before he’d had blood on his shoes when he’d come to check on me.
“What did Carrie say, then?”
He gave me a look. “She’s going to burn down the whole school.”
I gasped in mock horror because I’d seen it a million times. “How dare you tell me the end!”
“Don’t act surprised. You used to do the same damn thing to me as a teenager. You were quick to tell me the end before I even started reading.”
“You liked the information.”
“I liked the malice in your eyes. You wanted to ruin it for me.”
I shrugged. Maybe I did. It was a tiny way to act out and I enjoyed doing it. “Or I was misunderstood. Just like Carrie.”
“She was a murderer.”
“So?” I looked him dead in the eye. “She was abused and bullied. She was a victim.”
“Always willing to fight for the villain, huh?”
I nudged into his shoulder. “Someone has to, Bane.”
He didn’t agree with me, but he closed his laptop and put his arm around me to pull me close and watched the whole rest of the movie with me that day.
I swear that man liked my company even if his ass didn’t say it.
So, I only acted out when I hadn’t seen him from dawn to dusk. I needed just a taste of him, even if it was just him bickering with me. If I didn’t hear from him, I started texting ridiculous things.
That very next day, I started with:
Me: Want to take me to that sex club, or should I go by myself?
Bane: Fuck off, Pink. I’m working. Listen to one of your romance books instead.
Me: Good idea. The one I’m listening to now has a masked man who stalks her and watches her shower. She opens the shower door and he’s there. You think she’ll get away?
Bane: Would you?
Me: Of course. I run fast.
Bane: Bull. You barely could outrun a man through a corn maze.
Me: I wanted to be caught.
Bane: Is that so?
Me: For instance, if it was a gas mask, well, I hate them. Would get away easily.
Bane: Start the shower and put the book on loud and let’s see.
I did as I was told. The narrator’s smooth, deep voice filled the bathroom as I slid off my clothing and turned the water on as hot as possible.
I wanted the bite when I imagined a man coming in and taking what he wanted.
Of course I wished Bane would fulfill the fantasy but didn’t expect to see him. He seemed to be working vigorously lately, talking on his phone and having security consistently knocking for more and more requests.
So, I took my time stepping under the rain showerhead and rubbed soap over my skin, sliding it harshly over my breasts and between my legs. Then I let the hot water hit me there right after, licking the heat over me so I could imagine it was his rough touch.
As the steam built up on the glass of the shower door, I touched myself and moaned his name over the narrator.
I pinched my clit the way he would and tried to picture how we’d take each other in the shower but then the narrator was cut off.
And I saw the silhouette in the doorway with a gas mask just like I fucking loved.
I smeared my hand over the glass so I could see him clearly through the steamed-up door and smiled. “Oh, no. Please don’t hurt me.”
My tone was playful as he tilted his head and his breath sounded murderous. God, my whole body clenched from how dangerous he seemed.
“Touching yourself in there like you can’t help but want someone to fuck you like the man on that audiobook?”
“Never.” I opened the shower door and let the water splash everywhere like he hated. It’d make him give it to me rough just the way I wanted. “You should leave. I’m being watched by a monster of a man, and if you don’t right now, I’ll run and scream.”
“I’ll give you a head start.” He offered and took one step back in his boots. “Three. Two …”
Shit. I yelped and lunged for the bathroom exit, hoping to at least make it to the living room, but he caught me in four steps and slammed me into the wall right outside the bathroom by the neck.
His hand went right to my pussy as he cut off all my oxygen. I squirmed and rolled, loving the feel of him.
I dropped the act of not wanting him just as quickly as I chased my orgasm. I grabbed at his black pants and undid the zipper so I could pull out that pierced hard cock. Then I pumped it up and down in my fist over and over.
“Shouldn’t be doing any of this right now,” I heard him grumble as he ripped his hand away and hiked my thighs up on to his hips so he could position himself at my opening. “You’re driving me toward destruction, Pink. I’m in meetings with my cock hard, not thinking about anyone but you.”
“I don’t care,” I told him. “I don’t care at all.”
His grip on my neck tightened so I couldn’t even moan or breathe. “You should. But instead all you want is this cock, huh? You’re holding your damn breath for it, aren’t you?”
He was choking me. We both knew it even as I nodded because I didn’t care. I wanted to feel like I was near passing out, like the only thing I saw was him when the tunnel vision set in. I wanted to feel only this even if it was a relationship that wouldn’t last.
He thrust into me and ripped his hand away as he swore, “Fuck, baby girl. Now breathe.”
I gasped as my orgasm barreled through me while the air returned to my lungs.
Maybe it was wrong to have him this way, but I would have taken him any way at all. I knew that mask protected some sort of moral compass he had but having him protected my sanity. I needed him, his touch, his pain, his restraint snapping.
He kept thrusting harder and harder as I rode through the fireworks and the ecstasy that led to his releasing into me with a low growl through the mask.
And when we both came down from the fit of passion we’d had, he set me back in the shower and wiped up the floor before he told me, “Now, don’t start any more fires while I’m gone. I’m working overtime on a deal, baby girl. Can’t be here all day.”
He put my audiobook back on and walked out the door.
I didn’t start any fires or have any fits for a week or two, and then I asked about the Vault again or left hysterical messages on the Oracle because I knew he would listen. When he did, he put that mask on and fucked me off the ledge of my boredom or he came to bitch at me to act right.
I only conceded sometimes.
Other times, I pushed him further.
There was the time I used his credit card to gamble away close to five hundred thousand dollars. He finally came down to the casino and stood over the roulette table. “Care to tell me why I got a call about my card hitting a limit tonight?”
“Well, I don’t care about the limit. Do you?” I asked.
He sighed and crossed his arms. “What are you throwing a fit about this evening?”
“I’m bored.” I shrugged and pointed to the number. “I’ll vote for it to land on that one.”
“You’ll vote?” He smiled.
“How much?” the dealer asked.
“Hm. I think fifty thousand this time.”
“Double it,” Bane said next to me without even looking at the table. When it didn’t land on the right number or color, I winced but he didn’t.
He didn’t even roll his eyes. “You want me to raise the limit, or you ready to be done with your fit for the night?”
“I don’t know. You have something else for me to do?”
He sighed. “I’ll watch whatever dumb movie you want if we leave now. I don’t want to talk to anyone tonight.” He glanced up and I saw a few men walking his way like they had business to discuss. I got up immediately with a huge smile on my face, “Rather submit to my poison than theirs?”
“I only want your poison, Pink. I’d choose it every time. You know that by now,” he said it like a complaint and maybe it was one. Maybe he was just as addicted to my toxins as I was to his.
But my addiction to his poison was something I couldn’t resist. I would have taken him every single time rather than feeling his indifference and nothing at all.