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As though it recognizes him before I do.

As though it isn’t fully mine unless he’s inside it.

He moves with a ferocity that should frighten me, yet every thrust carries a strange tenderness beneath it. Each drive forward feels unavoidable. Each pull back leaves me waiting for the next one.

He fucks me against the mirror, relentless in his focus.

After a while, the rest of the world slips away. All that’s left is Bane.

The sweep of his palm across my stomach. The drive of his hips. His breath catching in my hair.

My name keeps falling from his mouth.

Time loses all meaning. I stop counting how many times my body tightens around him. I stop tracking where his fingers have pressed bruises into my skin.

The mirror jolts every time my forehead bumps against it, and when I finally manage to focus on my reflection, the woman staring back looks half feral. Sweat shines along her hairline. Her lipstick is smeared beyond recognition.

Then I break apart.

It doesn’t feel like a climax. It feels like obliteration.

Everything inside me gives way at once. A white flash tears through me. A silent gasp catches in my throat, and then I’m falling apart in his arms.

Bane buries his face against my neck.

For a heartbeat, he holds himself together.

I feel him try.

His body locks tight around me. Every muscle draws taut. His breathing turns ragged against my skin.

Then he loses the fight.

A rough sound tears out of him, dragged up from somewhere deep inside his chest. His grip tightens so hard it almost hurts. His forehead presses against my shoulder. His entire body shudders.

I’ve never seen him like this.

Bane is always controlled. Always watching and holding the line. Now he’s coming apart right along with me.

His hands clutch at me as though I’m the only thing keeping him upright. Every tremor that moves through him echoes through my own body.

He holds on with a desperation that feels startling coming from a man like him, and for the first time all night, he seems completely defenseless.

The sound he makes settles deep inside me.

His arms lock around my ribcage, muscle and bone wrapped tight, and I understand with sudden certainty that he isn’t only keeping me from slipping away.

He’s holding himself together too.

Then something changes. The warmth of his skin disappears beneath my hands.

The dressing suite blurs around us, the mirror and vanity smearing into darkness while I tighten my arms around him, trying to hold on even though some distant part of me already understands what’s happening.

“Bane?”

My eyes fly open.

Darkness surrounds me.