She rubbed at her cuffed wrist, which was swollen and sore from where he’d squeezed it, her fingers tingling with pins and needles from the restraint. The harp music became louder and she noticed the alarm clock, which sat on her bedside table. Her eyes narrowed. She slammed the silence button.
‘Like the music? I thought I’d give you a slow awakening. You had a big day yesterday.’ Jack stood in the doorway with his pyjama bottoms resting sinfully low on his hips. There was a five o’clock shadow on his normally clean-shaven face, the darkness on his tanned skin highlighting the intense green of his eyes. A line of hair led from his belly button to the waistband of his pants. His torso had the kind of musculature that defined every ridge and every groove. In his hand he held two steaming cups of coffee.
She sniffed the air like a hound. Coffee. It smelled real. ‘How did you know I’m a coffee girl in the morning?’
He grinned. ‘You’re salivating.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘I thought I was in heaven, then I realised I was still in your bed.’
His gaze flicked over to the place he’d vacated and then lingered on her. ‘I could make it heaven for you.’
‘Try uncuffing me. I can hardly feel my fingers.’
‘If I do, will you promise to behave?’ He stepped towards her and stood by her side of the bed.
Her mouth watered. How long had it been since she’d drunk real coffee? ‘Define behave.’
‘I free you. You act like a normal person instead of a possessed demon determined to rip my nuts off. We sit, have coffee together like a normal couple do.’
‘You free me, keep your hands off me and your reproductive organs will stay attached to your body. Even better, you let me go and find another female who enjoys navy men and restraints.’
Jack shrugged, took a long sip of his coffee and placed her cup on the bedside table just out of reach. ‘I have a problem with your terms. You see I already have you. If I discover any female survivors, it’s my duty to distribute them to the other men who’ve risked their lives to save them.’ He put his cup down next to hers.
She rolled her eyes. ‘But that’s just it. You don’t have me. You’ve restrained me against my will and you can’t see that you’re doing anything wrong.’
‘That’s because I’m not. There are hordes of braindeads out there.’ He sat next to her and cupped his hand under her chin. ‘And, Ruth, you’re mine. Accept it.’
Ruth tried to pull her face away. She pushed at him with her free hand hitting rock-hard chest muscle. ‘You don’t get to make decisions that affect my life. You do not own me.’
His thumb grazed over her lips. ‘Yeah, I do.’
When he brought his lips down towards hers, she shoved the heel of her hand at his face, but he caught her hand in his and pushed it back on the pillow. She twisted her face aside. She had never felt so vulnerable. When his lips grazed her throat, a ripple of pleasure travelled down her neck until her nipples ached.
‘You have no idea how beautiful you are. So desirable.’ His voice was low and husky, his breathing fast. His hand cupped her breast, while the pad of his thumb rubbed over her nipple.
This close she could smell fresh coffee on his breath and soap from the shower tinged with the musk of sheer male horniness. Her nipple responded by tightening into a bud. Part of her wanted to surrender, to give in and let him take her. With his army-cropped hair and semi-nakedness, he looked like he’d stepped out of a magazine shoot for a male sporting magazine. She realised he was desperately looking for something normal in this hellish situation, but she refused to submit. ‘You rape me, Jack, I’ll never forgive you.’
He raised her hand to his lips and kissed the pulse point at her wrist and continued until he found the crease at her elbow. ‘I want you so much it hurts. I can smell you. You’re sweet. Last night seeing you naked.’ He let loose a ragged sigh. ‘You don’t know what you’re doing to me.’
She shoved hard. ‘Jack!’
He groaned and pushed himself off her, grabbed his coffee cup and strode from the room. For a moment, he stopped at the door, fished into his pocket and pulled out a key. ‘Here. Undo your cuff.’ He threw it to her and it landed on the bed.
Ruth grabbed the key stunned that he’d done as she’d asked. With trembling fingers, she unlocked the cuff. God that had been close. Jack had been about to devour her. A shred of her, somewhere in the back of her mind, tried to register disappointment. She ignored it. Instead, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood rubbing her sore wrist.
‘This afternoon, I’ll take you around the perimeter of the whole base to give you an idea of how bad it has got out there. Promise me, you won’t try and escape until you do that. I don’t want to find you torn apart. Dammit, Ruth, if you become one of them, a braindead, it would be a travesty. We need you here. I need you.’ There was real longing in his voice.
There was something about his vulnerability that moved her. It couldn’t be easy keeping everything going, having the responsibility of so many lives. She knew what it felt like lying awake at night worrying about patients. ‘You’re forcing me to promise under duress.’
‘I won’t have sex with you. Is that what you want to hear?’
‘You can barely keep your hands off me.’
‘Do we have a deal?’
‘You won’t cuff me to the bed again?’
‘You’re past the point when you can turn. You don’t try and escape, I won’t cuff you to the bed.’
‘Fine.’ It was an uneasy truce but one she would have to live with. Until she found a way off the base.
‘I need to shave. Have to do the braindead cull this morning. You’d be amazed how many build up against the fences overnight. It’s going to be a tough day. We’re rescuing the zoo animals today. The smell of them, the live flesh, will drive the braindeads wild.’
‘I’m sensing an analogy here.’
‘Funny, Ruth.’ Jack didn’t smile. ‘I’ll be back at four.’
‘Jack?’
‘Yes?’
‘I don’t want to sleep in your bed.’
Jack strode towards her and took her by the shoulders. Up close he smelled deliciously male. She could feel her nipples tightening under her T-shirt. It was impossible to ignore how handsome he was, but that didn’t make her like him. He wanted pussy. She was the owner of it. It was that simple.
‘You want one of the other men to claim you? If you’re mine no one will dare touch you.’
Her hands butted up against his chest to stop him getting any closer. ‘I really want to hurt you right now,’ she said, digging her fingernails into his chest.
‘You want to play tough woman, I’ll play tonight.’ A gleam of excitement came into his eyes. ‘You can lash out at me as much as you like, provided I get to tame you.’
Any attention was better than no attention. God she hated him right now. ‘That’s not what I meant and you know it.’
‘Sounded good though.’ His hands moved from her shoulders to cup her bottom and he pressed her into his pelvis. ‘These men are on high alert. That makes them dangerous. I’m not saying my men are rapists, but they are living on the edge. Most I know well and can vouch for but some local men came to the base who I don’t know well.’
‘I got that.’ She tried to move her hips back from his.
His mouth curved down and the green of his eyes deepened. ‘My men have lost a lot. Their wives, their children. Damn it, Ruth, their whole families. I need you to trust me, stay close to me. Do what I say.’
‘You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Me, playing the perfect biddable woman.’
‘Yeah, I would.’ His gaze lingered on her lips. ‘I’d like that a lot.’
Alarm bells rang at his intensity. ‘There’s just one problem. You chose the wrong woman. My mother was a major feminist in her time, a brilliant doctor. I wasn’t raised to be subordinate to men. Let me go. I don’t want to live here.’
‘This contagion has spread every
where. There’s nowhere else to go.’
‘Everywhere?’ The pictures on the Net earlier had been bad. Sydney city fighting braindeads; bushfires raging in areas west of the city and no one to put them out; viral outbreaks in all the other major cities except Hobart. Reporters had joked that no one could tell a braindead from a Tasmanian anyway because they were inbred. The Tasmanians hadn’t seen the funny side and had refused to let anyone new come to the island. Trapped in her apartment, she’d seen some braindeads through her windows but not hordes like in the city. There had been spotty reports of farmers shooting braindeads in the country areas, when she’d last heard the news some time ago.
‘I can’t contact any of the bases. I can’t raise anyone anywhere.’ His green eyes deepened with worry.
She shook her head, not wanting to believe him. ‘There has to be somewhere better than this.’
Jack put one of his arms around her back and pulled her in tight. ‘There’s nothing better than this base. You’re safe with me. Other men, outside of the base, will rape you. I won’t.’
Is that what this country had come to? Confined in his arms, she could hear his heartbeat and she could feel hers pattering with fear. It would be tempting to hug him back, to accept what he offered, but he was a total stranger who wanted an obedient woman who did what she was told. ‘I can’t do pussy for protection.’
‘Jesus, what will it take for you to trust me?’ He swept down and gave her a soft kiss before she could avert her face. ‘It’ll be a whole lot better than that.’
‘Try listening to me and respecting me as an equal. That will go a long way.’ Suddenly everything seemed overwhelming. The sides of her eyes started to sting.
‘What is it with you? Did someone hurt you?’
‘Of course not.’
‘I don’t mean physically. You’re so damned closed. You’ve got issues. You won’t let anyone in.’
Let’s see. Sue would say she had a list: abandonment from her father; her specialist boyfriend getting back with his wife and forgetting to mention it while promising a relationship with her. Yeah, sure. She had issues but in this crazy mixed up world, who didn’t? Trust had gone to shit. And now this Neanderthal was trying to get her to open up to him. Oh please. Couldn’t he just go and gnaw on a bone or something?
She slapped at his chest. ‘You’re not a psychiatrist. You don’t get to put me on the couch.’
‘You know a lot of men here served with me. We trust each other and that’s why we’re alive. You might be school smart but you’ve got a lot to learn about people, like who to trust for a start.’
She thought of Sue and her fury about keeping the bite a secret. Hell. Sue hated her. Much as she didn’t like to hear it, Jack had zeroed in on her shortcomings, big time. The tears that pricked at her eyes started to spill over. He released her and stepped away as if he didn’t know how to deal with her feminine emotion. ‘Vassar will be here at zero nine hundred to escort you to the medical centre,’ he said gruffly. ‘I’ve left breakfast out for you on the kitchen bench.’ He walked into the bathroom.
Ruth stared after him wiping her eyes. She reached over, took her coffee cup and gulped it down. The warmth of the cup put life into her chilled fingers along with a rush of relief that at least one small thing in her life was normal. She sprang off the bed, grabbed her duffle bag and fished out a pair of fresh underwear, a bra, a clean T-shirt and her jeans, then she slipped into her runners. Unable to help herself, she strode over to the window and unlocked the latch. Pushing with all her might, she grunted. The damn thing wouldn’t budge. When she noticed the deadlock attached to the side of the window minus its key, she swore under her breath. The glass looked thick and difficult to smash.
She forced herself to slow as she walked down the hall, past the bathroom where Jack had left the door open. He was shaving. She crept towards the front door and quietly tested the lock.
‘It’s deadlocked.’
Ruth jumped, then slowly turned.
Jack stood in the hallway, his shaver in his hand. A fine line of water made its way between his pectoral muscles. ‘You looked me straight in the eye and made a deal.’ Every muscle in his body was tensed.
Fear made prickles of heat break out on her brow. ‘Under duress.’
‘Ruth, I said I wouldn’t hurt you. I’ve kept my word. I expect you to keep yours. Since you can’t be trusted, tonight you’re cuffed.’
Her heart started to hammer. ‘I won’t be your prisoner.’
‘You’re not. You’re my woman.’ He turned and walked back into the bathroom as if that settled the matter.
Double damn. The house was in lockdown. Jack had thought of everything as if he’d been planning on capturing a woman and bringing her here. Momentarily stymied, she plodded into the kitchen, poured herself some muesli from a packet Jack had left out on the bench and sat at the kitchen table.
There was an expensive brand coffee machine on the kitchen bench, the type that took a pod and tasted delicious. Might as well take advantage of it while it was there. She strode back to her bedroom and grabbed her cup. Short of using up the bottled gas on the barbeque and boiling water there had been no way of making a hot drink back at the apartment. Fortunately, she had stocked her boat and her tank was full of gas. There was a way out, for her.
If she planned to escape, she had to gain Jack’s trust. In Jack’s penis-shaped brain, that would mean a hell of a lot of sex. Just for a heartbeat, she allowed herself to recall the extraordinary way he’d played her body like a delicate instrument. He may have some strange ideas regarding the role of women on his base, but he certainly knew his way around a female body. No. She wasn’t going there. Jack had no concept of equality. What he wanted was a woman who would look up to him—see him as the super human he thought he was; one who would be happy to have sex with him so he could chill out at the end of the day.
Maybe she should find a rubber doll and leave it cuffed to the bed as a present. Her mouth turned upward as she slipped another pod into the coffee maker and turned on the button. The aroma penetrated her brain and she watched the coffee, rich and bitter, start to fill her cup. Once full, she took a deep sip. Bliss.
Two cups cleared her brain fog and got her thinking. There was no point in trying to deceive Jack by pretending to like him, even if he did turn out to be fantastic in bed. There was a reason she’d failed Drama at school. Jack was street smart. He’d take all the sex he could get, but he’d see right through her. It’d be a whole lot of work and play acting for nothing.
She finished up her breakfast, washed up the bowl and cup, and made her way to the bathroom. Jack had finished shaving. In his pressed army fatigues and spit-polished boots, he was devastating. He walked into the bedroom and returned a moment later with his shirt on.
‘Bye, Ruth.’ He bent and kissed her full on the mouth like a partner would.
Her lips tingled, but she clamped them together, determined to stop any physical response to him. She stepped back and let him move past her. Jack might be stronger and faster than she was, but she was smarter. She’d find a way to escape the base.
And Jack.
At zero nine hundred, she heard the lock click open at the front door. ‘Ruth, are you ready?’ Vassar called.
‘I’m here.’ Ruth strode towards him. She had so many questions to ask him. Automatically her hand went to her face where Sue had hit her. She steeled herself inside. She’d never lost a close friend before.
Vassar gave her the once over, his gaze focusing on her eye where there was a small bruise.
Perhaps he had questions too, but Ruth wasn’t offering answers. Part of her wanted to close herself into a tight little ball. Work, she looked forward to. Meeting up with Sue, made her quiver inside. She’d lost a friend.
‘Come this way.’ Vassar strode up the road towards the grassy oval, turning right until they reached the complex of refurbished buildings that had once housed community yoga and dance classes.
‘
We’ve moved the hospital into a separate building away from the main living quarters on the base in case of contagion.’ Vassar checked on his key ring for the key to unlock the door of the building.
‘You have braindeads inside the base grounds?’ Shock resonated through Ruth. She’d started associating the base with safety, from the braindeads, at least.
‘Not in this building, but be mindful. We don’t know much about this illness. Just down from this hospital is the landship. When someone gets bitten we lock him up in the cells in the landship until he dies. We also give him a proper burial out of respect. Most follow the rules but you have to be vigilant. One of the guys didn’t admit to being bitten and then he fell sick. Another got bitten and disappeared. We haven’t seen him since. No one wants to end up in the holding cells. It’s too depressing. There’s no way out except in a body bag.’
Was Vassar having a go at her? Sue had been livid at her for not speaking up. God, she dreaded facing her. ‘You should supply me with a gun.’
Vassar finally located the key he wanted and fitted it into the lock. ‘Ever shoot a gun?’
‘No.’
‘Ask Jack to teach you how to shoot first.’
Ruth laughed in disbelief.
‘Like that, is it?’
‘Worse.’
He nudged the corner of his eye. ‘You have a bruise here.’
Was he checking to see if Jack was hitting her? It was tempting to lie and blame Jack. She let loose a resigned sigh. ‘Sue did it.’
Vassar nodded. ‘Wouldn’t be like Jack to hurt a woman. He’s a great guy. Hope you appreciate what you got there.’
Her hands formed into fists so that she could feel her fingernails digging into her palms. ‘Jack is not my guy. This is a forced arrangement and you should be ashamed about being complicit. I have to share a bed with a man I don’t know. Why does that not seem wrong to you?’
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