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When she returned to the bedroom, the main light was already off and Jack was in bed, the sheets covering his hips. Even lying down he seemed possessive, his gaze running over her, his bare torso pumped and no doubt a burgeoning erection under the sheets. He pulled her side back.

‘I want to sleep in your spare bedroom.' Her chin jutted out.

‘You sleep where I can keep an eye on you. You're still in the zone where you could turn and try and eat me. It hasn't been over three days yet.'

‘Humph! More like the other way around.' She walked over to her side of the bed.

He grinned and a dark flush stained his throat. ‘You're very responsive.'

‘I don't want to talk about it.'

‘With the most beautiful pussy I've ever seen. A real redhead. I'd love you to spread your legs for me so I could taste you.'

‘Shut up, Jack.'

‘Your cheeks go bright pink when you come. Bet your pussy would too if I licked you to orgasm.'

She was too tired to tell him where to stick his comment and answering back just sexually excited him. Actually anything sexually excited him. He was like an animal. Just the type of man her father was, who'd dumped her mother the moment she'd become pregnant, leaving her to bring up Ruth on her own. She slid into bed resting right at the edge. Staying in control would keep her alive, giving in to bestial behaviour wouldn't, especially if she fell pregnant. ‘Stay on your side. Don't touch me.'

He sat and leaned over her once she lay down as if he hadn't heard a word she'd said. Before she could react, he reached up and pulled something linked to one of the rails on the bedhead. A cuff.

She tried to sit but his body was leaning over hers. ‘What the fuck do you think you're doing? What is it with beds and cuffs with you?'

‘It's just a precaution in case I go into a deep sleep and you turn.' He took her wrist in his other hand.

She jerked her arm away but his grip hardened. ‘Don't fight this, Ruth. You can't win. You'll only strain a muscle.'

‘It is not okay to cuff me. That's a pathetic excuse. If you're so concerned that I'll turn, lock me in the spare bedroom.' She shoved at his shoulder, trying to get him to move out of her space only resulting in slipping off the edge of the bed and falling on the floor.

He kept hold of her wrist and clicked the cuff into place. ‘And miss a moment of your company? I don't think so. Besides I don't have a lock on the second bedroom door.'

She sat on the floor glaring up at him. ‘I hate you.'

He grinned. ‘No you don't. You kissed me back.'

‘It meant nothing.' It was a childish response but she was exhausted by nervous tension and failure to explain her intense physical response to him. That kiss had resonated in her bones, called to her like a banquet enticing a famished soul. Yet, this guy was a controlling jerk. Albeit, a handsome oversexed one.

‘Need a hand up?' He extended his arm towards her.

She narrowed her eyes and glared at him. Instead of taking it, she pushed herself up using one hand and climbed back into bed, turning her back to him. By shoving her pillow under her head she could lie comfortably on her left hand side, her cuffed wrist resting just off the bed. She peered at the lock, wondering if there was a way to break it.

When Jack rolled over to his side and turned off the light, she noticed if she stretched out she could reach him, but not well enough to bite him if she turned. Had he measured the bloody bed beforehand? Still he couldn't be genuinely concerned about her turning because no sane person would sleep with a potential braindead. He fell asleep almost immediately in the way of men. At least the bastard didn't snore. Reaching up, she fiddled with the lock, trying to work a way to undo it. Nothing. No way. Frustrated she yanked at it.

‘Ruth?'

So he wasn't asleep after all.

‘What?'

‘Give up and get some sleep. You're overwrought.'

‘Overwrought? I'm cuffed in bed with a stranger.'

‘There's nowhere you can go that's safe, except here with me.'

‘I don't want to be with you. I didn't spend my life flogging myself to be a doctor to end up chained to a bed with a control freak.' Who'd stuck his finger up her arse.

‘I can defend you. Keep you alive. I'm the best kind of man you can have now.'

The mattress shifted before his hand rested on her shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. ‘Jack, I think when you go on your animal rescue mission tomorrow, you should find another female to cohabit with. Preferably human.'

‘You'll get used to this new life, Ruth. Holed up in your apartment, I don't think you realise how bad it is out there. It's just going to take some time.'

‘Listen, you jerk, some women enjoy domination, I don't.' Some women got off on Neanderthal men. Go figure. She certainly wasn't going to stay with a guy who thought the answer to getting her to do what he wanted was to cuff her to a bed. Whatever had happened to the world outside she could do better than this. Lord knows there were enough single men around.

‘Ruth?'

‘Hmmm?'

‘What contraceptive are you on? I ask because I noticed you didn't respond well to me touching your anus.'

‘Argh.' The strangled cry left her lips before she could contain it. ‘You touch me there again and I swear I will find some way to inject you with a disease that will make your dick fall off.'

‘I got that you didn't like it. I won't touch, lick or penetrate you there. Guess you'd better start on the pill. I raided the pharmacy on Military Road. You can have your pick.'

Ruth pushed herself to a sitting position so fast that her head spun. ‘Get this into your thick navy head. I am not having sex with you. My response in the shower was an aberration. I was letting off steam because it suited me to do so.' She lay back, punched her pillow to reshape it, wishing it were his head.

He chuckled. ‘Must be hot in your engine. I'd say you blew a gasket. If you need a workout, tomorrow I'll take you for a jog to Balmoral Beach and you can see what's become of civilisation. It's time for you to understand just how great you have it with me.'

‘You mean it? I've been cooped up for so long.' She wished she'd kept the joy out of her voice so he wouldn't clue in to her plans. Moored just off the beach was her boat and she had the key in her jean's pocket. She could swim to it. Once on board she was free. There had to be places on the coast where there were no braindeads. Places that would welcome someone with her skills.

‘You're not a prisoner, Ruth. When you earn my trust, you can go anywhere on the compound.'

Gee he could have fooled her. Not a prisoner. What bullshit. ‘Just what am I supposed to do to earn your trust?'

‘That kiss was great.' There was hope in his voice. Wistfulness as if the anger she had aroused when she'd taken to him with the scalpel had drained out of him. He must have been starved of a woman's touch for some time to be so pleased. Hopeful for a relationship or whatever constituted a relationship for a man who thought it was okay to restrain her to a bed. Everyone had lost so much, but it didn't mean she should have to cope with the desperate-for-pussy looks he gave her.

‘Go back to sleep, Jack.' She'd hoped he'd enjoyed the kiss because if her plans went right, that would be the last one he was getting from her.

Chapter 6

When Ruth woke the next morning to the sound of harp music she wondered for a moment if she was about to enter the pearly gates. Umm no. When she tried to sit, she was still cuffed in Jack's bed. Perhaps it was his idea of heaven but it certainly wasn't hers. Light streamed in and she could see the sea through the bedroom window, the brilliant blue of it twinkling in the distance. The bedroom shutter was open and Jack wasn't anywhere to be seen. If she smashed the window would anyone hear? There had to be a way out of the shackle.

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.'