Base (14 page)

‘You do the bite checks now, Ruth. You can check Helen after dinner,' Jack said.

‘You mean you didn't strap Helen to a bed, take her clothes off and inspect every inch of her skin?' Ruth asked Jack.

‘You do that to women, Jack?' Helen lifted her eyebrows assessing him. ‘Seems kind of kinky to me. Is that some sort of naval hazing thing?'

Armstrong chuckled.

Jack flashed a warning glance at Ruth, his shoulders had hunched and he appeared distinctly uncomfortable. ‘It's purely procedural, Helen. We check all newcomers so we don't put our men at risk.'

Ruth leaned towards Helen enjoying Jack's discomfort. Served him right for having a double standard. Helen looked like she needed a week in a beauty parlour, good nutrition and a solid night sleep free of fear. The last thing she needed was to be assigned to some soldier and expected to serve him as a sex slave. The captain had some bad ideas and she was determined to shame him. ‘Jack has another rule. Every woman gets assigned to a man on the base. We're like a reward because there aren't many women. Sometimes it's the man who found her.'

‘Really?' Helen's gaze razored in on Armstrong who was taking a sip of his beer.

Armstrong choked. ‘I'm taken.' He motioned to Lea who sat a few seats away.

‘Is this true, Jack?' Helen asked, her eyes agog. ‘You give out women to these young navy men?'

‘We have a lot of single guys here, Helen. We're mainly navy personnel but there are a few commandos from the army who have just come off rotation. My men are disciplined, but they haven't been near a live woman in months. I need to know the women are protected otherwise the men will fight over a single woman. My men respect that Ruth belongs to me, that Armstrong has Lea and Vassar looks after Sue. These are tough, well-liked men. With the women marked as theirs, I know they're safe on the base.'

‘Commandos, you say? Hell, if I'm going to be safe all the way out in the stands on Rawson's oval, I'm going to need two.' Helen stood and surveyed the room. ‘I'll have that one there and that hot young guy too. He looks like he'll go all night. After being locked up with an elephant, I could use a distraction.'

Ruth's mouth dropped open.

Jack raised his eyebrows. Ruth didn't miss his look of victory.

Chapter 9

Jack hung up his uniform dinner jacket, watching Ruth in the wardrobe mirror as she stripped out of her mini dress. When she wore that mini dress, with her curly red hair and intelligent blue eyes, she looked good enough to eat. In her underwear, she looked even better. His abdomen clenched, his balls tight and uncomfortable. He wondered who was tortured more, Ruth because he forced her to stay with him or him for making her sleep in the same bed?

‘Enjoying yourself, Jack?' Ruth stood in her sheer bra and barely there G-string. She lifted her chin slightly in challenge.

‘Sure. What man wouldn't want to look at you?' Truth be known, he'd frame this memory of her in his mind of her perfect creamy body encased in next to nothing. She was spectacular. He toed off his shoes and put them in the cupboard. Stripping off his white shirt and trousers, he meticulously arranged them so they hung in the wardrobe without a crease. He kept on his black boxers hoping they'd disguise his partial erection. He was in for a fight with Ruth. The thought stirred every erogenous zone on his body.

‘I suppose you think it's funny that Helen wanted two men?'

‘Guess you've never had the threesome fantasy?' Teasing the straight doctor was irresistible.

‘You're sick and pathetic.'

Jack shrugged. ‘Just as well seeing as I don't plan to share you. The commandos who just came off rotation were delighted. They've been holed up at Spit Junction and Neutral Bay dealing with the horde. Gets lonely out there. Helen's a nice woman, older and patient. Sounds like she'll look after them. They could do with the reward,' he added, pointedly.

‘That's right.' Ruth put her hands on her hips. ‘A woman who they wouldn't look at normally, except now she is the rare owner of a vagina.' Her mouth turned down. ‘And you wonder why I don't want to be with you.'

He put his hands up, palms outward. ‘Hey, that's not how I meant it. Anyway, I said Helen was nice.'

‘Yeah, I got that bit.' Ruth gave him a look of complete contempt. She swept up her pyjama pants and T-shirt and stormed into the bathroom to change.

Jack strode after her.

She slammed the bathroom door in his face.

He leaned against the door and refrained from opening it. ‘You know what your problem is? Despite being a doctor, you won't accept that men and women are different. It's normal for us to hunt. And guess what, Ruth, it's normal to want sex.'

Ruth opened the door so fast, he nearly fell over. ‘No, Jack, you are different from the men I knew. I worked with respectful, intelligent males. Decent, wonderful, family men. Doctors who wanted to heal. Not one of them wanted to cuff me to a bed.'

‘How do you know? Did you ask them?' He caught perhaps one second of her glittering eyes before the bathroom door slammed in his face for the second time. He sighed. ‘Didn't mean they weren't thinking about it.' Pressing his ear to the door he heard the sound of the toilet flush and the water running from one of the taps. He waited until she'd finished before she opened the bathroom door.

‘They respected me.'

‘In case you haven't noticed, your saintly role models of decorum are all dead. Just because I want to have sex with you, doesn't mean I don't respect you.'

‘Sure you do, Jack. That's why you cuff me to a bed instead of allowing me to sleep in the cottage next to the hospital, so I can go across and check on my patients night and day. My skills clearly impress you and you make sure they're used to their best capacity.' Ruth strode into the bedroom, her expression wooden.

He swapped places with her and went into the bathroom to brush his teeth. She was right of course; he should have allowed her more time to check on the patients seeing as she'd operated on some of them. But, hell, couldn't she understand that time with her was precious? He'd never met anyone like her. Sure, he and his men needed her skills, but he needed her. Really needed her. Killing the hordes was hell. He hadn't lost sight that these braindeads had once been people in his community, even if Ruth thought he had. When he held her, it was the only time he experienced pleasure and the mental peace he'd never contemplated would exist for him, ever again.

When his wife had been killed and he'd found out about her affair, something had died inside of him. It would have been easy to rant and rave to his mates, to get drunk, even violent, but he was under no illusions what had destroyed their marriage. His physical and emotional unavailability or so he'd been told by the naval psychologist he'd been forced to see due to his continual black mood. He'd taken it on board. His wife had wanted babies and he hadn't, not when he was away so much. He'd always imagined himself spending time with his children, which is why he'd wanted to wait. That waiting had driven his wife into the arms of another man.

Waiting sucked. It was worse now. Tomorrow they could all be dead in this precarious world, which is why he couldn't sit back and allow Ruth the time she needed to adjust to living on the base. Her work made her feel safe. But he couldn't wait the days, weeks, months she needed to adjust to their new life and let him be part of it. Besides, he knew these men. If he didn't claim her as his, another sailor would.

He looked in the mirror as he cleaned his teeth. His stark, green eyes stared right back at him. Ruth's disdain hurt. Was she God's punishment for the way he'd treated his wife? Ruth didn't give an inch. Challenged him at every turn. Part of him admired that in her. Worse, it made him want her more. There had to be some way to get close to her heart because staying alive and having someone to care for was all that mattered. He got that now. Every instinct in his body told him not to let her leave the base and go out into the wild world. Ruth would die. In a hideous, violent way, like his wife had done in her car accident. Burnt alive. Ugh! Ruth had no idea how to defend herself physically. Once he could trust her not to run, he'd teach her to use a gun. No one should suffer having their intestines ripped from their bodies and devoured. He didn't want that on his conscience. He had to gain Ruth's trust fast.

He spat into the sink, rinsed his mouth and looked in the mirror. The memory of his neglected wife swam in front of him. It made him not want to look at himself any deeper than he already had. Some people could shrug off guilt like an old jacket. Unfortunately, he wasn't one of them.

When he returned to the bedroom Ruth was already in bed with the sheet and blankets pulled up to her neck, her back turned away from his side. Jack walked around to her. He reached out and picked up the cuff attached to the bed. ‘Hold out your wrist.'

Ruth sat, her eyes blazing. ‘You cannot stoop any lower in my estimation than right now.'

‘You lied to me this morning. You promised not to escape. You lie; you get cuffed. That's how it works.'

‘I can't leave. There's nowhere to go. You stomped on any bit of hope I had. Why don't you admit what this is really about? You get off on dominating me. The truth is that you can't cope with a strong, independent female. Restraining me turns you on, gets you going in that pathetic, Neanderthal, little mind of yours.'

Jack dropped the cuff, grabbed both her wrists and straddled her before she could free her legs from the bedding and kick out at him. ‘Yeah, I do get off on it because you're so damn difficult to tame.'

Ruth's mouth turned down. ‘I've spent my life following rules so I could be a doctor. I'm not the difficult one. The truth is, I don't want you. I'm not attracted to you. How hard is that for you to understand?'

He raised one eyebrow. She responded to him like a woman on fire every single time. ‘Prove it.'

She tensed under him, her expression wary. ‘What do you mean?'

‘I get to touch you wherever I want, however I want. You don't orgasm, means I do nothing for you. I'll leave you alone.'

‘I'm not having sex with you. I'd rather sleep with the cuff on.'

‘I'm not talking about penetration.' God he swore his balls would turn to dried old fossils before he ever got laid.

Her eyes widened. ‘If I agree to this and don't come, I get to move into the hut next to the hospital. I'm allowed to work as much as I want. You don't squire me around in front of your men like I'm your latest conquest. You treat me with respect and not some sort of blow up doll there for your benefit.'

‘You're agreeing to this even though you know I can bring you to orgasm in an instance?'

‘I let you.'

He thought of the way she'd responded earlier that afternoon in the garden. She'd had an almost puzzled look on her face at her own response. ‘Sure you did.'

‘Okay, you want me to say you're good, well, you know your way around a woman's body, but my freedom is resting on this. Besides, I'm tired, my feet are sore from standing on them all day and I've already come this afternoon. I'm in a pissy mood because I can't believe Helen would want the company of two commandos over that sweet baby elephant and a solid night's sleep. You are
not
getting a response from me tonight.'

Elation filled Jack at her acceptance of his challenge. ‘You totally live in your head. You over analyse everything. You have no concept of just how sexual you can be. I've never spoken to a woman who knew her body's needs so little as you, especially for a person whose whole profession deals with the body.'

‘Really? That surprises me. I didn't realise you spoke to your dates. Did the pump-up dolls answer?'

Jack opened his mouth to retort but she jumped in before he could.

‘Better get started, sailor boy. You've got ten minutes.'

‘Thirty.'

‘Twenty. I'm exhausted. I can't bear to put up with you more than that.'

‘Twenty-five. I'm serious about giving you pleasure.'

Ruth rolled her eyes. ‘Okay, twenty-five, but no weird stuff.'

Jack tilted his head. ‘Define weird stuff.'

‘No. Anal.'

‘Ruth, you might like—'

Her mouth pulled down in disgust and she butted her hand against his chest. ‘Ugh! Just get off me. You touch me there and I'll find something to inject into your penis so it falls off.'

Jack didn't move. He enjoyed pinioning her underneath him. It totally unravelled Ruth when he used physical force to contain her. ‘Fine. No anal. But if you come, it means you're my woman and we're going to have sex, lots of sex. When you're not working, you'll spend time by my side and we'll fuck like there's no tomorrow instead of hiding yourself away at the hospital.'

‘I'm glad you defined what it means to be your 'woman'. Well done. The contender doesn't need any intelligence at all. What a pity Mosman's too upmarket for porn shops and your plastic blow-up doll supply's run out.'

Jack took her chin between his forefinger and thumb. Her blue-eyed gaze had a tinge of alarm. She was so out of her depth in this new world. He'd be willing to bet the type of sex Ruth had had before had been abysmal. His voice dropped an octave. ‘Don't try and get me riled up to distract me. You are going to be mine. What's more, you'll enjoy it.'

She jerked her chin out of his fingertips. ‘Will you just climb off me, you great, big jerk? Understand this is not going to happen. Sex is all in the mind. I have complete control of my senses. The clitoris has eight thousand nerve endings and you're not going to be able to stimulate one of them.'

This naive and beautiful woman had no idea. ‘Ruth, I'm going to ignite the lot.'

***