Read Online Base by Cathleen Ross - Free Book Online

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?’
    â€˜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.’
    â€˜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.’
    â€˜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.
    â€˜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.
    â€˜Ruth?’
    So he wasn’t asleep after all.
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Give up and get some sleep. You’re overwrought.’
    â€˜Overwrought? I’m cuffed in bed with a stranger.’
    â€˜There’s nowhere you can go that’s safe, except here with me.’
    â€˜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.
    â€˜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.’
    â€˜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