AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She’d choose a life, whether with him or without, but she would choose to live life as she wanted. Being locked up, tied up, controlled, would never again be a voluntary option for her.
Setting pen to paper, her hand still in his free one, Connor set aside emotion for now and began to write Jenna’s life since she came to him in black ink. Later, when the professional report was complete, he would get his personal feelings down on paper as the man who loved her.
*
Giggling as a wet nose and slurpy tongue bathed her face, Jenna gently pushed the sleek muzzle away from her as she tried to wake fully. The beautiful dog—herbeautiful dog—balanced on her hind legs beside the bed, her front paws scraping lightly at Jenna, with little whines rising in her throat.
“Uh-oh, somebody needs to pee.” Jenna glanced at Connor, fast asleep on his back with a pad upside down on his bare chest and her hand fast in his. She frowned, noting the wadded up balls of paper scattered over the bed like discarded snowballs. What had he been doing all night?
Luna whined again, leaving the bed to pad over to the door.
“I think Connor should take you,” Jenna whispered. “The yard…it’s too big, Luna. There’s trees and bushes and…” And there could be someone waiting for her out there, ready to snatch her up and steal her away again.
With a look of distress, Luna’s back legs trembled, lowering into a crouch that suggested one thing only.
“No!” Jenna’s soft shout accompanied her quick wrestling match with the covers. She stumbled out of bed, grabbing Connor’s robe from the footboard and fighting her way into it as she clumsily hurried across the room.
Connor had left the heating on low all night, so her feet were warm on the carpet as she followed Luna downstairs in the dim light of dawn to the wide doors in the dining room. She stopped, transfixed by the sight of a couple feet of snow obliterating the once-familiar view of her lover’s yard.
It was so white. Pristine. Nothing stirred beyond the doors, and Jenna wasn’t surprised. Thick, fat flakes of white floated down from a leaden sky to add another layer of precipitation to what was already fallen.
Luna yowled.
“Okay, okay.” Jenna jumped forward, fumbling with the keys to open the sliding door. Already she felt eyes on her from all directions, studying her, assessing her weaknesses. She managed to turn the key and pull the door open enough to let the bouncing Shepherd squeeze out into the yard, then slammed the door shut again, taking several steps away from the glass.
Part of her didn’t want to let Luna go out. The scared, outdoors-fearing part of her was aware she wouldn’t be allowed to step over the threshold and rescue her dog if her life depended on it. Her brain had rewired itself to despise anything outside the confines of her sanctuary.
With her back against the wall, Jenna watched her guard dog see to her business, then have a mad ten minutes of what videos on Connor’s laptop calledzoomies. Legs seemed to fly in all directions, disturbing the peace of the snow as it flew everywhere. Luna’s tail was tucked between her hind legs as she spun and whirled, happy and carefree, then attempted to catch the snowflakes as they tumbled to earth.
Memories—the ones she had access to now—proved Jenna was capable of such frolics. Playing with her siblings in the snow at their home in Colorado as small children, teenagers. Snowball fights and snowmen contests. Knocking snow off the house roof, the garage roof, to see who could bring the most down on all their heads while their mother kept the log fire roaring and milk warming on the stove.
Laughter, so much laughter. Bright and cheerful, punctuated by happy screams and jeered taunts designed to egg the others on in their pursuits.
All six of them, parents and brothers and sisters, seated around a huge dinner table with food heaped on plates and heads bowed in joint prayer to thank God before they ate His bounty. To offer their gratitude for all He’d given to them, for the strength to see them through the tests and trials of life.
Jenna bent over double from the swift surge of nausea. She’d prayed for a long time. Months and months, with every shattered breath she took as pain exploded in her lungs. Day after day, when her stomach shrank from malnutrition and the flesh eked off her bones. She had prayed and she had been abandoned.
She lifted her head as Luna barked at the door. The daft dog was covered from head to tail in snow, little clumps of it clinging to her fur. Jenna pushed away from the wall, gritting her teeth as bile rose swiftly up her throat, and hauled the door open to let the dog—and fresh air—come streaming inside.
Unfortunately, so did a significant portion of the outside weather.
Luna shook, sending snow flying in every direction before a wicked glint appeared in her eyes. When Jenna locked the door again and turned to survey the mess, the dog dropped so her butt was in the air, her front end pressed to the ground, and her trigger switch for morezoomieswas clearly primed.
“No. Luna, no.” Jenna held her hands up and tried to be stern. “Stay, Luna. There’s enough chaos in here without you spreading it around Connor’s house.”
Her voice flipped thezoomiesswitch in a split second. With a crazy howl of delight, Luna took off like a rocket down the hallway, skidding into the kitchen, executing what sounded like more chaos in there, then tanking out and into the living room. The couch seemed to make a noise like it had imploded under the weight of the sodden dog as Jenna rushed to the doorway.
No, not the couch.
Jenna hung her head, near tears as feathers rained down on top of a spinning Shepherd. The implosion sound had apparently been one of the nice, fancy cushions Jenna liked to nest with exploding under the force of Missile Dog.
Luna yelped and bolted for the door as Jenna tried to block her, tongue hanging out the side of her mouth as she—oh no, oh no, oh no—took the stairs three at a time. Her strides thudded down the landing above Jenna’s head, and she ducked her shoulders for the brief two seconds of silence it took before—
“LUNA!”
Connor’s roar was shocked and furious. Within seconds, the culprit had bounced her way back downstairs and promptly seated herself to heel by Jenna’s legs. Aside from the lolling tongue, heavy breathing, and snowballs still clinging to her fur, Luna gave a good impression of being a guiltless animal, ruthlessly framed for crimes she didn’t commit.
Closing her eyes in resignation, Jenna patted the loyal mutt’s head and shuffled to the hallway closet for the vacuum cleaner. Maybe she could get at least the feathers cleaned up before Connor made it downstairs and saw the carnage.
