He sensed her eyes on him and looked sharply up to see the look of growing hate that was rapidly replacing her previous expressions of helpless lust. Her immediate need was satisfied now, and she was remembering how all this had started, how this vile, dirty, ugly man had used threats to force her to submit her clean young body to feed his insatiable lust. And one thing bothered her more than all else that had taken place in the last hour.
Her own body had deserted her!
The shame of her own passionate response to her ravisher swept over her and she immediately looked for someone, something to blame. She was too young to fully realize the tremendous depths of her own sensuality, and she chose to believe that this vile man had used some secret wiles, some secret skill of his hands to turn her into the jabbering mass of lust-driven flesh she had been only minutes before. Yes, she hated him. She had been happy to be fucked by her dog, that was a matter of choices. But this vile creature had forced her into the shame and humiliation of responding with mindless passion to his leering threats and insults. Her eyes bored into his until finally he snarled out, "What the hell you looking at? You ain't had enough?" The sound of his own voice made him feel better. He knew he was master here. It was a moment before she answered.
"Yes, I've had enough, Hank." Her voice was cold and she sounded much older than her years. "Now please go," she continued evenly, "or I think something bad might happen."
"What the hell you talking about," Hank said in his blustering voice. "I'll decide when I go. You keep on talking like that, and you'll get a hand across your face." He took a threatening step towards the naked young form lying so still on the bed, but to his surprise she didn't stir, just kept staring steadily at him. Hank swallowed nervously.
"Awww, fuck ya, ya bitch," he snarled. "I've had enough of you for now anyhow." He started pulling on his clothes.
"But I'll be back," he said, looking sharply up at her. "I like what I got today. You and your old lady sure can fuck. Must run in the family. Yeh, I'll be back, and you be sure to keep that crazy mutt out of my way," he added as he tucked the pistol into his belt. The battered young girl still said nothing, just kept staring at him and he could almost feel the waves of her anger and hate flowing around him.
"Aww, fuck ya," he said again and, spinning on his heel, he scooped up his bag of tools and stalked out of the house.
Patty continued to lie quietly for several minutes after he left, staring blankly up at the ceiling. Then a slow change came over her embittered face. The hardness faded and her lips began to tremble. Suddenly deep sobs began to wrack her body, and she was once again a little girl, bewildered, hurt and betrayed.
CHAPTER SIX
Champ paced nervously back and forth in the locked service porch. The house had been silent for some time. He knew that the man he so hated had left but still no one had come to let him out of the room. A growing sense of desertion was sweeping over him. There had been such a sense of trust and love between him and his young mistress that he felt doubly betrayed by her incomprehensible treatment of him. He had sensed that his duty was to protect her from the man called Hank, but she had stopped him and seemed to be punishing him for his loyalty by locking him up. And then his keen senses had told him that Hank and the girl were having sex, and the jealousy of his own frustration had been added to his unease.
The big dog suddenly stopped his pacing and his ears pricked forward alertly as he heard slow steps coming towards the door. There was a fumbling with the lock and then the door swung open to reveal Patty standing there, her familiar face curiously dull and expressionless. The dog had his usual impulse to leap forward and show his joy at seeing her, but he automatically held back, stopped by something different and unfamiliar in her manner. He felt uneasy and somehow his animal mind connected it with the fact she had earlier spoken harshly to him and locked him up. In his confusion, the handsome animal slunk around her and headed out of the house.
He could not know that Patty was still reacting from the shame and shock of her near rape by Hank. It had been some time before she had been able to get out of bed. Her whole body ached from the strain of the distorted sexual positions Hank had forced her into, especially the tender area between her legs. She felt that her secret parts had been so bruised and battered that she would never be able to make love again. Indeed, she didn't know if she would ever want to. Hank had ripped something from her soul when he had so brutally violated her; her childlike innocence. She would never make love again with quite the animal-like joyfulness that had previously characterized her brief experience with sensuality. She now had a knowledge of evil. She was initiated into the world of men.
The beautiful young girl slowly pulled on her clothes and went to let her dog out of the room in which she had so foolishly locked him. How different it all might have been if she had paid attention to his unerring instincts and had refused to let Hank in the house. As it was, when she opened the door to the porch she could not look the animal in the eye. She, too, felt that somehow she had betrayed his loyalty. Her mind was too numbed by the events of this terror-filled morning to notice at first the dog's reaction to her, and a kind of delayed surprise came over her after the handsome animal had walked wide around her, obviously avoiding her. She watched unbelievingly as he headed out the front door that Hank had left open and vanished into the sun-drenched yard.
She realized that her self-absorption with her own mental pain was cutting her off from the one being in the whole world that she loved next to her mother. She stood frozen for a moment in indecision and then darted toward the front door.
"Champ, Champ," she called her voice beginning to break with pent-up emotion. As she stepped out into the yard, she was blinded a moment by the sunlight. Where was he, where was Champ? She looked anxiously from side to side, and then she saw him. He was running towards her, cutting a path through the long grass that made a jungle out of the yard.
Champ had been heading for a secret place that he had gone to whenever he wanted to be alone. Then he had heard her voice calling his name, and a glad light began to shine again in his eyes. He turned instantly with one powerful motion and began to run back towards the house. He saw her then and she began to run towards him. In a moment they were together, and he leaped up and put his paws on her shoulders and began licking her face. She threw her soft young arms around his powerful neck, and he could taste the salt of her tears.
They went together out into the yard and settled down together, secure once again in the closeness and trust of their relationship. Patty lay on her back, her head pillowed on the great animal's powerful body, while the terror and despair of the morning slowly faded from her resilient young mind…
And that was the way Danny found them later that afternoon.
It had taken all morning for the handsome youth to summon up the courage to come over and talk to Patty. He had felt a deep sense of guilt over trying to take advantage of the younger girl the night before. At first he had been hurt when she had run from him after his fumbling attempt at seducing her, and he had gone home that night sure that he would never see her again.
But the next morning he realized it was only foolish pride that was leading his mind in such gloomy directions. And at the same time he realized all over again how much Patty meant to him. He finally resolved to go over to her house and ask her forgiveness. It wasn't quite that easy, however. Once the Edwards' house was in sight he got cold feet. He sat in a thick slump of reeds and bushes a couple of hundred yards away just watching the place. What if Mrs. Edwards was home, he thought to himself? And what if she heard what they were talking about?