Page 35 of His Collateral Wife

"Then will you stay?" he asks abruptly. "I'm not asking you to love me back. All I'm asking is for a chance---"

Calixte's back hits the wall behind him with a thud as I throw myself into his arms.

"How is it possible," I ask shakily, "that you've outsmarted all the bad men in this world while remaining absolutely clueless about how I've fallen in love with you from the---mmmph."

My husband, ever the fast learner, is not one for wasting time.

Because now that he knows I love him back...

Yes, oh yes.

It's like coming alive after being dead for so, so long when my husband lays me down on the cabin floor and surges inside of me in one powerful thrust.

Finally, oh finally.

I finally know what it means to live happily ever after.

Epilogue

Five months later

Calixte straightened to his full height after strapping the body harness on the last of 9 dogs. As always, Mars had been the hardest to keep still while Pluto, a pure Mama's boy, had been the easiest. He held three dogs each in one hand, and only after making sure he had a good grip on all six did he finally allow them to run out of the kennels.

His wife, along with Pluto, Venus, and Saturn, were already waiting for them in the garden, and the look on her face as she watched him nearly being dragged by his energetic pack of six was extremely easy to read.

"Let me guess," he said right away.

Eden blinked at him. "Guess what?"

"What you've just thanked God for."

"Oh." A sheepish smile touched her lips. "Was I that obvious?"

"Non, mon ange. You're just that nice."

"I cursed a lot before."

"Only nice people would feel guilty of that."

"Oh, Calixte." She looked at him helplessly. "I'm just really grateful---"

"Because you still think our life is something you don't deserve, and you just can't understand why God is being so good to you."

The words had his wife gasping, choking, and laughing at the same time. "You took the words right out of my mouth! Verbatim!"

"I know. And that's your answer, by the way. It's because you think you don't deserve it that you're blessed."

And with that one last word, his wife's expression had changed, and she was now looking at him like he was God's newest miracle.

"Let me guess," Calixte said again, but as expected, the words this time had Eden hurriedly shaking her head.

"Please don't---"

"I've made your heart race, and all because of my newly improved vocabulary."

Another laugh escaped her. "Oh, Calixte."

Their dogs started barking at that point, and both of them laughed this time since they knew it was their pack's way of saying that they had had enough of their flirting, and that it was time to run.

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