Page 15 of His Collateral Wife

This time, though...

It's as if they've moved to the canine version of the Ritz. It's not just huge and high-ceilinged, but they're also just as elegant with actual crystal chandeliers hanging over the play area, porcelain trays under their feeding mats, and the latest models of drinking fountains.

I can't even count the number of buttons there are on the wall panel for climate control, and I also spy an intercom with a speed-dial chart that includes vets, animal behaviorists, nutritionists, therapists, and multiple caretakers, all in-house and providing round-the-clock service.

One of the inner suites turns out to be a bathing paradise for the dogs, with a large heated indoor pool for them to paddle in, marbled tubs for their baths, and even state-of-the-art drying chambers.

The sound of barking then reaches my ears, and I turn just in time to see all nine dogs come running to me with exuberant barks and wagging tails.

I burst into tears even as I can't help but laugh when I find myself falling under a pile of canine babies.

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.

I count them again, and then I count them for a third time because all of this is another miracle my brain finds impossible to comprehend.

How can this be true?

How?

And yet it is.

They're all here and accounted for.

Safe.

Happy.

And all I can do is cry harder as I push myself up to a sitting position.

"T-Thank you," I sob out.

My dangerously seductive escort crouches down on one knee.

"I meant what I said the last time," he says quietly. "We are now husband and wife, Eden. Ask whatever you want, and if it is within my power to give, then consider it yours."

Did he just say...wife?

Only A Matter of Time

Calixte had always wondered how he would die.

And it seemed he had his answer now.

Why did I even bother trying to escape?

He was on an island run by one of the world's most wanted drug lords and his henchmen.

Alone and handicapped by a crushed kneecap.

Outnumbered, Calixte was used to.

He had survived much better odds than this.

But in all those instances, he had never been as badly injured as he was now, and with backup reinforcements only likely to take another hour before they could locate and rescue him---

This is it then.

He waited to feel fear or regret.

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