Page 41 of Pugs & Kisses

A s they waited for the first traffic light, Bryson paid the dog sitter through the app he’d used to hire her.

At the next light, he sent a text telling her he was almost home and that she could leave.

By the time he and Evie arrived at his condo, they found both Bella and Waffles sleeping peacefully in their respective dog beds.

Waffles awoke and ran to Evie for a head scratch.

Bella lifted her head, looked at the other occupants in the room, then tucked her head under her blanket and went back to sleep.

“I hope he doesn’t need a W-A-L-K,” Evie said.

Bryson turned his phone to her. “The sitter took them both for a W-A-L-K just before she left. Bella and Waffles will be fine until morning. I, however, will lose my mind if you remain in that red dress a minute longer.”

“Impatient much?” Evie laughed. She took him by the arm and tugged him toward his bedroom. Once there, she turned her back to him and swept her thick, natural curls to the side. “Unzip me.”

“With pleasure,” Bryson said, exposing her light brown flesh as he pulled the zipper down to the small of her back. He unhooked her bra and pushed the dress off her shoulders and down her arms. It slithered onto the floor like a ruby-red waterfall.

She turned to face him and that feeling of disbelief he’d experienced from the very first time he’d taken her to bed swirled through his head. He wasn’t sure he would ever get used to being like this with the woman he’d dreamed about for so long. But he sure as hell would have a good time trying.

“This is a really nice tux,” Evie said. “But it would look even better over on that chair.”

“With”—Bryson tugged the tie at his neck—“pleasure.”

She sat on the edge of his bed in black lace panties that matched the bra tangled up in her dress on the floor. Evie braced her arms on either side of her, stretched her legs out, and crossed them at the ankles. She stared at him as if he was performing a striptease for her.

“If you start humming stripper music, I’m putting you out,” Bryson said. It was a bald-faced lie, but still.

She threw her head back with a laugh.

“I’d never considered doing such a thing, but now that you’ve put it in my head.”

“Don’t do it, Ev,” he warned.

“Just get naked and come over here,” she said.

Bryson toed his shoes off as he unbuttoned his shirt, then took off his pants. He scooped up Evie’s dress and carried everything to the chair in the corner, adding his socks and underwear to the pile.

His sister-in-law would knock him upside the head if she knew how he was handling the tux she’d picked out, but he didn’t give a damn about the threads at the moment. The anticipation of climbing into bed with Evie trumped everything.

When he turned, Evie said, “Someone’s excited.”

Bryson looked down at his erection and then back up at her.

“Not because of that.” Evie laughed. “Although that is rather telling. I’m talking about the way you tossed your clothes. You’re so particular with everything you do.”

“I have been called a perfectionist in the past,” Bryson said, stalking toward the bed. “That works in your favor when it comes to what I’m about to do.”

He held a hand out to her and she placed her right hand in his.

Bryson tugged her up from the bed and took her mouth in a slow, delicious kiss.

His skin burned with the need to feel her against him, so he pulled her close, until her body was flush against his.

The sensation of her nipples pressing into his chest was almost more than he could withstand. Almost.

“I will never get over the fact that I finally have you to myself,” Bryson said. He slipped his tongue in her mouth and nearly lost his mind at how good she tasted. “Eight years is a long time, Ev.”

“Well, you don’t have to wait any longer, so why are we not in bed?”

He grinned, then pulled her with him to the bed. Bryson’s heart jumped into his throat as he stared down at the woman who’d invaded his dreams too many times to count. She was no longer a fantasy; she was here, warm and willing and everything he had ever hoped she would be.

He used his legs to part hers and eased himself inside her. She felt like heaven. Pure heaven.

He began to move with a slow, steady rhythm he knew he wouldn’t be able to sustain, not when every fiber in his body was yearning to go faster and deeper and harder.

His instinct was to close his eyes and savor the sensation of driving so deep inside her, but he forced himself to keep them open. He wanted to look at her. He needed to witness the bliss traveling across her face as she reached for him, lifting her hips to meet his every thrust.

He braced his hands on either side of Evie’s head and quickened his pace, pushing deeper.

He could feel her coming apart underneath him at the same time pressure began to build at the base of his spine.

It took only a few more thrusts before pleasure exploded within him, his body shaking violently with the force of his orgasm.

He rolled off Evie and collapsed alongside her, quickly reaching over and pulling her so that she lay on top of him. He doubted five minutes had passed before both he and Evie fell into a deep, exhausted, satisfied sleep.

Bryson heard his phone vibrating on the bedside table. He picked it up and stared at the time: 4:46 a.m. Nothing good could come from a phone call at this time of the morning.

He frowned at the number on the phone, debating whether to even answer, but something in his gut told him that even solicitors wouldn’t be calling before five in the morning.

Peering down at Evie, who stirred but didn’t wake, Bryson pressed the screen and said, “Hello?” in a low voice.

The shaky voice on the other end made the hair on his neck stand on end.

“Shit!” Bryson said. “Give me twenty minutes. I’ll be there with Evie.”

“What’s wrong?” Evie asked, sitting up in bed.

“Outbreak at The Sanctuary. Odessa thinks it’s parvovirus. The dogs started showing symptoms late last night. She said she couldn’t sleep so she went in to check on them. It looks bad.”

The virus took at least five days to incubate, so they all must have been infected at the same time.

He and Evie both jumped out of bed and started getting dressed.

She only had the red gown she’d worn to the party, so Bryson grabbed a pair of drawstring joggers and a sweatshirt from the closet shelf and handed them to Evie.

The clothes were at least three sizes too big for her, but she would fit right in with any of the kids he saw hanging at the bus stop wearing oversize hoodies.

“Were the dogs not vaccinated?” Evie asked. “Don’t answer that. It was rhetorical. I know you have no idea about the vaccination records. It’s just that this—whatever it is—was preventable.”

“Let’s just get over there so we can see what’s going on.”

It proved to be as bad as Bryson had imagined. Of the nineteen dogs currently housed at The Sanctuary, eleven were experiencing symptoms of canine parvovirus, some more severe than others.

He learned from Odessa that Doc was visiting his sister in Gulf Shores this weekend.

“There’s no need to disturb him on vacation,” Bryson said. “It would take at least three hours for him to get here. If we don’t have things under control by then, there won’t be anything Doc can do.”

Evie gave Odessa her phone. “Go to my contacts and search for Cameron Broussard. Let him know what’s going on and that he’s needed here.”

“Really?” Bryson asked, pulling a stethoscope from the table of supplies and handing another to Evie.

“He’s a good vet,” she said, taking the stethoscope. “This is bigger than my feelings or your ego. It’s about the dogs.”

She was right. He fucking hated that she was right, but she was.

He and Evie started with the assessments. It was clear that two of the dogs—two puppies, which were the most vulnerable to the highly contagious virus—were in need of immediate attention. Their tiny bodies jerked violently.

“I’m not sure monoclonal antibodies will be enough for them,” Evie said. “They need a plasma transfusion.”

“I need to get them to the animal hospital,” Bryson said.

“I can’t handle all these dogs by myself,” Evie said. “Odessa,” she called over her shoulder. “Can you find Ashanti Wright in my contacts and tell her I need her here asap.”

Five minutes later, Ridley came through the door.

Evie’s voice rose in clear surprise. “Ridley?”

“Ashanti sent me to pick up sick puppies?” she said. “What? She said it was an emergency and I was two blocks away.”

“It’s not even six a.m. What are you even doing out at this time of the morning?”

“Get out of my business and give me the damn dogs,” Ridley said. “Where am I bringing them?”

Bryson rattled off the address of the animal hospital, which she typed into her phone. They secured the puppies in two small crates that Ridley carried out, one in each hand.

“You have no idea how weird that was,” Evie said. “It feels like I’m in the Upside Down.”

Cameron came in about twenty minutes later, his hair mussed and sweatshirt stained and wrinkled. He looked as if he’d rolled out of bed and threw on the first thing he picked up from the hamper.

He didn’t greet anyone, just set a black insulated cooler on the steel table where Bryson was inserting an IV into a Chihuahua mix.

“I brought all the monoclonal antibodies we had at the clinic, but it’s only eight doses,” Cameron said.

“Every bit helps,” Evie said. She gestured to her right. “Start with those over there.”

They worked for two hours, administering antibodies and fluids and examining the other dogs in the rescue to make sure they were not showing any symptoms of the virus.

Either by a miracle, or just damn fine veterinary skill, they managed to save each and every dog.

Bryson called the hospital to get an update on the puppies Ridley had brought in.

Relief weakened his muscles at the news that the puppies would make it.

All of the dogs that had been infected would have to undergo weeks of treatment; whether they would have a roof over their heads throughout that treatment remained to be seen.

Cameron left The Sanctuary as stone-faced as he’d arrived, barely speaking to anyone on his way out. Bryson, Evie, and Odessa retreated to the break room.

Evie stood with her back against the wall. She’d put her hair in a ponytail using a thick rubber band.

“Well, if we didn’t already know The Sanctuary was truly done for, this was our biggest sign yet.” She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes and let out a sigh. “All the money we raised at Barkingham Palace will need to be used for treatment.”

Bryson had come to the same conclusion.

“This never should have happened,” Odessa said, shaking her head. “All because of a power outage.”

While the doctors were busting their asses trying to save the dogs, Odessa had been trying to figure out how they got sick in the first place.

All the dogs had been vaccinated for parvo.

After some digging, she discovered the vaccines they were given had been stored in a refrigerator that was not hooked up to the generator.

During one of the city’s frequent power outages, the medicine, which must be kept below a certain temperature, had sat for hours with no power.

The dogs had all been vaccinated with a vaccine that had gone bad.

“Look at it this way,” Odessa said. “At least you all got to save the dogs one last time.”

Bryson knew she was right. They had been able to pull off a miracle. But that didn’t make this any easier, not when he knew how much Evie’s ultimate goal of saving the rescue meant to her.

Sometimes the wins they had to settle for were a far cry from the wins they originally set out for. It looked as if that would be the case with The Sanctuary.