Page 30 of Merry & Bright
I had an obsessive nature. I just needed someone to keep me on the right track.
I turned around in Rob’s arms and launched myself at him, pressing my mouth to his in a passionate kiss that he returned without hesitation. When we broke apart, I was smiling so hard, my face hurt.
“I love you so much,” I said simply. “I’ve never been so happy as I have this last year.”
His smile was huge, though after a moment, it flickered.
“Does that mean you’ve given what I said last night some thought?” he asked carefully. His gaze was wary and intent.
“Yes,” I said huskily. “And my answer is—fuck, yeah. I’ll move in with you.”
He let out a shuddery breath and leaned forward to rest his forehead against mine. “When you said you couldn’t give me an answer right away, I thought you were trying to find a way to say no.”
I scowled at that. “Never!” I said fiercely. “I told you my only hesitation was timing. I don’t know what my job situation’s going to be six months from now. I might have to move. I didn’t want to put you in a difficult position.”
“And like I said yesterday, if that happens, we’ll deal with it.” He captured my face in his hands and smiled down at me. “I love you, Quin. The thing I want most in the world right now is to make my life with you.”
I swallowed hard, blown away by his faith. His commitment.
To me.
I didn’t deserve that devotion, but God, I needed it. And over the next few decades I meant to return it, every bit.
“Same here,” I said simply, and lifted my lips to his.
**
The End
Mr Perfect’s Christmas
IT WAS SAM’S TWENTY-fourth Christmas, and for the first time in his life, he wasn’t feeling it.
Not that it was actually Christmas yet. It was, in fact, only the twenty-first of December, but usually by this point in the festive season, Sam was mainlining eggnog, eating his own weight in mince pies, and panic-buying additional stocking fillers. His family were big on Christmas.Hewas usually big on Christmas.
Until this year.
It hadn’t been the best of years all round, starting with his breakup with Gareth in February, then losing his job and having to leave London. For four months he’d had to live with his parents while applying for new jobs, steadily lowering his expectations month on month till he’d finally been offered his present, temporary position with Morton & Higgins, a small law firm in the north-west. By then he’d been so desperate, he’d have taken anything.
Tonight was going to be the worst though. Tonight was his new employer’s Christmas party, and everything about it underlined how much Sam’s life had changed.
Last year, Sam’s work Christmas night out had been a proper black tie do, complete with top-class food, cocktails on tap, and a live band. This year would feature beers at the local pub, then a three-course fixed Christmas menu at a cheap Italian restaurant.
Sam stared at the contents of his wardrobe and wondered just how horribly overdressed he’d be in his favourite designer shirt, a crazy collage print that fitted him like a second skin. He’d bought it months ago out of his redundancy money to cheer himself up, and he still loved it—it never failed to put a smile on his face. But tonight? It wouldn’t be like wearing it out with his friends in London. What would his colleagues at M&H make of it?
He sighed. As if he couldn’t guess.
No matter how desperately he tried to fit in with them, he just... didn’t. With his designer-label clothes, buffed nails, and expensively styled hair, he was like an exotic bird in a flock of starlings. He still shuddered when he remembered the day he’d worn his Armani shoulder bag to the office. Dave, his pod buddy, had looked as shocked as if Sam had walked in wearing full drag.
How would he feel, sitting in La Scala, the cheerful bistro where the M&H crowd went for lunch every Friday, dressed like this?
God, he sounded like such a snob. It wasn’t even that he minded Italian bistros—he liked calzone as much as the next guy. It was just that he felt depressed every time he thought about how his life had changed. There had been four hundred people at the Hendrick Blackstone party last year. M&H could only muster twenty-six. And one of them—Wonder Boy, aka Nick Foster—wasn’t even with M&H anymore.
Nick was the guy Sam had been recruited to replace—on a trial basis. Nick was the wunderkind from whose arse Mike, Sam’s boss, apparently thought the sun shone. He was the oracle Mikeactually still calledfrom time to time about the cases Sam had inherited. The oracle with the annoying habit of popping into the office to offer Sam unsolicited pointers on how to deal with his old clients.
Nick had left M&H five months ago, but he was so well liked that he got invited to the Christmas party anyway.
Even now, Nick seemed more a part of M&H than Sam did. Sam still hadn’t settled in, despite everyone’s friendliness.