Page 57 of Enemy Boss

“You never have to worry about Ross finding you again, because if he comes within ten feet of you, I will end him,” he says.

I squeeze Cullen tightly. I know he means what he says and that he won’t let Ross hurt me again and for the first time in a long time, standing there in the arms of the man I love, I feel safe.

The work day has pretty much ended, and I go to Cullen’s office. I tap on his door and he calls out for me to come in.

“I won’t be a minute,” he says. “I’m almost done.”

I sit down to wait for him, and he really is only a few seconds before he closes his laptop with a flourish.

“Done,” he says. “Let’s go.”

“Actually, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about first,” I say.

“Oh, that sounds ominous,” Cullen says with a laugh. When I don’t laugh too, he frowns at me. “Are you ok?”

“Yes,” I say. “I just … I know you only said I should move in with you today because you were scared that I was in danger from Ross. Well now I’m not, so I just wanted you to know that if you want to change your mind, I get it.”

“Do you not want to move in with me Max?” Cullen says.

“Yes, I do,” I say. “But I get it if it’s too soon for you. That’s all I’m saying. I don’t want you to feel like you have to do something when the circumstances that brought that something about have changed.”

“I want to live with you Max. When I said I have wanted to live with you for a while and I was trying to find the perfect time to ask you to move in with me, I wasn’t just saying that because of the situation,” Cullen says. “Granted if Ross hadn’t been a danger to you, I probably wouldn’t have booked a moving company for this evening. I likely would have waited until the weekend when we had a bit more time, but that’s the only thing I would have changed.”

I feel relief flood me. It only occurred to me a couple of hours ago that Ross being behind bars where he belongs might change things for Cullen and me and I have been worrying about it ever since, but I knew I had to give him the chance to get out of this, and now I’m really glad I did, because I know now that Cullen hasn’t just gone through with this out of a sense of obligation to me. He really does want to live with me.

I smile at Cullen, and he smiles back and comes around the desk to me and pulls me to my feet. He kisses me and then he grins at me.

“Come on, let’s go home. Together. To our home,” he says, and he takes my hand, and we walk out of the office together and into our shared future.

Epilogue

Max

Christmas Eve, Six Months After Max Moved in with Cullen.

“Are we mad?” I say and not for the first time as I look at the pile of wrapped presents beneath our giant green Christmas tree and think of the hours of prep we have done for Christmas dinner tomorrow.

“I think we might be,” Cullen says with a laugh.

It’s our first Christmas together and instead of spending it just the two of us as we first discussed, our plans changed mid-December when both of us told our moms we wouldn’t be home for Christmas and both of them were upset about it. We talked about it, and we decided that we would host Christmas for both of our families so that we could be together on the day and no one else missed out on our company.

It started off just my mom, Cullen’s mom, and Liam. Now Harriet and Sam and her husband are joining us too.

“I guess that’s what Christmas is all about though,” I say.

“What? Going mad?” Cullen says.

“No,” I say laughing. “Family and friends coming together to celebrate.”

“That’s not what you said when you forced me to buy the matching pajamas,” Cullen says. “You said then it was all about getting into the Christmas spirit and having fun.”

“Well, that’s almost the same thing isn’t it,” I say. I look at him in his elf pajamas and smile. “And you can’t say you don’t look adorable in them.”

“Oh, trust me, I can,” Cullen laughs. “Now let’s enjoy the calm before the storm tomorrow is going to bring.”

He lifts his arm up and I move along the couch until I’m tucked snugly underneath it, and we snuggle in. Cullen hits play on the remote and I smile as Home Alone, my favorite Christmas movie of all time, starts to play.

This really is perfect I think to myself. The decorations are up, the tree lights are twinkling, I have a nice glass of wine and my favorite Christmas movie on, and I’m getting to share it all with the love of my life. It’s not everyone who has so much to be happy about and I’m so grateful for everything this year has brought me, even if it was a slightly bumpy road to get here.

---