Page 19 of In Control

I sigh a little and shuffle on my seat.

Maybe this is exactly the man to take my mind off Professor Cole.

He continues to chat to the two men as they load two styrofoam dishes with chips and cuts of meat.

“Sophia,” he calls over. “What sauce do you want? Garlic mayo? Ketchup?”

“A bit of everything,” I tell him. I might as well give this a try.

He returns to the table a moment later balancing the two dishes in his hands as well as two cans of coke.

“Oh god, this looks revolting,” I tell him.

“The best tasting food always does,” he says, shaking salt all over his chips.

Hesitant, I take one from my own dish and dip it in the sauce, then snap my teeth through the fried potato.

“Good, huh?” he says with a grin.

I chew, a mixture of fat and carbohydrates, salt and sugar melting onto my tongue. It is good. Really good.

“Meh, it’s all right.”

He laughs. “You wait. An hour or two later and this place will be rammed. They’ll be queuing around the block.”

I take another chip and dip it in the sauce, smiling at him.

His gaze roams my face, dipping fleetingly down to the cleavage of my dress.

“You’re taking a big gamble here,” I tell him, licking salt off my fingertips.

“How so?”

“First date in a kebab shop. Risky.”

“Life’s all about gambles. Every time I slice my knife through a patient, I’m taking a gamble.”

“Eww,” I say, “that is not the image I wanted in my head while I’m eating.”

He laughs and the sound is a rumble in his chest, soothing and seductive all at once. “I forgot you’re a civilian.” He drops four chips into his mouth at once and chews while he looks at me. “So am I screwing up this date?”

I lean my elbow on the table top and rest my chin in my hand. “Depends. Talk me through your thinking. Why here?”

He cracks open his can of coke then reaches over the table to open mine too.

“Let me see. One. You’re clearly too young to take anywhere else.”

I roll my eyes. “I think we established my age.”

“And two,” he slumps back in his chair, meeting my eyes, “you seem like the kind of girl who gets wined and dined a lot, and while I have no problem with doing the same, Sophia, I figured maybe I needed to stand out to be in with a chance of a second date. Because, three, I have a feeling not many men–”

“Or women,” I interrupt him.

“Or women,” he says without flinching, “get to take you on a second date.”

“What makes you say that?” I ask, reaching over to pinch one of his chips.

“Am I wrong?” He grabs my hand and lifts it to his mouth, snapping his teeth through the chip I’m holding, then licking his lips.

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