Page 21 of In Control

“This one does sound different.”

“She is.”

He leans his forearm against the tap handle, turning off the torrent of water. “So we’re talking somewhere unusual.”

He follows me through to the theatre, the anaesthetist nods at us, the patient already laid out on the table.

“There’s a fair just pulled into town, over in Victoria Park.”

“A fair?”

“Yeah. I saw the lights as I was passing by last night.”

I smile. A fair. I’d bet my last penny, Sophia’s never been to a fair.

* * *

“You look beautiful,”I tell her, outside the door to her apartment block.

She stares down at her jeans and trainers. “You think so?”

I smooth the hair from her face and kiss her cheek. She isn’t perfumed in the scent of an omega or an alpha, but she smells heady. Jasmine on a summer’s night. Besides, I like it. My head is clear. I’m not distracted by my fucking hindbrain trying to decode every hidden message in her scent, instructing me to do this and that.

No, while my alpha instincts may be piqued by the proximity of this woman, I’m in control.

“I’m very intrigued,” she says, kissing my cheek in return. Her lips are soft and slightly wet, and fuck it I’m not in as much control as I thought, because I have a strong desire to bundle her back inside and take her to bed. “I’ve never been instructed to dress down for a date.”

“Your date never took you to a football match or the cinema?”

“Those sound like fifth or sixth kinda dates. And I never got that far before.”

“I’m going to have to question you later to understand how that can be.” I screw my brow up in mock suspicion. “Is there something hideous about you that you haven’t declared?”

“You mean my outie belly button?”

“Revolting.”

“Or the fact I never floss.”

“You witch.”

She giggles. “Come on. I’ve told you mine. Fess up.”

“My mother tells me I’m perfect in every way.”

“Oh I bet she does. Major red flag, Mr Stand.”

I offer her my arm. It’s only a short walk to my car but I’m taking any excuse to touch her. “How’s the ankle?”

“Fine now. You can rest assured I won’t be suing you for medical malpractice.”

“It has been keeping me awake at night.”

At the car, I open the door for her and watch as she slides into her seat. There’s something seductive about a woman climbing into my car, especially when that woman is a pretty little thing like Sophia.

On the drive across town to the park, she flicks through the radio stations, changing it to some station playing dance music from the news channel I always listen to.

“Fuck, Sophia, this is awful. You’re assaulting my eardrums.”

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