Page 35 of Masters of Control

Dropping the sides of his jacket so they fell back over his chest, he held out his hand.

“Milady.” He bowed his head—not nearly enough to be a full-on bow, but enough to give the impression. Laughing, she took his hand, and the sizzle between them flared when her fingers touched his. Attempting to alleviate some of the heat, he turned and tucked her hand into the crook of his arm. “Your chariot awaits.”

“Is this when you finally tell me where we’re going?”

“And ruin the surprise?” Even as he winked at her, his stomach turned over again with nerves. Hopefully, it would be a good surprise. He really, really, really hoped so.

“Okay then, let’s go.” She blew out a breath.

Q realized that she was just as nervous as he was, which made him feel a little better.

On the way to the restaurant, they chatted about general things—the latest superhero movie, the Lord of the Rings show, finding out all the things they still had in common. The biggest difference was Q was still immersed in all the media, he had to be for his job, whereas she got to enjoy it as a consumer.

By the time they reached the pub door, with the Trivia sign on the front of it, they had both relaxed. Mostly. There was still tension between them, but Q considered that to be sexual chemistry, not actual tension.

“Oh my God… Trivia night?” Sam’s eyes sparkled when she turned to him, pointing at the sign on the door. She lit up from within and was practically bouncing on her toes, as though too much energy had bubbled up inside her for her to fully contain.

Jackpot. He’d chosen correctly.

“Trivia night,” he confirmed, stepping forward to push open the door.

It didn’t matter that they were a two-person team, they appropriately named themselves One Team to Rule Them All, and they dominated. The only round they fell down a bit on was the sports round, and even there they held their own since Q collected random trivia in his brain, regardless of the topic, and Sam had a thing for watching the Olympics.

“The final question of the night. Category: Science Fiction Books.” The announcer grinned as several people in the audience groaned.

Q and Sam’s eyes met over their mostly finished plates.

“Isaac Asimov,” they whispered simultaneously, then both erupted into laughter. A nearby table of exceedingly stressed looking forty-sometimes shushed them. Sam put her hand over her mouth, trying to stifle her giggles. Valiantly, Q swallowed his own laughter.

The other possibility was a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy reference, but that one had worked its way into pop culture thanks to the movie and now too many people knew the answer to life, the universe, and everything for it to be a good final question for trivia. Ninety-nine percent of the time, when trivia brought up science fiction, the answer was either Isaac Asimov or his Foundation series.

“What classic science fiction author helped lay the foundation for future science fiction authors and is often known as the Father of Science Fiction?”

Nailed it.

Sam was already scribbling their answer down while Q leaned back and picked up another French fry. More for something to do than because he was hungry. This was so much more fun with Sam than anyone else he’d gone with. His other friends didn’t take trivia as seriously as he did, which was fine, but it took the edge off some of his enjoyment when he couldn’t be competitive. Or when they scolded him for being ‘too’ competitive.

What was the point in competing if you weren’t trying to win?

But Sam got him. She felt the same way.

The fact that both of them had a hoard of trivia knowledge stowed away in their brains made them one hell of a formidable team.

“Taking this up.” Sam jumped up without a backward glance, making him laugh. She wanted to win just as much as he did. He was pretty sure they had it in the bag, and she was as well, from the way she practically sashayed up to the organizer.

When she turned and headed back to him, she was still bouncing. The table who had shushed them glared at him, but he ignored them. He didn’t need to rub in their loss. Truthfully, Q didn’t want to win to make other people lose… their loss was just a byproduct of his winning.

It felt nice to win with Samantha after all those years as rivals in high school. He was honest enough to know that part of the reason for their rivalry had been because it was the only way he could get her to pay attention to him. Something he understood much better now that he knew what had been driving her.

“We’ve so got this,” she said, holding out her hand for him to high five.

Q did so, then used it to pull her over to his side of the table. Laughing, she let him maneuver her so she was sitting in the chair beside him instead of across from him. He slung his arm along the back, feeling the heat of her body against his skin where he’d rolled up his sleeves.

“We’ve definitely got this,” he said, curling his fingers around her shoulder as she leaned into him and rested her head on his shoulder. Suddenly, winning the trivia competition didn’t matter nearly as much as it had a moment ago.

14

Cup of Coffee?