Page 60 of Masters of Control

Leaning over where her feet were resting on his lap, he grabbed the remote and hit pause.

“I know something’s wrong because you’re not commenting out loud on which Property Brother is hotter or asking my thoughts on ‘twin sandwiches,’ so out with it. What’s going on?” Resting his hand on her ankle where it was peeking out from under the soft, stretchy pants she was wearing, Q kneaded with his fingers, giving her a little reassuring massage while he waited for her answer.

Sam sighed and dropped her head back against the arm of the couch.

“I don’t know. I’m just all in my head right now.”

“Anything you want to talk through?” he offered, not sure if she would take him up on it. Sam was a thinker, whereas Q tended to talk things out. He was dying to know what she was thinking about and hoped she’d share, but he wouldn’t push her if she wasn’t ready.

“Mostly just thinking about the job situation. So far, I only got one bite, and I would still need to do an interview… I don’t even know if I want it. What I really want is for my job to give me a cost-of-living raise so that nothing has to change.”

She pouted adorably at him, and Q gave her a sympathetic smile, increasing the massaging strokes of his fingers and moving them down toward her feet. With a sigh, she settled back against the couch, losing the pout. “

You can stop doing that never.”

He laughed. If a foot massage made her feel better, he was happy to be her masseuse.

“Have you told them you’re looking at other places?” he asked. “It’s amazing how the budget can suddenly be found when they realize they might lose you.”

“I haven’t,” she admitted quietly after a moment, opening her eyes to lock gazes with him. Her lips tipped up in a half smile. “I’m not always good at advocating for myself. It’s what made me think I’m a sub, actually.”

Q considered that for a moment because he understood what she was saying. She wasn’t very assertive outside the bedroom, though he thoroughly enjoyed every glimpse he got of Mistress Samantha inside it.

“I know some subs who are very good at advocating for themselves outside the bedroom,” he said finally. “Angel being the first one to spring to mind. She’s bossy as hell, even with Adam, but the second she gets in the bedroom and he takes charge, she melts.”

That had been disconcerting to realize. At one point in his life, he’d had a major crush on Angel, though he’d known nothing would ever come of it. So, he’d put his feelings to the side and concentrated on being the best friend he could be. Whether she ever saw him as anything more hadn’t mattered. When Adam had come along, he’d fully accepted that was the end of any hopes he might have had in that direction.

It hadn’t affected their friendship at all… because he hadn’t let it. When some of his guy friends had joked about him being ‘friend zoned,’ he’d informed them that no, he was her friend. She hadn’t promised anything more, ever, and he valued her friendship, regardless. He wasn’t her friend just to try to turn it into something more or to have sex with her.

That had shut them up pretty quick and given them something to chew on.

Eventually he’d realized that Angel’s bossiness was part of what had attracted him, but she was so much better matched to Adam. He and Angel would have ultimately been a disaster, and a breakup would have definitely ended their friendship. Over time, his feelings had faded, and after he’d found Sam, they’d disappeared entirely. He hadn’t even realized how Sam’s reappearance in his life had completely obliterated the last shreds of his attraction to Angel, even when he and Sam had been at odds at first.

Thinking about it, he had a feeling part of his attraction to Angel had been how much she reminded him of his high school memories of Sam.

“I want to be Angel when I grow up.” Sam sighed again.

Laughing, Q dug his thumbs into the pads of her foot, making her moan.

“I’m very glad you’re not, thank you very much,” he teased. “I would have to be the boss in the bedroom all the time. I like it when you take charge, and I get to let go.”

When their gazes caught, Sam’s eyes glowed with happiness. Warmth filled the air between them and sudden emotion caught in Q’s throat. It was so much more than attraction, so much more than desire, it caught him off guard.

The TV suddenly blared back to life as it defaulted from the paused recording back to the regular channel, and both of them jumped, then burst out laughing.

But even the laughter couldn’t break the tension fully because Q had just realized… he’d fallen in love for the first time in his life.

24

Almost Holiday Time

Q

It was the week before Christmas, and for the first time, Q was kind of wishing he wasn’t leaving to see his family for the holiday. Not because he didn’t want to see them but because he didn’t want to leave Sam’s side. Everything was going really well with them, although he still hadn’t said the L word. There was something wrong with Sam, and he didn’t know what it was.

Most people probably wouldn’t have noticed how distracted she was, but Q had made a study of Sam, and her brain was constantly elsewhere.

He couldn’t be sure the issue was just one thing, though.