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“The coffee table’s fine, gentlemen.”
Dishes were spread across the low table beside them and they were soon alone again. Lucian removed the covers and her stomach pinched with excitement. She never wanted to forget how wonderfully he fed her during their time together. There was that melon wrapped in prosciutto, a tray of various cheeses and grapes, bread topped with salmon, some sort of cream, and dill, salad, and mini crab cakes.
“That’s a lot of food,” she said, as he passed her a linen napkin.
“Not really. It’s all appetizers. I figured we’d pick.”
“Pick?”
“Yeah, graze while we play.”
Scout took a grape off the cheese tray and popped it in her mouth. The splendid juice burst over her tongue, tart and sweet. Lucian bit into a crab cake, then placed it aside.
“Okay, Ms. Keats, the objective is to get a checkmate, in other words, threaten my king with an inescapable capture. Each piece moves in a unique way. This is the king. He can move any way he wants, but only one block at a time.”
“Figures,” she mumbled and he arched a brow.
He purposefully cleared his throat. “This is the queen. She’s the most powerful piece. She can move any direction and as many blocks as she chooses. Her duty’s to protect the king. She must never stray too far and she’ll sacrifice herself if it saves her king.”
Scout cocked her head and shifted her legs beneath her, careful not to jostle the board. “I was impressed until the end of that spiel. Some protector he is. Okay, can we start the game?”
He tsked. “Evelyn, first, chess is not a game, it’s a sport. Second, it requires a great deal of patience. When done right, it can be a beautiful thing, lyrical even. It can be a great show of aggression and surrender that’s charged with deep emotion. You must pay attention. It’s quite rare for a male to be topped by a female. No, don’t look at me like that. I’m only telling you the truth. Some say it has to do with the basic human nature of each sex. Females are naturally martyrs in many aggressive situations, while men are natural aggressors. And as far as the purposes of the king and queen, make no mistake, the queen’s the fiercest aggressor on the board. She holds more power than any other piece and is, without a doubt, the king’s greatest asset. Because she’s so valued, she’s also coveted. She can lure any piece into the king’s territory.”
His fingers swirled over the round tip of the queen as he talked, and she had a feeling he was explaining more than the rules of chess. She gazed at the board, seeing the resemblance between royal order and the pieces.
“Are these the guards?” she asked, motioning toward a horse-shaped piece.
“They’re the knights. Their duty’s to the queen, but also the king. You must always be aware of your king. As the players move, so does he until one opponent finally outmaneuvers the other. Then . . . checkmate.”
“It’s a big game of chase.”
“Yes, but it isn’t fun to simply chase one player across the board. Chess is about taunting your opponent, seducing them out of their comfort zone.”
She swallowed. The way he explained the rules in that deep gravelly whisper, it somehow made her very aware of her being female and him being male.
“You’ll notice, Evelyn, that I prefer to keep my queen close to the king. I like her innocently uninvolved with the politics and safely tucked away in my back row, always there for me when I need her.”
Pressure built in weird places she wasn’t used to noticing—until meeting Lucian, that is—and she squirmed. “You explain it like a war game, but describe it like a relationship.”
“How much difference is there really, in love and war? Both require a great deal of passion and plotting. Chess is a display of training that ends in social intercourse. Chess is a competition that’s never lost, but the triumph of one competitor’s ego, the declaration of who is truly the master.”
“What’s this one?”
“These are your bishops. Quite powerful. They can move diagonally any distance. The X the bishops draw are said to represent Saint Andrew’s cross. Are you familiar with that? No? We’ll save that for another time, perhaps.”
He replaced the bishop and picked up the piece that resembled a castle. “This is the rook. He’s the voyeur. His tower’s tall so that he can watch over the game. He sees all, but rarely interferes. His movement is limited to the linear advances that are only ever in cooperation with the more powerful players of the game.”
He replaced the rook and waved his hand over the lined up small pieces in the front. “These are your pawns. They’re your front line, your servants, and essentially, the foundation of your power. They’re here to serve and sacrifice for their king and queen, but we must never undervalue their importance. Shall we play?”
