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Crap. She was so going to end up naked. “I suppose.”
“Good. You may make the first move.”
Her lips twisted and she frowned over the boards. Everything was packed in tight like little sardine soldiers. Shrugging, she slid a pawn two spaces forward.
Lucian quickly made a move, and she had the feeling his was a lot more thought-out than hers. Scout moved another pawn. Lucian did the same. This continued for some time until the other pieces seemed a bit less confined.
She found herself relaxing into the flow of the game and growing less intimidated. Chess wasn’t that hard.
Suddenly, Lucian jumped a number of pieces with his knight and took her pawn. “Hey!”
“It was bound to happen, Evelyn. You can’t expect to challenge me without retaliation. You owe me an item of clothing.”
She huffed and removed her shoe. “They were hurting me anyway,” she said snidely and moved her knight, mimicking his strategy.
His bishop slid out of nowhere and captured her knight.
“Son of a bitch!”
She bolstered her confidence with a lot of mental smack talk, but knew she was losing her shirt. Literally. It took courage she wasn’t sure she possessed to actually go through with this and not forfeit. Her pride told her not to be a chicken, but her conscience told her she was about to be humiliated in more ways than one.
Would he draw back when he saw her skinny shoulders or unspectacular breasts? She wasn’t used to having such personal parts of herself scrutinized. She wasn’t used to having herself scrutinized period. But since meeting Lucian Patras that seemed to be what her every word and action brought about, scrutiny. How would Lucian perceive her? She didn’t know why she cared, but she did. For the first time in a long time, she pretended a level of confidence she didn’t possess.
He laughed and her other shoe came off. The game continued and Scout regretted her earlier cockiness. She was soon sitting across from Lucian in her panties and shirt. Each item of clothing peeled away with a bit of her dignity.
“Don’t forget the power of your queen, Evelyn.”
She scowled at him. “Maybe I don’t want you to take off your pants.”
“That’s fine. I can quite enjoy your naked body while I’m clothed.”
He was so arrogant. She hadn’t taken a single piece of his and she wanted to more than anything. Every opportunity she found to advance on his pieces put her queen at risk.
“You know,” he said contemplatively. “When the game gets too complicated, sometimes you have no choice but to sacrifice your queen.”
“Never,” she hissed vehemently.
Eventually, it didn’t matter what she did. Lucian captured her queen. “Checkmate.”
She stared at him, brow puckered and pathetic. Her eyes glazed and her lip quivered. Shamelessly, she evoked his pity and hated herself for it. All she had left was her newly discovered article of clothing called a camisole, and panties, and at the moment that meant more than her pride.
He laughed. “Oh, Ms. Keats, really? Here I thought you to be a fair opponent.”
She blinked at him and he sighed.
“Very well. It’s late anyway and I have a meeting downtown first thing in the morning. You played a good first game.”
She was shocked he was letting her go, but also incredibly grateful. She smiled and then his words sunk in. “What should I do tomorrow?”
“I’ve made you an appointment at the spa for ten.”
“What about work?”
He frowned. “Ms. Jones is expecting you Wednesday morning. You’ll work five hours then and five hours on Thursday.”
The concession he was forced to make regarding her job still apparently bothered him.
“Thank you.”
He nodded, brushing off her gratitude. “Get dressed. I’ll walk you to your room.”
Standing, he stretched as she quickly replaced her clothing. Glaring down at the spiked heels, she opted to walk to her room barefoot. It was after midnight and she was exhausted.
Lucian escorted her to the thirtieth floor and handed her a keycard when they reached her room. She couldn’t believe she was actually going to sleep in one of the Patras suites. As the door opened, she gasped. She’d cleaned these suites several times, each one was the same, but this one was somehow different.
Beyond the numerous boxes from the boutique, stacked along the wall were beautiful arrangements of flowers. The room was filled with the soft fragrance of lilies. Scout laughed and went to admire the flowers, caressing the delicate petals and sniffing their gentle scent. Turning, she found Lucian watching her, a slight grin on his face.
“You did this?” she asked, an unfamiliar buttery sensation curling inside of her.
“I didn’t know what flowers you liked. I see lilies were a good choice.”
“They’re beautiful. It’ll be like sleeping in a fairytale garden.”
The bed was turned down and a soft silk nightgown was laid out at the foot of it. This would be her reward, her one indulgence for trading a bit of her dignity to be here. At the moment, seeing such opulence offered to her, she suffered no form of regret.
