Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 101840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
“Yes, but the blue player played his requesting pawn. And you’re responding with—”
“With my home rook,” he said. “Because I’m offering blue my home.”
“Babe,” I said, not realizing what I was saying. “You want to use your resource rook instead.”
To be fair, he’d picked up the game incredibly quickly. I’d been surprised by the way his brain worked. It was understandable he’d made a simple mistake.
“Right, but if I offer him my home rook instead of my resource rook, when my home is located on vast mineral wealth, can’t I then offer my resource rook to another player and make use of both in the same way?”
I stared at him before blinking at the board and realizing what he’d set up. “Fuck.”
His chest puffed up. “The student becomes the teacher. You may blow me now.”
I held his chin and turned his face away from me before blowing a hot stream of air behind his ear and down his neck until his skin broke out in goose bumps and his shoulders contracted. “Jesus fuck, Jeffrey,” he breathed. “Why is that hotter than a real blow job?”
“You’re not getting out of this game by distracting my dick,” I warned, pulling away. “Make your second move.”
He stretched his neck, tilting his head from side to side and groaning again. “You’re purposefully distracting me. That’s a dirty tactic.”
“Yes, well, I may have forgotten to mention that according to family lore, my great-great-great-great-grandfather was a privateer. It’s in my blood.”
Jett reached for his influencing bishop and played it to the blue board, next to red’s rook. Solid move.
“Why does it not surprise me that you’re from a family of pirates?” he muttered, reaching for his glass of wine.
“Privateers,” I corrected. “We pillaged for the crown and had the law on our side. It’s different.”
“Barely!” he spluttered with a laugh.
I took a minute to focus and move two countermoves. Then Jett moved for the red player, and I moved for the blue. We continued playing until he made another unexpected countermove.
“Audentes fortuna iuvat,” I muttered. Fortune favors the bold.
He snickered. “Fata viam invenient.” The fates will find a way.
I stared at him. “You speak Latin.”
He blinked and flushed pink in the cheeks. “What? No. Jesus. I saw it in a movie once about the Trojan War. In history class? I can’t remember.”
“You sounded more sure than that,” I said.
“I’m good at languages,” Jett admitted. Which explained the blush. “I learned High Valyrian from Game of Thrones on Duolingo.”
“No,” I said, laughing.
He bounced his eyebrows, but his words were formal and solemn. “Skoros iksos hen lenton.”
“And that means?”
“It’s like, totes true,” he said, using a cheeky, playful accent.
We took a few more turns before Jett suddenly boxed me in. “Ha! Now you’re going to have to sacrifice your home rook if you want to save your king. Suck it, Paxis Daddy.”
I sacrificed my home rook but then quickly took it back on the next move. “My company’s called Maris Holdings, Jethro. Not Maris Take and Give Back. Once something’s mine, I keep it. It’s pretty much my family motto.”
He didn’t look very bothered by the loss. His eyes were bright from the wine and lips cherry red. “Pirates gonna pirate, I guess.” He tapped his chin. “In real chess, you can’t just do that, you know. In real chess, these moves have dire consequences.”
If only he knew how dire real Paxis moves were in the game I usually played.
“You want to challenge me to a game of real chess, Jethro?” I teased. “Because I’ll kick your ass in that, too.”
The heat of competition flared in his eyes. He knocked all the pieces and boards away except the black set closest to us. He quickly set it up for a game of straightforward chess.
And then he wiped the board with me again. “Rematch,” I said in disbelief.
His eyes were alight with victorious satisfaction. “Sure, babe. Whatever you need.”
I may not have taken Jett’s ass tonight, but at two in the morning, with both of us struggling to keep our eyes open, I finally took his king.
And it was somehow almost as satisfying.
20
JETT
Everything changed when people started arriving.
By the time I woke up the next morning, Locke was already finishing his breakfast and talking to the security detail about how the new arrivals and their luggage would need to be scanned.
I felt a niggle of unease. Sure, most of Locke’s guests would make high-value targets, so it made sense to keep a secure perimeter, but why monitor what his guests brought in?
That wasn’t the only change. Staff I hadn’t seen before bustled around, cleaning and seeing to details like additional floral arrangements, a pitcher of ice water and glasses by the entry door, a basket of prepackaged snacks on a drinks cart out on the pool terrace.
It was off-putting, the easy rhythm of our first couple of days gone as if it had never existed in the first place. I quickly shook off my selfish disappointment and reminded myself why I was here.