Page 97 of Reluctantly His

Of course the man couldn’t have a simple black and white marble set.

I smirked. “No.”

He took a sip of his whisky as he rolled a pawn between his fingers. “Really, a military man like you?”

I stood over the table and moved a king’s pawn forward.

He raised an eyebrow. “The King’s Gambit opening. Luck?”

I settled into one of the plush seats. “I’m a Marine. We don’t believe in luck.”

He took the seat opposite as he moved his pawn to my knight. “Thought you said you didn’t know how to play chess.”

“You asked if I played, not if I knew how.”

The corner of his mouth lifted as he watched me castle my king with the kingside rook.

He placed the tip of his finger on his queen. “My daughter is not going to marry you.”

I caressed the side of my queen with my thumb. “With all due respect, I haven’t asked her yet.”

Lucian’s brow lowered. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

I leaned forward close to the board. “It means that when I ask her, her answer will be her choice.”

That wasn’t strictly true.

I had no intention of allowing her to tell me no, but her father didn’t need to know that.

Lucian leaned back as he laughed. “I’d say, for a bodyguard, you have balls speaking to me like that, but then we both know you’re no ordinary bodyguard.”

My hand stilled. A tactical mistake would be to talk. So I listened.

Lucian filled the tense silence. “It seems I have one of the infamous Taylors of Texas on my payroll.”

I had never exactly hidden that I was from a rich oil family. I just never advertised it. My father and I had never seen eye-to-eye. He had expected me to take the reins of the family empire after graduating college. The day he learned I had enlisted in the Marines instead was the last day he spoke to me.

It was also the last day I took a withdrawal from my multi-million-dollar trust fund.

I wasn’t opposed to touching the money. I just didn’t need it. I preferred to live by the money I made through my own effort, not the hard work of my ancestors.

I leaned back and rubbed my index finger over my lower lip as I studied him. “A man is not defined by his family.”

“That may be true in Texas where you patriotic boys believe in Manifest Destiny and the myth of the solitary man, but not here in New York. Here family, heritage, traditions are everything.”

The corner of my mouth lifted as I used my queen to take his pawn. “So what? Now that you know I’m filthy rich, I’m suddenly the ideal son-in-law for your daughter?”

He slid his king across the board to take my bishop. “Not even close.” Lucian then leaned back and took a sip of his drink. “To be clear. I don’t like you, Reid.”

I raised my drink in a mock toast. “In that at least, we are in agreement.”

He rattled the ice in his drink. “I don’t suppose you’d accept a check to just disappear?”

I stared at the prism of orange and crimson sparks from the fire through the crystal cubes in my own glass. “What do you think?”

An oppressive quiet settled over the room.

We each made several rapid moves. He took my rook. I took his bishop.

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