Page 1 of Reluctant Surrender

Chapter 1

Maggie

Turbulence was just potholes in the sky. No matter how many times I told myself the bold-faced lie, I could not make myself believe it. The plane taking me from New York City to Chicago jostled again as the plane hit a new air pressure. I gripped the arms of my chair, watching the deck of cards on the table slide over.

“Are you scared of flying?” Lukas Kaczmarek, the owner of the private jet taking us both home to Chicago, slid into the seat across from me.

“No.” I forced my hands to let go of the armrests and gather up my cards. “I’m afraid of crashing.”

“It’s just turbulence,” he assured me as he took the cards from my hands and started shuffling. “We only have an hour left of the flight. Want to play a few hands?” He waved the deck at me with a playful grin.

I wasn’t fooled. Lukas Kaczmarek, although slightly less intense than his older brother Christian, was not playful. I’d heard more than one rumor about what his family did to their enemies, to anyone who they deemed disloyal.

But we did have another hour of tempting fate with our lives, and he was being generous enough to let me crash his plane. Although I’m sure it had more to do with my cousin now being his sister-in-law than his overall generosity. We both lived in Chicago and had ventured to New York for the wedding celebration of my cousin to his brother, the head of the Kaczmarek crime family.

“Sure. Five card?” I sat up straighter in my seat. A few hands would keep my mind off the bumps in the road.

“You know how to play, right?” He cut the deck and continued his shuffle.

“Poker? Yeah.” I grinned. One of my father’s employees had taught me when I was little. I think he just took pity on me because I was a young girl, motherless, and wasting my entire day hanging around my father’s closed office door in the hopes of stealing a minute when he finally emerged. I was a quick learner and before the end of the week, I won almost every hand.

“Okay, then.” He dealt out the cards and put the deck face down on the table. “So, you want to make this a bit more interesting?” He looked at me from over the fanned-out cards in his hand with one eyebrow raised.

“You want to play for cash?” I hadn’t brought much with me, but I had probably enough to get through the first few hands. Then I’d be playing with his money.

“Or.” He grinned. “We could play for skins.”

“Skins? If you want to see me naked, just ask,” I teased. What the hell was I doing, teasing him? He didn’t have to ask, he was three times my size. He could simply take what he wanted.

“You’d do it?” he asked, mild disapproval in his tone.

I laughed. “Hell, no. But if you really wanna play strip poker, I’m game.” I scanned the cards in my hand.

“All right.” He nodded. “I’ll take two cards; how many do you want?” He tossed away his bad cards and took two from the top of the deck.

“I want one, please.” I slid my discard card across the table.

“One?” He laughed. “All right. Here.” He handed me the card.

I shuffled my hand around. “So, do we bet on what clothes the other has to remove?” I asked.

“We’ll start with shirts,” he announced, laying out his cards. “A pair of aces.”

I laid my hand down. “Two pair, queen high.” I wiggled my fingers at him. “So, shirt off.”

He laughed. “Lucky hand.” He grabbed his t-shirt from behind his neck and pulled it over his head. After he tossed it to the seat beside him, he ran his fingers through his dark blond hair and rolled his shoulders back, his massive, muscular shoulders covered with tattoos. I swallowed back my appreciation, and quickly lowered my eyes to the table. Busying myself, and trying to completely avoid my attraction to him, I shuffled the cards and began to deal the next hand.

“When we get back, you should stop by the club,” he said. “It’s still going to take me a little while to get things settled since Piotr is gone, though.”

“So, that’s why you’re staying in Chicago while Christian is in New York? Your cousin left his club to you?” I wasn’t ignorant of the situation. Piotr had been Lukas’ cousin, a second branch of the Kaczmarek tree that ruled over Chicago. He’d played a dangerous game and had lost his life in return. But I didn’t need to let on that I knew more than I should. Men in his position preferred to work behind closed doors, in the shadows of the night.

He glanced up at me as he filed his cards in his hand. “Something like that, yeah.”

I discarded two cards, and he dropped three.

“Okay, you first.” He nudged his chin at me. “Beginner’s luck can’t hold out too long.”

“We didn’t decide what clothing we were wagering,” I reminded him. “You picked last time, so it’s my turn.” I tapped my fingers against my lips. “Pants.”

---