Page 62 of Holiday Home 4

“How much does a set like this usually cost?”

“A hundred to two hundred dollars. Some are exorbitantly more.”

Well, I guess you can’t put a price tag on happiness,Liam thought, admiring the board and its pieces slightly differently than before.

“Are you going to get her one?” he asked.

“Perhaps for her birthday in the coming summer. Her set is very nice, but I know she wants a metal or stone one. I’ve looked at a few, including one that was a metal and marble mix. The pieces aren’t themed like this one, though.”

Realizing she could simplyshowhim, she plucked her phone out of her pocket. After a few seconds, she showed off a gorgeous chess set. One army was alabaster white, the other onyx black. Both had gold secondary colors. The board was pure marble, shiny enough to reflect every piece above it. The cost for this set came out to a hundred and eighty-five dollars.

“Want me to investigate what she might be interested in?” he offered.

“If you can, I would appreciate that.”

Promising that he would, in short order, their first match—in person, anyway—soon got underway. Virtual or real life, the result remained the same. He lost. Badly. Trounced, one might say. Victoria didn’t fool around, either. She was efficiently brutal, suffocatingly so. And Tess was better than her? Enough so that Tess felt comfortable proclaiming it?

I’m never going to get that prize,Liam thought.It’s dangled up way too high.

After his decimation, Victoria had them rebuild the board, and then, impressively, she walked him step by step through every single move that either of them had made in the game. With each move, she discussed options she might have made on his side of things, then how she felt during each of his moves. As a slight gut punch, though he knew she was only being honest, she felt he’d completely lost the match before his eighth turn.

After that, Victoria started talking about some concepts that he’d already begun to learn a little bit about. Material count, how to get all his pieces active on the board, spacing. She spent a lot of time on his pawns, discussing the importance of structuring them based on his preferred opening. With how immobile they were and how that could affect both the opponent and the owner’s ability to operate with their other pieces, they naturally determined a large part of a player’s strategic options.

Initially, it was a lot to take in, but once she started showing off the various “major pawn formations,” things started clicking a little better. She’d show one, then discuss its strengths and weaknesses. Some were more offensive, others defensive, and he also learned about the concept of tension, which involved mutually aggressive pawn formations—and how they’d typically result in more stable formations following certain exchanges.

Unfortunately, there was a lot more to it than even all that, though it made sense, or else every other person on the planet would be a grandmaster. They hadn’t played another proper match since the first one, and he now realized that she’d let him play one so that he wouldn’t get bored and wonder when they’d play. Nevertheless, he didn’t mind. He even felt that his understanding of some of what she was detailing was improving by the minute.

And many minutes were going by. They were about an hour into things when Victoria asked if he wanted something to drink.

“Lemonade?” she offered, cutting him off before he could make any mention of wine.

“Sure, thanks,” he said, holding back a smile.

Compared to his last visit, he didn’t worry about where to look as Victoria headed back inside her house. With those long legs on display, her shorts clinging tightly to her shapely butt, he knewexactlywhere to look, and he wasn’t apologetic about it. He stared, and he enjoyed the sight of Victoria Moreno from behind. Besides, by now, he’d seen far, far more.

When she returned with two tall glasses of lemonade in hand, he likewise enjoyed the sight of her bending forward to place it on the table before him. The act of leaning forward put her cleavage in full view of her younger guest, and there was no hiding where he was staring this time around. Victoria didn’t comment on the obvious ogling, returning to her seat a few seconds later.

“Drink up,” she said, voice dispassionate. And yet, then she added a little more. “You look thirsty.”

Liam swallowed, then met her gaze, holding back an urge to shiver against a winter that never thawed, no matter what month it was. “I really am.”

He took a particularly long drink, needing that time to cool his thoughts. His fingertips felt warm enough to leave steam where they met the cool glass, ice clinking about as he brought it to his lips. Yet, Victoria imitated him after he’d set his glass down, and then Liam was lost in the allure of seeing her throat move as she took a slightly less full drink from her glass.

Fuck me, it’s practically July back here,he thought, feeling far warmer now than he ever had on a day in March.

It was almost as if some unknown force—or one that was known and growing in size and influence underneath his side ofthe table—compelled him to speak up, even before her soft lips separated from the rim of her glass.

“So, are we going to play for any stakes?”

“Stakes?” Victoria asked, holding her glass just beneath her mouth. God, that mouth. And those eyes. And thatallof her.

“Yeah, for extra motivation to improve,” he said, hoping he sounded more relaxed than he felt. By several orders of magnitude.

“You needextramotivation?” Victoria inquired, raising one fine eyebrow. “I thought you had that in your goal to beat Tess someday.”

“Yeah, but that goal is apparently way, way off. So, it’s a long-term one. Distant and difficult to fully see.”

“And I’m easier to… see?” Victoria asked, that eyebrow staying raised. “Regarding beating me?”

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