A pawn in a game that countless women had already lost.
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as his pointer finger touched the pawn with the fissure on the top. The same piece he’d moved first in our very first game. “Does it still bother you to think of other women in my bed,mi princesa?”
“Of course not,” I snarled, denying the jealousy coursing through me. That forbidden part of me wanted to rise up in response to the taunt, to claim him in the way he’d tried to make me his alone. But he wasn’t mine to claim.
A woman couldn’t tame a nightmare who wore skin to disguise the monster within.
“They’re for you,” Rafael said, lifting the pawn into his hand and nodding his head toward the sofa across from me and inviting me to take a seat in it without another word. “So that I can watch you when I can’t be with you. No other woman has been in this bed, Princesa,” he said, setting the pawn back down in its designated starting position.
“Please,” I scoffed, rolling my eyes to the ceiling as I stepped away from the window and took the seat on the sofa. I swallowed back the traumatic response that tried to well up within me being so close to the chess pieces he’d tortured me with. I perched on the edge of the cushion, dropping my hands to wrap around the edges and sinking my nails into the smooth fabric to center myself against the need to lash out. “You expect me to believe that?”
“I’m a man,” he said with a shrug. “I am no virgin, but you are the first woman I’ve ever desired for longer than it took to get off. That is why you angered me when you insinuated this was nothing but sex. Had that been the case, our relationship would have been over before it began.”
“This isn’t a relationship!” I argued. “That term insinuates that I have a choice.”
Rafael smirked, adjusting his legs as he watched me with darkening eyes. Every time I spoke, every opportunity I took to argue, the monster showed in the lines of his face a little more. From the tense line of his jaw to the purse of his lips and narrowing of his eyes, he wore the monster under his skin more visibly.
He had nothing left to hide.
“You’re right,” he conceded, shocking me into silence. My mouth dropped open as I stared at him. “A relationship isn’t the best term to describe what is between us.”
I swallowed back my fear as his lips curved into a challenging grin. I opened my mouth to speak, floundering for what to say in the moments where I was entirely caught off guard by his agreement. I hadn’t anticipated it.
“You’re to be my wife, after all,” he said, the line of his teeth showing between his lips as his smile broadened. “I believe that makes engagement a much more appropriate term than relationship. I’ve never particularly thought of myself as your boyfriend. I find the title doesn’t appeal to me much. Too common for my place in your life.”
I stared at him in horror, trying to will my breathing to return to normal as I swallowed back my scream. “What is wrong with you?”
“Husband feels more up to par with who I am to you. Yours, irreversibly,” he said, ignoring my question. “As to what is wrong with me: I saw something I wanted. I maneuvered the pieces to take it for myself. You were outmatched long before you even knew we were playing,mi princesa.”
“Divorce exists,” I spat. “Nothing is irreversible.”
“It is for you,” he replied, sweeping out a hand to the board. “I didn’t come here to debate the semantics of our engagement. Play a game with me,” he said.
“I’d rather stab you with the pieces, my fiancé,” I said, giving him a saccharine smile.
His eyes dropped to my lips, watching them form the words as something clicked into place on his face. He ran his tongue over his teeth, studying me thoughtfully. “Husband will be better,” he said.
I glared at him, turning my face to the chessboard in front of me and considering my options. “What do you say we raise the stakes?” I asked finally, even knowing the chances of winning were next to nothing. In our previous games, Rafe moved pieces around the board like a professional. Cunning and manipulative, he barely had to glance at the game to know how to trap me.
“Let me guess: if you win, I have to let you go free?” he asked, watching as I nodded my confirmation. It couldn’t come as a surprise, given my freedom was all that I wanted from him. “And what do I get if I win,mi princesa?”he murmured, tipping his lips up with his amusement as he leaned forward and into my space across the small table. With his eyes so close to mine and studying me intently, I swallowed as I tried to come up with a response.
With something I could stand to give him.
“I’ll stop trying to run,” I offered with a swallow.
He chuckled darkly, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest as his teeth sank into his plump bottom lip and he grinned at me. “You can try to run all you want,” he said with a shrug. “What difference does it make to me when there’s nowhere for you to go?”
I clenched my eyes closed, trying to rack my brain for something that I could offer to the man who would only take what I didn’t give anyway. There was nothing I had that wasn’t already at his mercy. “What do you want?” I asked through gritted teeth.
I opened my eyes as he reached out a hand suddenly, catching my chin and tipping my head up to look at him. His thumb dragged over my bottom lip, pulling it to the side harshly before sliding into my mouth. I bit down on the offending appendage, sinking my teeth into his flesh as he chuckled. “I want your mouth,mi princesa.I want you on your knees in front of me, worshiping my cock with your pretty pink tongue without fear that you’ll bite me.”
He retracted his thumb, dragging my lip away from my teeth as he drew his entire hand away. “It’s your move, Princesa,” he said, sitting back in his chair. His hands touched the arms of it, his posture relaxed as my body vibrated with need. The memory of the bite of the shower floor against my knees the first time I took him in my mouth set my skin on fire. My cheeks heated as I leaned forward, touching a pawn and staring at the board intently. I started with the King’s Pawn Opening, the irony not lost on me.
That was what I was to Rafael despite his words about a King protecting his Queen, but it was also one of the few openings he’d taught me in the little time I’d known him. He grinned as if he could sense my realization, the knowledge that I would never win against him.
It was foolish to even try. Chess wasn’t a game that was mastered through beginner’s luck, but by studying the board and strategy relentlessly.
I watched him counter with his Sicilian Defense. “Who taught you to play?” I asked, making the effort to take his fixation off the game as I studied it intently and moved my own piece.