Free One Funeral (No Weddings Book 2) by Kat Bastion, Stone Bastion

him over the rim. A smile tugged at the corner of my lips about his level of excitement over ancient stone pieces on a matching chessboard. “Okay. One game.”
    “Three.” He leaned back, a smug expression on his face.
    “Three? We’ll be here all night.”
    Tilting his head, he arched a brow. “Sounds perfect.”
    I shook my head, laughing. “I knew you were up to something.”
    “Nope. No strings attached. And it won’t take that long. I’m a master at this. You’re a novice. I could easily end each game in a few moves. But this is instructional to start.”
    I replaced the rook onto its corner square and considered the depth of his words. All along, in both our growing relationship and his business tutoring, he could have raced light-years ahead with his experience, but he hadn’t. With me, he took his time, using great skill and care.
    And if that wasn’t enough to turn a girl on, with the thought of other activities he’d take at an unhurried and detailed pace, he sat in the dim light of my living room, looking dangerous and sexy. A thin, black T-shirt hugged cut biceps and broad shoulders, but even more tantalizing were the cords of muscle chiseled into his forearms. And those powerful arms controlled large hands with long fingers, which now handled delicate pieces on a chessboard.
    My throat went dry as I imagined those fingers handling me . I sipped the hot coffee, which didn’t help to cool the fire my wandering thoughts had ignited. An uncomfortable ache grew ever more insistent between my legs the longer I fantasized about the man who seemed larger than life in my living room.
    Think about something else, Hannah. Think about anything else.
    I ran his most recent words through my mind again. “How will it help me with my business?”
    “Chess trains you to think big picture. The player who thinks only of their next move, of a single piece’s cause and effect, is the player who loses. To win at chess, the entire board must be taken into consideration. Because each piece moves differently, and all of them are out to get my king or disable my pieces to protect yours, every move must be looked at from both your angle and my angle.”
    “So becoming a good chess player will help me outthink my competition with Sweet Dreams?”
    He nodded. “It will also help you think outside the box in business planning by looking at different aspects of various components—like marketing, products, distribution, even buying and pricing—from fresh angles.”
    After downing my last bite of cake and seeing only a crumb left on his, I stacked both plates, crossing our forks on the top one, and put them aside on the coffee table by the couch. “Okay, Chess Master. Deal me in.”
    “That’s poker. This is chess. Get your lingo straight, woman.”
    I laughed. “Okay, run through what each piece does. All I remember is pawns move one or two spaces, rooks move straight, the horse does some L-shaped thing, and this pointy guy goes diagonal.”
    He snorted, fighting laughter. “The horse is your knight. Yes, he does L-shaped moves—one space then two on a right angle, or two spaces then one—in any direction. The pointy guy is your bishop, and you’re right, he moves on the diagonal. The queen can move in any direction on a row she’s on. And the king can only move one space in any direction. Pawns can only move forward, are only able to move two spaces on a first move, and they can only capture pieces on the diagonal.”
    Head swimming with rules, I waved my hands wildly over the board. “Let’s just start. I’ll learn better as we go.”
    And so the game began. Cade talked me through every play on either side. He let me decide which piece I wanted to move, but then had me examine possible second and third moves from there, as well as vulnerabilities I’d opened up by my action.
    The game was actually quite complicated.
    And a blast.
    Midway through our second game, I started moving pieces without thinking