King's Treasure (Oil Kings Book 3)

by Marie Johnston

  “That had to hurt.”

  “Yeah. It pissed us all off. Dad never really talked about it, but . . .” Savvy gave my fingers a squeeze. “Then I see him with Kendall and I wonder if he was just really fucking lonely and afraid to love again. Except I can’t forget what those years were like, seeing him with other women in the bedroom he shared with Mama.”

  “Regardless of how hard it was for him, it was still hard for you,” she murmured.

  “Yeah. She understood me. Dad doesn’t. To him, I just run from my problems. Mama got it.” I wasn’t into yelling, or proving myself, or arguing until I lost my voice. I had to go do something. Take that energy roiling inside of me and expend it on the world. At home, I used to ride my horse. Then it was photography. In college, I bought my own camera and struck out in the world, Dad’s cash in my pocket.

  “I want to understand you too, Xander.”

  A small smile hitched up the corner of my mouth. “Since you crossed the world to sit here under a canopy of leaves by an old cabin and talk to me, I think you do.”

  She wiggled in my lap to get more comfortable, and despite the gravity of our conversation, my manhood woke up and reminded me that my wife and I weren’t able to have nearly as much sex as we both wanted.

  I splayed my hand along her side.

  “Xander?” Her voice was breathy, hopeful, or was that part just me?

  “We should be alone for a while.”

  She sat up, her ass grinding into my growing erection and doing nothing to calm it down. Looking around, she squinted into the trees and went still. Then she ripped her top off and turned toward me. “I’ve never had outdoor sex.”

  My mind went blank as I was faced with perfect, creamy tits. “We’ll have to remedy that—right now.”

  Chapter 15

  Savvy

  I shook my phone, as if that’d make the information upload faster. “Come on.”

  “What’s going on?” Xander dropped down beside me where I was sitting on the stone patio behind the main house.

  “I’m not sure. There’s a message from Pearl that’s not downloading.”

  I sighed and put the phone on the ground in front of us. Sitting outside and waiting wasn’t a hardship. I spent more time outside than inside these days. It was early September and I’d just finished a two-mile hike around the base of the mountains with the latest group of tourists.

  My heart still raced when I passed the signs Hector had made that instructed hikers to stay on the trail as not all the land had yet been cleared of land mines. Real mines. Ones that exploded. I knew this country had been through a war—I even saw the soldiers from Camp Bondsteel when we went to different villages. But land mines. Hector talked about how an organization was slowly clearing the country, but demining only took place in the warmer months. He’d rather be safe than have someone hurt or worse.

  I never left the trail, but I also couldn’t believe that this was my life now. From being chauffeured by a private driver to walking beside explosive devices. Though I wasn’t one of the brave, knowledgeable souls doing the clearing, it gave me a sense of bravery. Like, I could do this. I could go back home and tackle whatever I wanted.

  The only problem was that since I’d lifted off from the US, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life. The world was a big place, and I was just one person who didn’t know a whole lot about it.

  Whatever I did in life, I wanted to be effective. Look at Chief. I had a lot of issues with his work hours, but he was committed. He’d made his company one of the top organizational security firms out there. He was a consulting boss.

  Mother was a boss too. I hadn’t seen it before I’d quit working for Chief and left home, but she was in charge of her life all the same. Neither of them was necessarily saving the world, but I could take a page from their playbook and commit.

  I just didn’t know what I wanted to commit to. Not anymore. I’d thought I had all the answers. Recycle. Clean up manufacturing. Rely less on oil and nurture other forms of energy.

  Hector and Eris weren’t destitute, but they worked for everything they had. They reused what they could and it wasn’t because of some trendy campaign, but because they had to. Those branches I’d hauled to the wood-chipping pile a few months ago? They were used in the flower beds and for mulching to help some saplings get through the upcoming winter. All the wood chopping Xander did was both a necessity and income for the business. Campers purchased bundles for campfires, ones that weren’t a fun firepit like I’d grown up roasting marshmallows over. They cooked their meals over those campfires. Hector and Eris had even started a fire on the chillier nights that were common in the mountain region.

  I’d bought a new outfit, but only to replace a pair of jeans that were torn in places that would make them indecent to wear—though not according to Xander—and a lightweight shirt because hiking for miles needed moisture-wicking fabric. I’d had limited funds and limited shopping options, but Eris had turned it into a fun afternoon in Pristina. Rina had come with us and we’d run errands for the business and hit up thrift stores.

  My perspective wasn’t changing, but instead of the bird’s-eye view I’d had before, I was in the thick of the environment. My hands were dirty and I loved it. The new Savvy still wanted to carve a niche, but after years of knowing exactly what I wanted to do with my life, I no longer knew exactly what that niche was.

  Did I want to go back to an organization like Saving Sunsets and be another cog in a wheel? Or did I want to find a place where my voice was louder, where I had more input in the final decision? The latter option appealed to me more and more.

  “There it is,” Xander said.

  It was a picture of Pearl, hair pulled back in a twist, uniform on. Her message read Finished up during summer semester. Off to become an officer.

  Pangs of jealousy and fear didn’t stab my chest like the last time she’d packed her bags and left without informing anyone of her plans first. I’d proved I could do the same thing. I could do it when I didn’t know my plan first.

  “What’s up, bitches?”

  I glanced up at my best friend. He’d flown across the world to check on me, arrived on the doorstep muttering about how Sapphire Abbot did not willingly leave Chevy Chase, Maryland, to spill radish seeds and cry. He had stayed for two months and showed no signs of leaving. When I’d asked him after he’d been here a week, all he’d said was “Job market’s shit anyway.”

  “Brady, don’t you have hikers to alienate?” He’d come here under the guise of being a camper, using next month’s rent money to fund his trip. Xander and Hector had placed bets on how long he’d last. Rina had set the earliest date, calling him “city boy” instead of his name.

  Brady hated it, and hated that he couldn’t charm the pants off Rina, but he’d wormed his way into Hector’s good graces and now he worked as a guide with me and Xander. I helped Eris the more pregnant she got. She taught me things in the kitchen that I would’ve learned had I not grown up an Abbot.

  This was the best summer of my life.

  Brady straddled one of the cheap plastic chairs Hector kept on the patio. “I saw them all safe to their cabins. Another tour done and another invite to come visit later tonight.”

  I wrinkled my nose. All of us got hit on more than I’d thought possible. For safety reasons, Xander and I kept our wedding rings in the bedroom and we swapped stories of bad pickup lines at least twice a week. The price of having young, virile folks coming through.

  “Did she take the rejection well?” Surprisingly, I hadn’t witnessed him messing around.

  “Always leave them thinking they have a chance.”

  The door banged open and Rina exited. “They don’t know you then?” she asked innocently.

  I grinned at their banter and exchanged a look with Xander. We had our own bet and it was that my two best friends had a thing for each other and they were fighting it hard. I didn’t know why, but if that made it all the more successful in the e
nd, then I would support their bickering. As for me, I had my guy and the muffled sex was worth it.

  Xander hooked an arm around my shoulders. With his body heat plastered against me, I wouldn’t need the fire that Hector planned to start. It was our Friday tradition, and with Eris due soon, it wouldn’t last much longer.

  I stiffened and Xander gave my shoulders a reassuring squeeze. Neither of us had brought up what we would do once winter came. Hector would help with the baby, but he still needed to work. Rina would be here, of course. They had cross-country trails mapped out, along with winter hiking routes and ice-fishing plans. Anything that could be done in the winter to attract outdoor enthusiasts. If they were successful, and I was sure they would be, they’d need that much more help.

  Xander and I could stay and work, but as much as I enjoyed it, I was growing antsy. If we stayed, we’d have to get a place of our own and neither of us wanted to put stakes down that deep. I had a calling. I didn’t know which direction it would push me, but I wasn’t going to figure it out here.

  To distract myself from all the questions, I told Brady about Pearl.

  “She always had a fancy set of brass ones. So, what about you?” Brady took a drink of lemonade. He’d never been a boozer, but this was the cleanest I’d ever seen him live. I guess the same went for me. My clothing fit differently. I had muscles in new places that Xander liked to explore. As for Xander, he lived the same way he always did and somehow got sexier every day.

  “What about us?”

  “When are you heading back?”

  Xander’s fingers squeezed my shoulder. He liked the question about as much as I did. “We don’t know yet. We’d like to meet little Morales before we leave.”

  “Won’t be long,” Rina agreed. “I hate to see you go.” She tilted her head toward Brady. “Him, not so much.”

  I laughed at Brady’s scowl and hoped it’d be enough of an interruption to keep from having to answer. I wasn’t sure how Xander felt. He’d mentioned the baby as a sort of deadline, but neither of us had followed up on it.

  The issue that went unspoken was that there were months to go before we got any trust money. Working for Hector paid room and board and we didn’t ask for more than that, it wouldn’t be right. Hector had insisted, but they didn’t know about the trust. I wouldn’t feel right taking five dollars when I was supposed to be a millionaire right after Valentine’s Day. So we’d put our earnings away for his family, and we’d give it to him before we left.

  Rina rolled her eyes. “He’s asking because he wants the room before it gets too cold.”

  Brady’s grin stretched. “Rina just wants me closer to her.” He dodged a pebble she tossed at him and laughed. “But Savvy here hasn’t met the in-laws.”

  “I met his dad.” I glanced at Xander. Did he agree that it was time for me to meet his brothers and their wives? The thought of meeting them made our situation real. We hadn’t survived life in DC. In the mountains, in the middle of nowhere, it was easy to pretend this was some fairy tale we’d fallen into, one that only required sweat equity for a happy ending.

  In the real world, I needed to get along with his family. I wanted to. My family liked Xander. They liked how he pushed me out of my safe zone. My goal for the year hadn’t changed, but instead of working for Chief and saving money to build a foundation for whatever happened, I was working on myself—and this relationship.

  Xander met my gaze, then scanned our surroundings like he was viewing the rest of the world. “We don’t have to go to Montana. We could go anywhere.”

  Anywhere? The thrilling thought did nothing to clear up my confusion. We’d been together for months. He hadn’t seen his family for longer than I had, and while he was used to long periods between visits, it wasn’t every year he was married.

  Xander and Brady started naming places. Romania. Rina told them about the salt mines turned tourist attraction and maybe we could find work around there. There was Macedonia and the birthplace of Mother Teresa, but Xander didn’t want to go to a big city like Skopje.

  Rina shrugged. “After doing the hiking tours, you’ll have no trouble finding work. Some hostels are always looking for help, and I heard of a couple developing an ecovillage that might be hiring, but you’d want to do it before it snows.”

  “What do you think about an ecocenter?”

  My smile was perfunctory. The three of them fired ideas back and forth, but I wanted to ask, What was wrong with Montana? What was wrong with introducing me to his family? Meeting his dad and Kendall had basically been an accident.

  Was his hesitation about me or the money?

  It could be me. He hadn’t been taking pictures. He hadn’t used the laptop he’d worked on at home. And he didn’t talk anymore of photojournalism or his photography. There were those simple photos he’d taken for Hector, then he’d tucked his camera away and helped build another cabin.

  I’d once thought I only attracted two types of men—those like Chief and those with Peter Pan syndrome who wanted to freeload through life. Xander didn’t fit either description. Instead, he was a bit of both. He worked his ass off, but he avoided important parts of his life. His life was constructed around being able to leave at a moment’s notice. When we’d first met, that ability had attracted me. But I’d been with him long enough to know that he’d built his life that way so he could avoid hard discussions.

  I’d grown up wealthy, and I’d been able to see that money didn’t solve everything. So what would Xander do when he got all that money? What would he do when he and I needed to have a long, hard discussion about us?

  Anxiety churned in my stomach. The memory of watching him pack his bags when we’d had our first and last argument was still perfectly clear, even months later.

  Xander

  I lifted my shirt over my head. The chill of the room wafted over my skin, but I wasn’t worried. As soon as I crawled into bed with Savvy, I’d heat up past the point of discomfort. I dreamed of the day we’d have a bigger bed and some privacy. I’d taken that first night together for granted. Our own room with a queen-size bed. That sounded like heaven.

  At the same time, I’d miss this. Snuggling close, careful not to shove each other off the side. Cozy. Intimate, now that Savvy could stay awake for a little longer after she laid her head down.

  She was fucking amazing and she got more unbelievable each day. She handled dude-bro enthusiasts with ease, channeling her mother like a boss. And every time we had female campers, they drifted toward her like moths to a campfire. Making friends with Rina had boosted her confidence.

  Just when I thought she couldn’t glow more, she’d see or experience something new and her expression would brighten like the summer sun.

  Savvy wiggled in bed to make room for me. Now that she’d been here awhile, she was more impervious to the temperature drop when the sun went down, and neither of us wanted Hector and Eris to waste money on heat for us.

  I crawled in and wrapped myself around her. She was used to my dick pressing into her by now, but each time it made her giggle. Tonight, I did it intentionally. She’d gone quiet outside when Brady and Rina had helped brainstorm about where we could go next.

  “Aren’t you ever tired?” she whispered.

  “If I am, this thing wakes me up as soon as you’re close.”

  “Can you imagine what it’s going to be like when we don’t have to sneak a quickie in the shower?”

  “I’m gonna make you scream so loud.”

  She chuckled, then bit her lip to keep the sound down. As much as I liked Rina, she didn’t need to know our sex schedule. Though Savvy probably gossiped with her about it anyway.

  “Do you think Brady and Rina are going to get together?” she asked. Her head rested on my arm. I covered her shoulder with the blanket, leaving mine out. I was already warm enough and with her ass pressed against my half-erect dick, I needed the chill.

  “I think she needs to make him work for it if she wants anything other than a hooku
p.”

  “I don’t know if she does, but I agree.”

  I nuzzled behind her ear. “Is it bad that I hope he stays because I feel like shit leaving Hector and Eris once they have a baby? They’ll want the privacy, but they’ll also need more help than ever.”

  “But we are leaving?”

  I winced at the timidity in her voice. A big decision loomed over us. “Only if you want to. I figured you wouldn’t want to hang out either when the baby comes.”

  “Agreed. I feel like we’d be in the way.” She went quiet, her warm breath caressing my arm.

  “We have almost six months to go before we have some spending money.” I could do my normal routine, roam and do odd jobs until I had a few bills for room and board, but I hated to risk Savvy being on the streets or stranded in the middle of a strange city with me.

  “How do you feel about going home?”

  “I don’t have a home.” At my sharp tone, she turned to look at me, her eyes brimming with concern. “I mean, Montana’s home, but the place is Dawson’s.” Aiden worked for Dad, Beckett and Dad had mended their figurative fences, and Dad helped Dawson with the ranch every year. I was the oddball.

  “You don’t want to go because we won’t have a place to stay?”

  “No, Dawson has plenty of room and I have an open invite.”

  “Then why don’t you want to go?” When I didn’t answer she wormed her way around until she was facing me. “Talk to me, Xander.”

  She made it sound like talking would be easy. When I was a kid, Mama would talk to me, but she used her camera to do it. I sucked up my feelings through high school, riding my horse when I needed to work through my thoughts. No one came after me and when I returned home, no one asked questions. I’d been on my own since I moved out, but the only difference was that now Dad asked questions. But he wanted answers; he didn’t want to understand.

  Savvy wanted to understand, and she probably would. Didn’t make it easier to talk. “The only good thing I’ve done for my family is to get married before I turned twenty-nine. Keeping the trust out of the Cartwrights’ hands will be my only contribution.”