by Blue Davis
She moaned with that silken voice he had masturbated to when she hadn’t answered his phone calls. He’d always carried a torch for her, but had just wanted a quick hook up. He never figured he would remain captured by her after he’d already gotten his cock wet.
And man, was she wet. His cock happily absorbed the sopping fluid through his skin, sending a ripple of pleasure to his thick vein. She yelled his name and dug her fingernails into his back as he felt her juices of ecstasy disperse around his rod.
He thrusted into her flaming center until his seed came thundering. He withdrew the throbbing cock and shot the semen onto her belly. He buried his head into her chest, avoiding her eyes. He talked into her breast. “I’m sorry. I’m not used to this,” he whispered. It had been far too short and his face felt flushed as he stared at the ground. Shouldn’t the second session be longer than the first? He’d come so quickly. He couldn’t hold himself when he was inside of her, and that was embarrassing.
She blew air onto her face with her lower lip. Her face glowed with sweat. Her eyes glazed with satisfaction. “Used to what? It felt so good.”
He tightened his lips. It was all so weird and he didn’t understand it. “I’m not used to losing my load like that. I’m not used to being so damn needy either.”
Her neck and cheeks reddened. “I… liked it.”
His chest opened as heat rose to his head. He nodded. Tell her the truth. “Lexi. It was the best sex I’ve ever had. The way you moved on my cock. The way you looked. Your eyes. You’re beautiful,” he gushed.
Her shoulders rose to her ears.
“You ready to look for that gold?”
No, he wasn’t and he had already found gold--in her smile, her touch. He wanted more of her. He wanted to drink her in all day and he disliked himself intensely for it. You’re weak. Forget about this girl. She was a good lay, now leave it at that.
He swallowed. “Absolutely.” He didn’t move. His heart raced as she rose and packed her bag. She picked up her scattered clothing and put it on. Then she prepared some crackers and sat.
She’s so fucking beautiful, and she doesn’t even realize.
He rubbed his eyes, then dressed himself and got his own things ready for the trip.
“I think we can reach it by mid-morning if we hustle. I’m pretty sure I know where it’s at,” she asserted.
Something was different about the way she looked. Her face was relaxed, more confident, and she glowed… a lot.
She stopped and placed her knuckles over her emerging smile. “It was nice last night.”
Did she need him like he needed her? He had to uncover the truth. “Have you ever felt anything like that?” He needed to know if he was alone in thinking it was amazing. Their bodies had formed a perfect union. It was hard to deny how solid the connection was. It wasn’t just the way she gripped him tight--it was her---her lips, her smile. The sex should have calmed an itch, yet it was producing a thirty-six-story building fire. Heat rose to his neck. He was concerned.
Her eyes looked watery as her mouth embraced a seductive frown. “Never.”
It was music to his ears. He closed in on her and shook his head. Tell her the truth. “Me neither.”
“But you’ve had all these girls. Come on, James. How can you stand there and claim it was the best?”
Did she not feel the sparks? The sex was not average. It was far, far beyond. “The others were pale in comparison.” He kicked himself for being so damn honest to this woman. That obscure level of intimacy with a woman was a sign of weakness. Would she take him for granted now?
He had seen women grovel his whole life, and he never wanted to be in that position. Why chase after a woman? There’s plenty more where this one came from. I live in Miami. The place was crawling with tight pink bikinis. He tried to focus on them now. His mind raced to remember one. Any one. His gaze trailed back to Lexi. “It will be hard to forget about this when we get back.”
Her eyebrows drew in, her mouth turned downward.
His stomach fluttered. “Why aren’t you still smiling?”
Her eyes wandered down below his belt and back to his face. “It’s already forgotten,” she whispered, her eyes glistening. She put her pack on.
Her response stung, but it was for the best. They were fierce competitors and like she said, it was a conflict of interest. He didn’t want this woman taking away his motivation to make money. He nodded. “Healthy release, right? Time to get back to business now.” He promised himself to forget about the sex. He motioned toward the caves. “I follow you this time.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Fair enough.”
He yanked his gaze away from her tight ass as she trekked toward the dark cave.
“We’ll need our flashlights,” he said, rummaging through his bag. I can hang out in the dark with this girl for hours.
She fished into her bag. Her breathing halted as her hands trembled. “Oh my god. Where is it? Where’s my flashlight?”
“Did you leave it at the campsite?”
“I don’t know. I was sure I put it in my bag.”
“Do you want to go back?”
“There’s not enough time. If we return, we might not get off the island today. It’ll get dark, we’ll have to camp for the night here with the gold hidden under our pillows.”
The only thing he wanted to sleep with tonight was her. He shook off the thought. He hated himself for caring more about her than the gold. The gold was secondary, but if she found out he didn’t give a shit about it, she’d be pissed. Who cares about the gold if you have to deal with a bunch of pirates anyway?
The most important thing here was her and her hot ass. He’d take her over lost pots of treasure any day of the year. Fuck. The last thing he needed to be thinking about was fucking her again. His mind was running in circles. He needed to shape up so they could ship out. He belted out a nervous laugh.
“Why are you laughing? I’m wracking my brain right now, and you’re laughing?”
His breath stopped short. He stopped smiling. Get you head on straight, James. Focus. His shoulders and back became tense as dread crept into his bones. He swirled around.
“What? What’s wrong?”
The rocky plane was quiet and still. Why did he have an overwhelming feeling that something bad was happening? He shook it off. “Uh…I think we better go in and get searching. We’ll use one flashlight. Let’s go.”
He talked of getting the gold as if it were a sure thing--as if it were just a matter of scooping it up and throwing it over their backs to take along on their yellow-brick road. They didn’t even know where the gold was. They spoke as if it was already in their pockets, but how reliable was that fucking map? His toes became numb as he drew in a breath. Don’t show her any fear. Keep calm and focus on safety.
How crazy to assume no one else was interested in the precious metal coins. If only I could see the entire coast like I did yesterday morning. Now they were nowhere near the coast. They were in a dark-ass cave and he didn’t like it. Not one bit.
They huddled together while he shined one flashlight on the earthy path in front of them.
She spun around.
His heart pounded in his eardrum. “What?”
“Did you hear anything?”
He wasn’t much of an auditory person. Vision was his thing and right now it was seriously encumbered. Darkness loomed ahead of them, and behind too. He was probably just scared of darkness, that’s all. He licked his dry lips. “Uh yeah. I had a little of that earlier.” He rubbed her arm and drew in a breath to control his voice from trembling. He shined the flashlight up so they could see each other better. “Don’t be afraid. It’s the two of us together here and I’m not going to let anybody hurt you.”
Her eyes softened, but she said nothing. She blinked.
“Hey,” he said softly. “We’re in this together, doing what we love doing and that’s the important thing right? We love this, right?” He heard himself repeating words an
d stopped. He needed to focus on keeping her safe and that included giving her the impression he had his shit together.
Truth be told, he was unprepared. He had never chosen dangerous places for his own hunts. He had hunted for treasure in safer environments, looked for gold in Germany and Denmark, searched for the missing cash in the Atlantic. His hunts had only put him up against mother nature. He risked his life diving in the ocean depths, or developing frostbite, or heat exhaustion. So yes, his previous trips had been dangerous in that respect, but this was a whole new experience. Modern-fucking-day pirates?
His stomach knotted. How in the world would she have ever survived alone? His vision was clouded by bright spots in the dark. His temples throbbed and he couldn’t stand her being in harm’s way. He quickened his pace through the dark lava tube.
“Wait,” she ordered, staring at the walls of the cavern. “It might be here. Let me see that,” she said, grabbing the flashlight. She hovered at the map then looked at the ground. “See, look. The hollow eyes. Don’t you see a face?” She pointed at two round indentions in the rock and a longer curve in the middle.
If it was a man’s face, it sure as hell wasn’t a happy man. The rock expression looked like the felt right now: panicked and uncertain. He glanced at the X where she had pointed, then shined the light down on the ground. He poked the solid dirt with the tips of his fingers. “It doesn’t look fresh, but isn’t that a good sign?”
He pushed away the thought that others could have come years or even a full century earlier and already taken the coins. What if someone had already come and secretly stashed away the gold without telling a soul? Then they would spend all day here, and perhaps tomorrow too, searching endlessly for the missing treasure. He hated the thought and pushed it away from his mind. It’s not time to think about failing.
He grabbed a dangling shovel from his pack with a sweaty hand. “Stand back,” he warned her. He didn’t want her anywhere near the tools or his ransacking. He felt around with his foot. “Here?”
She clasped her hands to her chest and bobbed her head.
He stepped back and raised the shovel up overhead. He brought it down with a thud onto the packed dirt and rock. The shovel clanged as it came down a second time and a third time. “This is going to be a long day,” he commented, after barely having taken a small chunk of earth.
She crossed her legs and uncrossed them again. “I can dig too.” She held her hand out. “Can I help?”
His body heated to the point where his pores broke open and formed trickles of hot sweat. He wiped his forehead and raised an eyebrow. He shook his head. “No sense in dirtying up your cute little shorts,” he teased. He tried to keep the humor light, anything to take his mind off the hard labor. “It’s been years since my ditch-digging days,” he quipped. “Glad to get the shovel back in my hand, where it belongs,” he snickered.
“James Ashton. Welcome to the real world,” she smirked.
He wanted to give her something to smile about. He wanted to give her more of that heated friction they’d enjoyed. He would give it to her long and hard tonight in the hotel--whether they found the gold or not.
He struck something.
The shovel came down again and clanged down on… something.
She covered her gaping mouth. “Oh my god.”
He brought the shovel up high and drove it in again. Whatever was buried in there was solid.
“Wait! Not too hard. We don’t want to damage the casks.” She spoke as if she already knew exactly what was below the packed dirt.
He had a hard time believing there was any gold, but he was anxious to find out what was there.
“Uh okay.” He stopped hitting the tool against the dirt and drew in a deep breath. All the shoveling had left him winded and it was damn noisy too. The metal echoed against the stone walls of the lava tube, leaving his ears ringing. He leaned on the handle, his breathing heavy. “How’re we gonna find out what’s in there, if we don’t dig it out?”
“My technique is a little different than yours. I like to coax it out.”
He snorted, let out a deep belly laugh, and leaned down to the dirt. “Come on baby. Come on out,” he whispered.
She laughed and hit him. She put on her gloves. “Like this.” She got down on her knees and scraped dirt from the object, like a potter would use their hands to shape a bowl.
The object was dark, wooden, and dirty. It was too early to be sure, but it resembled a small barrel. She continued to remove the dirt from around the barrel, her hands trembling at the discovery.
Her breaths became heated and quickened. “Oh my god,” she exclaimed, putting the back of her hand up to her forehead. “This is them. This is the cask. There should be three more.” She tugged at the wooden barrel, but it didn’t move.
“Here. Let me help you with that,” he said, grasping it and pulling. “Man. Thing’s heavy.” How would they ever bring all three of these babies home? They’d find a way. It was gold. He drew in a breath and pulled hard on the barrel. His eyes clenched shut as he freed it from its comfortable lodging in the dirt.
“Yes!” She laughed and hooted.
He dragged it over to the side of the hole. He peered into the two-feet deep hole and raised his eyebrow. “Black Caesar was no scrawny man,” he commented, wiping sweat from his forehead.
She dusted off the top of the cask. Her face glowed, her mouth stretched into a wild grin.
The barrel was much bigger than he’d anticipated. It had three thick silver bandings around the width. He tapped on the sturdy top. He hit the sides a little harder. “I’m not sure how to get this thing open. I’ve never opened a wine barrel before.”
“Oh. Like this.” She grabbed a pick tool from her pack and turned it around in her hand. She tapped the inside of the top of the barrel. It didn’t budge. She hit the panel harder. The silver banding came undone, freeing the rest of the wooden housing. A cascade of golden coins poured out into the dust.
She jumped up and squealed. “Oh my god. I can’t believe it!” She rocked her head back. “We found it. Oh my god. We found Black Caesar’s gold!” Her eyes beamed as she sprang up and down. She wrapped her arms around him. Even in the darkness, her cheeks beamed with passion. “We did it!”
His chest tingled. Wish I could make her happy like this all the time. “You did it. You’re amazing.”
She stepped back and admired the cask. She picked up a coin. “They’re in mint condition. After all these years.”
“No. You’re in mint condition.”
A rose glow spread on her cheeks. “We still have two more casks,” she bubbled. Her eyes were big and rounded as she peered into the hole. “How are we going to bring this off the island?”
His stomach fluttered as he shook off the believability factor of the whole thing. Had they really just found millions of dollars’ worth of shiny, sparkly gold? “It’s a problem I don’t mind having.”
The air became eerie. It was too dark. Too quiet.
“I don’t think it will be a problem,” an obscure, masculine voice bellowed from behind them. “There’s five of us.”
Chapter 11
Lexi
Her whole body tensed as she looked at the face of her ex-lover pointing a gun at her head. Her pulse slammed hard in her neck as anger rolled through her. “Carl. What are you doing here?”
He cocked his head to the side and smiled. “Why miss out on the party?”
Her heartbeat consumed her. Her legs shook as she gulped back a scream. Carl stood in the middle of two unrecognizable men. One had spiky brown hair and was dressed in an outfit that looked as if it had been purchased from a military surplus store. His dark eyes were downright mischievous. The other guy wore jeans and a blue flannel with the sleeves cut off to show off his muscular physique. The flannel guy looked civilized, but he was holding a gun. Was he capable of shooting it? She didn’t want to find out.
Was this really Carl she was looking at? How the hell did he go
from a cheater to holding someone at gunpoint? Cheating was immoral and disgusting, but murder was a whole other ballgame. She blasted herself for not having foreseen what a jackass he was. She’d always reasoned that it was fine to work with the guy as long as they kept their separate lives. But that obviously didn’t work. Why did she ever let the scumbag into her life?
He’d gotten to her because he was cute, and a suave talker--like James. He and Carl had too much in common. They were both wealthy, good-looking, and had women crawling all over them.
And then there was the hunts. That’s where he and James were different. To James, gold hunting was just another fun sport to keep life interesting. He was sweet and playful and would never in a million years take anything this far.
Carl, on the other hand, always hungered for money and never walked away from a bad deal—even if it’d hurt him and others. Was he crazy? He was considered a good-looking man. At 6’ 2”, 195 lbs., he was every bit as lean and muscular as James was. His caramel-colored eyes came from his Creole side. Carl ‘passed’ for white all the time in New Orleans. His skin was translucent, his hair dark and straight. He liked to wear suits and could smooth-talk anyone he came in to contact with, including his favorite uptown girls.
They’d met there, through her sister. They hit it off instantly, and before she knew it, she was shacking up with the guy. He showed her how to hunt, partnered with her shortly after discovering her talents. She used Carl to build her skills, but when she caught him in bed with another woman, she packed a bag and headed as far east as she could. Florida. It put her closer to the islands, closer to gold hunting adventures, and closer to the boats. She still needed Carl, but not in the same way as before. They stayed friends and stayed business partners.
He pursed his bloodless lips and glared at her.
She tried to control her mouth from scowling. “I was going to bring the gold back to you in New Orleans. Couldn’t you wait?”
Carl rolled his eyes and mocked her. “Come on babe. You were not going to bring back any gold to me. Don’t you know that sweet voice of yours always sings the truth?”