King's Treasure (Oil Kings Book 3) by Marie Johnston (great novels .TXT) 📗

for a coffee to talk. Pearl had been busy with school and this was the first time we’d been alone. Everything that had happened in the seventy-two hours before I’d returned home crowded on my tongue. “Close the door.”

I explained it all—from getting canned to the trust. Pearl and I had always been closer than her and Em. My oldest sister and I had gotten along great when we were younger, but then during her high school years, she’d started emulating Mother while Pearl was still willing to do forbidden activities like play in the trees surrounding our property or take our dolls under the stairs so we wouldn’t get a lecture about how it was time to move on from such juvenile activities.

I finished with “The lawyer confirmed everything Xander said about the trust. So that’s what we’re doing.” And waited. Pearl was the strong one. What was she going to think?

“Sapphire Jewel Abbot, you’re fucking crazy.”

“I know. It’s awful. I survived college. It wasn’t like I was on the streets. Why am I so scared?” I’d been terrified I’d fail my classes because I was too hungry to study. I’d had enough in loans to pay for the dorms, but not a meal plan.

“No, you’re an idiot if you think that’s the only reason you didn’t sever this marriage when you woke up the next morning.”

“I had the lunch with Chief. And Lex.”

She lifted a pale brow. “Reeeally? That’s the only reason? It’s not because he’s hot? It’s not because he’s not a D-bag, he’s considerate, and he’s really into you?”

My heart leapt at her last words. “He’s not that into me. He has a stake in this too.”

“A stake that he was willing to walk away from until he met you. You don’t think he could’ve been married by now if he wanted to be?”

Denial died on my tongue as I glanced outside. He was grinning at something the other guy had said. He stooped and pushed a swatch of wet snow with the shovel like it didn’t weigh more than foam peanuts. His powerful muscles bunched and flexed, helping me recall our wedding night in vivid, steamy detail.

“There it is,” Pearl gloated. “You want to eat him up.”

“I already have.” Yeah, it sounded like I was bragging.

“Then do it again.”

Didn’t she think I wanted to? “I’m not a fifty-million-dollar hooker.”

“I doubt hookers would complain about making fifty-mil from a client.”

I scowled at her. “If I was just me, and he was just him, we would’ve been nothing but a one-night stand.” A memorable one. One that every guy afterward would have failed to live up to. “But I have Mother and Chief. He has his trust, and here we are. Married and acting like it was meant to be.”

“Why can’t it be more?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why can’t you two fall in love? Do it backward. You’re married, now start dating.”

I wasn’t like the women Xander had dated. I didn’t have to interrogate him about his history to know. He’d grown up in a rural, small town. He’d worked for a living. He didn’t eat at three-Michelin-star restaurants like the Abbots did. Or use chauffeurs. I doubted he even used room service. He’d dated women who could take care of themselves.

“You said it yourself—you’re scared.” She shook her head and sat forward. “Come on, Savvy. Don’t let anyone have a say in this marriage other than you and Xander. Get to know him.”

“Maybe he’s a cheater.” I didn’t think so. But my mind sifted for as many arguments as possible. I was prepared for a divorce in a year.

Was I prepared to stay married?

She wrinkled her nose. “He passed the sister test. How many guys have we dated that failed it?”

My attention sharpened. My sisters and I were close enough in age that it had caused more than a couple uncomfortable moments over the years. Like when one’s boyfriend hit on another sister. One Abbot was as good as another to some guys. “What do you mean?”

“Xander was coming out of the bathroom when I was going in.” And with a house full of women, Pearl didn’t wear much at night.

“Don’t tell me.”

“I had a shirt on.”

“Did it even go past the top of your underwear?”

She shrugged and picked at a thumbnail. “Didn’t faze him. Other than jumping and apologizing profusely like he was the one that had walked in on me, I don’t think his eyes dipped below my collarbone. He beelined for your room.”

Where I had been fast asleep. “Good to know.” I wasn’t jealous of my sisters, but it was nice to know Xander didn’t have roaming eyes. At the airport, I hadn’t caught him eyeballing any of the gorgeous women walking past us. One woman had slept in the terminal with us, a supermodel type with long glossy hair, glowing skin, and a willowy body. I swear she’d picked her seat so she could stare at Xander the whole time, but Xander had only read a mystery novel he’d picked up at the gift shop.

When he’d finished the book, he’d given it to a guy reading another book in the terminal we’d exited from. The smooth way he’d passed off the book told me that he did that all the time. He traveled so much, keeping extraneous items wasn’t an option.

Pearl watched me, then opened her mouth. I wouldn’t like what she said. She could read me better than Brady, and be blunter about it. “You’re afraid he’s with you for the trust.”

“He says he’s not, but it’s a lot of money, even in our worlds.”

“I’m telling you, Sav, you’ve sold yourself short your whole life. You’re a strong, capable woman with the world at your fingertips. Making a few mistakes doesn’t mean you’re a hopeless loser who can’t do anything for herself.”

“Says the army private.”

“I was a sergeant.”

I rolled my eyes. “Even worse.”

“Different paths in life doesn’t mean one is better. If you got out of your comfort zone and stayed there,