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

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