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

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.”

Those pink lips I’d rather nibble turned down. “When you go home, you help your brother.”

“Savvy, Dawson has employees and he’s taken what Mama and Dad built with the ranch and expanded it. Beckett’s a CEO—at a company he built—and lives in a mansion. Aiden is the CFO of King Oil and works sixteen-hour days. And except for Dawson, who’s got a year left before his deadline hits, they’ve saved their trusts and they’re still married.”

“And we’re still within the year where it looks like we’re only together to get rich.”

I feathered my fingers along her cheek. “You know that’s not why I’m with you. But they don’t.”

She furrowed her brows. “Then why not go show them?”

“It’s not you, Savvy. It’s not us. I don’t give a shit about what they think about us.” A pang of longing tugged at my chest. I missed home. I missed wanting to be home, and I hadn’t had that for a while. I missed by brothers. I missed . . . having a parent I was close to.

As if she could read my mind, she said quietly, “You should talk to him and tell him everything. Not for him, but for you.”

I stroked a lock of golden hair off her face. “For me, huh?”

“I can tell it bothers you. I don’t know what’ll happen after, but it’s gotta beat avoiding your home and your family.”

“I could tell him everything, and then what?” I go out and feed some cattle while I have no career and my Dad and brothers think I married for millions of dollars? I didn’t care what they thought of me and Savvy. I knew what we had was real. But . . . Aw, fuck. I did care what they thought. If I had something else in my repertoire to keep me from looking like a loser, it wouldn’t be an issue. “I know you’ve noticed I haven’t worked on my photography.”

She stroked my chest, her fingers warm and soft. “If you could take pictures of one place in the world, where would it be and why?”

The answer was immediate. Montana, and because my mother had loved it. She’d lived and breathed home and family. She’d been the glue that had held us together as a unit. Now, we just traveled individually to and from the house, from King’s Creek, rarely gathering as a large group. Four times. That’d been it since we’d all graduated high school. Dad’s heart attack and all the weddings—Aiden’s, Dad’s, then Beckett’s.

No one’d had a chance to gather at my wedding. Typical Xander.

Instead, I said, “I don’t know.” Her brow furrowed, so before she could call me out for my lie, I blurted, “New Zealand.”

“New Zealand? Have you been there?”

I shook my head. “No. It seemed too commercial for my tastes at the time, but I can’t deny the picturesque beauty of the place.” All true. Stunning scenery that had been the backdrop of many movies. It was an easy answer, the low-hanging fruit of the landscape photography world, like Alaska, but more exotic to a Montana boy.

“But does it inspire stories?”

“I haven’t been there.”

There was that furrow again. “What are you going to do with the money?”

“I plan to stay married to you if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Xander, your mother trusted you and your brothers with an enormous sum. What are Aiden and Beckett doing?”

“I have no idea what Aiden plans to do with his. He lives in a nice house, but he and Kate don’t travel much other than going to King’s Creek. He won’t waste it, I know that. And Beckett and Eva have set up a lot of programs and charities to pay it forward.”

“Then maybe if you had a plan, you’d feel better about going home.”

“I don’t plan,” I answered automatically. I wasn’t going to spend a hundred million I didn’t have. I intended to keep my wife, but I wasn’t the only one with a say in this marriage.

“That’s been kind of the problem though, hasn’t it?” Her tone was soft but no less chastising.

I bristled. The urge to roll out of bed and go for a walk hit me. I couldn’t think with a pair of sapphire eyes stripping me bare. But I’d wake up the others. Buckling down and finishing a conversation with my wife shouldn’t make me want to crawl out of my skin. “Fine, let’s go home.”

“Xander—”

I cupped her face and it was enough to shush her. “No, I mean it.” I didn’t. “I want you to meet everyone.” That part was true at least. My brothers would love her, and I could withstand their side-eyes. “I can help Dawson work cattle.”

Her gaze was guarded. “Are you sure?”

I answered honestly. “I’m sure Dad and Kendall would like to see you again too.” I wouldn’t mind proving to him that I had something real with Savvy. This girl was important to me.

She studied my face for several moments before she offered a hesitant smile. “I’m also a little homesick.”

I hadn’t thought to ask how she was doing being away from the States for so long. She might miss her family, but she might also miss being surrounded by everything familiar. She’d been unshakable—eating food she’d never had before, grappling with a new language, doing work she’d never done in nature that was unlike anything