Page 84 of The Treasure Hunt Hookup

“That’s right,” Reeve urges me, gasping. “That’s my girl.Mine.”

Yes. I come apart with a cry, pleasure breaking through me, soaring, as Reeve rears up inside me, unleashing his own climax with an animal roar that echoes through the empty cave.

Oh. My. God.

We tumble to the ground, still wrapped around each other as the pleasure races through me, making every nerve ending in my body hum with satisfaction. God, it’s so good with him, I still can’t believe it. I’m gasping for air, giddy; my heart so full I could burst.

“You’re going to be the death of me,” Reeve manages, his voice thick and laughing. “With sex, or the snakes, I don’t even care.”

“But what a way to go.” I grin, nestling against the crook of his shoulder as I catch my breath and slowly come back down to earth. It’s almost romantic in here, if I don’t think too closely about the dirt beneath us. The lantern is casting looming shadows around the cave, catching reflections, and glinting brightly—

Wait.

I peer across the cave. The wall folds inwards, and I swear I can see something, nestled in the crevice. “Reeve,” I clutch at him, my heart leaping.

“Give me a minute, woman,” he chuckles without moving, but I tug his arm again.

“Reeve, look!” I scramble up and pull my clothes back on, going to grab a flashlight from my pack. “In the back, do you see it?”

Reeve sits up, as I crawl across the cave, and shine the light into the dark crevice. “There’s definitely something…” I report, my excitement rising. “And it’s big, too.”

“Are you serious?”

“Hang on…” I reach into the gap, grasping blindly and sending up a silent prayer that our jokes about the snakes stay just that: jokes. Then my fingers hit something solid. Metal. I run my hand over the outline. “It’s some kind of box. Maybe three, four-feet wide. But it’s really wedged in there …”

“Let me try.” Reeve scoots in next to me. He braces his shoulder against the rock wall, grunting with exertion as he yanks and levels, angling the box until—

It finally comes loose. Reeve drags it to the middle of the cave, where it sits there, gleaming in the lamp light.

A small chest, worn and rusted in places with age.

Reeve and I exchange a giddy look. “Open it!” he urges me.

“Hold on …” I grab some more tools from my pack, and carefully set about levering the chest open. It doesn’t take long: the rusted hinges fall away almost immediately, and I lift the lid open, revealing…

“Earl’s treasure.”

I can’t believe it. Nestled there in the chest, untouched for over a hundred years, are sitting a row of gold bars.

“Holy shit, Ivy,” Reeve clutches my shoulders, behind me. “You did it! You found the treasure!”

“Wedid it,” I correct him, but I can’t believe it, either.

I reach in, and lift out one of the bars. It’s solid and heavy in my hand, gleaming a dull gold. “It’s real,” I say in wonder.

“Of course it’s real!” Reeve whoops in triumph.

“And there’s a dozen of them, easy.” I quickly make a count. “That has to be worth three, four hundred thousand dollars in today’s value?”

He laughs. “I can’t wait to see Jake’s face when you come waltzing back into town with the treasure. He’s going to freak. What else is there?” Reeve asks eagerly, leaning in. I move a couple more of the bars aside, revealing a tangle of gold coins, rotted banknotes, and …

“Oh my God,” I breathe, emptying a leather pouch to find a stunning, intricate necklace. “Are those diamonds?!”

“Looks like it,” Reeve holds up the necklace, glittering in the dim light. “A whole lot of them, too.”

I take in the haul, feeling strangely emotional. After spending most of my life looking for Earl’s lost fortune, hearing rumor and hearsay, poring over those letters until I feel like I know Earl and Madeline like my own friends, it’s surreal to finally be kneeling here in this dark cave, seeing everything we thought was lost.

“You know, it was never just about the treasure for me,” I tell Reeve softly. “It was about them. Their love, and everything they dreamed about.”

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