Steal My Magnolia (Love at First Sight Book 3)

by Smartypants Romance

  I wanted to wake with his arms curled around me.

  I sighed. "Good night, Grady."

  He clenched his teeth, eyes knowing, seeing all those thoughts play across my face.

  I rolled onto my back, and he did the same.

  And just like that, eventually, we fell asleep.

  Chapter 20

  Grady

  I should have known better.

  The thought skittered across my foggy brain before I was even fully awake. It was chased immediately by another one.

  I knew she would feel this good in my arms.

  Without opening my eyes, I took a moment to catalog every single part of how we were lying together.

  Yes, we were both in sleeping bags, but at some point during the night, we'd turned toward each other. My own bag was half unzipped because I always got hot when I slept.

  Magnolia was burrowed into my chest, her arms curled up between us, the tips of her fingers resting on my chest, just above my heart. My head was curled over hers, nose resting along her temple, my top arm slung over her waist.

  Her legs were pressed against mine, like they were trying to push through the heavy barrier of the bag. Even through the smell of campfire that naturally plagued an outing like this, it was impossible to avoid Magnolia's scent. I inhaled deeply and recorded it in my memory.

  Sweet, with a touch of floral.

  If I moved my hands like I wanted, to learn more of the things I wanted to learn, I'd wake her. And her body moved with such slow, even breathing, there was no way she wasn't still asleep. So, I stayed just as I was and thought about the fact that she showed up in the first place.

  I loved that she surprised me like that.

  I loved that I never imagined her crashing my emergency camping trip.

  I loved that I'd never seen her wear jeans, and that her ass looked just as good in them as I'd pictured it would.

  I loved that she thought I'd get eaten by a bear and that she didn't want to sleep in the tent without me and that she was so much more badass than she realized, crawling into the tent without complaint.

  I loved that she had come to some sort of realization about us on her own.

  Tipping my nose closer to her soft skin, I inhaled her again, allowing my hand to slide up her back softly because I wanted to know how her body curved under my palm.

  Perfect.

  All her curves and edges, body, soul, whatever you wanted to call it, were perfect for me.

  And with that, I knew I was being selfish by taking this moment. Magnolia deserved to know how I felt—and why—before she felt stuck. Before she felt like this was just another choice made for her by someone else. I'd seen the fallout between Grace and Tucker when he didn't know, and what that had done to her. I refused to pin either me or Magnolia into a place where we felt trapped, too far into our relationship without this huge piece of my truth.

  I would sound crazy.

  I might lose her.

  But I would not take this choice from her. I didn't see how I could say that I loved her if I did.

  Pulling my head back to watch her in sleep, I knew that I was in love with her.

  And as I thought it, her back arched under my hand, her chest expanded on a slow inhale as she woke. But her eyes stayed closed, even as her lips curled up in a sleepy smile.

  Magnolia's hand, the one that had been lightly touching my chest, smoothed out, and her fingers spread over the surface of my thin shirt. My heart sped at her touch, and I couldn't find the willpower that I'd had the night before to stop her.

  Fingers wandered slowly, tracking up, up my chest, sliding along the side of my neck to trace the line of my jaw. The edge of her fingernail, which I knew was painted a soft pink, scratched lightly through the stubble on my face, lifting goosebumps along my arms.

  I refused to speak, to say one single word, because this was my moment of weakness after months of restraint. And in that weakness, I'd never felt more myself. More at peace.

  No mountain or view or adventure could come close to what Magnolia did to me. She was the thing I was searching for, the thing that made me yearn for more out of life.

  Her movements stayed small and so did mine.

  The tilt of her hips brought her closer, shuffling within the confines of where we found ourselves.

  The press of my fingers along her back was slight, sliding down her spine until I caught the slightest hint of her skin beneath the hem of her shirt.

  Magnolia moved her chin, and a puff of air from her mouth hit the side of my throat.

  Then ... then it was her lips brushing my skin just under my jaw.

  A rough exhale pushed from my mouth, and she did it again, with a hint more pressure.

  This wasn't a touch of her lips. This was a suck. A taste.

  My face turned toward her, a drag of my nose down along her temple, so close that the slightest flutter of her long eyelashes struck my skin.

  Her fingers curled into my shirt, desperate and surprisingly strong, tugging me closer.

  Without a single word spoken between us, it was like we'd agreed that nothing existed outside of this one moment, that we were allowed this because we'd managed the entire night pressed against each other without a touch.

  At the same time, our faces pulled back just enough that the full force of her gaze was visible.

  Swallowed whole. That was how I felt. Struck backward and knocked down.

  Her desire was tangible in the slight flush I saw splashed along the top of her cheekbones. Her pupils were dilated, her lush mouth hanging open just enough.

  Hot strikes of air hit my lips, her exhales short and choppy.

  "Please," she whispered.

  I slanted my mouth over hers, hard and fierce.

  I'd give her anything, sacrifice anything. I'd tear apart the world when she looked at me like that.

  In the next breath, Magnolia was pushing frantically at the half-closed zipper of her sleeping bag while I did the same.

  She sucked on my tongue, which unleashed a groan from deep in the caverns of my chest.

  Something about this kiss was otherworldly, deeper than I thought possible, hotter than I'd ever experienced, our lips pushing and sucking and biting on each other’s.

  Nothing was sweet about it, an ironic contradiction to how we'd started down this path. Our barriers gone, I prowled over her body. Her legs split instantly to make room for me, a perfect cradle for my hips to roll along hers.

  Magnolia whimpered, clutching at my back, her nails raking underneath my shirt against my skin.

  One hand gripped the back of her neck, directing our wet, head-spinning kisses.

  My other hand pushed down her back again until I could grip her hip, hitch around her thigh, and wrench it up against my side.

  Men uprooted their life for this. They sacrificed everything, launched ships, started wars. It was chasing this feeling of absolute rightness, of a pleasure that surpassed anything physical.

  It might have been our bodies creating the friction and sparking white, sleek heat along our skin that made her breath hitch when I gripped her ass in my hand. It might have been our bodies that made me hiss out a breath when my hardness pressed against her, where I knew we'd fit perfectly, every place that was soft and warm on her would take me.

  But with each roll, push, touch, bite, suck, that woman embedded herself into my fucking soul.

  She pushed at my shoulder, and I lifted, ready to stop if that was what she wanted.

  She didn't.

  Another push and I was on my back, and she slid up over my lap, straddling me easily. I sat up and gathered her close while our mouths fused again, hot and fierce, my arms wrapped tight around her back.

  Her scarf was half off her head, and she ripped at it, her hair spilling down around her shoulders. I gathered it in my fist, glorying at the feel of it wrapped tight around my palm.

  Everything will be okay, I thought. There was nothing we couldn't overcome. In the drugged haze
of her lips and tongue, the way she pressed herself down against me, I convinced myself that every reason I'd held back was minor, that every strange complication could be conquered.

  My kisses shifted from her glorious mouth to each side of her lips. The line of her cheekbones. The tip of her nose, which made her exhale a laugh. I cupped her face, sliding my thumbs along the silk of her skin.

  Her eyes were big in her face, those magnificent eyes—topaz and streaked with a little green—in a color I'd never seen on anyone else. It would be so easy to allow myself to get caught up in the high of touching her like this, kissing her like this, and let that sweep away all the things I'd promised myself when it came to her.

  Magnolia's teeth dug into her lower lip, stemming a smile.

  I allowed one of my own.

  In response, she tucked herself against me, her face burrowed into the side of my neck as my arms tightened. We sat like that for a moment, and as my brain cleared, I couldn't help but sober. Everything that was sharp and bright with pleasure tempered just a bit, like a boiling pot that someone slid off the burner.

  The thing I'd promised myself was that being honest about my feelings was the most important thing I could give her.

  "Good morning, Miss MacIntyre."

  She inhaled deeply, tightening her thighs around mine where she still sat on my lap. "Grady, when your voice sounds like that, I feel like doing positively sinful things to your body."

  My frame shook with quiet laughter. She sounded so bothered by it, and all I wanted was to lay her back down on the blankets and explore all those sinful things.

  "And I would love to hear about those sins in detail," I murmured, sliding a couple more soft kisses down the line of her shoulder. "But I wanted to talk to you about something first."

  Magnolia sat back to look at my face, and her concern was clear in the slight bend of her eyebrows. "What is it?"

  I swallowed, suddenly nervous. "Do you want coffee or anything first?"

  "Do I need coffee to be able to process whatever it is you need to say?"

  I met her small smile with one of my own. "No, just making sure."

  Even though I couldn't blame her, I felt a sharp slice of disappointment when she slid backward off my lap so that she could see me better. The light outside of the tent was muted enough that I knew it was probably before seven as the sun slowly rose behind the mountains. There were no sounds that nature didn't produce, just birds and water, rustling trees. Magnolia shivered slightly and pulled her sleeping bag up around her shoulders as a blanket.

  Her face was bare of makeup for the first time since I'd met her, and still, she was flawless.

  As I stared at her, I knew I'd made one grave error in judgment. I'd never practiced what I would say to her at this moment. Because how did you explain something illogical? I couldn't point to something that made sense. All I could do was try to explain this strange phenomenon and hope that she believed me, hope that beyond that, she'd allow us the chance to see how good we could be together once she'd heard about it.

  "You know how some families have like," I started, "legends. Stories that seem to belong only to that one group of people."

  "I guess," she answered hesitantly.

  "The Buchanans have one of those. A family legend. I don't know where it started, and I don't know the history or how it's even possible, but it's a little ... crazy when you hear it for the first time."

  Her smile was wry. "I'm from the South, Grady. We have a whole lot of crazy here."

  "See, that's how Grace and I wrote it off as, too, before we moved here. As some Southern nonsense because our parents didn't have it happen like that for them."

  "What are you talking about?"

  I let out a deep breath, licked my lips, and tried to regroup. "As far as we know, at least for the past five generations, the Buchanans have one perfect soul mate. Someone who ... completes them."

  "That's ... very romantic."

  Her hesitancy made me smile again. "It's more than that, though. Something about it is tied to this place. To Green Valley. When a Buchanan meets that person, their soul mate, they know. And they know instantly."

  Magnolia watched me quietly, the only change in her face was a slight tightening of her mouth.

  "My parents," I explained, "they didn't meet in Green Valley, right? And he's the only Buchanan male in five generations who can say that about their spouse, other than my cousin Hunter. They're the only two who didn't find true happiness with their soul mate."

  "Grady," she said slowly, "that sounds insane."

  I sat up on my knees because it was impossible to sit still. "I know, trust me. We never believed it was real. Because our parents were not meant to be together."

  "But you believe it's real now."

  I nodded. "I do."

  Her throat worked in a slow swallow. "And Grace ..."

  My eyes closed. It was impossible to avoid this. "She met Tucker as soon as she crossed the line into Green Valley, and it worked a little differently for her because she's the first female born in the past five generations, but yeah, she knew almost immediately too."

  Magnolia's eyes took on an unfocused look. "I-I remember meeting her for the first time. She was getting ice cream with your father. She looked like she was going to pass out when she saw me with him."

  "Even when she fell in love with Tucker, I didn't really believe it was true."

  Those eyes focused again, razor-sharp, onto my face. "What changed?"

  My hands fidgeted nervously, and when I tried to take in a full breath, my lungs weren't quite working right. But I could do nothing except answer her honestly. "You."

  Magnolia's chest rose and fell rapidly. "Me."

  Because I had to be touching her, I reached out and took one of her hands in mine, lifted it up, and pressed a fervent kiss onto her fingers. "I know how crazy this sounds, but you ... you walked in through the door, and I swear, something shifted into place inside me, Magnolia."

  Her eyes were big again but not like they had been when we were kissing. They were full of confusion, skepticism, and something that started my first kindling of true fear. I saw her own fear, reflecting back at me.

  "So, you"—she licked her lips—"you think I'm your soul mate. That we belong together."

  "This sounds so crazy, I know." I kissed her fingers again. "I know. You felt something, though, right? Something different with me."

  Her nostrils flared on a deep breath. "And you felt like you needed to tell me this after our first kiss?"

  "Magnolia," I said, "it's possible that that was a horrible idea, the worst I've ever had, but I saw how much it killed Grace when they broke up for a bit, and he had no idea the truth of where her feelings started or how strong they were. It felt like she was keeping this huge secret from Tucker."

  "Can we not talk about my ex and his romance issues with your sister?" she said, voice dangerously low, and she pulled her hand from mine.

  It was the conscious disconnection that pushed my fear up a level.

  "Yeah." A pit swirled dangerously in my stomach.

  Shakily, she rubbed a hand down her face. "I think, I think maybe there's a reason people have waited to spring this on their ... perfect match."

  "Shit," I whispered. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything. I just felt like you should know."

  Her eyes flashed. "Know what, Grady? That you've got us locked in before we get so much as a first date? That someone else in my life thinks they get to make this decision for me?"

  "No, no, Magnolia." I speared my hands in my hair. "I swear that's not how this is."

  "It's how it feels, though." Magnolia snatched her boots, shoving her feet inside them, and I panicked.

  "Fuck, please don't go like this." I laid my hands on hers.

  "Get your hands off me," she said, icy cold. "I may be a lady, but if you touch me without my permission, I will feed you your testicles one at a time."

  Immediately, I snatched my hands
away. My throat was tight, and it was hard to breathe properly. Everything in the tent felt small and cramped by how horribly I'd bungled this.

  But it was so, so much worse when the sound of a large truck got louder—then stopped—right outside the tent.

  She looked at me, hands frozen on the laces.

  A car door slammed. "Wakey, wakey, brother."

  "Oh, my Lord," Magnolia whispered.

  "If you want, just stay in here," I whispered back. "They don't have to know you were here."

  For a second, I thought she'd do it when I saw the slump of relief in her shoulders.

  But then her chin lifted and determination shone brightly in those eyes I loved. "I'm not hiding from anything anymore."

  It was almost painful how much I wanted to kiss her at that moment. She could see it too because her gaze locked onto my mouth, and she heaved a regretful sigh.

  "Be right out," I called.

  Another car door slammed, and I knew Grace wasn't alone.

  I pulled the zipper on the tent entrance and slowly straightened, emitting a groan at the ability to stand fully after the entire night in the tent. Grace was by the truck, whispering to Tucker as they stared at the creek. In her hands were two cups of coffee.

  "You disappeared, you jerk," she said as she turned, a bright smile on her face. "You could've told someone you were ..."

  Her voice trailed off, and I knew Magnolia had exited the tent after me. Tucker's mouth fell open. He snapped it shut instantly, color flooding his cheeks.

  "Holy hell," Grace whispered, and both coffees fell out of her hands.

  Chapter 21

  Magnolia

  I'd never been so happy for my backpack because it hid the tremor in my hands where my fingers curled tightly around the straps. I'd never been so happy for something to hold my attention—the items I'd brought with me to this cursed campsite—because hastily shoving items into my backpack gave me a reason not to obsess over the shock on Grace’s and Tucker's faces.

  My face was hot, my hands shaking like a leaf, and it was a miracle my legs were holding me.