Magnolia spins on her heel and faces me. “Aidan!” she exclaims. Magnolia is excited, her eyes flaring when she looks at me from the top of my head down to my feet. “What are you doing here?”
I extend her drink. She takes it. “I was just leaving. A last-minute auction popped up. It’s the next town over.” Magnolia checks the small, delicate watch on her wrist. “I’ll be home before Kendall gets home from school. Do you want to go with?” Her smile is hopeful.
“There’s nothing I’d rather do than spend time with you.”
She blushes and takes a sip. “They aren’t selling people. Still interested?”
“I have an antique bed, remember? I’m like a secret antique collector. Do I get to sit next to you?”
“Yes. Of course. And hold a paddle if you want to.”
I grin, stepping toward her. “I get to hold a paddle?”
“Yeah,” she replies, nuzzling her face into my chest.
I hate that she can feel my heartbeat and knows that I’m so affected by her. Then again, it’s easier this way. If my actions say one thing, perhaps my heart will tell the truth, and she’ll be able to discern the difference. “You like to be spanked,” I ask, leaning away to peer at her face. “Such a naughty girl.” I grin.
“No one said anything about spanking,” Magnolia croons, gaze darting away from mine. It’s there, that fire that tells me it’s not off the table. My dick hardens. “I didn’t know how to work dating apps before you. Do you really think I have any experience in BDSM, Aidan?” I don’t either, but fuck, would I love to do it with her in whatever capacity would satisfy her.
As we walk to her truck, I make a joke about paddling her in the middle of the auction. She blushes again and cranks her truck. Magnolia tells me it’s a quick drive and makes small talkabout what she’s been working on and what she hopes to find today. I encourage her to keep talking. I love finding out things about her through her passion. She tells me a lot of auctions are held online these days, but she loves the thrill of the in-person ones. Nothing blows her skirt up like a bidding war. I take a mental note.
“Favorite antique?” I ask.
She scoffs, her pretty pink lips forming a pout. “There’s no way I could ever pick just one,” she says. She lists several things I’m unfamiliar with.
“Lie,” I say. “There has to be one thing you love the most.”
Magnolia stays silent in thought. “I’ll need more time for that one,” she finally replies. “Too hard.” When she stops at a red light, she turns to look at me. “All these questions for me. Can I ask you some?”
“That’s generally how a conversation works,” I tease, even as my whole body tenses. This is where I lack experience. Leif said I need to be open to Magnolia if I want to build a solid foundation for a relationship to thrive.
She clears her throat. “I want to know about your family. Not the SEALs that you call brothers. Your parents. Why don’t you talk to them? Is it really that bad?”
“Cutthroat,” I say, coughing a bit. How do I explain this best? Giving her something without giving her too much. Magnolia rubs one hand over her tan thigh, a nervous gesture. One that makes me hard. I shift myself as discreetly as I can. “Official couples talk about this stuff, huh?”
She shrugs. “We can do whatever we want, I guess. Whatever official means to us. I want to know because you turned out to be pretty great.” She runs her hands over the steering wheel. “I’m not a prying person, you know? Not like a lot of the people in Bronze Bay, I care about you, Aidan, and I’m trying to know more about you.”
Leif’s words ricochet in my mind. Honesty. I have to be honest. She’s not prying. I’m confident I have Magnolia pinpointed—I know her weaknesses, flaws, highlights, and quirks, even though we have only been dating for a little while. “I confess, I’m a bit of a mystery,” I say. Magnolia nods and drums her fingers on the wheel to the low beat of a country song, patiently waiting for whatever I’ll give her. “My parents aren’t good people,” I say, my heart racing as I think about the last time I saw them. The day I turned eighteen. My breathing speeds up. “You could say I’m one of those people who rise from the situation they were born into. The reason for my drive is because they were not nice folks. My mom wasn’t very hands-on, and unfortunately, my father was very hands-on.” I find myself rubbing my arm, the one my father broke when I came home late one night in high school.
Magnolia looks thoughtful. “I assumed right then,” she says. “That’s why you never settled down. Are you afraid of having a family? Don’t think I’m insinuating anything with me, we’re just speaking in generalities here. You’re opposed to it because of how bad your childhood was?” She swallows, and I can tell she feels bad for me. Rather, the child version of me. I don’t want her sympathy. That’s one thing I’ve never wanted. I didn’t want anyone to view me as any different than my peers who came from fully functional home lives. An advantage isn’t needed. Work is. I’ve proven myself a man.
Clearing my throat, I look out the window. “The opposite. I know I’ll do it better than they ever could have imagined. I had a prime example of how not to be, how to act. I’m not afraid of settling down. That’s an unfair label placed on all men who date around a lot. Can’t it ever be that we haven’t met the right woman?”
She stiffens, her shoulders ramrod straight.
“Of course,” Magnolia says, voice quiet. “I’ve never thought about it that way.”
Reaching over, I grab the hand working over her thigh. “Women say it all the time. Oh, I haven’t met the right man. A bit of a double standard to say I date around a lot because I’m afraid of commitment, isn’t it?”
Her throat works as she swallows. “It’s just that you look like that, and you can have anyone you want. I can’t imagine having that kind of power. I can’t say I wouldn’t date around just because I can if I looked as attractive as you or if my circumstances were different.”
“Power? That’s what you think my looks are?”
“What is it if not power?”
I squeeze her hand. “You have more power in your pinky finger than I have in my whole body then. You have no idea how appealing you are. Not just to me, but to every man in a thousand-mile radius. That’s what makes you so hot.”
Scoffing, she fires back, “I have a teenage daughter and a divorce under my belt. That’s not appealing, Aidan, but thank you for the compliment, I think.”
