Page 31 of My Unbearable Mate
Her eyebrows rose and she nodded. “Maybe it’s time to let magic happen.”
Bellamy waited for me in front of Sawtooth Sweets. Damn that delectable bear for taking my breath away. I could blame my possible concussion diagnosis for the way I admired his biceps straining against his T-shirt. Or how his hair slightly blew in the breeze, and that his beard seemed a little longer than when I’d first crashed his security meeting. He had no right looking so sexy.
Maybe this was the first time I was thinking clearly in a long time.
Wait. Was a spell responsible for making me reject Bellamy in the first place? That was a theory that I might need to explore with the Sawtooth ladies over a beer.
A brow rose over his aviators when I approached. “How was your appointment?”
“Interesting. Almost clean bill of health.” I wouldn’t tell him that after the initial rest period, she’d prescribed a steady diet of bear dick to get my animal to make an appearance.
“Almost?” He sounded concerned, and it was sweet.
I nodded. “She said there was no chance I’d make a full recovery unless I have one of these cupcakes.”
“There was a reason I suggested this as a meeting spot.” He laughed and motioned for me to follow him inside. I might have melted a little when he held the door open for me, but I couldn’t let him know I was falling for him.
Hopefully a mega dose of sugar would bring me back to my senses.
“How can I possibly choose one?” My mouth watered as I considered the case.
“Don’t,” he said. “Get as many as you want. We’ll bring them back to the cabin, and whatever we don’t eat I’ll bring into the office, which happens to be full of hungry bears.”
I was literally feeling like a kid in a cupcake store as I ordered two dozen cupcakes and a hibiscus lemonade.
Bellamy got a coffee, black.
The bakery was busy and a few people said hi to Bellamy, but they didn’t stick around long enough for him to introduce them to me. Once we sat at a corner table, they all disappeared.
Maybe this bear was the one spelling me now.
He opened the box closest to him and considered it carefully before choosing the Girl Scout cookie cupcake.
“I would’ve bet money that you wouldn’t have one,” I said as I carefully lifted the caramel apple pie cupcake from the spot it had been safely nested in.
“You would’ve lost.” He grinned before he took a bite. A little bit of green frosting lingered in his mustache, and it was too adorable to say anything right away. “Why would you think that?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to say because a body like that didn’t see any sugar, but then I remembered I was playing this cool. This wasn’t a date. We were on a fact-finding mission to find out what the fuck my nana had been up to all these years. “Because you always seem so serious.”
“Guess you don’t know me anymore,” he said before his next bite.
“Maybe I never did.” My body definitely saw more than its fair share of sugar, and I’d drown my sorrows in my treat. “Sweet moon, this is amazing.”
“Listen, you don’t have to like me to work with me. But this is a lot more than a missing locket. The clan deserves to know the truth about their history. And their future.”
This bear was absolutely infuriating. He’d lure me closer and then slam down a wall. In theory, I understood. I couldn’t even keep up with the emotions I felt when I was near him. It was presumptuous of me to think he felt the same way. And if he did, he could handle it better than I could.
“They do. Nana is as beloved as ever. Maybe even more so, now that magic is a little more mainstream.”
“Has anyone ever questioned her practices?”
“Not that I know of. How could they? She’s been practicing since she was a little girl, her library has a spell for almost everything, and her apothecary can cure all.”
“So she’s sharing magic with the others, but not with you?”
“No, but more people are coming to her for cures,” I explained. “Humans who are interested in magic.”
“That would’ve been helpful information to know before now,” he rumbled. “Changes the focus.”
