Page 29 of Renaissance Bear

"Do you know who the buyer is?" Alis asked hopefully.

She could almost hear her sister shake her head. "No, sorry, my ladies in purple haven't found that information yet."

Jon mouthed, "'Ladies in purple?'" and Alis waved it off, again promising the explanation in a minute.

"Let me know if they do, I guess?"

"Yep, I will. Jon, you better have been good, because I'm going to be nagging Al for all the details." Jasmine hung up as Alis blushed again.

"I swear I have no intention of giving her the details," Alis promised.

Jonalsoblushed, which made her feel better. "As long as you don't let her think it wasn't worth sharing them." He suddenly looked worried. "It was, wasn't it?"

"Oh my God." Alis leaned over to kiss him. "It wassoworth sharing them, but I'm still not going to. And if we didn't go have a mayor to find and question, I'd prove it to you."

"Mayor Whitfield!" Jon stopped blushing in favor of looking baffled. "What the hell was he thinking? We'll go find out, but I'm showering first. We're showering first?" he asked hopefully.

"That will not get us out of here in a timely fashion," Alis warned. At Jon's fallen expression, she grinned. "I didn't say no, just that it wouldn't get us out of here fast. Especially because I get the impression youlikeslow."

Jon closed in on her, sliding his arms around her waist. "Come shower with me and find out."

He definitely liked slow, Alis concluded a while later. That, and he was incredibly creative with shower head settings. She was never going to leave his house at this rate, although by that time she was starving and even more grateful that he'd washed her clothes, which he went to get while still wearing only a towel.

Better yet, he came back still only wearing a towel. Or two: one around his hips, and the other around his hair. Alis, presented with about seven acres of broad, muscled man chest, temporarily forgot how to put her clothes on anyway. "Wow. You could wear that all day, as far as I'm concerned."

"Towels aren't known for their stability," Jon told her. "You probably don't want me to flash half the faire while I'm serving drinks."

"I mean…the risk might be worth it?" Especially with the way curls trailed down his lower belly to disappear under the towel. Alis thought it mightdefinitelybe worth it. "You're incredibly gorgeous. You know that, right?"

He gave her a crooked grin. "I have moments where I think I'm all right." He dropped the towel around his hair, ran a pick through it to loosen the strands, and then with incredible deftness, flicked his hair into a series of tiny Viking-style braids that he then bound together into one bigger one.

Alis watched the entire process with awe. "I can barely comb my own hair, compared to that. Holy crap, dude."

"You've got all those curls," he said sympathetically. "I haven't worked with curly hair much, but it seems harder. Curlpatterns and everything. But I can braid yours sometime if you want."

"My God, and to think I wasted all that time last night having great sex when I could have gotten myhair braided." Alis was only half kidding. "I would love that. I've always wanted those Viking-style braids but there's no way I can do them myself."

"It's really easy on somebody else," Jon promised. "Maybe after you get that shower and we've figured out this whole mayor thing. What the hell could Whitfield be thinking?" he asked again, as if Alis might have come up with an answer while they were in the shower.

"No idea. I haven't exactly been thinking about Whitfield for the last half hour."

"I mean, I'm glad to hear that. Oh! Wait! What was that about women in red and purple?"

Alis laughed. "Oh, right. Do you know that poem? 'When I am old, I shall wear purple?'" At the shake of his head, she said, "It's a poem about a woman getting older and how she'll wear purple and a red hat that doesn't go with the purple. And I guess there are hackers who also wear red hats, or something? So it turns out my sister knows some of them and that's why she told me she got it from the ladies in red and purple."

Jon had stopped getting dressed as she explained, and just stood there, a t-shirt in his hands and a funny little smile on his face. "I'm so glad I asked. No, I mean that. It's completely nutty and I love it. So, um, do you want to go back to your RV and shower first, or…there's a great bakery nearby we could go to for breakfast?"

"Oh, breakfast first." Alis had to text Jasmine to get her out of the RV anyway, if she was going back to it with Jon. Or she could tell him the truth about Lord Edward, but she'd kept the secret for so damn long. Besides, she only had to keep up thisdouble life for another week here in Renaissance, and then she'd be gone and all of this would be a fond memory anyway.

For some reason that sent a pang through her heart that took her breath away. Or maybe that was watching Jon finish getting dressed, because that, too, was certainly pang-worthy. Those denim shorts fit that fine ass like a glove, and his t-shirt clung to his body like it was afraid he'd get away.

Or maybe Alis was afraid he'd get away, but that was a silly thought.

Jon came to offer her a hand up from the bed, a crooked smile in place. "Tell me how you're feeling about the high likelihood of running into my brother out there. Is this walk of shame territory?"

"Oh, believe me, you havenothingto be ashamed of." Alis grinned and let him pull her to her feet, standing on her toes to steal a kiss. "And if he's the kind of ass who thinks he'll shameme, he's got another think coming."

"No, actually." Jon's eyebrows went up a little, as if surprised by the thought. "I don't think he'd try that at all. Not under the circumstances, anyway."

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