Page 42 of Renaissance Bear

"Okay, look, let's go back to the basics. Scents.Doshifters smell different from true bears or whatever?"

"You know, I haven't really spent a lot of time sniffing wild animals?—"

Alis burst into laughter again and this time Jon couldn't help joining her. "This is not a conversation I was prepared to have!"

"I guess not! But okay, fair, it makes sense that you probably don't know that much about what true bears smell like. Do you smell different from true humans?"

"It's not really a scent," Jon said slowly. "We can generally recognize each other, but it's kind of more a…knowing…than a scent or a way somebody moves. But the City Hall didn't smell like any kind of shifter had been there, and I would definitely have been able to smell bear or cat or…" He shrugged, unable to think of anything else with claws that big.

"Gryphons?" Alis asked hopefully. "Dragons?"

"Only in legend, as far as I know. What," he said at her disappointedhmph, "aren't bear shapeshifters enough for you?"

"Well. When you put it that way, I guess so. It's pretty magical, for sure. All right, so." She ducked into a copse of pine trees, patted a mossy heap, and settled down on it, inhaling the warm sweet-scented air. "So what we know is that for some reason Mayor Whitfield wrote a letter initiating the process of selling the fairgrounds, which was delivered to the bank late Friday afternoon. Handwritten, which is hinky, and on carbon paper, which is nuts but also suggests he wanted to leave a record, right? How old is this guy?" she added. "Like, who would think of using carbon paper? Who would have it lying around?"

"He's in his sixties," Jon said. "And I don't know, but let's be glad he did. You're right. I didn't think of it in terms of him intending to leave a record. That kind of suggests he thought he was in trouble, doesn't it?"

"I think so." Alis leaned against Jon, distractingly warm and soft. "But unless he's a shifter, he couldn't have put up that much of a fight, could he? City Hall was wrecked and you just said even in their human forms shifters are stronger than true humans. And whether he is or not, there was visual evidence of a shifter but no lingering scent. Hm."

"Are you secretly Miss Marple?" Jon asked, impressed.

"Hah! No, I have a totally different secret identity. Two of them, in a way," Alis said, obviously amused at herself. "In fact?—"

"Lady Alessandra vs Princess Cecilia," Jon intoned. "A fight to the death! Only the winner will be allowed to resume her life as Alis Carbuncle."

"Capellas!"

Jon ducked his head toward hers, shoulders shaking with quiet laughter. "I knew it wasn't Carbuncle, but I'd only heard you say it once and couldn't remember quite what it was. Capellas is nicer than Carbuncle."

"Oh, you think? Do you know what a carbuncleis?"

Jon screwed up his face. "I'm afraid I do."

"They're disgusting! Are you saying I'm disgusting?"

Jon went for that kiss he'd been planning on, nudging Alis backward into the moss. "Gross is the farthest thing from my mind when I think of you, my lady fair."

"Unh. Good answer," Alis breathed as the kiss ended. "But if we're doing this out here, you get to be on bottom. I don't want twigs poking me in the ass."

Jon levered up on an elbow, trying to look hurt. "But you don't mindmegetting twig-poked?"

"Youjusttold me you can shift and heal from most injuries."

"Oh. Yeah. Fair," Jon murmured, and was obligingly the bottom.

Chapter 19

If someone had told Alis she would spend a night in the woods, sleeping in moss, and wake up warm and comfortable, she would simply not have believed it. There was areasonshe and Jasmine had the RV, and it wasn't just that Jazz needed electricity to do her job. Alis was firmly in the 'glamping' faction of campers: she wanted hot water, toilets, and mattresses.

Or, it appeared, she wanted Jon Torben, who was none of those things, but made a bed of moss the coziest place in the whole world to sleep. He'd tucked around her, radiating heat, and she'd slept undisturbed until sunlight started seeping through the trees. Alis briefly contemplated just staying there forever, though in the end, the idea made her snicker. She bet Jon would be just as warm and cozy curled up sleeping as a bear in four feet of snow, but she doubted he could keep her warm enough to hibernate through the winter. Maybe just a summer fling, then.

Except the idea made her heart hurt. A summer didn't sound like enough time to spend with him. A weekcertainlywasn't. A lifetime sounded like it might be a good start.

Which was really not the kind of thing she was accustomed to thinking. She wasn't anti-relationship, or anything. She just had a life of her own and hadn't met anybody yet who was worth disrupting that for.

Or maybe more accurately, she had neverpreviouslymet anybody worth disrupting it for. But that would be a hell of a thing to say to a guy she'd known for five days. "Enjoy it while you can," she told herself aloud, if quietly, but Jon stirred behind her, and tucked her closer, mumbling, "Morning," into her hair.

"Kind of a perfect one," she murmured back, and felt him smile against her shoulder as he nestled her even more solidly against him. It was immediately evidentthatkind of behavior was going to keep them in the moss a good while longer this morning.

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