Page 21 of Bear Naked Truth
“Like maybe I’ve been here before. Maybe I was part of this place once. Part ofhim.”
Dorian’s jaw tensed. He hated that idea. Hated it with the kind of silent fury that made his bear rise under his skin.
“You’renothis,” he said. “Whatever tether he thinks he has, it ends here.”
She searched his face. “How can you be so sure?”
He reached out then, fingers brushing the edge of her sleeve. Just enough to feel the heat of her skin. “Because I’ve felt you,” he said. “Your magic. Your fear. Your fight. And it’s not his. It’s yours. You belong toyou, Autumn.”
She was quiet for a long time after that.
And then, without a word, she shifted closer. He didn’t move. Just wrapped his arms around her, his warmth surrounding her like a barrier against whatever ghosts might creep in.
They didn’t kiss. Didn’t touch beyond that. But it felt more intimate than anything else he’d known.
They continued talking throughout the night about her past work, his old job, stories that had made them who they are… well, bits and pieces they chose to share anyway.
Eventually, her breathing slowed as he told her a story of his ranger days and an abandoned baby kit. And when the first light of dawn crept across the windowsill, Autumn was still there, breathing slow and steady in his arms as her eyelids rested.
Dorian knew as he watched her finally letting herself be surrounded in peace that he’d wait forever if he had to.
11
AUTUMN
Autumn had faced down wailing spirits, restless children still clinging to cribs long turned to dust, and one particularly chatty poltergeist who wouldn’t shut up about his ex-wife’s meatloaf. Butthis?
This was far worse.
Couples Night atPines & Needleswasn’t loud or pushy or even particularly intimate—not in the conventional sense. But the way Rowan and Markus had arranged the store with low candlelight, enchanted music that shifted depending on the emotional temperature, and antique chairs arranged in soft, unspoken circles made her skin itch in a way she couldn’t explain.
There wastoo much feelingin the air. It hung like steam on the windows, clung to her clothes and skin.
“Relax,” Dorian murmured beside her, voice deep and low. “You’re not gonna get hexed for being grumpy.”
“I’m not grumpy,” Autumn muttered, adjusting the sleeves of the charcoal cardigan that, just like the majority of her sweaters, was too big for her. “I’m… aware. That’s all.”
He grinned, brushing his arm gently against hers as they moved toward the back of the bookstore. “You’re adorable when you’re lying to yourself.”
She stopped walking. Glared. “Say that again, bear boy.”
“You’re adorable,” he repeated, slow and steady, teeth gleaming in the soft lighting. “Also beautiful. And mildly terrifying. I like the mix.”
She wanted to be annoyed, to snap at him but her mouth twitched. She hated how easily he got to her.
Rowan—Markus’s softer half—was waiting for them with a tray of herbal cocktails and a book that shimmered faintly under the lamplight. He wore his usual cozy-cottagecore-meets-witchy-sophisticate ensemble, his long scarf draped like it had been arranged by moonlight itself.
“You two ready?” Rowan asked gently, voice lilting like a song only trees would understand.
“Define ‘ready,’” Autumn said.
Rowan offered his a look that saidyou asked for this, even though she absolutely had not.
The magical book between them—its cover aged, its spine humming faintly with old energy—was part of an old spell Markus had rescued from the haunted archives below their shop. It read not your name or your story, but yourheart’s quietest truths. The things you weren’t ready to say out loud. The things that lived between moments and glances.
Couples who participated got one reading each.
Autumn sat stiffly beside Dorian on the love-worn velvet settee as Rowan placed the book between them.
