Page 13 of Unbearable Attraction
"No, there isn't." He held her gaze, letting her see the genuine respect behind his words. "You've connected patterns that no one else even noticed, found historical precedent for supernatural activity that the Council dismissed as random disturbances. That's not just thorough research—that's brilliance."
Color rose in her cheeks, and she looked back at the map with what might have been flustered pleasure. "We still don't know what the original ceremony involved, or how to recreate it."
"We will," Luka said with confidence he didn't entirely feel. "What's next?"
"I need to cross-reference these locations with my grandmother's journals, see if she documented any specific rituals or requirements." Leenah reached for another book on the small table beside the loveseat. "There might be details about?—"
Her hand brushed his as they both reached for the same ancient tome, and the simple contact sent awareness crackling through him. Her skin was warm and soft against his callused fingers, and the brief touch was somehow more intimate than it had any right to be.
They both froze, hands still touching on the leather cover of the book. Luka could hear his own heartbeat, could feel the subtle tremor that ran through Leenah's frame as their eyes met again. The air between them felt charged with possibility, with the growing tension that had been building since their first real conversation at The Griddle & Grind.
His bear wanted him to close the distance between them, to find out if her lips tasted as sweet as her scent suggested. To explore the attraction that sparked every time they werein the same room together. The human side of his nature agreed wholeheartedly, especially when he caught the way her breathing had gone shallow and her pupils had dilated.
But they were research partners now, working together to solve a supernatural crisis that affected the entire town. Getting involved romantically would complicate everything, would add personal stakes to a situation that was already complicated enough.
The smart thing to do would be to pull back, maintain professional distance, focus on the task at hand.
Instead, he found himself shifting closer, drawn by the warmth radiating from her skin and the way her lips had parted slightly in surprise. The bookstore faded around them until there was nothing but the small space of the loveseat and the woman whose fierce independence had somehow managed to capture his attention so completely.
"Luka," she said softly, his name barely more than a whisper.
"Yeah?"
"We should probably..." She gestured vaguely toward the book still trapped beneath their joined hands.
"Probably," he agreed, but neither of them moved.
The moment stretched between them, loaded with unspoken possibilities. This was personal, immediate, and complicated in all the ways that mattered.
A throat clearing from the bookstore's front entrance broke the spell. They jerked apart like guilty teenagers, Leenah immediately busying herself with organizing papers while Luka focused on slowing his racing pulse.
"Don't mind me," called Lucien Vale, the black panther shifter who owned the Book Nook. His voice carried amusement and the kind of understanding that suggested he'd witnessed this sort of thing before. "Finding everything you need?"
"Fine," Leenah said, her voice slightly higher than usual. "We're finding everything just fine."
"Excellent." Lucien's tone suggested he was finding their flustered state entirely too entertaining. "I'll be in the back room if you need anything. Try not to disturb the other customers with any loud... discussions."
The bookstore owner disappeared into the depths of his shop, leaving them alone with the weight of interrupted possibilities and the growing realization that their professional partnership was becoming something much more complicated.
"We should focus on the research," Leenah said, though she didn't quite meet his eyes.
"Yeah," Luka agreed, though every instinct he possessed was screaming at him to finish what they'd started. "The research."
But as they turned back to the historical documents spread between them, he couldn't shake the feeling that they'd crossed some invisible line. That whatever careful professional distance they'd been maintaining had just become infinitely more difficult to sustain.
And judging by the way Leenah kept stealing glances at him when she thought he wasn't looking, she was having the same problem.
10
LEENAH
The afternoon had melted into evening without Leenah noticing, the bookstore's warm lighting replacing natural sunlight so gradually that she'd lost track of time entirely. Her notes covered three pages now, cross-referencing the historical map locations with her grandmother's journals and the pattern of supernatural disturbances throughout town.
But despite the important work spread before her, she found herself increasingly distracted by the man sitting beside her.
Luka handled the ancient books with a reverence that spoke to someone who understood the value of old things. His large hands, scarred from years of woodworking, turned pages with surprising gentleness, as if he knew these texts contained more than just words—they held the accumulated wisdom and pain of generations. She'd expected a bear shifter to be all brute strength and protective instincts, but watching him work revealed a careful precision that made her all too aware of his hands, among other things.
"According to this genealogy," he said, his deep voice carrying that now-familiar rumble that seemed to vibrate through her bones, "your family line goes back to some of theoriginal settlers. Salem refugees who helped negotiate the first agreements with the Cherokee spirits."
