Page 30 of Once Upon A Bear

It was hard not to, when he spent all his time in a den in the woods instead of fulfilling his destiny, while his brothers were working hard, getting married, and having a baby.

He’d been meant for more. Meant to help Kellan run the estate and their holdings by helping with all the books, meant to find a wife and start a family.

Instead, he could barely manage to work on the bookkeeping for more than an hour or two before he had to run for the woods.

Guinevere came back and ran her fingers through his hair, pulling it back from the front of his shoulders to hold it in one loose bunch in her hand.

He’d be lying if he said that he didn’t enjoy the feeling of her hands running against his scalp, fingers brushing softly through his hair.

It had been so long since he’d let a woman touch him in such a way. His mother had been the one to cut his hair until the curse, when he’d turned to Hopkins for help after realizing that his mother’s gentleness often brought out a transformation.

And perhaps this would too, because he certainly felt closer to Guinevere than he felt to Hopkins.

But if he didn’t transform, perhaps the potion was working—or perhaps Guinevere was not a close enough relationship for it to trigger a transformation. He still hadn’t figured it out. There were far too many variables to all the things that made him transform.

But as he let her snip away, lock after lock of hair falling to the floor, he wondered if perhaps Guinevere was becoming someone who could trigger those feelings in him.

Chapter thirteen

Guinevere

Guinevere bent over her task, inspecting Gideon’s scalp to make sure she hadn’t missed any portion of the longer hair. It had not yet begun to grow back, which was a good sign that perhaps cutting it had worked.

She should never have attempted something like this, not when she knew how Gideon was with his family. It had been one thing for her to practice on Alexander, who was a hermit, when only Beatrice would have noticed if something was missed.

But Lord Gideon Rendon had a large family, all of whom loved him, and there was no way they wouldn’t notice his hair had suddenly grown halfway down his shoulder blades.

Though perhaps if they noticed, she could go and explain what was happening.

“I think that’s all of it,” she said, wiping her hand against his hair to catch any stray strands she’d missed.

She glanced down at the pile of hair on the floor, where she noticed a single golden lock mixed in with the pile of dark brown hair on her floor. She must have leaned too close and snipped off some of her own hair in the process.

If she’d ever given anyone a haircut before, maybe she would have thought to tie her hair back first. But she had no experience, and she’d been a little distracted.

Gideon twisted in his chair to look down at the floor, frowning when he noticed her hair there.

“I’m sorry,” he said, reaching out to touch her hair, as if looking for the piece she had shortened, before he hastily drew his hand back. “I apologize.”

“I don’t mind,” Guinevere assured him, which she didn’t, in fact. She rather wondered what it would feel like if Gideon ran his hands through her hair the way she had been doing to him.

But that was dangerous thinking.

“I should go,” he said, getting to his feet abruptly, nearly knocking the chair over. “Do you have a broom? I can clean this up.”

“It was my mistake,” she said. “I’ll clean it up. You may leave.”

Perhaps she sounded a bit too dismissive, but she suddenly couldn’t wait to get him out of her house.

He was too close, too near, and if he stayed, she would be tempted to run her fingers through his hair again. She had done her best to emulate his previous haircut, a little shaggy, a little long around the top, but she wasn’t sure if she’d managed it or not. The truth would come out when he went home to his family.

“I don’t know that I should leave,” Gideon said, making no motion to do so.

“Yes, you should,” she said firmly.

She needed some time away from him before she got even more distracted and made more mistakes.

“Guinevere—”