On his first night renting a cottage on the Cornish coast, widower John Tennant comes face to face with, of all things, a grizzly bear. Fearing for his life, John tries to convince the animal he isn't worth eating, and is relieved when the bear ambles away. Maintenance man Mitch Benjamin is two hundred years old but doesn’t look a day over forty. As a werebear, he needs to stay under the radar. The new renter is making that difficult. Not only is John attractive, but his vulnerability triggers all of Mitch’s protective instincts. If that wasn’t trouble enough, Mitch is struggling with his inner bear’s desire to befriend John. He knows what his bear is up to, but Mitch doesn’t want another mate. His last one was murdered ninety years ago, and he’s still grieving. John is confused by Mitch’s mixed signals. Physically, Mitch -- with his bulging muscles and hulking frame -- is a gay man’s wet dream come true. But emotionally, he keeps closing down. John discovers more comfort with the magnificent grizzly bear he occasionally meets on his evening walks along the beach. In an effort to help, Morwenna, the owner of the cottages, uses her psychic gifts to give John a message from his dead lover, George. Far from helping, it adds another layer of strangeness to what’s already turning out to be the strangest summer John can remember. Can a well-meaning medium and a determined grizzly bring John and Mitch together? Will Mitch come clean about his werebear nature? If he does, can John accept that a man and bear exist in the same body?

Summer's Lease

“I knew you’d find an occasion to wear it.” She pointed to his shirt. “It clings to your chest. Very sexy.”


“Morwenna,” Mitch said more softly. “He’s gone. John I mean,” he added, just in case she decided to play dumb again.


Mitch explained that they’d been at the store and John had offered to cook dinner for him.


“There you are then. He’s probably forgotten something and has gone back into town to get it.”


Why hadn’t he thought of that? It made perfect sense. But even so, Mitch couldn’t shake the notion that something was wrong.


Morwenna pointed to a chair. “Sit.”


Mitch sat and continued to tug at his hair. He knew he was over-reacting; what the hell was wrong with him? He was behaving like a cheerleader who’d been stood up by the starting quarterback.


“Will you drive me to town so I could—?”


Chapter 19