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

Slowly, and taking infinite care, John dried all of the bear’s upper body and legs, even reaching underneath now and again, although that part of his fur had stayed relatively dry.


“I think you’ll do,” John eventually said, sitting back on his haunches and looking over the bear, a smile playing on his lips. “You really are beautiful.”


“Oh, yes you are. Don’t you argue with me,” John said, wagging his finger. He got to his feet. “I’ll just take these upstairs, then I’ll get something for you to eat.”


The bear wasn’t sure about John feeding him, but as it gave the man so much pleasure, he decided he’d eat whatever was served to him.


“I know I have a few tins of tuna in the cupboard,” John said, coming back downstairs—thankfully more slowly than the first time. “There was a special offer on them at the supermarket. They’re in brine, I hope that’s okay.”


That didn’t bother the bear. He ate food directly from the sea all the time.


Chapter 61