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

For the rest of the journey, John’s roving hand had Mitch on the edge. At least it stopped him from dwelling on what Teddy and John had gotten up to earlier.


Class was a waste of time. Mitch couldn’t concentrate; he kept running over what John had said to Teddy. What he and John had said and done in the car, and what lay ahead for them in this gay bar they were going to. He’d never been to such a place. Was it wall-to-wall fucking bodies? If so, he’d have his work cut out keeping John safe. No one else was getting their hands—or anything else—on John.


John.Mitch dared not look out of the window at the cafeteria because he knew he’d see John blowing kisses or pulling silly faces at him.


John had been right, the woman who sat behind Mitch showed a great deal of interest in his biker outfit. At one point she leaned forward and quietly asked Mitch if he’d ridden in on his Harley. And if so, was there room for her on the back?


Chapter 65