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

“Oh.” This raised more questions, most of which John wasn’t sure he wanted to go anywhere near


Within moments, Mitch was snoring lightly, but John’s mind was working overtime. He remembered past dreams of Jack and Ben. The Jack in his dreams had certainly looked like Mitch, sounded like Mitch, albeit a younger version. John guessed he could understand why he’d dream of Mitch—Mitch occupied most of his waking thoughts, it was reasonable the man would figure in his dreams as well. But why would he know him as Jack? Mitch had never referred to himself by that name.


Ben. Mitch had talked about his late partner a few times, but the details of John’s dreams had been so…detailed. And John had always been Ben in the dreams. What was all that about? John was too tired to want to think about it, but his mind wouldn’t quit.


Chapter 81