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

“Doris!” John got to his feet. “I’ll call George’s mum. She doesn’t live too far from Paddington.” She could meet Mitch off the train and take him back to her house until he could get there. “Can I use your phone?”


“Doris! It’s urgent. I need you to go to Paddington and pick Mitch up.”


Thankfully the woman was able to tell John meant business, so she didn’t ask any unnecessary questions. “What time is his train?”


John explained best he could, but had to repeat himself because he was talking too fast. “He’s…not used to travelling on trains and has never been to London before so—”


“Deep breath. I’ll have plenty of time to get there. Don’t worry. And I know what he looks like. Didn’t you say he was six feet eight?”


John nodded, then realised Doris couldn’t see him. “Yes.”


“Then I won’t have any trouble spotting him in the crowd.”


Chapter 90