For Hire: The Intimate Adventures of a Gigolo
Luke Bradbury
With women falling at his feet, Luke happily entertains his long list of regular clients, whilst his reputation leads him into some new and exotic encounters – including a steamy threesome onboard a luxurious yacht and an evening with an older lady with a fetish for S&M.Things reach breaking point when Luke’s new flatmates unwittingly uncover his secret profession, and worse, reveal it to a potential girlfriend, forcing Luke to take a long hard look at his life.Can he relinquish the glamour and wealth of escorting for the chance of a more stable lifestyle? Or does Luke enjoy his job more than he cares to admit – even to himself?
LUKE BRADBURY
For Hire: The IntimateAdventures of a Gigolo
With Catherine von Ruhland
A special thank you to Keshini Naidoo and the rest of the team at AVON/HarperCollins and to Diane Banks.
To Catherine, thank you for another great book
and for capturing my story perfectly through
hard work and many late nights.
Table of Contents
Coverpage (#u57f6dec6-bda2-5cec-9c55-c8e2134047ee)
Title Page (#u923b63ad-a4a0-539a-98be-18e62e482ec7)
Dedication (#u73c86ef2-5448-558b-8546-55603771004b)
Along for the ride (#u6efc3d54-dac4-5259-92ae-fe7f2184251c)
A New Beginning (#ua91f3712-b7c4-53bd-af06-9cd83cdc2327)
Gray (#u4b08d911-99be-58e9-9373-87b29a0f396a)
Aidan (#ubc9abcdb-fad5-52de-9966-8e9263e6b3d9)
Karen (#u8235c6bc-0f2b-5aa4-bd8f-9ba589267fd4)
Heather (#u52236807-121f-553a-bf5f-a0dbc513da10)
Melanie & Alison (#ubeb148ca-d40c-5a63-945e-cce5c78d1cc4)
Tash (#u35c61394-5f6a-562d-bc32-b7fb02333d0e)
Josephine (#ufdf3e455-fa0c-5a02-8db9-9e65a55590bd)
Melanie (#u62739857-b9d0-5eb6-a839-77373827b52a)
Karen again (#ud2bcaaf6-32cd-581b-ba99-f976e5fd0d2f)
Agnieszka (#u8eba8994-3872-561c-aa60-7006ec566395)
Tom & Claire (#u7a507ddd-d5fa-576d-afdf-954f84c046be)
Lars (#uc96c75a6-693d-5350-8659-b840d57d6a79)
Gray again (#u977a06bd-4218-56d3-8aad-873f92cf94d4)
Marcus & Rachel (#u164a0f56-9d71-507f-95b4-82a8a14bd419)
Nina (#u66d9a1ab-92f9-543c-ba48-27872a0092e8)
Jill (#u15b85b9c-afb4-5578-bc7a-2a33107eed09)
Marie & Craig (#u55f63272-f59f-5c1c-a013-908c0dcba0bb)
Carla & Denise (#u2fe04b49-7b97-59be-8b85-f8c89ef244e5)
Jill & friends (#u30f9b498-1218-5242-a032-74e9e02450a2)
Kim (#u3cbbcf3a-8ad6-525b-8727-1da3b20c0187)
Shami (#u09649e65-25a6-5efd-89d9-3c0f22095ed7)
Haley (#ue3510b03-788f-513c-bc8f-b2db5d2c0949)
Christine (#ue39641dc-82a8-5c19-a817-46486945b307)
Jill again (#uf07ae6b4-eb0f-5717-84de-83022d739706)
Fiona & Co (#u6e7dc62f-0d9b-5bd4-933f-d806ee79bb11)
Christine plus three (#u23aefd46-b091-5706-a61c-94d32a192e21)
Gray’s place (#u5b208c13-5a9d-5294-8d1b-69ca8680a9e2)
Jane (#u339be141-044e-56b4-8c94-2409c4ecc527)
Nina & Luke (#u911a1626-28e3-5e9b-8ba0-4a4d74435873)
More about Mischief
About The Author (#u75c81c89-de0b-5c8d-9961-1bd3dde6bfd7)
Other Books By (#ub30b88ae-d327-5600-a100-59e3e16c2984)
Copyright (#u15685580-8a24-54f8-9fe1-4e9ee5d63fb7)
About the Publisher (#ud3f39a83-597d-54fe-8329-55dbee92a09f)
Along for the ride
Don’t move a fucking muscle. Julie’s cold fingers pad over my hard dick which is cradled in the palm of her other hand. I hold my breath. Julie’s focus is just as taut, her attention fixed on the wet plaster she is spreading over my entire cock. I watch her from above the hardening cast that runs all the way down from my shoulders to just above my knees.
Julie’s top teeth bite into her lower lip with the concentration. Her fingernails. That bite. The cast’s brittle white outer shell. It is me that is putty in her hands.
She could do whatever she wants to me.
I breathe out. She catches my eye.
‘Not much longer,’ she smiles, and the lines crinkle around her eyes.
She takes a step back to observe her handiwork.
‘Looking good,’ she mumbles, ‘looking good.’
Julie picks up her mug of tea from the paintsplattered trestle table and takes a sip. I lick my lips. My own mug sits tantalizingly out of reach.
‘It shouldn’t take too long to set, and then we’ll have you out of there. Free at last,’ she winks.
While we wait, I try to imagine what I must look like from Julie’s point of view. A fit young guy caught in suspended animation in the middle of her studio, and on the way to giving her a new coat hanger. Or whatever she plans to do with my sculpture.
I was Julie’s muse, her model, her material all in one. It was my dick that had got me this far. But standing here now, I had a hunch that maybe sometimes it was taking me too far. Because the only reason I was here was because of my prime-quality cock, legs and torso. I could be anyone.
I now knew what it felt like to be treated like a lump of meat. My hands might have been free, which meant that I could help Julie a little with her work, but I had to be careful, as the very movement of my underarm muscles threatened to do serious damage to Julie’s cast.
I’d shake my head at what my escort work got me caught up in—If I didn’t fear that moving my neck and chest muscles might ruin Julie’s artwork.
I’m not sure what I’d expected when Julie had called earlier in the week and asked me to help her out; I was just happy to be able to do so. When she’d told me she’d need to cover me in plaster for her artwork, it had taken me right back to the beginning of this game when I’d needed photos for the agency websites and paired up with a photography student who wanted snaps for his portfolio. We’d been doing each other a favour.
Even though Julie was paying me, I still liked the idea of being an artist’s muse for the afternoon. And who knows? I might end up on someone’s wall.
As long as none of my clients recognizes me!
In my mind’s eye, I could see the metal length of me—from breastplate down to my thighs and, jutting from the midst of it, a shiny golden cock—featuring in a Sunday supplement or a famous gallery. And someone pointing out, ‘I know him. He was a good lay.’ Well, of course, that went without saying.
Yup, it was Dick who was more of interest to Julie than Muggins here. I couldn’t help wondering if I was the one being dragged along for the ride.
I didn’t know much about art, but this situation certainly felt surreal. Me standing here, butt-naked except for the cold damp paste that Julie had been slathering over me. I’d had enough trouble finding Julie’s cottage. My scooter had stuttered up a dirt-track country road in Kent to reach here and it felt like the back of beyond. I’d barely seen another house once I’d turned off the motorway slip road. She’d taken me along a garden path to a renovated barn filled with her artist’s stuff. Yeah, this was all happening in the middle of nowhere. It meant we were free to do whatever we liked. And no one would know anything about it. But then again, I’d laid myself wide open to anything happening. And that thought sent a shiver of vulnerability down my stiff spine.
Julie set down her mug, and took a walk around her masterpiece. I relaxed a little too, beneath my solid second skin. From where I was standing I couldn’t help feeling pretty impressed by the shape my cock was in. I’d feared that I wouldn’t be able to remain erect while the plaster set. But Julie had made sure that was sorted by leaving my dick until last. Her hands sweeping the whiteness over my chest and then up my legs had certainly fired me up.
Julie was back in front of me, looking me up and down, assessing me. She clapped her hands, then rubbed her palms together like she was satisfied with how things were going. She was ready for the next stage.
I still had to remain stock-still. She looked me straight in the eyes, her fingertips clipped over the upper edge of the cast at my collarbone. ‘Right, Luke, this is the moment of truth. It’s time to get you out of these dry clothes.’
Julie winced as she worked as if the plaster was being pulled away from her skin. The trouble was that the skin was mine, and as the cast was drawn away from my body it was dragging my body hairs with it.
I whistled with pain through my teeth, and then exhaled. There was a responding glint of concern in Julie’s eyes.
‘Careful,’ she whispered, as if she was directing herself as much as me. ‘Not long now.’
I rolled each released shoulder, enjoying the freedom my arms now felt. Julie drew the cast away from my diaphragm and a hairline crack suddenly appeared across the concave smoothness, splitting the plaster apart. The chest-piece slipped to the floor and shattered into lumps like chalk.
‘Shit, shit, shit,’ rattled Julie. She was still gripping tight to the lower casing. I froze and said nothing.
After all, everything was in her hands.
Julie bowed her head, wondering what to do next. She then looked up at me.
‘It’s salvageable. I hope.’
She bit her lip, as though she was trying to stop herself quivering. It wasn’t working.
It wasn’t exactly as if she had much alternative—unless she wanted to begin all over again. Standing here for another few hours certainly wasn’t my idea of a good time.
Then Julie rallied, as if making a new plan. ‘No,’ she reassured herself, her voice stronger now. ‘I can make something of this.’
She picked up a scalpel and began to lever it under the remaining edges of the casing. Her other hand was round the cock-shield as if she was using it as a handle to steady herself. The cast came away from my lower half without any trouble at all.
She settled it down on the floor in front of her knees. Her whole face beamed.
‘Go and get yourself a shower, Luke, while I finish off here.’
I slung my clothes back on and headed back to the house. The golden light in its windows promised warmth against the late afternoon’s growing darkness.
My entire body savoured the rush of hot water. My limbs relaxed and shifted in pleasure like they had just woken up. I closed my eyes and stood directly beneath the shower nozzle and raised my head to let the water pour over me.
I opened them again at the sudden opening of the curtain. Julie stepped into the cubicle, as naked as I was. This was more like it. I didn’t know if it was her plan all along—whether this was exactly why she’d ordered me in the first place. For the art, and then the show afterwards. I couldn’t care less, to be frank. I was only happy to oblige.
Julie’s hands once more glided all over my body, her touch mixing with the streams of water. I pulled her to me, wrapped my arms around her and kissed her. She slipped beyond my grasp.
Julie looked longingly at my hardened cock. Again. Her eyes flickered up to meet mine at the very same moment that her hands encircled my dick.
‘I’m going down,’ she cackled, dropping to her knees and drawing my prick between her dripping wet lips. Her tongue flickered to greet me.
The rush of water seemed to get louder around us. Who cared where my cock had dragged me to this time? The pleasure was all mine.
A New Beginning
February
Eva, her husband Lars, and I came at exactly the same time.
God, I am so on top of my game.
My eyes met Eva’s beneath me. Hers shone with raw bliss.
She flicked a look across at Lars, sitting low down in his armchair, still collecting himself. Eva wanted him to have the pleasure of her pleasure. Apart from the sex, I wasn’t needed at all.
Fine by me, love.
Eva’s arm reached out to stroke her husband’s leg. I didn’t have to turn to look at Lars. From the look of love his wife was giving him, I knew his scheme had worked for him as much as for Eva.
Because Lars had hired me as her birthday surprise. On top of the suite at the Dorchester Hotel he’d booked especially. Eva had had no idea I’d be turning up as her extra treat.
The surprise had made things a bit awkward to begin with. I’d been hired before by this pair when they came up to London from Cornwall. But since Eva hadn’t been expecting me, I couldn’t help wondering as I travelled upstairs whether she’d be in the mood. Suppose she was looking forward to a night alone with Lars? Though I was sure I’d be fine once she’d clocked me and realized what was coming to her.
Fortunately, as soon as I’d stepped into the suite, I could tell that we were all on the same page. Lars had made sure of that.
‘Ta-da!’ he’d announced, raising his glass of champagne to his wife: ‘My present to you, darling. Luke. For you to unwrap.’
I’d bowed as dashingly as I could. ‘Happy Birthday, Eva,’ I’d beamed.
She’d made a point of looking me up and down, the smile creeping up her face topped by the sheer lust blazing from her eyes.
‘Just what I’ve always wanted,’ she’d laughed.
Eva released herself from my hold, slipped out of the bed and crept on to her husband’s lap. Lars enfolded her in a bear hug and buried his face in her coppered brown hair.
Eva was a slight woman in her mid-thirties, with a sleek figure and cute neat ass that just begged a guy to run his hands over its contours. Lars was a few years older than his wife, and far taller than me. I’d presumed that I was doing well as a six-footer. Yet he was lean and must have been close to seven foot, and a brunette like Eva. When we’d first met a month or so ago, I’d been surprised to learn these two were Norwegians. With my blondish hair, I looked more Scandinavian than either of them.
I didn’t want to look as if I was gawping at them entwined in each other, so I stared out of our sixthfloor window towards the shadowy treetops of Hyde Park, shaking in the wind. An image of the Dorchester’s phallic tower flickered through my mind. I smirked to myself. Lars was sure making a statement when he’d booked this place for our rendezvous.
I’d done the job I’d been hired for—to be hors d’oeuvre to Lars’s main course. I collected my clothes, nodded my ‘She’s all yours’ at him over her shoulder, and got a grin and a ‘Thanks, mate’ in return. Creeping into the sitting room to dress, I let myself out.
I took the lift down to the ground floor, satisfied that I’d left a couple of clients pleased with my service. Happy Birthday to you, doll!
I checked my watch as I hotfooted it across the lobby. It had just turned midnight and I needed to get home. There were people milling around the reception area but I took no notice. I’d pick my scooter up from round the side of the hotel and head back to my bed. I’d had a run of late nights this past week and needed to catch up on the zeds.
I stepped out of the main doors behind a glamorouslooking couple who were being snapped by a barrage of paparazzi. As I turned left out of the hotel, I took a quick look back. I instantly recognized the two of them. She was Shelley Yates, an American movie starlet who I’d read in yesterday’s paper was in town for the release of her new film. And on her arm was Guy Raynor, an English pop star who was last year’s cool thing and sure needed the publicity now. You couldn’t tell if the pairing up meant anything to either of them, but they were milking the attention for all they were worth.
Good luck to ’em.
But I was too damn tired to desire such sparkle at this time of night. I walked away from the cameras, down the side road, stepped onto my scooter and was away from there.
As far as I was concerned, Sunday was meant for lounging around, maybe watching the football on the box in the afternoon. I’d benefited from my lie-in and was in the mood for not doing very much at all.
The Girls seemed to have the same idea—I could hear them pottering around as I pulled on my jeans and a T-shirt and cut across the hall to make myself some brunch.
Carrie was sitting at the kitchen table, the dregs of her own breakfast strewn around her. She’d pushed her plate and the jars of jam and marmalade out of her way and was engrossed in her Sunday redtop.
I started to prepare my own breakfast, putting bread in the grill and cracking a couple of eggs into the pan. Carrie looked up from her paper as I hovered beside the oven.
‘You had another night on the tiles? I didn’t hear you come in last night.’
I was unsure whether this was Carrie’s way of finding out my business. Since I’d moved in earlier in the month, I’d managed to fob my three new flatmates off about what I actually got up to, but I was very aware that that was going to be more difficult to get away with the longer I lived here. But for now, I was prepared to put that aside and only cross that awkward bridge when I came to it.
‘Oh, I can assure you I came in last night!’ I grinned.
‘Clubbing, were you?’
‘Oh, I had a night of it, y’know,’ I lied.
I decided to shift her focus away from me. ‘What about yourself, Carrie? Were you and the girls out larging it?’
‘You bet,’ she moaned, clutching her head in mock pain.
‘The others are still paying for it, I’m afraid, so no bashing any pots and pans when you’re putting together your fry-up, thanks.’
‘No worries,’ I replied, focused on the two eggs crisping round the edges just the way I liked them.
I sat down opposite Carrie with my breakfast and poured myself a mug of tea.
‘Anything happening in the world today?’
I was more interested in the back page, but I knew that the girls never read that far. Carrie flapped the front pages back and forward.
‘No X Factor scandal today, I’m afraid,’ she mused.
‘God, I don’t know what the world’s coming to!’ I spluttered. ‘What, have they got a blank front page or something?’
She flipped a wry grin across at me: ‘Might as well be, eh?’
None of us took the paper seriously. It was light relief of a Sunday. Hangover reading. But then again, the tabloids did help me keep in touch with who was in and who was out in celeb land—and that couldn’t but help me in my work. Especially some of the circles I found myself in. If only to massage some famous person’s ego by not looking blank when they told me what TV show they’d been on or pop group they were in. Not that I could let on to my new flatmates about that.
I let Carrie get on with reading and laid into my fry-up. God, there was something about a good English breakfast that set the world to rights whatever was in the news.
Carrie got up from her seat. ‘I need to shake the girls up. We’re off shopping this afternoon. You want to read the paper?’
‘Thanks,’ I mumbled through my full mouth.
She left me to finish off my breakfast alone.
I pushed my empty plate away and dragged the paper across the table towards me. I turned the pages without looking too closely at anything. My mind wasn’t ready for any proper news. I wasn’t up to looking at much more than the pictures, to be honest.
I stopped at the celeb pages. They snapped people coming out of the same nightclubs and restaurants that a good number of my clients hung out at. I focused on the photos, though I wasn’t taking a lot in. My head was still throbbing. And then a picture of a young woman and a guy managed to get my attention through the haze of my half-asleep brain.
Those two last night! Shelley Yates and Guy Raynor.
That brought me to my senses quick-smart. I took a closer look. They were standing in front of the Dorchester. For a second, I was back leaving the foyer through the glass door to be met by the paparazzi shield.
Oh fuck. No.
The thought hit me before I saw the truth in the photo. If they were being shot just as I was coming out, then chances are the paps had caught me too.
Panicking slightly, I smoothed out the page to take a closer look. Right first time. There was me at the back of the photo, heading out of the doors to my scooter round the corner. Only from where anyone else was sitting reading the paper at this time of the day, it appeared that I was part of Shelley and Guy’s entourage.
A wave of cold fear swept over me. Suppose someone out there who knew me—one of my clients, say, who definitely knew what I might be doing coming out of a top hotel around midnight—saw this picture, put two and two together and made five? And then all they needed to do was phone up the same paper and let them know about The Celeb Couple’s Appointment with The Hooker.
Oh God.
It wouldn’t take too many steps for the path to lead to my door. And my cover to be well and truly blown. And, God knows, in those sorts of stories it was always the escort or call girl who came off worst.
I closed my eyes for a second, half hoping that the picture would have disappeared when I opened them again. But it hadn’t, and Kirstie was breezing into the kitchen.
‘Morning, Luke,’ her voice rang out, crashing into my dread.
I rallied, turned over the page, and greeted her with a sunny, ‘And a good morning to you too!’, silently praying that she hadn’t spotted my unease when she entered the room.
I sipped at my tea and tried to read the rest of the paper as she busied herself around me. My mind was elsewhere. Even the sports pages didn’t do it for me. All I could think of was the photograph and me hovering in the background, just asking to be identified.
Kirstie sat down with her bowl of cereal. She ate a spoonful, and reached across for the paper.
‘You finished with this?’ she asked, her mouth full of cornflakes.
‘Yup,’ I replied, ‘not that there’s anything worth reading this morning.’
I felt sick with nerves. There was nothing I could do. The morning paper always did the rounds of the flat of a Sunday. It wasn’t my paper to snatch away and hide in my room—its absence would have been noticed. And if I’d simply removed the celeb spread, that would have been noticed too. It was the page we all turned to.
That hit me. Carrie must have seen the pages before I’d even entered the kitchen. Had she seen me? Surely not. If she had done, she’d have mentioned it to me, wouldn’t she?
My mind was a mixture of horror and worry. The shock of seeing myself in the paper. The fear of my cover being blown. The trouble that would cause. The Girls recognizing my picture. The questions they would ask. What if, what if…? All I could hope was that Carrie hadn’t seen the photo, and Kirstie wouldn’t. If any of the Girls did pick me out, then all I had to do was lie.
They had no idea of my business, so all I had to do was say I was there because I was visiting someone from home. A distant relative, or someone like that.
I would have to think on my feet, but sitting here, fearing the worst, was no help to me. I stood up from the table.
‘I’ve got to sort myself out for the day,’ I smiled. ‘I’ll leave you in peace.’
I left the room only hoping that all the damage that picture could do would remain in my imagination.
Gray
Early March
Gray had his hand around his pint and was staring intently at the picture in the paper. He looked across at me and screwed up his eyes as if he was really taking me in, looked back down again and shook his head a couple of times. Then he picked up his beer and took a couple of gulps. Gray was playing for time, keeping me in suspense, in that way he had.
‘Come on,’ I laughed. ‘Give it to me. What do you think?’
‘It’s definitely you, all right,’ he teased, setting his glass back down on the table.
I rolled my eyes in mock exasperation. ‘I knew that! But do you think I’m likely to be found out?
That was the crux of why I’d called him up. The paparazzi shot had got under my skin, and the only person I knew who’d help me make sense of it was Gray. As the manager of my ‘Satisfaction with Luke’ website, he knew exactly what I was about. There was no having to explain myself with him.
He half whistled out of the side of his mouth. ‘That’s a hard one. It’s a possibility, of course.’
‘Isn’t everything?’ I countered, as I picked up my beer glass to take another swig.
‘True. My point is, there’s a strong chance nothing’ll happen.’
‘And if it does?’
‘Cross that bridge when you come to it, mate. And never admit guilt or shame. That’s what the bastards want, y’know.’
He set down his glass hard on the table, signalling that that was the end of it.
Gray wasn’t telling me anything I hadn’t expected, or already thought about myself. But it helped to have him reflect it back to me. And to have someone listen to my worries.
Let’s face it, it wasn’t as if I could talk to my flatmates about my escort work. They were the very people I feared would find me out. It was just too early days for them to know my business and, anyhow, why should they need to? As long as I paid my bills on time and was friendly enough, surely that was all that mattered?
It was as if Gray was reading my thoughts. ‘Have the Girls seen this? They know about what you do, right?’
I nervously ran my fingernail against the table edge, filing a groove. Certainly it did concern me that the wider world might find me out. Because should I ever get mixed up in some scandal or other, there wouldn’t be too many steps between my identity being made known here in Britain and it being picked up by the expat Aussie press and beamed home for my friends and family to read. That’s not what I wanted at all.
But my more immediate worry was that Carrie and the others might find out. And where would that leave me?
‘They don’t know?’ gasped Gray, his pint held in mid-air on the way to his mouth. ‘What the fuck do they think you’re doing?’
‘Oh come on, Gray. Why the hell would I want to tell them about the escort work? I’m getting paid for sex, for God’s sake!’
He had a broad grin across his face. ‘Exactly! So what’s your problem?’
I laughed along with him. Both of us knew exactly what I was getting at. It might have been fine for us guys to make light of the way I made my living. After all, it was most blokes’ dream. But there were plenty of other people who just didn’t get it. God, in this country, most people still believed prostitution was illegal.
But it wasn’t just that. The idea of someone they knew being involved went way beyond most people’s imaginings, and I couldn’t be sure how my three female flatmates would respond to having a hooker in their midst. I didn’t want to risk things, especially so early in my tenancy. I’d only just got here. I’d hate to have all the hassle of moving out again any time too soon.
Gray was frowning, as if he’d just thought of something. ‘What do you tell them, then? Y’know, about the countless phone calls. And especially the overnighters?’
I gave him a massive grin in return. ‘I’m an Aussie guy in London, Gray. What else would I be doing?’ I raised my glass to him and we chinked like a high-five.
Not that I put it so bluntly to the Girls, of course. They raised an eyebrow at how often my BlackBerry went off, but I just shrugged it off by hinting at my amazing popularity with their compatriots out there. I’m not sure they completely believed me.
Or whether Gray was convinced, come to that.
‘And they’re OK with that?’
‘Seem to be,’ I shrugged.
He gave a low whistle through his teeth: ‘And you’re shacked up with those three too. It’s women all the way with you, isn’t it? God, I wish I was in your shoes, Luke!’
I set my half-full pint down on the table: ‘I bet you do!’
It was funny how the guys I knew made such a big deal of me being the only bloke in my flat. I mean, it wasn’t as if I didn’t have sex on tap. What difference would three more babes make to me? When I’d just moved in, just before my Aussie mates had left for home, they’d been the same as Gray. Not believing my fucking luck. None of them seemed to get that I didn’t see Carrie, Kirstie or Laura like that. They were just mates. Good fun to have around, but anything beyond that wasn’t top of my agenda.
Not that I completely ruled out a drunken fumble some time with one or other of them—a wild night that we’d look embarrassed about in the cold, hungover light of the next morning. Never say never. It wasn’t that I was planning anything of the sort. It was just…Three of them, one of me; a statistical probability at some point in the future. Surely.
But I could see where Gray was coming from. The Girls’d be certain to get curious about what I got up to some day soon. And end up asking questions I needed to have answers to.
I’d been on good terms with enough women to find out that they were open about their own relationships and sex lives amongst themselves. If I wasn’t too careful I could see myself getting caught in the crossfire—being forced to open up about my own relationship status.
But as Gray had said, Cross that bridge when you come to it.
I let out a heavy sigh. ‘God, it was so much easier when Mark and co were still in London.’
Gray got my drift immediately. ‘You miss ’em?’
‘They were me mates, y’know? Mark, Simon, even Rob knew what I got up to. I didn’t have to pretend with them…’
For a moment, Gray looked affronted: ‘You don’t have to pretend with me, mate.’
I put my palms up to face him. ‘I know, I know,’ I smiled, to show I hadn’t meant to diss our friendship, ‘but you know what I mean. They were Aussies. They knew where I came from.’
‘Yeah, I know.’
I placed my hands flat down on the table again and thought back to almost two years ago when I’d just come to London and moved in with Mark. I’d got to know the others through him and they’d turned out to be such a major part of my life in the UK. For one thing, it was our mutual lack of funds that had got me started in this escorting game in the first place. And when I wasn’t working at that or, in the early days, any other job I could find, then we were generally in each other’s pockets.
They had helped keep me grounded through the perils and pitfalls of my hookering. The guys had helped to remind me of where I came from and stopped me getting up myself, or losing myself in the wealth of my clients. I’d seen it happen to many of the other escorts. They forgot that they were only short-term guests in the rich world. The only thing they had to show for it was the expensive designer gear they’d bought into.
It had been tempting to return to Australia when my friends had, but because I’d arrived in the UK after them, I still had some time to run on my visa. And I was making good money from the escort work.
But it wasn’t just that. They had been bolstering up their CVs in a way that my work just couldn’t. I had gaps where they had jobs. And their work experience actually counted for something. I could hardly boast of my escort skills as something that I could put to good use in any other field. All the more reason for me to make as much money as I possibly could while I was here, then. So, my friends had ended up less tied to the UK and more ready to return home. I simply couldn’t. Not yet, anyhow.
I gave Gray a rueful smile. He was right. I was lucky to have someone still here who understood me. But I couldn’t help reflecting that my mates’ absence really emphasized how much I had to make things work as an escort—whether or not I kept my lifestyle close to my chest.
Still, it didn’t mean that I couldn’t help wondering if I’d made the right choice. It was difficult to gauge whether the money was really worth remaining here for. I could have been on my way home to Australia right now with the rest of the gang, beginning the rest of my life, with a new job, which might pay less than I’d grown used to but that on paper would actually count for something.
But I hadn’t, had I? I was sitting here with Gray. The Last Mate Standing.
I got up. ‘You’d like another?’
Gray nodded up at me: ‘Same again, thanks.’
I ordered our pints, and as the barman poured them I observed Gray sitting alone. He looked as out on a limb as I was beginning to feel. But it meant I was damn glad we got on so well. I had a sneaking suspicion he got a lot out of our friendship too. As a website designer, a lot of the time he was chained to his laptop, so he liked me telling him about my experiences. It was a window into a pretty alternative world to his.
For me, it wasn’t just that Gray was doing a great job managing my site. Such a great job, in fact, that he was practically my PA these days. I knew that I’d be nowhere near as successful an escort if it hadn’t been for him helping to get my presence on the Net where it mattered. Whenever anyone Googled ‘London Male Escort’ I was there, at the top of the page.
He never seemed fazed either by tales of my exploits. Which proved a fucking good thing when I needed to offload stuff. I don’t know how long you could keep going at this game without sharing details with someone of what the job involved. Or, conversely, being able to have a friendly conversation without having to mention what I’d really been doing with my life.
When I was starting out, my client Jenny had been like that for me. We’d met up for a half-hour coffee break every Friday. That seemed such a long time ago. She’d been my very first client, but I had no idea where she was or what she was getting up to these days.
I paid for the drinks and picked them up and made my way to our table. I couldn’t help wondering if Gray even realized how much he was helping me out, on so many levels.
‘I tell you what,’ I remarked as I handed him his pint and sat down.
‘What?’ he replied, taking a deep gulp of the beer.
‘I’m not saying it’s likely to happen, but if ever I can’t make a session and my clients are fine about me sending them an alternative, you’ll be the first person I’ll call on.’
Gray sat there, mouth open, utterly amazed. It struck me that it had never crossed his mind. That he’d been happy enough beavering away on the sidelines, setting up my goals. That that was where his strengths lay, and he got kicks enough just from hearing about what I’d got up to.
‘You’d do that?’
He looked worried—a far cry from how cool he was when dealing with the concrete stuff of his web design. He reminded me of how nervous I’d been before I’d had my first call-out.
Wouldn’t most guys be? It was one thing to be an escort in your head. Quite another to go out for the first time not knowing who you were going to meet. And fearful that you might not be able to perform when the crunch came. How humiliating would that be? How much easier not to offer your services. Remain the backroom boy.
I back-pedalled to put him at his ease again. ‘I was only joking,’ I laughed.
He gave me a quizzical look, but his shoulders visibly relaxed. ‘Thought so!’ he lied. His paw was tight round his pint, like he was steadying himself.
‘But should a regular client ever be open to the idea of using a replacement, I’ll definitely mention your name,’ I winked.
He chuckled, now aware of my joshing. ‘Thanks for that, mate.’ We both sank our pints.
There. I’d set him thinking about being an escort. What was the betting that, down the line, he’d find himself thinking that actually he wouldn’t mind giving it a go after all? And that he’d be kicking himself too for having missed his chance. Which would mean I could do him that favour after all, should the opportunity arise. And that time, he’d be ready to accept.
I put down my empty glass and wiped my mouth on the back of my hand.
Gray tapped his fingers on the table, relaxed now. ‘That reminds me. I got a call before I came out. Remember Pearl Agency?’
That put a smile on my face: ‘Oh yes, my friend!’
Didn’t I just? I’d been the only guy in their stable of hot babes, but they’d dropped my pic from their home page because it unnerved some of their male clients. The last thing they wanted to see was me among all those girls.
‘Seems you’re still in demand from those high rollers of theirs. There’s some big-shot guy who wants to hire you.’
‘You’re supposed to say that I don’t do gay stuff,’ I groaned.
Gray rolled his eyes but there was a glint there too. ‘He’s straight, stupid. Apparently there’ll be a couple of Pearl’s girls along for the ride too.’
‘What, we’re putting on a show for him? That sounds much better!’
Gray shook his head and chuckled: ‘God, Luke, you have one hell of a jammy life!’
I said nothing and simply gave him a salute, grinning.
‘Oh, and this shows how major this client is. Apparently you’ll know him the moment you walk through the door,’ reported Gray. ‘That’s what the Pearl girl said, anyhow. And you’re under strict instructions not to let on to anyone who he is either.’
It was my turn to look mock-affronted. ‘Of course.’ I’d learnt a thing or two about client confidentiality by now.
We sat in silence for a few seconds.
‘No, but who do you think he is?’ I quizzed.
Gray laughed. ‘I knew you were going to say that. I can’t help you, I’m afraid. I’m as in the dark as you are.’
I whistled through my teeth. ‘God, if he’s as famous as they’re making out, then that cuts down the list quite considerably.’
Gray drained the dregs of his beer. ‘You think so?’ he asked.
I nodded. ‘Must be. I mean, there are celebs and there are Celebs with a capital C. This guy could be a major footballer or pop star or something.’
Gray was looking directly and deadpan at me. ‘You make sure you get a signed photo for me then, eh?
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