Heir for Hire

by Jerry Cole

  “Heir for Hire”

  M/M Gay For You Romance

  Jerry Cole

  © 2017

  Jerry Cole

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This book is intended for Adults (ages 18+) only. The contents may be offensive to some readers. It may contain graphic language, explicit sexual content, and adult situations. May contain scenes of unprotected sex. Please do not read this book if you are offended by content as mentioned above or if you are under the age of 18.

  Please educate yourself on safe sex practices before making potentially life-changing decisions about sex in real life. If you’re not sure where to start, see here: http://www.jerrycoleauthor.com/safe-sex-resources/.

  This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner & are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Products or brand names mentioned are trademarks of their respective holders or companies. The cover uses licensed images & are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any person(s) that may be depicted on the cover are simply models.

  Edition v1.01 (2017.10.01)

  http://www.jerrycoleauthor.com

  Special thanks to the following volunteer readers who helped with proofreading: C Mitchell, D. Fair, Richard Singleton, Jim Adcock, Michelle Beer, Zoe Mogensen and those who assisted but wished to be anonymous. Thank you so much for your support.

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  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Epilogue

  Authors Note

  Books by Jerry Cole

  Chapter One

  Basil Walker never wanted to take over the family business. He thought he might have been more interested if the business was a more interesting one, but only his father seemed to think pulp mills were a compelling and engaging conversation topic. Maybe his grandfather had, but he only had the privilege of meeting Grandpa Walker one time. The only thing Basil remembered about his grandfather was he was a huge dick. His father always said it was because Johan Walker Senior wanted to make sure he had enough heirs. Basil heard the story a million times. No matter how many women Johan Walker Senior slept with, only one managed to get pregnant by him. At least, there was only one who the Walker family recognized as legitimate.

  Basil didn’t understand why it was so important to his father to continue his father’s legacy. He didn’t think his father liked Grandpa Walker that much. Or at all, really.

  That was why he was struggling so much to take his father seriously. He’d gotten the talk before. He’d gotten several “talks,” but this one was the one he heard most often. It was also the worst one.

  His parents would ask him, very sweetly, what was wrong with him. In theory, Basil was a catch. Handsome, educated, with a good job, and the heir to a fortune worth probably somewhere in the hundreds of millions, Basil should have had women going out of their way to try and become his wife. They could not understand why Basil had been single ever since he broke up with Katie.

  Of course his parents didn’t know about the string of women he casually went out with. He never dated them—they were always hookups and they were always okay with being hookups—but the last thing Basil wanted was a wife. After his break-up with Katie, it had become more than clear he wasn’t ready for marriage. Now, he was twenty-five and although the majority of his friends got engaged and married in their thirties, his parents really wanted heirs with their surname so they would eventually inherit the Walker Mills.

  He took a sip of his mimosa. It was always hard not to take his parents’ questioning personally, though he knew it was more about them than it was about him. At least he intellectually knew that.

  “We’re worried about you,” his mother said when she saw the look on his face. She reached out and took his hand. His mother’s fingers were long and pale and Basil could barely feel the myriad of expensive rings she wore when she squeezed his hand. “It’s been too long since you’ve introduced us to anyone.”

  Basil nodded as he finished his mimosa, which he hadn’t intended to touch. Drinking, even a little bit, always lowered his defenses toward his parents. That was the last thing he wanted. They could be very insistent.

  “I’m not seeing anyone,” Basil finally said, shrugging his shoulders. As he finished his mimosa, a server came to refill his glass. “I would let you guys know.”

  His parents exchanged a look. “We do know,” his father said evenly. “We know that very well.”

  “Look,” Basil said. “I promise you guys will be the first to know as soon as I’m seeing someone seriously.”

  “You’re not getting any younger,” his father said quietly.

  “Dad, I’m twenty-five,” Basil said, staring into his father’s face. “It’s not as if my sperm is drying up.”

  Normally his bluntness was enough to stop his parents from talking any more about this topic, but it didn’t seem to be enough that day.

  “We would like to know our grandchildren before we’re too old,” his father said. “That’s all.”

  “Finding a wife is the hardest process,” his mother offered when she saw the incredulous look on his face. “After that, well, the process should be fairly simple.”

  “Any woman would be happy to have your child,” his dad said.

  Basil tried his best to choke back a chuckle. He took a sip of his water to try and settle down before he spoke back to his father. Now that he worked with him and didn’t live in the same house as his parents, he didn’t find his dad as scary as before. That didn’t mean he didn’t fin
d him scary.

  “Clearly not, Dad,” he said, looking around himself to emphasize his point. “Women aren’t exactly mobbing me. Obviously.”

  His parents exchanged a significant look and Basil held back the urge to roll his eyes. He thought about his sister, who managed to skip most of these uncomfortable weekend brunches. He was pretty sure their parents didn’t talk to her about any of this stuff, either. It made sense—at least to them. Sage’s children wouldn’t have the Walker surname so it didn’t really matter if she had children or not. It didn’t even matter she was getting a Master’s degree in Theater and Performance. His sister was basically allowed to do whatever she wanted. When Basil had tried to declare English as a minor in college, he had almost been disowned. When Sage had said she wanted to go to school for acting and set design, their parents had said they were proud of her.

  “We know meeting people at your age is hard,” his mom said. “That’s why we were hoping you would let us set you up with one of the Burton girls.”

  Basil’s eyes widened. “One of the Burton girls? Of the Sundry toilet paper empire?”

  “Exactly,” his dad said. “Think about it. It’s a match made in heaven, right? The companies may eventually merge and—”

  “My getting married shouldn’t be a business transaction, Dad,” Basil said. “I would really like to, y’know, be into the person I marry.”

  “What’s wrong with the Burton girls? They’re perfectly nice people,” his mom said. “They’re all educated, smart, and beautiful.”

  Basil swallowed. He already knew the Burton girls. There were three of them, ages twenty-four, twenty-five, and twenty-seven. He knew because he had gone to prep school with all of them. They were all known for having no senses of humor and being really into church, even back then. Otherwise, Basil was pretty sure he would have already slept with at least a couple of them.

  “I just don’t know if I’m at the point where I’m okay with you guys setting me up on dates,” he replied, smirking. “Imagine what that does for my masculinity. It’s already incredibly fragile.”

  His mother rolled her eyes. “Could you at least pretend you’re taking this seriously? This is important to us.”

  Basil resisted the urge to groan. “I know, I know,” he said. “Can I just—can I think about it, please?”

  “Sure,” his dad replied. Then he looked down at the food in front of him and continued eating as if nothing had happened.

  ***

  Basil drove himself home after his parents asked him if he wanted to go antiquing with them. He didn’t mind the Sunday brunches most of the time. One of the only traditions that remained from when he was a teenager was getting together with his parents for brunch at least one Sunday of the month. Now that Sage was away studying, she didn’t show up as often, but she tried her best to make it. They had a big production that weekend Sage had invited him to and that meant she couldn’t really leave just to go up to Cullfield. Basil rarely went up to visit her, though he didn’t mind it. He told himself he didn’t have enough time, but that was just not true, he thought as he pulled into the property. He lived in the converted apartment on top of the garage, the one his grandfather’s chauffeur had used. Basil liked that it wasn’t attached to the main Walker mansion and because the house was so big, some of his dates from out of town thought he lived in a very fancy apartment building. Of course, the girls who actually lived in town knew they were with Basil Walker, heir to the Walker Mills fortune, so rich that no one dared make fun of his ridiculous name in front of him.

  He parked under his apartment and decided he would go up to the main house before his parents arrived. He didn’t go into his childhood bedroom often, but something felt wrong that day. The talks with his parents always made him uncomfortable. It wasn’t that he couldn’t attract girls—he was rich enough and attractive enough that getting enough female attention had never been a problem—but he just didn’t seem to like them that much. He liked the sex well enough, and he liked the way they made him feel about himself, as if he was the only person in the world they could ever like.

  He just couldn’t imagine spending any time outside the bedroom with any of them and definitely not the rest of his life. He was pretty sure it wasn’t their fault. They were always nice enough, some were funny, and most were more interesting than him. He supposed he just hadn’t clicked with anyone since Katie, not really, but maybe part of that was his fault. It wasn’t like he made that much of an effort with any of them. It wasn’t like he made that much of an effort with anything.

  He let himself into the main house and looked around to make sure none of the staff was around. Most of the time, his parents gave the staff Sunday off, but sometimes his mother really needed the carpet to be cleaned or something and they would remain there for the entire weekend. He didn’t want any of them to know he was sneaking into his childhood bedroom. It was stupid, he was sure nobody cared where he went since this was technically his house, but it still felt as if he was sneaking around.

  He walked upstairs and toward his bedroom. He stood outside his door for a few seconds before he pushed it open. It felt weird to walk into the room, but once he was there, it just felt right. Somehow, it felt more right than his apartment. He quite liked his apartment, it had been designed specifically for him by a very famous interior designer who had worked with him for a couple of years to make sure the apartment was prepared when he moved out of the mansion and into his own place. His apartment was decorated with furniture he loved and the walls were painted in colors he liked. Even then, his childhood bedroom felt like it belonged to him a lot more, with the tall bookshelf that was so overstuffed with books that bumping into it would send some of them flying down and onto the floor.

  He had read every single book there. He still read as an adult, but not nearly as much. He also only did it on his phone. He couldn’t remember the last time he read an actual book. He sat down at his desk and traced his finger around the handle of the oak-covered drawer. He thought about opening it but eventually decided not to. He tried not to stare at the bunch of notebooks he used to scribble his ideas and where he would write down short stories. It had been so long since he had written anything, it almost felt like it wasn’t part of his life at all anymore, and the idea of seeing his own handwriting upset him.

  He didn’t open the drawer. He moved back on the chair and took a deep breath. He probably should stop thinking about everything he hadn’t done.

  His life was great. Sure, he didn’t have a wife and he wasn’t currently producing babies like he was supposed to, at least according to his parents, but he had a nice place to live, a good job, and a steady rotation of women who were more than happy to get fucked by him.

  Maybe his parents were right. Maybe it was time he settled down with a wife and start having children. He was feeling pretty tired of having meaningless sex.

  He sighed as he thought about it, standing up and walking out of his childhood bedroom. It probably wouldn’t be such a bad thing that he grew up a bit.

  Chapter Two

  Trevor sighed as he sat back, trying to decide which of the bills that came with the late notice stamped on the letterhead absolutely had to be paid. It didn’t matter much because most of his money had already been spent on rent, despite the fact his roommate insisted it was totally fine and she could easily cover him. He had taken her up on that a couple of times in the last five years that he had been living with her, but he tried his best to do it as little as he could, even if that meant he would have to feed himself by going to the food banks around the city.

  Sage normally kept the cupboards well stocked and she had no problem doing most of the grocery shopping ever since she found out about that. Before, all she did was eat out.

  Trevor had met Sage in a performance class when they were both freshmen at State. She had been living in the freshmen dorms and hating her life when they first met. Back then, she’d had long light brown hair and she dressed like someone
in a mall catalog. Despite how stuck-up she appeared at first, Trevor had liked her. She was funny, interesting, and soon they became inseparable. The moment the first semester ended and they were both looking for places to live in, Sage asked Trevor if he wanted to move in with her. Originally, he had told her he could never afford it, but she agreed to cover seventy-percent of the rent because she wanted to live so close to campus. He thought she might get resentful or they might stop being friends because he heard that frequently happened when someone decided to start sharing a place with their closest friend.

  If anything, it had brought them closer together. Trevor considered Sage family. Sage—well, he wasn’t sure what she considered him—but he was sure she liked him more than she liked her family. Sage never talked about her parents and only sometimes talked about her brother, with a kind of affectionate irritation she saved exclusively to speak about him. Trevor met Basil a couple of times. He always thought he was gorgeous. He was tall with dramatic features and big light eyes. The big hipster glasses only made him look hotter. Trevor always had a type and Sage’s brother was definitely a hot, rich nerd. Sage always said Basil was boring, but Trevor didn’t think Sage knew what she was talking about. Then again, it wasn’t as though he had ever spent much time with Basil. Or any time with Basil, really.

  He closed his eyes, shook his head, and told himself to stop daydreaming. He needed to worry about his bills, not about his roommate and her family. He knew the chance he would even get to see his roommate’s brother again was very low. He was just lonely, he told himself. It was a shame he didn’t have enough time or money to look for a boyfriend.

  He stood up and went to the kitchen to get himself a glass of water. He heard Sage make her way inside as he opened the fridge.