Mary is in London to finish her latest crime novel when a chance meeting with a young man challenges not only her ability to write but her understanding of who she is, what she wants and how far she is willing to go to find romance … even if she has to pay for it.

“I’m an escort,” he said.

“An escort? What does that mean?”

He smiled and brushed his hand through his hair again. Then he looked at me with one eye closed with an expression like someone who wasn’t sure if he should reveal any more about himself. He tilted his head and adjusted his footing to compose himself.

“An escort is a guy who accompanies women – or men – to events when they don’t want to go with someone they know.”

“Oh,” I said, indicating that I had cottoned on. “A sort of gigolo?”

He laughed and nodded. “Yes, a sort of gigolo.”

“But without the sex,” I continued in a desire to assure him that I hadn’t mistaken him for a rent boy.

“No,” he said, leaning in towards me for a brief moment to deliver a single piece of information in my ear before standing two feet away from me again: “with the sex.”

"For love or for money" is the first book in the Male Escort series by Lily-Rose King.