UNDER COVER
Under Cover
The Adventures of a Real Life Gigolo
Luke Bradbury
with Catherine von Ruhland
UK & Commonwealth rights: Avon (HarperCollins)
All other rights available
When hard-up student Luke Bradbury establishes a male escort agency to make what he sees as some easy money, little does he know that he is to become a top London gigolo within the space of a year.
Designer Male Escorts is very much a Keystone Cops style operation made up of Luke, Mark and a few of their friends. As the receptionist, Luke hangs back from any sex work - until one day, gentle, 50 year old Jenny specifically asks for him. Luke's escort career is launched.
Gradually, over a number of months, the work begins to build up. Yet, in parallel, one by one the other boys fall away. Mark and Luke are the last men standing. From the start Mark has had reservations about being paid for sex. It comes to a head when he gets a new girlfriend, and he offloads all his self-loathing on to Luke. It shatters their friendship.
Luke is enjoying the work much more than he had anticipated and so he chooses to go it alone. Whilst he has a small number of regular clients, adding to his list is a slow process until Luke is called out by media personality Janice. She rewrites his web page and the clients flood in. From being lost among hundreds, Luke is now among the top ten selected men in London. His clients include a couple of gorgeous lesbians, a fortysomething living at home with Mum, an A list celebrity couple, a virgin who wants Luke to deflower her so that she's not a complete novice to her boyfriend, a woman who neither Luke - or this woman's husband - can bring themselves to have sex with, suburban sex with a gun in the room, a rock star's drug addict daughter, and a bedroom farce with Luke and a couple inside and their spouses at the door. Meanwhile, Luke continues to see Jenny for a weekly cup of tea and a chat. She provides a space where he can be open and honest about his life.
A growing number of men are offering their services to women and competition for the limited number of female clients has never been hotter. Luke is able to hold his own until the Chippendale-esque Marty challenges his position. In being forced to reappraise what he is offering, Luke comes to realise that his clients want him for his open and kind personality as much as for his toned body and sex. He is selling the best of himself and that's what makes him top of his game. In the course of a year, he has grown infinitely more confident, and from the one-time boy next door has evolved a fully-fledged man.
Luke Bradbury is one of London's most experienced and successful straight male escorts.
