Shopping for an Heir

T
he former Navy Seal
is a chauffeur by day, artist by night, so when hotter-than-ever ex-fiancée Suzanne Dayton interrupts his nude model sculpting class to serve him with inheritance paperwork from a man he’s never heard of, he assumes it’s a joke.

Turns out the joke’s on him. There’s just one catch. A big one.

And it might be Suzanne—in more ways than he ever dreamed.

Shopping for an Heir
is the 10th book in the New York Times bestselling Shopping for a Billionaire series by Julia Kent. It features many favorite characters from the Shopping series, including Declan McCormick himself as Gerald’s class model ;)

A
LL RIGHTS RESERVED
. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

* * *

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“
O
nly Julia Kent
could have me laughing my socks off one minute and reaching for the tissues the next. A laugh out loud, wild Vegas wedding adventure!”—Daisy Prescott,
USA Today
bestselling author

“
T
his one has it all
: hilarious laughs, a sexy (almost) billionaire and a hint of tears. The best of the series!”

—Celia Kyle,
New York Times
bestselling romantic comedy author

“
J
ulia Kent’s
romantic comedies are so funny you’ll snort soda out your nose, so emotionally honest you’ll get misty eyed, and so charming you’ll be back for more. Loved the whole series!”

—Cheri Allan, author of the
Betting on Romance
series

“You can see that he really loves Shannon to the very core of his soul, and it’s beyond interesting to watch how that love can bring a strong, confident, alpha male like Declan to his knees.”

“
W
onderful laugh
out loud story of a family that reminds me of my own. I’m a sucker for good ‘how they met’ stories, and this is is by far the most creative. I wholeheartedly recommend you read the series.”

“
E
very chapter made
my heart beat faster in anticipation. Julia Kent once again pulls at our emotions and allows us to fall in love with the characters all over again.… Very well worth my heart palpitations.”

“
I
f I could describe
this book in a word, it would be, ‘EVERYTHING’.

It has everything you want in a romance.

It has those witty and sometimes downright hysterical situations that you can’t help but laugh at.

It has those hot, sexy moments that make a romance book a, well, hot and sexy romance book.

It has all those quirky, fun characters we’ve all come to enjoy through this series.

But better than all that, it has what I loved best about this book: those sweet, tender expressions of love that are written so beautifully and artistically.”

“
A
s an avid reader
I have to say there is nothing better than an author that can combine romance and humor. Julia never disappoints, and is one of the best at creating stories that suck you in and keep you laughing.”

“I just can’t imagine how you come up with this stuff, but am so glad you do!”

“
I
finally had
to write to you and tell you that you are simply one of the most amazing authors. Your humor is perfect. I really do bust out laughing out loud. My family thinks that I am crazy when I do it but I can count on a good read from you especially when it has been a rough day. There hasn’t been a single thing that you have written that I haven’t fallen in love with the characters. They become real and some of your lines have become a part of our family language. Thank you for sharing your amazing gift.”

“
H
aving
another fantastic evening as I just finished your latest book and now the fam can go to sleep since the laughing/screaming out loud has stopped... Stomach muscles are sore. Better than sit-ups! :-)”

T
o Daisy
, for helping me understand how rare artifacts work in the auction and fine art business.

To Maria, who tirelessly puts up with my shenanigans and who has a sense of humor I appreciate deeply.

To long ago high school classmates who really did get duped once, and who (indirectly) helped me to think up a certain scene.

To “Clark,” my husband, for taking me out to dinner on our wedding anniversary and helping me to come up with one of the funniest scenes in this book.

To my secret beta readers (you know who you are!), thank you for all your help.

To my Facebook reader group,
Laugh Your Way to Love
, for your never-ending support.

And to all who have served in the armed forces, from family members of my own to readers and beyond. Your sacrifices are much appreciated, and I thank you.

“
Y
ou promised
me a naked hot young man, and you’d better deliver on that promise, Mr. Clean.”

Gerald Wright wasn’t quite sure he’d really heard that. Did the sweet old lady who wore sequined white tennis shoes that matched her pink cardigan really say—

“I didn’t pay $149 for this art class to play with pears and apples and make ashtrays out of clay. I want some man candy to ogle.”

Oh yeah. Heard it loud and clear.

Gerald Wright looked up slowly from his clipboard, eyelids in place, eyeballs doing the work as he met the steely glare of a woman old enough to have voted for Roosevelt.

Maybe even
Theodore
Roosevelt.

“Class doesn’t start for five minutes, ma’am. Cool your jets.” He took a good look at her. He’d seen holy men in Afghanistan with fewer wrinkles. Eyes sunken deep into weathered flesh, she had a twisted, puckered mouth, moved with slow intent, and wore a pink t-shirt with white lettering across the chest that said, “My Breasts Used To Be This High.”

Without thinking, he looked down and saw that along the hemline the shirt said, “Ha! Made You Look.”

He cringed.

“I haven’t had to cool my jets in forty years. My jet hormones left along with all my tight skin,” she said, jiggling her arms. The woman had
batwings
.

Gerald nearly ducked.

“Agnes!” Another older woman appeared behind the old lady, hobbling on a metallic walker with yellow tennis balls covering the front two posts. She wore a blonde wig with feathered hair. Gerald tried not to do a double take, because the wig looked exactly like hair from that old ‘70s show,
Charlie’s Angels
. Bright red lipstick completed the look.

“Quit pestering the nice young man.” She stopped and gave Gerald a once over. “You look like Kojak.”

Agnes blinked hard. With no eyelashes, she looked like a baby bird. A very wrinkled, ornery baby bird with a mouth like a sailor. “He doesn’t look like Kojak! Get with the program, Corrine. Kojak sucked on a lollipop. This one looks like that other bald actor.”

Gerald ran a palm against his shaved head and tried not to groan. He searched the class list. Yup. There they were: Agnes Duchamp and Corrine Morris.

And the magic words: Paid. In. Full.

It was going to be a long eight weeks.

“What other bald actor?” Corrine asked, squinting. She flashed Gerald a great big flirty smile, so full of life he couldn’t help but smile back.

“You know. The one in that movie about the boy who saw dead people.”

“Casper?”

“No.”

“The two of them at the pottery wheel, having sex?”

“No.”

“The one who was the captain of that new
Star Trek
show?”

“No.”

“Agnes, I don’t have all day to sit here playing Celebrity Alzheimer’s with you. Which bald actor does this art teacher—what’s your name?” Corrine pursed her lips as she asked the unexpected question, making Gerald sigh.

“Gerald. Gerald Wright.”

“Gerald!” Agnes laughed. “What kind of name is that for a bald sculptor? Sounds like an accountant.”

“Don’t blame me, ma’am. My parents picked it.”

“They must be wildcats. What’d they name your sister? Iphigenia?”

He opened his mouth to defend Victoria, his BASE-jumping, outdoor-survivalist-instructor little sis, but stopped himself.

“Like you should talk,
Agnes
,” Corrine snapped, pointing at her friend. “People with old lady names shouldn’t cast stones.”

Agnes scowled, layers of skin folding in on each other, like origami. “What actor does he look like?” Agnes demanded of her friend, who reached up to her ear and fiddled with her earring, giving Gerald another bright smile he couldn’t help but return.

“What?” Corrine asked Agnes sweetly.

“What actor does Gerald the Accountant look like?”

“What?” Corrine began moving like a turtle on speed toward the front of the room. A bumper sticker wrapped around one of the posts of her walker said,
I Brake for Naked Hitchhikers with Guitars.

“Damn it, Corrine, you turned off your hearing aid again, didn’t you?”

“What?” Corrine winked at him.

He was starting to like her.

“You’re lucky you’re still recovering from that surgery, Corrine, or I’d punch you.”

“You punch me, and I won’t share my lorazepam with you for those long weekends when your son-in-law comes to visit. You know. The one who wants to put you in a home?”

Agnes shut up.

As the two old ladies took their places in the front row, at the table directly before the model’s platform, Gerald greeted incoming students. So many new faces. He was lucky to get eight students per class, but tonight’s roster showed twenty-seven.

The new marketing intern in the office was doing a bang-up job.

Woman after woman, most of them over fifty, began to assemble, buzzing with excitement, taking their places at the carefully spaced tables in the room.

“Gerald!” Stacy, one of the other interns in the art center’s office, waved to him from the doorway. “You need more chairs? We have some walk-ins.”

“Walk-ins? We never have walk-ins.” Gerald strode across the room as the women in the front row hissed at each other under their breath, some kind of argument brewing.

“We do today!” Stacy had a high, squeaky voice when she was excited, a mouth full of braces, and more freckles than common sense. She was a good kid, twirling her blonde ponytail, eyes wide with an eagerness to please. “I think the total will come close to thirty.”

“Then we need more sculpting clay.”

“Want me to check the inventory?” she begged, eager for responsibility.

He grinned. “Of course. Couldn’t pull this off without your help.” The dazzling smile she returned cut quickly as she pivoted and sprinted down the hall to the supply room.

Thirty students. He hadn’t taught thirty students all year, across four different sessions, for this Nude Sculpting class. What was going on?

Puzzled, he walked back into the room, a short line forming before him as people registered, by turns nervous and calm, some in pairs with a buddy, most of them seeming to know old Agnes and Corrine up there in front.

He narrowed his eyes and strode with purpose to the two of them, catching the end of a fevered conversation between Agnes and a fifty-something brunette.

“I’ve seen his ass before. Touched it, even,” Agnes insisted.

“Class was supposed to start two minutes ago, and no Declan McCormick, Agnes. If I gave up my Tuesday night Wine and Whine Book Club because of you and there’s no cute butt guy, you’re toast.”

“What are you going to threaten me with, Pauline? I’m ninety-three. Nothing scares me.”

Corrine whispered, “Your son-in-law. Nursing home.” She rolled her eyes. “And you’re ninety-two, Agnes. For God’s sake, can’t you keep track?”

Agnes turned the color of a sheet.

“I’m not sure which one pisses me off more. My son-in-law or realizing I’ve been telling the world I’m a year older than I really am.”

Corrine just shook her head and began making what looked like a penis out of the lump of modeling clay in front of her.

“Declan’s coming. Don’t worry,” Agnes insisted, standing her ground, eyeing Corrine’s sculpture with interest.

Gerald sighed, crossing his arms over his chest, clipboard bouncing in one hand as he tapped it against his biceps.

“You’re quite the maven, aren’t you, Agnes?”

“Maven?”

“Someone who spreads the word. Information broker.”

“Been called worse,” she cackled.

“You told all these women to come because of Declan McCormick’s naked body?”

“Yes.” She stared at him like the female version of Clint Eastwood in a
Dirty Harry
movie. Gerald stared back. A grudging respect began to grow in him. She was hard core.

“The Westside Center for the Arts thanks you,” he replied, not breaking steely eye contact. “We’ve been trying to grow our classes.”

“Get some hot nude models, then.”

“That’s not the purpose of these classes, ma’am.”

“Purpose, schmurpose. You want more people like me, with disposable income and nothing more exciting at home than reruns of
To Catch a Predator
and videos on how to make gluten-free cauliflower pizza crusts on cable television to come to these classes, you spice them up.”

“This is nude-model sculpting, designed to teach basic artistic anatomy. We’re not here to titillate.”

She reached into her purse and pulled out a flask. “Call it what you want, Gerald the Accountant. This is like the bachelorette party I never had.”

And with that, Agnes sucked down a shot of whatever was in that flask.

Corrine reached for it. “Give me a nip.”

“What?”

“I said, give me a nip.”

Agnes’ mouth twisted with a grin. “What?” She pointed to her ear and said, “Two can play that game, Corrine.” She guzzled the rest of whatever liquid joy was in there.

It was going to be a
glacial
eight weeks.

Stacy jogged into the classroom, carrying a massive tub of modeling clay, face flushed, the hair around her scalp damp with sweat. “Here you go.”

“Hey.” The rumble of a man’s baritone made all the sopranos and altos come to a halt. Gerald looked up.

Declan McCormick was finally here.

“I am late because I don’t have a chauffeur anymore,” he said pointedly, making a face. That was as close to an apology as the class would get out of the man. “Do you know how time-consuming parking in one of those garages can be? They make you walk to a pay station and walk back to your car with the ticket.” He let out an exasperated sigh. “I don’t know how people live like this. What a waste of time.”

The room broke out in spontaneous applause.

Agnes got to her feet and turned around, facing her classmates, arms in the air like Rocky after defeating Apollo Creed. “See? Told you he’d be here.”

Declan’s eyes darted to the old lady, then rolled so high they might as well be cherry pickers. “Oh, God. Are you sure we’re not in Salem? Because I see a witch.”

“I see you’ve met Agnes,” Gerald said, smothering a grin. He reached out to give Declan’s hand a shake, the two pumping arms madly, women in the room sighing loudly.

“We’re
intimately
acquainted,” Agnes crowed proudly, then hiccuped. The crowd erupted into titters.

Declan pulled him in for a half hug. “Watch the fingers,” he whispered. “She’s more nimble than you think.”

“Is that why enrollment’s triple the norm? Word got out you’re the model?”

Dec shakes his head. “Marie.”

“Your mother-in-law is crazy.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“I know a lot about your family that
you
don’t know.” Because Declan no longer worked for Anterdec, their relationship had changed. He wasn’t Gerald’s boss anymore. Two months ago, he married Shannon and bought his own chain of coffee shops. Gerald still worked for Declan’s brother, CEO Andrew, and their father, James, who founded Anterdec more than thirty years ago.

“If you’ve got good dirt on my brother, I need to know.”

“Non-disclosure agreement.” He almost called him
sir
, but caught himself. “Sorry, Declan.”

Oblivious to the twenty-seven sets of eyes on him, Declan took stock of Gerald. He knew how the guy worked. This was banter, word play, a man’s-man kind of joking around.

“Fight you for it.”

See?

“What’re the terms?”

“Pool. Two out of three games. You win, you get me as a nude model for every class. I win, you give me one juicy detail about my brother. Something actionable.”

Having a set model for every class would make the sessions flow better, and allow Gerald to get into advanced sculpting techniques. On the other hand, he liked having varying models. Light, shadow, contour, and all the finer points of sculpture could be assessed and taught with variation.

“I’ll pay extra if he’s the class model for all eight weeks!” crowed Agnes.

Murmurs of furious assent filled the room.

“You better be good at billiards, Mr. Clean!” Corrine chimed in.

“Mr. Clean?” Declan’s eyebrow went up.

“Keep that face. I want it like that for the entire hour pose.”

One side of Declan’s mouth twitched, but he kept the perfect arch.

“Ladies! Ladies! Let’s get down to business.”

“I thought you were!” Agnes gave him a creepy smile. “You’d better be good at stripes and solids, mister. My husband was a pool shark. Too bad he’s dead, or he’d teach you a few things.”

Declan walked through a small door right behind the instructor’s platform.

“Where’s he going?” Corrine asked sweetly. All the heads in the class turned to track him. It was like watching sunflowers follow the sun.

“To get ready,” Gerald said, setting down his clipboard and looking out at the sea of faces. What a boon.

And as a matter of fact, he was a damn fine pool player.

Shark, even. That’s how he made some extra money in high school.

Play stupid and let people underestimate you.

Then you have them at an advantage.

Declan emerged wearing a plain white bathrobe. The room filled with whispers.

“Welcome!” Gerald clapped his hands once, bellowing out the word. The commanding voice got their attention, heads swiveling toward him. They wore smocks and poked at the clay in front of them, uncertain but eager. Half the women looked at Declan like they were here for an appetizer rather than a lesson, but that was his model’s problem.

Gerald was here to teach.

“I’m Gerald Wright, your instructor. Before you at each student’s place, you’ll find the necessary supplies for all eight classes, including a folder. Please take the notecard inside, fold it in half, and write your name on one half, facing it toward the front of class. Normally, we introduce ourselves, but the class is so big that we’d lose an entire session, so let’s use name tags and go from there.”

For the next two minutes, students shuffled notecards and pens, writing and folding, until all twenty-seven had little inverted Vs on their tables.