Release Tour, Exclusive Excerpt & Giveaway:
Head to Head by Eli Easton & Tara Lain
Nerds Vs Jocks, Book 3
If these two don’t kill each other, they might fall in love.
Rand hates Jax because he’s the laid-back, vegan-eating, tree-hugging, total-Zen-until-I-get-a-chance-to-screw-you president of Sigma Mu Tau, the nerdy fraternity that’s the sworn enemy of Rand’s house, Alpha Lambda Alpha. What a phony!
Jax hates Rand for being the privileged, rich-heir-to-an-oil-empire, environment-destroying, soul-sucking president of the ALA jocks—but mostly because Rand hated him first. Rand has sent nothing but hateful vibes his way since the day they met. What a douche!
The enemies have never had a single conversation that didn’t involve shouting—until Jax’s old Buick breaks down on a road trip and Rand plays reluctant rescuer. Jax is forced to sit on Rand’s dead cow seats. Rand learns chickens can enter the living room and that Jax’s beliefs are more than skin-deep. The bitter rivals embark on a quest to save a family member and discover that sometimes animosity is a mask for crazy-hot attraction. With this much face time, head-to-head might become heart-to-heart.
HEAD TO HEAD is an enemies to lovers, forced proximity, opposites attract, searching for his sister, clashing cultures, MM romance—with a whole lot of fracking.
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Cluck. Cluck, cluck, cluck.
I opened one eye. Cluck? Where the hell am I?
Along with the sunshine streaming through the oddly shaped open window above my head, a woman’s voice floated into my cozy space from outside. “Jax, Esmeralda’s in the house again.”
Jax? Oh right. The whole insanity of the previous day poured into my mind, starting with discovering that somehow my father had poisoned a chunk of Pennsylvania, and that my casual, convenient, and long-distance relationship with Fremont Townsend had magically morphed into an engagement, to reluctantly picking up Jax on the road, to finding Jason and incidentally discovering that he was the image of Jax—fuck you, subconscious mind—and finally to winding up in the home of one of my heroes, Gilliam Johnson. I wiped a hand over my head to reorder my thoughts. But the biggest shock yesterday had been learning that everything I thought I knew about my sister Peyton’s life and whereabouts was a fucking fantasy.
I sat up in what had turned out to be a very comfortable bed and glanced at the clock on the side table. Wow. It was after eight. After thrashing around for an hour or so last night, hashing out my confusion, I must have slept hard.
Throwing the covers back, I realized I’d slept in my underwear, even though I had sleep pants in the bag I’d brought in with me. I opened my overnight case, dug out the pants and pulled them on, got my shaving kit out, then peeked out the bedroom door into the hall.
All the slanty walls and high windows suggested this was an attic and, besides the room I was staying in, the only other door appeared to lead to a tiny bathroom complete with a shower. It looked sized for an RV, but it had a toilet, and a sink, and fresh, fluffy towels were piled on a high shelf. I was glad I didn’t have to go scour the house for a bathroom and fight Jax’s innumerable siblings for it. I went in, peed, and then took a quick, claustrophobic shower, with my shoulders alternately bumping into both walls as I tried to shave. Drying off was so fraught with required yoga moves that I finally decided to drip dry and pulled my sleep pants back over my still damp hips.
I opened the door and turned sideways to emerge into the small hall.
Puck, puck, puck, puck puck, puck.
“What the hell?”
Something fast and feathery ran circles around my feet. I staggered and flailed trying to get away from it.
Cluck, puck, puck, cluck.
A girl’s voice yelled, “I’ve got her, Mom!”
A small body dove toward me and plunged into my bare chest, as the feathered marauder flapped vicious, batlike wings and flew up in my face. I waved my arms madly, trying to stave it off, bounced off the wall, and landed on the floor. Whoever had attacked me spun around and fell flat on top of me in a tangled heap.
“I’ve got her?” She sounded a little less certain this time.
As I opened my eyes and managed to focus on my predicament, footsteps clomped up the stairs, and a wry voice that could only be Jax, said, “Uh, Rand Charles, meet my sister, Loveda Johnson. Oh, and that’s Esmeralda.”
I blinked. A petite auburn-haired girl with big brown eyes was staring down at me with a half-smile reminiscent of her brother. She was holding—
I stammered, “T—that’s a chicken.”
The girl, Loveda, said, “Well damn, you are a city boy, aren’t you?” She struggled and managed to get herself to a seated position on the floor, without losing hold of Esmeralda. “This situation would have all the makings of a meet-cute except I hear you’re gay.” She shook her head. “Sad to say. Sad to say. Damn, Jax, look at that chest.” She held out the chicken to Jax. “Actually will you stop looking at that chest and take this creature off my hands before I forget I’m a vegetarian?”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or die of embarrassment. Glancing at Jax and Loveda, I had a pretty good idea if I chose to be embarrassed, that I’d spend the whole day blushing, so I laughed instead.
Jax took the chicken and Loveda sprang nimbly to her feet, revealing a cute, compact body. This must be Jax’s sixteen-year-old sister, the one who was supposed to get that old wreck of a car. She extended me a hand, and I raised an eyebrow, since she wouldn’t precisely provide much leverage. I pushed off the floor myself and rose with what I hoped was some finesse.
She turned to her brother. “Give Essy to me. I’ll return her to the yard.” She looked over her shoulder. “And you hurry up, since none of us can wait another minute for blueberry buckwheat pancakes. Honestly. College boys!” Holding the wriggling chicken, she flounced down the stairs.
I looked back just in time to catch what I thought was a full-on checkout of my bare torso by Jax. He licked his lips, which made my belly clench. Then he realized I was watching and abruptly looked away. “Breakfast in five minutes.” With that, he followed Loveda.
To celebrate the release of Schooling the Jock, Eli & Tara are giving away a $25 Amazon Voucher.
Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win!
About Eli:
Coming from a background in computer game design, Eli has written over 35 books in m/m romance since 2013. The Mating of Michael (2014) and A Second Harvest (2016) both won The William Neale Award for Best Gay Contemporary Romance, and Eli’s books have won many awards from the Goodreads M/M Romance Group’s Reader’s Choice Awards. She is best known for her Christmas romances, the Howl at the Moon series of rom coms featuring dog shifters, and her Sex in Seattle series, which revolves around a sex clinic in Seattle.
Connect with Eli:
www.elieaston.com
Facebook: Eli Easton
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/164054884188096
Twitter: @elieaston
About the Author:
Tara Lain believes in happy ever afters – and magic. Same thing. In fact, she says, she doesn’t believe, she knows. Tara shares this passion in her stories that star her unique, charismatic heroes and adventurous heroines. Quarterbacks and cops, werewolves and witches, blue collar or billionaires, Tara’s characters, readers say, love deeply, resolve seemingly insurmountable differences, and ultimately live their lives authentically. After many years living in southern California, Tara, her soulmate honey and her soulmate dog decided they wanted less cars and more trees, prompting a move to Ashland, Oregon where Tara’s creating new stories and loving living in a small town with big culture. Tara loves animals of all kinds (even snakes), diversity, open minds, coconut crunch ice cream from Zoeys, and her readers.
She has around 57 books published or scheduled for publication.
Connect with Tara:
Website: https://taralain.com/
Facebook Reader’s Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/255111391312743
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taralain/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/taralain
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taralainauthor/
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/tara-lain
