Book Title: Studious (IOU #2)
Author and Publisher: Leslie McAdam
Narrator: Declan Winters
Release Date: May 31, 2024
Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance
Tropes: Love tutor, virgin MC, reformed rake, nerd-popular, online bet
Themes: Self-acceptance, triumphing over past hurts, sweet and steamy, heart-warming
Heat Rating: 5 flames
Length: 7 hours and 10 minutes
A standalone story within a series.
It does not end on a cliffhanger.
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Blurb
After a disastrous high school game of spin the bottle, I gave up trying to get a boyfriend and spent my time studying instead. Now I’m twenty-four, and I’m not only a virgin, I haven’t even been kissed.
When I meet Danny, a handsome legal hotshot, he catches my eye. Right before I trip on flat ground. Ugh.
He’s got a massive … reputation. He’s the most popular guy in the club, a total playboy with a new conquest every night. There’s no way he’d be interested in me.
But one night after I imbibe too much, he winds up taking care of me. And when I ask for his help with my travesty of a social life, he agrees to teach me how to be less awkward with men … if I let him document my progress so he can win a bet with his best friend.
Even though he’s just my love tutor and I’m just his apprentice, this starts to feel like more.
Too bad it can’t be anything but a high-level seminar in how to seduce someone else.
Studious is a sweet and sexy contemporary opposites-attract m/m romance about a suave attorney who’s scared to love and the shy, nerdy bookkeeper he’s teaching how to be a player. Cue makeover montage and a smoldering first kiss. These heroes most definitely are not falling in love. (Okay, heartwarming HEA guaranteed.)
“Can you help me?” I blurt out.
He blinks. “Help you how?”
“Help me be more like you.”
Danny throws his head back and laughs. “Why on earth would you want to be more like me? Just be yourself. You seem like a pretty cool person.”
“I’m too shy, and I don’t know how to ask for what I want.”
“You did it pretty well just now,” he points out.
“That’s because I’m desperate.” I bite my lower lip and let out a sigh. “Never mind.”
He holds up his hands. “Whoa, whoa. What is it that you want?”
“I’m really inexperienced,” I say. “It’s embarrassing. I see you all confident, and I wish I could have that kind of confidence.”
“You have plenty of confidence. You’re the absolute boss of spreadsheets.”
“But I know nothing about what to do between the sheets.”
Danny smiles. “Oh, is that all? You can get experience in the bedroom. That’s easy.”
“That’s what I’m saying. It isn’t easy. I don’t even know where to start.”
Now his face morphs to confusion. “What do you mean?”
I straighten my shoulders. Might as well confess everything. “I’ve never even kissed anyone. Like a real kiss, I mean.”
He studies me. “You really haven’t kissed anyone?”
“Go ahead and say it,” I mutter. “I’m the biggest nerd you’ve ever met.”
“No. I think you may be the most genuine person I’ve ever met. You’re not letting yourself be talked into something you don’t want to do.”
I falter. “But that’s the point. I do want to kiss someone.”
“Would you want to kiss me?” Danny’s question isn’t teasing or an offer. It comes out as a genuine inquiry.
My huffed-out laugh is loud and fast. “Yes. I mean, no, that’s not right.”
I can’t believe I’m talking about kissing with Danny while he’s wearing only boxers and looking so kissable I could die from … something. Desire or shame, not sure which. It could go either way.
Right now, it’s looking like shame, since I’m aghast that I managed to ask my crush for help.
Oh, shit.
This is going to implode. I’m going to lose my job and then be blackballed from ever working again. And …
I take a deep breath. I’ve come this far, and I’m ashamed enough as it is to both be a virgin and be asking one of my new bosses for help. I’m not going to leave here without having done my best to plead my case. Except …
“I’d like to kiss you, but I wouldn’t want you to feel guilted into it,” I say.
“Fair enough,” Danny says. “But that isn’t what I meant. I’m just trying to figure out where you’re coming from. You want me to help you find someone else to kiss.”
Now or never.
“Yes, and I want you to teach me how to kiss. And how to have sex.”
Danny chokes on his coffee but recovers quickly. “Like, be a sex tutor?”
“Yes.”
“Jesus. I need a moment.” He puts his cup down and takes a deep breath. “Do you have any idea how enticing the idea of being someone’s first is? At least to a guy like me?”
“So will you help me? Because the only dates I’ve been on have sucked. I’m not having any luck at all.”
He rubs a hand over his face. “I’m trying to figure out what it is you’re asking. What exactly do you want me to teach you, and how? Because I’m not fucking you,” he adds quickly. “I mean, you’re plenty fuckable. But I’m not the right one for you. You should save that for someone you care about.”
“You don’t have that kind of restriction.”
“I don’t do feelings or commitments. So the emotional part of sex doesn’t matter to me.”
“I don’t want it to matter for me, either. I’m sick of this.” I gesture at myself helplessly.
He’s silent for a long moment. Then he shakes his head. “I’m sorry, but I think it’s a bad idea. I can’t do it.”
Leslie McAdam is a California girl who loves romance and well-defined abs. She lives in a drafty old farmhouse on a small orange tree farm in Southern California with her husband and two children. Leslie’s first published book, The Sun and the Moon, won a 2015 Watty, which is the world’s largest online writing competition. She’s gone on to receive additional literary awards and has been featured in multiple publications, including Cosmopolitan.com. Her books have been Top 100 Bestsellers on both Amazon and Apple Books. Leslie is employed by day but spends her nights writing about the men of your fantasies.
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