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.
Universal Link
Goodreads
Special Exclusive Excerpt:
Sean blinked. “Donny and Loveda? How many siblings do you have?”
I leaned back in my chair and wiped my beard carefully with my napkin. Pizza cheese was a thing I’d learned about early in my beard-wearing career. “My parents had seven of us.”
Sean gaped. “On purpose?”
Bubba, Sean’s new jock boyfriend, roared with laughter and patted Sean’s knee. “Sean! You’re so funny.”
I chuckled too. “Yeah, Sean. Pretty sure my parents know how it all works.”
“Hey, Rand’s driving to Omaha from here too,” Jesse said. “If you want to ditch that old dinosaur, you guys could totally carpool.” The teasing grin he shot Rand told me he wasn’t serious. But Rand, of course, couldn’t let that go, not even as a joke.
“Drive twelve hundred miles with a Poin? That’d be a worse punishment than any of you team-hoppers had to bear,” Rand huffed.
As usual, the entitled jerk hadn’t read the room. Everyone but two of the people at the table—hell in all of Quiz Bowl—were his so-called Poins, his word for nerds, so his comment landed like an infidelity joke at a bridal shower. I swallowed down rising anger. Rand was such an ass. He was practically magnificent in his asshattery. If there were a Greek god of being an ass, it would be Rand Charles.
He glanced around, as if confused by the pregnant silence.
“Good thing you’re graduating this year, Rand,” I said lightly. “Because between the team camaraderie this swap has created, and actual couples that have come out of ALA and SMT pair-ups, no one wants to hear your bullshit hate anymore.”
The sneer Rand shot me was a knee-jerk reaction. But when he looked to Jesse for support, and then Bubba, they both avoided his gaze, expressions stony. Color rose up Rand’s throat and seeped into his cheeks. I loved to see it. Bet it wasn’t everyday Mr. Perfect found zero takers for what he was selling.
Dobbs glared at Rand. “If you hate Poins so much, why the fuck did you even come to the finals?”
Rand’s nostrils flared. “I came to support Jesse and PJ. And I don’t hate Poins.” He looked down the table at me. “I only hate Jax.” His shark’s grin was pure malice, and all of it was aimed at me.
A whoosh of rage exploded inside me. A match to gasoline, man. I don’t know what I’d ever done to Rand to deserve the hate vibes he’d sent me for years. No, scratch that. I knew what I’d done—precisely nothing. I hardly even knew the guy. At first, I thought the glares and daggers he sent my way from across the street, or anytime we crossed paths on campus, were a homophobe thing. Then I learned he was gay. So obviously, he wasn’t a homophobe unless he was way more fucked up than I even thought. Then I decided it had to be the traditional rivalry between SMT and ALA. But it was so intense. Like, dude, get a life! I’m just chillaxing in my own little world. I’m not fucking with you, bro. But now, when several SMT guys had been working with ALA—and seemingly accepted by them—it was clear that Rand’s hatred really was about me. Me personally. Maybe it was the sheer senselessness of it that absolutely popped my cork.
Nobody disliked me. No one. I was always the mediator, the dudiest dude, friend to plants and animals. No one in my entire fucking life had hated me before Rand Charles. Which made me ache to punch his stupidly perfect, arrogant, GQ-cover-model face with its movie-star blue eyes and ridiculously coiffed blond hair.
There was a crunch and I looked down to see a breadstick crumbled to dust in my fist. I didn’t even remember grabbing it from the basket. Dobbs leaned over and spoke in my ear. “Breathe, Jax. You’re kinda purple? Don’t let that idiot get to you. He’s so not worth it.”
It’s not worth it. That’s the advice I’d given to others in so many situations. I never lost my temper, never. Except with Rand.
He smirked at me, a look that seemed to say, Not so cool now, are you, Jax? Like he got pleasure getting a rise out of me. Like somehow it showed me up as a fake or something.
I shouldn’t have said it. Really, I shouldn’t. But in extremis, man. “Glad we agree on something, Rand. Because the last person on Earth I’d want to do a road trip with is a pretentious, rich, vain, planet-polluting, entitled asswipe fracker like you. Shit stain on humanity, man.”
Rand’s face went blank and slowly bloomed with red. There was a stunned silence around the table. I realized I’d gone too far, just as Rand had minutes ago. Great. I’d taken back the who’s-the-asshole crown from him.
Enter the Giveaway:
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!
Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/cc0f2a57214/?
About the Authors:
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
Book, Tattoos & Tea 
Katie, Thank you so much for having us! Hugs!
LikeLike