Today I am so pleased to welcome Amy Jo Cousins to Joyfully Jay. Amy Jo has come to share an excerpt from her latest release, Off Campus (I loved this one and reviewed it here). She has also brought along a copy to give away.  Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

 

In OFF CAMPUS, both Tom and Reese are hoping to keep their individual heads down, get their work done, and hide out from the world in non-traditional off campus college housing after some terrible experiences the previous year, only to find themselves stuck with each other as roommates. Reese in particular has no intention of sharing his room with a jock (ex-jock, although that doesn’t sway him) like Tom, and he’s willing to amp up his casual sex with random guys if that will encourage his new roommate to disappear for good, and not just for the long weekends where he vanishes. But Tom’s need to cause no harm is stronger than any (non-existent) squeamishness about his roommate having gay sex in the next bed, and eventually he lays down the law to Reese about his activities…


Excerpt

“I want you to call me first,” Tom insisted.

“Why? So you can talk me out of it?”

He shook his head. He couldn’t really explain it. “Someone should know. Like, I don’t know, backup.”

“But you’ll be…where do you go anyway?”

Strange to realize they’d crossed all these lines and figured out some pretty intimate things about each other, but Reese had been holding him at enough of a distance not to wonder, or at least not to ask, where he went every weekend.

No way was he going into detail, but making a mystery of it would only make Reese want to dig deeper.

“Boston.”

“Home?”

“Sure.”

That was only sort of a lie, he told himself. The city itself felt like home to him now, or at least home turf, even if his actual family residence was long sold under the auctioneer’s hammer to repay a tiny fraction of his father’s debts.

Home was the back seat of his car most weekend nights, but that fact sure as shit wasn’t gonna be part of the roommate togetherness program.

“So, long-distance backup, I guess.”

“Whatever. Someone should know. And you call me in front of them, so they know you’re not by yourself.”

Reese’s color rose and he shaded his eyes from a non-existent indoor sun with one hand, tilting his head back and staring up at the ceiling.

“You want me to call you when I’m, what, about to, you know…”

“Fuck some dude? Yes. Exactly that.”

“I don’t know if I can do that.”

“You know what the campus sex counselors say. If you can’t say it, you shouldn’t be doing it.”

“Ha ha. I can say it to them. I say all kinds of things to them.” Reese’s voice, suddenly gritty and low, hummed through his bones in an entirely different way.

Tom cleared his throat, too loud in the small room. Reese’s grin showed teeth and looked like it would come with a bite if he got too close.

“Then you can call me up and say ‘Hey roomie, I met this guy named John Big-Dick Doe and I’m bringing him back to our room to blow him’, ’kay?”

He felt a little ridiculous, insisting on this, but whatever. Even if it made Reese narrow his eyes at him, running his gaze up and down Tom’s body in a blatant stroke Tom felt like a hand on his cock. He’d already figured out that Reese, when feeling threatened, got mouthy and bold, but he wasn’t expecting his roommate to let a hand drift down his chest to his own crotch, palming the length of his dick through his jeans as he stared at Tom.

“You gonna be picturing it? Me sucking off some guy, while you’re in your old bed back home, high school trophies on the shelves? Is that why you want me to call?”

Yes.

No.

“Give it a rest, kid.” He trod hard on the last word. “Just do it.”

“Or what?”

He tried to think of something that would work as a threat to a guy who was strung out enough that almost anything could be taken as a dare.

Jackpot.

“Or I’ll call your dad.”

Reese’s all-over flinch was a visible shiver on his skin. Direct hit. Tom slung his bag over his shoulder and turned toward the door. Now he could leave.

“My number’s on your desk. Okay?”

Lips pressed together, shaking his head, Reese threw himself on his bed and kicked his shoes off, pouting all the way.

Whatever. He’d be safer at least.

“Fine. Goodbye. Weirdo.”

“See you Sunday.”

Reese’s heaved sigh followed him down the hall and out to his car where he tossed his duffel into the back seat and slid behind the wheel, not exactly grinning, but happier than he’d been in days.

Now he could relax.


Blurb

Off CampusEveryone’s got secrets. Some are just harder to hide.

With his father’s ponzi scheme assets frozen, Tom Worthington believes finishing college is impossible unless he can pay his own way. After months sleeping in his car and gypsy-cabbing for cash, he’s ready to do just that.

But his new, older-student housing comes with an unapologetically gay roommate. Tom doesn’t ask why Reese Anders has been separated from the rest of the student population. He’s just happy to be sleeping in a bed.

Reese isn’t about to share his brutal story with his gruff new roommate. You’ve seen one homophobic jock, you’ve seen ’em all. He plans to drag every twink on campus into his bed until Tom moves out. But soon it becomes clear Tom isn’t budging.

Tom isn’t going to let some late-night sex noise scare him off, especially when it’s turning him on. But he doesn’t want any drama either. He’ll keep his hands, if not his eyes, to himself. Boundaries have a way of blurring when you start sharing truths, though. And if Tom and Reese cross too many lines, they may need to find out just how far they can bend…before they break.

Warning: This book contains cranky roommates who vacillate between lashing out and licking, some male/male voyeurism, emotional baggage that neither guy wants to unpack, and the definitive proof that sound carries in college housing.


Bio

Amy Jo CousinsAmy Jo Cousins writes contemporary romance and erotica about smart people finding their own best kind of smexy. She lives in Chicago with her son, where she tweets too much, sometimes runs really far, and waits for the Cubs to win the World Series.


Giveaway

Amy Jo has brought an ebook copy of Off Campus to give away to one lucky reader. Just leave a comment at the end of the post to enter. The contest ends on Thursday, January 8th at 11:59 pm EST.

  • By entering the giveaway, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
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  • Void where prohibited by law.
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