by Quinn Ward
Rooming Together
The Boys of Talbert Hall #1
Quinn Ward
Copyright © 2020 by Quinn Ward
Cover Design by Cover Me, Darling LLC
Editing by AG Edits
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Welcome to Annandale!
1. Jayden
2. Chase
3. Jayden
4. Chase
5. Jayden
6. Chase
7. Jayden
8. Chase
9. Jayden
10. Jayden
11. Chase
12. Jayden
13. Chase
14. Jayden
15. Chase
16. Jayden
17. Chase
18. Jayden
19. Chase
20. Jayden
21. Chase
22. Jayden
Are you enjoying your time in Annandale?
A Note From Quinn
About Quinn Ward
Welcome to Annandale!
A group of interconnected series set in one kinky town
The fictional town of Annandale currently has four running series. While there is overlap between the different settings, the books can be read in any order!
Marino’s - Mama was definitely shocked to learn all of her sons were kinky in one way or another, but she’s proud of the men who are running the family restaurant.
Club 83 - Eli’s worked hard to build a welcoming bar for the LGBTQ+ community. These daddies and boys will work their way into your kinky little heart.
The Lodge - As Jayden so astutely pointed out, The Lodge is like a mullet: it’s innocent (enough) in the front, but the party is most definitely in the rear. So far, we’ve only seen the sweeter side, but there will definitely be a trip to The Back Deck in the future.
Talbert Hall - Rooming Together is the first book set in the kinkiest residence hall on campus. It’s a known fact that those who thrive in Talbert don’t fit in well other places.
1
Jayden
Maybe it made me a dick, but I was relieved when I walked into the dorm and saw half the room empty. I should feel bad that my roommate washed out and was now back home getting ready to start taking classes at the community college because his parents refused to foot the bill for his constant partying. I didn’t. And it wasn’t him stumbling into the room piss drunk more often than not that broke me.
Let’s just say no man wants to be reminded repeatedly that his mom’s a MILF. How I refrained from knocking him out the night I was studying for a final and he was drunk enough to tell me in graphic detail what he’d like to do to her is truly one of the great mysteries of the world. Yes, I knew my mom was hot. Yes, she was young. No, that didn’t make her fair game for dickheads who couldn’t get laid on campus because word had gotten out about their issues with whiskey dick.
I only hoped the stripped bed and barren desk meant housing hadn’t seen a reason to give me another roommate for the spring semester. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep my grades up again this semester with the constant distraction.
“Dude! Did your mom send the goods back with you?” Matt had the nose of a damn bloodhound. If I didn’t know better, I could almost imagine him lying on the floor near the door that connected the two sides of our living unit, sniffing and drooling like a dog waiting for a treat every time I came home from Mom’s house. I got it, really. She was a kick-ass baker with nothing better to do than try new recipes now that she wasn’t cleaning up after me all the time.
“Yes, you damned mooch.” I shook my head as I unzipped the duffel that was crammed with snacks to get me through until the next big shopping trip, as well as three containers of fresh-baked cookies and brownies to share with Matt and Brandon—the guys left in my suite who weren’t loud, disrespectful fuckwits. The other two weren’t actually that bad, but we weren’t close. “Mom said she made the caramel ones just for you.”
Matt nearly stumbled over his own two feet; his arms outstretched for the gift. The lid clattered to the ground as he scooped out a square of chocolatey goodness. “Dude, your mom is the shit!”
“Did you even bother saying hi to him?” Brandon followed, shaking his head. “Sorry, man. I tried getting him to give you a bit of space before accosting you.”
“You’re not his Daddy.” I didn’t mean anything by the off-handed comment, but Brandon froze, his cheeks flaming bright red. He swallowed hard. His chest rose and fell rapidly, and he looked ready to bolt. “Chill, man. I didn’t mean it like that.”
Matt was possibly one of the biggest dudebros I’d ever met. Sure, I sometimes wondered if all that posturing was a way to hide his sexuality, but I’d never call him on it. Not my place, and I understood that not everyone was lucky enough to have supportive families the way I did.
“Yeah, I know. It’s cool.” Matt snatched another brownie before handing the container back. “It’s not my fault I’ve just suffered almost a month of shitty cooking at home. I swear, my mom tries but it’s like eating hockey pucks.”
“I’ll be sure to pass on the compliment that Mom’s treats are better than vulcanized rubber,” I deadpanned. I turned away from them to start unpacking my shit. I wanted to take the bulk of tonight to do something I hadn’t been able to do the entire fall semester: study in peace. There were a few readings I wanted to get a jump on before classes started tomorrow morning.
Matt and Brandon, being the type of guys they were, didn’t get pissy with my subtle dismissal. I bit back my amusement when I heard Brandon smack Matt’s hand and Matt yelped. The guy was a human garbage disposal, and if someone didn’t restrain him, he’d eat the whole container of brownies and then be up half the night moaning when his body revolted.
It didn’t take long to unpack. Mom and I had always been broke AF growing up, and that had helped me adopt somewhat of a minimalist lifestyle. That was yet another thing Drake didn’t understand. He thought it was weird that I had enough clothes to get me from one weekend at Mom’s to the next, and that I preferred to not trip over shit all the damn time.
Have I mentioned how stoked I was to not have a roommate this semester?
Once everything was unpacked, I dug out my headphones and turned on one of my white noise apps. If there was anything I needed to credit Drake for, it was making me desperate enough to try anything to block out the never-ending sound.
I blamed the headphones my Uncle William bought me for Christmas for not realizing I wasn’t alone in the room. I’m not too macho to admit I squealed when noticed the intruder. I tossed my headphones to the desk as I spun around.
“Um, excuse you. I think you’re in the wrong room,” I pointed out, even though I was pretty sure I hadn’t forgotten to lock my door, which meant either he had a key, or he was damn good at breaking and entering. Maybe it was an unfair assumption, but he didn’t strike me as the type who lived a life of crime.
I shit you not, the kid pulled a piece of paper out of the pocket of his button-down shirt and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. His hand shook as he skimmed the paper, then held it out to me. “This is room 401B, right?”
“Yeah, but why are you here?”
“Because this is where housing told me I was staying?” His shoulders hunched forward as he gave
a response that sounded more like a question than a statement. “They warned me…”
I leaned against the edge of my desk, waiting for him to finish. He said nothing as he alternated between rubbing his forearms as if he was cold and scratching behind his ear. I checked the housing assignment again, wondering if he’d made his way across campus with this sheet fisted in his hand. It was crumpled, but not like it had been thrown away.
Great, I’d traded an obnoxious party boy for someone who was so skittish he made me nervous.
“Chase, come on, man.” He finally made eye contact when I called him by name. His mouth gaped open and I could see the questions he was dying to ask. I held up the paper. “Your name’s right here at the top. Unless you’re not Chase Kepler, at which point we would have an issue with you being in my room.”
“No, that’s me,” he confirmed.
There was a brief struggle when I tried taking the suitcase he was holding on to for dear life. Finally, I shook my head and stepped back. If the kid wanted to hang onto it like a security blanket, I wasn’t going to fight him. “Sorry man, figured your arm might be getting tired. I think you can figure out which bed and dresser are yours. Make sure you knock before you use the bathroom. Brandon’s a good guy, but he has no sense of humor when he’s interrupted during his daily shit.”
“That’s disgusting.” Chase’s lip curled up and he shuddered. “I don’t need to know about his defecation habits.”
Oh, this was going to be fun. I shook my head and turned back toward my desk. “Let me know if you need anything. I’m trying to get some reading done.”
“Okay. I’m sure I’ll be fine.” I was sure he was anything but fine.
I tried to focus on the chapter I was reading, but something Chase had been about to say kept distracting me. I hung my headphones around my neck and spun in my chair, stopping before I spoke. He looked terrified as he carefully unfolded every shirt and hung it in the closet. I wasn’t sure how to deal with a spooked horse roommate and didn’t want to see how he’d react the first time we had company.
Reading took a backseat as I watched Chase. He carefully placed his toiletries in a line so straight you wouldn’t have been able to convince me he hadn’t used a ruler if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. He crouched down, reaching for something else in his bag. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but it seemed he was arguing with himself about something.
He plopped onto the floor, holding the duffel bag in his lap, hand still buried deep inside. Now I was curious. What in the hell kind of weird shit was he bringing into the room? He hung his head, shaking it before zipping the bag and shoving it under his bed.
Drake liked to give me shit for my impersonal living space, but Chase took things to a whole other level. I might not have much, but there was nothing on Chase’s side of the room that gave me any clues about who he was. It was stupid because I was on a mission to keep my grades up, and that meant I shouldn’t be worried about turning my roommate into my bestie, but I wanted some sort of idea about who I’d be sharing a room with for the semester.
“You know, you can decorate your side however you want,” I offered. His body went rigid. He bent down, letting out a breath when he saw—or didn’t see—whatever it was he was looking for. Probably trying to make sure his bag was hidden. I wasn’t a snoop, but I wasn’t sure how long I’d make it not knowing what he was hiding. “I know my side of the room is pretty bare, but you don’t have to keep your shit packed away.”
“It’s fine,” Chase insisted. Fuck, I was going to get sick of that word.
“Whatever you say,” I responded with a shrug. “Just figured you knew it’s going to be a long semester and you might feel better if you made your space homey.”
“Why don’t you have posters or something?” He clamped a hand over his mouth as if he thought he said something he shouldn’t have. This dance was going to get old. And why was I suddenly obsessed with helping him acclimate to life in the suites?
“It’s a fair question,” I said, moving to the bean bag under my lofted bed so I didn’t feel like I was towering over him. “This is what home’s like for me.”
“Like you don’t have anything? Man, sorry. My mother says I need to learn to not pry into other people’s lives.”
“She’s wrong,” I countered. “Sure, you shouldn’t be nosy, but asking questions is how you learn about other people.”
That earned me something resembling a smile. I sat up a bit straighter, proud of myself for cracking his shell a bit.
“We have all the things we need to get by,” I explained. “Sure, there were times when we didn’t have much, but even once my mom graduated from college and we could have bought more stuff, she never did. She said it was easier to know what you have when you aren’t buried under piles of clutter.”
“Man, I wish I’d lived in a place like that,” Chase mused. See, now we were getting somewhere. He leaned against the edge of his bed with his legs crossed in front of him. He looked around the room, pinching his bottom lip. He was still nervous. Damn. “There’s stuff everywhere in my parents’ house. Mom says she’s a collector. Dad says she’s a packrat. I think I’ll like this better.”
“Well, if you change your mind, remember it’s not all or nothing,” I reminded him. “For me, it’s not so much about not having things, it’s about being intentional about what I bring into my space.”
“But your space is my space. So, wouldn’t you be upset if I mess up the feng shui or whatever?”
Oh, he was fucking adorable.
“It’s nothing that thought out,” I reassured him. “Seriously, I’d rather you be comfortable than walking on eggshells around me.”
Chase shrugged. “We’ll see. For now, I want to try it your way. I should probably let you get back to studying. Thanks for not acting like I’m the misfit. I know I’m younger than everyone else in the suite, but I won't be a pest.”
“How old are you?” Everyone in this building was supposed to be a junior or senior, but yeah, he did look young.
“I’ll be twenty-one this spring,” he admitted, his cheeks turning a cute shade of pink.
“So what, your last roommate didn’t work out and they moved you in with me?” I hadn’t seen him around, but that didn’t mean much. Eastern wasn’t a huge school but there were thousands of students spread out over the various departments.
Chase shook his head, pursing his lips tightly. There was a story there, but it seemed he wasn’t ready to share with the class. That was fine. I was going to keep working at him a little bit at a time until he opened up to me.
And how fucked was that? Taking on a pet project of befriending the shy kid was pretty much the exact opposite of savoring a room to myself.
“Cool.” His body relaxed when I didn’t press him for details on where he’d been before walking into my life. “Well, I’m going to finish this chapter. If you want, take a look around. The suite kitchen is down the hall and to the right. There’s a small lounge and another bathroom at that end of the suite, too.”
Chase shook his head. “Oh, no, I’m… Yeah, I don’t need to do that right now, do I?”
“No, there’s no timetable. I just thought you might want to check out where you’ll be staying.” Then again, maybe it would be for the best if we eased him into the suite life. Some of the suitemates could be a bit much to handle, even for me. They’d eat him alive if he was this skittish around them.
“I’ll get there,” he said, but I wasn’t sure which of us he was trying to convince.
“Yeah, you will,” I agreed, earning another shy smile. “It’s probably been a long day for you if you’re just now getting settled. Why don’t you kick back and relax for the night? There will be plenty of time for adventures later.”
Chase yawned, arching his back as he stretched. He quickly tugged on the hem of his shirt, depriving me a longer glimpse of his smooth, toned stomach. Maybe I should feel worse about checking him out, but I was only human
. A twenty-two-year-old man with an active, under-utilized libido.
It was going to be a long semester.
2
Chase
This semester was going to be better.
It had to be.
It would be, as long as I didn’t do anything stupid that sent my new roommate running to housing, demanding he not be forced to live with me through the end of the year. The only thing saving me from an interrogation from my parents about that one, was the fact my younger brother was acting out and taking all the attention off me. I was okay with that because it had allowed me to make up a flimsy story about how sometimes roommates just can’t get along, and they didn’t question it.
I stared across the room, squinting to try and see if my new roommate was actually asleep or not. It probably wasn’t a good start that I’d been so freaked out after he’d turned on me that I hadn’t bothered asking his name. It was going to be awkward going through the whole introductions phase in the morning.
Don’t do it.
I wanted to sneak out of bed and get my bag. I knew I shouldn’t because it would only lead to the same trouble I’d had before, but I couldn’t sleep. He’d told me I could decorate my room however I wanted; that should have included my blanket. But I’d been harassed enough over it, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be comfortable having it on my bed. Maybe I could take a nap when I knew I’d be home alone. Then again, that hadn’t worked so well in the past either.