Test Drive (Crossroads Book 3)

  TEST DRIVE

  A Crossroads Novel

  By

  Riley Hart

  Copyright © 2016 by Riley Hart

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission of the author, except where permitted by law.

  Published by:

  Riley Hart

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Printed in the United States of America.

  All products/brand names mentioned are registered trademarks of their respective holders/companies.

  Cover Design by X-Potion Designs

  Cover Image by Jean-Baptiste HUONG (www.jeanbaptistehuong.com)

  Edited by Prema Editing and Flat Earth Editing

  Formatted by Angel’s Indie Formatting

  Special thanks to Riley’s Rebels member Robyn for letting me use your name. Also, to Carly Rose and Amanda Souliotis for all your help with the details about chemo, hospice and cancer. Any mistakes are my own.

  Dedication:

  To Ryan Burdett. Thank you for the support, conversations, and for helping me choose Drew’s career. You are a joy to talk to.

  TABLE OF CONTENT

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

  EPILOGUE

  PROLOGUE

  Justin Evanson sat in the busy club and eyed the guy seated down the bar from him. He hadn’t kept his eyes off Justin all night, and Justin hadn’t been inclined to take his eyes off him either.

  His dad, who had been the picture-perfect father from the moment he’d come into Justin’s life at eight years old was dying—and his vision of that man was shattered. He’d discovered that his dad wasn’t who he thought he was. When he’d finally made his way into Justin’s life, he’d done so on the heels of abandoning a son and daughter, and until he realized he didn’t have much time left, had pretended they didn’t exist.

  Now, Justin was in a new town, in a new fucking state, waiting for his father to find a way back into the lives of the kids he’d abandoned, and he had no idea how he really fit into that equation. How would he fit in with his father’s new family, which was really his original family?

  His older sister, Shanen, had gotten married today. His older brother, Landon, had walked her down the aisle to give her away. Justin had spent the day playing cards and watching television at a piece of crap, yellow table with his depressed father, who was upset he couldn’t be there. They didn’t know their father was back.

  They didn’t know Justin existed at all.

  Talk about a shitty fucking hand to be dealt. He figured he deserved an anonymous hookup with a sexy guy he met in a club, and the blond with the strong jawline and hooded eyes just might be exactly what he was looking for.

  Sex was a whole lot more fun than dealing with the other shit.

  Justin couldn’t imagine how Shanen and Landon would feel when they found out about him—and more importantly, when they found out about their father. His chest felt hollowed out just thinking about the situation, thinking about the family he didn’t know. The things they’d missed—holidays and summer vacations. Fights and laughs and all the things that came with family. Basically, he was feeling really fucking sorry for himself. Hence the reason he sat in a club hoping to fuck the night away. It was the least he deserved.

  After finishing his drink, Justin stood up and walked toward the sexy blond. For a brief second, he thought the guy was going to bolt, but he didn’t move, just continued to follow Justin with his eyes as he made his way to him.

  “Hey.” Justin looked down at the guy as he swished whatever he was drinking around in his glass. His blond hair was short, buzzed closer around the edges and slightly longer on top. Every now and then his face would change colors—blue, red, green, as the strobe light shined around the room.

  “Hey.”

  “I’m Justin.”

  The blond nodded. “Drew.” He had a deep, sexy voice. All gravelly and…almost commanding, but somehow a little unsure at the same time. It got his dick hard, but then again, he hadn’t had sex in a while, so he wasn’t sure that was a difficult feat.

  “You looking?” Justin asked. There was no reason to beat around the bush. Drew would say yes or no. They’d fuck or not. He wouldn’t pretend this was anything other than what it was.

  He watched as Drew’s steel-blue eyes darted around the club—toward the door and then back at Justin again. Had he read the guy wrong and he wasn’t interested? Or hell, maybe he just wasn’t into hooking up with someone he didn’t know. Some people were and some weren’t. He didn’t judge one way or the other.

  After bringing his glass to his lips, Drew downed the rest of his drink in three long swallows. He set the glass down a little hard on the counter and then flinched. “Let’s dance,” he finally said, a slight quiver to his voice.

  Fuck. Was he in the closet? The thought made Justin’s gut cramp. He hated it when people had to live like that. Luckily, it had never been a problem for him but he knew it was for too many people.

  Whether Drew was in the closet or not, there was one thing he had to confirm. “You married? Man or woman, it doesn’t matter. Are you in any kind of relationship at all?” He didn’t fuck around with a man who was with someone else. That’s how he’d been born. His dad had cheated on Landon and Shanen’s mom, and then gone back to her. Justin’s mom didn’t know how to get a hold of him, so she raised Justin alone until he was eight and she found out where his dad was. He’d gained a father around the same time Landon and Shanen had lost theirs. It didn’t matter to him that pregnancy obviously wasn’t an issue here, he didn’t touch someone who was cheating. He made damn sure he asked any time he hooked up.

  “Nope. Are we going to dance or not?” Drew replied.

  Jesus, he was sexy. He had narrow eyes like he hid secrets inside of them, and yeah, that mouth. It was pretty as fuck. He had nice, full lips that Justin wouldn’t mind seeing wrapped around his dick. None of that had anything on his jawline, though. It was defined, square and strong, with some sexy stubble Justin wanted to feel against his skin. Drew had a good body, too. Justin could tell he kept in shape. “Yeah, we’re dancing.”

  Justin stepped back, while Drew stood and immediately started walking. Justin followed him through the packed club. They weaved their way around men kissing, dancing and talking.

  Drew didn’t stop moving until he found what was probably the loneliest, darkes
t corner of the club. It was Justin who grabbed hold of Drew and pulled him close. If they were going to dance, he wanted to feel the other man. He’d always been like that—he liked touch. Loved the feel of a man against him, inside him, around him. He wasn’t picky on the how of it.

  They both began moving together, slower than the music that pumped from the speakers, and vibrated through Justin. He ran his hands down Drew’s muscular back. His T-shirt was slightly wet with sweat, but that just made Justin pull him closer, inhale deeper.

  He felt Drew’s muscles move under his hand. Drew gripped Justin’s sides, his fingers digging into Justin’s flesh.

  Drew felt good, smelled like soap and alcohol and clean sweat. He let his hands travel down Drew’s back until they landed on his ass. Drew groaned as he palmed the globes. Oh yeah. He definitely worked out. He wasn’t a muscle-head, but there was no doubt that Drew was physical. He could feel it in every twist and turn and the tight constriction of his body movements.

  He slid one of his legs between Drew’s, pulled their bodies flush against each other, felt Drew’s erection rub against his dick. That was all it took for blood to travel to Justin’s crotch as his own cock grew and hardened even more than it had already. Why were they wasting time? He wanted to fuck, to come, to forget about all the other shit he was dealing with.

  “Let’s get out of here, and I’ll take care of that hard-on for you. It feels like a nice fucking dick.” The second Justin’s final word left his mouth, Drew’s lips took his. It was a hungry kiss, an urgent kiss. His tongue demanded entrance and Justin opened up and invited him inside.

  Their tongues dueled, both of them obviously ravenous for each other. Justin wanted to devour him. It wasn’t Drew specifically, even though the man was fucking gorgeous. He just wanted someone, something to take his mind off of everything else. Off his father dying and his fear over how his siblings would react to finding out about him. Their father had left them and ended up raising Justin. How could they not hate him?

  He groaned into Drew’s mouth when he pressed the palm of his hand against Justin’s erection. They kept moving, Drew slowly backing him farther into the corner.

  The pressure against Justin’s dick got stronger and stronger. He squeezed Drew’s ass tighter, and this time, he was the one who got to eat Drew’s groan.

  They kept kissing, kept rubbing against each other, and then both of Drew’s hands were on him. He stood in front of Justin, who had his back against the corner. His fingers fumbled with Justin’s button, then his zipper.

  He almost stopped him, almost told him they could go somewhere else, but hell, why couldn’t they do this first and then fuck later? Coming twice was always better than coming once, right?

  As Drew opened Justin’s pants and shoved a hand inside, Justin went for the button and zipper on Drew’s jeans. He opened them much quicker than Drew had his, and then they were rubbing each other’s cocks and eating at each other’s mouths. It didn’t matter that they were in a busy club. They’d hidden themselves and what they were doing as best as they could. The end result was all Justin could concentrate on.

  Drew’s hand has sweating when he squeezed Justin’s cock. He had callouses on his palms, right beneath his fingers. The rough skin felt good against his aching erection.

  Justin had never done this before. He’d fucked men he didn’t know, but jerking off in the corner of a club was new for him…and exciting. His heart beat against his chest, as his dick got harder by the second.

  Drew was thick in his hand, thick and long and hot. His skin seared Justin and he couldn’t wait to taste him. This was exactly what he needed. The more he thought about it, the fuller his balls got. They pulled up tight as Drew jacked him faster.

  Justin squeezed with more pressure, picked up the pace and it didn’t matter that they were going at this dry. It was fucking working.

  Drew came first. His body went rigid. He pulled his mouth away and whispered, “Oh fuck,” as he shot into Justin’s hand. The raspy pleasure in Drew’s voice went straight to Justin’s balls and he let go, spurting two long ribbons of come into Drew’s hand. The pressure was still there, though. He wanted more, even as his body wanted to slump against Drew’s.

  “Jesus, that was hot,” Justin said, breathing heavily.

  “Yeah…yeah, it was.” And then Drew was shoving himself back into his pants before he began buttoning and zipping them.

  He grabbed napkins from a table beside them that Justin hadn’t even realized was there, shoved one at Justin and then wiped his own hand. Justin stood there, feeling dumbstruck. He pushed himself back into his pants just as Drew said, “Thanks. That was…that was amazing. I’m sorry. I have to go. I’m sorry.”

  He didn’t turn back around as he weaved his way through all the bodies. Didn’t slow down until he disappeared from sight, leaving Justin horny and half-hard with dry come on him.

  Well, shit. That wasn’t how he expected that to go.

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Justin, your brother is on the phone. He wants to talk to you.” He tried not to flinch at the excitement in his dad’s voice. There was a part of Justin that was thrilled. The majority of him was thrilled, actually. He had siblings, something he’d always wanted, but things were still awkward, and that was putting it lightly.

  There had been a week or so that he’d worried about how everything would go. Joy and his dad finally came clean about Larry being back; Shanen had been immediately accepting when she discovered she had a brother and that their dad had returned. Landon…well, things hadn’t gone quite as smoothly with him.

  Justin understood it. Landon’s whole world had changed, but Justin’s had too. Everyone’s reality was altered and they all had to figure out how to deal with it.

  He and Landon were okay now. Landon accepted him, but the family dynamics were a work in progress for all of them. They were all fumbling their way through this as best as they could, but their father wanted it all, right now. Justin understood his reasoning but that didn’t mean he was always comfortable. But Larry didn’t know exactly how much longer he had left, so, yeah, he was ready for the one big happy family thing, but for Justin, sometimes just hearing the words your brother was strange for him.

  He walked over to his dad and took the cell phone from his bony hand, the familiar hum of his oxygen tank in the background. He’d lost so much fucking weight. He wasn’t the same man Justin grew up admiring. They’d just finished a round of chemo, which meant they would have a short break before the next one started. The goal right now was to give him time, to slow the growth of his lung cancer. It hadn’t responded to previous sessions. They’d caught it late, Larry’s own stubbornness having kept him from ignoring signs that something was wrong. Now slowing it was their only option. “Thanks, old man.” He winked and got a smile, one that Justin couldn’t bring himself to return. His father had more wrinkles now than he used to. He looked as though he’d aged twenty years since the initial diagnosis.

  It hurt to look at him, so Justin let his eyes dart away, put the phone to his ear, and said, “Hello?” He was talking to his brother. He had a brother. It still took some getting used to. He knew Landon felt the same. It was only a week ago that Landon and his partner, Rod had come over to the small house that Justin and his dad rented so Landon could have his first real conversation with their father. That one week had felt like a hundred weeks, yet just an hour at the same time.

  “How’s he doing today?” Landon asked as Justin made his way outside to sit on the wood porch that was so small, he wasn’t sure it could be considered a porch at all.

  “He’s okay. Spent most of the morning vomiting. He’s watching a ridiculous reality show now.”

  “Reality TV? You didn’t tell me he had bad taste,” Landon joked and it helped loosen some of the tightness in Justin’s chest. He wanted a relationship with this side of his family. Wanted it so much he felt guilt over it sometimes. He was stuck between wondering if he had a place with them,
and determination to demand one. It didn’t help that it sometimes made him feel like he was leaving his mother out in the cold.

  “Eh. We all have our flaws. His is shitty television. When we know each other a little better, I’ll share some of mine. I’m not sure if we have enough time today.”

  Landon laughed and damned if it didn’t sound a whole hell of a lot like their dad. “You and me both,” he said. “I only have a minute. It’s my first day back at work after getting my cast off, but I just wanted to give you a heads-up. Shanen wants to have a big party for Dad’s birthday next week. I know it’s last minute, but…”

  She’s making up for lost time. He’s dying. There were so many ways that Landon could end his sentence and they were all shitty as hell. “Yeah, I get it. As long as he’s physically up for it, we’ll be there. My question is, who else will be?”

  He didn’t mean to sound like a dickhead, but who did their dad know? Fortunately, Landon laughed. “No shit. That’s what I told her. Basically people who don’t know him except for you, me, her and Mom…my mom,” he corrected and the awkwardness found its way into the conversation again. Justin’s mom was still in North Carolina where he’d grown up.

  “I’m inviting Nick and Bryce. They’re friends of ours. Bryce is the guy I work with at the shop.”

  “Yeah, okay.” Justin knew that. Their dad talked a lot about Landon’s work at the shop. The two men shared their love of motorcycles. Justin enjoyed them too, but not with the same passion that Landon and their dad felt.

  “Shanen is inviting friends of hers, and I think Jacob’s parents will be there. That’s Shanen’s husband. It’s going to be weird as fuck.”

  It would be, but what in his life wasn’t weird anymore? “Okay. Sounds good. Thanks for letting me know. We’ll be there.”

  They were silent for a moment because really, what did they have to say? They still didn’t know one another all that well. The weather was a ridiculous thing to bring up. The man inside the house was too painful. Justin was at a loss.