Test Drive

By L. A. Witt

Sean Waters is down on his luck thanks to the economy, and winds up working for his domineering father's car dealership. It's not the greatest job, but it's a paycheck. The only problem? He's got a wicked crush on the general manager, Jackson Rayburn.

When Jackson suggests a drive in one of the brand new sports cars, Sean has no idea it's not the car Jackson really wants to take for a spin.

They both need this job, though, and the boss isn't keen on employees getting involved with each other. But it's just a lusty little crush anyway, so they can move on and pretend nothing ever happened.

Can't they?

This short story was previously published, and has been revised and expanded to 15,000 words.

• Language: English
• Publisher: GallagherWitt
• Release date: Apr 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9780996183628

L. A. Witt

L.A. Witt is the author of Back Piece. She is a M/M romance writer who has finally been released from the purgatorial corn maze of Omaha, Nebraska, and now spends her time on the southwestern coast of Spain. In between wondering how she didn’t lose her mind in Omaha, she explores the country with her husband, several clairvoyant hamsters, and an ever-growing herd of rabid plot bunnies.

Book preview

A red car on a road Description automatically generated with medium confidence

Test Drive

by

L.A. Witt

Copyright Information

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Test Drive

Second edition

First edition published 2013-2015 by Amber Quill Press.

Copyright © 2013, 2015, 2021 L.A. Witt

Cover Art by Lori Witt

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher, and where permitted by law. Reviewers may quote brief passages in a review. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact L.A. Witt at [e-mail]

ISBN: 978-0-9961836-2-8

Sean Waters is down on his luck thanks to the economy, and winds up working for his domineering father’s car dealership. It’s not the greatest job, but it’s a paycheck. The only problem? He’s got a wicked crush on the general manager, Jackson Rayburn.

When Jackson suggests a drive in one of the brand new sports cars, Sean has no idea it’s not the car Jackson really wants to take for a spin.

They both need this job, though, and the boss isn’t keen on employees getting involved with each other. But it’s just a lusty little crush anyway, so they can move on and pretend nothing ever happened.

Can’t they?

––––––––

This short story was previously published, and has been revised and expanded to 15,000 words.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

About the Author

Chapter 1

Thanks to all the bright overhead lights, Dad’s dealership was probably visible from space. It was quarter after ten at night, but may as well have been daylight under the banners and flags that fluttered in the late summer breeze. Meticulously detailed finishes sparkled, and windshields and headlamps glittered alongside polished chrome.

This time of night, especially in the middle of the week, I wasn’t too worried about customers showing up. We were technically closed at nine, but every once in a while, some stragglers came strolling in right when the managers and I were getting ready to leave. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any tonight. The minute that clock hit ten thirty, I was out of here. There was a cold beer and a DVR full of mindless sitcoms waiting for me at my apartment, and every time a car went by on the four-lane highway in front of the lot, I silently begged it not to slow down and make the turn.

Please, please, don’t let me be here until midnight again.

And please, please, don’t let me still be here when I’m forty.

I wandered between the rows of new cars, depressing the hell out of myself by looking at the prices in the windshields. Two years ago, I wouldn’t have batted an eye at buying a twenty-thousand dollar car. This year, I’d be lucky to make twenty thousand dollars.

After three months, it was still weird to be working here. The family had owned the place since before I was born, but I’d vowed not to be the one to inherit it when Dad retired. I’d worked here off and on as a teenager, even sold cars for a while after high school, but no way in hell was I doing this in the long term.

So, I’d gone to college, gotten a degree, and gotten a job. My student loans were paid off, and I was ten years into a promising job at a solid corporation.

Well, it was a promising job and a solid corporation right up until the economy had gone tits up and I was laid off a year ago. The job hunt hadn’t gone well. Even an MBA couldn’t get me anywhere near a job in this town. After nine months, I gave up, came crawling down to the dealership, and here I was, working for my dad to pay rent on a one-bedroom apartment in a less than ideal part of town. And still single at thirty-four, too. The last year had been awesome for my ego.

Shaking my head, I kept walking. At the end of the aisle, three brand-new sports cars were parked at a different angle so they’d stand out to passersby. The cars had just come in this afternoon. One red, one silver, one yellow,