Free Shifting Gears (Crossroads Series Book 2) by Riley Hart Page B

guards approached them. Landon didn’t speak, didn’t turn away from the men, his fists clenched.
    “No, no problem at all.” Rod tugged gently on Landon’s arm.
    The homophobic bastard’s friend added, “Everything’s fine. We were just leaving, weren’t we, Tom?”
    Landon could see that the guy didn’t want to walk away, and neither did he. If there was one thing he always swore to himself, it was that he’d never take shit from anyone.
    “Tom. Let’s go,” the tall guy behind the homophobe said.
    “Yeah. Everything’s fine,” he finally said. “Let’s go.” The two men walked away, but Landon still didn’t move. His chest heaved in and out, his nails digging into his hand.
    “Other way, gentlemen,” security said to them.
    “Landon, come on. Let’s go.”
    Landon’s fists loosened slightly when Rod grabbed his arm again. He pulled away, turned and led them both toward the gate.
    ***
    Rod fucking hated fighting. That didn’t mean he would take anyone’s shit, but he would do whatever he could to avoid violence. It surprised him that Landon had been so…willing to partake? He hadn’t really seen that coming.
    “We can head to wherever we’re going for the firework show. Might as well get a good spot. We can just hang out for the last couple hours until it starts.”
    “No,” Landon said shortly.
    “No?” Rod eyed him, surprised by his reply.
    “I need to get the hell out of here.”
    Just like that? They were going to leave because some asshole couldn’t keep his mouth shut? “Really?”
    “Really.”
    Rod tried not to be disappointed…but he was. As crazy as it sounded, he’d never watched a fireworks display with anyone before. “Come on. Let’s not let that asshole ruin the day. We drove three hours.”
    He didn’t want to leave. He wanted to enjoy this day with Landon. He’d been looking forward to it since Landon mentioned it.
    “I’m tired. It’ll be late when we get home anyway. Let’s just go.” He handed Rod his helmet without another word. Rod watched as Landon put his on before swinging his leg over the bike. A second later it roared to life. Landon didn’t turn to look at him, and after standing there for another minute, Rod knew he had no choice except to put the helmet on and get behind Landon.
    As soon as he had his feet on the pegs and his arms around Landon, he sped out of the parking lot.
    He hated this, hated that their day had gotten screwed up. It had been…hell, it had been pretty fucking incredible. He’d never spent a day with another man like this, doing things that were very close to dating territory, even though both of them knew that’s not what this was.
    Rod was okay with that. He wanted it that way. There was no way a guy like Landon would really be interested in him anyway. That’s why he didn’t understand why Landon hadn’t just fucked him and left already.
    It was nine when they pulled into Rod’s driveway. He expected Landon to say he had to go, but he turned off the motorcycle, then removed his helmet. “I’m tired, and I work in the morning. Can I crash here?”
    “Yeah…sure…no problem.”
    Rod unlocked the house, and Landon closed and locked the door behind them.
    “I’m going to take a quick shower, if you don’t mind.”
    Rod nodded at him. Landon went to the spare room and then came out with the small bag of stuff he left here. He never unpacked the bag, just wore and washed the clothes before putting them back inside. Still, he left it here. What the hell were they doing?
    Rod screwed around in the kitchen, washing the few dishes in the sink while Landon showered. It wasn’t very long before he heard the water shut off and Landon came out with wet hair, in a pair of basketball shorts and nothing else. He could see the outline of Landon’s dick through the soft material of the shorts. Fuck, this guy was trying to kill him. He’d always had a thing for guys in basketball shorts.
    “Do you need help cleaning your