“Hey, Dennis, new ride?”
He nodded, reaching out to shake my hand.
“Sold the other when I saw this one. I wanna trick it out, man. You down?”
I moved around it, bending to check it over. It was in good condition, but it desperately needed some fine tuning, and some tarting up. All things I’d love to work on for him, and it presented a perfect opportunity for my new partner in crime, didn’t it?
“Rocket been filling you in on his side of things? He could make it look really fucking sweet for you.”
I caught Rocket’s surprised gaze, before he turned back to our customer. I was glad it was Dennis of all clients, who might be his first. The guy seemed to have money to burn when it came to motorcycles, and regularly sold them on when they were perfect, just to start from scratch again.
“Yeah, he was just talking me through some ideas.” The older guy scratched at his bushy beard.
“We’re thinking black and silver maybe, right?” Rocket deferred to Dennis, who grinned, nodding as he pointed at the tank.
“Yeah with ghostly flames here.”
Nice. I stood up again, and smoothed my hands down my jeans.
“You wanting to get booked in for anything today?”
Dennis nodded, opting for some of his favourite early stages.
“If you’re replacing this, I can get started on spraying the new piece for you. I’ve got designs in the shop, and we’re going online with those.”
“Why not give me the link, and I’ll take a look at home?”
See? It was already working.
Caroline
JAY, AS SHE’D INTRODUCED herself, seemed really nice, a little sharp with her man now and then, but he seemed to relish every snippy response, even encouraging them, I thought.
“Look, little pain, you know you can’t get your mouth around it, so let me have it.” For the record, the ‘it’ they were discussing was the last sausage roll, and yet I was blushing, because his words were delivered in an overtly sexualised manner.
“Grease, quiet. I’m talking to Caroline.”
“He calls you little pain? Is it a threat?”
They both laughed, eyeing each other in a way that also felt a little too intimate for a public place, and in front of a stranger.
“I used to call her PC Pain, as in pain in my ass, but then she came over to the dark side with me.”
She slapped his chest. “Stop telling it like that! That’s not how it happened. We’re working as security consultants now. My police knowledge, coupled with his intrusive skills, and criminal awareness, seem to be a good combo.”
“You say the sweetest things, little pain.” He swiped the last half of the sausage roll from her fingers and popped it in his mouth.
“Asshole!”
“Everything okay in here?” Harley reappeared, with Rocket and a strange guy behind him, moving straight to his tablet and tapping on it as he arranged things with the customer.
Rocket grinned at me. “Our first customer who’ll use the online thing you’re building,” he said proudly, and I gasped. Itwasn’t ready. It was nowhere near ready, and here I was slacking on the job.
I started to move and his hand shot out, catching my wrist gently, but that part didn’t matter. He was a man I hadn’t permitted to touch me, and I hated it the instant his skin touched mine. I gasped again, wrenching my hand out of his grip, and Harley stepped closer, and pulled me to his side.
“It’s okay. He didn’t mean any harm, right, Rocket? You’re not gonna touch her again, are you?”
I ignored the low murmur of Rocket’s agreement, because I was fighting the need to run, to hide, to wash away his touch, because it felt foreign. I could still feel the warmth of his calloused fingers against my skin. His touch was still there, lingering like a brand against my flesh.
