There was a downside to being his own boss—the paperwork. There always seemed to be paperwork that needed to be taken care off—bills, invoices, customer orders.
It was never-ending.
Chay sat down at his desk and started going through the stack of invoices that had been put on his desk. He needed a new batch of cylinder heads, back fenders, and no less than ten new tires. There was also an invoice for a special set of handlebars that Dom needed for a custom bike he was building.
Chay went over each invoice and checked them off, approving them or not, depending on how many items they already had in stock and when the distributors could get them a new shipment. Sometimes it was cheaper to just wait until the distributor could ship the items on their regular service run rather than putting in a special order.
“Hey, boss, you got a minute?”
Thankful for the interruption, Chay glanced up to see Tommy leaning in through the doorway. “Yeah, what’s up?”
“There’s a man out here asking to speak to Dom. I tried to tell the guy that Dom wasn’t here, but he insists that he be able to speak to him. He wants to know where Dom went, where he lives, the works.”
Oh hell, it was probably one of Dom’s little flings. This wouldn’t be the first time that one of Dom’s one-night stands came by the shop looking for him. Chay would be so much happier if Dom would stop telling them where he worked.
“I’ll take care of it.” Chay’s grim mood took an even bigger nose dive as he stood up and walked into the main room to see the stranger from the white truck standing by the counter. Damn, he was really cute, too. Dom always did have luck finding the hot ones.
“How can I help you?” Chay asked as he crossed his arms over his chest and tried to look as intimidating as he could. He still remembered the little battle of wills he had had with the man when he arrived at work.
The man shot Tommy a little evil glare, probably for telling on him, and then turned to look at Chay. “Are you Dominic Gregory?”
“No.” Chay could tell his patience was going to wear thing with this guy real quick. “Like Tommy said, Dom is not here.”
“I really need to find him,” the man said as he tried to look beyond Chay, down the hallway toward the offices. “This is a matter of life or death.”
Chay could feel a headache of epic proportions coming on. He was going to punch Dom right in the kisser the moment he saw him. He rubbed the bridge of his nose for a moment before looking at the sexy little man.
“Look, sweetie,” Chay said, trying to sound reasonable when he really just wanted to turn around and go back into his office. Even the invoices were starting to look good. “Dom isn’t here, and I don’t know when he is going to be here. Whatever he promised you, it’s not going to happen.”
The man gasped, his face draining of color. “I am not some cheap trick.” The man spit out each word like he wanted to shout them but was afraid to. “I have never even met Dominic.”
Oh right, the whole ‘Are you Dominic Gregory’ thing. Chay had forgotten about that.
Oops.
“Look, sweetie, Dom really—”
“My name is not sweetie! It’s Gabriel.”
Chay’s eyebrows peeked over the top of his forehead. Maybe the man wasn’t as intimidated as he had originally thought. Gabriel looked as if he was about to stomp his foot and throw a two-year-old temper tantrum.
“Fine, Gabriel,” Chay growled. “Dom is not here. If you want to leave a message, I’ll see that he gets it.”
Gabriel slammed his hands down on the countertop. “I need to speak to him. It really is a matter of life or death, Dominic’s life or death.”
“What in the hell are you talking about?” Chay leaned over the counter as fear for his friend’s life took a hold of him. Had Dom gotten involved in something dangerous? “How do you know Dominic?”
“I told you, I’ve never met him before.”
Wow, this guy was off his fucking rocker. Chay reached over the counter and grabbed the man by his throat, pulling him up close to his face. “Who in the hell are you?” he snapped.
“Ga—Gabriel Pan—Pantarius,” the guy choked out, grabbing at the fingers Chay had wrapped around his throat, trying to loosen them. “P—please, can’t b—breathe.”
Chay started to release the man when a sudden gust of wind blew through the room. That in itself was strange since all of the windows and the door were closed. But what was even stranger was the alluring scent that suddenly seemed to wrap around Chay and sink into his soul.
Chay almost whimpered as he leaned closer and tried to draw more of the alluring scent into his lungs. He couldn’t quite place the sweet fragrance, but it smelled suspiciously like the scent of the earth after the rain fell for the first time at the end of summer.
It was glorious.
