Kiss of a Stranger (Lost Coast Harbor #1) by Lily Danes, Eve Kincaid Read Free Book Online Page A

needed him to confess that he’d stolen the diamond ring found in his twenty-year-old brother’s jacket.
    The ring planted there by the woman Mateo loved.
    He had to. Mateo would have been tried as an adult, and he couldn’t let that happen. His family didn’t even know he’d done it until he was too late. By then, he had a juvenile record and a two-year sentence.
    Love made you do stupid shit. It kept Gabe away from his brother for years, too angry about the sacrifice he’d chosen to make. It kept him away from his mother, because he was afraid of what she’d see in him after two years with the fine folk of the California Youth Authority. And then, after all that wasted time, love made him so desperate to return in time to say good-bye to his mother that he took a sketchy job driving for Hastings Shipping.
    He never said good-bye. His mother died of cancer while he waited for his trial.
    He would never stop loving Mateo—that love was hard-wired into him. He only wished he’d figured that out sooner. But that love was enough.
    Love broke people, and he was plenty broken enough. His soul had grown dark over the last six years, and he wouldn’t cover Maddie in that darkness. As tightly wound and controlled as she was, softness lurked just under the surface. He saw it in her goofy pajamas, her comfortable house, the walls of plants that filled her home with life. He couldn’t ruin that.
    Gabe drew to a sudden stop. What the hell was he thinking? Maddie might make his balls ache, but that had nothing to do with love. After so much time away from any woman, he’d probably declare his undying devotion to the first one who offered him a blow job. That didn’t make it real.
    But Maddie hadn’t offered him a damn thing, whispered an annoying voice he tried to ignore, and he still wanted to be with her.
    Gabe started moving again, twice as fast as before. He tried to outrun the one thought he couldn’t seem to escape. If he went through with his plan to get to the Hastings through Maddie, he might break her. Her heart wasn’t on the line, but he was risking her job. Her standing in town. The peace of mind that came from not being used by a shameless criminal.
    Maybe his plan wouldn’t work. Maddie was just the office assistant. Sure, she had access to the files, but he doubted the man kept incriminating evidence in a room any dockworker could access.
    Gabe let himself consider options, ones that didn’t involve being an absolute bastard to a woman who’d done nothing to deserve it. A lot of other people in this town worked with Hastings. He needed to buy his co-workers a drink—or lots of drinks—and learn what they had to say about Hastings Shipping. There was a wealth of information on that dock, and a few shots of whiskey was a good place to start.
    If he did that, maybe he could seduce Maddie for the fun of it.
    For the first time since he woke up, he felt his mind begin to clear.
    Maddie was great at her job. Nothing was misfiled, no order was unrecorded, and no invoice went unpaid.
    But that day, she couldn’t seem to do anything right. Twice, she forgot to put water in the coffee maker before turning it on, and she hung up on three suppliers when she pushed the wrong button. Even Oliver noticed something was wrong, and Oliver wasn’t known for his keen eye for detail, at least where people were concerned.
    “You’ve been looking out the window a lot today,” he said. “Expecting someone?”
    “No, nothing like that.” It wasn’t a lie. She wasn’t expecting anyone, because the person was already on the docks. All day, she’d tried not to watch him lift one piece of cargo after another. Despite the chill of the day, the exertion had warmed him until he stood in only his Henley, his biceps bulging with every movement. More than once, he lifted his arms high enough that his shirt rode up, revealing his perfectly flat stomach and the thin line of hair that disappeared into the waistband of his