Kiss of a Stranger (Lost Coast Harbor #1) by Lily Danes, Eve Kincaid Page B

resting on his knees, and his face came into the glow cast by the porch light.
    “I had a lovely night, not that it’s any of your business.” The lie rolled off her tongue.
    Gabe didn’t move. “I’m sure he was everything a date could be. Polite. Clever. Though it’s hard to take a man seriously when he orders the butternut squash ravioli at a restaurant that serves steak.”
    “He’s a vegetarian,” she said absently, before the full meaning of his words settled on her. “Wait a second. You watched me? You spied on my date?” Her voice rose with every word, and only her desire not to wake the neighbors kept her from shouting.
    Gabe shook his head. It was a rueful motion, directed more at himself than her. “I started to. Then I remembered that was creepy as hell and went to the diner. Where I ordered steak and eggs, by the way.”
    “Still, the fact that you thought that was okay, even for a second…”
    He stood, the movement fluid and hypnotic, and she couldn’t take her eyes off him as he prowled toward her. “Don’t fool yourself, Maddie. I’m not okay. I forgot how to be okay long ago. That’s what you’ll get with me, but I’ll do my best to make it worth your time, if you feel like taking a risk.” His voice was raw, the darkness pulling something from him she hadn’t heard before.
    Over the years, Maddie learned that when a person tells you who they are, you better believe them. If someone says they’re broken, or selfish, or lazy, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, they aren’t lying. But when Gabe fixed those eyes on her, all she could think was that he was telling the truth—both about being broken, and about being worth her time.
    She hurried to change the subject. “Do you need to stay here another night?”
    He didn’t seem to hear the question, too busy looking over her shoulder, down the path Declan had just walked. “That’s your type?”
    “Something wrong with dependable?”
    “Not at all. If we’re talking about cars.” He slid his eyes toward her, and she almost saw him shake off the darkness that had coated him since she arrived. His small smile appeared, the one that turned her insides to mush.
    But this time, her insides didn’t react. Gabe had said exactly the wrong thing. She pulled herself up until she was standing at her full height. She’d even worn heels on the date, so she only needed to tilt her head a little to meet his eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with dependable. I don’t know why everyone acts like that’s something dull.”
    Maddie felt a righteous anger coming on. To maintain it, she ignored the fact that she’d found Declan nice and dependable—and boring.
    “There’s nothing dull about a man who calls when he says he will, who comes home every night, who remembers your anniversary. There’s nothing dull about a man who doesn’t make you feel desperate and insecure, who doesn’t have the power to take everything from you. So yeah, maybe Declan is my type.”
    She finished her speech with a glare that would cause one of her plants to shrivel.
    The entire time, Gabe watched her through narrowed eyes, and when she finished, he moved toward her, so close she felt the heat of his body and learned what he smelled like. It was clean sweat and spice, and she breathed it in.
    “What did some man do to you, Maddie?”
    She swallowed. She’d never meant to give away so much. Her past wasn’t a secret—every damn person in town knew about it—but she didn’t want him to know. It would sting for Gabe to look at her like she was just another foolish girl. Just another victim. It was the way she thought Charlie must have looked at her.
    “It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past.” She held his gaze with effort.
    Gabe didn’t look convinced. “The past has teeth, Maddie. It doesn’t just bite. It will chew you up and spit you out, and you’ll never be the same again. If I’m not standing here and pretending my past doesn’t matter, then