by Lily Danes
“Really? Your dad’s willing to have Harold and Vince at his fancy party?”
The two men stood on the dock, smoking cigarettes that had turned their white beards yellow years before. Their bloodshot eyes suggested they drank a few too many beers at Vista del Mar the night before.
Oliver chuckled. “Who are we to understand the mind of my father?” He held out a folded piece of paper. “The party will be fun, but I’m hoping this is what cheers you up.”
She reached for the paper greedily. Maddie read it twice, then stared at Oliver, unsure. “What is this?”
“I know it’s not what you asked for, but I can’t get you on the Stanwick job. My father is firing trained paralegals because they don’t have the experience to manage the documents involved. There’s no way he’ll consider you. But my assistant’s leaving and you’re the only one I trust to take over. Did I mention it comes with a hiring bonus that’ll let you buy a very nice party dress? Keep in mind that I’ll cry if you turn me down. Do you really want to make a grown man cry?”
Maddie read the job offer again, biting her lip. “It’s a nice offer, but…”
Oliver waited for her to finish the sentence.
“But I want more.” The words burst out. “Why do you think I’ve been going to night school? I want a job that doesn’t have ‘assistant’ in the title.”
Her boss blinked at her. “I thought you wanted to open your own business. You’d be great at that.”
Considering how much she adored her boss, it was amazing how often she wanted to throttle him. “Half of all new businesses fail! Why would I ever want that? I’m looking for a career.”
“Oh. Okay. I can do that.” He nodded a few times, thinking. “I’ll start giving you more projects, then, to expand your skill set. In a few years, we’ll see what other jobs are available. You’re sure you don’t want your own business?”
Maddie huffed out air and decided it was time for lunch. Usually, she ate at her desk, but today she took her sandwich to the far end of the dock, away from both her boss and Gabe.
A few more years? An assistant’s wages were enough to get by, but she was trying to get ahead. She didn’t expect a six-figure income in her mid-twenties, but she at least wanted to be heading in that direction, not languishing in another desk job.
Oliver had saved her when she was drowning, but she wanted to do so much more than swim. She wanted to fly. To be so far above all her fears about money that they could never touch her again.
She had to find a way to get on that deal. If Oliver wouldn’t fight for her, then she’d talk to the other man on the deal.
Good thing he’d just invited her to his party.
Chapter Six
The day ended at five o’clock. Gabe had been thinking up excuses to linger on the docks while Maddie worked late, but at four-thirty she locked the office door behind her and hurried north, following the coastal road toward her house.
Twenty-five minutes later, Gabe ran after her.
He should be meeting with Adam, finding out what the man’s investigation had uncovered. If not that, he should be trailing Hastings to learn the man’s schedule and habits. Instead he chased a woman just because he wanted to know what she was doing.
No one answered when he knocked on the door, and they didn’t answer when he pounded. The front door was locked, and he didn’t have keys.
His bag was still in there. It was plain rude to keep him away from his stuff. That was the only reason he was annoyed.
“Down boy.”
Gabe spun toward the unfamiliar voice. A woman stood at the bottom of the steps, looking like she owned them. No, she looked like she owned the whole world. She was pretty as hell, with big brown eyes and a nice set of curves, but her softness was undercut by a wild mane of bleached blonde hair. It was the perfect mix of sweet and hard, and his dick barely noticed.
Celibate for more than half a decade. He ought to be feeling something. Wasn’t that why he was so attracted to Maddie? Because she was there, and she looked good, and it had been a damn long time?
This woman was those things, too, and he didn’t care.
Fuck. He was in trouble.
“Is she here?” he asked.
“Did she answer the door? Then no.” The woman scanned him up and down. “Where the hell did you come from, and can I order more?”
“Sure thing. Just ring up the fine folk at San Quentin and ask them to send their best men your way.” He watched her, waiting for a sign of revulsion.
Her eyes widened. “And you’re here for Maddie? Wait, is that your bag in there?” He was pretty sure he heard her add, just under her breath, “About damn time.”
“You her friend?”
“Best friend, almost ex-roommate, constant pain in her ass.” Her eyes narrowed. “Protector against no-good ass clowns. You’re not one of those, are you?”
“Depends who you ask. Gabriel Reyes. Gabe.” He stuck out his hand. Something about this woman made him want to get on her good side—and stay there.
Underneath her smile, he didn’t doubt she meant every word. Fortunately, the more he thought about the limited information Maddie could access in the shipping office, the more he believed he might be able to leave her out of his plans.
Though he should still keep an eye on her. Just in case.
“Bree Rogers.”
“Like Adam?” In small towns, having a common last name often meant some relation.
“You know him? That’s my brother. He’s a neanderthal, but usually I like him. He also likes to protect women from no-good ass clowns, and he thinks of Maddie as a sister. In case you were wondering. How do you know Maddie?”
“I work with her. You know where she is?”
“Yep. On a date.” The words were breezy, but her eyes were sharp, watching for his reaction.
“A date?” Gabe repeated stupidly.
“Uh-huh. It was supposed to be coffee, but she said something about celebrating the promotion she got at work today. Guess it got upgraded to dinner.”
“Promotion?” He couldn’t seem to string a complete sentence together.
“Didn’t you hear? She’s leaving the docks. She’s now Oliver’s executive assistant.” There was pride in her words, for her friend’s success, but something else. Frustration? “She’ll be working on all the Hastings stuff, not just the shipping side.”
Gabe kept his features still. “How about that,” he managed. “Guess I’ll come back later.” Gabe brushed past her, heading for town.
“You can come inside,” Bree called. “Your stuff’s already here.”
Gabe barely heard her. He was already pulling up his mental map of the town and identifying the most likely restaurant for date night.
Declan Donnelly was nice. He was handsome, too, with his dark blond hair and blue eyes. Though he worked at a bookstore all day, it looked like he took decent care of his body. His broad shoulders filled out the Oxford shirt quite well.
The problem was he was wearing an Oxford shirt instead of a Henley, his cheeks were clean-shaven, and there wasn’t a tattoo in sight.
Declan was one of six Donnelly children, and he was the only one the town didn’t refer to as a Donnelly Devil. While the other five had a talent for reinterpreting the law to suit their needs, the man before her was a respectable business owner. He attended city council meetings and was involved in town events. He was well-read and confident, and he kept the conversation going with ease. Declan was as far from her ex as it was possible to be, which was exactly why she’d agreed to go out with him.
The man’s smiles were warm—but never hot—and his eyes were attentive and kind. He was so wonderfully, perfectly safe. They’d never crossed paths much, despite both living in Lost Coast Harbor for most of their lives. Declan was several years older than she was, enough that he was in college when she started high school, and by the time he returned from grad school, she was already married to Charlie.
Book clubs had sp
rung up all over town when Declan Donnelly opened his bookstore, and many women had developed a newfound passion for reading. He didn’t lack for female attention, and Maddie was lucky as hell to have attracted his attention after all this time.
So why did she spend the entire night wishing he was someone else?
He was charming and funny, and he seemed kind, but her thoughts kept returning to memories of Gabe. The way he looked in a towel, and those tattoos she wanted to trace with her finger—or maybe her tongue. She wanted to discover every black line and learn what each one meant. When Declan brushed her arm while holding her chair for her, she flashed to Gabe drawing small circles on her wrist, a tiny touch she felt through her entire body.
It was ridiculous. After everything she’d been through, Gabe should repulse her. She should be bolting the door against him, not wondering what he looked like without the towel.
The date lasted for hours, or at least it felt like it did. Declan walked her home, of course. He was a gentleman through and through.
When they reached her steps, she fidgeted. It had been so long since she’d ended a date, Maddie couldn’t remember the protocol. There was no sign Declan felt as awkward as she did, but she was still caught by surprise when he leaned down and brushed his lips against the corner of her mouth. Not quite a proper kiss, but it wasn’t a platonic peck on the cheek, either.
“I had a good time.” He smiled. His teeth were even, his mouth full. His eyes held a hint of disappointment, but she was probably imagining that.
Why the hell couldn’t she muster the tiniest bit of interest?
Because his face had no scars. His body didn’t tell stories of risks taken and battles faced. He was just a normal guy, and try as she might, that wasn’t what she wanted.
“Maybe we can do this again?” He still smiled, but for the first time his voice was a little strained.
“Maybe.” It took all her restraint not to bolt for the front door.
Declan gave her a single nod, then turned and walked back to town.
As soon as he was out of earshot, she released the breath she’d been holding.
“That doesn’t sound like the blissful sigh of a night well spent.”
Maddie’s heart leapt, and she turned to face the man on her front porch. The voice had come from the bench on the far left side. Gabe leaned forward, his elbows 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 you can damn well do the same. What the hell happened to you?”
She tightened her lips, refusing to answer him.
“Come on, Maddie. Give me something.”
He didn’t move, and she thought he might stand there all night if she didn’t answer him.
“Something?” She rose up and pressed her lips softly against his. That should distract him.
Gabe froze, just for a second. That was the only chance he gave her. Her last chance to escape before his arms wrapped around her and he hauled her against his chest. One hand gripped her back. The other wrapped around the nape of her neck, holding her to him.
He groaned into her mouth, a desperate sound of pure need.
Maddie pressed her hands against his chest, but when she should have pushed him away she dug her fingers into the hard muscles, fighting the desire to claw his shirt from his body and feel his hot skin.
His tongue stroked hers, sliding deeper into her mouth, and she met him every step of the way. His touch was a flame against dry tinder. Under his hands, she ignited.
Gabe’s lips slid to her jaw. His touch slowed and his body tensed, as if even that much restraint pained him. “Tell me what you want.”
Her breath came out in pants as she tried to find words. Gabe moved his lips to her ear, holding the lobe gently between his teeth. “What do you want, Maddie?” he asked again.
She wanted him to drag her into the house and throw her on the couch. She wanted his body on her, inside her, moving fast until she forgot everything. Forgot who she was, and forgot what she needed to be.
Forget everything she’d worked so hard to become.
Maddie whimpered and stumbled backwards. Gabe let her go, though his eyes were full of questions.
Sh
e didn’t want to push him away, but she had to. Gabe might be the most dangerous man she knew, and not because of his past. Because of hers—and the way he could send her right back there.
“I want dependable,” she told him. “This was a mistake. I have a date with Declan on Saturday. He’s what I want.”
She ran into the house before he could protest, wanting to crawl into bed and lock the door before he could say something to make her change her mind. It would take so little.
It took a long time to fall asleep. Her hands kept straying between her legs, desperate to relieve the ache caused by Gabe’s kiss but afraid he’d hear every moan through the thin walls. After an hour, she finally she gave in to the need, biting her pillow as she came hard to thoughts of Gabe fucking her from behind, his hands gripping her hips while he took her fast, the same hunger that fueled his kisses being spent inside her.
It was only as she finally drifted off, relieved if not satisfied, that she remembered her last words to Gabe. She should probably let Declan know he was taking her to the Winter Blues Ball.
Chapter Seven
Gabe couldn’t remember the last time a day went by so slowly. Even in prison, the days hadn’t dragged like these did.
Jared finally deigned to turn up at the office. Gabe tried to avoid him, a plan that failed when Bree picked up both their keys and dropped his off at the dock.
For years, Gabe had longed for a place to call his own, and now that he finally had one, he didn’t want to go home. He knew he’d spend the night imagining how Maddie was celebrating her newfound solitude. Was she inviting that blond catalog model over? Would he help her break in the house, one room at a time? The image of Declan’s hands on her body gnawed at him.
It was Maddie’s last day, and she studiously avoided his gaze. She seemed determined to catch up on her work before moving to Oliver’s office on Monday, and the paperwork kept her so busy she barely looked up from her desk. When she took phone calls, she spun her chair to face the wall.
