Drake Sisters 02 - The Twilight Before Christmas

and she bumped his chest with her nose. For a second she stood there with her eyes closed, then she inhaled deeply. He felt that breath right through his skin, al the way down to his bones. The tips of her breasts brushed his rib cage sending fire racing through his bloodstream and pooling into a thick heat low in his bel y. She smel ed of cinnamon and spice. He wanted to pul her into his arms and kiss her right there. Right in front of her sisters.
    “Matthew.” For the first time that he could remember, Kate sounded breathless. “What are you doing?”
    He realized his arms were around her. He was holding her captive against him, and his body was growing hard and making urgent demands. He cursed silently and let her go, turning away from her. “I thought you were getting into the car.” His voice was rough, even to his own ears. He had never wanted a woman the way he wanted Kate. He didn’t feel gentle when he wanted to be gentle. He didn’t feel nice and charming when it was usual y so easy for him to be charming. He felt edgy and restless and achy as hel . He had a mad desire to scoop her up and lock her in his vehicle, a primitive, out-of-character urge when she looked on the verge of flight.
    “You real y saw a shadow in the globe?” she asked.
    “What was it doing?”
    It was the last thing he expected her to say, and it sent a chil skittering down his spine. “I couldn’t tel what it was. The dark shadow went from the base of the tree up the path toward the porch of the house. It is your house in the globe, isn’t it? There’s fog or mist instead of snowflakes swirling around.
    It gives the globe a very eerie effect.”
    Kate glanced back at her sisters. Hannah set the snowglobe very careful y on the wide banister and stepped away from it. Inside the glass, heavy fog swirled. The lights from the tiny Christmas tree glowed a strange orange and red through the mist, almost as if on fire. Matt watched Kate’s sister closely. He had lived in Sea Haven al of his life. He had heard strange things about the Drake sisters. Up close to them, he felt power and energy crackling in the air, and it emanated from them. The power fil ed the space around them until he breathed it. Hannah lifted her arms, and the wind swept in from the sea. With it came soft voices, whose words were impossible to distinguish, but the chant was melodious and in harmony with the things of the earth. The strange light in the snowglobe faded and diminished until it was a soft, faint glow. The voices on the wind continued until the lights behind the glass flickered and vanished, leaving the globe a perfectly ordinary Christmas ornament.

    The wind swirled cool air around them. Matt tasted the salt from the sea. He looked down at his fingers curled around Kate’s arm. He had pul ed her protectively to him without thought or reason. He knew he should release her, but he couldn’t let go. Her slender body trembled, with power or with fear, Matt wasn’t certain which, but it didn’t matter to him.
    Kate looked up at him. “I can’t explain what just happened with the snowglobe.”
    “I’m not asking for an explanation. I just want you to get in my car.”
    She smiled up at him. “Thank you, Matthew. I real y appreciate it.” She relaxed visibly and al owed him to help her into the warm leather seats.
    Kate felt very smal beside Matt. Inside the car, he appeared enormous and powerful. His shoulders were wide enough to brush against her in the confines of the Mustang. When she inhaled, she took the masculine scent of him deep into her lungs. For a moment she felt dizzy. It made her want to laugh aloud at the thought. Kate Drake dizzy from the scent of a man. None of her sisters would believe it. The car handled the tight turns along the coastal highway with precision and ease, flowing around the corners so that she relaxed a little. Being around Matt always made her feel safe. She didn’t know why, but she no longer questioned it.
    He glanced over at her. “Does it bother you, the way people are always talking about your family?”
    “They talk in a nice way,” Kate pointed out.
    “I know they do. You’re the town’s treasures, but does it bother you?”
    Kate smiled at him. “Only you would ask me that question.” She sighed. “It shouldn’t bother me. We are different. We can’t exactly hide it, and of course people are going to talk about our strange ways. We grew up here, so everyone knows us and to some extent