Drake Sisters 02 - The Twilight Before Christmas

had built his home in the hopes of finding a wife when he returned from serving his country, but no matter how many women he had dated, there had been only one woman for him. Kate had been in his dreams from the moment he’d first laid eyes on her. He would never forget that moment, driving his father’s truck, his rowdy brothers cranking up the music and laughing happily. He had glanced casual y to his right not realizing that his life was about to change forever. Kate was standing in the creek bed with her six sisters, her head thrown back, laughing, her eyes dancing, total y oblivious to his gaze. A jolt of electricity had sizzled through his entire body. In that one moment, Kate Drake had managed to burn her brand into his very bones, and no other woman would do for him.
    “Matthew?” Her voice was drowsy. Sexy. It poured into his body with the force of a bolt of lightning, heating his blood and bringing every nerve ending alive.
    “I’m here, Katie,” he answered, wrapping his body around hers as he slipped his arm around her waist.
    “Didn’t Sea Haven always seem like home to you? When you were far away, in another country, in danger, didn’t you dream of this place?”
    “I dreamed of you. You were home to me, Kate.” There in the darkness with the ocean pounding outside his bedroom he could admit the truth to her. “You got me through the gunfire, and the ugliness, and it was the thought of you that brought me back to Sea Haven. My family always kept track of you for me.”
    Kate turned her face into his shoulder, snuggling closer to him. “I heard you were doing things that seemed so scary to me. I have such an imagination, and I would wake up in the middle of night picturing you rising up out of the desert sand in your camouflage fatigues with your rifle and enemies al around you. Sometimes the dreams were so vivid I’d actual y get sick. I’ve never told that to anyone, not even my sisters. They saw the differences in us and knew we weren’t right for each other.”
    “Kate.” He said her name tenderly. With an aching need in it. “How can you say that? Or even think it? I was made for you. To be with you. I feel it so strongly, the rightness of it. You feel it too. I know you do.” He held her possessively, his arms locking her to him. Matt buried his face in the soft warmth of her neck. “Katie, you can’t hand a man his dream, then take it away. Especial y not a man like me. I stood back and gave you al the room in the world when you were too young for me. Later, when you were grown, you were busy and happy with your life, traveling around the world doing what you do. I never once made a move on you. I knew you needed your freedom to pursue your writing. But now you’re home, tel ing me you’re ready to settle down, and I can’t just step back and pretend we don’t feel anything for one another. Every time you looked at me, you had to know we belonged. You should never have kissed me if you weren’t wil ing to give a relationship between us a try.”
    Kate closed her eyes, feeling tears wel ing up. His lips moved over her neck, drifted lower to nudge the col ar of the shirt aside. Her pulse pounded frantical y. Her heart went into overdrive. “I’m not brave the way you are, Matthew,” she admitted in a smal voice. “I can’t be like you. I’m not at al a person of action. In a few months when you realize that, you’l be so disappointed in me, and you’l have too much honor to tel me.”
    Matt lifted his head and looked down at her. Tears shimmered in her eyes, and his heart nearly stopped beating in his chest. “What the hel are you talking about, Kate?” He bent his head to kiss the tears away. He tasted grief. Fear. An aching longing. “Dammit.” He muttered the words in sheer frustration, then kissed her hard, his mouth claiming hers. A ravenous hunger burst through him, over him. There was a strange roaring in his head. His chest was tight, his heart pounding with the force of thunder. He had faced enemy fire without flinching, but he couldn’t bear the idea of Kate walking away from him.
    He poured everything he felt into his kiss. Everything he was. His hands framed her face, held her to him while he ravaged her mouth. Heat spread like a wildfire, through him, through her, catching them both on fire until he thought he might ignite. She melted into him, her arms sliding around him, nearly as possessive as he was. He lifted his head to look at her,