Drake Sisters 02 - The Twilight Before Christmas

minute I feel it on my face, I feel as if I’m home.”
    Matt cleared his throat. Kate had a beautiful profile. Her hair was swept up in some fancy knot, showing off her long, graceful neck. When she turned, her breasts thrust against the thin shirt, ful and round and so enticing it was al he could do to keep from leaning down and putting his mouth over the clinging white fabric. He tried to move, to step away from her, but he was drawn to her. Mesmerized by her. She’d always reminded him of a bal erina, with her elegant lines and soft, feminine curves. His lungs burned for air, and there was a strange roaring in his head. It took three tries opening his mouth before a coherent word came out. “If you’re real y serious about renovation, Kate, it just so happens my family’s in the construction business.”
    She turned the ful power of her huge eyes on him. “I do recal al of you are builders. That’s always struck me as a wonderful occupation.” She reached out and took his hands. He had big hands, rough and cal used, whereas her hands were soft and smal . “I always loved your hands, Matthew.
    When I was a young girl I remember wishing I had your capable hands.” Her words, as much as her touch, sent little flames licking along his skin.
    Matt was certain he heard a snort and probably a snicker coming from the direction of his younger brother.
    “I think you’ve held on to her long enough, bro,” Danny cal ed. “The ground stopped pitching a few minutes ago.”
    Matt was too much of a gentleman to point out to his brother that Kate was holding his hands. Looking down at her, he saw faint color steal under her skin. Reluctantly, he stepped away from her. The wind tugged at tendrils of her hair, but it only made her look more al uring. “Sorry, Kate. This is the first time in a while we’ve had an earthquake shake us up so hard.” He raked his fingers through his dark hair in agitation, searching for something bril iant to say to keep her there. His mind was blank. Total y blank. Kate turned back to her horse. He began to feel desperate. He was a grown man, hardworking, some said bril iant when it came to designing, and most women quite frankly threw themselves at him, but Kate calmly gathered the reins of her horse, no weak knees, completely unaffected by his presence. He wiped the sweat suddenly beading on his forehead, leaving a smear of dirt behind.
    “Kate.” It came out softly.
    Danny stuck his head out the window on the driver’s side. “Do you want a little help with the old mil , Kate? Matt actual y is fairly decent at that sort of thing. He obviously can’t drive, and he can’t talk, but he’s hel on wheels with renovations.”
    Kate’s eyes lit up. “I would love that, Matthew, but I real y wouldn’t want to presume on our friendship. It would have to be a business arrangement.”
    Matt hadn’t realized she thought of them as friends. Kate rarely spoke to him, other than their strange, brief conversations when they’d run into one another by chance during her high school years. He liked the idea of being friends with her. Every cel in his body went on alert when she was near him, it always happened that way, even when she’d been a teenager and he’d been in his first years of col ege. Kate had always brought out his protective instincts, but mostly he’d felt he had to protect her from his own attraction to her. That had been distasteful to a man like Matt. He had taken his secret fantasies of her to every foreign country he’d been sent to. She had shared his days and nights in the jungles and deserts, in the worst of situations, and the memory of her had gotten him home. Now, a ful -grown man who had fought wars and had more than enough life experience to give him confidence, he found he could speak easily and natural y to any other woman. Only Kate made him tongue-tied. He’d take friendship with her. At least it was a start.
    “Tel me when you want me to take a look, Kate, and I’l arrange my schedule accordingly. Being my own boss has its advantages.”
    “Then I’m going to take advantage of your generous offer and ask if you could go out there with me tomorrow afternoon. Do you think you can manage it that soon? I wouldn’t ask, but I’m trying to get this project off the ground as soon as possible.”
    “It sounds great. I’l pick you up at the cliff house around four. You are staying there with your sisters, aren’t you?”
    Kate nodded and turned to