The Twilight Before Christmas (21 page)

Matt felt the crushed grass with his hand and flattened his body, belly down, reaching along the crumbling edge of the cliff until he found the rope. Jackson had tied off the end, using an old fence post. Matt sucked in his breath. The fence post was rotted and already coming out of the ground. “I’m tying off again, Jackson, give me a minute,” Matt called down to him. He peered over the cliff.

Jackson was climbing down almost blind, feeling with his hands and toes for a grip. Elle lay sprawled out on a small ledge, clinging to a flimsy tree. He caught only glimpses of her as the fog was pushed out toward the sea. The heavy mist crawled down below the cliff line, hovering stubbornly in the more protected pocket to obscure the vision of the rescuers.

“Pass the rope back to me,” Jonas said, coming up behind Matt.

Matt did so immediately, not taking his eyes from the scene unfolding below him. The fog was thick and churning, but the wind kept attacking it, driving it out in feathery clumps. It was the only thing that provided him with glimpses of the action. Jackson made his way, with painstaking care, down the sheer side of the cliff. Jonas tied off the rope to a much more secure anchor behind them, where Matt couldn’t see.

“We’re ready up here, Jackson, say the word,” Matt called when Jonas signaled him the rope was safe to use. “Elle, I’m not hearing anything from you.” He hadn’t. Not a moan, not a call for help. It was alarming. He thought he could see her actively holding on to the small tree growing out of the side of the cliff, but the more he tried to pierce the veil of the fog, the more he was certain Elle wasn’t moving.

As Jackson reached her, Matt held his breath, waiting. Afraid to hear, afraid not to hear. His heart beat loudly over the sound of the sea.

“She’s alive,” Jackson called up. “She has a nasty bump on the head, and she’s bruised from head to toe, but she’s alive.”

Matt leaned farther over the cliff to hear the conversation below him. Jackson’s voice drifted up to him. “Lie still, let me examine you for broken bones. I’m Jackson Deveau, the deputy sheriff.”

“This ledge is crumbling.” Elle’s voice trembled. “Someone pushed me. I didn’t hear them, but they pushed me.”

“It’s all right. Don’t move. You’re safe now.” Jackson’s voice was soothing. “Do you remember me? We met once a long time ago.”

Matt recognized instantly the calming quality to Jackson’s voice. He was talking to keep her from being agitated. “Jonas, I think Elle’s injured. I can tell by the way Jackson’s acting.” Keeping his voice low, he gave the news to the sheriff, aware that Jonas was anxious to know Elle’s condition.

“I heard your voice, in a dream,” Elle said. Her words blurred around the edges, sending Matt’s heart tripping. “You were in pain. Terrible pain. Someone was torturing you. You were in a small closet of a room. I remember.”

Matt went still. Jonas froze behind him, obviously hearing Elle’s response.

“Then you know you’re safe with me. You helped me when I needed it. I’ll get you out of this. That’s the way the buddy system works.”

It was the most Matt had ever heard Jackson say to anyone. He glanced back to look at Jonas’s face. The fog along the highway was clearing. The wind gusted, careening off the cliff face in order to push the heavy mist away from Elle and Jackson. Jackson never talked about being captured. Never talked about the treatment he’d endured. He never spoke of the escape that followed or how difficult it had been as he led a small ragtag group of prisoners back through enemy lines to join their forces.

That a Drake sister might be aware of details Matt and Jonas weren’t privy to no longer surprised either of them.

“Can you hold on to me as I climb up?” Jackson asked. “I can send you up by the rope. Matthew Granite and Jonas Harrington are up top waiting for you. You’re bound to accumulate a few more bruises being hauled up that way.”

“I’d feel safer going up with you, but I seem to keep fading in and out. Things sort of drift away,” Elle answered.

Matt felt the tug of the rope, knew Jackson was tying the safety line around Elle.

“Then we’ll go up together,” Jackson said. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

“I know you won’t.” Elle circled his neck with her arms and crawled carefully onto his back. Matt felt more tugs with the rope and knew Jackson was tying her body to his.

“Your arm is broken. Can you hold on?”

“I don’t exactly like the alternative, and Libby is blocking the pain for me.”

Matt shook his head. Libby Drake, the doctor. A woman reputed to have a gift for healing the impossible. “Did you know Libby was anywhere near here?” he asked Jonas.

Jonas shook his head. “I knew she was coming home for Christmas, but not that she was on the way. But that isn’t unusual for the Drakes. They’re all connected somehow, and they tend to do things together.”

Jackson’s voice drifted up to them. “Good. I’m going to start climbing, Elle. It’s going to hurt.”

Elle pressed her face against Jackson’s broad back. Matt watched Jackson start up the cliff, testing each finger- and toehold carefully before committing to the climb. Matt and Jonas kept the rope just taut enough to allow him to scale the vertical rock face. When Jackson was halfway to the top, the fog simply gave up, retreating before the onslaught of the wind. Matt leaned down to grasp Elle, as Jackson gained the top of the cliff.

Matt untied the rope and gently laid Elle on the ground. “I’ll get to a car and radio for an ambulance,” Jonas said.

Elle shook her head. “Libby’s on her way. She’ll fix me up.” She turned her head to look at Jackson. “Thank you for coming for me. I didn’t think anyone would find me.” She touched the bump on her forehead. “I know the fall knocked me out.”

Jackson shrugged and glanced at Matt and Jonas, shook his head, and remained silent. A car pulled up beside them and Libby Drake leaped out, dragging a black leather case with her. “How bad is she hurt, Jonas?”

“I’m fine, Libby,” Elle protested.

Libby ignored her, looking to Jonas for the truth as she knelt beside her sister. Jackson answered her. “I think her left arm is broken. She definitely has a concussion, and she’s either bruised her ribs or possibly fractured them. She’s very tender on the left side. There’s one laceration on her left leg that looks as if it could use a few stitches. Other than that, she’s a mass of bruises.”

“I don’t want to go to the hospital, Libby,” Elle protested.

“Too bad, baby, I think we’re going to go and check you out.”

Libby’s word was obviously law. Elle protested repeatedly, but no one paid any attention to her. Matthew found himself holding Kate’s hand in the waiting room while Libby went through all the required tests with Elle and finally settled her in a hospital bed for the remainder of the night.

Kate leaned into Matt’s hard frame, looking up at him. “Thank you. I don’t know what we would have done if you, Jonas, and Jackson hadn’t found her. She looks all cut up.” There was a little catch in her voice.

Matt immediately put his arms around her. “I’m taking you home. To my home, where you can get some rest, Kate. Elle’s in good hands, you’ve kissed her ten times, and Libby’s going to stay overnight with her. She can’t be safer than that. Jackson brought her car to your house and left it for her, so everything’s taken care of. Come home with me, Katie. Let me take care of you.”

“You need a shave,” she observed, her hungry gaze drinking him in.

They walked together to his car, their steps in perfect harmony. Matt smiled because he loved being with her more than anything else. He rubbed his jaw. “You’re right, I do. You’re not only going to have whisker burn on your face, but if I’m not more careful, you’ll have it other places too.”

She blushed beautifully. “I already do.”

He opened the door for her, caught her chin before she could slide in. “Seriously?” Just the idea of it made his body hard.

Kate nodded. “It’s nice to have a constant reminder.” It was more than nice. Just the thought of how the marks had gotten there made her hot with need.

Matt dragged her close to him, his mouth taking command of hers. It seemed far too long since he’d been able to kiss her. To have her all to himself. “I want to get you home where I can put you into my bed. I still have such a hard time believing you’re with me.”

She laughed. “Imagine how I feel.”

Kate leaned her head back against the seat of his car and looked at him, the smile fading from her face. “Matt, you shouldn’t have wished on the snowglobe. It isn’t an ordinary Christmas globe.”

He glanced at her, then back at the road, his expression settling into serious lines. “Nothing about you or your family is ordinary, Katie. I knew what I was doing.”

She opened her mouth to speak, shook her head, and stared out the window into the night.

Matt searched for something to say to reassure her. Or maybe it was he that needed the reassurance. Kate was still resistant to the idea of a long-term relationship, and he wasn’t certain he could change her mind. He couldn’t begin to explain the sense of rightness he felt when he drove up to his house with Kate beside him. He sat in his car, looking up at the house with its bank of windows for the view, and the wide, inviting decks going in every direction. “I built this house for you. I even put in a library and two offices, just in case you wanted your own office. I asked Sarah a few years ago, when I first came back, if you had a preference where you wrote, and she said you preferred a room with a view and soft music. I added a fireplace just in case you needed the ambience.”

Kate blinked back tears, leaned over, and kissed him. What could she say? Everyone in town knew Sarah. Sarah was magic. She could scale cliff walls and she knew things before they happened. She could leap out of airplanes and climb tall buildings. Sarah lived her life. She didn’t dream the way Kate did or live in her imagination.

Matt took her hand and pulled her out of the car. “I soundproofed your office so the noise wouldn’t bother you.”

“What noise?” She knew better than to ask, but she couldn’t stop herself.

“Our kids. You do want kids, don’t you? I’m afraid the Granites tend to throw males. I don’t have a single female cousin. You do like boys, don’t you?”

Kate looked away from him, out to the booming sea. Sarah would have children. All of her sisters would have them. She’d probably tell them all stories. Maybe she should have been the one to wish on the snowglobe. Maybe she should have wished for the courage to do the right thing.

“Katie, if you don’t want children, I’ll be happy with it being just the two of us. You know that, don’t you?” He unlocked the door to the house and stepped back to let her in. “Children would be wonderful, but not necessary. If we can have them. Sometime in the future, after I’ve spent endless time making love to you all over the house.”

Kate went straight to the Christmas tree. She wanted him. She wanted him for as long as she could have him. She swallowed her tears and lifted her chin, smiling at him. “I like that idea. Making love to you all over the house. Would you turn on the Christmas lights? I love miniature lights like these.”

Matt plugged in the lights for her. His house was dark and quiet and a bit on the cool side. He’d never bothered with heavy curtains in the living room because he had no close neighbors, and the bank of windows faced the sea. Kate dropped her purse on the nearest chair and kicked off her shoes. “It’s nice to come home. Just for tonight, I want to think about Christmas and not some awful thing coming out of the fog to hurt everyone.” She looked up at him, her large eyes sad. “Do you think we’ll manage to get one night together, Matthew?”

“I don’t know, Katie. I hope so. I’m going to check the house and downstairs, and I’ll be right back.” He didn’t think he could sleep, not even holding her in his arms, until he checked the sand outside for any peculiar footprints.

“That’s a good idea. I’ll make us up a bed. You don’t mind if we sleep out here by the tree do you?”

Matt looked around the huge, spacious living room. The miniature lights winked on and off, colors flickering along the walls and the high ceiling. “I’d like that, Kate.”

He circled the house, checked the rooms beneath the deck and the beach for any signs of intrusion. He had the feeling the enemy was as fatigued as they were. He glanced out to sea. “How about giving us a break, buddy,” he murmured softly. “Whatever has you all upset, Kate had nothing to do with it.”

Above his head the skies opened up and poured down rain. Matt grinned wryly and hurried back to the house. Back to Kate. The gas fireplace was lit, the “logs” burning cheerfully. On the mantel were several lighted candles. The scent of berry permeated the air. In the flickering lights, he saw Kate, lying naked on the sheets, her body beautiful, sprawled lazily on the covers while she watched the lights of the Christmas tree. His breath rushed from his lungs, so that he burned for air, just standing there in the doorway staring in surprise at the most incredible Christmas present he could imagine. That was how he thought of her. His Christmas present. He would love this time of year forever.

“Matthew.” She turned over, smiled at him. “Come lie down with me.”

He could see the real Kate Drake. On the outside, she seemed flawless, perfect, out of reach, yet she was really vulnerable, and as fragile as she was courageous. Kate needed a shield and he was more than happy to be that shield, for her. He could stand between her and the rest of the world. “Give me a minute, Kate.”

Kate turned back to the tree, watching the lights blinking on and off, so many colors flickering across the wall. It was heaven just to lie down and rest. To relax. More than anything she loved to feel Matt’s heated gaze on her. He made her feel beautiful and incredibly special. He was a large man, and the feel of his hands on her body, the way his body came alive at the sight of her, was a gift. A treasure.

Kate lay with the sheets cool on her skin and the lights playing over her body. She imagined his hands on her. His eyes on her. Thinking about him made her grow hot with need. A small sound alerted her, and she looked up to see him towering over her. For a moment she couldn’t breathe. She drank him in. His strong legs and muscular thighs. His amazing erection. His flat stomach and heavily muscled chest. Finally, his eyes. His eyes had turned smoky, seductive, and now they smoldered with intensity and heat. “You take my breath away.” It was a silly thing to say, but it was true. She patted the blanket beside her. She wanted to touch him, to know he was real. To feel him solid and strong beneath her fingertips.