The Cowboy's Temptation (6 page)

“Well no wonder you’ve lost so much weight,” Veronica said, layering her hands over her protruding belly. “You just need some good, home cooking to plump you up a little.”

“I agree,” she said and smiled as Rick walked into the house.

He immediately turned to kiss his wife and Elissa felt like a third wheel. She turned her back to the couple to give them a little privacy, wishing she could leave them alone for a few minutes but the house was too small for her to find another room.

“What smells so good?” Rick asked, sniffing the air.

 

“Lissy made dinner!” Veronica exclaimed. “But beware, this was her first attempt in years.”

 

Elissa laughed. “Good warning,” she said and pulled the covers off the dishes. “I hope you like it,” she said.

 

Rick’s eyes widened and he sniffed appreciably. “If it tastes half as good as it smells, I’ll hug you,” he said and sat down to eat.

The three of them laughed and ate the whole meal, Rick scraping the bowl of mashed potatoes in an effort to get more. Once he was done, he sat back and patted his flat stomach, sighing deeply.

“I’ve got to say, that was delicious,” he said.

“I didn’t know you could cook like that, Lissy,” Veronica said, pulling herself off the kitchen chair to make her way to the family room where she collapsed into a reclining chair. “That was really good,” she said and took the glass of milk her husband brought to her.

“Would you like some coffee?” Rick asked.

 

Elissa shook her head. “No thank you. I won’t be able to sleep tonight if I do,” she said and smiled as he walked back into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. “How did you sleep last night?” Veronica said, sipping her milk.

 

Elissa shook her head, “I don’t remember. So it must have been good. I didn’t wake up at all.”

“That’s good! The country air is good for you. You look a lot better today than you did yesterday,” she said, noting that the dark circles under her eyes were a little less visible.

“It feels good.” Then she leaned forward, “You wont’ believe what I did today. I learned to ride a horse,” she said without waiting for Veronica to guess.

 

“You’re kidding,” Veronica said, almost spilling her milk in her shock. “Did Rick teach you?”

 

“He started to, but then Jake took over.”

 

“Jake gave you riding lessons?” she asked.

 

“Yep.”

 

Rick came in at that moment with a steaming cup of coffee and sat down, chuckling. “I heard a little bit about the lessons and I’m glad you survived.”

 

“What happened?” Veronica asked, curious.

 

“I learned to start and stop, turn the horse left and right,” Elissa said quickly.

 

Rick burst out laughing. “Well, that’s true enough.”

 

Veronica’s gaze traveled between Rick’s laughing face and Elissa’s red one. “Okay, give it up. What happened?”

 

“Nothing. I told you,” Elissa said, standing up to put the dishes into the dishwasher.

 

Rick threw back his head and laughed. “That’s not what I heard,” he said, laughing so hard he had to gasp for breath and hold his stomach.

 

Elissa put her hands on her hips and stared at the man in confusion. “How would you know? You were out in some field doing something with a steer.”

Rick laughed again and stood up to give her a little hug. “Lissy, that’s one thing about living out here. Everyone knows everything about everyone. There’s no way to hide.”

Elissa was amazed that the rumor mill worked out here as efficiently as it did in New York. It didn’t seem as vicious she thought as Rick told the story about how she couldn’t get on the horse, couldn’t move the horse, then couldn’t move the horse in the right direction, and on and on. By the end of the story, Veronica was laughing so hard she was holding onto her stomach just as Rick had a few minutes ago. “Oh, Lissy, is it true?” she asked, wiping the tears from her face.

Rick even had Elissa laughing the way he told the story. “Well, it wasn’t funny at the time, but I guess I did make a few mistakes.”

That got Veronica and Rick laughing again and Elissa enjoyed their humor, letting the relaxed atmosphere wash over her. As they moved on to the next subject, Elissa could feel the tension in her shoulders ease. They talked about the kids in Veronica’s class at school and their antics and Rick mentioned a few of the trials of his day.

It was only nine o’clock but she saw Veronica smothering a yawn and got up. “I’d better go. I need to check my e-mail. I’ll see you guys in the morning,” she said and quickly left the house before they could protest.

Elissa made her way to the main house, wondering if she would run into Jake and hoping she wouldn’t. But a tiny voice inside her told her that she was lying to herself. She did want to see him. She wanted to know if he had eaten her chicken and if he’d had a nice day. She wanted to…Elissa didn’t let that thought continue. She slipped into the house from a side entrance and snuck up the side stairs to her room, closing the door quietly in case he was somewhere in the house.

She wasn’t sure where his room was, probably on the opposite wing, but she was too nervous around him. She felt silly and awkward, like a school girl with a crush. She seemed to stare too much and couldn’t form a thought when he looked at her with those intense black eyes of his.

She considered checking her e-mail again, but just couldn’t face the stress. So she didn’t even unpack her computer. Yawning, she walked out onto the balcony and looked out to the black night. She stared up at the sky, getting dizzy with the stars.

Climbing into bed, her last thought before her head hit the soft pillow was if Jake had liked her chicken as much as Veronica and Rick had.

The following week went along the same agenda. Elissa woke up when she heard a door close downstairs. She imagined that it was Jake leaving but wasn’t sure since the sun was just coming up over the horizon. She sat down on her balcony and watched the sun rise, enjoying the peace of the morning as the ranch slowly started to energize.

Once she finished her coffee, she would make breakfast for Veronica and Rick before they left in the morning. Once they were gone, she would pour over recipes, planning out the dinner she wanted to cook. Then she got into the ranch truck Rick told her she could use and drove into town to get whatever ingredients she needed. Elissa didn’t question why she always got enough to feed four people, two of whom were very large, very muscular men. It just became automatic as she selected her groceries each day.

Once she got back to the ranch in the late morning, Jake was always waiting for her at the barn and he would teach Elissa how to ride around the corral. He was usually pretty surly about the lessons, yelling instructions to her, criticizing her whenever she slipped even a little. By the third day, she didn’t let Jake’s ornery tone hurt her feelings or fluster her. Elissa was feeling so good about her success, she just gritted her teeth and tried harder, ignoring his cryptic comments and just general meanness.

After an hour or two of riding instruction, Elissa rubbed down Jemima, gave her a treat, then headed to the main house to cook dinner. Usually she was done by around two o’clock so she decided the second afternoon to start cleaning the house. It was a beautiful Spanish style house with gorgeous antiques that had previously been cared for by a loving hand. But the dust settling over the wood just made Elissa itch to clean up. So she did.

She started in the back of the house in the obviously unused portions, dusting, polishing, vacuuming all the furniture and carpets. As she cleaned each room and the wood started glowing with polish, the dusty smell left and the floors took on new shine, she felt a sense of accomplishment that had been missing in her days prior to coming here. The rooms took on a glow that revealed their previous beauty.

Each night, she shared her evening meal with Rick and Veronica, but left a little after the meal was over. She knew that they needed private time to talk and share their days without her being there.

So she left them each evening and headed back up to the main house, using the excuse that she had to do a little work. But her computer never left its case.

 

One evening, she sat out on the patio by the pool, staring up at the stars, amazed by their brightness.

 

“Having a good time?” a deep voice asked.

Elissa jumped. She hadn’t known Jake was here but she squinted and saw him leaning against the fence to the pool. “Oh, Jake. I’m sorry. Am I invading your space?” she said and stood up, already heading towards the house intending to head back to her room.

“Sit down,” he ordered. Elissa sat.

 

“What are you doing sitting out here? Why aren’t you down with Rick and Ronny?”

 

Elissa watched as he opened the gate and walked towards her. He sat down on the chair right next to her. Raising his eyebrows, he waited patiently for her answer.

As usual, when Jake came near her, her stomach got all mushy and she had trouble concentrating. Except during her first horseback riding lesson, he’d never been this close. He could easily reach out and touch her.

“I’m um….” Elissa looked over his shoulder, trying to concentrate. “They need time to themselves,” she explained.

 

Jake heard the wistfulness in her voice and wondered about it. “Why don’t you have someone you want to be alone with?” he asked.

 

“Who says I don’t?” she asked, avoiding his eyes.

 

“I do. You haven’t called anyone since you’ve been here. If I were the one waiting for you to come back, you damn well better call me every day,” he said.

 

Elissa glanced at his eyes, startled by his statement. “You would feel that way?” she asked.

 

“Damn straight,” he confirmed, nodding his head for emphasis. “So tell me why you don’t have someone?”

“Just because I don’t call someone, doesn’t mean there isn’t a significant other in my life,” she said, leaning back in her chair and staring up at the stars in an effort to appear calm despite her jumpiness when he was around her.

Jake was quiet for a moment before stating, “You’re lying. Why?”

 

Elissa didn’t like the way he could read her so easily. “Because I need to,” she said.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

She laughed softly. “Maybe I need to pretend there’s someone waiting for me. Just so I can make sure my life is normal in some small way,” she explained.

A lump formed in Jake’s throat. The sadness in her voice and the pain in her eyes caught him off guard. She was supposed to be a tough city girl, self-centered and pampered. Her comments didn’t fit the image he had of her.

“Why do you need to pretend? Aren’t there men back in New York?”

Elissa shrugged. “None worthy of mentioning.” She sat up then, afraid she’d reveal too much under the romantic stars. She didn’t think Jake wanted to hear about her love life, or lack of it. “Well, I’d better get to bed,” she said.

He stood up with her. “Good night,” he said, and watched as she walked into the darkened house.

Elissa made headway in all areas of her day that week. The house was starting to look wonderful now, she was cooking five course meals, complete with desserts and loving every minute of it. And despite Jake’s constant snapping, she knew she was doing well with Jemima. Oh, she wasn’t ready to start jumping fences and tying up calves, but she could hold her own in the corral now.

The nights worried her more and more. Each evening, no matter where she was in the house, she seemed to run into Jake. She hid out in the library one evening but he came in, sifting through some papers, stopping short when he saw her.

“Hiding?” he challenged.

 

Elissa was but she wasn’t going to admit it to Jake. “Reading,” she said, laying the book down on her lap so he couldn’t read the title.

But Jake noticed the telling blush on her cheeks and walked over to find out what had caused it. He picked up her book, easily evading her hands that tried to stop him as he read the title.

“Byron?” he questioned, then looked at her face. “You’re reading Byron?”

 

Elissa grabbed the book and tucked it back on the shelf. “I was.”

 

“Byron?” he asked again, unable to comprehend her reading romantic poetry.

She turned on her heel and confronted him. “He’s a very good writer with some interesting ideas. What’s it to you, who I read anyway?” she demanded, her hands on her hips.

Jake looked at her with her hands on her hips, confronting him. He slowly walked over to stand directly in front of her and he noted with approval the wariness that came over her expression as he towered over her tiny body.

“No need to get all sassy with me, little one,” he said, his eyes scanning her flushed face.

 

She quickly backed up a pace, which he eliminated immediately. “I don’t take sass from anyone, much less a tiny woman who barely reaches my shoulder.”

 

“You wouldn’t hurt me,” she said, sure he wouldn’t do physical harm to her but not sure what he could do.

 

“I don’t hit females,” he said softly, “But there are other ways to get rid of sass,” he warned. Then quickly turned on his heel and walked out of the room.

Elissa let out her breath, unaware that she had been holding it. Her first thought was what other ways? Her next one was that she needed to run. That got her feet moving and she made it all the way up the staircase and into her room, quickly closing the door behind her.

Wednesday, she decided to tackle the pool. The days were getting hotter and the pool needed cleaning. She had no idea how to do it but she found the pool tools in a small closet off to the side of the pool and used the nets to clean off the top of the water. It took her almost all afternoon, but by the end of the day, she was able to look at the crystal clear water and nod in satisfaction.

It was too late to swim though. She had to rush to get the evening meal ready. She only made simple sandwiches but added some gourmet cheese to spice them up and some homemade salsa. She debated making Jake a sandwich, not wanting to be nice to him after the previous evening’s threats. But she relented, knowing he didn’t get back to the house until well after it was dark. He always looked tired, she thought, remembering how she’d watched him from the darkness of her room a few nights ago. She made him two sandwiches and left them in the refrigerator, adding the salsa in a bowl to the side.