The Cowboy's Temptation (7 page)

It was an extremely hot night but Elissa didn’t want to go swimming until she was sure Jake was done for the day. Her bathing suit was not overly revealing, but she feared Jake would be able to see everything underneath the spandex. So she stayed in her room, watching from the balcony until he walked into the house. She even waited until the light from the kitchen turned off, indicating that he’d eaten the sandwiches she’d left for him and was heading upstairs for bed.

Elissa snuck down the stairs, making sure all the lights were out before she crossed the large family room that would lead to the patio and pool. Breathing a sigh of relief, she put her towel down on a lounge chair and stood at the edge of the pool, anticipating the coolness of the water, eager to let the water surround her and take the edge off the day.

She dove cleanly through the water, coming up on the other side and taking a deep breath. The water felt even better than she had thought it would. It was a glorious feeling to skim through the cold water, leaving the tension behind.

She swam several laps, pushing her muscles so she would fall asleep tonight. She had been sleeping well ever since she arrived, but the feeling was too new to take for granted. She wanted to wear herself out so she wouldn’t wake up tonight.

Getting out, she toweled herself dry, congratulating herself on avoiding Jake tonight and ignoring the disappointment she felt at the thought. She refused to acknowledge that she prepared all day just for their evening interludes. She didn’t want to admit, even to herself, that she was trying to find out what his favorite meals were so she could cook them. That path led to insanity.

“You’re a good swimmer,” a deep voice said through the darkness.

 

Elissa jumped and spun around, trying to find the man. “What are you doing out here?” she asked, covering her body with the towel.

 

“It’s my house, but I don’t remember assigning anyone to clean the pool lately.”

 

“Do you mind?” she asked, wondering if he would get mad that she had done it.

 

“I guess not,” he said and pushed away from the door where he had been leaning.

 

“How long have you been here?”

 

“Ever since you tiptoed through the family room,” he said, chuckling and swirling the ice cubes in his glass.

 

Elissa was glad that the darkness hid her flaming cheeks. “I wasn’t tiptoeing. I just heard your door close and didn’t want to disturb you.”

 

Jake ignored her lie and let his eyes skim down her towel-covered body. “Where’d you learn to swim so well?” he asked.

 

“I was on my high school swim team. I love the water,” she said and stepped back slightly. Jake was too close. She needed space to be able to think around him.

“Really? I would have thought you were more into the French club or maybe Latin,” he said and took a step forward for each of her retreating ones. careful,” he warned.
“You should be

“I was in the French club,” she replied, stepping back again. doing?” she asked, wary of his approach.

 

“What are you

But that was one step too much and her foot had nothing to step on except air and water. She dropped the towel and her arms flew out as dawning emerged that she was about to fall into the pool.

Jake reached out quickly with his free hand and wrapped his arm around her middle, pulling her to safety before she fell backwards into the pool. “Didn’t I mention that you should be careful?” he said, his mouth close to hers, his eyes scanning her own.

“Yes,” she gasped.

Elissa was arched against his arm and she could feel every muscle along her almost naked body. He was wearing his jeans and boots, but his shirt had been unbuttoned down to the middle of his chest. She could see the firm muscles were covered with a light layer of hair and her hands held onto his shoulders. She could feel his stomach muscles tense as her lips parted.

They just stood there like that, each staring at the other, their bodies fitting perfectly to each other. Elissa realized that she wanted him to kiss her, if just this once. She wanted to know what his lips felt like. Were they hard or soft? Would he demand? Or would he entice?

But he stopped and backed up a step, releasing her immediately.

 

Neither said anything for the longest time.

“I guess I’d better get to bed,” Elissa whispered. “Thank you for the rescue,” she mumbled, then carefully moved around him. Once he was not between her and safety, she ran into the house, needing to get as far away from him as possible.

Thursday was uneventful since Elissa read a book in her room and was, therefore, able to avoid contact with Jake. She was concerned with her reactions every time he came near her. She decided that she needed to make more of an effort to avoid him in the future.

Unfortunately, since she didn’t sleep well the night before, Elissa had to grit her teeth to keep her temper from flaring up during her riding lessons with Jake. He was being extremely demanding and pushing her to do things she was nervous about doing on the horse. He wanted her to get Jemima to a gallop but she kept the horse at a trot, not willing to tempt fate at this point.

But when he yelled at her for the third time, she stopped Jemima in the middle of the corral, got down off the horse, walked over to where Jake was standing and poked him in the middle of his chest as she looked up at him. “Listen, cowboy. I’m tired of you yelling at me and being mean and nasty. Jemima and I don’t want to go any faster, so just back off and teach me to do something else.” By the time she was finished, she was yelling at him, emphasizing each of her points by poking him in the chest again and again.

When she was done, she walked back into the corral, pulled herself up onto Jemima’s back and turned in the saddle, waiting for Jake’s next instruction. She was feeling pretty proud of herself for a few moments.

But that feeling didn’t last. Jake stood by the fence, an astonished look on his face for all of ten seconds. Then his face cleared, his mouth settled into a grim line and he walked purposefully over to where Elissa and Jemima were waiting.

Elissa had no idea what to expect. She just stared down at him, glad that she was higher than he was for once.

She never saw it coming. He moved so fast. One moment he was standing in front of her and Jemima, the next he was seated behind her, pulling her bottom onto his lap and taking the reigns out of her hands. One arm held her around her waist and the other hand directed Jemima to turn to the right. Elissa held on to Jake’s arm for her dear life as Jake nudged Jemima into a full out run. They ran past all the ranch buildings, leaving the ranch hands to stop their work and stare at their boss flying past them with a terrified Elissa in front of him.

He directed Jemima to an outcropping of rocks and trees, then hopped down off the saddle. Once he was on the ground, he reached up to pull her down.

Elissa tried to avoid his hands, but she was no match for his muscular arms. He simply lifted her high up, then slid her body slowly down the length of his, watching her face the whole time.

“I told you I wouldn’t put up with sass,” he said a moment before his mouth came down on hers.

Elissa had been wondering what a kiss from Jake would be like. Nothing in her dreams or past experience could have prepared her for the shock waves that traveled through her veins with his first touch.

He caught her gasp in his mouth and all she could do was grab his shoulders and hang on. His lips were hard and rough in texture and demanded everything while giving her all she could take. His mouth demanded that her lips part to allow his tongue entrance and she immediately complied, eager to feel the next sensation.

His tongue mated with hers, moving in and out of her mouth, forcing a groan from her that she didn’t realize had come from her. Of their own volition, Elissa’s arms wrapped around his neck and the world tilted as he turned them so she was leaning against the rock, her back against the stone and her chest against his chest, both hard and unyielding.

He sucked her lip and tongue, demanding more from her than she knew she had it in her to give. She whimpered as he tilted his head the other way, gaining a better advantage to the kiss.

Without her knowledge, Jake pulled her leg up, allowing his leg to move between hers. He kissed her neck, her ear, nibbling on the lobe and caressing the delicate shell with his tongue, eliciting another groan from Elissa as she arched her back, desperate to feel more but not sure what to do.

Just as suddenly as the kiss started, Jake pulled away, both of them breathing hard and staring at each other. Then Jake walked back over to Jemima and climbed on. A second later, he maneuvered the horse over to where Elissa was standing and she was again plunked down in front of him. They rode back to the corral in silence. When Jemima was standing in the middle of the corral, Jake hopped down and walked right back to where he had been when she’d yelled at him before and he started calling out orders to her again, just as cranky as he had been before.

Elissa obeyed him simply because she couldn’t think anymore. Her hands were still shaking from his kiss and her mind was still reeling.

By the time the lesson was over, she was no longer shaking with reaction but she was shaking in anger. Had he not felt the same things she had during the kiss? How dare he kiss her like that, she thought in the next moment. He had no right to do that to her and the next time she saw him, she’d tell him to keep his hands off her! Elissa was kicking the ground all the way back to the house, wishing it was his incredibly attractive butt instead of just the dust.

She made a huge meal for dinner that night in an effort to calm her frustration. She made glazed ham, scalloped potatoes, blueberry pie and several types of cookies. In the end, she still left him a plate but it was a tough decision this time.

“Well, I’d better get up to the house and get some sleep. You guys look like you’re about to pass out anyway,” Elissa said, standing up and heading towards the door.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Veronica called, heaving her pregnant body out of the reclining chair. She walked over to the refrigerator and pulled a piece of paper off, handing it to Elissa. “There’s a dance tomorrow night. Wear a dress,” she said, making the assumption that Elissa would attend.

Elissa stared at the flyer. “I don’t think I can do this,” she said, handing the flyer back to her.

But Veronica was having none of that. She pushed the paper back, shaking her head. “You have to go. Rick won’t have anyone to dance with unless you go. And I want to be around people that don’t write notes in class.”

Elissa laughed. “Really, it’s nice of you to invite me but…:

“No ‘buts’,” she interrupted. “If you don’t go, I’ll have to dance with him,” she said, pointing to her husband who was cleaning up the kitchen. “And that won’t be a good thing with old Junior here,” she said, patting her belly, “jumping around and causing trouble. So be ready at seven o’clock. We’ll all go together. I promise none of the other cowhands will bother you.”

Elissa couldn’t deny her friend company so she relented. “Okay. I’ll be ready. But do I have to wear a dress?” she asked.

 

“Yes. You need to show off those sexy legs. All I get to see are Rick’s.”

 

“Hey, mine aren’t too bad to look at,” he challenged, coming up behind his wife and hugging her.

 

“Okay, you’ve convinced me,” Elissa laughed. “I’ll be ready at seven.”

Elissa didn’t follow her now normal routine on Saturday. She still woke up when she heard a door close somewhere downstairs, but the sun was almost completely over the horizon this morning. So instead of watching the sun rise with her first cup of coffee, she made a fresh pot and sat down and considered the past week.

She had slept soundly each day, not worrying about anything other than how to get through her riding lessons and avoiding physical contact with her handsome, sexy host. She had been living more this week, working harder, enjoying the days much more than she ever would have expected she could have. The work was tough, as was evidenced by her blistered and chapped hands, she thought as she stared down at the mess her hands had become. She was amazed at how little she cared, remembering how perfectly manicured her hands and nails used to be.

She didn’t care about her hands except for the pain when she went riding, which was getting worse each day. Maybe Veronica could recommend something. She knew Ronny used to ride before she got pregnant. Elissa was probably just doing something wrong with the reigns, holding them incorrectly or too tightly. She considered asking Jake, but that would just confirm his perception of her as a pampered city girl. The perception wasn’t too far off the mark, she thought, grimacing as she noted the soreness in her muscles from her daily horseback riding.

Back in New York, except for the long hours and the stress, she had pretty much everything done for her; A maid to clean her condo – which wasn’t too difficult since Elissa was rarely ever there, restaurants that did all her cooking for her, a personal shopper that delivered a new outfit each month to her house and a secretary that helped with all the other personal details. Her firm believed that helping their employees with the personal aspect of their lives enabled them to work longer hours. They were right. The long hours turned into sixteen or eighteen hour days, six or seven days a week. The days and weeks blurred into years and Elissa looked back and realized she hadn’t had a vacation in over three years.

Veronica found Elissa by the pool, sipping coffee. “What are you doing out here?” Veronica asked.

 

Elissa turned to smile up at her friend as she waddled across the patio. “Just enjoying the morning.”

 

“Ah,” Veronica replied. “You look like you are contemplating life,” she said and sat down in the deck chair next to her and propped her hands over her belly.

 

Elissa chuckled. “Actually I am.”

 

“And what problems have you solved?”

“Well, I haven’t really solved any problems. But I’ve been able to determine what the problems are. I’ve been working too hard at something I genuinely hate doing,” She said.

Veronica nodded sagely. “So what are you going to do about it?”