The Cowboy's Temptation Page 0,15
Elissa looked like she had just won a gold medal in the Olympics.
Ignoring the warm, tender feelings she created inside him, he called out to her, “Now stop her and start her up again.”
“Uh…Jake, you never told me how to stop her,” she said, turning the horse again to the right.
“Pull on the reigns.”
“I did that last time and lost the reigns. What did I do wrong?”
“You pulled back too quickly. You told her she needed to stop quickly, so she did. Pull back gently and she’ll come to a stop gently.”
Elissa did as he instructed and her smile widened when Jemima came to a gentle stop.
The lesson continued for over an hour. Jake had her start, stop, move to the left and right over and over again. Then when he thought she’d mastered that, he told her how to dismount. He made her get up and off several times.
Grooming the horse after the lesson was a treat for both horse and rider. Elissa rubbed the horse down with a brush, then fed her an apple, enjoying how the horse nibbled on the palm of her hand. She made fast friends with Jemima that day. But she avoided looking at Jake again. The one time in the corral was enough to assure her that he didn’t like her in any way and thought of her as burdensome. She was grateful for the lesson though, so once he told her that Jemima was adequately compensated for, she turned to offer her thanks.
“Be back here tomorrow for the next lesson,” he said before she could get out her thanks. He walked away after that tense command.
Elissa watched him walk away, admiring the man’s physique despite herself. His thighs were thick and muscular beneath the jeans and were topped by the nicest butt, she admitted. Elissa had never been a derriere admirer before, but she was changing in all aspects of her life, she realized.
Then her eyes strayed to his shoulders and she had to sigh. If she were a dating woman, which she wasn’t anymore, this man would definitely tempt her. She’d felt only his hands against her waist when they’d lifted her into the saddle, but that was enough to know that those arms and shoulders were packed with muscles underneath his black cotton shirt.
Elissa shook her head and forced her eyes to move away from his retreating back. She didn’t know what to do with the rest of her day. Veronica would be at school for another four hours, Rick was out on whatever task Jake had sent him to do. She thought about logging into her computer and checking her e-mail, but rejected that idea.
The main house caught her eye and Elissa remembered Veronica talking about the kitchen. Apparently, Jake’s mother loved cooking so the main house had a very large, airy kitchen with every possible utensil and pan known to the culinary world.
Elissa hadn’t cooked anything since before college, but she remembered how much she liked baking and creating. Since she was staying at the main house for a few more days, would Jake mind if she used the kitchen as well?
She turned around to see if she could put the question to him, but once she walked out of the barn, there was no one in sight, Jake included. She walked up to the house by herself, ignoring the tense muscles in her body.
She entered by a side entrance and gasped in pleasure. The kitchen was huge with acres of countertop space. The dark wood cabinets were large and, upon opening them, she discovered that they were filled with mixing bowls, pans of every size and shape and any utensil she might need, including some she had no idea what to do with.
Peeking into the refrigerator, she noted that it was packed full of food. Elissa wondered if Jake would consider this an invasion of privacy, but then shrugged. She didn’t care at this point. She didn’t have anything to do until Veronica came home so she was going to try her hand at cooking.
She found a dish towel and tucked it into the waistband of her jeans in place of an apron, then pulled out chicken, vegetables, cheese, bread and butter. Staring at the ingredients, she considered her options. With a nod of her head and a determined expression, Elissa set out to pounding, chopping, slicing and dicing. The first thing was a salad. That was easy enough, she thought as she tossed all the vegetables