The Cowboy's Temptation Page 0,32

all done, he had nothing to do.

He wandered out to the patio and spotted exactly what he had been hoping to find. The mystery woman herself, sitting on a deck chair staring at the stars.

With a purposeful stride, he walked straight through the family room and quietly stepped onto the patio.

“I was wondering about something,” a deep voice said from behind her.

Elissa jumped and almost fell out of her chair. She’d heard Jake go into his office and was sure he’d be in there for hours. She had felt safe wandering out to watch the stars, amazed at how bright they were when there wasn’t a layer of smog and mile after mile of street lights and building lights to blur their brilliance.

“What are you wondering about?” she asked, once she’d caught her breath.

“Well, there are some strange things going on around here and I thought you might be able to solve the mystery.”

“What’s the mystery?” she asked, trying to keep the quiver out of her voice. Why did she always get so nervous when he was around? And why did he have to be so tall and muscular? She watched him with wary eyes as he walked in front of her and leaned against a patio table, crossing his arms over his chest.

“For one thing, I thought Ronny was making all those meals for you and I was just benefiting from the leftovers. But seeing as how she’s still in the hospital and Rick is with her, that throws a wrench into that answer.”

Elissa sat quietly still. Was he angry that she’d been using his kitchen? She had grown to love cooking but she’d give it up if she was irritating him. Maybe she hadn’t cleaned the counters or had left a mess somewhere. Was he angry? She couldn’t tell. His face was in the shadows. The only part of him that was in the light was his muscular thighs encased in tight jeans and his black cowboy boots.

“Nothing to say?” he hesitated for a moment, waiting for her reply. When she didn’t answer his unspoken question, he went on. “And then there’s the house that is cleaned. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

“What’s wrong with a clean house?” she asked, unsure of his mood.

“Nothing. In fact, I even like the changes. Makes it feel much cozier, less cluttered. Don’t you agree?”

If she said yes, he might find out that she was the one that had moved everything. So she remained silent.

“But really, the most interesting discovery is that all my books are up to date and the supplies ready to be ordered. All I needed to do was push the ‘send’ button and the order was placed. That’s really a miracle, let me tell you,” he said, his voice ending in a slightly stronger twang than normal.

“Are you angry?” she asked, looking down at the cement.

“Angry?” Jake repeated. “Well, that’s an interesting question. I’m not sure exactly what I’m thinking until you confirm my suspicions.”

There was a long silence while she waited for him to clarify his suspicions.

He walked over to her chair and leaned down, his face in the light and she could see his eyes clearly now. They were on fire but not with anger. It was some emotion she was too nervous to define. She pushed herself back in the chair, no escape available to her with his arms trapping her in her seat.

“Are you cooking the meals every night?”

“No,” she said honestly.

He didn’t say a word but one eyebrow went up.

“I cook them during the day while Ronny was at school,” she whispered.

“And the cleaning?”

“In the afternoons.”

“And the ledgers?”

Elissa shrugged her shoulders but wouldn’t look him in the eye. She stared at the top button of his shirt instead. “I was cleaning your office. The desk was piled high. It drove me nuts to see all that clutter. So I took care of it.”

Jake’s eyes widened. He shook his head slightly as he asked, “You didn’t like the clutter so you took care of it.”

Elissa nodded her head, getting irritated with his continuous stare.

“How long did it take you?” he demanded. “It was weeks worth of invoices that had been stacked up.”

“Only a few hours,” she said. “Figuring out your system was a little bit of a challenge but once I understood what you needed, it was pretty simple.”

Jake laughed quietly. “You understand that I dread doing that each week and you’re prettily sitting there telling me that it was simple? Darlin’