The Cowboy's Temptation Page 0,39

other men, Lissy,” Ronny said quietly but with complete conviction.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’m not willing to bet my pride and self esteem on your personal perceptions of Jake.”

“Well, why don’t you just enjoy him while you figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life?”

They passed each other on the small stretch of carpeting as both walked and bounced the babies who gurgled and cried at different intervals. But Ronny’s comment stopped Elissa short. “What do you mean?”

Ronny rolled her eyes. “Elissa, you’ve never reacted like this to any man. So why don’t you take what you can from Jake? Enjoy him, get to know him. Find out what makes the man tick? Or just satisfy yourself in bed with him. I’m pretty sure you won’t come away from that running.”

Elissa’s heartbeat skipped a beat. The idea that she could turn the tables had never occurred to her. Of course, she wasn’t going to go out and cheat on Jake. But the thought of just going into the relationship knowing that it was going to end, anticipating that it would go no where was a very alluring idea. Could she protect herself in that way?

“I can see I’ve tempted you.”

Elissa didn’t respond since Rick came in a moment later. He swept Ronny into his arms, careful not to hurt his baby daughter. Then rushed to Elissa’s side to give her a kiss on the cheek. “Ya’ll look lovely with these babies,” he said before he ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time so he could shower off the ranch dust.

Elissa and Ronny laughed at his enthusiasm for his babies, despite his obvious lack of sleep. He came downstairs a few minutes later and took Michael out of Elissa’s hands so she could finish dinner and also leave the four of them alone for a few minutes.

She busied herself in the kitchen, cutting vegetables for a salad and setting the table. The whole time, Ronny’s advice tumbled through her mind. What would it be like to accept Jake as her lover? Could she separate her heart from the sex? Is that all Jake wanted from her? For some reason she didn’t want to investigate, that thought hurt a great deal. She pushed it out of her mind. All she wanted from Jake was sex so why should she care if he wanted the same thing?

Besides, maybe if they had sex, just once, she could get him out of her system and move on. She loved this ranch. She loved horseback riding and cooking and taking care of the babies but she couldn’t do this forever. She really needed to figure out what she was going to do long term.

A new voice in the family room almost made her drop the knife she was using to cut up carrots. Jake!

Was he really here or had her imagination just conjured up his voice since her mind was so centered on him?

And then he appeared in the kitchen, his large body taking up all the available space.

“Need some help?” he asked, his grin indicating that he had expected her surprise.

“What are you doing here?”

“I suspected that you might hide out here despite your agreement to talk tonight. So I came by to walk you home and make sure we had our little chat,” he explained and reached behind her to pull out the dishes from the cabinet.

He winked at her before he left the room to set the table. Elissa didn’t know what to do. But her body did. The moment she’d heard his voice, her body had gone into overdrive.

Dumping the carrots into the bowl, she followed in the path Jake had just taken. Holding the bowl in front of her like a shield, she watched as Jake and Rick joked about something that had happened on the ranch today.

Good grief that man was sexy! He was just placing plates in front of each chair and Elissa’s eyes were transfixed by his hands. She wanted him to be touching her, not the plates. He walked over to her and plucked the salad bowl out of her hands, placed it in the middle of the table, all the while, keeping up a constant discussion with Rick on the happenings of the ranch.

Elissa went back into the kitchen and leaned against the sink, thinking. It was such a tantalizing thought, to give in to her desire for Jake and keep herself free from any kind of emotional attachment.