The Cowboy's Temptation Page 0,43

door closed, Elissa jumped up and grabbed her clothes. She rushed to her own room and showered, changing into a pair of clean jeans and a short sleeved tee-shirt. She only took the time to put on some mascara, lipstick and powder and tied her hair back with a pony tail clip. Then she skipped downstairs to find Jake.

She was a little nervous about their first encounter but he wouldn’t even allow that. He just handed her a cup of coffee and pointed to a stool by the counter. “How do you like your eggs? Please say scrambled because no matter how hard I try, that’s basically how they all turn out anyway,” he said and cracked two eggs into a skillet.

Elissa laughed. “Scrambled would be delicious.” “Good,” he said and broke several more into the pan, then added cheese, pepper and salt. The microwave dinged and he deftly pulled out some bacon and set it aside to cool. While all of this was going on, he managed to butter toast, make another pot of coffee and stir the eggs.

Within ten minutes of her entry to the kitchen, she was served a plate loaded with eggs, bacon, toast and a steaming cup of coffee. “I’m impressed. I didn’t think you knew how to cook.”

Jake smiled his sexy smile. “Don’t be too impressed. This is my main meal. I do a few other things, but this is the best. Sundays I take a little more time to fix a meal and this is it.”

Elissa took a large bite of the eggs and savored the taste. “This is delicious,” she said and took another bite.

“Good, I’m glad you like them.” He hesitated for only a moment. “So want to tell me why you’re still a virgin?”

Elissa had just taken a large bite of toast but her mouth was suddenly dry. “I’m sorry?” she asked, and looked down at her coffee.

Jake sighed and shook his head. “Elissa, don’t think I’m an idiot. I noticed that last night was your first time and I’m sorry,” he said.

Elissa lost her appetite. “You’re sorry?” she said, the sadness in her voice coming through despite herself.

“Elissa, I can tell you’re getting the wrong impression here. I’m honored but I don’t understand,” he said. “Someone as beautiful as you going around, it just doesn’t make sense. I mean, you’re from New York. Ronny says you’ve dated over the years.”

Elissa put down her coffee and stood up. “And me being from New York, you drew the obvious conclusion that I slept around.”

“No. That’s not what I thought.” He ran a hand through is hair. “Hell, I knew we should have talked last night.”

“Why didn’t you?” she asked turning away and wanting to run out of the kitchen. She was humiliated now. She had just spent the most wonderful and satisfying night of her life with the most incredible man she’d ever known and he was apologizing. This wasn’t the stuff dreams were made of, she thought.

“Because you’re sexy as hell and…” he hesitated, “and you seemed to know what you were doing.”

Elissa didn’t want to hear anymore. “Well, thanks for the lesson last night. It was nicer than I thought it would be,” she said and turned away.

Jake wasn’t having any of that and pulled her back to face him. “Elissa, stop it. You know damn well that last night was better than nice,” he demanded, his eyes blazing in his fury.

Elissa was too hurt by his words. She just shrugged and tried to pull her arms free of his grasp. “I wouldn’t know that. As you found out, I don’t have much to compare it to. But I’ll definitely let you know once I get a larger sample size,” she said and pulled her arms free.

She ran out of the kitchen not sure where she was going. She just knew she had to get out of the house and away from that man.

Unfortunately, her run was halted by another ranch hand coming through the doorway. “Jake, we need you down at the barn. Lucy is having problems,” he said.

Elissa stepped back and crossed her arms over her chest. She saw the worried look on Jake’s face and, despite herself, her heart went out to him. Something was wrong and she knew his loyalties were pulled.

“Elissa, I have a horse that’s about to drop a foal. Please, can we talk about this later?”

“Yes, fine.” Elissa just wanted to hide. She didn’t want to talk or deal with this kind