The Cowboy's Temptation Page 0,46

reminded himself.

As soon as those words formed in his mind, he stopped himself. He was reminded of all the things he’d assumed since she arrived and he let the thought that maybe she didn’t like her old life quite as much as he might have thought she did. She certainly looked to be thriving now. Gone were the dark circles and sadness from her eyes he’d seen when he’d picked her up at the airport. She’d gained weight in all the right places and her skin now glowed with health whereas before, she was pale and her skin looked like paste with the stress that was on her shoulders.

Jake munched on the sandwich and considered the idea of something more. He wasn’t sure how much convincing he might need to do. Was he up to the challenge? The thought was appealing.

What could he lose, he thought to himself? A few hours of enjoyment with a beautiful woman? A man could die happy just staring at those pretty blue eyes of hers.

Jake just sat back, relaxing his tired back against the walls of the stall behind him as he watched Elissa feed the new foal. He enjoyed listening to her laughter and wondered if she knew how well she fit into this world. She looked so happy, how could she even consider heading back to New York?

Jake made the decision. He was going to show her that she was better off here.

The foal eventually settled down, curling up next to her mother now that it had a full belly of milk. Elissa leaned back on her heels and stared back at Jake. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” She asked.

“Yep,” Jake replied, staring at Elissa’s dark head and sexy body.

Elissa sighed and stood up. “I guess I’d better get back to helping Ronny,” Elissa said, wiping the dirt from her hands. “She’s probably feeling abandoned by now.”

“Walk with me back to the house. I think we both need a shower, then you can go talk to Ronny,” he said. He threw an arm around her shoulder and guided her out of the barn toward the house.

“Have you ever thought about having kids?” he asked, the dim light from the setting sun hiding his eyes.

Elissa glanced quickly up but she couldn’t tell how serious the question was. She looked at the sunset and sighed wistfully. “Of course, in the few spare moments of my old life,” she said.

“Old life?” he questioned.

Elissa stiffened. She hadn’t meant to reveal so much about her current feelings. She’d been toying with an idea but hadn’t worked out the details yet. “Sure. I’ve changed in the past two weeks. I don’t think I can go back to New York and work like I used to. I’m just not interested in that anymore.”

“What do you plan on doing?” he asked, trying not to let her see how important her answer was to him.

“I don’t know. I’ll look for another job, I suppose,” she lied. She had no

intention of ever going back to New York except to clear up her old life and close it down. She had no idea what she was going to do, but whatever her future held for her, it definitely didn’t include New York and the financial district. It was too cut throat and manipulative.

“And kids?”

Elissa couldn’t answer that. She wanted to tell him that she’d consider kids only if he’d consider being their father, but she knew he didn’t feel that way about her. She was just the obnoxious woman that he had to teach how to do everything that didn’t include a computer screen and financials.

They walked up to the house and Elissa slipped out of his arms. “Thanks for today. I’m sorry if I got in the way at all,” and she rushed up the stairs without another word.

Elissa tore off her clothes and stepped into the hot, steaming water of the shower. She thought about the idea she’d been toying with. Could it work? She ran some numbers through her mind. She had the sale of her condominium. That would finance her start here. She knew she didn’t really need to work. She had so much money saved up, if she lived frugally, she could make it without any extra income. She also knew how to invest her money and could make a living off of her investments.

She’d been toying with the idea of starting a small consulting business, right here in Texas. Could she do it? Could she pack up everything