Free The Cowboy's Temptation by Elizabeth Lennox

watching the sun rise with her first cup of coffee, she made a fresh pot and sat down and considered the past week.
    She had slept soundly each day, not worrying about anything other than how to get through her riding lessons and avoiding physical contact with her handsome, sexy host. She had been living more this week, working harder, enjoying the days much more than she ever would have expected she could have. The work was tough, as was evidenced by her blistered and chapped hands, she thought as she stared down at the mess her hands had become. She was amazed at how little she cared, remembering how perfectly manicured her hands and nails used to be.
    She didn’t care about her hands except for the pain when she went riding, which was getting worse each day. Maybe Veronica could recommend something. She knew Ronny used to ride before she got pregnant. Elissa was probably just doing something wrong with the reigns, holding them incorrectly or too tightly. She considered asking Jake, but that would just confirm his perception of her as a pampered city girl. The perception wasn’t too far off the mark, she thought, grimacing as she noted the soreness in her muscles from her daily horseback riding.
    Back in New York, except for the long hours and the stress, she had pretty much everything done for her; A maid to clean her condo – which wasn’t too difficult since Elissa was rarely ever there, restaurants that did all her cooking for her, a personal shopper that delivered a new outfit each month to her house and a secretary that helped with all the other personal details. Her firm believed that helping their employees with the personal aspect of their lives enabled them to work longer hours. They were right. The long hours turned into sixteen or eighteen hour days, six or seven days a week. The days and weeks blurred into years and Elissa looked back and realized she hadn’t had a vacation in over three years.
Veronica found Elissa by the pool, sipping coffee. “What are you doing out here?” Veronica asked.
     
Elissa turned to smile up at her friend as she waddled across the patio. “Just enjoying the morning.”
     
“Ah,” Veronica replied. “You look like you are contemplating life,” she said and sat down in the deck chair next to her and propped her hands over her belly.
     
Elissa chuckled. “Actually I am.”
     
“And what problems have you solved?”
    “Well, I haven’t really solved any problems. But I’ve been able to determine what the problems are. I’ve been working too hard at something I genuinely hate doing,” She said.
Veronica nodded sagely. “So what are you going to do about it?”
    Elissa stared out at the magnificent Rocky Mountains and breathed in the fresh, clean air. “I don’t know,” she thought, not really wanting to solve her problems at this point but knowing she’d have to do something soon. “I hate living in New York. I’m sure there are wonderful people there, but I haven’t run into them.”
“You probably won’t in your line of work. You take money and make more of it. That doesn’t bring the most fascinating line of people into your office.”
     
Elissa smiled at her friend’s summation of her career choice. “I know. But I don’t know what else to do.”
     
“What do you like to do?”
     
Elissa thought for a moment. “I like numbers. I’m very good at it.”
    After a moment of silence, Veronica quietly said, “Jake hates doing the numbers part. He’s asked me for help on several occasions, but with my full time job, I don’t really have the time to help out as much as he needs.”
    Elissa nodded in agreement at Veronica’s comment. “I’ve done all his accounting for the past several months,” Elissa replied. “You’re right. It was a mess. That man definitely knows how to run a ranch though. I can’t believe how much money goes through this place.”
“It’s pretty astounding. I don’t know how Jake keeps track of everything. But he