Under the Cowboy's Control

She never intended to lie. It just slipped out of her mouth. She hoped it would give her some sense of protection.

Looking up now at the room filled with five rough men in various ages and sizes, she was glad she had told the lie. They were inquisitive enough about her without knowing she was female. She saw their eyes, studying her intently.

Now she sat on the bunk and waited for the Segundo to bring back the boss who would make the decision whether or not to call the authorities about her.

She thought maybe that was the best thing, but Juan kept telling her otherwise. He was very old, about sixty, and he was the only one who spoke fluent Spanish. He was very gentle and nice to her, and he reminded her of the grandfather in Mexico she remembered from when she was younger. She would trust his judgment. She really had no other choice at the moment. She could understand most English words, but she hadn't learned to speak it properly yet. Juan was the only one here she could easily communicate with.

Juan said the boss was a

fair man, and everything would be fine if she truly was a citizen. She could tell the older man was skeptical. And that presented a problem.

If she let them see the papers she kept inside her Bible, they would find out she was a girl. For now pretending to be a boy was probably her safest course.

The door clicked opened and the Segundo named Jim walked in followed by another man. Her eyes settled on the second man and watched him look around the room and find her. Her breath tangled up in her throat when his eyes found hers. Deep, dark, velvet brown eyes watched her. The impact of those dark brown eyes was disturbing. He was intensely masculine, and Selena gripped the hoodie to her chest more tightly.

Well over six feet of cowboy prowled toward her. His hair was dark, and he had on a ragged white t-shirt with no sleeves. He wore faded Wranglers and his boots were dirty and scuffed. His biceps bulged as he stopped at the end of the bunk and crossed his arms over his chest.

He had rough good looks, with several scars marring his face. One slashed down the left side of his face, a thin line that showed against his tan. Another dissected his bottom lip, leaving it puffy and white. His eyes were beautiful and deep brown, his eyebrows arrogant hooks above them.

Her gaze slowly moved down his body, trying to assimilate the size of him. His shoulders were wide, his hips narrow, and steely muscles ran up and down his length. Her heart skipped several beats, and then wildly began pushing blood through her veins. Her hands began to tremble where she clutched the jacket to her and the breath hitched in her throat.

She looked back at his face and found him still watching her.

Selena lowered her eyes in self-defense.

****

Travis looked from the dejected figure on the bunk to the men hanging around the room.

"Don't ya'll have anything better to do?" Four men in the room took one last look, and then filed out.

Jim and Juan lingered. Juan spoke. "You're going to need me to translate, Boss.

Manuel doesn't speak English."

Travis tipped his hat back to get a better look. The small figure on the bunk stared back at him. Pain etched the features, and dirt was smudged all over the little face looking at him. Dark, violet eyes silently watched him.

Travis felt a kick in the gut as an arrow of arousal slammed his groin.

Shock immediately followed.

Nothing in his thirty-two years on earth had ever made him think he wasn't one-hundred percent heterosexual. Not a secret thought, not a second look, not even a hint of curiosity.

His eyes narrowed and he looked more closely. Beautiful violet eyes stared at him apprehensively. The face was purely feminine, without even a hint of masculine youth. Her eyes were slanted, provocatively so, with delicate eyebrows slashing above them. Her eyelashes were ridiculously long, and reminded him of a fawn's.

She clutched a lightweight, dirty jacket to her chest, hiding the swells he knew would be found there. Her complexion was creamy ivory, except for the sunburn, which looked new. One eye was blackened, and he felt a fierce surge of testosterone boil up inside of him when he thought about someone hurting her.

She looked helpless in the extreme, and his men had been right to come and drag him back here.

But how the hell they had all mistaken her for a boy was beyond him. She was a female, no question about it, and a young adult one at that. She may only be eighteen or nineteen, but she was about to open a whole can of worms for him.

The question was, had all of his men thought she was a boy, or were a couple of them secretly waiting for the right time to pounce on her? All in all, they were good men, good hands, and he wouldn't keep them around if he didn't think he could trust every one of them. But the ranch was secluded, and the men were known to go a bit stir crazy with the lack of women.

This little bit of fluff was going to cause him major problems, he could tell already.

He cleared his throat and tried to bring his lust down a notch. "His name is Manuel?" Travis asked Juan the rhetorical question and turned back to the bunk.

"Can you understand me, Manuel?"