Under the Cowboy's Control

The two men broke into grins, thanked her profusely, and turned and left the house.

Travis saw the spell she had cast over his men. The femininity that radiated from her young body was addictive. And not just to them. "You're going to spoil them.

They're going to start expecting something from you every day."

She shrugged, unconcerned, and resumed eating her meal. He watched delicate little bites go between her small white teeth, her hand pick up the glass of iced tea and take a sip. She set the drink back down and paused while she wiped the condensation from her glass. Her hand stroked up and down.

His guts clenched in need and he looked away from her and quickly finished the meal that had started out so enjoyable, but had suddenly turned on him to make him feel like a man stretched out on a rack.

****

The next night, Travis sat in his chair at the dinner table, steadily making his way through a second helping of something that tasted like spaghetti, but wasn't. There were no spaghetti noodles in the house, so Selena had substituted macaroni. It tasted the same. Delicious. They didn't have any French bread, but what he was eating could have passed for it. Toasted white bread dripping in butter and garlic.

What that girl could do with a loaf of store bought bread.

While he was thinking about the culinary possibilities if they were to make a run to Laredo for more supplies, his gaze swept over her. Something was different about her tonight. His eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out what it was.

It didn't take long. It was the shirt she was wearing. He knew she only owned two shirts, and she rotated them every day. She was wearing a different top. It was a tan t-shirt, and he had no idea where it came from. He chewed his meal and pondered the mystery.

All at once it dawned on him, and he choked slightly, and took a large gulp of iced tea. He cleared his throat and demanded, "Is that the shirt I threw away?" The idea of her wearing trash pissed him off, but there was no denying that it didn't resemble the shirt he had chunked a few days before.

Selena recognized the irritation in his voice and carefully answered him. "Yes. It is okay?"

"Yes, it's okay that you took it, but damn it, Selena, I don't want you to wear trash."

She jumped up, annoyed with him. "It is not trash. See." She stood close to him and pointed down her torso to the shirt in question. No doubt about it, it didn't look like something she had gotten from the trash. When he had thrown it away, it was a plain t-shirt that had at one time been white, before all the stains, and had rips in it from his tussle with the bull and the barbed wire.

Now it looked like something any young girl would wear. She had cut off the bottom where all the rips were located, and she had cropped it to about waist length. The majority of it was dyed a light tan color, except around the collar which was a deeper brown. The sleeves that had been short on him, she had carefully rolled up, and they were tied around her tiny biceps with bows that she had cut from the discarded material from the bottom.

"How did you dye it brown?" His voice was puzzled.

"Wh-what?" she asked, and embarrassed by her outburst, moved back to her chair.

"The shirt. How did you make it brown? What did you use?" He tempered his words so she wouldn't think she had done something wrong.

"Coffee." She took another bite, and looked up to see if he was mad.

"You dipped the shirt in coffee, and it turned that color?"

" Si."

Travis was totally taken aback by her ingenuity. But immediately his eyes fell to the meal she had contrived from practically nothing, and decided that she was very talented and extremely domestic.

He also felt like a heel for not realizing the state of her clothing. Her lack of clothing.

Finishing up the last few bites of the meal, Travis wiped his hands and stood up.

"Follow me, Selena." He pushed his chair under the table and walked into the living room and sat behind his desk at the computer.

With a few keystrokes, the website of a large online department store featuring women's apparel popped onto the screen.

Selena stood in the doorway, watching him with a question in her eyes.

"Come over here." He motioned with his head for her to come to him and looked back down at the screen.

Selena gritted her teeth at his supreme arrogance, but she slowly obeyed him, until she was standing next to him, looking at the computer screen. What she saw there, hurt her feelings. Did she look so horrible? Was he angry that she had taken the shirt? She was clothed, and she was clean.

"I want you to pick out some clothes. I can't spare the time from the ranch to take you shopping right now, but you can order some stuff, and the UPS guy will deliver it in a few days. We're not so far off the beaten track that we don't get deliveries."