“I asked you if you liked my horse.”

  “Oh, the horse.” Charissa saw the flicker of amusement in his eyes, but let it go. She knew he wasn’t laughing at her to be mean. “Yes, I do. I like your horse. I like him a lot.”

  The inquisitive eyes zoned in on her making her, for once in her life, nervous around a human male. “His name is Adonis. It’s not his full registered name, of course, but—”

  A few of the men snickered at the name and added comments below their breath.

  “Sounds like sissy horse to me.”

  “Too sissy for a stud.”

  “Who the hell gives a quarter horse a fancy name like that?”

  Travis ignored the men, but answered their comments as if she’d spoken them. “I didn’t name him. Joe’s ex-wife did. She has a thing about mythology. Whatever his name, his bloodline is impeccable.”

  Flustered by her reaction to the man, she turned to the horse and whistled at him. Adonis nickered softly in response. “Adonis. I like the sound of it.”

  “I think it’s a Greek word meaning ‘handsome.’”

  Even as the chuckles erupted again, she studied the man and nodded. “Yes, he is.”

  Their eyes met and this time she knew he understood she didn’t mean the horse. He blinked, examining her a bit longer and, finally, broke the silent connection. “Um, yes. He is. But I’ve never seen him cotton to anyone the way he’s done with you.”

  Cotton? Would this cotton be a good thing? Charissa uttered a small laugh. Little did this man know about her rapport with animals. “He understands how much I love animals, Travis. Your name is Travis, correct?”

  “Travis Walker. I purchased him in a private treaty from Joe. Cost me a couple of dollars, but he’s worth it.”

  “Yeah, like about a couple of million of those dollars.” Joe chuckled as he rubbed his thumb and two fingers together.

  “Oh? A treaty?” Charissa checked Joe’s reaction before asking, “Were you fighting each other? If so, it’s admirable that you’ve decided to make peace.”

  From the exchange between Joe and Travis, Charissa knew she’d misinterpreted his words. Joe tucked his head down even as those around them broke out in laughter again.

  Travis, however, didn’t seem to notice or care. “No, you don’t understand. A private treaty is a private agreement to buy a horse. Without going through an auction.”

  Charissa blushed and hated herself for it. Control your emotions. “And this treaty cost you a few million? Dollars? Is that what he called it?”

  He shot a hard look at the people who grew even ruder when their laughter threatened to escalate in volume. “Bucks. Dollars. American moolah.” As he tunneled his fingers through his hair, his expression softened and he glanced the length of her again. “You’re not from around here, are you? Are you from the Middle East?”

  She shook her head knowing the motion would draw his attention to her silky, black hair. As she’d known, he followed the action and lifted a hand toward her shoulders. He stopped, a bit stunned at what he’d started to do, and dropped his hand. Instead, Travis paused and leaned closer to her. When she smiled at him, letting him know she would allow him to get closer, he appeared to think twice about his move and stepped back. “Sorry, Miss. I, uh… You smell nice.” His features hardened with a slight pink trail running up his cheeks as the men around him coughed to cover their chuckles.

  She liked that he blushed. It meant he was confident enough to blush. “Call me Charissa. But I’m not wearing any perfume. What you smell is my natural fragrance. Do you like it?”

  The crowd around them couldn’t hold back any longer. Laughter rang out as did their comments.

  “Yeah, Travis, honey, do you like it?”

  “Ooh, baby, I sure do.”

  “You smell so, so nice.”

  Ignoring the others, she started to close the distance between them even more, wanting his body as close to hers as possible, when Rici stepped in.

  “I think we’ve seen enough, Charissa.” Rici took her arm and guided her to the side. “We need to leave. Now.”

  “Yeah, you need to leave.”

  Three young women circled Travis like guards protecting a treasure. Two of the petite brunettes took each of Travis’ arms while the third, barely tall enough to reach the top of his shoulders, stepped in front of him. With her hands fisted on her hips, she sent an unmistakable challenge to Charissa. “Like I said. You need to leave.”

  “Hey, hold on, Brenda.” Travis tried to remove the girls’ hands from his arms, but they clung on tighter. “You don’t have the right to tell her to leave.”

  “Brenda’s right. She needs to leave.” The brunette on the Travis’ left sneered at Charissa. “She’s no lady. Hell, you can practically see through her dress. Now I ask you. What kind of lady wears a dress like that?”

  The other brunette jumped into the conversation. “I think we all know what kind of lady.” She tipped an eyebrow at Charissa as if daring her to answer. “No kind of lady does.”

  The low rumble of the men confirmed the woman’s statement. Checking around her, Charissa noticed for the first time how the men stared at her breasts. Confused, Charissa glanced down at her gown before returning their steely glares. “I do believe you’re insulting me. All the women wear this type of gown where I come from.”

  “We need to move there, fellas.”

  “I’ll pack up this afternoon and head on out if you will, Buddy.”

  The two female attachments to Travis giggled along with Brenda. “Then all the women where you come from are tramps.” Brenda sneered at Charissa as if she were something vile. “Ladies don’t wear dresses where everyone can see their titties.”

  Catcalls and hoots erupted around her making Charissa uneasy and uncertain. When had humans become so rude and brazen? Not to mention so disrespectful of their superiors.

  Rici pointed a finger at the girl in front. “I warn you to stop insulting my sister.”

  “Listen up, folks.”

  Along with everyone else, Charissa looked to Travis. His voice is so masterful. He must be their leader.

  “No one is going to insult anyone again. Brenda, Linda, Glenda, you all need to scoot out of here.” When one of the women—Glenda?—started to complain, he shot a hand up, silencing her before any sound came out. “Joe, get a handle on your daughters.”

  Joe flipped off his hat and scratched his sparsely-covered head. “I’ll give ‘er a shot, Travis, but you know how they are. When they want something—”

  “Someone, you mean, Daddy.” Brenda grinned at Travis.

  “—there’s not a whole lot I can do about it except give it to them.”

  “Well, give it a try, anyway, Joe.” Travis peeled off the women’s fingers from his arms and gave them each a push toward Joe.

  Joe, along with another older man, hustled his complaining daughters away as Travis turned back to her. Rici, on the other hand, took Charissa by the arm and started pulling her away in the opposite direction.

  “No, Rici.” She strained against his hold, but couldn’t break it. Great. Now my brother gets some backbone.

  “Charissa, just come along, okay?”

  As Rici pushed through the crowd, Charissa glanced back to see Travis watching their departure. He continued to watch her, his gaze locked onto her as if he couldn’t get enough of seeing her, while he spoke to a young boy who’d walked into the pen with the horse. “I wanted to talk to Travis some more.”

  “I think you wanted to do more than just talk.” He tightened his grip on her arm until they rounded the building where they’d landed, breaking her visual connection with Travis. “Let’s get to know this world and its people better before we start playing around, all right?”

  After losing sight of Travis, Charissa’s determination lessened and she had to agree. Rici was usually right in these matters. Still…

  “Charissa, I know that look in your eye.”

  Feigning her most innocent expression, Charissa batted her lashes at her brother. “I don’t know what you mean. I’m trying to learn about their customs. Nothing more.”

  “Oh, right. And I’ve got a piece of an invisible meteoroid to sell to you.”

  He scrutinized her and she could sense him trying to access her thoughts. In an instant, she threw up a barrier to conceal her ideas.

  “You’re blocking me, Charissa. Which means you’re trying to hide what you’re thinking of doing. Do not get us into trouble, Sister. Learning their customs, ha!” Rici scoffed and pushed her against the building as the sound of voices and hoofs grew closer. “Be quiet.”

  Peeking around the corner, Rici and Charissa watched as Travis and a young man led the horse called Adonis to a strange dwelling that was attached to the back of another, different kind of dwelling. Both dwellings were mobile ones with wheels in the front and back of each. A third dwelling, unattached to anything, was next to them.

  “What are those things? Do they live in them? Are those their homes?” She certainly hoped not. Surely these humans had advanced enough to make bigger and nicer homes than these. Even the big buildings would make better homes than those small containers. Yet at least one of the homes was entirely enclosed and used see-through panels much like the invisible force shields Matlantians used in the walls of their homes.

  One of the dwellings had a very small area to live in unless she counted the open, flat part in the rear. The second home, however, was attached to the first by a broad strip of metal. Although this second dwelling seemed taller inside, there was nothing covering the windows and the inside was divided into two separate compartments.

  “I’ll get him started in the trailer, Travis.” The younger man opened the back of the home—the trailer?—and dragged out a long plank; all while holding onto the rope attached to the straps around the horse’s head.

  “Hold him steady, Billy.”

  The men worked together to coax the horse into the right compartment of the trailer as the youth took hold of the leather strapped on the head of the horse to lead him up the ramp. Travis patted Adonis on the rear, urging him into the trailer. After several tries, Adonis eventually cooperated and went inside.

  “Damn horse has a mind of his own.”

  “Just like women, huh, Billy? But would we have it any other way?”

  “Sometimes I would.” Billy slapped the dust off his pants and gestured toward another man leading a black horse toward them. “Do you want help loading him, too?”

  “Nope. You head on back to the ranch.” Travis handed Billy a set of keys. “Take my truck. I’m going to take the trailer.

  “Okay.” Billy grinned, took one last time to check out Adonis, and turned on his heel. “Sure got a good horse there, Boss.”

  Travis’ grin lit up his features. “That I do.”

  Charissa watched, curiosity building, as Billy climbed into the front of the solo dwelling—was this one called a trailer, too?—and slammed the door. She jerked in response as the thing let out a loud roar and started rolling forward. “I don’t think that’s a home.”

  Rici’s voice was close to her ear. “No. I think it’s a transportation device.”

  Charissa followed Travis as he moved to the other compartment of trailer and hopped inside. “Um, Rici, you wait here. I want to talk with Travis and ask him what…”

  Her train of thought died as she saw Brenda rush up to the trailer and climb in after Travis. What was she doing?

  “Brenda beat you to him.”

  Shoving her elbow backwards, she heard Rici’s ugh as she connected with his body. “You deserved a punch, Rici. Stay here. I’m going to find out what’s going on in there.” Slipping between other trailers, Charissa moved as quietly as she could to the side of Travis’ trailer. Taking care not to get caught, she lifted her head to peek over the side of one of the openings.

  Brenda wrapped her arms around Travis’ neck and hung on like a child clinging to her parent’s neck. “Come on, Travis. You know you want me. I can see it in your eyes.”

  Does he look at all women the way he’d looked at me? Charissa’s neck tightened as she strained to see, but she didn’t change position. No way would she miss his reply.

  Travis pried Brenda’s arms from his neck, but she slid them around his waist before he could force her away. “Brenda, you’re Joe’s daughter and he’s a business associate. I don’t like mixing business with pleasure.”

  “I’m not asking you to sleep with my daddy, silly man.” Brenda’s red lips pouted at him. “I’m offering you some hot lovin’, big guy, and I don’t have anything to do with daddy’s business. So no problem, right?”

  Travis worked his thumbs between her arms and his waist. “The way I see it? Yeah, it’s still a problem.”

  “Can you honestly say you don’t want any of this?” Turning him loose, she ran her hands over her breasts and tweaked her heightened nipples. “You practically drooled over that bitch’s tits earlier.”

  Travis’ tongue snaked out from between his lips as he watched Brenda fondle her breasts. Charissa shifted, wanting to interrupt them yet knowing she shouldn’t. Instead, she decided to keep watching.

  “Charissa! Get back here before someone sees you.”

  Without removing her attention from the scene in the trailer, Charissa waved in answer to her brother’s hiss. She didn’t care who saw her as long as it wasn’t Travis.

  “Brenda, you know you’re attractive and any man with red blood running in his veins would be flattered to have you in his bed, but—”

  “But what, Travis? Aren’t you man enough for me?” She reached out and grabbed his crotch. “The big, ole bump in your jeans tells me you are.”

  Jeans. Charissa caught the word and committed to her memory. But she didn’t have time to wonder about the new word right now.

  Travis swept her hand away and backed away from her as much as the limited space in the trailer would allow. “I’m a man, Brenda. What would you expect? But we’re not having sex and that’s final.” As she approached him again, he took her shoulders and forced her to turn around. “Out you go, girl. You’re stirring up the horse with all your nonsense.” Although she struggled to plant her feet firmly in one spot, he pushed her until she had no choice but to jump from the trailer.

  The man leading the black horse saw them and stopped.

  Charissa slid over to the front of the trailer and squeezed her body together to take up as small a space as possible. What would I say if they saw me? I was just passing by when I noticed you getting attacked and thought I could watch, er, help. She bit her lip to keep from giggling as she imagined the scene Brenda would make.

  “I’ll come back a little later, Travis. When you’re not busy.”

  Charissa peeked her head up just far enough to see the man leading the black horse do a complete turnabout.

  “Aw, Travis, honey. You’re making a mistake.”

  Travis slammed the door on the trailer before she had a chance to get back inside. “Maybe, but I don’t think so. You go on home before your father comes over here and finds you throwing yourself at me. Besides, I’ve got another horse to load.”

  Brenda huffed and puffed, scrunching up her face like a three-year-old child throwing a tantrum. “You’re gonna regret this.” With her threat made, she stomped away.

  Charissa remained hidden, edging around the end of the trailer to spy on Travis as he stood watching Brenda’s departure. Should she approach him now? And since when did she hesitate to do whatever she wanted where a human male was concerned? But this male was special. Better. Equal. Charissa’s heart skipped a beat at her last thought. She’d never considered a human equal to a Matlantian before today. Had humans changed so much? Or was it just this one, special human?

  Travis yanked his head around in her direction and she ducked behind the trailer again. Yet, before she could think what to do next, another intruder stopped her cold.

  “I see you declined my sister’s offer, Travis.”

  Oh, shat. Not one of those females again. Charissa climbed on top of the bar running between the trailer and the transportation device and pulled up to the window at the end. Holding open the gate to the trailer was one of the other women who’d accosted Travis earlier. She jumped inside, motioning for Travis to follow her. Charissa growled her displeasure when he did.

  “Did you hear something?”

  “Don’t try to change the subject, Travis, honey.” She pulled him toward the front of the trailer, away from any chance of escape.

  “Like I told Brenda, I’m working and I don’t mix pleasure with business. Go home with your daddy, Glenda, and take both your sisters with you.” Travis started for the gate when Glenda threw a curve into his plan. Releasing the straps of her flowery dress, Glenda dropped her clothes to the floor.

  “Crap, Glenda. Put your dress back on.”

  The girl stood naked in front of him, arms held up and jiggling her breasts at him. Turning to place her back to him, Glenda leaned over and stretched around to flutter her eyes at him.

  “Ride me, cowboy. Ride me hard. You know you want to. I can see that you want to.”

  For an awful moment—although why should she care what he did?—Charissa held her breath and prayed he wouldn’t reach out and take her. He moved a bit closer and her mouth fell open. No! Don’t, Travis!

  Instead of grasping Glenda’s ample bottom, Travis reached over and picked up her dress. “Your poor, deceased mother is turning in her grave at the way you and your sisters are behaving. Put this on and get the hell out.”

  Glenda, plastering on a pouty expression much like her sister’s, her cheeks flaming into a bright pink, and took the dress from him. “You don’t know what you’re missing, cowboy.”

  As she slid the dress over her head and tied the straps, Travis gestured toward the trailer door and motioned for her to leave. “Yeah, actually, I do. And that’s the point. I don’t want what you’re giving away. Not now. Not ever.”