“Where the hell we goin’?” Reb demanded as the four of them rode together toward the nearest town the next day to get supplies.

“I don’t know.” Jonah replied honestly. “We’ll have to try to figure out where she would go.”

“According to what we heard, she and her husband always pick their man in tiny towns with no banks. Then they find a reason to have that man take Scarlett to a town that has a bank.”

“So we just gotta search around ‘til we find her?” Reb asked with a frown. “That could take forever and a day!”

“Then we’ll look forever and a day.” Joe cut in with a shrug. “She owes me twenty dollars and a cart and I intend to get what’s mine.”

“We’ll just travel all over, stopping at every town we come to. Scarlett’s got an easy enough face to remember and somebody is bound to have seen her and will be able to tell us where she went.” Jonah added.

Their plan decided the four of them rode into town, filled their saddlebags with the supplies they would need and then headed out toward Barbadine. From Barbadine they would travel east, roaming from town to town and looking for a sign of Scarlett. If they couldn’t find one then they would backtrack and head north, then south, eventually they would find someone who would be able to lead them in the right direction.

That night they camped beside a river. Jonah realized that Joe wasn’t in camp and he left Reb and Bart by the fire to go looking for her.

He wanted to thank her for riding along with him and for having his back with Bart and Reb. He knew his two friends meant well but having his face rubbed in his own foolishness tended to get tiresome. It was nice to hear a voice other than his own telling them to just shut-up.

Jonah had been walking a long while and was beginning to assume he’d come the wrong way down the river and was about to turn around when he caught sight of Joe.

Instantly every rescuer instinct that he had roared to life. She looked so sad where she sat on a rock with the sunset shining on her face. Her green gray eyes were staring down at the pool of water below her feet.

Jonah cleared his throat as he stepped toward her to keep from startling her and she looked over her shoulder at him and then quickly sniffed, wiped her hands over her face and squared her shoulders before looking back at the water.

“How long ya been spyin’ on me?”

“I wasn’t spying.” Jonah countered. “I was just going for a walk and happened to wind up in the same place as you.”

“I guess I can forgive that.” Joe sighed and patted the rock next to her. “Have ya a seat, Jonah.”

Jonah sat down and instantly regretted it when he realized that his leg was pressed against hers and the rock wasn’t’ big enough for either of them to move away.

“I was just wanting to thank you.” he stated as he tugged down the knees of his trousers.

“Fer what?” Joe asked as she pulled out a cigarette and handed it to him. Jonah pulled a pack of matches from his pocket and lit the tobacco and paper.

“For having my back with Bart and Reb.”

Joe shrugged. “Well we are friends, ain’t we? I aint’ got much experience in havin’ friends but I reckon having each others back is part of that.”

Jonah laughed lightly. “Yeah I reckon you’re right.” Jonah felt his pants get a little tighter when Joe closed her lips around the end of her own cigarette. Damn but the sight of those lips like that had him wondering just what that mouth would feel like on his cock.

“Besides,” Joe added with a smile as she wiped a spot of dirt off her buckskin pants. “I figure you done know how stupid you were fer trippin’ over yerself after Scarlett all that time. Ya don’t need me or nobody else to remind ya every time you turn around.”

Jonah snorted with amusement. Leave it to Joe to be so sensitive to someone else’s feelings.

“So what’s got you sitting out here alone and looking so sad?” Jonah asked and Joe grunted.

“I ain’t sad.”

“Sure you are. We’ve been living together for a while now. I know how to read you better than you think.” Joe was staring into the water and Jonah found his eyes following the line of her jaw, down to her long slender neck… He wished he could pull away her buckskin shirt and press his lips against all that creamy skin at the base of her throat.

Joe shook her head and blew out a slow breath of smoke. “I was just ponderin’ ‘bout my pa. I uh…”

Jonah frowned when she stopped talking.

“You what?”

“Nothin’.”

“You can trust me, Joe. I think since we’ve both saved each others lives we’ve pretty much seen each other at our weakest. I won’t take advantage of anything you tell me.”

“Boy, yer good with words ain’t ya! That must be what lures them fancy ladies in to ya.”

“It doesn’t keep them around though.” Jonah countered and he saw her frown as she continued to look out at the water.

“Good breedin’ don’t always mean good taste.”

“Are you saying I’d be a good catch?” Jonah teased and Joe snorted.

“’Course not. Yer messy, ya can’t cook a thing and ya lay about in the bed ‘til close to noon.” Jonah found himself laughing.

“What about you? You’re loud, opinionated and downright rude most of the time.”

“’Exactly. And that’s why we’re perfect friends. Neither one of us are anything the other one would ever wanna settle down with.”

“I’ll never make the mistake of thinking I wanna settle down again.” Jonah agreed and Joe nodded.

“I’ll never make the mistake of thinking I want to in the first place.”

“Good choice, Joe. Now be honest with me. What were you gonna say earlier about your pa?”

Joe was quiet for a long time and then she sighed quietly. “I miss him.”

Jonah looked at her and shook her head. It had been that hard for the woman to admit she missed her pa?

“Of course you do.” Jonah replied simply. “You know you don’t have to be such a hard ass all the time. It’s okay to admit you miss your pa.”

“No it ain’t. Pa taught me that bein’ a woman I gotta be tougher than any old man would ever have to be.”

“Okay but we’re friends so you ain’t gotta be tough with me. You can just be Joe.”

“This is Joe.” she spat as she spit into the river and then tossed the remains of her cigarette down into the waves. Jonah shook his head.

“No, I think there’s more to you than that.”

Joe just shook her head.

“Don’t argue with me.” Jonah grumbled. “I think you’re a beautiful woman. I think you’re strong and tough because you’ve had to be but I also think that you have a heart and feelings beneath that tough exterior and I think you miss your pa something terrible and you’re kinda scared now without him around. I think that you are scared of men and what happens between a man and a woman because of what happened to your mama and I think that’s why you try to make yourself as unappealing to men as you possibly can….”

“Alright that’s enough!” Joe snapped as she shoved herself to her feet and pointed her finger down at him angrily. “Got to hell, Jonah Winchester! You don’t know a damned thing about me!”

“I know more than you like.” Jonah countered with a shrug and this simply caused her to growl angrily, kick his leg and then storm off back toward camp.

Jonah shook his head and watched her go, enjoying the fact that only he knew what her ass looked like underneath those oversized buckskin clothes.

***

Joe was still fuming as she tried desperately to fall asleep on her bedroll the next night. She hadn’t said more than a few words to Jonah since their talk by the river the day before and didn’t plan on saying anything to him anytime soon.

How dare that bastard act as if he knew her? Who cared if what he had said to her had struck a chord and rung true? Why was that any of his business?

Joe felt an ache deep inside of her and cursed. She had become familiar with that ache since meeting Jonah. It was an ache for his touch… She wanted to be a woman for Jonah. She wanted to be his woman. Maybe not for always since settling down wasn’t anything she wanted for her future but being his woman for now was something she could see herself doing….

She was scared, he was right. She was scared of being alone after losing her pa and she was afraid of what happened between a man and a woman because of what had happened to her mama.

Maybe Jonah could help her overcome that fear? After all, the man had insisted he was her friend and it was obvious they both cared about one another enough to risk their own lives to save the others. So surely this wouldn’t be that big of a thing to ask of him.

Joe knew he desired her and her body desired him… Surely as friends it would be okay to explore that desire. Nothing more ever had to come of it.. Just Jonah getting his pleasure while calming the raging desire inside of Joe and helping her to overcome her fears.

Her mind made up about what she had to do, Joe curled up on her bedroll and stared across the way at Jonah’s sleeping form. His back was to her and she studied his broad shoulders.

This was going to be a giant leap for Joe but she figured it was about time she learned what it was to be a woman. After all, she knew that a woman’s body could hold a certain amount of power over a man and while Joe was sure she’d never use her body in that way, it couldn’t hurt to know how….

Tomorrow night they’d be in Barbadine and one of those fancy hotel rooms seemed like the perfect place to get her first taste of what a man could give a woman.