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of his unexpected bed mate, Daniel studied her a little closer. The rigid lodgepole she'd been when she first stretched out beside him last night was gone, in its place an agreeable, lithesome willow. He wondered which tree she would resemble when she awoke to find him staring at her. The odds heavily favored the pine.
    Not that Daniel blamed the woman for her obvious distress. It hadn't been her idea to come here, that much was sure. Still, he found her defiant nature a little puzzling. He would have expected someone in her line of work to be more like her friend Sissy, resigned to the situation. Josie, on the other hand, was a study in contradictions, chief of which was her surprising modesty. The woman had actually slept in all her clothes, right down to her shoes.
    How could a prostitute be too shy to discard even a scrap of her clothing? If indeed she'd been worried about unwanted advances, the chemise beneath her gown would certainly have 'protected' her just as well—another oddity. Why did she feel she needed protection from an invalid when any man off the street could have her for a price? It wasn't as if he'd given her the idea that he planned on going where he clearly wasn't wanted. Daniel was not the kind of man who condoned or used force on women, and he hadn't given Josie any indication otherwise. Yet when he'd reached for her last night, she'd threatened to kill him. He simply couldn't make sense of her.
    She stirred then, touching his upper thigh, unconsciously testing Daniel's control. After the death threat, he hadn't sought her comfort again, and now he had to wonder why he'd been so generous. Surely not because of the broken leg. A woman in her line of work would know plenty of ways to ease a man's needs, several of which wouldn't disturb his injury in the least. Just thinking about a couple of those ways, not to mention how good it felt to have her warm body snuggled against this, made him think that maybe he'd been a damn fool to let her off so easily. From the few murmured grunts and groans he'd heard in the loft before drifting off, he had an idea that Long Belly hadn't been nearly so thoughtful of the dark-skinned whore who shared his bedroll.
    With a breathy little sigh, Josie rolled into Daniel, brushing her cheek against his mouth as she threw her arm across his chest. She was so close to him now that he could feel the warm puffs of her breath against his face, count each auburn hair in her long curly lashes as they swept back and forth along the crests of her cheekbones. She looked ridiculously young and innocent. A whore playing the part of a maiden. So pure, so artful, so damned defiant. What was it about this wanton that made him think he ought to protect rather than ravish her?
    Josie stretched and yawned then, an indication that she would awaken soon. Her lips were parted now, inviting and teasing, making him feel like a bigger fool than ever. And as horny as a penned-up jackrabbit. Without another thought, Daniel impulsively took her into his arms and smothered her mouth with his.
    The kiss was heaven for about twenty seconds.
    He'd barely tasted the sweetness of Josie's lush lips or had a chance to marvel over their velvety texture before her big brown eyes flew open. A moment later the lodgepole pine attacked, reaching out with fingernails that gouged his face like splintered branches.
    "Hey," he shouted, pushing her away. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
    When she looked up and saw the scratches near Daniel's right eye, Josie was at once pleased and frightened—gratified to see that she'd drawn blood, but nervous about the knife he kept close at hand. She quickly rolled to the edge of the bed, and then fell to the floor in a heap.
    Peeking over the edge of the mattress, she made a halfhearted apology. "Sorry, but you startled me. I didn't know where I was or who you were."
    That much was, in part, the truth. Josie had been dreaming of her brief tryst with Henry in the Baum barn,