Untamed by Sharon Ihle Read Free Book Online Page A

he sleeps."
    The Cheyenne was not only a savage, but crazy? Josie thought with horror.
    "I know what you must be thinking," Daniel went on to say, "but there's no arguing with this or any Cheyenne when it comes to his dreams. Now that Long Belly has found your friend, a woman who he believes is full up with the spirit of the buffalo, he's more convinced than ever that he'll find a bull buffalo."
    Josie was not impressed or interested in any quest except her own—freedom. "That savage can believe in the spirit of a three-headed goat for all I care. I just want him to take me back to Miles City, and to do it this minute."
    From the loft above, Sissy's voice filtered down. "Sorry, princess, but that ain't gonna happen."
    Moments later, Josie's only friend in the world inched her way down the ladder. Instead of her low-slung blouse and scarlet skirt, she was wearing a long jacket with matching leggings, both of beaded buckskin.
    "This Long Belly fellah," Sissy said when she was on level footing, "has taken it in his head that the buffalo he's looking for will come to me. We're going out looking for it this morning before the weather gets too bad."
    "But he can't go off chasing buffalo—everyone knows they're all dead." Desperate, Josie clasped her hands together. "Please, please, talk to him, Sissy. Tell him you're just a plain ole whore, that you don't have anyone's spirit inside you, and that you can't possibly find a stinking buffalo that isn't even alive. Then maybe you can talk him into taking us back to Lola's."
    "Sorry, princess, but we ain't got a chance of getting off this mountain until that injun is damn good and ready to take us back down—which he ain't."
    With that, she went over to the stove, poured a cup of coffee, and headed out the door. Josie was hot on her heels.
    "Sissy, wait," she said, joining heron the porch. "You have to help me."
    "Help you do what?"
    "Survive, I guess. You can't just leave me here with that... that man. We should be figuring a way out of here."
    Sissy looked her over, up one side and clown the other. "You don't look no worse for the wear. If you lived through last night, you can get through anything."
    "He expects me to bathe him." She shuddered at the thought. "And God knows what else."
    Sissy shrugged. "Then do it."
    "But I'm not a..." Too late, Josie bit her tongue.
    "You're a whore now, ain't you?"
    Josie shook her head.
    "You telling me you spent the night in that man's bed and he didn't jump you?"
    "That's right. I wouldn't let him."
    Sissy snickered. "He must be a whole lot sicker than I thought."
    "I don't see anything funny about this. If anyone around here so much as touches me, I'll kill him."
    "Relax, princess," Sissy said with a shrug. "It's only your body. Give the man what he wants without a fight, and it'll go a whole lot better for you."
    Not only was Josie less than encouraged by this advice, it made her mad enough to chew nails. "That's easy for you to say after all the men you've bedded—you probably even like what they do to you."
    Sissy's dark eyes were usually flat and expressionless. Now they turned hard and mean. "I ain't never found a speck of pleasure in any man's arms. They take what they want, and I let 'em have it. You'll be better off if you do the same."
    "How can you say that to me? I thought you were my friend."
    "Friend?" Sissy laughed, a bitter, hollow sound. "You got to be a friend to have one, princess." That said, she stepped off the porch and started for the barn.
    Josie stood there in the cold for a time, not pondering Sissy's words as much as hating them. Hating her. Part of that hatred, she had to admit, was pure jealousy over the fact that Sissy was riding off on an adventure, leaving her behind to tend hearth and home. Of course she didn't feel a drop of envy over Sissy's escort, but with that exception, Josie would rather have been on the trail with a savage than trapped in that pigsty of a cabin with his half-breed brother, who expected