The half-breed woman's gaze caught and held Bo Jun's. Her hands stilling on the glass she was drying, Bo Jun met the enigmatic look with a stare of her own. Whether the attention was a challenge, a summons, or idle curiousity, Caine couldn't discern. What was plain, was that the notorious woman was indeed looking AT her, not past her.
Cheyenne's gaze dropped first, and Bo Jun watched her speak to Ezra's compatriots and quickly leave. "What has frightened her?" the Chinese girl asked her female employer curiously, in a near whisper.
"I'm not sure, cherie," Lily murmured in return. "She is very like a creature brought in from the wilderness, I think... willing to take what she needs from civilization, but never comfortable there. Always ready to flee..."
"Perhaps," Caine agreed, and shrugged. Mentally, she determined she would find the reason for that uncommunicative gaze. It was always best to know just who one's friends-- and enemies-- were.
The little conclave of peacekeepers broke up, then. JD, Chris, Nathan and Josiah headed through the batwing doors. Ezra moved to the felt-covered gaming table, took out a pack of cards, and began shuffling them in patterns that defied the eye to follow.
Buck made his way to the bar, a grin calculated to charm pasted on his features. With a wink to Lily, he leaned an elbow on the polished wood, propped his foot on the rail and gave Bo Jun a gleefully lecherous look up and down. "You're looking especially lovely today, Miss Caine... and that perfume... " He sighed in an exaggerated breath, "Like all the spices of the Orient!"
A sip of beer went past the mustache, while he waited for the return shot in their mutually anticipated game.
"The only perfume I am wearing is that of the perspiration of honest toil, Mr. Wilmington," she shot back, in her heavily accented English. "I'm not surprised to find you aren't familiar with that aroma-- it is obvious that you've worn it so rarely yourself!"
"Now that there was a low blow!" Buck blurted, with a slightly strangled sounding chuckle. Setting his mug on the bar, he spread his work-worn palms towards her. "Look at these calluses, China Rose... ever' one of them honestly earned... " He winked at her, "And even so, all of em's well-educated in the arts of the pillow."
Blindsided by that unexpected reference, Bo Jun simply gaped at him, momentarily stunned.
"Your inscrutable demeanor is slipping badly, Miss Caine," Ezra drawled from his vantage point, as the cards whispered in an unbroken rhythm. "Allow Mr. Wilmington to gain the upper hand-- no pun intended-- and you shall be forever lost!"
Caine's mouth shut with a tiny click, and her chin bridled a bit. "All that round-eyes know of the pillow is how to snore and drool upon one!" she declared hotly to her opponent, though her eyes sparkled merrily.
How the man had come up with that unexpected term was beyond her-- perhaps he'd made a fortuitous choice of words by chance, or more likely, he'd been mining Josiah for information.... either way, it made the game more challenging!
"Now, I refuse to believe you've tried out every 'round-eye' you've come across, to form that opinion," Buck chuckled. "So why don't you bring that pretty little nose down out of the air and let ol' Buck give you a few private lessons? Defend the honor of the round-eyed males of the world?" he purred in a lecherous stage whisper.
"To defend one's honor, Mr. Wilmington, it is first necessary to HAVE some... and in moral virtue, you're sorely lacking!" she pointed out, prodding his broad chest with a forefinger.
"Agghh... shot through the heart!" He grabbed his chest, and slumped against the bar in mock mortal agony while Ezra smirked from his vantage point.
"You're a cruel, cruel woman, Bo Jun Caine... but I'll keep layin my unrequited devotion at your feet till my dyin day!" he declared, with a toasting lift of his mug and a broad, white grin.
Caine rolled her eyes and snorted, but before she could fire off a scathing rejoinder, Lily decided to stop the duel, before it spiralled to true heights of ridiculousness.
"Bo Jun, would you please see to the kitchen?"
"Yes, ma'am," she murmured, and headed into the back, with a defiant flip of her long braid, for Buck's benefit.
He toted up a mark in his favor on their imaginary scoreboard with a damp finger.
Across the room, Ezra shook his head with an amused sigh, and went back to his cards.