Read A Love Forbidden for Free Online Page A

Shiloh and him. He needed to cut that line of thought short, or risk some embarrassing questions.
    “It was nice to make your acquaintance again, Miss Meeker,” he said with a slight nod. “And you too, Shiloh.”
    As he turned to go, however, Shiloh grabbed his arm. “Wait, Jesse. We’ve just met each other again. And there’s so much I want to know about you and your life since . . . since that day you left. When can we meet again and talk?”
    He hardened his heart to her sweet entreaty and even sweeter expression. No good was served dragging this out between them. She needed to leave here before things exploded, and they were surely going to do that sooner rather than later. Agent Meeker was oblivious to what was going on around him. All it would take was just the right inflammatory incident and he’d have a full Indian uprising on his hands. And both the half-Ute Nuaru and half-white Jesse Blackwater didn’t want to see Shiloh caught in the middle of it all.
    She had been his friend once—his only true friend—and he would never forget how she’d stood up to the foreman that day. How she’d shielded him with her own body, and still bore the faint scar on her cheek of the whiplash she’d taken for him. No, for what she’d done for him that day in the guise of friendship, he would try his best to send her back to where she’d come from. Before it was too late. Before he would be forced to turn his back on her and stand with his people against her and her kind.
    “I don’t have the time or interest in renewing old acquaintances,” Nuaru ground out. “That life is over. And with it went our friendship.”
    He spun around and stalked away, the harsh rasp of the morats and rhythmic singing following him as he headed across the brush enclosure and out the entrance. But not before he saw the hurt and confusion that darkened her eyes. He feared he’d carry that image with him to his dying day.

     
    As Shiloh watched Jesse walk away, her emotions roiled within as crazily as they had that day he’d ridden from the ranch. More than anything, she wanted to run after him, grab his arm, and force him to turn around and talk to her. To tell her why he now seemed to hate her, and what she had done to cause that. To beg him to forgive and be her friend again.
    But pride and a refusal to make a scene before the very people she had come here to help stiffened her spine and quashed what was surely nothing more than a childish impulse. He had all but insulted her, she realized as the haze of pain slowly faded. He didn’t have the time or interest . . .
    Shiloh’s gaze narrowed and her hands clenched at her side. The nerve of him! The sheer, unmitigated arrogance! Well, she didn’t have the time or interest to spare on him , either.
    Around her, the scrape of the morats and rhythmic singing took on an almost irritating tone. She suddenly felt hemmed in, smothered. She had to get away.
    “I-I think I should leave,” she managed to stammer out, turning to Josie. “I’m sorry.”
    Understanding shone in the other woman’s eyes. “It’s all right. Would you like me to walk back with you?”
    “No.” Shiloh shook her head. “Stay and enjoy this. I’ll be fine on my own.”
    Josie took her hand and gave it a quick squeeze before releasing it. “Go on then. I’ll check with you later. If you feel up to it by then, I can show you around the Agency in more detail, and even take you to our little schoolhouse.”
    “That would be wonderful.” She managed a wan smile. “I’ll see you later.”
    With that, Shiloh turned and made her way through the crowd, sudden, unexpected tears filling her eyes. Angrily, she swiped them away. Barely here a day, and already she was crying. And about what? Because a man she used to know—and apparently no longer knew—had rejected her overtures of friendship?
    She was a fool, pure and simple. It had been almost nine years since they’d last seen each other, and who was to say