Taboo Love in the West Part 1: A Heart Off-Limits (Wild West Adventures in Love Book 3) by Ella Camsen Page B

was pleased to see him, she would be sad to leave. She had found a strange kind of peace here with these gentle women, and in the simple pleasures of their daily tasks. She would miss them when she returned to the safety of her privileged life. But she knew her father would be exhausted from worry, and she needed to get home to take care of him and reassure him that she was unhurt. Amitola greeted her warmly, and she had to struggle very hard not to hurl herself at the gorgeous man who had gone out of his way to ensure that she was safe and to bring her home in one piece no matter what it might cost him. It appeared he hadn’t had to do much, but that wasn’t the point; it was what he had been prepared to do that mattered. Matoskah looked very downhearted and almost broken as he walked at Amitola’s side, and it made her wonder what the two men had been talking about to change him from such a swaggeringly confident man to this shell. Her ponderings did not last long though, as she felt the heat of Amitola’s gaze take in her appearance from top to toe. She hoped he would like her this way, and felt strangely shy as he took his fill of looking “What happened to your clothes?” he asked, clearly bewildered.
    “The girls gave me a little makeover. Don’t you like it?” she said, twirling becomingly, as she would in front of a mirror, to give him a full view of every angle watching his face closely as she did so.
    “You look lovely, but I have to take you back to your father now. I think he may find it just a little bit disconcerting seeing his beloved daughter looking like a Sioux wife. I’m not sure of the welcome I will be getting in town after your kidnapping as it is. I don’t want to make it look any worse than it has been for you or me.” Eliza was crushed. He didn’t like her this way, and he didn’t like her as she was normally either. She would have to learn to accept that he simply did not want her the way she wanted him. She felt her heart slowly shattering into a million pieces. She pulled herself together, deciding she would not show him that his rejection had caused her more pain and anguish than a mere kidnapping ever could.
    “Of course. You’re right.” she said briskly, trying to hold back her tears. “The last thing I want is to cause you any trouble, especially after everything you have already done to find me. I’ll change. Just give me a few moments.” Eliza was glad to head into the darkness of the cave. It gave her a chance to shed the tears she needed to let go as she tried desperately to let go her need for the beautiful man she loved with her whole heart. She had almost found herself believing that Matoskah had been right, – that Amitola did love her – but his reaction seemed so cold and standoffish that she was certain that she was nothing more than a burden to him after all. She winced as she tried to cinch herself back into her corset. It was a little loose, but she didn’t have Alice to assist her out here, and she wasn’t sure that she would ever be able to explain why a corset was so necessary to the wonderful women she had spent the last few days with. She pulled on her blouse and skirt, and crushed her feet into her tight fitting little boots, noticing how uncomfortably they pinched at her toes in comparison with the soft hide moccasins she had been wearing. Finally she pinned her hair up as best she could, and when she re-emerged from the dark she was once again a prim and proper school teacher or the daughter of a minister. She would never feel as free as she had been able to be here ever again, and she wished that wasn’t true.
    “Shall we go?” she asked as she emerged. Amitola blinked. Clearly he had expected her to take much longer to get ready. He took the lead without saying a word and led her down to where he had left his horse. He helped her up and then leapt up behind her. She couldn’t say a word. She didn’t trust herself. The sensation of his warm