Jed gripped her hips and traced his hand up her legs, coaxing them around his waist. All the while, he coaxed her with tiny thrusts, and then, with one sharp thrust, he was all the way in. The pain shot through her, and she cried out.
“Shhh, baby, just lie still and get used to me. The hurt will pass,” he said against her lips, and she could tell he was hanging by a thread. Then he began to move slowly at first, watching her and moving in her. She could feel the pangs of pleasure building. He slid his hand between them and touched her, pressing and moving fully against her. Fire burst through her—she had no defense as the sensation intensified from each thrust. She felt herself losing control, sinking down this spiral to heaven as her body arching and the rippling waves of desire coursed through her. Jed didn’t stop. He thrust again and again until his harsh groan rumbled deep in his chest, and he swore again.
He collapsed on top of her, still inside her, and she could feel every nerve ending twitch from the lasting pleasure. She could feel his heart pounding against her breast.
His breathing slowed, and slowly he withdrew, raising up on his elbows. “I’m too heavy for you.”
But she couldn’t talk, and she was stunned by what she was feeling. He rolled over on his back, taking her with him. She could feel the soreness now between her legs. He ran his hand over her bottom, and his other caressed the back of her head, which she rested on his chest.
“You’ve never been with anyone.” He said it with a certain amount of astonishment. He kissed the top of her head. “Did I hurt you?”
Someone pounded on the front door, interrupting before Diana could answer.
Jed slipped out of bed. “Stay here.” He stepped into his jeans. “Okay, I’m coming,” he shouted when someone pounded again.
Diana heard a familiar voice. She climbed out of bed and fumbled in the dark for her clothes, scattered on the floor. She found her panties tossed in the corner, but her bra was twisted in her shirt and took a moment to untangle.
When she stepped into the tiny front room, it wasn’t Jed who saw her first, but Andy, who stood in the doorway wearing a dark slicker and a glance that could have set her on fire. Jed jerked around as Diana stepped closer.
“What the hell is this? You’re sleeping with him. It looks like the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree with the lies. You played up the innocent so well, but apparently you’re just looking for the right Friessen to bang.”
Diana’s face burned in shame, even though she knew it wasn’t true. He had a way of getting under her skin and hurting her so deeply. He always had. Jed glanced at her and said nothing. Then he dove at Andy, tackling him with all the power of a linebacker, drawing back his fist and hitting him in the jaw.
“Stop it!” Diana yelled when they rolled on the scuffed wood floor and shattered the old coffee table. Diana tried to pull Jed off, but somehow Diana was shoved in the scuffle and crashed against the door, knocking the wind out of her. She wasn’t sure who yelled, but instantly Andy and Jed were beside her.
“Diana, are you okay? Talk to me, honey.” Jed slid his hand behind her and eased her up. Andy’s lip was bleeding, and Jed looked as if he’d have one hell of a shiner. His left eye was beginning to swell.
“I’m fine.” Diana was dizzy as Jed helped her stand, his hands sliding to her waist. She took in the room, which looked as though a tornado had swept through it, and shook her head. “What a fine mess this is. Do you feel better, both of you? And Andy, don’t ever talk to me like that again.” Diana stiffened, but Jed didn’t release her.
Andy stepped back, holding his hands up.
“Why are you here, Andy?” Diana asked, unable to hide her irritation.
“It’s about your horses, Jed. They were found earlier tonight in the forest behind our house. Why didn’t you tell me they were gone?” Andy stared at his cousin, and it was the first time Diana saw hurt and betrayal. He really cared for Jed.
“You’re kidding, right? What you pulled with Diana, I let your old man and you both know that this would become my fight. And funny thing, that night after Uncle Todd laughed in my face and said I didn’t want to take him on, he gave me his own warning.… Guess what? My horses disappeared. So why would I tell you, when you two were first on my list of suspects?”
She wished she could hate Andy, for every time he glanced her way, her chest ached from something that now felt so much like sorrow. She needed to get away from both of them. But she forced herself to stay still and used every ounce of power inside to put her best lawyer face on.
“Jed, we’re cousins, and whatever you may think about me, I’d never do that to you. Family’s one thing you don’t screw around with. Why are you so hell bent on protecting her, anyway?” Andy shouted, his eyes flashing with fire, and she wondered for a moment if fists were about to fly again.
Jed was proud, strong, and he didn’t let anyone in, so what he said next startled Diana.
“Because I love her.”
“What?” she snapped, and she stared at him in disbelief. Then, before he could respond, she pushed him aside, yanking open the door and tearing out into the night, and she ran. She heard swearing and feet pounding behind her. She stumbled as she ran, unable to see straight because of the dark and her tears.
A strong hand grabbed her and lifted her to her feet, pulling her into a warm bare chest. And she fought like a banshee. She was no good with men, she’d never had a relationship, and she didn’t know what the hell this was with Jed. Andy had turned what happened between her and Jed into something dirty—something to be ashamed of. And for God’s sake, Jed should have been telling her he loved her instead of telling Andy!
“Would you stand still? What the hell is the matter with you, Diana? I’m damn tired of you running out as if you can’t figure out what the hell you want.” He was shouting at her, and it took a second for her to realize he’d set her down.
“Is it him you want?” Jed shouted, and he jabbed his arm toward a shadowed figure leaning in the doorway. He growled, his voice so dangerously rough she had to fight to keep from flinching from him.
Diana edged sideways. She felt trapped with Jed standing so close. Jed adjusted his position, turning so they stayed face to face. He wasn’t letting her get away.
“You told him you loved me!” she shouted at him. All her good sense had apparently taken a hike, because she sounded like a spoiled five-year-old. But she didn’t care, because no one had ever told her they loved her. She didn’t know how to handle it.
“Yes, I did. There is something about you, Diana. I am so attracted to you because you ooze sexuality more than any woman I’ve met. But when I tasted you the first time, I knew you were made for me. And I won’t be played with, Diana. You gave me the shock of my life tonight when I discovered you’ve never been with another man.”
When she didn’t respond, he cursed. “And just so you know, I wasn’t wearing a rubber.” He stepped closer again as she tried to scoot the other way.
“I noticed.” She crossed her arms, realizing she wasn’t prepared to give an inch, not on this, and he needed to figure it out so she could proudly say she wasn’t Faye.
He stepped closer again, this time resting both hands on her shoulders. “This is more, Diana, and I think you know. But you need to decide what you want.” He let his hands fall away, and he shouted back at Andy, “Let’s go get my horses!”
Jed stormed away. Andy hopped down as Jed passed to go put clothes on, and Andy stalked right into her space, so close she could smell his warm breath. It was pleasant with the ripe scent of an after-dinner whiskey. Her instincts screamed for her to back away from him. God, if you put the two Friessen kin together, the resemblance was uncanny, and she knew well that both men cared for her. With Jed, it was rough and lovely, whispering of commitment, family and honesty. With Andy, it was raunchy and hot and would sizzle the life right out of her.
“I know you, Diana, and I told you before he can’t make you happy.” A sense of dange
r screamed at her to back away from him, but she tossed her good sense away and met his darkened glare.
“And you think you can? Oh, let me see, you want to hide me away as something you’re ashamed of. And maybe we’d, what, spend a few hours together in bed when it’s convenient for you?”
“Andy, if you’re done,” Jed shouted at him while staring at Diana. Even in the darkness, when their eyes met, she knew he was thinking of her and what they hadn’t said. He didn’t make a move toward her. Even though Andy was there, this moment was private. She didn’t look away, but he did. She knew he was hurt as he climbed in his truck and backed it to the trailer, hooking it up. And Andy finally walked away.
Chapter 25
Diana was waiting when Jed returned a few hours later. It was after midnight when he backed the trailer up and unloaded the horses. Diana stalked straight for him, and it was a good thing he’d just latched the corral gate, because she leaped up, wrapping her arms around him, and he grabbed her around the waist, sliding his hands over her bottom. She pulled his head down and kissed him. When he pulled away, breathing a little heavily, he said, “Well, that was a hell of a greeting.”
“I love you.”
He pursed his lips, and she detected the hint of a smile. “Marry me.”
If he had meant to shock her, he succeeded, as she loosened her grip from his neck and slid down, feeling every part of him.
“Oh.”
“You either want me or you don’t, Diana. But I won’t play second to my cousin. I don’t have millions. I’ve got what I’ve earned with my own two hands. This is mine. And I won’t go looking for handouts from my family.” She felt him pull back. Damn the man, anyway. He and Andy may have looked alike, but they were as different as night and day. And this man, she knew, could shatter her world if he walked away.
“No one has ever told me they loved me, Jed. I may have grown up dreaming of Andy, but you’ve rocked my world and turned it upside down. And the truth of the matter is that I can’t imagine leaving here and you. I don’t give a damn what you have and don’t have. I just want to be loved for me, for who I am.”
“I’ve been jerked around by women before, Diana, and I won’t be ever again.” He still kept his distance.
“You know I’m not like that, Jed. I’ve never allowed a man to touch me before like you did, because I was afraid of being like my mother. But I’m not her, Jed. I’m me. And I’ve never lied to you.”
Jed stepped into her space and rested his hands on her shoulder. “And this justice you seek for Louisa, have you figured out what that is yet? Because I don’t want it to become an albatross between us. I want you, all of you, and not some vendetta for Andy and Todd. What they’ve done to women is not okay, but they are family, and I won’t stand by and let you try to destroy them. I’m not interested in that crap.”
Evidently, he took her silence as rejection, and he kicked the side of his trailer, startling her and the horses.
“Stop it.” She swatted his arm. “I want to marry you. And it wasn’t until you left with Andy tonight that I realized I already have justice for Louisa. I got it through coming back here, holding my head up high to everyone and letting them know I’m not an outcast or a nobody. But meeting you, Jed, I didn’t plan, and you turned my world upside down, baby.…”
He didn’t let her finish. What he did do was lift her in his arms, and carry her back inside, and shut the door.
***
Jed didn’t want to wait to be married, and he insisted on the next weekend. But Diana wasn’t about to be rushed. This was her only wedding, a day she’d dreamed of since she was a little girl. So although he cajoled and bullied and did everything in his power to convince her not to wait, they finally reached a compromise, three weeks, and Diana agreed to allow his mom, Becky, to help.
She had been nervous as hell when she’d met his father, Rodney, who was tall and distinguished, and with his gray hair and his features, he resembled Todd. But that was the only similarity. Watching Rodney with his wife, Becky, a short woman with warm brown eyes, Diana could see that the love flowed between them and pulled everyone who was around them into it. She’d instantly liked the woman, who was as different from Faye as a dog was to a snake. When the day arrived, Jed’s family swooped in: his older brother, Brad, with that same startlingly handsome Friessen build, with his wife Emily and their three children, and Jed’s younger brother, Neil, who was single, devastatingly handsome, and owned a ranch with his father in the Yucatan Peninsula. Well, Diana couldn’t help being swept into this unusually close family, who fought and loved each other in a way she’d always known families should.
Now Diana accepted the flowers from Emily, who’d stepped in to be her bridesmaid and was wearing a lovely pink chiffon dress, with soft folds down the back. Her hair was curled and pinned up, looking stunning. But it was when Rodney waited at the front door in a black tux and with eyes that shone with such love that she couldn’t hold back the tears.
“Diana, words can’t express how happy Becky and I are that you’re going to be part of our family,” he said. “I’m humbled and proud to gain another stunning and loving daughter in law. Would you allow me the honor of escorting you down the aisle to my son?”
Her heart was so full that she couldn’t trust her voice, so she could only nod as she furiously blinked back tears and accepted his arm and his support as he escorted her outside into Jed’s yard, which had been transformed overnight into a garden paradise . He led her to Jed and the minister who presided over them, a graying, portly man dressed in a white shirt and collar and a black coat, as all ministers did. She was aware and grateful of the fact that Todd and Andy would not be present.
“By the powers vested in me, I pronounce you husband and wife,” the minister announced proudly.
Diana searched out her husband’s dark eyes, his neatly slicked-back hair, his wide shoulders so finely outfitted in a black tux. He cleaned up so nicely. He didn’t smile but sought her out with those amazing dark eyes, the same way he did whenever she entered a room, an instant tug on her heart. The intensity of desire he could arouse from a glance, a touch, the scent of him could scatter all intelligent thought from her mind as she struggled for one reasonable breath. That one glance told her she was everything to him.
“You may kiss the bride.”
That was all Diana heard as he lowered his head and kissed her to the whoops and shouts and thunderous applause of Jed’s family and their friends from North Lakewood.
AFTERWORD
Thank you so much for reading OUTCAST.
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Other Works by Lorhainne Eckhart
Lost and Found, Walk the Right Road Series, Book 2
A Hit and Run—A Deserted Country Road—A Parent’s Worst Nightmare.
On a warm fall morning in Gardiner, Washington, Richard and Maggie celebrate happy couple Sam and Marcie’s return. What happens next changes their lives forever: After a hit and run on a deserted country road, Richard and Maggie suffer a parent’s worst nightmare.
Now a year later, Maggie McCafferty struggles to put her life back together … hiding her pain with outrageous behavior and a secret she’s unwilling to share until her friends step in and her strong-willed husband sets out to bring Maggie home—the only way he knows. Just as Maggie begins to trust again, Dan McKenzie calls after disappearing for over a year. But now he’s back, and instead of coming clean with the truth of their involvement, Richard digs himself in deeper, with mounting debts, a partner who refuses to buy him out—secrets shared only with Dan. However, one night a mysterious 911 caller witnesses a fight and sees Richard shooting Dan. When the police arrive at the deserted construction site, the only evidence of a crime are a pool of blood and a surveillance vide
o.
Under mounting pressure from the police, Richard is arrested and interrogated—but fiery, secretive Richard is adamant he was home all night. In a bizarre twist of fate, Sam, Marcie, and Diane work against the clock and wonder how well they really know their evasive friend. With Maggie by his side, Richard stands by his innocence. The trouble is, if Richard didn’t do it, where is Dan? And who is the mysterious 911 caller?
To purchase Lost and Found, simply click here.
The Choice, Walk the Right Road Series, Book 1
Mystery, romance, and age-old evil collide in this spellbinding thriller, THE CHOICE
If you enjoyed Lost and Found, be sure to check out the first book of the Walk the Right Road Series, The Choice, and find out where it all started for Richard, Maggie, Sam, Marcie, and Diane.
One Woman…
Marcie is crazy in love with Dan, who has been using her and promising his love in return. And she’ll do anything for him, though their relationship is fast becoming a one-way ticket to trouble. However, in a freak accident, she loses her memory, landing in the path of sexy DEA agent Sam Carre.
Two Men…
When an attractive stranger lands in the path of DEA agent Sam Carre, he just can’t resist helping her, even though he’s haunted by a past that gives him no peace. But as the sparks fly, so do questions of what she’s really involved in.
And a choice that could kill her…
This complex case pushes them both to explain the unexplainable bringing them face to face with generations-old evil and a haunting question. Sam’s forced to make a choice: Walk away from the attraction connecting them, or risk losing everything.
To purchase The Choice, simply click here.
The Forgotten Child, The Friessen Legacy, Book 1
How do you tell a man there is something wrong with his child?
Praise for The Forgotten Child:
Outcast (The Friessen Legacy Series, Book 2), A Western Romance Page 13
