Page 136 of Vengeful Vows

“Noted.”

I take the soup and sandwiches up to Declan on a tray, and he gulps down one of the water bottles before eating and pulling me back into bed.

“We’re eventually going to have to leave this room, you know?”

He frowns. “No. I don’t want to.”

I laugh. “You sound like a little kid.”

“I feel like a teenager. It’s like... being sixteen all over again.”

“I was never in love at sixteen.” I shrug.

“Me, either. I guess this is just what I imagine it feels like.”

He kisses my temple.

“We should shower and go down to dinner later. I think your family misses you.”

“Miss you, more likely,” he snorts. “They like you better than me, you know?”

I laugh. “Who wouldn’t?”

He bites down on my shoulder playfully, and I start to undress, just wearing one of his button-up shirts. Declan looks at me, his blue eyes dark with lust.

He grabs at me, but I dart away.

“I need to eat,” I state. “And then we need to shower.”

He grins. “We’re just going to get dirty again anyway.”

I snort out a laugh and sit down, cross-legged and nude, shoving bites of sandwich and soup into my mouth.

He looks at me as if I am one of the most enthralling shows ever until I’m finished, and then I tug him up, leading him to the shower.

Before I even get the water heated up, he has his fingers inside me where I’ve bent over to turn on the faucet, and I cry out, arching my back.

“Get in the shower,” I breathe, and Declan pops his fingers out of me, putting them in his mouth and sucking slowly.

“Yes, ma’am,” he drawls, and I glare at him but there’s no heat behind it.

“You’re a menace.”

“The Irish scourge,” he jokes, and I laugh out loud, feeling lighter and freer than I ever have.

I sober, thinking about my father. “You know that this isn’t over.”

“What isn’t over?”

“The war between the Murphys and the Burkes.”

He sighs. “I know.”

“For a while there, part of me hoped that this marriage would ease things between you,” I admit, tears springing to my eyes. “Part of me hoped my father would come around.”

His face serious now instead of lustful, he draws me into his arms. “Everything’s going to be okay, a ghra mo chroi. I promise you.”

“How can you know that?” I look up into his blue eyes.

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