Page 54 of Vengeful Union

“You’re also a Murphy.”

I look at her, deciding that’s definitely an insult. “It’s not like your family participates in legal activities.”

She kicks her feet in the water, splashing the bottoms of my jeans. “You’re right. I’m sure my father has spilled plenty of blood. I just like to think he’s different.”

“Heisdifferent than my father. Niall doesn’t care what happens to me, except for how it looks. He wants to be in control.”

“Has he always been like this?”

I shrug. “Kind of. Got worse after Ma....” I don’t want to go into it.

Lara doesn’t push me. She’s good about things like that.

“I used to think that he favored Bree. That he somehow loved her more. But after all of this, I realize that he was using her, too. I’m sure at some point, he would have married her off to an ally if Declan hadn’t taken her.”

“She got Stockholm syndromefast,” Lara muses.

I look over at her with a half-grin. “Are you getting Stockholm syndrome? I mean, last night...”

She barks out a laugh and pushes my shoulder playfully with one small hand.

I don’t even budge.

“I haven’t been touched in a year. It was about time I let loose.”

I stare at her. “Ayear? You haven’t had sex in a year?”

“Don’t rub it in,” she mutters, but I can’t stop gaping at her.

“A woman that looks like you? That’s crazy.”

She looks up at me from under her long lashes. “Are you suggesting that I’m pretty, Rory Murphy?”

“I’m not suggesting it. I’m outright saying it, Lara Murphy.”

She winces slightly as I use her new last name, but she’s going to have to get used to hearing it. Yeah, we’re married, but there’s still a long way to go.

We have to keep my father convinced that I’m in on his plan, and we have to make him believe that Lara has turned against her father and brothers. That’s going to take time.

“You’re all right looking yourself.”

“All right looking? That’s not what you said when you were?—”

Lara kisses me, probably to shut me up, but I don’t mind.

I moan against her lips, sliding my tongue between them.

She meets it with her own, breathing out through her nose as she straddles my lap, rubbing herself against my jeans.

I start to harden beneath the fabric almost immediately, and she wraps her arms around my neck, kissing me even harder.

She grinds down against my erection, and my hands go up her thighs, under her shorts to feel her skin, squeezing the flesh there. She has the longest, most shapely legs.

She kisses me harder, and I growl into her mouth, grabbing her hair in a ponytail to pull her off me. She looks at me with half-lidded eyes, her mouth parted.

“Better be careful, honey, unless you want to get fucked out by the waterfall.”

“And what if I do?” she murmurs, reaching down to grope me through my jeans.

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