The Goblin Bride (Beneath Sands Book 1) Emma Hamm (best books under 200 pages .txt) 📖

them. And in the clear water it was as though they floated in air.

Whatever silence had hung between them now sparkled with a radiance that rivaled any beauty he had ever seen in his life. They did not touch. There was more than an arm’s length of room between them. Only water separated them. They both stared at the other as though they had never seen each other before. Slowly their souls began to intertwine.

Neither would ever know who moved first. One moment there was a chasm between them and the next there was nothing but warm skin gliding against each other.

He had once told her that a goblin could not be gentle or soft. Yet, when her arms slid around his neck and the algae shimmered against her skin, it was not harsh passion that she was met with.

His lips touched hers as soft as a feather being brushed across heated skin. His hand held her to him, one against the small of her back and the other unwinding the long weave of her braid. He took his time. Gentle and loving in every move.

Jane would have imagined speed for this first time. A sense of urgency and need that would have pushed them to the limits of their control. Yet both of them breathed the other in, taking the time to learn what had been hidden for so long.

He created a curtain of her hair and she counted the bump of each rib as her hands learned the hard planes of him.

Ruric realized the differences between male and female. The valley between her hips captivated him. The rise and fall of her breasts beguiled him. The long smooth lines of her legs and the graceful arch of her neck all made him slave to her.

Somewhere along the line he pulled them both from the water to lay her down upon the moss that burst into light around her. And though his eyes were nearly blinded by the glow, he was entranced by her movements and the sounds she made.

They came together in the only way they knew how. Soft at first, delicate and kind, and eventually with a passion and desire that would later startle them both in its fervency.

Her hands learned the hard lines of his spine. His claws scraped across her thighs. They both found part of a bliss they had not realized was possible.

And in the dying light of the moss that had illuminated the cave around them, they found a happiness they had not realized was possible before the other had appeared.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

HIS LIPS PRESSED against her shoulder, careful with his teeth as he noticed there were a few marks on her already. They had spent the day learning each other. He marveled at the taste of her. She reveled in the scent of him.

Slowly they came back to the world around them and were pleased in the discoveries they had found. The moss was their cushion once again. Throughout the day they had moved from water, to stone, to soft moss once again.

“It was not what I expected,” he said quietly as his fingers smoothed over the skin of her stomach. She was so soft compared to him, so incredibly delicate. Even though there was a hard stretch of muscle over her entire body, Ruric still knew he could kill her with a small movement.

It was strange to know that life and death were so tightly woven.

“What?” She asked, tilting her head back to look at him. A bright bloom of light echoed her soft stretch.

He did not repeat his words but instead watched the play of thoughts cross her face. He did not think that she knew how easy she was to read. Jane enjoyed having her thoughts to herself. Besides, he enjoyed being able to know what was going through her head.

“You’ve never done that before?” She asked, propping herself up on her elbow to look at him.

“No.”

“Not… Not even once?” To Jane this seemed odd. Sex wasn’t something anyone Above shied away from. She could count the number of one time lovers she’d had on a single hand, though now it was full if she counted goblins as well.

He shook his head, leaning back against the moss as she arched over him. “When would there be time? My life has been training and preparing. It takes time and effort to get to this.” He gestured between them. “I have never had time before.”

“You said you had experience though.”

A goblin grin flashed in the darkness. “I have experience in what we had done when you asked.”

She was stunned. And before she could stop herself from blurting out something foolish, she was quick to say, “But you’re very good at this.”

He seemed pleased and shrugged. “Luck?”

Jane was laughing as soon as the word left his mouth. The man claimed luck at being good the first time he ever had sex, and she couldn’t believe that he had said that. Ruric would remember this moment as the first time he had ever made her truly laugh. The kind of laugh that wrenched from her gut and filled the air with it’s bright sound.

He wanted her to laugh again until his ears rung with the sound of it.

This time it was his body that covered hers, rolling her until she was lying on her back again and he could see every smile line upon her face. “It is proof that goblins are stronger than humans.”

“Is it now?” She was still laughing, wiping at the tears on her face. “I should be glad that goblins are such quick learners.”

He hummed deep in his throat, pushing his hips against hers as he leaned down. Her neck had arched so delicately that it was calling for his lips to be pressed against her warm skin.

Slowly she stopped laughing, small hiccups of sound dying down until she could finally still beneath him. Her hand reached up