Page 9 of The Goblin's Mine

“You may also use the wash chamber to bathe tonight, if you wish. I certainly intend to.”

Her face lights up. “That would be wonderful! I’m pretty dirty and scratched up from my fall. A soak sounds heavenly.”

I pinch my eyes closed and try to will away thoughts of her lounging in my quarters, bared to the skin and floating in water.I don’t need to be any more distracted by her than I already am. All the same, I feel myself getting hard. Dammit.

“Kill? Are you okay?”

I open my eyes and nod, adjusting my position to hide the evidence of my arousal. “Fine. We should eat.” My voice comes out gruffer than I intended, but it’s for the best. She doesn’t need to know how she affects me.

“Can I ask you more questions about goblins?”

“Yes,” I say. “But if we do this, it’s going to be quid pro quo. You ask me about goblins, I ask you about humans.”

“You’re interested in humans?”

I level my gaze at her. “I’m interested in you.”

NATALIE

It doesn’t take longto polish off the dinner Kill brought. When we’re done eating, he stands and announces his intent to clean up.

“It won’t take me long. I’ll get it out of the way and then you can take your time,” he says, which is pretty chivalrous considering the situation. I’m sure he doesn’t want to be stuck guarding me, and there was no reason for him to stick his neck out to save me, much less get me clean clothes and offer me a bath.

“Thanks. I appreciate it,” I tell him.

He nods and peels his shirt off, treating me to a view of his truly spectacular chest. His turquoise skin is lovely, with the occasional scar here and there. His pecs and biceps are as defined as I’d hoped, but something distracts me from all thedelicious muscles. My eyes are drawn to the mark on his left pec, a strange glyph I can’t interpret.

“What is that?” I ask, pointing at it. I stand to get a closer look. I know I’m invading his privacy, but I can’t help it. The tattoo is fascinating.

“It’s nothing,” he says gruffly.

I give him a playful nudge with my shoulder. “C’mon, I’m here to learn about your

people, and you told me I could ask questions about your life. Tell me about your tattoo.”

He sighs. “It’s not a tattoo. It’s a mate mark.”

“A mate mark?”

He nods. “This doesn’t hold for all goblinkin. But when males of my particular species meet our mates, we undergo a series of physical changes, including the development of a mate mark. It signals to others that we are taken. Our biology ensures monogamy; a mated male will never experience attraction to anyone but his mate.”

A crestfallen wave surges through me, which I barely even understand—it’s not like I want to date this goblin who has me on lockdown—but I paste a smile on my face. This mark is like a wedding ring, but without the option of divorce. A completely unbreakable bond.

“Wow, I’ve never heard of anything like that. Humans sometimes try to be monogamous—at least some do—but it’s always a choice. We’re never bound. Your mate—have I met her? Or him?”

“Yes,” is all he says, leaving me to wonder which of these goblins managed to claim the male I’m oddly attracted to.

NATALIE

I’m notsure what to do once we’ve both cleaned up, but Killian announces that it’s bedtime. “You can take my bed,” he says. “I’ll be fine out here on the floor.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to put you out. And I don’t mind sleeping on the floor.”

“It’s fine. I have plenty of blankets to make things soft.” He points to the pile on the floor. He brought some of them back with him from his earlier excursion, so I guess some are on loan.

He still hasn’t put on a shirt, and not even a bath was enough to cool my heated blood. He looks positively lickable. The bulges of his biceps, the slight smattering of hair on his pecs, his flat nipples and the mark above his heart. The dips of his abs and the V-shape of his hips. I want to touch every single part of his torso.

And then he takes off his pants.