The Goddess Read Online Free PDF

They’d escaped. Thank the heavens, they were alive!
    By the time their laughter petered out, they lay side by side, face to face in the
     sparse grass, with their chests pumping from exertion and relief. His arm had fallen
     over her waist. One long leg was carelessly thrown over his. The late afternoon sun
     streamed down, warming their skin, and her crystalline-blue eyes were so close that
     her pants for air brushed and teased his lips.
    Out the corner of his eye, he spotted the figurine lying on her side, a reflection
     of how he and Helene also lay. Her stone eyes were sightless and yet they seemed to
     see so much. As if she knew. Irrespective of the trouble she’d caused, he wanted to
     bring Helene close again…much closer than he had in the depths of the cave.
    Not happening.
    Jumping to his feet, Darius collected the figurine. He was concentrating, inspecting
     her in the light, when Helene spoke.
    “You know, I think she’s smiling, too.”
    Helene was standing now, too. A breeze lifted the sarong around and between her legs.
     Lycra scraps hugged the fall of each perfect breast. Mussed hair flowed, blue eyes
     shone, and every cell in his body begged for him to touch her again.
    Figurine in hand, he crossed back. When she looked up at him, her gaze wide and expectant,
     he narrowed the space separating them even more. He took his time studying the smudges
     on her brow and jaw and then, giving in to the urge, he angled his head a notch and
     reached for her face. A wave of hair blew around her chin. Catching the strands, he
     wound them back around her ear. The pulse in his throat beat faster as he cupped her
     cheek and, absorbing that silken warmth, smiled into her eyes.
    “If you’re up to it,” he said as his hand dropped away, “we’ll keep moving.”
    “The way I’m feeling, I could run the four minute mile in two minutes flat.”
    Good. Because, as much as he might not want to, the moment they reached the villa
     was the moment he would arrange to have Helene Masters, and her alluring diversions,
     shipped far away for good.

Chapter Four
    “It’s been what? Maybe two hours?” Helene asked as she followed Darius over a landscape
     that, given his stride, he knew very well. “Alexio should be here by now. Or maybe
     when he couldn’t find us, he decided to go back.” Get help.
    She had thought earlier that Alexio would put out an alert.
    “I’ll make the call when we get to the villa.”
    Helene wasn’t sure what he meant. “When you left me by the stables, you did contact
     the palace, didn’t you? Say I needed to be picked up?” Taken away.
    “I’d barely left you on that path, splattered in blue paint, before…” His stride picking
     up, he blew out a loud breath. “Don’t worry. You’ll be off this island soon enough.”
    Unlike their moment of celebration rolling around on the grass and meeting each other’s
     gazes as the laughter faded, or the few strange and wonderful seconds he had cupped
     her face, this trek was decidedly reserved. In the short time they’d known each other,
     she’d nearly dropped a bucket on his head and had almost led him to his death. Now
     it seemed he only wanted to see the back of her—or show her the back of him. God knows
     she didn’t want to cause any more hassles either. The sooner she was off this island,
     the better.
    By the time they reached the villa at the top of the hill, Helene was hungry, thirsty,
     and completely exhausted. She made it through the front door with barely enough energy
     to drag a gaze around. However, her new surroundings were too beautiful to ignore.
    High cool ceilings, an ornate spiral staircase, and heavy wooden furniture seemed
     to welcome her in. A bubbling indoor fountain, bougainvillea-laced trestles, and a
     lengthy cream and blue couch were a few paces from a balcony. With the doors wide
     open, a breeze gently stirred the gossamer-light curtains.
    “Just how old is this place?” she