Free The Theotokis Inheritance by Susanne James

win one with Oscar. She sipped at her tea again, aware that they were now sitting so closetheir knees and thighs were touching under the table. She knew she could have moved away slightly, but she didn’t want to. The warmth of him was comforting… more than comforting… and she had to choke back the sensuous thoughts that would come bubbling up every time she was anywhere near him. Fate had been kind—and cruel—at the same time, she decided. She had been left an inheritance she could never have dreamed of, but it meant that the drop dead gorgeous Greek who’d long ago stolen her heart was here with her again, temporarily part of her life. And she didn’t need it, because he didn’t want her—or any woman. Helena swallowed at the depth of her own feelings. She had to face facts. Whatever their present circumstances, there was never going to be a future for her and Oscar, so she must try and deal with the here and now sensibly…
Sensibly?
… What part did sense play where matters of the heart were concerned?
    Realizing that they hadn’t spoken for several moments, he took her hand and said softly, ‘Is it still hurting very much,
Heleena?
’ And as she looked up at him Helena wanted to say,
Oh, yes, it still hurts… You’ll never know how much, Oscar…
But instead she attempted a cool reply.
    ‘No… no—I can hardly feel anything at all now,’ she said, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. ‘Just a very slight burning sensation, that’s all.’ And admitting the double meaning in those words made Helena’s blue eyes limpid with hopelessness.
    Then, as his unflinching gaze enslaved her once more, Oscar slowly raised her hand and pressed itgently to his lips. ‘There,’ he said huskily, looking down at her, ‘let me make it feel better…’
    In the next few moments of suspended silence, broken only by the gentle ticking of the clock, nothing could have prepared Helena for what was about to happen, because, with time standing still, Oscar slowly got to his feet, scraping back his chair, and pulled her up towards him, closing his mouth over her parted lips with expert precision. She gasped, the unexpectedness of what was happening taking her completely by surprise, and something vital, electrical, leapt from her at the urgency of his kiss… leaving her breathless.
    ‘Oscar…’ she faltered—this was not happening! Not again! She must not let it! She couldn’t bear it!
    But it was too late. Much too late. She was in his arms, surrendering to his lithe, powerful physique, helpless and ecstatic. Then, frightened at what was happening to her, she managed to pull away slightly and look up at him, at his dark eyes, aflame with desire, boring into hers…
    ‘Oscar… this is not… I must leave…’ Helena began, but as she tried to protest he took advantage of her open mouth to claim it again and again, his kisses deep, penetrating, leaving her breathless with longing.
    ‘Heleena… kardia mou.’
The dark passion in his voice sounded like the guttural growl of an animal about to claim its prey, and Helena pulled away properly, stepping back, her eyes full of fear.
    ‘It’s too late, Oscar,’ she whispered. ‘For us it’s much, much too late.’
    * * *
    An hour later, they drove back to the Inn to collect their belongings, Helena sitting silently, choking back tears.
    As Oscar had kissed her so thoroughly she had been in paradise—a paradise once lost, and so briefly regained. But wait a minute, she was not the inexperienced female she had once been, she told herself again—this was
now
! And there was no going back. That kiss had been a gesture—a gesture born of fleeting male sympathy—but then, being Oscar, it had very quickly become something much more. More vital, more intense, and yes, more thrilling. It would be wrong to deny it, wrong to pretend that she hadn’t wanted it to go on and on. She had not known another man who could match his sensitive, sensual, unforgettable