‘Who or what is it too fast for?’ Elias asked her. Because he was certain now. He wanted to see how this panned out. Not just here in Corfu, but when they got back to the UK. Surely they were not too far away to be able to maintain a connection? Although she did say she might want to keep travelling. How would things work between them then?
‘I don’t know,’ Becky admitted. ‘It just… seems crazy to think of how we met and how this happened and…’
‘It will make the best of stories to tell at dinner parties,’ Elias told her.
‘You seem so sure,’ Becky whispered, looking directly at him.
‘Because I am sure,’ he told her. ‘To begin with, when confronted by my feelings for you, I tried to tell myself it was not happening, that maybe I had been struck by some temporary insanity that had descended like a flu virus…’
‘I’m feeling exceedingly flattered to be compared to a contagion,’ Becky answered with a wry grin.
‘But,’ Elias continued, ‘I wanted to be infected. That was at the heart of it. Denying that truth was like denying I am Greek or denying that I work too much.’ He trailed his fingers down her arm, feeling every nuance of the softness of her sun-kissed skin. ‘I am completely sure that you are the only woman who has even turned my head since… in years,’ he carried on. ‘And I am also sure that you are the most kind and caring, the most funny and engaging… the most beautiful person I have ever met.’
‘Elias…’
He could see she was blushing now. She had dropped her eyes from his and was now looking out at the sea as it swayed around the boat.
‘What?’ Elias asked her. ‘It is all true. But you should know you are terrible at taking a compliment.’
‘I don’t… get them every often.’ He saw her look increasingly uncomfortable. ‘Not like that.’
‘What can I do to make you believe me?’ he asked.
‘Oh, Elias. You are…’
He shifted closer to her, until their bare thighs were touching and there was a tightening in his Speedos. ‘I am what?’
‘All the sexy,’ Becky breathed, finally meeting his eyes. ‘All the hot… and all the compelling.’
‘Compelling,’ he said, one eyebrow raising.
‘Yes. Compelling.’
He brought his mouth to the soft, delicate skin of her neck and dropped a kiss on her throat, feeling her shiver.
*
Becky wanted to feel this way until the end of time. She was on the brink of something here, something that could be the most special time of her entire life. But she was as much filled with excitement and anticipation as she was filled with nervousness and tension. She closed her eyes, letting the heat and motion of Elias’s mouth be her only anchor. Gradually, as his lips swept over her, she lowered herself down onto the soft, leatherette pads of the boat and revelled in the uncharacteristic naughtiness of this.
Her fingers reached up to the straps of her swimsuit and she lowered them off her shoulders.
‘Captain Rebecca,’ Elias whispered.
She kept her eyes closed and managed a small high-pitched noise of reply, wriggling with want. She was so deliciously warm, her skin from the Greek sun, her insides from the Greek man… except Elias had stopped kissing her. Why had he stopped kissing her?
She opened her eyes then and he was still half-sitting, half-lying next to her but there was indecision written in his expression.
‘What’s the matter?’ Becky whispered, edging upwards a little. ‘Did I do something wrong?’
‘No,’ Elias said immediately. ‘My God, no.’
‘Then please, kiss me again,’ Becky begged, reaching to palm the light stubble on his jawline. ‘Take off my swimming costume and kiss me all over. And then…’ She stopped, the words almost catching in her throat.
‘And then?’ he queried, putting his hand on hers.
‘Then… make love to me,’ Becky said, her voice thick with desire. ‘Make love to me on this boat… and all the days after today… until we… until we die from the trying.’
It seemed that Elias needed no further encouragement and his mouth was instantly on hers, hot and filled with passion, his chest aligning with hers, his hips close. Becky reached up, encircling her arms around his neck. She didn’t want to wait any longer. She pulled him down on top of her.
Fifty-Three
‘Open your mouth.’
‘Again?’
‘You are crazy,’ Elias breathed. ‘I meant for the octopus.’
‘Oh… really?’
‘You sound disappointed.’
‘There’s always dessert, isn’t there?’
Who was this wanton individual who suddenly knew more flirtatious banter than all the Take Me Out contestants put together? Perhaps it was down to the fact she had spent the past hour exploring every square inch of Elias’s body – and there were a lot of inches in the very best of ways – and also feeling confident enough to display herself exactly as she was for the first time in a long time. There was no hiding on the sunbathing deck when you were completely naked. And there was also a unique thrill when she recalled that, at any moment, another boat could arrive alongside their vessel and see literally everything. Although Becky wasn’t sure she would have noticed if anyone had arrived. The only coming she had been aware of was her own. Four times. Then Elias’s, in a jumble of holding tight, wanting to be even tighter, gasped breaths and a squeal from her not dissimilar to the noise she had made when pretending to be a pig…
And then they had swum. She, Becky Rose, had jumped into the air off the front of the boat uncaring about which sea critter might want to nibble her first. She was high on life, celebrating the gorgeous Greek sunshine and the cooling, aquamarine ocean and realising just how lucky she was to be experiencing all this.
Becky smiled at Elias then and opened her mouth, ready for whatever he was going to put in there. Although she suspected it really was going to be food this time…
A delicate piece of something hit her tongue and she let out another noise she didn’t usually own. ‘Oh, Elias, what is this?’
‘You cannot tell?’ Elias asked. ‘I thought you were the woman with the most refined palate who can tell almost anything.’
‘OK,’ Becky said, eyes still closed, sitting forward a little and concentrating on the flavours in her mouth. ‘Give me a second…’ She could smell the sea air and even the sunshine and it was distracting her from the task in hand. She honed in on the subtleties currently resting on her taste buds. ‘It’s lobster,’ she said, breathing quietly through her nose and pushing the food gently over her tongue so as to absorb all the flavours. ‘With… fennel… definitely fennel.’ She concentrated harder. ‘Lemon… and… onion and maybe white wine and… dill. A little dill.’
‘Wow,’ Elias replied.
Becky opened her eyes then, finally swallowing the delicious food. ‘What?’
‘Your skills are impressive,’ he told her.
‘I think you also said that earlier,’ Becky answered. ‘Except earlier you said I was “amazing” and—’