‘Incomparable,’ he finished.
‘That was really, really sexy,’ Becky told him, leaning forward and pressing her lips to his.
‘You are really, really sexy,’ he answered, kissing her back.
‘Can we do it in a tuk-tuk one day?’ Becky whispered.
‘What?’
‘Never mind.’ She laughed and looked for her glass of champagne. She had had three glasses of champagne and was thoroughly glad she wasn’t driving the Aston Martin… or the Ferrari… or actually even a bicycle. ‘Where did my glass go?’ she asked Elias. ‘I didn’t knock it overboard, did I?’
‘We are done with champagne,’ Elias told her.
‘Oh.’
‘Do not sound so disappointed. I have something else I would like you to try.’
‘Another position?’ Gosh, the alcohol was loosening her tongue… or maybe she had sunstroke. She put a hand to her head to feel if it was too hot.
‘Captain Rebecca…’
‘Field Marshal,’ Becky said, connecting their lips again. ‘Call me Field Marshal.’
Elias quickly ducked down a little, producing a fat-bottomed glass from the hamper he had been picking delicacies from and began to pour a golden-brown liquid into it. It smelled divine and Becky immediately felt a spark of familiarity somehow.
‘What is it?’
‘Oh no,’ Elias said. ‘You have to taste it first. I want to know what you sense from it.’
‘I’m not a circus act, you know,’ Becky teased. ‘I don’t read food and then tell fortunes like Zoltar.’
‘Take a sip,’ Elias encouraged, offering out the glass.
Becky took it, cradling its bottom with her palm and swirling it a little. ‘It’s a brandy.’ She put her nose over the rim and inhaled. ‘Or is it? I’m not quite sure. It’s rich but also light.’
‘Taste it,’ Elias encouraged.
Becky put the glass to her lips and took the tiniest of sips at first. Then, she took in more, letting the amber-coloured liquid coat her tongue. ‘Wow… it’s sweet and warm… so warm and… there’s fruit notes and maybe… toffee?’
‘My God,’ Elias said. ‘You really are a tasting genius.’
‘What is it?’ Becky asked, enjoying the spread of heat to her throat as the drink slipped down.
‘It is Metaxa,’ he replied. ‘This one a seven-star. And you just told me the exact taste sensation it should provide as written on their website.’
‘What can I say?’ Becky asked with a smile. ‘Except… yes!’
‘Yes?’ Elias asked, watching her animation.
‘Yes! This is it!’ Becky exclaimed, bouncing a little on her seat. ‘This is what is missing from your mother’s stifado.’
‘Metaxa?’ Elias queried.
‘I’ve been trying to think what it was that would bring all of her flavours together and increase the richness. I was thinking of a cognac my dad used to drink that Megan and I were only allowed the tiniest bit of at Christmas, but it wasn’t quite right. But this. This is it.’
Elias shook his head, smiling at her as he took a sip of his own glass of Metaxa.
‘What?’ Becky asked. ‘What’s funny?’
‘Not funny,’ he told her. ‘Incomparable, like I said before.’ He took hold of her hand. ‘You are so enthusiastic about tastes I cannot believe this is not something you have wanted to do your whole life.’
Becky sighed. ‘My whole life has been taken up reacting to other people’s situations. I haven’t had a chance to own anything. Not even my own future.’ How did that happen? How had Becky allowed that to happen? She knew with regard to It’s A Wrap it had been about protecting Megan. Megan had steamrollered into the business venture like she blustered into everything in her life – 200 per cent committed with all of the passion and none of the thinking about practicalities. Megan hadn’t asked outright for her help – that had never been Megan’s style – but Becky instinctively thought she knew it was what her sister wanted. And Becky also knew that having the two of them engaged on a joint project – albeit with Megan’s name alone on all the paperwork – their mum could relax into life in Lancashire. But what came next?
‘And now?’ Elias asked her.
‘And now I feel different… stronger,’ she admitted. ‘Coming here, it’s been so good for me. It’s shown me there’s so many sides to myself. Sides I didn’t even know I had.’ She took a breath. ‘When I get back to the UK I’m not going to be the same slightly-terrified-of-everything person who sat down next to you in Row 18.’
‘I am not going to be the same either,’ Elias breathed.
*
He had made another one of his pro/con lists early this morning. The pluses for keeping his business exactly how it was and the minuses. He had come to only one conclusion.
‘I am changing my business model,’ he told her. ‘I have acted appallingly in a number of my cases, if not all of them, and the satisfaction that I have a 100 per cent record of winning does not sit well with me anymore.’ He took another breath, stilling in the moment. ‘I made other people suffer to try to ease my own suffering and all it did was make me feel even hollower than I felt in the beginning. That isn’t the way to run a business. I may have success but… it is not a nice success.’ He squeezed her hand. ‘I want to do what I do and feel happy about it. Yes, I will still want the right results for my client but… at any cost?’ He shook his head. ‘No.’
Becky threw her arms around him then, pressing her body against his. She was still damp from their swim and she smelled of the saltwater coupled with the sun lotion he had massaged into her shoulders. Then, there was another scent he recognised. His scent, the aftershave he wore, lingering on her skin because of the closeness they had shared. He held her tighter.
‘I wanted you to say that,’ Becky said. ‘Because now I feel I can tell you something I’m most definitely not supposed to. But I’m coming to the end of my stay now and I’m pretty convinced something underhand is going on so…’
‘I have no idea what you are going to say,’ Elias said as Becky sat back from him.
‘Ms O’Neill has someone coming to Villa Selino tomorrow night at 5 p.m.,’ Becky told him. ‘I think you’re right. I think there are valuables in the villa that she is hiding from her husband… your client.’
Did he want to hear this? He had told himself everything by the book from now on. Whatever the rights and wrongs of this case he wasn’t the police.
‘I think this person… this dodgy-sounding Lazarus… I think he’s going to come and take the valuables for her, or sell them for her, or do something so her husband can’t have his share of the money in the divorce.’
Elias groaned then, dropping his head to his hands. ‘This case! This fucking case! I wish I had never taken it on!’
He felt Becky put a hand on his shoulder then, palpitating the skin. What was he going to do? He raked his hands through his hair and then sat up, looking at her. ‘There are missing paintings, aren’t there?’