Corner after making sure they were not followed.)

5 They had dinner together and some drinks. "What time are you going to visit

your father?" Kay asked.

6 Michael looked at his watch. "Visiting hours end at eight-thirty. I think I'll go

after everybody has left. They'll let me up. He has a private room and his own

nurses so I can just sit with him for a while. I don't think he can talk yet or even

know if I'm there. But I have to show respect."

7 Kay said quietly, "I feel so sorry for your father, he seemed like such a nice

man at the wedding. I can't believe the things the papers are printing about him.

I'm sure most of it's not true."

8 Michael said politely, "I don't think so either." He was surprised to find himself

So secretive with Kay. He loved her, he trusted her, but he would never tell her

Anything about his father or the Family. She was an outsider.

9 "What about you?" Kay asked. "Are you going to get mixed up in this gang

war the papers are talking about so gleefully?"

10 Michael grinned, unbuttoned his jacket and held it wide open. "Look, no

guns," he said. Kay laughed.

It was getting late and they went up to their room. She mixed a drink for both

Of them and sat on his lap as they drank. Beneath her dress she was all silk until

His hand touched the glowing skin of her thigh. They fell back on the bed together