Kane and Abel (Kane & Abel 1)

As she heard herself saying the words, she started to cry. She didn't want him to leave - ever. Richard took her in his arms.

'Oh, God, I'm sorry,' he said. 'T'hat was a terrible thing to say. Please forgive me. It's just that I love you so much and thought I knew you so well; and now I find I don't know anything about you.'

'Richard, I love you too, and I'm sorry I slapped you. I didn't want to deceive you, but there's no one else - I promise you that! Her voice cracked.

'I deserved it,' he said as he kissed her.

Clasped tightly in one another's arms, they sank on to the couch and remained almost motionless for some moments. Gently, he stroked her hair until her tears subsided. Help me to take my clothes off, she wanted to say, but remained silent, slipping her fingers through the gap between his two top shirt buttons. Richard seemed unwilling to make the next Move.

'Do you want to sleep with me?' she asked quietly.

'No,' he replied. 'I want to stay awake with you all night!

Without speaking, they undressed and made love, gently and shyly, frightened to hurt each other, desperately trying to please. Finally, with her head on his shoulder, they talked.

'I love you,' said Richard. 'I have since the first moment we met. Will you marry me? Because I don't give a damn who you are, Jessie, or what you do, but I know I must spend the rest of - my life with you.'

'I want to marry you too, Richard, but first I have to tell you the truth.'

Florentyna pulled Richard's jacket over their naked bodies and told him all about herself, ending by explaining how she had come to be working at Bloomingdale's. When she had completed her story, Richard did not speak.

'Have you stopped loving me already?' she said. 'Now you know who I really am?'

'Darling,' said Richard, very quietly, 'my father hates your father.'

'What do you mean?'

'Just that, the only time I ever heard your father's name mentioned in his presence, he flew completely off the handle saying your father's sole purpose in life seemed to be a desire to ruin the Kane family!

'What? Why?' said Florentyna, shocked. 'I've never heard of your father.

How do they even know each other?'

It was Richard's turn to tell Florentyna everything his mother had told him about the quarrel with her father. 'Oh, my God,' she said.

'That must have been the "disloyalty" my father referred to when he changed banks after twenty - five years. What shall we do?'

'Tell them the truth,' said Richard, 'that we met innocently, fell in love and now we're going to be married, and nothing they can do will stop us.'

'Let's wait a few weeks,' said Florentyna.

'Why?' Asked Richard. 'Do you think your father can talk you out of marrying me?'

'No, Richard,' she said, touching him gently as she placed her head back on his shoulder. 'Never, my darling, but let's find out if we can do anything to break it gently, before we present them both with a fait accompli.

Anyway, maybe they won't feel as strongly as you imagine. After all, you said the affair with the airlines company was nearly five years ago.'

'They still feel strongly, I promise you that. My father would be outraged if he saw us together, let alone thought we were considering marriage.'

'All the more reason to leave it for a little before we break the news to them. That will give us time to think about the best way to go about it.'

He kissed her aoain. 'I love you, Jessie.'

'Florentyna.'

'That's something else I'm going to have to get used to,' he said. 'I love you, Florentyna.'

During the next four weeks, Florentyna and Richard found out as much as they could about their parents' feud, Florentyna by asking her mother and George Novak a set of carefully worded questions, Richard from his father's filing cabinet. The extent of the mutual hatred appalled them. It became more obvious with each discovery that there was no gentle way to break the news of their love. During the next four weeks they spent every free moment they could find together. Richard was always attentive and kind, and nothing was too much trouble. He went to extremes to take her mind off the problem that they knew they would eventually have to face. They went to the theatre, skating, and on Sunday$ took long walks through Central Park, always ending up in bed long before it was dark.

Florentyna even accompanied Richard to watch the New York Yankees which she 'couldn't understand' and the New York Philharmonic which she 'adored'. She refused to believe Richard could play the cello until he gave her a private recital. She applauded enthusiastically when he had finished his favourite Drahms sonata without noticing that he was staring into her grey eyes.