‘’Course I am, you silly mare.’ He tightened his hold on Josephine, pulling her naked body even closer to him. ‘You don’t half ask some daft questions, you know.’

Josephine laughed. ‘I just love hearing you say it!’

She was lying against him; they were a perfect fit together and she lived for these stolen moments in her bed. Her mum and dad were at the betting shop today going over the books, so she and Michael were safe for a few hours. She suspected her mother knew they were sleeping together but she knew they wouldn’t talk about it out loud. She loved to be alone with Michael like this. She knew that he loved her, and she understood that he had a lot of things to take care of when they were out. She was happy to stand with her friends, chat, have a laugh, and wait for him to come and claim her. But, sometimes, she wished that he would forget about his work just for one night, and take her out like he used to, just the two of them. Now they were either in his club or one of his pubs. He would be here, there and everywhere, and she tried not to mind too much, but it was hard sometimes.

He’d fallen asleep, was snoring now, and she sighed. She didn’t really have that many friends, the majority of the girls were just hangers-on. They were nice enough, she supposed, but she was aware that the main attraction was that she was Michael Flynn’s girlfriend. They wanted to be a part of his world; they all flirted with him when he was beside her, throwing blatantly provocative looks his way. She could see that he wasn’t interested in any of them, though – he loved her, she was certain of that.

She was better looking than any of them anyway. She’d always been aware of her beauty – accepted it as a fact of life. One of her earliest memories was somebody saying to her mum what a beautiful child she was. She wasn’t a bighead – she didn’t use her looks for attention; after all, she only had eyes for Michael. One of the nuns at her school had said to her that she was a lucky girl because she was beautiful inside and out. The nun had also told her that beauty could be a scourge, and to remember that looks faded eventually, but the beauty inside her was for ever. She had liked hearing that. It had the ring of truth to it.