"Just asking how the business trips going, some suggestions on how you can fellate the directors you're travelling with, and instructions to bring him back a gift."

Kyle could tell she found reciting Ed's messages to be quite amusing, which wasn't really surprising because Ed could be outrageously funny, if amazingly crude. What did surprise him was her saying the word 'fellate' without a trace of embarassment.

"I'll have to think up a response and email him back. I take it I can do that with this new phone I'm getting?"

"And then some," She nodded.

Kyle's eyes flickered over her shoulder as he spotted Katie, Kara, Heidi and Garius arriving.

"Oh wow," He murmured, seeing Kara's new hairstyle. Gone was the long, curls. In it's place was something new and very eyecatching. Her hair was straight, without a single curl in sight, and it reminded Kyle of Jennifer Annistons hairstyle in the latter years of Friends, although it was more sharply angled at the ends. It shone in the sun, all black, straight and sleek.

Patricia echoed his sentiment a moment later. "That really suits her. I see they haven't done much with Katie's hair though."

Kyle looked at her hair as they approached. He could see that it had softer lines to it, a lot more feminine in a subtle way, and that it really suited her softer features. "No, they have. They've made it suit her more than it did before."

Kyle greeted his sisters, complimenting them both on their hair. Kara just shrugged it off, while Katie looked delighted and then they launched straight into their next briefing. It was a long two hours before they emerged back outside again, only to be whisked into an hour with Mister Crowler on the legalities of what they could and couldn't say in public without leaving themselves liable to legal action, and what areas of conversation to avoid like the plague.

When it came to managing and controlling conversations, and how to keep in the right areas, Kara proved more adept at it than either Katie or Kyle, perhaps because of her experience handling drunk men in the club, and Kyle made a mental note to never underestimate Kara just because she'd been a stripper.

It was nearly half past five by the time they finished up and Kyle had to hustle to get down to meet Julian for his third workout of the day. He found himself quite surprised at how much energy he had and how good he felt, apart from his tortured muscles. When he mentioned it to Patricia she put it down to the injections, the diet and the endorphins. Either that, or the real pain hadn't kicked in yet.

Julian worked his upper body again, merciless in his enthusiasm, and more than once Kyle felt like quitting. Eventually though, he made it to the warm down, and he trembled through the last of the exercises before stumbling back up to the suite, drenched in sweat.

This time when he got up to his room, Patricia had a hot bath waiting for him, filled with salts and other fragranced stuff that she assured him would ease his sore muscles. When she slipped out the room, Kyle disrobed and slid into the greenish blue water.

The hot water was like heaven and he lay there for a moment, only his fingers visible on either side of the bath above the coloured water.

"How's that?" Patricia asked, re-entering the bathroom. She sat down on a drawer unit and opened up a binder, placing it on her lap.

Kyle rolled his eyes at yet another moment in the last couple of days where she'd been in the bathroom with him, with one of them naked. "We should get a workstation put in here."

"Yeah. Not so much a hot desk... a wet desk," She chuckled.

Kyle gave her a tired smile. "The bath's good. Thanks for that, Patricia."

"No problem. We're going to try and fit Sarah in later for a massage before you go to bed too, but we'll see how the evenings going."

Kyle nodded, sliding himself a little further down into the hot water. "What's in the binder."

"Draft of the Press Release. Casey emailed you twenty minutes ago to say he'd had a call from a reporter at work. They'd asked to be put through to you, but your phone is transferring all your calls to his desk, so he got the call. Said they were asking general questions about you, nothing too specific, but they wanted details of your current business trip, and how to find you."

"Fuck," Kyle muttered, sitting a little more upright and wincing as his stomach muscles protested. "So that's the press got my name already? What about Kara or Katie?"

"Haven't heard anything yet, but it's only a matter of time. Probably hours. If not, it'll break tomorrow."

"So what's the plan then?"

"We issue a release, stating that Danny Tripps last will and testament was read yesterday to his benefactors, three children he had with his wife twenty three years ago, who were given up for adoption following his wifes death. The three children, Kyle, Kara and Katarina have since been informed and are currently on Mister Tripps private Island meeting with his legal and business teams. Tomorrow they will be attending the private funeral of Danny Tripps with a number of select guests. We expect a statement will be issued by them early next week."

"Just like that?"

"Yep. Nothing too committed, as far as the business is concerned it's a fairly sensible press release, with nothing dramatic, no big announcements and it shows you're getting advice too. From a personal perspective it doesn't really give much away about either of you, but we'll put a few photographs of each of you up, and leak them a little info. Stamford Business graduate, successful writer, self-employed photographer, that kind of thing."

"You seem pretty relaxed about it," Kyle noted.

"We've got good people who know how to deal with the media. Want to hear the bad stuff now?"

"That wasn't it?" Kyle asked, frowning unhappily.

"Nope. If we release this to the press in an hour, then later tonight there'll be ex-girlfriends, colleagues, people you went to school with and people you've never heard of in your life getting interviewed on TV, online and in print. Some of it might hint at facts, but the rest of it will generally be bullshit made up by desperate journalists or twisted by their editors."

"And I thought today couldn't get any worse," He murmured, wanting nothing more than to sink under the water.

"Kyle!" The shout came from the front door of the suite, but before Patricia could call a response, he recognised Katie's voice shouting, "Are you back there?" It was followed moments later by her rushed footsteps.

"I'm in the bath," He called, but wasn't surprised when her head popped through the arched doorway a moment later.

"Oh," She said, seeing his head floating in the coloured water. "You're in the bath."

"Well spotted. So I assume you've heard then?"

"About the press enquiry? Yeah."

She shook her head. "Not that. This." She flourished a piece of paper at him.

"Can you read it to me," Kyle said, sighing. "I don't think I can lift my arms up."

"Oh, that's right. You've been working out." Katie sat down on the edge of the bath, and lifted the piece of paper up. Just at that her assistant, Heidi, stuck her head in the doorway.

"Hi, Heidi," Kyle said flatly. "It seems this is the place to be. Come on in, have a seat."

"How's the water?"

"Nice and hot, and thankfully coloured enough to keep me hidden," He murmured.

"Right," Katie said, lifting the paper again. "Tomorrow at the funeral, one of us has to get up and give a speech."

Kyle waited for more, but Katie just looked at him.

"Is there more?"

"One of us has to get up and give a speech, Kyle," She repeated.

"Okay."

"Well, you seem remarkably calm about it."

Kyle shrugged and then immediately groaned as his muscles moved. "Speaking in public doesn't bother me. It's not gonna be televised or anything, is it Patricia?"

"No. It's an invite only event, although the timing might be better. We may have an issue with press helicopters now, but we can put up canopies or ask for a favour and see if we can get a military exercise on in the area to keep the airspace vacated."

"We can do that?" Kyle asked. "That's impressive."

"Mister Tripps has many contacts in many areas, and he's owed a lot of favours."

"I'll make the call," Heidi suggested. "The Special Forces guys in Eglin Air Force Base in Florida still owe us after we let them use this place for an exercise."

"You let the US Special Forces use this place to train?" Katie asked. "How cool is that?"

"About seven or eight years ago. It was supposed to be a hostage-rescue thing, and they claimed it a success," Patricia explained. "They caused around four hundred thousand dollars worth of damage though, so they haven't asked to come back again, and they've been very helpful when we've needed it because we still haven't told the media."

"How the hell did they do that?" Kyle asked.

"They blasted through windows and doors with explosives all over the Island. Sunk two of the boats, blew up the pier and quite a bit of stuff went missing, most of it alcohol and steak," Heidi added. "When Mister Tripps found out he laughed so hard he nearly choked."

"Sorry, but can we get back on the topic here?" Katie asked, still distressed at the thought of speaking in public.

"I'll do it, Katie," Kyle told her.

"Hey, are you guys in there?" Kyle heard Kara. He rolled his eyes, spotting his other sister now entering the bathroom. "Did you speak to him?" She asked Katie.

"He says he'll do it."

Kara breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Kyle."

"You're not comfortable speaking in public either then?"

"No. I'm really not. Never had to do it," Kara added.

"How many people are going to be there?" Kyle asked, curious because he really didn't know much about the funeral arrangements yet.

Patricia moved so that Kara could have her seat and sat on the end of the bath next to Kyle's head. Heidi lounged against the wall.

"Let's see," Patricia began. "There's going to be around fifty staff from the Island, as well as all of us, obviously. Then there's the guests who are flying in tomorrow morning and staying overnight. There's fifteen of them, and another twenty or so who are only here for the funeral and a few drinks afterwards, but they're going back out again, so all in, about a hundred or so."

"You've only listed around eighty, Trish," Heidi pointed out.

"Yeah, but come on. Do you expect all the kitchen and housekeeping staff not to attend? They don't all need to be on duty, so a lot of them will make it there and then nip straight back to work as soon as it's done."

"Yeah, I suppose," Heidi nodded. "It's what I'd do anyway."

"Me too," Patricia agreed. "Want a hand writing it, Kyle?"

"Please. First though. Can you all get out my bathroom please?"

Katie, Kara and Heidi were all chuckling as they left, but Patricia stayed where she was.

"You too, Patricia. I need to get out the bath."

"Sit up first," She said firmly.

"What for?"

"Just do as you're told, Kyle."

He chuckled and forced his tortured muscles to pull his torso up into a seated position. "Oh that hurt."

"I bet."

He heard her splash her hand in the water behind him and then he felt her hands on his back, and he could smell the soap in her hand as she worked her fingers into the muscles in his shoulders and upper back.

"Oh man, that's good." Kyle could feel the stiffness and tension of his muscles easing a little as her fingers probed and pushed, massaging soap into his skin and every so often, cupping a handful of water up and rinsing him clean.

He closed his eyes, drifting in a sea of pleasure as her fingers worked on him, and he didn't notice he'd grown an erection until it began to tighten up to full stiffness. His muscles tensed as he suddenly became aware of it and he unconsciously sat up a little straighter.

"Is that a bit better now?" Patricia asked behind him. For a second he thought she was asking about his erection.

"Yeah, that feels a lot better already, Patricia. Thanks."

"No problem. I know you've been working hard, so I just wanted to help," She added, standing up. "Now, can you manage to get up on your own?"

"I'll manage," He replied quickly.

"Good. I'll put the shower on for you so you can rinse off, and I'll be out there getting your dinner clothes sorted out."

Kyle nodded, waited until she turned the shower on and left before he finally moved. Getting out the bath was agony, but he was all too aware of his erection so he quickly hobbled into the shower and shut the door.

It only took him a few minutes to get rid of his erection this time, the dual memories of Patricia's body in the shower earlier and her hands on his skin moments ago serving to provide more than enough inspiration for a pretty powerful orgasm.

He was still a little out of breath when he dried off and walked into the bedroom. Patricia had laid out some clothes for him, and was sitting in one of the armchairs at the side of the dressing room, a notepad on her lap.

"What you doing?"

"Getting started on notes for your speech tomorrow. I'm glad you're doing it, by the way."

"Why?"

"Because it means your sisters are beginning to look to you to lead. Take responsibility," She explained. "It means you're already the alpha."

"Well, I am the only male out of the three of us," He pointed out. "Besides, I've done a hundred presentations at work, so I'm used to talking from notes. They're not."

"That's the other reason I'm glad," She added. "You'll do a better job of representing the three of you on this occasion."

Her head turned back to her notepad, her pen darting across the page as she scribbled down bulletpoints. Kyle frowned and looked at the clothes laid out on the bed. The now customary jeans, a pair of retro sneakers and socks and a faded black t-shirt with a Ramones print on the front.

"Were the Ramones a seventies rock band or something?" He asked.

"Yeah, one of the founders of the punk scene too."

"I can't wear this," Kyle said. "I can't even name one of their records. Besides, where did this come from? I never bought it."

"Margaret's been getting clothes shipped in for the three of you. Just swap it for something else."

Her head turned back to the notepad, so Kyle walked into the dressing area and his eyes widened. Where before it had two rails of items hung from it, now there was seven, as well as the full shelves and an additional drawer unit that he didn't think was there before.

"She's been busy," He called through.

"Yeah. She does that."

Kyle flipped through a few more of the t-shirts he could see that had designs on them, and opted for one with the classic Rolling Stones logo with the tongue on it. As he approached the bed he glanced over at Patricia and he wondered if she'd glance up at him as he got changed again.

"Just gonna get changed, Patricia," He warned her as he stood facing the bed, Patricia off to the right facing him.

"Yeah," She said casually.

Rather than watch her as he tried to dress, Kyle listened to the sound of her pen scratching on the paper as she worked. He slid on his t-shirt, wincing as his muscles stretched, and then pulled the jeans around in front of him. He listened carefully as he let slip his towel, feeling incredibly exposed and more than a little nervous, and as he lifted his left leg to pull his jeans on he could hear she'd stopped writing.

He kept his eyes fixed on what he was doing, and pulled the denim up around his left leg, knowing he was exposing himself to her simply by the way his hips were angled.

It took a few seconds, but his left leg was finally sorted and he paused to listen, but couldn't hear her writing at all. He didn't dare glance across, because she would just lower her head quickly, so he lifted his right leg and slipped it into his jeans.

As he pulled them up over his hips, he almost grinned, realising that he was going to force his semi-erect cock and balls up and out over his lowered fly, pushing them out on display. At the last second he paused and used his hand to slip them inside the jeans, manipulate them into a comfortable position and then fastened the waistbutton.

He heard the pen begin scratching on the notepad again before he got the zipper pulled up, and he realised he was breathing a little hard.

"That was fucking hot, and she was totally watching me," He thought to himself, his heart racing as he sat on the bed to pull on his socks and shoes.

It took him a few minutes of grimaces and groans, but eventually he got his footwear done up and stood up, shaking his jeans into place over them.

"Dressed. Finally," He added.

Patricia had a half-smile on her face as she looked up. "Oh. Excellent. Like the t-shirt."

"Thanks."

"There's a jacket you should wear too," She told him, setting her notepad aside and getting up. "It'll give you something to carry your new phone in."

"Okay," He nodded.

Patricia slipped into the dressing room and returned a moment later with a black linen jacket, cut in the style of a suit jacket. It was nice and light and went well with his outfit, and Kyle was impressed at how comfortable it was.

"Don't wear it when you're sitting down or anything, but it suits you when you're standing up," She told him, eyeballing him.

"Make me look hot?"

"You're doing fine on that front, Kyle," She replied, then paused. "Right, I better go get changed myself. See you downstairs?"

"Sure."

Kyle was on his way out the door, when he noticed she'd left her notepad lying on the chair. He went over and picked it up, curious to see what she'd written.

The first half of the page was a collection of words. "Come as a surprise to us... only knew of him what we'd heard in the media... Legacy.... Discovering who he was... staggering achievements..."

Then the words tailed off and picked up a couple of lines further down the page. "Yum", was scratched out, and next to it were the words, "Get a fucking grip, girl!!!!" He smiled, figuring that must have been the first thing she wrote after he'd pulled his jeans on and she'd stopped to watch.

He continued reading, but it was all more concepts, bulletpoints and words. He flipped to the next page but it was empty.

Kyle considered taking it to her room, but then she'd assume he read it and things might get awkward, so he put it back down on the chair and headed outside.

He felt like he was bouncing on air. The incredibly hot Patricia was into him.

Dinner was a bit more fun than it was the night before. It didn't take long before the girls were telling Garius and Mister Crowler about Kyle's impromptu meeting in the bath earlier, and teasing him about his unorthodox management style. Kyle took it all in good stead, promising to hold his next impromptu meeting in the pool so they could all join him.

The conversation soon turned to the events of the next day though, specifically the funeral. Danny Tripps was to be buried in a small grove on the north side of the Island, as per his own wishes, and guests would begin arriving from mid morning until right up to the start of the ceremony at three in the afternoon.

It was Katie who asked who the incoming guests were first, and Heidi pulled out a binder from beside her chair, handing out copies of the guest list to each of them. Kyle glanced down at his, and his eyes widened as he recognised many of the names on it.

There was to be acoustic musical performances from Sting, Pink and Neil Finn, and the guest list was a mixture of models, actors and actresses and directors, some of which Kyle recognised as former dates of Danny Tripps. He just sat there with his mouth open.

"Oh my God," Katie murmured. "This is like a who's who on the red carpet."

"These people can't all be coming here tomorrow," Kara said. "This is nuts."