The Peninsula had sent a Rolls to the airport for her. When she checked in, they told her that William had already arrived. He had checked in two hours before she did. She called his room when she got to her own, and he was out. When she called his cellphone he didn’t answer. It gave her a chance to unpack, take a bath, and change. She had just put a red linen dress on with a white linen jacket, when she heard a knock on the door. She opened it, and he stood there smiling at her, looking devastatingly handsome in gray slacks and a blazer, an impeccable blue shirt, and a tie.
“Wow!” she said when she saw him and he swept her into his arms and kissed her. Her room had a spectacular view, and when she saw his, she thought it was even better. He had taken a large suite, right next door to hers, as they’d requested.
“Are you exhausted?” he asked her. She wasn’t. She had slept on the flight, and they decided to go exploring. He had the car and driver the hotel had gotten for him, a Bentley, and they drove past the house where he’d lived as a boy on The Peak. His family still had money then, he’d explained to her, and eventually went through most of it. He had preserved the small inheritance he’d gotten from a great-uncle, and he earned his own income as a writer. They both made a healthy living, but weren’t frivolous. They were able to do the things they enjoyed, had homes they loved, and could indulge in occasional luxuries. They were fairly evenly matched, which made things easier. Neither of them had to apologize to the other for how they lived.
They did some shopping, and William took her to lunch at T’ang Court in Kowloon. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. It seemed like months since he’d left her at the airport in San Francisco. She filled the gaps about what she’d been doing in New York. It felt like a honeymoon to both of them, except for the fact that they were staying in separate rooms. He didn’t complain about it, he was just glad that they had five days there together, and then Paris to look forward to. She had never done anything as exotic with any man, even with Stephane. They had a baby at home almost as soon as they were married. He was a hot photographer then, and was already cheating on her. She got pregnant again, with Ben, four months after Deanna was born. They didn’t have time for romance or the money to afford a trip like this. The men she dated after him didn’t either. Whatever exciting trips Maddie had taken after her divorce, she had taken by herself, between assignments. She had never spent a week like this with any man. And it was exciting just being with him. Whatever they did seemed like fun. And he knew Hong Kong well.
They didn’t go back to the hotel until the late afternoon. Maddie was going to lie down before they went out for dinner. William had asked the concierge to make reservations at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, which Maddie knew from Paris but had never been to in Hong Kong. He wanted to take her to Macao to go gambling one night. It was an exciting, vibrant, sophisticated city and Maddie had always liked it.
They were walking arm in arm as they went back to the hotel, and when they got to their floor, he kissed her.
“Do you want to come and hang out in my room for a while?” He had a bedroom and a living room, so it didn’t sound like a proposition, just an invitation. Everything went so smoothly with them that it seemed odd to be apart at all. She skipped her nap and the honeymoon atmosphere persisted as he poured them a glass of champagne in his suite and toasted her. “Thank you for meeting me here, Maddie.” He leaned over and kissed her then, and her resolve slipped away from her like fog in the sun. He couldn’t stop kissing her, and she couldn’t keep her hands off him. They were both breathless, and his eyes pleaded for what he didn’t put into words. He didn’t need to, she wanted him just as badly, and suddenly all her fears lifted from her. They wanted each other so desperately, they couldn’t stop and didn’t want to. Not making love no longer made sense. They had waited a lifetime to find each other and didn’t want to wait any longer.
“I love you, Maddie,” he said as he scooped her up gently, and she kissed him as he carried her into the bedroom, laid her down on the bed, and carefully peeled her dress away from her and revealed the beauty of her body that time had scarcely touched. They lay naked moments later, making love with all the tenderness and caring they felt for each other. They were like two halves of one whole, and they didn’t stop until they came at the same time and lay breathless on his bed afterwards. Neither of them could speak for a moment.
“Good God, Maddie…what you do to me…you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”
She looked at him shyly and rolled closer to him again and kissed him. “I don’t know who did what to whom, but I’ve never known anything like that.”
He ran a gentle finger down the length of her body and smiled at her. She made him more of a man than he’d ever been before, and she felt like more of a woman with him. All her years of resolve to lead a nunlike existence no longer made any sense at all. Not with him.
“It’s a shame we don’t want babies,” he whispered to her, “it would be such fun trying.”
“I’ve had my share,” she said gently. She didn’t want to say she was too old. She wondered if he would have had more children if he had fallen in love with a younger woman.
He knew what she was thinking and shook his head. “The answer to that is no. Theo is more than enough for me. And now I have you. That’s all I need.” She wanted him to meet her children, but they hadn’t had time yet. And she didn’t want to deprive him of babies, if that was important to him, but she couldn’t imagine a life without him now either. They made love again before they got out of bed, and then had to rush for dinner. As she put on one of the robes in his bathroom to go back to her own room, he looked at her with a question and mischief in his eye.
“Would it be too forward or premature to ask if you’d like to move in with me, and sleep in my room while we’re here, now that you’ve lost your virginity?” She laughed when he said it.
“I’ll move in after dinner. You don’t mind?”
“Terribly, but I’ll grit my teeth and bear it. It will save me the embarrassment of pounding on your door all night in the hallway when I want to make love to you again. One suite might be more convenient for that kind of thing.” She laughed and kissed him again, and dashed the short distance to her room without anyone seeing her. There was no question, he made her feel young again, and grown up too. They seemed to have the best of both. They knew what they wanted and were smart enough to realize that they had found it at last. Neither of them wanted to let go. They wanted to seize the gift with both hands.
He picked her up in her room on the way to dinner, and she was wearing a sexy black cocktail dress she had pulled out of the back of her closet for the trip. She’d brought several, including the one she’d bought in Chicago. The one she wore seemed particularly appropriate tonight. This was a day and a date they knew they would both remember forever. It had been unforgettable so far.
“We should come back here every year to celebrate our anniversary,” he suggested as they left for dinner. It was as glamorous and fun as everything else about the trip. She loved being with him.
“You know, my real life isn’t nearly as elegant as this in my funny old firehouse. I run around in blue jeans and tennis shoes all day on my shoots. I don’t get to dress like this very often. Maybe you won’t like me as much when we’re not on a trip riding around in a Bentley.” She looked faintly worried and didn’t want him to be disappointed.
“I’ll try to get used to it,” he said, smiling at her. “I don’t wear a dinner jacket every night in Big Sur either.” He hadn’t worn one that night either, but he was wearing a very handsome dark suit he’d had made by his tailor in London. She liked being able to dress up with him, but being relaxed when they went home too. She had a feeling he could do both, just as he could be seriously intellectual sometimes and fun at other times. She didn’t want to win him unfairly and pretend to be something she wasn’t. She was a hardworking woman.
Her shoots were very physical, and she didn’t care how she looked when she did them. Paris was going to be fun too, though. Their life together was one of contrasts and complexities, which both of them were good at managing.
They went for a walk after dinner, and then back to the hotel. He helped her move her belongings to his suite, and then they notified the desk that they were giving up Maddie’s room. The front desk thanked them for the information, and Maddie lay in his arms on the bed, beaming.
“This feels like being married,” he said dreamily, and she laughed.
“Not my marriage. I was pregnant three times in three years, worked like a dog, and my husband dumped me after cheating on me for all three years. Maybe your marriage was like this, William, not mine.”
“Not mine either.” He smiled at her. “Unless we fight all the time and you shag all my friends.” They had both been married to cheaters and were sensitive on the subject. “I don’t know what I was thinking. Maybe I meant that it feels like being married to you, whatever that feels like. And to think, only yesterday you were a virgin.” She laughed and kissed him, and they were both surprised by how easily they adjusted to sharing a room and being together all the time. His bathroom had an enormous bathtub. They took a bath together the next morning, and then went back to bed and made love again. They were having trouble leaving the room.
Maddie sent text messages to all her children about how wonderful Hong Kong was, but what she really meant was how wonderful William was. Only Penny knew she was there with him. Her children didn’t need to know yet how fast this was going, although they would soon when they saw Maddie and William together. It was going to come as a surprise to all of them. She had given them no warning that there was a man in her life.
They managed to leave the suite at noon, went out to lunch, did some more shopping and exploring. They had dinner in one of Hong Kong’s best restaurants every night. They never got to Macao to gamble. Their five days went by too quickly. They were totally at ease with each other by the time they left, as though they’d been together for years.
They had fun on the flight to Paris and William had reserved a beautiful suite at the Ritz. She had a room booked there too, which she had Penny cancel before they left Hong Kong. She had less time to spend with him in Paris. She had to work and was planning to spend four or five days with the French president at the Élysée and elsewhere, to get the photographs they wanted. And they had one serious portrait sitting. She left the suite early every morning to observe the president at his breakfast meetings. William planned to go to some museums on his own, and do some writing. He had work to do as well. They had advanced from honeymoon mode in Hong Kong to a semblance of real life in Paris. He laughed when she said it.
“If this is your work life, Maddie, sign me up anytime.” She left in a smart black pantsuit every day, with an assistant she often used in Paris, half a dozen of her favorite cameras in a bag, and a slew of equipment the assistant had rented and took charge of: lights, filters, tripods, backdrops, and everything she needed.
“I’ll have to take you to a war zone with me sometime,” she teased him and his face clouded when she said it.
“I don’t like to think of you doing assignments like that. I know you have to and you love them, and I’ve seen the images you capture there. But I don’t want anything to happen to you. It took me so damn long to find you, I don’t want to lose you.”
“You won’t. I know what I’m doing. I know how to get out of the way fast.” But they both knew that there were times and places and people who didn’t play by the normal rules of any war, and bad things could happen. And when they did, they happened fast, and did a lot of damage. But William also knew he couldn’t stop her and wouldn’t try.
They had several late dinners in Paris when she finished work, some of them with her assistant. They made love whenever she had the time. She felt like she was leading a double life. That of the photographer she had been for more than thirty years, and the woman she had become with William. They were almost two distinct, separate people in her mind.
At night, they walked around Paris, in awe of its beauty, before they went back to the hotel. Maddie had always thought it was the most beautiful city in the world.
They left Paris after five days of intense work for Maddie, flew to London, and checked in to a small hotel. Theo’s boarding school was two or three hours out of the city, in Sussex, and he was expecting them. His father had written to him that he was bringing a friend. Theo was excited to see him. They were taking him out for the afternoon, for a high tea at a local restaurant, and then back to school. The school wouldn’t allow William to take Theo out for the night, but at least they could see him for several hours. William was excited and impatient as they drove through the lush countryside to the school. It was one of the oldest in England, and the grounds were immaculately kept. There were playing fields and boys of all ages engaging in various sports and walking from one building to another. They had to go to the headmaster’s office to collect Theo, and Maddie waited in the car while William went to get him, so as not to intrude on a private moment between father and son.
It was a long wait, and then she saw a tall, thin boy with dark hair walk out of the main building with William. The child was smiling broadly and so was his father. Theo was talking animatedly, and William pointed to the car. They walked over to it a moment later. Theo looked shy for a minute when he saw Maddie in the passenger seat on the left side.
Theo bounded into the back seat then and William introduced them, as Maddie stuck out a hand to shake Theo’s.
“Hi, I’m Maddie,” she said warmly. “I’m happy to meet you. Your dad has told me so much about you. And this is a beautiful school.” Theo shrugged when she said it, and wrinkled his nose.
“They built it in 1459. They cooked the food then too,” he said with a disgusted look and Maddie laughed. He had a distinctly British “public school” upper-crust accent, even more so than William. It was an all boys’ school. “Are you my dad’s girlfriend?” He got right to the point, and William looked shocked.
“Theo! That’s very rude.”
“Well, is she?” He turned to his father, while Maddie waited to see what William wanted to say on the subject.
“Yes, she is. But could we be a bit more gentlemanly about it?” Maddie was touched that William hadn’t disavowed her, and Theo didn’t seem upset, which was a relief too.
“Mum has a new boyfriend too. He plays in a band. He’s the lead singer.” The last one had been a drummer, there had been a lot of them. William didn’t look pleased. “What do you do?” he asked Maddie, and she smiled at him as they headed toward a park in the village, to kill time before they went to eat. There was no place to go except the shops on the High Street, which wouldn’t interest the boy. It was hard to know what to do for only a few hours.
“I’m a photographer,” Maddie answered his question. He was intrigued by that.
“Like the paparazzi?”
She laughed and shook her head. “No, I take portraits of people, like presidents and movie stars and famous people. But they sit for me, so I can take their picture. I don’t run up and surprise them. I take pictures of moms and children, or models on magazine covers. Most of it is pretty tame stuff, though sometimes I go to shoot the aftermath of earthquakes, or war zones, but not very often.” She had her camera out, to take pictures of William and his son. She had asked William’s permission to do it.
“Paparazzi get punched in the nose a lot,” Theo informed her.
“Yes, I think they do. They can be pretty rude, and people get angry at them.”
“Do you live in California too?” Theo asked her. She could feel him sizing her up.
“No, I live in New York. In an old firehouse.”
“Then how can you be boyfriend and girlfriend if you don’t live in the same place?”
/> “That’s a good question.” She smiled at him. “I think we’ll visit each other.”
“That sounds complicated,” he said, with the wisdom of youth.
“It might be,” she admitted, and William smiled at her.
He parked the car then and got a soccer ball that he’d brought with him out of the trunk. He and Theo kicked the ball around while Maddie watched and took pictures of them. Theo’s uniform shirt was hanging out after a few minutes and his tie was askew, he was having fun with his father. Maddie got some great shots as they forgot about her. They played for an hour, and then it was time for tea.
Theo ate as though he’d never seen food before and he asked Maddie if she had children. She said she did but they were grown-ups now.
“That’s too bad, that must be sad for you,” he said sympathetically, and wise again. “Do they live nearby?”
“One of them does, she lives in New York. The other two live in California, so I don’t see them very much.” He nodded, taking it all in. William let him eat whatever he wanted, and Theo slumped back at the end of it, having eaten a plate of tea sandwiches, shepherd’s pie, and scones with fresh clotted cream and jam. It was classically British, and the food was very good.
“I wish we had food like that at school. Our food is disgusting. All we get all the time are boiled potatoes and stew. I hate the food there.” It made Maddie want to visit him more often. He was soaking up his father’s attention, and William loved it. She could see how much he loved the boy.
They went back to the school after tea. It was seven o’clock by then, and Theo clung to his father for a moment with tears bright in his eyes when they said goodbye. She could see tears in William’s eyes too. She turned and walked away to give them a few private minutes, and then Theo called out to her.
“Bye, Maddie! It was nice to meet you. I hope no one punches you in the nose!” He laughed and ran back into the main building as they looked after him. He was a small figure in a big stone doorway, waving at them, and then he was gone.
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