“I guess I’d better get back to work,” Hugues said regretfully as things started heating up between them. “I’m having trouble with my head sommelier, and I don’t want to lose him. I promised to meet with him to discuss it. Not to mention a disability claim one of the engineers is making, and threatening to sue me.” He looked unhappy about it. He had only been sued once by a guest in the past fourteen years, who had fallen in the bathtub and cut herself badly. She’d been drinking, and the fault was her own, but Hugues had settled to avoid bad publicity for the hotel, since the woman in question was well known.
It was a risk they ran daily with both guests and employees, not to mention with the unions, and the ordinary daily running of the hotel, with a constant flood of reservations and demanding guests. At times it was a heavy burden, and he still hated to have Heloise take all that on one day. He loved what he did, but the hotel’s success and reputation didn’t come easily and had to be constantly guarded and maintained. Natalie was becoming more and more aware of it as she got to know him better. It was not an easy business, and he did his job extremely well and had a gift for handling people, particularly those who were potentially trouble. He put balm on every situation and tended to every detail.
And he was kind to her as well. She thought he was a lovely person, and obviously a devoted father. She thought his ex-wife had been very foolish to have left him, particularly for the man she’d married. Greg Bones was no angel, and nothing Natalie would ever have wanted in a man.
They left his apartment together after kissing one last time, before stepping out into the hallway, and they looked professional and businesslike as they took the elevator downstairs. She got off on the floor of the suite she was working on, and he was going down to the lobby and back to his office. And a few minutes after Natalie checked on how the painters were doing, and was satisfied with their work, Jennifer came upstairs to see how things were going. Hugues had raved so much about the fancy paint job that she wanted to see how it looked for herself. And she was impressed with the artful job Natalie had gotten out of their ordinary hotel painters. It looked like a fancy first-class decorating job to her, and like everyone else, she could hardly wait to see it complete.
“The light in here is so good that it really helps,” Natalie said modestly, and Jennifer liked that about her too. She wasn’t full of herself or a diva. Despite her obvious talent, she was a very unassuming person. Jennifer had brought a box of the hotel chocolates upstairs for her, and they sampled them together, commenting on how irresistible they were. “If I worked here, I’d weigh six hundred pounds. The food is so good every time I eat here,” Natalie said as she ate a chocolate.
“Tell me about it,” Jennifer said with a woeful expression. And since they were alone, Natalie decided to ask her something that she was wondering about increasingly.
“What’s Heloise really like? Everybody here talks about her like she’s five years old in pigtails, and her father is so crazy about her, it’s hard to get a reading on who she is.” Natalie wondered if she was horrifically spoiled or really a sweet kid.
“She’s a lot like her father,” Jennifer said thoughtfully. “She’s very bright, and she loves this hotel as passionately as he does. It’s the only home she’s ever known, and the people who work here, and have for a long time, are her family. She has no one else except her father, and he thinks she walks on water.”
“I know.” Natalie smiled at her, helping herself to another chocolate. They really were impossible to resist. And they had little gold flecks on them for decoration, and a chocolate V. They were made exclusively for the hotel, yet another of the many touches that Hugues had insisted on from the beginning, even when he couldn’t afford them. People bought them and sent them as gifts by the caseload from the shop downstairs, which was actually a lucrative part of the business.
“It sounds like they have a very special relationship, which is understandable since she grew up without a mother. I imagine she must be very possessive about him. It sounds like there’s been no woman in his life for a long time.” She was snooping, and Jennifer knew it, but she didn’t mind. She would have done the same herself, and it was obvious to her that something romantic was happening between her employer and the interior designer he had hired to work on the hotel. She liked Natalie a lot, and thought she might be just the kind of person Hugues needed. And Natalie wasn’t jealous about the hotel, she was coming to love it too, which Jennifer knew was important to him. But Heloise’s approval would be more than important to him, it would be essential and a deal breaker for him. Natalie had correctly sensed that.
“Possessive?” Jennifer said, laughing. “She owns him. She’s had his heart in her pocket from the day she was born. And she was a mighty cute kid, with red hair, big green eyes, and freckles. She’s a beautiful young woman now. And her father and this hotel are her whole life. It’s pretty much the same with him. I’d be very careful with her, if I were you. If she feels you might take him away from her, she’ll be your sworn enemy forever.”
“I’d never do that to her, or to him,” Natalie said quietly, and meant it. “I respect the special relationship they have. I just wonder how she’d feel about his having anyone in his life, even without stepping on her toes.”
“It’s hard to say,” Jennifer said honestly. “It’s never really happened before, not in a serious way.” And Natalie was beginning to think they were, or could be in time. “I’ve always thought it would have been better for her if Hugues had had a woman in his life while she was growing up. She needed that, and it’s a little late now. She’s nineteen years old and pretty much an adult. But she’s also never had to share him. I don’t think she expects him to find someone now, and I don’t think he expected that either. It’s a new concept for both of them.” Jennifer looked pensive as she said it.
“I think it would be a big adjustment for Heloise if he had a serious relationship with a woman. It would be good for them both. But Heloise would have to get used to the idea, and it might take some time and a lot of diplomacy to get there.” It was good advice to Natalie and what she thought herself. “She has a good heart, like her father,” Jennifer reassured her. “She’s just very much a daddy’s girl, and this is her world. Any woman who falls in love with him will have to be mindful of that.” It was a clear warning, and Natalie was grateful for her wisdom and candor. She knew all the players involved and had for a long time.
“Thank you. That helps,” Natalie said, smiling at her, as they debated about a third chocolate. Jennifer decided to indulge herself, and this time Natalie resisted, which explained the difference of fifteen pounds between them. Jennifer always had a box of the delicious chocolates in her desk. “It’s pretty much what I thought. I’ll bet it will be a big adjustment for him too if she has a man in her life eventually, which presumably she will. It must be hard for him to watch her grow up.”
“It’s killing him,” Jennifer said honestly. “He thought she’d be in pigtails forever, and this French kid she’s involved with at school has him scared stiff. All he wants is for her to come home, as soon as possible, and not start a life over there. But we can’t hang on to our kids forever, no matter how much we love them. I’ve got one in Florida and one in Texas, and they’re all I’ve got. And this job. And I miss my kids like crazy.” She was in her fifties, and married to her job, and hadn’t had a man in her life in years either. She’d had a crush on Hugues when she first started working there, but she had gotten over it very quickly when she saw how professional he was with his employees. He always said that she was the best assistant he had ever had, and that was enough for her now. She took pride in what she did and had a warm affection for him and his daughter, which showed in all she said about them. “Try not to worry about Heloise,” she told Natalie, and patted her shoulder as she got ready to leave the suite and go back to her office. “She’s a good kid, and she loves her father. She’s going to love you too. She’ll want what’s best for him in the end. Ju
st give her a chance to get there. It may take a little longer than most. They’ve been through a lot together. Sometimes that makes it hard to add another person to the mix, but it’s what they both need.” Natalie nodded, and went back to talking to the painters after Jennifer left. The wise woman who knew both of them so well had given her food for thought, and Natalie was smart enough to heed her words. What they all needed now was time. She wasn’t plunging into anything blindly, and neither was Hugues. Natalie was proceeding slowly. And Jennifer’s warnings about Heloise hadn’t fallen on deaf ears.
Chapter 9
JUST AS NATALIE had promised, the suite she’d been working on for almost two months was ready the week before Thanksgiving, and it was absolutely perfect. She’d been so sure they’d be finished on schedule that she had told Hugues they could safely book a reservation for Thanksgiving weekend, which worked out ideally for him. One of their regular guests, a senator from Illinois, had wanted to reserve it, and several other rooms, to spend Thanksgiving in New York with his children and grandchildren. And they were able to confirm the reservation.
Hugues stood in the suite with Natalie on the Monday before Thanksgiving and examined every detail with awe and admiration. She had created something warm and elegant that felt more like a home than a hotel room, which was exactly the effect they had both wanted to achieve. And the new paintings were spectacular in the room. She had worked on the installation all weekend and invited him up to see it when she hung the last painting on Monday afternoon. She had done a lot of the hanging and placing herself, as she always did, and she had been a taskmaster about the window treatments, which were beautifully made by a French woman she had used for years. The suite was exquisite. And she had had several pots of orchids placed in the rooms in key locations. Hugues looked at it with obvious delight, and then took Natalie into his arms and kissed her. The relationship they had been developing since she started working for him had been an unexpected bonus for them both, and not at all what he had intended when he hired her to do the job.
“You like it?” she asked happily, looking like a kid and wanting to clap her hands with glee when she saw his thrilled expression.
“I love it!” he confirmed. The final effect was even better than he had expected and she had hoped. He walked all through the suite, examining every detail, and then he turned to her as he held her hand. “And more importantly, I love you … whether or not I like what you did here. But as it so happens, I do. You have an enormous talent.” And she had brought it in way under budget by using so many of the things the hotel already owned. “The last two months have been the happiest in my life,” he said as he pulled her down on the couch next to him. “I loved seeing you every day.”
“Me too,” she said, in awe of what he had just told her. She had fallen in love with him too. He kissed her again, and then called room service and ordered a bottle of champagne.
He opened the bottle of Cristal himself when it was delivered, and the waiter disappeared quickly, after commenting on how great the room looked. Hugues had a plan by then, and he spoke to her gently after they tasted the champagne.
“The general manager I worked for at the Ritz once told me that you never know how comfortable a room is unless you sleep in it yourself. I was thinking that maybe … if you agree … maybe we should try the suite tonight ourselves. I’d like us to be the first people who sleep here, while everything is brand new… How does that sound to you?” he asked her, and kissed her, and she smiled at him and put her arms around him. She had never been as happy with any man in her life. He was thoughtful and kind and considerate and such a loving person.
“I love that idea,” she said as they kissed, and then she looked at him with a worried expression. “What about talk in the hotel?” That always concerned her.
“There’s no reason why we can’t have dinner here, quite respectably. What happens after that is our business. I own the place and have every right to sleep here if I choose. And I can spirit you out a back way in the morning, for the sake of your reputation. My daughter did that once very effectively with a homeless person. If she can do it, so can we.” Natalie smiled at the story.
“That must have been quite something.”
“It was. She has a very charitable side to her and was determined to prove that charity begins at home. He spent the night out of the cold and had two solid meals before she sneaked him out. It turned up on the security screens the next day, but our head of security will be very discreet in this case. I trust Bruce completely. So what do you think?” He looked hopeful and boyish as he asked her. They had been seeing each other and dating for two months, and they were both ready to move forward together.
“I think I love you, Hugues,” she said softly. In fact, she knew it and so did he.
They ordered dinner in the suite that night and had a feast. Hugues put music on, and they both relaxed and talked until nearly midnight. The room service waiter who had delivered their dinner and cleared the trays saw nothing unusual about their having dinner in the newly redecorated suite to celebrate its completion, and didn’t even comment on it in the kitchen. And after that, with a Do Not Disturb sign on the door, the maids left them alone, and as the room was allegedly unoccupied, they had no reason to come in. He left his cell phone on, in case there was an emergency in the hotel, which was how the staff normally reached him since it was hard to know exactly where he was at any time. And if the owner wanted to try out the new suite, there was nothing surprising about that either. He had covered all the bases and finally turned the lights down low, kissed her, and led her into the bedroom when they were both ready.
He pulled the brand-new bedspread off the bed, and they put it on a chair together and then she fell into his arms and lost herself in his caresses and kisses. The bed enveloped them like a cloud, and all the pent-up longing of the last months and years and a lifetime without each other took them to a place that neither of them had ever dreamed of or ever hoped to find. She felt as though she had belonged to him forever as she lay in his arms after they made love, and he looked at her with the tenderness of a man who hadn’t loved a woman in more than twenty years. He couldn’t keep his eyes and hands and lips off her, and finally around four A.M. they wound up in the enormous bathtub, and when they got back to bed, they fell asleep instantly in each other’s arms like happy children.
The sun was streaming into the room when they woke up the next day, and he couldn’t resist making love to her again, even though it was later than they had planned, but he still thought he could get her out of the hotel without causing comment or having anyone notice. And they both forgot about that as they made love again, and then they showered together. He couldn’t stop watching her as she dressed. He was in love with her mind, her heart, and her body.
“Have I told you yet this morning how much I love you?” he whispered into her hair, as he kissed her again once they were dressed, sorry that he had to leave her and go to his office. He wanted to stay with her forever.
“I love you too,” she whispered back. They could hardly tear themselves away from each other as they kissed for a last time and finally left the room. He put the tag on the door for maid service and led her down the back fire stairs, just as Heloise had done with Billy. He knew they would appear on the security screens, but he knew that Bruce Johnson would never comment on it if he saw them; nor would the others. The security staff dealt constantly with indiscretions committed by their guests, in the course of their illicit affairs, and their security men were like tombs. The guests of the Hotel Vendôme counted on its discretion, and so did Hugues. He pushed open the outer door downstairs and led Natalie out into the chill November morning.
“Do you want to come to my place tonight?” she asked him, and he nodded. They both knew they would never forget their first night in the brand-new suite. It had felt so right that they should be the first ones to stay there. And the adventure they had just embarked on, after two months of preparing for it, felt ri
ght to them both. “I love you,” she whispered when he kissed her, and then hailed a cab for her at the corner.
“See you tonight,” he promised and waved as she drove away, and he felt as though a piece of him were going with her, the best part, his heart. And there was room in it, he knew now, for both Natalie and his daughter. There was no conflict there. He loved them both, it was just that simple.
He walked around the corner to the front entrance then and said good morning to the doorman, who looked mildly surprised to see him since he hadn’t seen Hugues go out, but he was too busy to think about why that was. And a moment later Hugues strode into his office with a peaceful, happy expression and smiled at his assistant.
“Good morning, Jennifer,” he said, and walked into his private office. She picked up the phone immediately and ordered his usual cappuccino, and she brought it in to him when it arrived five minutes later.
“Did you sleep well?” It was a question she asked him often at the start of their day.
“Actually, I did. I tried out the new suite last night, just to make sure it’s all in order for the senator on Wednesday.”
“How was it?” Jennifer asked with interest.
“Absolutely perfect. You should go up and look at it later.” He knew she hadn’t had time to the day before, after the final installation. “Natalie did a fantastic job. By the way, I want her to start on the three other suites we discussed, right after Christmas. Just wait till Heloise sees this one.” It had a younger feel to it than the previous decor, although the changes were very subtle and in no way shocking. And Jennifer wasn’t surprised by his decision to let Natalie redo the other suites. She had expected that, for a variety of reasons. And just for a flash of an instant, she wondered if he had spent the night in it alone or with the woman who had decorated for him. She almost hoped that was the case but rapidly decided it was none of her business. All she hoped was that he was happy, and he looked it, more than he normally did on a Tuesday morning.
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