Danielle Steel - Hotel Vendome

Hugues sent the car and driver back to the hotel then and spent the rest of the evening trying to make it up to her for how inattentive he had been for the past two weeks, and not telling Heloise about them, and an hour later they were in her bed, making love. He spent the night with her and was planning to spend New Year’s Eve with her. He wanted to see the new year in with her and start it off right. They had already agreed to spend it at her place after he got their New Year’s festivities organized at the hotel. They always had revelers in the bar that night, a formal dinner in the restaurant, and later guests who’d had too much to drink weaving as they crossed the lobby. Some of them had to be helped to their rooms. And as long as Heloise didn’t know about them, Hugues and Natalie were trying to be discreet, which she didn’t like. Hiding their romance seemed like a lot of trouble to both of them and dishonest, but they agreed that it was the wisest course if they didn’t want hotel employees to let the cat out of the bag.

He left her and went back to his office the next morning. Hers was closed for the week between Christmas and New Year’s, but his office was never closed. And they always doubled their security on New Year’s Eve in case too many of their guests got drunk, or someone got out of control. He would have preferred to be at the hotel that night, but he wanted to be with her, so he had agreed to spend the night at her place. He came back at nine o’clock that night and brought caviar, lobsters, and champagne with him in an ice chest. They lay on the couch, eating a feast, and made love at the stroke of midnight. It was the perfect way to see in the new year.

AFTER THE HOLIDAYS Natalie got to work on the suites Hugues had hired her to redo. She put as much energy and creativity into it as she had the first one, and by the end of March the results were just as spectacular, and they had four new suites that everybody loved. Guests who had been there before were clamoring for reservations in those rooms, and Hugues was thrilled. They even raised the rates for those rooms and several others where Natalie had worked her magic. Working for him at the Vendôme was becoming a lucrative business venture for her as well. He had become her best client. He had put off redoing the presidential and penthouse suites for a few months, out of budget concerns, not because of her decorating. He promised to give her the project in the next year.

Natalie became a familiar sight at the hotel, talking to painters, installing drapes, trying out paintings that she dragged down the halls herself. Ernesta told her how much she liked the new art in the rooms, and Jan was so excited when she saw the new suites that she put special orchids in them. And Bruce, the head of security, complimented her too. She found several beautiful new pieces of art for Hugues, and with her gentle touch and great taste, she added new spice to the hotel, and everybody loved her. Hugues mentioned her to Heloise every chance he got, but never in such a way that she guessed they were involved. It felt wrong to him to tell her on the phone, so he was waiting for her Easter vacation, when he was picking her up in Lausanne, spending a night in Geneva with her, and taking her to Rome.

Natalie was still uncomfortable about being a secret to his daughter. They had been romantically involved for six months, and it just didn’t feel right to be clandestine. Most of the hotel employees had figured out by then that there was more happening than just decorating, but no one asked, and no one ever dared comment on it to Hugues. It was kind of an open secret in the hotel as time went on. And he finally admitted it to Jennifer, but she knew anyway. Natalie had told her months before. Jennifer was her biggest fan and happy for both of them. He deserved more of a life than he’d had for years, and Jennifer was thrilled that he had found a woman to love, other than his daughter, and the flash-in-the-pan women who drifted through his life for two dinner reservations or a night somewhere else. Jennifer had always taken care of the dinner reservations for him. He took care of the nights himself.

Natalie had confided to Jennifer several times how upset she was that Hugues hadn’t told Heloise about them yet, and Jennifer understood better than she did how potentially delicate that situation was, given how close they were, and she urged Natalie to be patient. She was, but she was more anxious than ever for him to tell Heloise about them over Easter. It was almost as though their relationship didn’t exist in reality, until Heloise knew. Natalie told him that she was beginning to feel like the Other Woman, and a dark secret. He insisted that wasn’t true. She was the woman he loved. But so was his daughter. It was beginning to seem extremely neurotic to Natalie, and she hoped that the veil of secrecy still surrounding them would drop soon. She was ready to be out in the open with him and had been for a long time.

In spite of the tension of Heloise not knowing, romantically things were going well. They were more in love than ever. And she would have loved to go to Europe with him over Easter, but there was no question of it with Heloise still unaware of her existence, other than as the designer who was redoing four suites at the hotel. She had even suggested meeting him in Paris, after he dropped Heloise back at school, but he said he had to get back, as they had several important guests arriving in late April, and even more in May and June. It was a busy spring for him too.

He flew to Geneva on the Wednesday before Easter, landed on Thursday morning, picked Heloise up at school in Lausanne, and spent the night with her at the Hotel d’Angleterre in Geneva, which was a gem. It was an exquisite small hotel with beautiful rooms, and was a great beginning for their trip. And on the morning of Good Friday they flew to Rome and strolled down the Via Veneto, tossing coins into the Trevi Fountain, eating gelato, and standing in the Sistine Chapel gazing at the ceiling in rapture that afternoon. It was exciting just being there, and they were going to stand in the square with millions of others on Easter Sunday, to receive the Pope’s blessing. It was the perfect place to be.

They were staying at the Excelsior, which had been a favorite of his since his boyhood, when he had gone there with his parents, and he loved sharing his memories there with his daughter. They loved traveling together and always had fun. And this time he was determined to tell her about Natalie. He had promised, and he had every intention of following through. They were going to be spending a whole week together, and there would be plenty of time for her to absorb the news that he was in love with a good woman who wanted to get to know Heloise too.

They were sitting in a café that afternoon, enjoying the spring sunshine, when he asked her how things were going with François. She was always a little vague about him, and he was never sure if that meant he wasn’t a big deal or was a Very Big Deal. She was surprisingly evasive about him, which wasn’t like her.

“He’s fine,” she said, staring into space, as her father watched her for telltale signs that might alarm him. He was always on the lookout for warning signs of her not coming home. So far, much to his relief, there had been none.

“What kind of fine? Fine as in you’re so nuts about him you can’t see straight, or fine, he’s an okay boyfriend but no big deal?” She laughed at her father’s description. She was wearing jeans and running shoes and a sweater and had put her hair in pigtails for the first time in years. She looked even younger than she was.

“Somewhere between the two. Fine, as in I love him, but I’m still coming home, if that’s what you’re asking me. We got our internships in Paris for our hospitality year,” she announced, and Hugues’s eye-brows shot up. This was the first time she had confirmed it, and that made him a little nervous too, although it would be good experience for her.

“Where?” His heart was racing as he asked her.

“The George V. It’s one of the best hotels in Paris now and would give us a leg up with the Four Seasons, who own it, if we ever want to work at one of their other hotels.”

“What does that mean? You don’t need a leg up with the Four Seasons if you’re coming back to work with me. Has any of that plan changed?”

“No. I told you, I’m still coming home, at Christmastime this year. I start at the George V on June first. François and I are going to try and find a studio together, he’s staying for the whole year. I’ll only be there for six months.” He knew the plan, but it was all too real now, and living with François in Paris was new.

“You’re going to live with him?” She nodded. “Isn’t that a big commitment?”

“Not for six months,” she said practically, “and I don’t want to live alone. I’m twenty years old, Papa, or I will be by then, or almost. people do that these days. It makes a lot of sense.”

“To whom?” he asked, looking annoyed. “I would pay for an apartment for you. You don’t have to live with him.”

“I want to,” she said, smiling at him.

“What if I did something like that?” he asked her bluntly, trying to open the door he’d been attempting to open for six months.

“Don’t be silly. You wouldn’t live with someone. And if you did, I wouldn’t like it. That’s not respectable at your age. I’m just a student. It’s not the same thing.”

“Why not? What if I fell in love?” he said, trying to introduce the hypothetical before the real to test the waters and see what she’d say.

“I’d probably have a fit and have to kill her,” she said with a smile as his heart sank. “You belong to me,” she said without hesitating for a beat, with the confidence that came from a father who had never loved anyone but her and she liked it that way and wasn’t afraid to say so.