Her One Obsession (15 page)

When he returned to the telephone he told Adair, ‘It’s from Gideon. I’ll read it to you. “Dendre living in the Sherry Netherland”.’

For several seconds neither of them spoke. ‘I’d have thought the Chelsea Hotel would have been more to her liking. This is very out of character,’ said Haver in a worried voice.

‘So were the other things: her attempts at glamourising her looks, for instance. She even made a call on me here demanding I leave Gideon or else. I think we may have underestimated Dendre. I’ll do what I can with Gideon. You’d better go see her before that bomb goes off.’

* * *

Dendre went directly to the receptionist’s desk and gave her name. Though the receptionist was being discreet, she caught him looking her over. When he smiled it was as if she had passed inspection as the wife of a great man. Dendre was amused by the incident. He handed the key to the porter who was standing by with her shabby shoulder bag and small case. The manager appeared to greet her and welcome her to the hotel. She looked around the quiet lobby with its antique furnishings and sumptuous flower arrangements. The thick carpet felt luxurious under her feet. There was an atmosphere of quiet elegance. Nothing shouted at you. It seemed more like a gentlemen’s club than a hotel.

‘Will Mr Palenberg be joining you?’ asked the manager with a hopeful look in his eye.

‘No, I think not.’

The lift shot up through the building with the manager and Dendre discussing the weather. He saw her into her suite. The small sitting room was charming, a little too grand for her taste but she could appreciate it for what it was. The manager asked a porter to please light the fire.

He showed Dendre the view over Central Park from a glass turret with a buttoned banquette scattered with cushions. Only the hotel’s very best rooms had them. There was something elegant but homely about the suite. From the reception room, Mr Dobson led her through to a small pantry completely equipped, and then into a large bedroom. The furniture in the room was handsome, an early American mahogany four-poster bed and chest of drawers. Throughout the suite the walls were a deep cream colour, the fabrics were in shades of white with textures from silk damask to linen, the draperies in different shades of white and cream and tarnished silver, the floors were wooden with oriental carpets covering them. There were marvellous fresh flowers everywhere: tulips, sprays of baby orchids, daffodils, and several varieties of lilies including the pure white Casablanca lily. The flowers gave the accent of colour in each room. It was as if the suite had been decorated as a background for them. The bathroom was peach and white marble and the taps were sterling silver.

‘Will this do, Mrs Palenberg? It’s the best I could do on such short notice.’

‘Yes, but I think it must be too expensive for my budget.’

‘I’ll charge you the price of a single room not a suite, will that do?’

‘That’s very generous of you, but why would you do that?’

‘Because it’s an honour to have you staying with us and because it was all I could offer you.’

Dendre thanked him then spoke about Yukio. ‘My assistant is arriving tomorrow or the next day. Do you have any facilities for guests’ staff? He is a Japanese gentleman who has been with us for many years.’

‘I dare say we can find something for him.’

After the manager left, Dendre walked round the suite. A little too grand, but comfortable and cosy was her verdict. The only thing she could fault were the paintings. She thought how marvellous the rooms would look with Gideon’s painting and sculpture arranged here, the pre-Columbian works of art they’d collected over the years, the Henry Moores, Hans Hoffmans, Max Ernsts – so many things they owned.

Pangs of hunger became too serious for to her contemplate doing anything but eating. She quickly changed into a smart black dress and slipped on her full-length chinchilla coat which she had at the last minute thrown over her arm as she fled from the apartment.

In the lobby, just as she was walking towards the door, she saw Haver. She was neither disturbed nor annoyed to see him. Accepting would be more like it. That was new and different for Dendre since she had never been fully at ease before with him. The day they had met and he had given her his painter’s wife speech she had accepted his terms of no interference. They’d had remarkably little to do with one another since then.

Haver had not as yet become accustomed to the new glamorous Dendre. He was taken aback at first by seeing her looking so smart, especially in the lobby of the Sherry Netherland.

‘You’re going out? I was hoping to have a word with you.’

‘I take it Gideon faxed you with my address? I do know it’s essential I talk to you, Haver, but frankly I’m too hungry to think of anything but food right now. So I’ll call you tomorrow.’

‘No! I’ll take you to dinner,’ he offered.

‘Are you sure?’ she asked.

‘Yes, positively.’

‘That’s nice of you. Somewhere not too far.’

‘How about the Oak Room at the Plaza? It’s only across the street.’

As they entered the Oak Room it struck Dendre how remarkable it was that whenever she and Gideon had gone out on the spur of the moment with Haver, he always got a table. After they had been seated at a very good one she naively asked him how he managed it.

‘My dear, it’s very easy. I am a
very, very
big tipper. An obscenely big tipper. That’s what it takes to get what you want in this city.’

Haver was appalled when she asked for bread and butter with her glass of champagne. He told the waiter, ‘Fresh
fois gras
and toast and butter, and a bottle of your best Sauternes to go with the
fois gras
. And do please hurry, we’re famished.’

‘Not even a pretzel while we wait for the
pâté
?’

He signalled for a waiter and seconds later there was a bowl of salted almonds on the table. After eating several Dendre told him, ‘That’s better. I expect you and Adair have been crowing over my setting Gideon free?’

Haver looked embarrassed as he told her, ‘Not exactly. We’re more concerned for you both now that you have asked for a divorce. Look, is this too painful to talk about?’

‘Oh, it’s painful but I have to get used to it. There are so many other people involved. I haven’t even called the girls yet.’

‘Whyever did you do it, Dendre? Why couldn’t you have left things as they were? You can still patch it up.’

‘How? Shoot Adair? He won’t, so I will, one way or another. I left him because he loves her more than he loves me, or so he thinks. It’s as simple as that. In all the years I have been married to Gideon I was never the other woman. His love for Adair is so strong that he was making me into that. I’d rather be the wife than the mistress any day. Finally, I had no choice. Now can we please drop the whys and wherefores? Subject closed.’

The
fois gras
was washed down with the perfect sweetness of the Sauternes. It was over pheasant in cream, Calvados and apples, served with crisp
rosti
and red cabbage, that he casually, much too casually, said, ‘I want to be honest with you, Dendre.
I think Gideon has made an enormous mistake in giving you half his work as your settlement. I intend to try and change his mind about that. It’s very bad business to split a collection.’

She was astounded that he should try to interfere in her private affairs, business or no business. She put her knife and fork down and looked across the table at him. ‘And what did Gideon say?’

‘That he had given you what he thought was a fair settlement, and if I wanted to say anything about what was now your collection, I should say it to you.’

‘Did he add anything else?’

‘Yes. When I said it was irresponsible of him to have made such a move as that without consulting me, that handing you half his collection was like handing you a ticking bomb, he laughed and replied, “You never did understand her, Haver. Always underestimated her.’”

Since Dendre had walked out on Gideon, she had not given one thought to what she was going to do with one of the world’s greatest private collections of a living artist. She had hardly an idea about anything beyond calling the girls, her parents and her lawyer to hand over the paper Gideon had signed asking him to arrange a quick divorce and working with Yukio on dividing the Palenberg estate.

‘Have you spoken to Adair about this?’ she asked Haver.

‘You know I have never lied to you and I don’t intend to start now. Yes, I did, and asked her to try to intercede, persuade Gideon to make a different arrangement with you that did not break up the collection. You understand this isn’t personal, just business?’

‘Haver, in all the years I have known and disliked you, I could never quite understand why. Until now. You are devoid of real emotion, have no idea what true love is or how people behave once they have experienced that special feeling. I have always closed my eyes to the lack of respect you have for me – just a little short of disdain is how I would put it. The reason I did that was because your handling of Gideon’s career has been absolutely brilliant, just as he said it would be. We trusted you implicitly and were right to. It never occurred to me what I would do with my settlement except to claim it and place it in a safe,
secure place. I assumed you would carry on being a dealer on my behalf as you have been for Gideon.

‘And then the final insult! You think I’m too stupid to own and care for Gideon’s work and deal with
my
collection. That I am such a spineless character, so bird-brained, that Gideon needs you and Adair to step in and save him from ruin. That I would be vindictive enough to get back at him through the most important thing in his life: his work. I never envisaged anyone else, including myself, being Gideon’s dealer except you. Until now.’

She threw her napkin on the table and rose from her chair. Haver was still so traumatised by this new, assertive Dendre, and having lost half the Palenberg collection, he remained silent.

‘In deference to Gideon’s generosity, I will, when I think it necessary, consult you on any moves I make that might affect the market for Palenbergs.

‘I don’t think there will be any need for us to see each other for some time, since I have records of the entire collection and the whereabouts of each item up to date on my computer. You must feel free to call me if you have a problem. I’ll send you a copy of my inventory and the whereabouts of my pieces. If you ever want to talk business, feel free to call me.’

Without another word she walked away from the table. Haver sat down, dazed. Suddenly she was back at the table again. Once more he rose from his chair. He looked shattered, as well he might. Haver Savage had probably made the greatest single mistake of his career.

‘Feel like a fool, Haver. You should! Greed and the need to control, desperation to win or at the very least hold all the cards to your chest, just did you in. But that’s not what I came back to say. It was to ask you to pass on a message to Adair.

‘Gideon will love me again and more than she will be able to bear. Tell her I give her a year at the most.’

Chapter 15

Twelve months was not a long time to do all the things Dendre had to do to win Gideon back on her own terms. Eight months had passed and she was still living in her suite of rooms at the Sherry Netherland. The one thing she had realised as she’d fled from the Plaza and her dinner partner was that the art sharks were going to come after her as soon as word was out that she now controlled one of the largest private collections of Palenbergs. They would all be circling her in a feeding frenzy.

She knew she was vulnerable. Had observed over the years other painters’ wives and how they had been used and abused by some of the more ruthless dealers and museums, promising them a special wing or a room with a plaque honouring them for their donations. Most of those donations then remained in the museum’s vaults for lack of the space that had been promised.

Instinct had told her two things that night eight months before: she would have to move faster than the sharks and keep herself focused on her return to Gideon. It had been during her first night at the Sherry that she realised there would be no time to find a flat and decorate it if she was to achieve everything else she planned.

Now she was lying in bed watching television with Pieta and Daisy fast asleep on either side of her. It was late and she would have to wake them because Gideon and Adair were picking them up to take them to an exhibition and dinner.

Dendre never saw Gideon with Adair. They had tried that several times and it had upset Adair too much. She resented the fact that she had no control over him when it came to his children or his former wife. Of course there was another reason why she was disturbed by Dendre’s presence: she knew that Dendre intended to win him back.

* * *

Sitting in the taxi waiting for Gideon to return with the girls, Adair tried to work out why she was so unhappy. She seemed always to be making the wrong choices, never getting what she really wanted. She tried to analyse what was going wrong between Gideon and herself and thought back to that wonderful euphoric day when she had arrived in Hydra. Gideon had met her at the boat and swept her up in his arms, whispering in her ear how much he loved her. The Hydriots standing around them clapped their hands, laughed and teased him.

Gideon had taken her directly to the bedroom where he had undressed her and himself and they had had sex. In all the sex they had had together previously, he had never been such a free spirit. It only added to his attraction for Adair. He was more like a thirty-year-old than a man of his age and he captured her heart all over again. After four days alone with him, making love and lust the priority of their lives, she had realised she never wanted to live without Gideon. She now wanted to marry him, something she had always denied before.

One day they sailed to a deserted island and scrambled over the rocks. It was gloriously sunny and warm for that time of year. Gideon ordered her to take off her clothes. He watched as she undressed, enjoying enormously what he saw and how submissive she had become. He was besotted with her because he was able to bring her body to submission but never her mind. He had enormous respect for his lover and what she had done with her life. Adair knew that. It was one of the reasons she loved him.

It was strange to be thinking of that rock and what had happened there, sitting in a taxi in a New York City downpour. But it was still so vivid to her. Gideon had tied her hands with her scarf and ordered her to lie down on the rock. A wind had quite suddenly blown up but that only added to the excitement of the moment. Gideon covered her with his body, teased her with his erect penis by sliding it between her vaginal lips. She was in a frenzy and begged him to take her. He entered her as she asked but had done no more. Again she had to beg him to fuck her until he did. The wind was stronger now, frighteningly so. Adair came. She screamed into the wind and came again and again. He
pulled her up off the rock and into his arms. The wind whipped her hair. She looked wild, untamed. She wrapped her legs around his waist and, consumed by lust, he ordered her to separate her vaginal lips and impale herself upon him. It was she now who with unbound hands on his waist was doing the fucking. But not for long. Multiple orgasms took her over. Gideon, having worn her out, once more took control.

The taxi driver broke into her memories and asked how long they were going to be. She answered just a few more minutes. Looking through the door to the hotel she could see Gideon had not gone up to Dendre’s room. In her thoughts she returned to that afternoon on the rock. It was one of the most important days of her life because at that moment, when they came together, he shouted to her over the wind, ‘Adair, will you marry me the day I receive my divorce?’ and she had shouted back, ‘Oh, yes, please.’ They were married ten days later in the American Embassy in Athens.

‘Better open the door, here comes your husband and the ladies.’

The doorman popped open his umbrella and the girls huddled under it. Gideon was already walking bare-headed in the heavy rain towards her. Seeing them made something snap in Adair’s head.
That
was what was making her so unhappy. She detested family life. Domesticity and Gideon’s love for it had turned her into a second Dendre in eight short months. Adair felt she was going to be sick. How had she allowed herself to slide into this trap? Well, I’ll have to do something about it, she vowed to herself.

The reason it had taken so long for Gideon and the girls to get down to the lobby was because he had had a long conversation on the house telephone with Dendre. When she hung up, she told her daughters, ‘Your father is waiting in the lobby for you.’

‘He talked to you for a long time, Mom. I think he still loves you. What do you think?’ asked Pieta.

‘That he still loves me,’ she confirmed.

‘His life is a mess without you,’ said Daisy.

‘I know that too.’

‘Adair does try but she hates giving herself up to running
Dad’s life. She can’t cook, and wants to eat out all the time,’ said Daisy.

‘Hey, we all agreed – no telling tales.’

‘Oh, Mom.’ Then Daisy stopped short. When Dendre had told the girls about the divorce they took it very well because she had promised to explain it all to them in time. That for now it was essential they stay out of any dispute and enjoy Adair as they always had.

It had been Amber who had said to the other girls at that time, ‘Let’s not cause any problems. If I know Mom and Dad like I think I do, some day we will all be back under the same roof.’

‘Just think what Amber said,’ Dendre reminded them, ‘and let’s all get on with living one day at a time. OK, girls, Dad and Adair are waiting.’ And she kissed them goodbye.

For all his fame and fortune, Gideon and his family had always remained aloof enough to remain very private people, not gossiped about in the tabloid press or glossy magazines. Gideon lived in an elitist society, and even within that society was rarely seen. His divorce and remarriage to Adair was talked about in only a very small circle of people, and only a very few of them were privy to the details of what Gideon had settled on her upon the divorce.

Dendre had been working at the speed of lightning on her new life. There was a truce of sorts with Haver because as much as he detested talking to a mere painter’s wife about business, here was one case where he was obliged to. For all that, no matter how clever he was with Dendre, he had never been able to wheedle anything out of her about what she was doing with her collection or even where it was.

Only her two lovers, Ben Borgnine and Talbot Lee, a well-known and respected sculptor, knew what she was doing. But the day was drawing near when the entire art world would be talking about Dendre’s decision. She felt very strongly that Gideon should be told by her before the press got hold of it. That had been why, when he had been talking on the hotel telephone with her, she had asked if he might take her to lunch one day soon and give her some time afterwards. They had made a date for the following day.

Now, as she was bathing, she thought about this new life she
had been living for the last eight months, the good and the bad things that had happened to her. The worst thing was the pain of not being with Gideon. Not a day went by when she didn’t want to be his wife, his lover, his friend. What had eased that pain had been the fun of flirting with all the eligible men who suddenly found her irresistible once they found out about her divorce settlement. Men in the art and other worlds who had in the past ignored her as a dull wife and kitchen drudge, now wooed her, begged to bed her. She played with them as a cat plays with a mouse, clever gigolos included. A single woman multi-millionaire, on the loose and reputedly vulnerable … ambitious male escorts were soon calling her by the dozen. They were so blatant, she was more embarrassed for them than she was for herself. Why did she even bother to go out with them? There was an easy answer: Adair. Part of Dendre’s campaign to rid herself of Adair was to show her rival that she was not the simple woman Adair had been so eager to dismiss her as. ‘The mouse that roared’ she had called Dendre right to her face. Well, this mouse intended to deafen Adair.

Of all the men Dendre had gone out with, she was only sleeping with Ben and Talbot. The two men knew about this but never treated each other as rivals in love. They both knew they were no more than friends and temporary sexual partners to Dendre and could never be anything more because she intended to go back to Gideon.

Not that either of them ever spoke to her or to each other about that. There was something about the way she made love. It was erotic, thrilling sex. Both men considered her sexuality as something special. Her wild, adventurous soul shone in the bedroom. Gideon had the reputation of being an extraordinary lover, his former wife only a submissive creature, a door mat for him to wipe his feet on. How wrong the gossips had been!

Yukio tapped at the bathroom door and announced that Mr Talbot was waiting for her in the drawing room. Dendre was late and disliked being so. She all but jumped from the bath. Slipping into a terrycloth robe, she went through her bedroom to the door leading to the drawing room, opened it a crack and saw Talbot holding a glass of straight malt whisky in his hand. He was looking very handsome: tall and lean with a head of dark
blond hair and a beard cut short. His dark blue eyes were frank and sexy, telling all about his character.

He was wearing a leather jacket and buff-coloured corduroy trousers, just the look to suit his character. He was contemplating one of Gideon’s paintings. Dendre had had all the hotel’s removed and had replaced them with Palenbergs. The suite now contained many wonderful things she had taken possession of in her settlement. These works of art had changed the bland hotel rooms into grand salons housing several million dollars worth of art treasures.

There was something carnal about Talbot, a kind of chemistry she found irresistible. Dendre opened the door and beckoned him into the bedroom. He smiled and then laughed.

‘You have become shameless – thank God,’ he told her as he held his glass to her lips.

Dendre sipped the malt whisky. The smoky taste warmed her. Almost immediately she wanted more. Talbot sat on the bed and she left the room to get another glass and bring the decanter to the bedroom. When she returned he had turned down the bed cover, removed his clothes and climbed into bed. She handed him the bottle and the glass and went round the room picking up his clothes.

‘At least Gideon picked up after himself.’

Talbot watched her as she moved around. ‘Any other complaints, madam?’

‘No, I don’t think so,’ she answered as she removed her robe and slipped into bed next to him.

Talbot placed an arm around her and she leaned against him. ‘Well, what news do you have? What have you been doing?’ he asked as he caressed her breasts.

One of the things she liked most about having sex with him was that they were like old friends. They would always tell each other what they had been doing since the last time they’d met. He would discuss his work, she would tell him what progress she had made with the project she was working on. They enjoyed their pillow talk but gradually it tapered off as their caresses, kisses and hunger for something more carnal became overwhelming.

Tonight Talbot made love to Dendre rather than just had sex. It was unlike anything they had been having for the few months
since they had been seeing each other. They sated their lust and after bathing together went back to bed.

‘What happened to us tonight?’ asked Dendre. ‘And don’t tell me we had sex, I know that.’

‘A serious, unexpected problem has arisen. We’re falling in love. Love governed that fuck,’ he said, a note of sadness in his voice.

Dendre knew he was right. She had never had sex like that except for the last time she’d had sex with Gideon in Hydra, and left him. What Talbot had said was true, they did have a serious problem. The last thing she wanted was to complicate her already complicated life with a love affair in which she could only be dishonest.

‘I know,’ she said.

He sat up and took her in his arms. ‘Love will never work for us. You know why, let’s not discuss it. I think we have to nip this in the bud before it blossoms, you lose your focus and I get hurt. Better to remain friends, loving friends, don’t you think?’

‘Yes. But I will miss you enormously.’

‘Oh, dear, silly Dendre, friends don’t desert friends, not even for a love that cannot be. We’ll just have to give up sex with one another and find partners we can love and fuck at the same time.’

‘Talbot …’

‘No, let’s not talk about it. Just revel in our last night in bed together.’

When Dendre awakened in the morning Talbot was gone. She fell back on the pillows and thought about what had happened between them. Talbot and she had been right to part as lovers but remain devoted friends. She was grateful the affair had ended in such a romantic and honourable way. But that first fling after the divorce, so filled with passion, had taught her one thing: sex without love was not for her. She wanted from Gideon what they had once had together before Adair came into the picture, love
and
sex, and she was determined to have it with him again or give up her quest to return to him.