Read Online Descent from Xanadu by Harold Robbins - Free Book Online Page A

“I’m different.”
    “I can see that.”
    “Do you like what you see?”
    He nodded. “Yes. I now feel you’re yourself. Before, you were a satellite turning around Father.”
    “I didn’t mind,” she said quietly. “I loved him.”
    “I know that,” he answered. He sipped at his drink. His dark-blue eyes looked into hers. “I suppose you’re wondering why I called for you?”
    She nodded silently.
    “It’s time you came back to work,” he said. “I need you.”
    “Need me? Aren’t I a little over age for you?”
    He laughed. “Touché.”
    “Okay,” she said. “Tell me what’s on your mind?”
    “The Vietnam War has Johnson in a box. It will escalate until it blows up in his face. In the meantime there’s a lot of money being made.”
    “I still don’t know what that has to do with me.”
    “General Connally,” he said.
    She was silent for a moment. “Willie?”
    “Yes,” he nodded. “I’ve heard they’re bringing him back from NATO and putting him in charge of procuring all weaponry for the Defense Department.”
    “I still don’t know what that has to do with me.”
    Suddenly there was no expression in his eyes. “You’ve been fucking him,” he said. “Pillow talk has sold more weapons than bribery.”
    “He wants to divorce his wife and marry me,” she said.
    “Don’t let him do it,” he said quickly. “That would blow his career out of the box.”
    “And we’d get nothing out of it,” she added.
    “You learn fast,” he said.
    She went to the bar and refilled their glasses. “Just for your information,” she said, returning his glass, “I hadn’t planned to marry him.”
    Judd was silent.
    “Exactly what kind of material are you interested in?” she asked.
    “Armed carrier helicopters. Hughes and Bell are already preparing bids. Armored personnel land carriers. Chrysler and General Motors are working on them. Shallow-draft river craft powered by jet instead of propeller. Jacuzzi and Piaggio are both shipping a few under test conditions.”
    “And that can come to a lot of money?” she asked.
    “Could be several billion dollars.”
    She was silent and had almost finished her drink. “Several billion dollars! That’s good whore’s wages.”
    He didn’t answer.
    “What happened to your ideals?” she asked. “The dreams about immortality?”
    “I still have them,” he said. “But I also have a business that I have inherited and still have to nourish.”
    She took a deep breath. “If your father had asked me I wouldn’t have hesitated because I loved him. And I wouldn’t feel like a whore.”
    “We’re all whores in our own way for our own reasons,” he said. “Power, money, sex, ideals. The commodities of life.”
    “You really believe that?” she asked.
    He nodded.
    “You’re wrong,” she said softly. “You forgot the most important thing of all.”
    “What’s that?”
    Tears began to spill from her eyes. “Love.”
    ***
    Sofia glanced up from the medical computer printout. “There’s nothing in here about whether or not you have ever been married.”
    “I’ve never been married,” Judd said.
    She turned her head to one side. “That’s unusual. Usually a man of your age, by forty-two—”
    He interrupted her. “You said that you were thirty and you hadn’t been married. Do you think that’s also unusual?”
    “Yes,” she said. “But I had a reason. My profession is very demanding.”
    “Perhaps mine is too,” he smiled. “But I don’t feel denied. Do you?”
    She paused for a moment. “Sometimes,” she said honestly. “I would have married and had children, but it never worked out that way.”
    “You should have married,” he said. “And not just because you love to fuck. You would have given a great deal to your children.”
    Her eyes fell to the computer printout. “According to this, you are in very good health.”
    “That’s due to dissipation and lack of sleep,” he smiled.
    “That’s in spite of