“That’s the last thing I want. Would you put on some clothes?”
“Sure.” She unbuttoned the shirt and slipped it off. Under it she wore a matching pair of lacy and very small underwear.
“That isn’t what I meant,” he said, but he didn’t look away as she walked across the room to get her clothes off the back of a chair. She had a truly beautiful body. “Did Jeff put you up to this?”
“Yes, and he told me to get some camera equipment. My ex-boyfriend is a professional photographer.”
“You have boyfriends but you did . . . did this?”
“Anything for my job.” She was pulling on a pair of jeans. “Anyway, he knows someone who owns a camera store so he got in while the store was closed. Everything’s in the dining room. And I went to a twenty-four-hour department store and bought us some camping gear. It’s in the trunk of your car. Sure that’s how you want to try to win her?”
“You can’t go with us,” he said.
“You’re Jeff and we’re lovers. There’s no way you can go camping alone with another woman.”
“I think it’s time to start telling Chelsea the truth and drop this idiocy about who I am.”
Pilar went to the bed and leaned close to him. “Sure you want to do that? Admit that you’ve lied to her? Or maybe you want to confess that all Jeff said about her was straight from your mouth. How long before she’ll leave? Ten minutes? Five?”
“But this . . . you and me, will compound the lie.”
“Tell her the truth when you’re kissing her like you did me this morning.” Standing up, she looked down at him. “I never would have guessed you had such passion in you. I thought all you cared about was the greater good. Nothing personal allowed.”
“Passion is passion,” he said as he got out of bed. He had on a T-shirt and boxers. “Great love transfers to anything. And good or bad, you are not going with us.”
“Interesting philosophy,” she said as she watched him walk to the bathroom. Smiling, she left the room and went into the kitchen.
Chelsea was standing at the dining table, which was covered with boxes full of high-end photography equipment. She’d opened most of them. “This card says all this is a gift from Eli. Did you bring it?”
“Yes,” Pilar said. “He said he wanted to apologize to you for something. Mind if I ask what he did?”
“He said what I knew he thought. I deserved it, but it was nice when Jeff decked him.”
Pilar’s eyes opened wide. “He hit him?!”
“Oh, yes,” Chelsea said. “It was rather nice. So you work for Eli but you’re sleeping with Jeff?”
“Looks that way,” Pilar said.
Chelsea held up a lens that was about eighteen inches long. “Do you know how to work any of this? It’s been a long time since I held a camera.”
“But Eli said you liked taking photos.”
“I did when I was a kid. What’s he like to work for?”
“Difficult,” Pilar said. “He expects people to read his mind and know what he needs done. ‘You handle it’ is one of his favorite sayings.”
“So he can think about larger things. What’s he working on now?”
“Can’t tell you,” Pilar said. “It’s all Top Secret. I don’t even know half of it.”
“Robots or computers that can think?”
Pilar laughed. “Looks like his interests haven’t changed since he was a kid. Here, let me show you how to attach that to the camera.”
After Eli showered and put on clean clothes, he hesitated before leaving the bedroom. What would Chelsea think of him after finding him in bed with another woman? Would she be angry? Jealous?
He took a breath before opening the door. Both women were sitting at the kitchen counter, plates of scrambled eggs and bacon before them, their hands full of cameras and lenses.