An Inconvenient Woman by Dominick Dunne Read Free Book Online Page B

in the army, he wore it under his uniform. He claimed the pearls brought him luck. After the army, he gave them to my mother, and when Mummy died, they came to me. I almost never take them off, except when I bathe, of course, or go swimming—the chlorine in the pool is terrible for them—or when I wear Mummy’s diamond necklace, which isn’t often, because it’s a bore to get it out of the bank and then back the next morning, because of the insurance.”
    Philip laughed.
    She looked at him, confused. “What did I say that was funny?”
    “Rich people stories always strike me funny,” he said.
    Her hundred strokes finished, she stood up and walked toward the bed and pulled the bedclothes off him. “Time to get up,” she said. Looking down at him, she spoke again. “Oh, heavens!”
    Philip, embarrassed, smiled bashfully.
    “Is that because of me or because it’s morning?” she asked.
    “Both,” replied Philip. He reached up and flicked off the second shoulder strap, and her nightgown slipped down to her waist. “Nice front, too,” he said, quietly.
    She folded her arms in front of her breasts but did not turn away.
    “Don’t do that,” said Philip. He reached up and took down her protective arms and stared at her breasts. With his first finger he lightly touched the tip of her nipple and thenmoved his finger in a circular motion. “Perfect,” he said. The night before, at the Mendelsons’ party, he had thought she was attractive, but not quite beautiful. Now, seeing her, he revised his opinion.
    “That’s really nice,” he said.
    “What’s really nice?” she asked.
    “Your modesty.”
    “Listen, Philip, I don’t want you to think I’m in the habit of picking up men at parties and bringing them home,” said Camilla. “I’m not.” She wanted to say, “This is the first time since my husband died,” but she didn’t, although it was true, because she knew it would sound like a protestation.
    “That’s not what I think at all,” said Philip gently. For a moment they stared at each other. Then Philip reached out and took her hand and brought her down to the bed beside him.
    “There’s something I meant to tell you last night,” she said.
    “What?”
    “I do think that’s an awfully odd place down there for you to have a tattoo.”
    Later, Camilla went downstairs to make coffee and brought it back up to the room. She could hear Philip in her bathroom, with the water running. He was standing nude with his back to her, intent on shaving. Although she had spent the night with him, making love in endless variations, and repeated the process in the morning, she felt like an intruder on his privacy as she walked in on him in her bathroom.
    “Oh, excuse me,” she said.
    He smiled. “It’s all right.”
    “I need the Floris bath salts.”
    “Come in. It’s your bathroom. I borrowed a razor.”
    “What are you using for shaving cream?”
    “Just soap. It works all right.”
    Passing him, opening the cabinet, her body brushed against the front of him. Philip, always responsive to touch, responded. They both noticed. They both smiled.
    The telephone rang in the bedroom.
    “What? No extension in the bathroom?” joked Philip. “I thought this was the movie capital of the world.”
    “Not the group I’m in,” said Camilla as she walked toward the ringing telephone. “We don’t even speak to the peoplein the movie capital. It’s probably Bunty. Did I tell you I had a daughter?”
    “No.”
    “Age eight. She’s spending the weekend at her friend Phyllis’s family’s ranch in Solvang. Otherwise, there’d be no way you would ever have spent the night here. Hello? Oh, good morning, Jules. What a marvelous party that was. I had such a good time. I was going to call Pauline to thank her, but I thought it was too early.”
    There was a long silence, and then Philip heard Camilla say, “No!” There was another silence, and again she said, “No! I simply can’t believe it. How could