Release Me

bet I can make you come without even touching you.”
    “Let me drive this car a bit longer, and you won’t have to do a thing,” I say.
    He laughs. “I don’t want to make myself redundant. Besides, I brought another toy.”
    I ease back a bit and eye him. His face is lit with both amusement and passion. He’s got the devious look of a man with a plan, but I haven’t got a clue what it could be. “All right,” I say. “I’m curious.”
    He reaches into his pocket and takes out a cloth pouch, then pulls a metal egg from it.
    “What is that?”
    “I’ll show you,” he says. I’m still straddling him, and he slides his hand between my legs, and as I gasp in surprise, he slips the egg easily inside me.
    “What the hell?”
    He laughs. “You’ll see.”
    “But—”
    “How does it feel?”
    “I—it’s, um, interesting.” I feel full. And very aware. And very turned on.
    “Interesting?” he asks, and before the word has even left his lips, the thing inside me starts to vibrate, teasing me from the inside and making me gasp.
    “Holy fuck,” I say, and Damien laughs. Immediately, the vibration stops.
    I gape at him. “Remote control,” he says casually, then opens the door and eases me off his lap. He gets out and I take his place. I’m quiet, contemplating this strange, exotic, enticing toy he’s brought for us. I have to admit, it feels nice. The idea is weird, but the effect? Well, I really can’t complain.
    He peels back out onto the street with a hell of a lot more aplomb than I did. I’m pretty sure we cross the two-hundred-mile-per-hourmark before we slow down and get back on the interstate. We drive for about twenty minutes, then exit in a small town called Redlands. “There’s a restaurant here I love,” he says, and he drives me past restored Victorian homes and into the quaint downtown area. It’s eight o’clock on a weeknight, and there aren’t many people out. The restaurant itself is only half full. It’s in a refurbished warehouse, and has an air of elegance set against brick and stone and iron piping.
    “I like it,” I say.
    “The ambience is great, the food even better.”
    We’re led to a quiet booth in the corner, and I slide in on one side, expecting Damien to sit next to me. He doesn’t. He takes a seat across from me. “I want to look at you,” he says, but I don’t entirely believe him. He has a remote control in his pocket, and I have a feeling that he has plans for this evening.
    I lean forward. “Don’t you dare. This is a nice restaurant.”
    But Damien only smirks. And, yeah, he turns it on just long enough for me to jump.
    I lick my lips and look around, certain everyone has not only seen me, but knows what we’re doing. But there’s really no one in our line of sight, and none of the staff are looking our way.
    I swallow and shift a bit in the seat. I try to focus on my menu, but it’s hard, because any moment Damien might turn that thing on, and I’m both dreading it and anticipating it.
    “You’re very easy to read, Ms. Fairchild.”
    I scowl at him and focus on my current conundrum of deciding between a martini and a bourbon, straight up.
    The bourbon wins. There’s really no contest.
    The waitress returns with our drinks and takes our dinner orders—we’re both having steak—then leaves us in our little corner.
    “You’re torturing me, you know,” I say.
    Damien laughs and holds up his hands as if in self-defense. “Hey, I’m not doing anything.”
    “Hmmm.”
    “Anticipation is the better part of pleasure,” he says.
    “Anticipation is driving me crazy,” I retort.
    He reaches across the table for my hand, stroking his thumb over mine. “Tell me about the job. What does Bruce have planned for you?”
    I eye him suspiciously. “You really don’t know?”
    He laughs. “I really don’t.”
    I launch greedily into the topic, giving him a rundown of the parameters of my new job. “Bruce seems really cool,” I add. “I think I’ll learn a lot from him.”
    “I’m sure you will, but I still don’t understand why you don’t just dive in and work for yourself. You said you have a product in mind to develop, right?”
    “I do,” I admit. “Honestly, I think I’m a little scared. I spent five years in school learning all the technical stuff. I trust myself with the science and the engineering. But the business end …” I trail off with a shrug. “I feel like there should have been a class on how to find