Jeff finds himself in Silicon Valley where he is asked to investigate claims by a gregarious Frenchman that his neural network electronic technology actually works. He meets up again with the enchanting Nancy, the FBI agent he had worked with in Atlanta where they fell in love while he was still married, and again in Washington DC Kathy puts romance back into Jeff’s life as he finds himself hounded by financially-desperate Europeans so determined to push their questionable technology―men so desperate that they will stop at nothing, even Jeff’s murder. The excitement will make the reader gasp, tragedy will make the reader cry, romance will make the reader sigh.
Chapter 9 of Silicon Gulch … Sex with a condom is not really sex!
Tuesday, 4:12 PM: Partners
Jeff's suddenly remembering he promised to wear a condom puts a halt to sex! (Who did he promise?) She admit that there's someone, then they agree to be partners on this case.
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- Chris Lamela
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Author contact: chris@chrislamela.com, 707-566-8790 PST
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Tuesday, 4:12 PM: Partners
Jeff left the room naked traipsing down the stairs finding his pants
laying on the kitchen floor. He picked them up, rustled through the pockets
pulling out a fistful of condoms spreading them out on the counter, picking
three out of the bunch, turning back to the stairs, appearing at the bedroom door
proudly holding them between his fingers like a cat might bring a sparrow to
the back door.
Instead of being stretched out on the bed as he had left her, Lin was
sitting up with her back to the headboard, her knees drawn up, covered entirely
by her bedspread, pulled up so tightly that only her eyes and hair appeared
over the cover.
He looked quizzically at her, stepping forward sitting on the bed turned
toward her.
"Promised who?" she whispered.
"Uh," think man, think! "Nobody
in particular. I don't know, my mom?"
You call that thinking!?
He laughed, "Yeah, my mom. I can see that, 'Have a nice time in California
She did not laugh.
"Your wife," a whisper came through the bedspread clutched
over her mouth.
"I don't really have a wife. But yeah, I guess it would be
something she would think at least."
"Who did you promise? Did somebody know you were coming here, to be
with me?"
Jesus, how do women to this stuff!
"Nobody
sent me if that's what you meant, I'm here because I want to be. Aren't you
happy to have me here?"
"I thought I was, but now I'm not sure."
"Why, because of what I said?"
"No." He watched the eyes staring intently at him trying to
see through him to learn the truth.
"What then?"
The bedspread was lowered so that
he could see her mouth. "It's been a long time. Very long. I got caught up
in the strip tease, being naked with a man again. With you. I just…you're just
such a…you're such an amazing man…what was I thinking?"
He moved closer to her on the bed with concern at these words, "What
are you saying? Why would I come here if I didn't want to be with you?"
The bedspread came down to the tops of her knees, "You really like
me, don't you?"
"Yes. Yes I do. You say things about me. Now it's my turn."
She looked to him anxiously, "You are an amazing woman that has sexy pouring
out of you! What man in his right mind would turn you down?"
"Really?"
He reached out playfully slapping her feet under the covers. "Yes,
you. I mean, I didn't turn you down, all that back rubbing you did to me at the
dinner, I thought you were going to throw me onto the caviar tray and have your
way with me last night. You should have seen me hobbling to my room with that
hard-on last night after you called!" he laughed, she started to laugh
with him.
"Yes, I guess I was being a little aggressive with you last night."
They both grew quiet sitting with warm smiles looking into the other's
eyes.
He sat up, "So what do we do now?"
She paused in thought looking down at the bedspread, back to him, "You
probably think I'm a freak, inviting you here, getting naked and all. Then
this."
He shook his head, "Listen, it's only fun if it's fun for
everybody. Hey, I got to see you naked didn't I?" they both laughed again.
"Look," he smiled, "I'm forty five, been divorced twice, at
this rate will be divorced again when one of us gets around to filing. You told
me a little about you, but really I know nothing."
"I'm your age. I've only been married once, had my two sons with
him, one day he up and left. I was destitute, so poor. Actually lived on
welfare for two years." She shook her head, "That was such a long
time ago. No long-term relationships since. It's been really hard for me to
trust another man. He hurt me so much, put me and the boys through so much."
She turned to him sharply, "That experience made me…I don't know what you
call it…I mean I know what some people call it. I've heard it said about me."
She was silent again looking down at the bedspread.
"But you're not frozen, I felt your hands, they are perfectly warm!"
he slapped her feet again, she laughed out loud letting the bedspread drop
exposing her breasts.
"So Jeff, what would you think if I said that I like being naked
here with you, but that the idea of having a piece of plastic up me…well…it
really brought this whole thing home. Realizing that condoms would be involved
kind of made it so…I don't know…maybe not so romantic. It really brought it home
somehow." She slapped her knee, "You're going to think I'm a freak."
"Listen, I hate those things! Feels like I'm wearing gardening
gloves, can't feel a thing. Plus I'm the one who jumped up from making love
with this beautiful woman," he held his hands spread to her, "you
tell me who the freak is!" they laughed again.
"What I mean is, can we be like this together…like this…I mean
naked together…it feels sooooo good to be naked again with a man…but without…"
He leaned forward kissing her lightly on the lips, "Without the
sex. Yes."
She reached to him pulling him to her, once again their lips coming
together with a deep swirling of tongues then he pulled back, "Whoa nice! We
got the kiss right! But if you do that again, all bets are off!"
They laughed again, she pushed him away playfully, "Okay fair
enough."
"Plus," she almost whispered so softly he had to lean forward
to hear, "there's someone."
"Oh, damn, I'm sorry, should I leave?" not making any motion
to get up.
"Well, he doesn't really know."
Jeff grinned, "So what kind of there
is someone who doesn't know he's the someone?"
"It's someone I know. I'm really attracted to him. But I haven't
had the courage to tell him."
Jeff was instantly certain that it was her aid, Steve Richoff, wondering
why a forty-five year old would be interested in a man who couldn't be more
than thirty-two. He smiled to himself, like
that's hard to figure out!
But
to have a relationship with an aid in such a public job?
Oh, well, she's a big girl!
Even with his doubts about such a liaison, this conversation demanded
encouragement so he lowered his head to look into her eyes, "You haven't
been listening to a word I said, about what an attractive woman you are, how a
man would be out of his mind to not want to be with you."
She smiled tenderly, "You know something?" He nodded watching
her closely. "This…I mean you…and maybe all this nakedness and closeness
with you…"
"You consider us close?"
She reached out, held his hand up, wondering at it in deep thought. "Yes,
I consider us very close. I believe I could tell you anything, that it would be
safe."
Jeff felt his eyes mist at the tenderness this woman expressed, "That
really touches me, Lin. I would tell you anything and know it…I mean that I
would be safe." He waggled her hand. "How did we do this? This is
really special."
"Yes. Yes it is." Her eyes started to sparkle with moisture in
the light. "And Jeff," he leaned forward, "you have given me
courage. This has made me feel like a woman again. A woman that a man would
value. It has been a long time since I've felt this way."
He rolled over her to her left side laying on his stomach, his naked
rear end laid out to her admiring eyes. "Okay, enough of this soppy stuff!
So we had other things to talk about, crazy Frenchmen, graft―"
He looked up to her wide eyes, she stuttered, "You―you know about
it?"
"There are some things I know, but in this case I can smell the graft, the desperation coming
from these guys." He looked up to her uncertain how much to take her into
his confidence. "What do you think I
know?"
She looked down to his face, he looked
up to her breasts, she glanced at what he was seeing, smiling, back to his
face, "I am not sure how much to tell you."
"And I am not sure what to say until I know your position in all
this."
She looked to the ceiling, back to him, "Okay, I've got to believe
a man laying naked in my bed is trustworthy, so here goes. I believe you know
about some of the doubts about Neurotek's technology." He nodded. "The
government has already given them eight million dollars based on the evidence
they've managed to show so far that their technology works for advanced image
recognition and tracker technology. My guess is that it may work, but I have
yet to be really convinced. It's not
unusual for new technologies to need time to improve, so I have been okay with
the money spent so far. But now they want another thirty nine million for the
next phase of development and first deployment."
"Yes, I've heard all this."
"These guys have made some other claims beyond the image
recognition application, like the ability to automatically decipher speech
looking for terrorists, some kind of speech pattern recognition. With the new
proliferation of email the government is very anxious to watch electronic email
streams looking for terrorist plots."
"The courts haven't gone along with any of that yet, though."
"That doesn't stop the NSA from watching, you know enough to know
that." He nodded. "So being the vice-chairman of the House Armed
Services Committee a lot of people have been coming to me asking what we should
do." She looked down to him, he smiled at her breasts. "Are you
listening to me or just looking at my―"
"Sorry, I was just looking at your breasts, were you saying
something?" he reached his mouth up to take her left nipple into his mouth
as she lowered her right leg to facilitate his access.
"Oh, Jeff, that feels so good," she looked down at his mouth
around her nipple, pushing him away, "now if you will listen to me―"
He pulled back, "Okay okay, I'm listening."
"So I was the one who recommended that they should be vetted by
others in the industry. The technology is so advanced that literally nobody is
willing to step up to the plate to test it. That's why my office contacted you."
"Thus the pressure on me."
"But you are going to do a test integration, that's what Gerard
said last night."
"And thus the lies."
Her brow furrowed, her expression darkened, "What do you mean lies?"
Jeff went on to tell her about the false announcement, the faked
invitation to the meeting this morning with Paula. But he didn't tell about the
five million dollar offers.
"You know, I'm not surprised, these guys are desperate. They wanted
to pay me to be some consultant to their company. They offered me five million
dollars!" Jeff smiled at this round number that came up so much. "Imagine
having a member of congress as a consultant. It would be like a ticket to the
show."
"Why don't you take it?"
"Can't. There was a scandal
involving three congressmen last year being paid as consultants for what turned
out to be illegal weapons trade. Rumor has it that two of them were murdered
and one resigned over it. It was really hush-hush. They painted it all over
that the two died in car accidents, and the third retired for the usual family
reasons. Very hush-hush, you wouldn't have heard anything about it."
Jeff laughed to himself remembering all his escapade in Washington DC
"Anyway, we put new ethics rules into place, there is literally no
way I can take any money from these guys. My guess is that it's not over,
knowing them. They will probably find ways to pay off somebody." She shook
her head, "I just hope that money is
the only tool they try to use."
He looked up to her concerned, "Only
tool?"
"I
just told you that two congressmen were murdered last year, and so yes, these
guys are desperate enough to do anything. My radar tells me that they will do anything."
"So what do you want from me?"
"Are you working with anybody on any of this?"
"What do you mean anybody?"
"Okay, here goes, but you need to hold up your right hand and swear…"
He raised his right hand from the bed.
She laughed, "Okay, good enough. I am working with the FBI on this.
That woman you met last night, Nancy Wyse?"
Jeff felt a rise against the bed under his belly at the mere mention of Nancy
"She's an FBI agent in this case. She was invited in by me. She
suggested that you be involved along with Frank Pacfil, that's why you were
invited here."
"Really?" Jeff tried to paint his face with wonder, "FBI?
Her, so pretty and all, FBI? Really?"
She slapped his right arm playfully, "Can't you ever get your mind
off pretty women?"
He laughed, "Excuse me, but I'm not the naked woman laying in this
bed!" they both burst into giggles.
"Anyway, another agent, Arnie Shaw."
Without thinking Jeff burst out, "Really, Arnie?"
She pulled back, "You know Arnie?" With a suspicious scowl, "How
do you know Arnie?"
He pulled back realizing the mistake he just made, she reached down
putting her hand tightly around his right bicep, squeezing firmly, "How do
you know Arnie?"
Jeff skooched up his body to
sit up, his nakedness now in full view but her eyes stayed locked on his eyes. "You
don't have the need to know."
She chirped a quick laugh, "I knew
there was more to you!" She flung her head back looking up to the
ceiling. "How did I know that there was more to this good-looking man?"
Laughing, "How did I know?"
She looked back to him, "I have the need to know, Jeff."
"I'm sorry, but I need Arnie and Nancy's clearance. I am under
strict non-disclosure." He shook his head with a please understand look, "I know a lot. But I can't say
anything."
She nodded slowly, "That's fine. I respect that. But Jeff, I need
you as a partner on this. I don't understand the technology." She glanced
at her clock, "I have a call scheduled with Nancy
"Yes, I promise. I want to work with you. As a partner."
Lin smiled motioning Jeff to her, he skooched forward, she leaned to
kiss him. "And you're okay with this? Not having sex?"
"Only if we get to have all of our meetings naked," he smiled,
she laughed half-nodding.
"And you're okay with this?"
"Maybe, but you need to define sex for me first," he insisted.
"What do you mean?"
"Someone―a woman actually―once told me that sex is with a condom,
that making love is without. You can't make love with a condom. Do you agree?"
She frowned at him wondering where this was leading.
"And you can't make love without having sex. Do you agree?"
She smiled slightly nodding, "Yes, I guess. Yes, those are good
rules."
"So what is oral sex. Is that still sex?"
"I guess, but not really. It's not putting things into me," glancing down to her
lower lovely part still covered by the bedspread.
He pushed himself up onto his
knees turning to be in front of her starting pulling at the bedspread. She
laughed playfully pretending to resist as the bedspread came down down down showing
her navel down down down, her dark-honey pubic hairs coming into view down down
down, her thighs, then her knees, finally her feet were showing in the daylight
streaming through the window.
Jeff pulled at her knees, she laughed pushing herself away from the headboard
laying with her legs apart before him, a second later looking down at his face
hidden in her soft moss, she lay her head back, "Yes, no sex. Jeff, oh
Jeff, oh Jeff, no sex."
"Partners."
"Partners."
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SILICON GULCH!
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