Otto wasted no time in beginning to question Kam about his invention, digging in even before they’d ordered drinks. Lin listened with interest, although she understood only a portion of the technical terms the Gersbachs and Kam used. Even with what little she comprehended, she was fascinated. According to Otto, the brilliance of Kam’s invention was not only the minuscule size of the data chip, but his ability to use the delicate clockwork of the watch to enhance the mechanism. As Kam spoke, she slowly realized it was as if he’d needed a surrogate for his device and found the perfect mechanical organism in the escapements of a timepiece.
“It’s as if your invention should have been there all along, and we watchmakers were blind to the absence until now,” Otto enthused.
Kam’s explanations were short, but always to the point. He gave Lin a quicker and more valuable explanation of his own invention than anything she’d been able to glean so far from journal articles or patent drawings. His ability to concisely verbalize a complicated process was a valuable marketing commodity, Lin noted, filing away the information for future use.
It wasn’t just what Kam said or how he said it that fascinated her. She was highly aware of his long, strong thighs just inches away from her own. He rested his left hand on the thigh closest to her, moving it back and forth in a rubbing gesture every once in a while as he spoke or listened. She thought initially it was a nervous habit that only she could see from her position next to him. After a while, however, she altered her opinion. Kam really didn’t appear to be all that nervous. Instead, he seemed uncomfortable, yet forbearing, as if he were impatient to be elsewhere. It was highly distracting watching his large hand move so subtly over his thigh. His other hand rested on the white tablecloth. He possessed extremely masculine, capable-looking hands with several visible veins and blunt-tipped fingers that he drummed or tapped every once in a while against the white cloth. She recalled how they’d felt encasing her hips out there in the ballroom, warm and all encompassing.
The memory of him encircling her torso and moving her so effortlessly up the length of her bed on Monday night blazed into her consciousness. He could manipulate her into any position he chose so negligently. She’d never really thought about it before—perhaps because she’d never slept with a man as powerful as Kam—but it was arousing to know that he could maneuver her weight with such ease to optimize her pleasure. His.
Theirs.
She took a long draw on her ice water. Kam drummed his fingertips lightly on the tablecloth, and her clit tingled in response. He’d used those fingertips to take her to heaven Monday night, rubbing and sliding and vibrating her so masterfully until . . .
“Now I have a question for you, Otto.”
Lin came back fully to the moment at the sound of Kam’s frank declaration.
“Of course,” Otto said earnestly. “Anything.”
“Why don’t you have a line of watches that the average person can actually afford to own?”
Lin’s heart paused in her chest. She glanced anxiously across the table at Brigit’s frozen expression.
“We come from a long tradition of innovative, premier watchmaking,” Otto said, recovering before his daughter. “We employ the most talented engineers in the world and utilize the highest-quality components and materials. Gersbach is always pushing the envelope of the technology, giving our customers not only a luxury timepiece, but the most exclusive one in the market.”
Kam nodded thoughtfully. Lin forced herself not to start when he abruptly lifted his hand off his thigh and subtly moved it the two or three inches to settle on hers. He squeezed. The front cutout of her cocktail dress left her knees and a few inches of thigh exposed, but when she’d sat, the dress had ridden up a few inches. His hand enclosed a stretch of silk-covered skin. He continued talking as if nothing had happened. His heat emanated easily through the super sheer fabric of her silk thigh-highs. Lin just sat there stiffly, trying to rein in her scattered thoughts and slow her racing heart.
“You just said a moment ago that my invention would revolutionize the way people took care of themselves. With the constant feedback the mechanism can provide, people will know when they are in a medical crisis or when they need to make a doctor’s appointment. They will automatically change their habits to become healthier when they see firsthand, in a split second, how a behavior is affecting their heart or their blood pressure or their stress response,” Kam said as he picked up his fork. “Is it your belief that only the wealthy deserve to possess such technology?”
Lin hastened to say something that would smooth over his bluntness. Kam squeezed her thigh again gently. She was stunned to realize he was reassuring her. Her mouth clamped shut.
“I don’t think it’s up to me to decide something like that,” Otto sidestepped gracefully. “I run a company and provide a certain product to a defined market.”
Kam nodded. “You’re right. I’ll have to make similar decisions for my own product, and who has access to it is a major one.”
Otto glanced uncertainly at his daughter, who seemed even more ruffled than him.
“Well, I suppose that’s what this meeting is all about,” Lin said, unable to keep quiet a moment longer. “Gathering information so that decisions and plans can be made.” She made a toast and successfully turned the conversation while they ate to lighter, although still-relevant topics. At some point during the main course, Kam returned his hand to his own lap, but she was still highly self-conscious of the warm, tingling patch of skin on her thigh where it had rested.