As I gave up the fight, knowing I was laying myself open for the pleasure and pain that would follow, the best I could do was kiss Jill on the lips an... smile at her. All I could say was a simple ‘okay.’~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~They’d been laughing and cuddling as Luther had ushered Jill into the back of his big black Lincoln Navigator. The ultimate irony being that he’d deputized Malcolm to be upfront driving as he climbed into the back seat with my wife. Luther hadn’t. I wasn't expecting a tech demo tonight, but I'm still unsure about whatexactly we do as a company.He holds up a stack of name tags from the office. They gleam in thelight of the room. The name tags are covered with electrical tapecovering the name with our company logo proudly emblazoned on a side. Hehands each of us a tag, but demands that we do not look underneath thetape. "Our new technology is so strong that it will change a person withonly a simple written command. Imagine what we can. " Jake jammed his arms into the front legs of thehusky, the paws themselves terminating the legs several inches belowDamian's arms. Jake secured them, smoothed the fur over the seams andstepped back. Damian, now looking like a husky walking on his back legswith his front out straight, bent over until his front paws rested onthe ground. He put some weight on them and began to walk around,experimenting with his new posture.As Damian tested sitting on his haunches, Jake snuck behind him. There was a murmur of voices, a pause, and the inner door suddenly opened. Barbara came inside and pushed the door shut. Without glancing to either side, she walked to the chair she usually occupied and sat down determinedly.Steve watched her come in and sit down. He hadn't expected her to be there. More to the point, he'd expected she would not show up. He stared at her in disbelief. He slowly settled back to his seat."Sorry I'm late," Barbara said quietly, "I called and made a reservation for.