The Invention of Sharon's Secret

The ad hadn't been very descriptive, but it had piqued her interest. It just said, "Part time product tester needed. Looking for a woman who is open to new concepts and able to evaluate new products honestly and offer suggestions for improvement. You will determine your work hours. Call xxx-xxx-xxxx after 7 PM to arrange an interview.

Sharon had made the phone call for two reasons. The foremost was she'd been so eager to get out of her marriage that she'd agreed not to demand any sort of alimony from her ex. Instead, she'd settled for her ex paying both lawyers and giving her the new car they'd just bought. He agreed to keep making the car payments until it was paid off.

She needed some new clothes and while she liked her job as a bank teller, it didn't pay enough to do much more than cover her rent, put gas in her car, and put food on the table.

Sharon didn't regret the divorce or her current financial state. He'd said they could stay married and he'd give her what she needed, but Sharon couldn't live with him knowing he was sleeping with a woman half her age. That had happened once their son and daughter left home. He'd met a woman who was twenty-four, didn't have any stretch marks on her tummy, and didn't have the curves age and childbearing give a woman of forty-nine.

It was the lack of sex that did cause her some regrets. Even though they'd slowed down over the years, and even though her husband was sleeping with another women, they'd still had sex a few times a month. Sharon loved the feelings she had when they had sex and she missed it.

After the first six months, Sharon had decided it was pretty nice being on her own again. She didn't have to worry about anything but herself. She didn't have to think about what he'd like to have for dinner or what he liked her to wear. It would have been nice to have a little "mad money" but she managed. She even managed to get along without sex, but then, she'd been doing that for over a year before the divorce anyway. Until she learned about Tammy, she didn't know why her husband had lost interest in her. He had though, so Sharon started taking care of that on her own when he wasn't in the mood.

The second reason was the ad said she could pick her own hours. Sharon worked during the day so any second job would have been after five and would have lasted until at least midnight. She'd not be able to do anything except work, eat, and sleep. If she could work a few hours in the evening and maybe on Saturday and Sunday, she could earn some extra money and still have time to do other things.

The man who answered the phone didn't give her much information about the job. He just said his name was Richard and asked when she could come to his business for an interview. Sharon had said she was available about any day after six, so they agreed on that Wednesday evening at seven.

Sharon expected the business to be in the industrial park, but when she drove up in front of the building, it turned out to be a storefront in one of the small suburbs of the city. The painted name over the door was faded almost to nothing, but she could still make out "Wilson's Hardware". The lettered name on the painted-over glass on the front door was "New Concepts, LLC". That was the name Richard had told her to look for, so Sharon knew she was in the right place.

The building sat on the end of the block and had a small parking lot beside it. Richard had told her that door would be locked and she should text him when she got there. Sharon sent the text message and then waited until Richard answered. A moment later, she heard the lock on the door click and then it opened.

Sharon had formed a vision of what Richard probably looked like. Because he'd said he was an automation engineer and was designing some new products, she thought maybe he was an engineer like you see on the television documentaries about NASA. He'd probably be wearing a white lab coat and have short hair and glasses. When he opened the door, he wasn't like that at all.

Richard looked about the same age as her ex, and he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt. His hair wasn't short and he didn't wear glasses either. He looked like most of the men who came into the bank to deposit their paychecks. Sharon decided he just looked like about any other man looked.

He smiled at her.

"Sharon, the woman who called me for an appointment?"

Sharon nodded and he said, "Well come on in. We have a lot to talk about."

The inside of the building was filled with machines she didn't know anything about. There were also some tables where it looked like Richard was putting things together, but she couldn't figure out what those things were either. They just looked like boxes with rods and wires coming out of them.

Richard saw her looking and smiled.

"If you take the job, I'll explain what all these do, and helping with manufacturing and assembly could be part of that job once I get into production. Let's go to my office and we'll talk about the testing part of the job."

His office was more like she'd expected. There were two desks, one a normal desk like the bank manager had and another with a computer and a large screen. On that screen were what looked like drawings of something, the same type of drawings in the little book of instructions that came with the washer and dryer she and her ex had bought five years before. They were like the machine had exploded and all the parts had lines showing where they were supposed to go. On one wall was a certificate of some sort, but it was too far away for her to read what it said.

Richard offered her a chair in front of the first desk, and then took the chair behind it.

"So, Sharon, tell me a little about yourself."

Sharon told him she was divorced and that she was a bank teller. That was about all she could think of since she didn't know anything about the job. Richard had smiled then.

"So, if you're a bank teller, you must be pretty sharp. I need a product tester who is, because my product is pretty unique and it'll take a woman with some intelligence to be able to explain what she likes and doesn't like."

Sharon blushed a little because nobody had ever told her she was smart before. She smiled.

"Well, I think I am. I can do more than just count money though. I might be able to tell you more about myself if I knew what you make here."

Richard got a stern look on his face then.

"Before I tell you that, I need you to answer a few questions.

"My product is unique, or will be as soon as we develop it, so I have to know you won't tell anybody anything about it. Do you think you can keep a secret?"

"Well, sure, if that's part of the job. I see everybody's bank balance when I make deposits or withdraw money from their account, but I'd get fired if I ever told anybody else about how much money they have."

Richard nodded.

"I was hoping you'd say that. Now for my second question. How open-minded to you consider yourself to be?"

Sharon thought about that for a minute. She'd always thought she was open to new ideas. She hadn't resisted the new computer system like some of the other tellers had. She shrugged.

"I guess I am. I mean, I wouldn't not test one of your products just because I'd never seen one of them before, whatever they are."

Richard smiled.

"Well, that's good. My product, once I get a working prototype and then go into production, will be for personal use by women, so I need a woman's opinion to get the design right. Do you think you could test the product and then give me an honest opinion? I can't have a product tester who won't tell me every detail about what she likes and what she doesn't like about it."

Sharon chuckled.

"Well, it would be nice to know what I'm going to be testing before I tell you that."

Richard stroked his chin for a few seconds, then frowned.

"If I show you, you can't tell any about it. I haven't filed for a patent yet, so if you do, somebody else might do that before I can."

Sharon smiled.

"Cross my heart and hope to die."

"OK", Richard said. "We have to go to the test lab to see it. It's not done yet, but the basic concept is there. It just needs to be tweaked and then dressed up a little."

Richard led Sharon out of the office and down a short hall, then unlocked a door that had "TESTING" printed in black letters on a white rectangle. When she stepped inside, she was amazed more than shocked, though she was shocked a little too.

In the center of the room was what looked like a normal reclining chair except it had a rack of wires attached to each arm, and beside the chair was a box with digital displays and some switches and knobs. That was unusual, but what was really unusual was the mechanism on the floor in front of it. There was a motor attached to a gear that drove other gears. The biggest gear, the one on top, had a long bar attached. The other end of the bar was attached to some sort of sliding thing.

Richard didn't have to explain to her what the mechanism was. She knew by the long, white, plastic cylinder on the end of the slide. The tip was rounded like a bullet nose and the size was about the same as the dildo she kept in her bed table drawer.

She turned to Richard.

"You want me to test that?"

"Well...yes. Would you have a problem doing that?"

Sharon frowned.

"Will you be watching?"

Richard nodded.

"I have to be here. I don't have the remote controls working yet, so I'll have to make the adjustments for you."

"You're not some freaky guy just looking to see me naked are you?"

Richard smiled.

"No. I quit my job and put over fifty thousand dollars of my own money into the shop and this prototype. If that's all I wanted to do, there are porn sites that are a lot cheaper."

"So how did you come up with this idea?"

Richard frowned.

"I was married too, once, and my ex was a different sort of woman. You've probably never heard of this condition before, but she was addicted to having orgasms and I couldn't begin to keep up with her needs. Since you've been married, I'm sure you understand that men have their limitations that way. I wanted her to go to a doctor to see if something was wrong, but she refused. She got tired of me being tired and I got tired of her nagging me about my lack of performance, so we decided to go our separate ways.

"After the divorce, I started wondering if there were other women like her, and what I discovered through some on-line forums was there are, quite a few actually. The engineer in me said I could probably make a product that would fill that need so I did some preliminary designs. Once I had something I thought would work, I quit my job and started this company. The only problem is, I can design it, but I'm not a woman so I can't test it. That's why I need a woman to do product testing.

"I won't be the first on the market, but I think with a woman's help, I can design something better than a vibrating box she sits on. My ex didn't like vibrators much. She wanted the real thing. That's what I'm trying to build, sort of an artificial man that never gets tired. So what do you think? Can you do it?"

Sharon shrugged.

"I don't know. What are you going to be doing while I'm doing the testing? You aren't going to play with yourself are you? I don't think I could do it if you were."

Richard shook his head.

"No, absolutely not. You'll be hooked up to sensors that measure heart and breathing rate and skin temperature, and I'll be recording that data along with current draw, motor speed and other things like that, and taking notes about what you tell me. That's so I'll know what to change on the prototype."

Sharon twisted her mouth.

"You won't try doing anything else with me?"

Richard frowned.

"That's what the last woman asked me and she didn't believe me when I said I wouldn't. I suppose you're going to tell me no just like she did. I understand. I'll find a woman one of these days who will. Thank you for coming to the interview."

Sharon was thinking as Richard walked her back through the workshop. He seemed sincere about what he said, and he didn't look like some sort of sex maniac. If he was, surely he'd have been staring at her, but he'd hardly looked at her. It would mean he'd see her naked at least from the waist down, but her doctor had seen her and Richard acted more like her doctor than a man who just wanted to see naked women.

The extra money, at least if the job paid enough to make a difference, would be nice to have and what he wanted her to do wasn't really work. Could she do it? Could she let him use his machine on her and then watch what she did? Could she tell him how it felt and how it would feel better, or would that be too embarrassing? Over all these thoughts was one that kept sneaking into her mind. It would be interesting to see if his machine did what he thought it would do.

When they got to the door of the building, Sharon, stopped Richard from opening the door.

"How much does the job pay?"

She thought she saw his eyes light up a little, and he smiled.

"Twenty dollars an hour is what I thought would be about right. Does that mean you'll do it?"

Sharon smiled a little.

"It means I'll try it once and see how it goes. When do you want me to come back?"

Sharon had seen them on the Internet and had always wondered if they really did what it looked like they did. A couple of times, she'd considered buying one, but the ones that were supposed to be the best were really expensive. Even if she'd cut out lunches and saved that money, it would have taken her over a year to save enough to buy one. Now, just by answering an ad in the help wanted section of the newspaper, she was going to be able to find out.

At seven the next night, Sharon parked in the little lot and then texted Richard that she was there. He smiled when he opened the door.

"I have everything set up. Are you ready?"

The testing room looked the same except for one thing. Sitting on a tripod and pointing at the reclining chair was a video camera. Sharon looked at it and then looked at Richard.

"You didn't say anything about taking movies of me."

Richard stammered a little.

"I...well...I...I thought it might be better if I did. You might not be able to tell me much while the test is going on. I thought we'd watch the video afterwards and you could tell me how you felt. I won't use it if you don't want me to."

"You won't show it to anybody else?"

Richard held up both hands with his palms facing her.

"Oh no. The video will be part of the test data, and if I showed it to anybody else, they might figure out what I'm designing and try to get to the market before I can. I'll keep it locked in my safe along with all the other data."

Just like the day before, he looked like he was telling the truth. He wasn't smiling and he hadn't hesitated before answering her question. Sharon thought about it for a couple seconds. She'd never seen herself, how she looked or anything like that when she and her ex had had sex. It might be fun.

"No, that's OK as long as you keep it between us. Now, what do you want me to do? I suppose I need to get undressed at least some."

"Well, yes. I have to put sensors on your chest and stomach, and, well, I need to be able to see what I'm doing when I insert the uh...the probe."

Sharon chuckled.

"It's a probe? That sounds like you're looking for something in there. I thought it was a dildo."

"Well, I didn't know if you'd think that was the right word or not."

Sharon chuckled again.

"Well, that's what it is, isn't it? So, I have to get undressed all the way?"

Richard nodded.

"That would make things a lot easier."

A few minutes later, Sharon sat down in the recliner. It was a little embarrassing and she kept watching Richard to see if he showed any signs that looked like he was going to start something. She was a little surprised that he didn't. She was also a little disappointed.

Sharon thought she had a good figure, and most men apparently did too. She'd see them staring at her breasts while she took care of their paycheck or counted out the money they'd withdrawn from their accounts. She didn't wear bras that made her breasts look bigger like Penny did, because she didn't need to. It was more of a problem finding blouses that fit.

Men couldn't see her backside at work because she was behind the teller's counter, but when she went shopping at the mall, she'd see men watching her then and they were usually smiling. She thought it was odd that Richard wasn't even really looking at her that way. She wondered if he might be gay. She'd read of that happening before -- a man would get married and then decide he liked being with men instead of with a woman. Maybe that's why his wife had complained about not getting enough sex. Maybe Richard just didn't want to.

Richard wasn't looking at Sharon's body, but it wasn't because he didn't want to look. It was because he'd placed that ad for a female product tester every week for the past two months. He'd gotten a lot of responses, but as soon as he'd shown the woman his invention, she'd always shake her head and tell him she couldn't do anything like that.

Sharon was the first woman who said she'd try it. She'd said she'd only try it once, but finally he was going to get some good data. If he'd looked at her like a man usually looks at a woman, two things were likely to happen - he would feel his cock starting to get stiff, and he'd forget to record some data he needed. Just as he had with every other project he'd worked on, he forced himself to concentrate on the equipment and how the project was progressing before anything else.

It was kind of a curse in some ways, being able to step back from what was happening and only look at measurements and other data. That's what had been partially responsible for his divorce. He'd tried to analyze why Rebecca was how she was by asking her questions when she wanted to have sex.

"We just did it an hour ago. What's making you want to do it again? Did I do something wrong the first time?"

"Are you sure you want me to bite your nipples? Doesn't that hurt?"

"I can't see how licking you down there does anything more than actual sex. What do you feel that's different?"

Those questions and the others he'd asked Rebecca only frustrated her attempts to get him to have sex again. She'd just get mad and tell him if he'd just fuck her -- that's the word she always used -- if he'd just fuck her when she wanted to be fucked, she wouldn't get so upset with him.

He didn't want to mess up this one chance to see how his machine worked by giving Sharon the idea he was getting aroused. If he did, she'd just put her clothes back on and leave without giving him anything he could use to make the machine good enough it would sell. He'd risked too much to fail now.

It was easy to not look at Sharon while she undressed. It wasn't going to be easy to attach the sensors to her without looking at her, so he picked up the adhesive backed sensors, attached them to the sensor wires hanging from the chair and then handed them one at a time to Sharon.

"This one measures heart rate. Stick it on your chest a little on the left side and just above your...well, where your chest is still sort of flat."

"This one measures skin temperature and needs to go on down there, uh...just above where the hair is should be fine."

"This one with two stickers is a strain gauge. It will measure how fast and how deep you're breathing. It should go on your stomach, just under your ribs."

Once Sharon had stuck all the sensors where he told her, he sat down at the box beside the machine.

"Now, just relax so I can get some baseline data."

While Richard wrote the numbers on the paper on his clipboard, Sharon grinned. He was trying so hard not to look at her or touch her, too hard to not be interested in her. That made her feel better. She wondered how he was going to manage to put his probe inside her without touching her.