Lori Wilde - Sweet Surrender

A MODERN-DAY chastity belt? You gotta be freakin kidding me. Izzy Montgomery hooted and stabbed her fingers, adorned with numerous rings, through a mass of loose blond curls. Youve got the coolest job in the world, B.

Well, said Bianca St. James, its not so much a chastity belt as a sex toy. She and her three best friends, Izzy, Emma and Madison, had met for their last girls night out before they all dispersed to various parts of the globe for their summer holidays. Biancas trip was more of a working vacation. But then again, shed never had a vacation, vacation and thats the way she liked it. She didnt know what to do with herself when she wasnt working.

They were dining at Jackdaws, midtown Manhattans latest hot spot. Izzy had picked the restaurant. Trust her to go for loud, flashy and overpriced.

Accompanied by the throbbing beat of hip music from the sound system, theyd already slurped down a pitcher of pomegranate martinis and noshed their way through pan-seared black truffles and quail grilled with an orange fennel glaze. They were all feeling a little tipsy and making fun of the item sitting in the middle of the table.

Everyone that is, except for Bianca. Shed expected jokes, yes. But this was her livelihood, and she took it very seriously, even if the product in question was of a frivolous nature.

So honestly, would you buy this? And if not, what would make you buy it? Bianca asked, trying to keep them on task. She held up the silky lingerie fitted with a GPS tracking device and an electronic sensor that measured the body temperature and pulse rate of the wearer.

The lingerie came as a set that included a lace bodice, sexy string-bikini bottoms and a faux pearl belt where the body temperature sensor was sewn in. The tiny GPS device lay nestled against the waist in the gossamer part of the see-through bodice. This model was purple and white, but it came in four different colors.

Madison tilted her head and looked over the top of her snazzy red-framed spectacles, eying the garment with studious intent. She had coal-black hair and smooth porcelain skin. Shed make a perfect Goth girl, but she was simply a total brainiac with a sharp appreciation for heavy-duty sunscreen. No way. I sleep in T-shirts and boy shorts. That thing would cramp my style.

The point of thisum thing, Izzy interjected, has nothing to do with sleeping and everything to do with sex.

Or the lack thereof, Emma added.

Emma took the last bite of quail from the communal appetizer plate and dabbed at her mouth with a napkin. With her petite frame and soft, caramel-colored curly hair that fell to her waist, in the dim lightingand through the haze of a couple of pomegranate martinisEmma looked as if she could have stepped out of a renaissance painting. Although she had an Austen-like belief in romantic love.

What woman would get that for herself? Madison arched her ebony eyebrows. Its something an insecure guy gives to his woman because hes terrified shes going to cheat on him.

A girl would only buy that if she was in a relationship, Emma said. Its not like the undies come with handcuffs, Mace and a rottweiler to fend off attackers.

Its not really a modern-day chastity belt, Bianca reiterated, gently trying to steer them back to her question before they got sidetracked by rottweilers or something equally off-topic, as their conversations tended to do on girls night outs. Thats only what naysayers have dubbed it, and because of the misleading nickname, people have gotten the wrong idea about the Catch Me if You Can lingerie line. In Brazil the product is jumping off the shelves, but our billionaire client is upset by dismal US sales and hes hired Stillman, Burke and Hollister to find out how we can change the trend. Hence my bit of marketing research with three potential customers in our target demographicsingle, young, urban professionals.

If you threw in an R word, youd have the acronym SYRUP, said Madison, who loved word games.

Randy, Izzy readily supplied. Single, young, randy, urban professionals. Were syrups.

Speak for yourself, Emma muttered. If I never have sex again it will be too soon. She was in the dumps because the guy shed been dating on and off since their hot fling on a Greek cruise the previous summer had abruptly broken things off with her and gotten engaged to a woman who was Emmas polar opposite.