They’ve been taking things slowly. Very slowly.

      It was her idea, and she gets that Jim is respecting her feelings, but it’s been three months and she needs him to make a move already!
     
      At a certain point in the relationship, making out (and the occasional high-school-reminiscent heavy petting) is just not enough to keep her libido in check.
     
      They’d started dating not long after Karen had moved to New York to take the job at corporate. Michael had all but disowned Karen after that, forbidding anyone in the office to even talk to her, Jim included. But the two of them were on the outs anyway, (and Jim didn’t know at the time that it had a little bit to do with Karen meeting someone else) and the break up was inevitable.
     
      It might have helped Pam and Karen’s friendship that she’d been the one to end it with him, especially as it was amicable, and they still talked on the phone about their respective relationships (and Karen mocks her endlessly about how even though Karen’s relationship is long distance, they are still moving faster than Jim and Pam).
     
      Pam’s phone starts vibrating a few minutes before she was planning to take her lunch break, so she switches the phones to voicemail and decides to start a little earlier.
     
      She checks the caller id in the hallway and flips the phone open.
     
      “Hey, Kare.”
     
      “Hi!” 
     
      “What’s going on?”
     
      “Well, if I’m right about my math, and I know that I am, you have an anniversary coming up and I thought I would check to see if you had something exciting planned, like a nice dinner out or, you know, wild raunchy sex.”
     
      “Oh, my God,” Pam laughs, “thanks for your thinking of me, one. And, no. I haven’t actually penciled in the wild raunchy sex.”
     
      “Come on! I at least have an excuse for all my chastity. You? Do not.”
     
      “Wait, I thought you and Ryan were having sex.”
     
      “I don’t know. We are? Kind of. I think so. I’m not exactly sure.”
     
      “Okay, that seriously needs explaining. I know I don’t need to tell you how to do it, so, the don’t know part is weird. And what do you mean you think so?”
     
      “Well, okay. We have, obviously—,”
     
      “—Obviously.”
     
      “Ha! Right. Like I said, we have, but he’s really lazy about driving up here and I’m really lazy about driving down there, and he has a roommate Pam. Seriously. A roommate.”
     
      “So do you!”
     
      “Yeah, but that’s because I can’t afford not to! Ryan’s just being a huge baby and doesn’t want to live alone. I even asked him like, what he’s going to do after he graduates? Is he gonna tote Greg around until he’s successful? And after that?”
     
      “He still wants his own business?”
     
      “Yes, but he won’t even discuss with me him moving, or at least getting his own place. I mean, come on, Pam! There’s a ton more opportunities in New York than there is in Scranton, no offense,” she adds quickly.
     
      “None taken.”
     
      “He’s a smart guy, he’s got to know that. I swear I could just kill him sometimes.”
     
      “You didn’t really answer my question, though.” Pam smirks, because she knows it was deliberate.
     
      “So you’re just gonna live vicariously then?” Pam laughs. “Fine, you asked. We’re both too lazy to drive, especially after work, and we both have roommates, and he is really loud, like, really.”
     
      “Didn’t need to know that,” Pam cringes.
     
      “Sorry, but he is, so, it’s hard when you have someone else in the apartment to consider. So, we’ve basically just been all about the phone sex lately. And sometimes we use the internet. When phone’s... not really an option.”
     
      “Oh my God, really? That’s… actually kind of hot.”
     
      “Okay, if you think that’s hot when you can get the real thing, you’re crazy. Those are plans B and C, Pam. You have A available to you.”
     
      “Not really. Jim’s a bright guy, right? He knows what he’s doing, but he is so bad at reading signals. I’m ready, Karen, I am. But it seems really unromantic to just blurt out ‘okay, let’s go have sex now!’ and I am running out of hints to drop!” Karen is laughing hysterically. “Don’t laugh! This is very serious!” She can’t help her own smile.
     
      “Okay, what have you already done that he’s ignored?”
     
      “Well, I asked him to stay the night last week and he slept on the couch.”
     
      “Why didn’t you say something?!”
     
      “I was disoriented! I thought that was really obvious and that maybe it wasn’t that he didn’t get it but that he didn’t actually, I don't know, want to.”
     
      “One, Jim is a guy, two, you are really attractive, three, it’s been three months! Actually, like five years! Oh my God, Pam, he wants to!”
     
      “Okay then, what should I do, since you’re the expert on our relationship, apparently.”
     
      “Well, I am. If you remember I was in the middle of it.” The passage of time, the amicable breakup, Ryan’s intervention, all of it made things easier to joke about, and if Karen was uncomfortable, it certainly wasn’t obvious. “But, you might have to break out plan B or C in this situation. Since it sounds like you aren’t going to just go up to him and say something.”
     
      “I would, but like I said, just saying ‘okay, sex now’ isn’t really what I had in mind.”
     
      “Okay, how soon are you looking to advance this?”
     
      “Um, like, tonight? Maybe?” Pam giggles. “Is that too soon?”
     
      “No, that’s actually about three months too late if you ask me, but if you’re looking to do it tonight, maybe you want to drop a hint or something today. Email him something filthy! The dirtiest thing you can think of doing to him, tell him.” Pam can hear her smiling over the phone.
     
      “You’ve done that haven’t you,” Pam gets a weird image in her head involving Ryan and Outlook.
     
      “Email, AIM, I told you, we’re lazy people.”
     
      “At work?!”
     
      “Oh God, he’s not sitting at his desk making sounds is he?”
     
      “Ew! Karen! I don’t know!”
     
      “You sit right near him!” Ryan had moved back to his old desk right when Karen left, and after he and Kelly had ended things for good. Pam was positive that Michael knew nothing of Ryan and Karen’s relationship or he’d have rather had Toby take that seat than Ryan.
     
      “Yeah but, oh God. You’re telling me things that I never ever needed to know!”
     
      “He must not be then, because you would know.”

       “I hate you,” Pam laughs.

       “No, you love me because I am going to get you laid tonight.”

       “I am going to get me laid, tonight, thank you very much.”

       “I’m telling you, let him know at work. Then you can look forward to it without feeling like you just blurted out ‘okay, sex,’ alright?”

       “Okay, okay. And you should maybe do a little more driving in your relationship. Unless you want cell phone bills in three hundred dollar range? And also because I haven’t seen you in like a month.”

       They end the conversation with Karen promising not to call later. “Don’t want to interrupt anything.”
 
 

       After break, Pam is back at her desk, playing solitaire and waiting for the phone to ring.

       She looks over at Ryan, who is closing his third sale of the day. As much as she would never admit it, because it still kind of weirds her out, Karen has been really good for Ryan.

       Then she looks over at Jim, his neck is tense and he’s focusing hard on something in front of him. He leafs through a binder and she catches sight of his fingers curving over the pages.

       He has really nice fingers, she notices. They’re long and thick and she feels a little shivery when she thinks about all the things those fingers could do to her, could make her do.

       The heavy pulse starts between her legs and she crosses them quickly, squeezing her thighs together to prolong it. She thinks about the last time she was at his place and he spilled a glass of soda down his shirt, how he pulled it over his head in front of her and about the dark line of hair that ran down his chest and disappeared under his jeans.

       She thinks about how much she wanted to run her hands over the trail, follow where it went. Her legs squeeze tighter together, her lower stomach feels heavy and she makes up her mind.

       She can hear the ding alerting him to new mail from where she sits and she watches as he refreshes the screen and opens up her letter.

_______________

To: jhalpert@dundermifflin.com
From: pbeesly@dundermifflin.com
Subject:  (no subject)

Hey,
Get online?

-Pam

_______________

       He turns around and looks at her, nodding his head.

       She’s already on when she gets the alert that he’s just signed in.

jhalpert: what’s up?
pbeesly: Nothing, I just wanted to talk.
jhalpert: oh, ok
pbeesly: What are you up to?
jhalpert: pretending to be working. is it convincing?
pbeesly: Yeah, actually. 
jhalpert: you bored?
pbeesly: Not really.
jhalpert: really? wow. tell me what your secret is, because I am dying here beesly. 
 
       Pam takes a deep breath and goes for it.

pbeesly: I’m kind of dying here, too Halpert.
jhalpert: how so?
pbeesly: I can’t stop thinking about you.
jhalpert: ...
pbeesly: I want you so badly right now.

       She hears him take a deep breath in. He glances over his shoulder at her and she stares back at him like a challenge. Deny this, misinterpret this.

jhalpert: wait... what?
pbeesly: I want you.
jhalpert: oh god, pam.
pbeesly: Yeah.
pbeesly: I wish we weren’t at work and
pbeesly: that you were touching me like you were on Monday. Do you remember Monday?

       He turns around to look at her again and she does her best to look desperate. It isn’t hard though; trying to give him the hint of what’s to come involves her thinking about what to come, and Pam feels herself start to embrace the idea of taking this as far as she can.

jhalpert: yeah.
pbeesly: Tell me about it, please?
jhalpert: we were watching that weird movie and you started kissing my neck.
jhalpert: then you pulled me down on top of you.
pbeesly: I told you to you touch me.
jhalpert: believe me, i remember.
jhalpert: i put my hand under your shirt, on your stomach.

       He turns back to her and their eyes meet. She’s chewing on her bottom lip, and he can see the same gleam in her eyes now as he had that night.
 
jhalpert: and you told me more.
jhalpert: and so i was cupping your breast.
pbeesly: It felt really good, Jim.
pbeesly: I thought about it later, after you left.
jhalpert: jesus
pbeesly: I really needed you then, too. 
pbeesly:  Tell me what your other hand doing.
jhalpert: you remember.
pbeesly: Tell me.
jhalpert: here? now?
pbeesly: What’s wrong with right now?

       He glances back and takes her in; her mouth is open to accommodate her breathing, her cheeks are flushed. She realizes that she’s spreading her legs obscenely wide.

jhalpert: we’re at work, clearly.
pbeesly: So?
pbeesly: What was your other hand doing?
jhalpert: rubbing you though your jeans.

       She’s not expecting him to be so blunt and there’s a tiny mewl that escapes her lips before she can stop it.

pbeesly: I wish you were doing it now.
jhalpert: jesus, i do too.

       He hears her voice catch quietly and has to close his eyes to keep from jumping out of his chair and pressing her against the wall right there.

jhalpert: what are you doing?
pbeesly: Pretending that we’re alone, that you’re in me.
jhalpert: fuck
pbeesly: I wish.

       She hears him grunt quietly.

pbeesly: Are you hard?
pbeesly: You were so hard on Monday. I could feel you against my hips.
pbeesly: I was so wet, Jim, just feeling you touching me like that.
pbeesly: And right there, so close to where I needed you.

       His knee jerks up and hits the underside of his desk. Ryan shoots him a look, but Pam suddenly knows what Karen must mean when she asks if she hears Ryan. His knees have been really bothering him lately.

jhalpert: shit yes, i’m hard
pbeesly: What are you thinking about?
jhalpert: you
jhalpert: touching you
pbeesly: Please tell me.
pbeesly: I need you to tell me.

       The throbbing between her legs is getting harder to ignore and she presses her left palm into her desk chair and scoots herself up against it until her wrist is putting some pressure where she needs it. 

jhalpert: if we were at my place, i’d press you up against the wall
jhalpert: drop to my knees and pull off your pantyhose
pbeesly: i’m not wearing any today.
jhalpert: shit pam
jhalpert: well then i’d undo your skirt, slide it down your legs.
pbeesly: oh god

       She presses against her arm harder, buts not enough. If only she weren’t at work, she thinks of all the things she’d rather be doing, all of the things she’d rather him be doing to her. Her hand curls against herself, index finger slipping under the elastic at the crotch. Shit. She really wants to do this. Now, here. Forget waiting for tonight.

jhalpert: are you wet now?

       He hears her moan quietly from behind him and doesn’t even care if anyone else hears. What could they know anyway? He bites his lip and contemplates touching himself. He’s less hidden than she is.

pbeesly: yeah, i want you so bad.
jhalpert: god, i want you too.
pbeesly: i’m touching myself.
jhalpert: oh god
jhalpert: how does it feel?
pbeesly: it would be better if it were you.

       The phone rings and they both jump. Pam reaches blindly for the voicemail button, slamming her hand down against the keypad. The ringing finally stops (feels like forever), and she turns back to the monitor.

jhalpert: don’t answer it
jhalpert: good girl.
jhalpert: what do you want?

       She suppresses the moan in the back of her throat

pbeesly: please
jhalpert: please what babe?

       She stills the fingers moving slowly, steadily against her clit.

jhalpert: tell me what you want me to do.
pbeesly: i need you to touch me.
pbeesly: please, please i’m so wet.
jhalpert: i want to touch you. i really do

       She hears him take a breath in, different from arousal. He pauses before typing.

jhalpert: what are we doing?
jhalpert: you said that you wanted to take things slow
jhalpert: i feel like we’re crossing a line.

       He looks back at her and she’s shaking her head, pleading with him to not care for once. She doesn’t need him to be courteous; she needs him to fuck her.

pbeesly: i don’t care, please, i don’t care.
pbeesly: i want this, i want you.
pbeesly: i need you to talk to me, jim.

       Her hips move restlessly in her chair and she’s thankful for the tall walls of her desk. He hears the quiet squeaks of her chair wheels. It’s a good enough answer for him.

jhalpert: i’d slide my hand under your skirt and rub your clit until you moaned

       She does. He hears her softly behind him.

pbeesly: i want you in me, jim i need you
jhalpert: not yet, pam
pbeesly: just a finger, something, please please

       She hears him mutter ‘shit’ under his breath. Her finger presses gently at her opening, waiting for him to say something else.

jhalpert: beg

       The curl of renewed arousal runs through her and her hand shakes as she types.

pbeesly: please, i need you in me, i need to feel you.
pbeesly: please, jim. i want you so badly its killing me.

       He turns back to look at her, his eyes half closed and his mouth open, letting out puffing breaths. Her eyes beg him, too and he lets out an abbreviated nod. She sinks her finger deep into herself and shuts her eyes against the flood of sensations. She’s nearly panting now and she knows he can hear her. 

jhalpert: god you’re so beautiful.
pbeesly: it’s not enough, i need another one.
jhalpert: oh pam
pbeesly: please, one more, please?

       He has to steady himself from the images assaulting his mind, what she’s doing behind that desk, how close he is, how badly he wants to watch her, help her, do it for her. 
 
pbeesly: i’ll be good, i’ll be so good, i just need one more. please please.

      “Oh, fuck,” he really didn’t think he could get any harder.
     
      “What’s wrong?” Ryan looks over at him.
     
      “Shit, nothing. It’s just... nothing. Order problems. It’s nothing.” He’s babbling, but if Ryan notices, he doesn’t say anything.

pbeesly: please are you there? i need you.
jhalpert: yeah, i’m here.
jhalpert: you can have a second one.

       A second finger joins the first. He hears her gasp softly, a quiet ‘god’ under her breath, and she’s mentally cursing the wheels on her chair for resisting her rocking motion.

pbeesly: you’d be so much better.
pbeesly: keep talking to me, please.
pbeesly: what happens next?
jhalpert: after i pulled off your skirt, i’d slide your panties down your hips, over your legs.
jhalpert: spread your knees wide in front of me

       Her fingers are stroking desperately with his words. She can see the flush of arousal over the back of his neck. She hadn’t yet known he blushed there. 

jhalpert: you’d put your hands in my hair, show me where you want my mouth. anywhere
pbeesly: oh god
jhalpert: where do you want me? tell me.

       She can feel herself color. She knows exactly where she wants him. Her fingers curl tighter inside of herself and her palm presses against her clit; she rocks against it and pretends it’s his tongue.

pbeesly: i want you to lick me.

       She stares at the back of his head and notices him squirming in his chair. His left arm is moving up and down slowly, discreetly, and she rocks harder.

jhalpert: where?
pbeesly: inside me, over my clit. anywhere, everywhere
jhalpert: i’ll bet you taste so good
jhalpert: i want really want to be alone with you
pbeesly: me too
pbeesly: i’ve got two fingers in myself and its really hard not to make any noises.
pbeesly: not you yell out your name.

       That grunt was unexpected. He didn’t have time to mask it, and so he coughs to cover it. His fingers brush up and down against his length.

jhalpert: i can’t listen to this without
pbeesly: i know, i don’t care. i want you to.
jhalpert: somebody’s gonna know, pam.

       He turns back around to face her. She’s nodding at him, eyes slipping closed every few seconds when she hits that one spot. She might have underestimated the effect this would have on her.

pbeesly: nobody is going to know.

       He gives in and wraps a hand around himself awkwardly, through his work pants. It’s not a good grip, but still he’s fighting not to buck into his hand, not to move around too much and give them away.

jhalpert: are you still touching yourself?
pbeesly: yeah
jhalpert: how far do you want to take this?
pbeesly: i want you to make me come, jim.

       His knee meets the desk again and Ryan gives him a look that Jim can’t place. He seems to consider things for a moment. Jim watches him glance over at Pam before turning pink and burying his head in his work again, pretending he can’t see either of them. Someone noticed.

jhalpert: ryan knows
pbeesly: i don’t care, i need you.
pbeesly: please don’t leave me like this.
pbeesly: i need you.
jhalpert: are you close?
pbeesly: yes.
jhalpert: don’t talk, okay? just listen.
pbeesly: ok.

       He sits leans back in his chair, scoots further under the desk and thinks of all the things that he would be doing to her if he could.

jhalpert: first i would taste you, press my tongue against your opening, slide it inside, then back out.
jhalpert: then i’d push my fingers inside you slowly
jhalpert: while i sucked on your clit

       He hears her breath catch.

jhalpert: i bet you taste so good
jhalpert: when you’re grinding against my mouth

       He has to still his own hand, afraid he might lose it just imagining what she’d look like when he glanced up at her face, his fingers buried in her.

jhalpert: i’d slide my fingers in and out of you
jhalpert: just slow enough until you have to beg me to go faster
jhalpert: to rub against you harder.

       She has to hold her breath to keep from panting.

jhalpert: are you moving your fingers for me, pam?

       Her answer isn’t quick and he’s pressing his hand into his cock so hard at the images of what’s going on behind the desk.

pbeesly: yes
jhalpert: i want to make you come
pbeesly: i’m so close, jim.

       He turns back, the crown of her head just visible over the desk. He wants to see her, he has to see her.

jhalpert: please i want to watch you.

       His muscles are tense and he feels like he’s in pounce position waiting for her answer.

pbeesly: hurry.

       He’s up and around the corner of the desk in a second, a stack of papers fluttering across his desk onto Ryan’s. Ryan bites his lip and looks at him. Jim hopes he is completely capturing “seriously, man, just deal with it for a second because I got something else I really need to do right now” in his facial expression. He is. Ryan gives him a discreet nod and pushes the papers into a pile.

       Jim drops down to knees beside Pam. She has one hand curled up under her skirt and it’s bunching where her wrist presses against the fabric, enough that he can see her hand moving steadily. Her other hand is clutching desperately at the armrest of the chair, knuckles white.

       He licks his lips, bends her forwards enough that they aren’t visible over the top of the desk and presses his mouth against her ear.

       “I want you to come for me, Pam. Right now.”

      His words hit her hard and she feels everything in her clench into a tight ball before bursting open into release. The hand on the armrest shoots abruptly to her mouth and she bites on her fingers to keep from screaming but he can hear her small breathy moan.
     
      He’s rubbing her back gently, holding her against him while she rides out the slowly dying waves. She can feel his breath, panting in her ear, sending chills down her spine and prolonging the release.
     
      He doesn’t let go of her even after she slides her hand out from under her skirt and smoothes down the fabric. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see the tent of his pants. She drops her arm over the side of the chair and brushes the back of her hand against him.
     
      “What about you?” He grabs her wrist and presses her harder against him. He hopes that’s answer enough.
     
      The two of them end up against a wall in the stairwell. His mouth is on her neck, where he undid the top few buttons of her blouse, and she’s undoing his belt buckle and slipping his pants and boxers just past his hips.
     
      “Could you... again?” His voice is muffled against her collarbone.
     
      “Yes,” she doesn’t even have to guess about it. She will. She’s close again already.
     
      He moans when her hand finally wraps around him. He presses her against the wall, pinning her with his weight while his hands slide up her thighs and lift her skirt to her waist.
     
      One of her legs is around his hips, pulling herself higher, closer.
     
      He loops one of his fingers through the crotch of her panties, she’s almost embarrassed for him to see how wet she actually is, but then he’s tugging them roughly to the side and pushing into her and she doesn’t really care what he thinks just as long as he keeps moving like that. She reaches out for something but her fingers only flex futilely against the concrete wall.
     
      She wraps her other leg around him and gasps when he hits something deep in her. She clutches the back of his dress shirt and he presses her harder into the wall.
     
      The silk of her panties shifts against her with each of his thrusts and she wants to tell him that she’s almost there, just keep going, but she comes suddenly without warning and this time can’t stop his name from pouring uncontrollably from her lips.
     
      He feels her clenching around him and it’s enough for him to follow after her.
     
      Their breathing seems loud in the empty staircase and Pam wonders for the first time, the desperation now gone, if Jim was right, if people had known what they were doing. She remembers something about Ryan and the blush rises in her cheeks.
     
      “Are you sure Ryan knows?” She bites her lip.
     
      “Um, I think he does, but, he’s not gonna say anything. He wouldn’t tell Karen.”
     
      Pam laughs nervously, “Oh, no. He’ll probably tell Karen.”
     
      After their clothing is straightened and their breathing composed, she walks back into the office and he a few minutes after her.
     
      She goes straight to the bathroom, checks her hair, washes her hands, pats her face with water, and tries to recognize the smiling person in the mirror.

       She’s pouring the hot water from the kettle into her mug when he walks into the break room to grab something out of the fridge.

       “You know,” he’s says it as if he’s talking to the wall, and she blushes for the both of them. “That’s supposed to be, like, plan C.” Ryan turns around to look at her and she notices that he is as red as she knows she is.  “You’ve got plan A available. Let’s not steal the fun away from other people.”

       “Yeah, that’s exactly what Karen said.”

       “Yeah, well, great minds,” he still isn’t really looking her in the eye but she just laughs as he backs out the door uncomfortably, dipping her teabag delicately in the water.