It was still their secret. It didn’t even belong to their families yet. Just theirs alone. Jim watched Pam dress, saw how her hands slowed as she smoothed her sweater over her stomach, felt a familiar, but always welcome pull as she straightened out the back of her skirt, her hands sliding down her hips and thighs. He cleared his throat, turning away, painfully aware they were already running late, unwilling to be responsible for making them any later. He’d done that once before and was pretty damn sure Michael knew why they were late. Pam caught his gaze in the mirror; saw the flash of heat, and much to her continual surprise, lust. Jim had always been her rock, a steady, calm force in her life. The passion that he held, that he kept so tightly restrained for so long, still amazed her. She smiled at him, her gaze moving to his pants. Her smile broadened and she licked her lips before speaking.

“Want to be late?” She asked, her voice dropping with invitation at the same time he asked the same question, less invitation and more leer. Resembling a two-bit talent show mirror act, they pointed at each other, made a strange gasping sound and shouted out: Jinx! For a moment, they paused, both acting as referee, doing their own internal instant replays. Jim lowered his hand and furrowed his brow. Pam mirrored his expression and then pointed at herself and back at him. Slowly, he nodded. It was a tie. Pam could almost see the lightbulb pop on over his head. He made a “wait here” gesture and disappeared into the kitchen. When he returned he was triumphantly holding out a flyer for a golf outing that Pam had refused to attend. She would have been the fourth with Jim and his brothers and had been pretty clear that it ranked somewhere right above the sixth level of hell. He made a muscle man gesture and pointed to the flyer.

Pam narrowed her eyes. If he wanted her to go on the golf outing in exchange for winning their game of jinx, she was going to make damn sure her own prize was equal. She tapped her foot, crossing her arms as she weighed her options. When the idea came to her, she mimicked his “wait here” gesture and ran upstairs. She returned, carrying two wallpaper samples. Jim almost told her not to bother, that he had been fighting her on the wallpaper for the nursery just to watch her sputter and spout off her artistic qualifications, but when she held out a square of wallpaper that looked pretty much exactly like the other one, he rolled his eyes and shrugged. “Fine, you win, you get that one.” He seemed to say and Pam smiled, her smile a bit more confident that he would have liked. She made another wait here gesture and ran back upstairs. She returned a moment later and followed him out the door.

Once outside, they paused at the car, their game of Jinx temporarily derailing the morning chorus of “I’ll drive.” Pam gestured as she moved toward the passenger’s side. “It’s all you.” Jim heard clearly and he jingled the keys in his hand as he walked around to the driver’s side. Pam was already in as he got in, her hand hovering over the radio. Sure enough, as soon as Jim turned the key in the ignition, Pam was pressing buttons, turning the station to her favorite morning show. She sat back, letting out a dramatic but silent sigh as she settled in to listen two DJ’s dismantle Gray’s Anatomy from the night before. Jim tried to make do with counting the number of vowels he saw on street signs on his way to the office. The drive was short, only fifteen minutes, and he was prepared to pass it counting letters but at :27 past the hour, when the local sport station ran through the box scores from the previous night’s baseball games, Pam changed to the sports channel. Jim took her hand and kissed the back, bringing it to rest in his lap.

She shrugged, that adorable one-sided, half-smile that made him silly with love. At the office, they walked toward the building, their hands lightly clasped, their morning routine coming to a comfortable, if silent, conclusion. They’d been taking the stairs lately, Pam had read that exercise could make for an easier labor, but she stopped in front of the elevator, pulling Jim toward her for a quick, unexpected kiss. He felt her tongue dip into his mouth, her hand slid along the inside of his pants and wasn’t even paying attention as she moved them into the elevator. Just before the doors closed, Pam released him, pressed the button for the basement and stepped out of the elevator. He watched her wave goodbye as the doors closed, his puzzlement clear. By the time he realized he was headed down rather than up, Pam was sprinting upstairs, running past the receptionist to slide into her seat. Thankfully, she had only put her computer to sleep the night before, leaving in a hurry for a doctor’s appointment. She stabbed at her keyboard, yanking off her jacket and beginning to mentally compose her message. She pulled up her email client and was typing as she heard the door open again. Jim moved quickly across the floor and she saw him stop and fight back a grin when he saw her at her desk. She clicked send, pushed back from her computer and gave him a grin that was mostly triumph and just a little boastful.

“Awww, Pam, that’s terrible.” Phyllis said a moment later. “Laryngitis? You should have stayed home.” Pam turned to Phyllis and waved it off, seemingly saying, “it’s not that bad.” She rose to her feet and passed Jim to hang up her coat. He tried to scowl at her but was just too darn proud to scowl effectively. Instead, he sat at his desk, spinning once or twice to free up a good idea. When it shook lose, he pulled out a blank sheet of paper and a marker. He made a small sign, “Completing reports, please do not disturb” and hung it on his chair. He made the same sign and folded into a table tent to put on the corner of his desk. He dug his spare iPod out of his desk, plugged in his headphones and went to work.

The morning passed quietly. A slow Wednesday morning, Michael was off a meeting in New York, Meredith had pretty much passed out first thing and the accounting department was knee-deep in final reports for the quarter. The new receptionist filtered their phone calls and Pam only had to deal with Dwight yelling at her once, seemingly convinced that muteness and deafness go hand in hand. A few times, Pam got up to go to the restroom and refill her water bottle and Jim got up to stretch his legs. As she watched him move, Pam was prepared for what was going to be the slowest game of jinx in their history. She checked the clock again, not sure she wanted to wait out the entire day but pretty damn sure she didn’t want to go golfing. Watching him work, Pam came to quick and easy decision that the best way to his voice was through his pants, and she almost lost the game by giggling but slapped a hand over her mouth in time to keep it in check.

Jim looked up, knowing she was smiling at him, almost able to hear it. He watched with slight befuddlement as Pam met his gaze. She kept it as she rose to her feet, and only looked away to shuffle through her paperwork. She deliberately reached down to smooth the material on the side of her skirt and through the simple cotton skirt, Jim saw the line of panties on her hip. She smiled at him again and walked back toward to break room and the bathroom. He leaned back in his chair, approaching the game like he would a chess game, trying to predict Pam’s move two or three ahead. He knew how much she didn’t want to go golfing, how much she struggled with being around his brothers given their blunder-headed first impressions but she knew she would go in a heartbeat if he asked. He really didn’t care about the wallpaper and didn’t really mind losing but it seemed a little disrespectful to Pam to let her win. Instead, he leaned back in his chair and waited for her to return, still unable to predict her next move.

When she did return, she caught his gaze and with a look that instantly had his mouth go dry. Andy did a double-take as she passed by and Jim shot him a look of his own that was more effective than any words could be, judging by how quickly Andy returned to his work. Pam passed their desks and went to the receptionist. She snagged a hard candy and wrote something on the envelope. Leaving it in the In box on Erin’s desk, she returned to her seat, a small secret smile lifting the corner of her mouth.

Jim looked at her, the line in his brow growing deeper by the moment. He pointed at her and then pulled his hands away from his nose and cheeks. He paused a moment and then wrapped his thumbs together to make the sign for butterfly. He chomped his teeth a few times to finish out the mangled cliché. You look like the cat that ate the canary. She just smiled sweetly and returned to her computer. If asked later, Jim would freely admit he spent entirely too much trying to figure out what was in the envelope. He was about to go and get when Erin brought it to him, along with several other pieces of mail. Before opening the envelope, Jim pushed back from his desk and turned to Pam. She deliberately ignored him, focusing on her computer screen. He looked from her to the envelope and back again, knowing she was watching, despite her feigned indifference. With a shrug, he held the envelope over their shared trash can. Pam moved so quickly, Jim almost dropped it in for real. She reached for it, shooting daggers at him, her brow lowered. He smiled and sat back, proud to have caught her attention. With a now captive audience, he slowly opened the envelope and looked inside. Jim felt his IQ drop 50 points in the space of a single heartbeat. He had seen the contents of the envelope earlier that morning, as she slid them on. The plain, simple panties followed the curve between her thighs and ass, over her hips and waist, and across the small, barely perceptible curve of their child. She had made sure to remind him of them with that little move at his desk and the fact that her panties were now in an envelope in his hand meant. . . he tried to finish the thought but gave up the fight as other parts of his body filled in the blank.

He didn’t look at her. Didn’t dare. Almost by silent decree, they left their libidos at the front door of the office. They were affectionate at work, but no more than before they became a couple. No more than when they had been best friends and nothing more. He looked up at Pam and quickly back down. The color was high and bright on her cheeks, giving her a feverish look. She slowly turned her engagement ring, watching Jim not look at her. She pulled a sheet of paper off her notepad and checking the time, scrawled a quick note to Erin. She wrote a second note to Jim and slid it over to him. Gathering her jacket and purse, she left the office without looking back, leaving the note for Erin. Jim scrambled for the note, registering the word “car” at the same time he thought to hold his jacket in front of him on his way out. He nodded at Erin and walked quickly past her and down into the stairwell.

Pam was waiting for him between the first and second floor. She leaned against the railing, her elbows back on the top rail, her breasts pressing against her sweater. Not sure if he should be praising pregnancy hormones or what was shaping up to be the most interesting game of Jinx ever, he stepped between her legs and captured her mouth with his. Since their very first kiss, Pam had a way of sinking into him that left him breathless, almost weak. This time though, Pam didn’t sink, she took. She clasped his face between her hands, her mouth insistent and demanding on his. He felt her tongue tease his own, her body tight against his, her legs pulling him into her. When she broke the kiss, for just a moment, Jim thought she was going to say something but instead, she lowered one hand to take his and he followed. They walked out into the parking lot and Pam pointed toward to driver’s side. He obeyed, the car started and in gear before she was even settled. At the exit, he looked expectantly at her. She pointed left and once they were headed in the right direction, took his right hand.

Although he knew what Pam wore, or more to the point, wasn’t wearing, under her skirt, he still felt the jolt when she placed his hand on the smooth, warm flesh of her stomach. He could feel the small rise, the small change in the flesh that meant the world to them. She squeezed his hand and pointed right, taking them out of the city into the mountains. He drove for about ten minutes, one hand resting on her stomach, forgetting about reports, about time, about work. Pam tugged on his hand again and pointed toward an abandoned office park. He followed her tugs until their car could no longer be seen from the road, hidden behind a row of empty moving containers.

The moment he turned off the car, Pam moved his hand from her stomach to her thigh. Jim watched her face, trying to gauge her mood. Did she want to take? To give? To lead or to follow? A flicker passed over her face and he read the flash of embarrassment, the flash of concern that maybe she had gone too far. Wanting to clear up that misperception right damn quick, Jim reached over and kissed her, hard and deep. Perfect, he thought. What you do is perfect. Who you are is perfect for me.

He felt her relax and the familiar lean, the gentle release of stress, the soft give in her body that signaled her trust in him. Missing that spice he had seen in the stairwell, Jim pulled back so she could see him. He wiggled his eyebrows, looking down at her lap. She shrugged, and he saw her fight off that wave of embarrassment again. So he smiled at her, not a gee-wiz smile to relax but a look that told her clearly and plainly, he liked it. He liked seeing this side of her and he wanted more.

For a moment, Pam had a flash of Roy. She remembered telling him every day for a week that she didn’t like having sex first thing in the morning. Every day for a week, she told him no, explaining she wanted to at least brush her teeth first. When, on the eighth day, he woke her up by cradling her breasts in his hands, she conceded, figuring it was easier than repeating the same chorus again. She had told him that same thing every day and he didn’t hear. She looked at Jim and he heard her as clearly as if she had shouted. She motioned with her head at the back seat and Jim was out in a flash. She took her time following him, debating her first move. When she got to the back seat, he pulled her in, all gentleness gone, all signs of her best friend gone. This was her fiancé, her partner.

His kiss was demanding and hot, his hands everywhere. Somehow, her cute little sweater came off and his tie disappeared. Mindful of the need to return to the office, Pam didn’t tear open his shirt like she wanted but unbuttoned it with hurried, shaking hands. He moved to the soft spot on the side of her neck, the spot guaranteed to drop her own IQ. She almost moaned but bit it back, wallpaper long forgotten, not wanting to lose this precious silence that filled the car around them. Once his chest was bare to her, Pam moved down to his pants, making quick work of his belt and buckle. He lifted his hips, letting her slide his pants and boxers over his narrow hips. She nipped at his bottom lip, keeping his mouth busy as she reached between their bodies. For a moment, she just held him, feeling the warmth of his erection. She pulled back from their kiss, and moving slowly and carefully, their gazes locked, moved over him. Even if she could have spoken, she wouldn’t have. She rose to her knees, her mouth capturing his again, gently, teasing rather than taking. His hands were on her waist and she slid one down her hip, across her thigh and pressed his long, strong fingers against the damp triangle between her legs. He moved his hand slowly, letting one finger slide inside her, then another. She felt a shudder pass through him and wanted to whimper, wanted to purr, to tell him how good it felt to feel him inside her, to trust him so completely. Knowing she was wet, knowing she ready for him, she took his wrist and brought his hand to her mouth. Then, as Jim watched in stunned belief, slipped his glistening fingers into her mouth at the same time she sank down on him. For a beat, they both froze. He dropped his hands to her waist, his fingers digging into her soft flesh. Pam felt it in his chest, he need to say her name. Before he could, she kissed him, stealing his breath and stealing his words. She began to move slowly and rhythmically, looking for the sweet pressure that would give her what she wanted. It didn’t take long.

Jim felt the quickening in her body, in her thighs, deep within in her as she moved closer to the edge. Pam had been right, the need to say her name felt like a heavy weight in his chest, a pressure that was approaching painful. Instead, he closed his eyes, resting his head back on the seat, letting Pam take. For a breath, she froze, her fingers gripping his arms, her head thrown back, her neck bared to him. He lifted his hips to press up against her, wanting to get deeper, closer. He felt the shudder race through her body, felt her heart skip, felt his own match hers. When he opened his eyes, Pam was watching him, the spots of color still high on her checks. She made a small gesture with her left hand, bringing her ring and middle finger down to her palm. I love you. He nodded, brushing his hand across her cheek. Forever, he would say later.

Thinking the afternoon adventure was complete, Jim began to shift his weight to move Pam and get out of the car to straighten himself up. Instead, Pam stopped him with a firm shove. She looked around the backseat of the car, at their positions in the middle, and back at him. Jim watched with amusement as she tugged at her bottom lip with her teeth. Trying, he thought, to figure out the best spot to put him for what she was planning next. He could almost see her riffle through her mental inventory of possible positions. After a few beats, she grinned. He grinned back, knowing if he ended up with charley horse or a cracked spine, it would be totally worth it. Pam shifted her weight, sliding off his erection, mindful of the small space.

She pointed at the corner of the backseat and he moved back, wondering if it was better to tell the guys on the basketball team if he suffered a sex injury or just lie to them. Pam gave him a “hold on” signal and reached into the front seat to grab something from her purse. The movement pulled her skirt up higher and Jim saw the full reward of Pam going through life without panties. If the sex injury resulted in full paralysis, he’d be okay as long as he could hold that image in his mind. When she turned back, she saw where he was looking. Her look of “seriously?” was amusing enough but it was her slight start at how large his erection had become that almost made him break his vow of silence. She rolled her eyes and leaned in to kiss him. They had each had their turn to take from the other, to get what they wanted and now she seemed to want to give. So Jim took. He tasted her mouth, ran his hands down her shoulders, across her chest, cupping her small breasts in his hands. He took from her what he wanted, he gorged himself on her taste and skin and when she pulled away, moving down his body, felt the loss.

Pam took her turn. She knew Jim’s taste better than any other. She knew to avoid the space between his ribs, but let her lips linger on the curve of his waist. She trailed her fingers over his thighs, letting her hair fall over him, moving her head slowly as she worked her mouth closer to him, to the heat she wanted to taste and swallow. The act was familiar to them. Before the pregnancy, they had discovered all sorts of fun things to do when she had her period, but there as something about the bright light of day, the shared intimacy of silence, the stolen lunch hour that added to the eroticism. They’d been best friends who became something more, now in the back seat of her car, she felt the subtle shift that solidified their relationship as lovers. He closed his eyes, turned himself over to her. When her mouth closed over him, her hands on his thighs, his gasp carried the faintest of sounds.

Pam knew what he liked, and used her mouth and tongue and hands to tease and taunt him. As the sensations built, Jim pushed back into the seat, trying to hold onto the moment, to fight off the inevitable for one more sweet second. When he opened his eyes, seeing Pam’s engagement ring wrapped around the base of his cock, her head bent over him, Jim lost control. His body shook, spilling into Pam’s mouth, his hands coming up to rest on her shoulders. The silence of the moment continued, broken only by the distant hum of the traffic, the rustle of the trees around the building through the open window. Pam sat up, becoming aware of the kinks and bruises that were an inevitable consequence of sex in the backseat of a car. She reached in the back pocket of the driver’s seat and pulled out the small note she had stuffed there.

When Jim finally opened his eyes, he saw Pam holding a sheet of paper in front of her breasts. His jaw dropped, his heart stopped. "Are you sure?" He asked, his voice trembling.

Pam nodded, "Ultrasound showed two." Her face blurred by his tears, Jim grabbed her face, pulling her into him. The sheet fell the the seat beside them, Twins landing up.

Pam pulled back with a laugh. "They do run on both sides." She ran her hand up his chest, resting her palm against his heart, “Did I win?”

“This one goes to the Bees. The kids are getting yellow wallpaper and I’ll make excuses for you at the golf outing.”

“Rightly so,” Pam stepped out to straighten her clothes and hair. Jim half fell out the other side, and tried to do the same. They stopped before getting in, looking at each other over the top of the car. "Twins." Jim shook his head ruefully. "We never do anything the easy way do we?"

When they got back in the car, they returned to the comfortable silence they had found before, Jim’s hand resting in Pam’s lap.

Back in the office, Phyllis turned to Pam as she hung up her coat on the back of her chair. “Feeling better?”

“Much, thank you.” Pam said, her voice husky. She didn’t look at Jim, but took the manila envelope off his desk and after hesitating a moment, slipped into her purse. When she looked up a Jim, she gently rested one finger against her lips. He winked and they both returned to their work.