Usually, seduction is a slow, complicated process, but sometimes you don’t have to do anything, it just happens. I was thirty, a few years into my career as a systems analyst at a large university when it happened to me. Like an American crossing a street in London, forgetting that they drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road, I didn’t see it coming.

The university had an outstanding Computer Science program, and our department took advantage of that talent pool by hiring some Comp Sci students as student assistants. We got their skill, and they got paid as part of their financial aid package. That’s how I met Lynn Carson. She was assigned to my staff, the first time I had been granted that privilege. I had four full-time programmers reporting to me, and we were short of space so Lynn and I had to share an office. Sometimes having an officemate can be stressful, but sharing my space with Lynn was a positive, pleasant experience. She was bright, funny, and not at all unattractive; tall and slender, with shoulder-length, wavy, jet-black hair, startling gray eyes, and freckles. It was an unusual combination, but it worked.

At first, I was just her mentor and her boss, but I found myself drawn to her more and more as we worked together. She told me a lot about her life, maybe even more than I cared to know. I enjoyed listening to her talk, and I got very relaxed around her. Something that I thought was friendship started growing, even though I tried to resist it. I started caring for her, in a way I hadn’t felt for a girl since college. One day I even made the mistake of saying that if I was ten years younger I might ask her out. Lynn smiled and said she would like that, but her boyfriend Eric might object. I knew I had gone way too far with that remark, so after that I tried to keep things on a more professional level, trying to avoid any issue with HR.

Then one day she showed up in a funk. She dropped her backpack on the floor, turned on her computer, and sat, staring at the screen, without her usual sunny greeting. When I heard her quietly crying, I felt like I needed to get involved, even though I’m lousy at personal things, like sympathy and empathy.

“Something wrong?” I asked. Like I said, I wasn’t great at that stuff.

“Eric and I broke up last night,” she said, between sobs.

I had heard her describe Eric’s shortcomings over the last few weeks, so this wasn’t surprising. I thought reminding me of what she had told me about him might be a way to help. “Lynn, didn’t you tell me he was self-centered and egotistical?”

She sighed. “Yeah, but still he was the best boyfriend I’ve ever had. I was beginning to think maybe we had a future. And the sex was great.”

I didn’t have a response to that. I knew I was in over my head, so I called Debby Cloud, one of the other programmers who worked for me. She and Lynn talked a lot, so I asked for her help.

As soon Debby came into my office, Lynn started telling her what had happened. I didn’t stick around. I left them to do whatever it is that women do in those kinds of situations, and headed for the break room for a cup of coffee. Besides, three in my small office was a crowd.

By the time I came back, they were smiling and making plans to have lunch together. I thanked Debby, and then headed for my desk, ready to get back to work, but before I got there, Lynn stopped me and wrapped her arms around me in what seemed to me to be more than just a friendly hug. I didn’t mind, I’ve never resisted a hug from an attractive woman. I returned the hug, my arms wrapped around her shoulders, but I had to remind myself that I was her boss.”Thanks for being understanding,” she said, almost whispering it in my ear as we continued to hold each other. I looked over her shoulder at my open door, hoping nobody would walk by and wonder what was going on.

“No prob,” I told her, as I attempted to free myself. She really could hug hard.

I couldn’t concentrate on work that morning. Memories of Lynn’s arms wrapped around me, and the way her body felt pressed against me, along with the fact that she was now without a boyfriend, kept intruding. I had to keep giving myself mental slaps to stop myself from going too far down that path.

She was off the next two days, and when she came back we had Gail Gregory’s going-away luncheon to look forward to. Gail was one of the most popular employees in our department, and she was retiring after thirty years at the university. We went to a popular Italian restaurant near campus. A lot of good food was consumed, and even though it was a workday, quite a bit of wine. It looked like a lot of people might not be going back to work that afternoon.

After we left the restaurant, a few of us decided to keep the party going a little longer by adjourning to a nearby student bar. The group was six women, including Gail, Debby, Lynn, and one guy, me. The only reason I went with them was that I wanted to hang out with Lynn in a more casual atmosphere.

After a couple of pitchers of beer, the party finally broke up. I was the last one to leave, sticking around long enough to ensure our waitress was properly compensated. When I finally stepped outside, squinting into the bright mid-afternoon sun, I was surprised to see Lynn standing in the almost empty parking lot.

She grinned and said, “Can I catch a ride back to work with you? I came with Debby, but I guess she forgot about me.

I was suspicious because Debby wasn’t the kind of person to forget someone. “Come on, Lynn, you just want a ride in my car,” I teased. I had bought a Miata a few months earlier, and she had been bugging me to give her a ride.

“Well ... maybe,” she admitted, with a sly smile.

We walked around to the side of the building, where I had parked in the shade so I wouldn’t get burned by the hot steering wheel and seats, one of the tricks you learn when you buy a sports car in Florida. That also allowed Lynn to settle comfortably into the bucket seat next to me. She was wearing a short, summery dress, the first time I had seen her wear anything but jeans, and it slid halfway up her thighs. I thought modesty might cause her to pull it down a little, but she seemed to be too drunk to care.

As I waited for a break in the traffic so I could pull out of the parking lot, I couldn’t resist taking a peek, which confirmed what I had suspected - the scattered freckles on her pale legs went up at least halfway up her legs. That made me think about how much fun it would be to play connect-the-dots. I was acting like a letch, and I didn’t care. I pulled out onto the highway and headed back to work. Time to get serious, I told myself.

Maybe Lynn saw me staring, or just read my mind, but she casually reached down and pulled her hemline a few inches higher. I wondered if she was waiting for me to react, but when I looked, she was lying back, eyes closed, enjoying the ride as the wind blew through her long, black hair.

Luckily, there wasn’t much traffic, because I was having a hard time keeping my eyes on the road.

When we stopped at a red light, my hand was resting on the shift knob, just inches from her pale, speckled skin. Again, she seemed to intuit what my imagination was picturing. When the light turned green and I made a turn, she grasped my wrist and guided my hand onto the sun-warmed flesh of her thigh. It almost caused me to clip a curb.

“Would I be in trouble if I said I don’t want to go back to work?” she asked, ending her question with a giggle and a hiccup.

“Well, since I am your supervisor, and I can see that you are in no shape to be working, I think that leaving early is justified. Where did you park? I’ll drop you off.”

“Can’t you just take me home? It’s not far,” she said, giving me her lost puppy expression. I was those damned gray eyes that got me.

I smiled. “Sure, you probably shouldn’t be driving anyway.”

She smiled back, then I felt her hand sliding across my lap. I wondered if that was her nonverbal way of letting me know that after I got her home, I might still have work to do. My conscience was sending me all kinds of warnings - “You’re her boss.” “She’s ten years younger than you.” “She’s drunk.”

“Thanks for your input, conscience,” my libido said, “but I’ve got this.”

She lived in a small cottage behind a house I passed every day on my way to and from work. “It’s cute,” I told her.

“Yeah, that’s what everyone says,” she said, as she struggled to get out of my low-slung car. I just sat there, engine idling, still not sure what she was expecting. She started walking, someone unsteadily, toward her front door. She stopped, looked back over her shoulder, and said,”Come on.” She made it sound like an order.

Never one to disappoint a lady, I turned my car off and followed her through the doorway into her small living room. She kicked off her shoes and threw them into a corner where more of her clothes were already stacked up. She almost fell over when she did that, which led to another giggle-hiccup. The doorway to her bedroom was to her left, and that’s where she headed.

She looked at me with what a hack writer might describe as a come-hither look, so I kicked off my shoes and followed her. She turned and faced me, and before I knew what was happening, she was all over me. I felt like a beetle that had stumbled into a Venus flytrap. Her long arms draped over my shoulders, her thin, soft lips covered mine, and if I hadn’t opened my mouth, it felt like her tongue would have forced its way in anyway. One long leg wrapped around me, and her pelvis pushed against my tumescent manhood. This was our first kiss, and it left me wondering what would happen when we got to the main event. But first I had a more pressing matter to take care of. Reluctantly, I backed out of her embrace. “Lynn, I want to as much as you do, but first I have to...”

“Take a leak,” she grinned. “Me too, and it’s ladies first in this house.” She slipped past me into the bathroom and closed the door,

I sat on the bed, hoping that my bladder could hold out. When the door opened and Lynn came out, she was only wearing panties. As I passed her on my way to the bathroom, my eyes were drawn to her small breasts. Her dark brown nipples were hard, and very inviting. She grabbed my arm and pulled me against her for another wet, probing kiss before she released me.

After I finished peeing for what seemed like five minutes, which isn’t easy when you’ve got a raging hardon, I was faced with a dilemma - to undress then or after I came out. When I saw Lynn’s clothes lying on the bathroom floor, I followed her example. I even went a little further, emerging totally naked. In those days, I was still in decent shape, so I wasn’t self-conscious about Lynn seeing my body, or my cock, which was now standing straight out, like it hadn’t done since I was a horny teenager. Sgt. Johnson reporting for duty, sir.

That’s where her gaze was focused as I slowly walked toward her. She was lying on the bed, her panties on the floor. She was on her side, her head propped on one arm, one knee raised. She looked like a Penthouse centerspread, and I was the lucky photographer. I got on the bed next to her. We kissed again, a gentler, more romantic one this time. I ran my hand down her back, caressing her warm flesh. I cupped one small buttcheek, barely a handful, and squeezed.