The life of working as a rep at a temporary labor agency can be dull. Unless you have a boss like Clarice.

We were a small outfit, just five of us on the staff. My buddy Todd and I were the two agents who acted as liaisons between prospective workers looking for temp gigs and employers who needed short-term help. A woman named Marcy handled all HR and finance matters, and another lady, Cindy, answered phones, greeted visitors and such. Clarice supervised the four of us and otherwise spent a lot of her working time promoting our services to nearby businesses.

How to describe Clarice? If you don’t know her and just saw a picture of her, I think you might say she’s a perfectly nice-looking woman, but not glamour model material or a sexpot. In her mid-30s at the time I’m talking about, Clarice is average height for a woman, 5’5 or thereabouts. Her skin tone is pale in most places, and she usually wears her straight, light brown hair in a nondescript style and about shoulder length. Her small brown eyes are nice enough, nicer when they light up while she’s smiling. She’s thin up top and down the middle but has slightly chubby, chipmunk-y cheeks that look appealing when she’s grinning. Her best physical features are her legs and hands. Her legs are shiny and sleek, and she keeps them nicely browned all year around (with the aid of a tanning lamp when necessary); she favors dresses and skirts that cut off around her upper thighs in a way as to show off her lower limbs. And her fingernails are natural and grown long and well-manicured, creating that almond shape that can be attractive on a woman’s hands. She wears almost no jewelry but has fine taste in perfumes that she applies generously.

It was Clarice’s behaviors that brought out her irresistible sex appeal to me. The first time she caught my attention in that way was on a Monday morning a few weeks after I’d started there. Sweeping by the desks Todd and I manned – which were maybe 10 feet from each other, with no wall or partition between them- in a short black dress, she came into our area and said, “I just know you two are going to be good boys for me today and make lots of placements to get our week off to a good start!” Then she strode right up to each of us and squeezed our shoulders. After doing mine, she also raked her long nails down the nape of my neck briefly. The sensations brought on by the coaxing way she’d just talked to us, the feel of her hands on my body, the smell of her sultry perfume when she was up close to me, and the way the backs of her brown legs looked when she walked back into her private office … I hadn’t thought of my boss as a particularly attractive woman to that point, but suddenly I realized there was more to her in that way than I initially detected. In bed that night, I masturbated to fantasies I dreamed up about her.

That new way I started to think and feel about Clarice got sparked even more by an encounter between us three weeks or so later. It was a slow Friday. Todd was out sick. By 11:00 a.m. I hadn’t had a single communication from an employer or visit from a worker. Clarice, wearing an appealing yellow blouse and skirt outfit, came back into the office from doing her rounds of calling on companies in person to pitch our services.

“It’s dead today. I know,” she said to me, after stopping to stand in front of me and after I made a “nothing going on” facial expression to her. “Are you going to make it to five o’clock?”

“I guess I’ll survive. But don’t be shocked if you come out and see me conked out with my head on my desk unless things pick up.”

Clarice took a step closer to me so that I could more fully take in the delicious aroma of her fragrant spray. She smiled in that way that made her eyes light up and her cheeks go chubby.

“But sleeping on the job is against company policy. If I catch you doing that, I’d have to drag you into my office and give you a sound spanking.”

It was just the two of us on the floor. Marcy also had a private office, and the reception desk that Cindy occupied was around a corner and too far away for her to hear us. I wondered if Clarice would merely chuckle after making that provocative comment and then continue on to her office. But instead, she stood her ground and eyed me piercingly while maintaining the smile that I now viewed as an expression showing that she was challenging me.

As I felt all my senses grow heightened and a certain bulge forming under my chinos, I thought of different ways I could play this. My first idea was to say something like, “Do you promise?” or just slump over and close my eyes and feign snoring. But would that be taking the game too far? I also considered saying, “Yes, ma’am,” and saluting her, to keep things light and not commit to making it clear to her that she was turning me on. In the end, I hesitated too long, and she took charge of the situation.

“I know you’ll be my good boy and maintain your professional decorum.” After saying that, she leaned all the way in and pecked me on the nose, before rubbing her cheek against mine. Then she walked away. I masturbated while daydreaming of getting spankings from her several times that weekend.

Of course, all of Clarice’s shoulder squeezes and nose kisses and spanking “threats” were wildly inappropriate workplace behaviors from her. But she was sure of herself enough such that she knew neither Todd nor I were about to register a complaint to Marcy or the company owner. And Clarice took this flirty atmosphere to a new level with a performance she put on not long after the spanking talk with me.

It was another Monday, and Todd’s work week got off to a rocky start. Shortly after we were both logged on that morning, he got reamed out over the phone by a restaurant manager. A line cook temp Todd had recently sent them walked out in the midst of their Saturday night dinner rush, all but bringing their kitchen’s output to a standstill and causing a lot of displeasure among the customers and frustration for the rest of the staff. Todd took pride in his work there and felt dejected about providing them with what turned out to be a bum worker.

When Clarice came out onto the floor and saw Todd’s sad affect, she asked him what was wrong. He explained the situation to her.

“Ok, so did anybody die? Sweetie, you know in our business this just happens sometimes. It’s not your fault. I’ll go to the restaurant later today and flirt with the manager and tell him Marcy will put a credit on his account, and everything’ll be smoothed over. Ok?”

Todd nodded in agreement, but he still looked glum. Clarice wasn’t having that. She made that coaxing smile like the one she gave me when she talked about spanking me, and said, “Looks like mama needs to do something to cheer her good boy up and make him smile.”

She came up behind him and pulled his chair out from his desk, then wheeled it so that they were facing me. She put her hands over his on the arms of his chair, then leaned down and rubbed her cheeks against his, like she’d done with me previously.

“I need to see a big smile out of my good boy,” she said in a sexy mothering way, talking right into Todd’s ear. Then she freed her hands from his and tickled him. She drummed her fingertips on his neck skin, reached under his shirt and got at his armpits with her long nails, and squeezed on his sides, all with her face pressed against his and while saying things like, “Come on. I know you want to be good for me. Let’s see that big smile.”

Todd wiggled and squirmed, and he was smiling and giggling the whole time. But Clarice kept working on him long after she’d subdued him into changing his facial expression and demeanor. And here’s the thing: she was doing all of this to Todd, but I felt like the whole show was for my benefit. Because as she prodded and squeezed my work buddy and cooed in his ear, she stared boldly at me the entire time, as if to say, “I know watching this is arousing you and making you wish I was doing it to you.” Of course I couldn’t look away. She finally stopped tickling Todd, but this exhibit wasn’t quite over yet. Still behind him, she took a hold of his jaw and brought his face to hers and planted a kiss directly on his lips. Then she pulled away from him and looked at me again. She winked at me and blew me a kiss before going into her office.

My big moment with Clarice came around a month after the episode of her tickling Todd. It was Friday and my buddy had taken a vacation day to give himself a long weekend. Clarice left the office around 10:00 to make her rounds. A little before noon, I was quietly eating a brown bag lunch at my desk when my boss called my line.

“Just checking in on you and letting you know I’ll be out for a few hours yet. I have to wine and dine a prospective client over lunch, and I still have a few more appointments after that. It might be 3-ish before I’m back.”

“Roger that, boss. I’ll see if I can hold down the fort.”

Then Clarice altered her vocal inflection to achieve the provocative, enticing tone.

“Is my boy going to be okay there all by himself for all that time? Will he be lonely?”

I was getting aroused, of course. And this time I decided to not hold back with her.

“I guess I’ll survive. But I’ll be happier when you’re back.”

She left just enough of a pause to make me fret that I’d taken the game too far and she would need to say something to hold me in check. But I needn’t have worried.

“Well, I’ll just have to reward you for your patience when I return. Tell you what we’ll do. We’ll tell Marcy and Cindy we need to have a meeting in my office to review your client and worker lists. We’ll lock the door, and I’ll tell Cindy to take messages from anybody who calls for either of us.”

My insides were humming. I said, “Then what’ll we do?”

“Then I’m going to give you some special attention. Like I did with Todd when I made him smile for me. You liked watching that, didn’t you?”

“Very much.”

“Ha! I knew you did. You should’ve seen the look on your face! You wanted my attention so bad, but you couldn’t say it. Poor baby.”

“I’ve wanted special attention from you for a long time now.”

“I know, darling. It’s not exactly a secret between us, hmm? Ok, I’m here where I’m meeting the client. Be a good boy and do some good work these next few hours, then we’ll have our special time together when I get back.”

Clarice had on a pink dress that day, one that was cut short, as per usual for her, to expose much of her supple, tan legs. She normally wore only very subtle makeup but, perhaps because she knew she’d be wooing a hoped-for new customer, she’d applied some eye shadow and rouge. She painted her long nails in a soft pink shade to match her dress, and the smell of her perfume was so sensual it made me want to be enveloped by it.

Once we were in her office with the door locked and with Cindy holding all our calls, my boss ushered me to the little love seat in her private room. Then she sat next to to me and brought me in for a tight hug. She put one arm around my back and used the other hand to hold my head and bring it to her shoulder. She spoke into my ear as she began stroking my scalp.

“Poor baby was so lonely without me all day, hmm? But it’s better now, right?”

Then she kissed me. Our first open-mouthed kiss. She wiggled her tongue around in my mouth playfully and she moaned. Then she pulled away, put an index finger on her chin, and teasingly asked, “So what special attention should I give you today? Hmm? Should I tickle you? Spank you? Sit on your lap and wiggle?”

I was becoming short of breath. I managed to say, “Do we have time for all of the above?”

“You’re cute,” she then said, then came in for another brief, sensuous kiss, darting her tongue around the inside of my mouth.

“Do you have a girlfriend now?” she asked after pulling her mouth away from mine. I was on three dating apps then, but nothing of consequence was happening in my love life at the moment. I was curious about Clarice’s own romantic situation. I knew she was a divorcee and often wondered how her ex-husband was foolish and/or unlucky enough to have let her slip away from him. I had no idea if she had a special someone then and hadn’t dared to ask.

“There’s nobody particular for me at the moment,” I told her. “Well, I mean besides you.”

“Oh, my goodness, that’s too sweet. Well, I’ll be your particular somebody here and now for a little.”

Just exactly what did that mean? How far were we going to take this? I looked down at Clarice’s brown legs and imagined what it would feel like to ram into her while we kissed wildly and had our hands all over each other. Reading my questioning train of thought, she then clarified some things.

“I’d love to let you make love to me, but we can’t do that. It’d ruin our working relationship, and I need you here on my team.”

Disappointment had to have shown through on my countenance then. Clarice stroked my cheek and said, “But that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun together. Anyway, the buildup and anticipation around sex is its own kind of delicious lovemaking, don’t you think? Will you let me show you some special affection, even if it won’t end with the standard conclusion?”

Of course I would. She stood up and explained that she was going to go out and tell Marcy and Cindy that our meeting was likely to last until the end of the workday and welcome them both to knock off early.

When she returned to the love seat, I got the full treatment. First, she pretended to be upset with me about something work-related and gave me a bare-bottom, over-the-knees spanking. Then she played out the scenario like she’d done with Todd, where I’d supposedly been moping and she needed to tickle me all over until she induced me into smiling and giggling.

She saved the best part for last. Climbing onto my lap, she pulled her dress up so that her panties were rubbing right up against my crotch. Then she brought my face to hers and led us into lengthy tongue kissing while she gyrated on me. She kept moaning in this way that made me nuts, while holding my face with one hand and stroking my head and neck with the other, as she continued to grind on me. I had my hands all over those beautiful legs of hers as we kissed passionately, and I couldn’t help but buck the way I would have if I was inside her the way I so desperately wanted to be. At one point I realized that if we kept going on with all of that, I was going to lose it and have an orgasm with my pants still on. I hesitated then, shy about doing that and uncertain if Clarice wanted it to go that far.

“Don’t stop, baby,” she said into my ear, pushing against me in rhythmic motions. “Let it go. I know you need to let it all go. It’s been building up for so long. Be a good boy and show me how I make you feel.”

I did as instructed. I was loud. It was a good thing she’d sent Marcy and Cindy home. After, Clarice sighed and smiled, then reached down and touched the wet spot on my pants with her fingertips. She said, “See, you did make love to me.”

Then an alarm on her phone sounded, telling us it was 5:00 and time for us both to go home for the weekend.

Brian Greene