As soon as Covid hit, before everybody even knew what it was, we all started working from home. My office was no different. There's not much about engineering that forces you to come to the office. Still, it was wrenching; long-time colleagues reverted to email and office texting contacts.

There was a new guy, Derek, who needed help getting up to speed. He'd come on board the week before everything shut down. I'd never met him, but the boss referred him to me for mentoring. Derek contacted me several times a day as might be expected. Messages were professional, but he was quite nice.

"Good to 'see' you," was exchanged at the start of each interaction. Since there were only words on the screen, this occasionally included an "LOL." I began to look forward to hearing from him. Personal information came out in bits and pieces. Derek was young and single and 20-something. I was married with kids and 30-something, very late 30-something.

The company bought us all new computers, got us the accounts we needed, set us up on something called VPN, paid for high-speed internet, and let us use the company's databases from home.

After a while, the company tried several video-meeting apps. They settled on Zoom. Zoom had been around for years, but I'd never heard of it. Suddenly, it was everybody's meeting room. The jokes about meeting in your pajama bottoms were not far off for me - if I bothered with the bottoms. I started meeting with Derek on Zoom. The first time, I was almost struck dumb. Damn, he was hot. Not rich-guy handsome, but totally masculine, ala Paul Newman. And a deep voice to kill for. Worse, it was like we were alone in each other's bedroom, his actual bedroom and our study.

We did keep it professional. Besides, hubby was working from home, too. I started having these fantasies of leaping out of his computer to ravish Derek. And you can be sure I did everything I could to look attractive in front of the camera. A little cleavage, too. Derek's smiles upon opening Zoom sessions gave me the feeling that maybe, just maybe, I wasn't the only one having these thoughts.

We tiptoed into more personal subjects. Derek got to meet my hubby in a Zoom window. Derek had a girlfriend. The relationship was strained because she lived in another city, but on one Monday morning, she was padding around in the background, in a nightie.

When they broke up, I told him, "An attractive guy like you shouldn't have any trouble finding a new girl."

"All the hot girls like you seem to be taken, Candy," he replied. There it was! Fifteen years his senior, yet he told me I was hot. Maybe he was just being considerate.

I blushed, though I doubt that was visible on Zoom, and glanced away embarrassed. "You're being way too nice. You'll find someone. Nobody's ever totally taken," I said sympathetically.

"Does that mean you're not totally taken?" he came back.

I tried to recover, "Watch it," with a laugh, was all I could manage. We turned quickly back to the seat mounting bracket Derek was redesigning.

Companies around the world were discovering that people working from home were more productive. Plus, everybody liked it. So, when an amazing new vaccine made it possible to go out into the world, they experimented with coming in once or twice a week and staying home for the rest. Hubby's company made the change first. I would find myself alone in the house with Derek (or others) on Zoom.

One morning, after we were done with whatever 3D computer modeling question he had, Derek changed the subject, "Can I ask you something, Candy?"

"Sure."

"I don't know how to say this. Sometimes I get the feeling there's more to our friendship than engineering," he ventured.

"Oh God, Derek," I replied, suddenly shaking. "We shouldn't go there."

"But there's a 'there' there, isn't there."

"Oh, Derek!" I answered, not realizing my hand was covering one breast.

"I wish that was my hand." This was getting serious, too serious.

I thought, but didn't say, "Me, too." Instead, I replied, "Derek! We're on the company Zoom account," which was not the same as rejecting his comments.

"You wouldn't be cheating if we kept it, you know, virtual. Maybe we could find a different online thing."

It was not like I hadn't cheated before, but I'd been keeping my act together for the last few years, after a few hotel room encounters like the one with Chet and Bard that you may have read about. This was before I took up with Sean on a cruise. Was this a way to deal with these feelings without committing adultery again? We settled on Skype and decided to use something called incognito mode on our computers. We needed secret email accounts to be able to use Skype, so we spent a half hour setting them up. Before we knew it, we were looking at each other again.

"Stand up so I can see the whole Candy," Derek requested.

I did as he asked. I was standing barefoot in a business casual blouse and flowered pajama bottoms.

Derek. stood up, too, also barefoot. He was wearing a nice button-down shirt and cargo shorts. "I wish I could see what's under those clothes," he hinted.

"Oh my. I should have seen that coming. I suppose you expect me to strip?"

"Wouldn't that be fun?"

That would indeed be fun, I thought, and I was also curious. "You, too," I demanded, then started unbuttoning my blouse. He stood there gaping. "Well?" I prodded. He got the message and opened some buttons. We proceeded in mirrored unison to open our tops. "You have more buttons than I do. Hurry up!" I giggled.

I wore a white push-up bra which I had chosen to enhance my online cleavage but not expecting it to be revealed like this. It had narrow ribbon straps. He wore a navy tank top undershirt. I could already tell he had a nicely muscled chest. With a laugh, I noted, "See how this bra makes it seem like there's more here than there really is?" Leaning forward so he could look down my cleavage, I pushed the cups up from below forcing more boob to bulge out the tops. "You're not one of those guys who try to look down a girl's chest, are you?"

"Who me? Guilty," he laughed. "It's all a matter of finding the right angle." He tilted his head awkwardly, straining to look down the shirt of an invisible girl. "But you can never see the nipples." I used my thumbs to pull the fabric down a bit, exposing the edges of my areolas. "Damn Candy, you're such a tease." We both burst into full-throated laughter.

"Is that all I get?" he challenged. I turned around to face away and reached behind to unclip. I turned to face him with the straps still holding the cups over my boobs. "Well?" he begged.

"You first, gawker," I teased. He slowly pulled up his undershirt, revealing a six-pack and a well-structured chest. He threw the shirt at the camera. It fell out of sight. "Wow, Derek," I gushed. "You've been taking care of yourself!" I followed with, "OK," and slid a strap down one arm. Then I did the other. I shook my boobs under the cups until the bra slid down my arms and fell off. My boobs were still firm. My dark areolas highlighted my excited nipples. (Those weren't the only part of me that was aroused.)

"Oh my god, so beautiful," Derek exclaimed. "So beautiful. So beautiful." I had to agree, LOL.

"And dangerous if you get in the way." I leaned close to the camera and swung them back and forth. "Don't get knocked out." Then I held a nipple inches away from the lens. "Or get your wandering eyes poked out," I threatened with a laugh.

Now he was laughing. "I know where to put them," he offered. He held his puckered lips close to his camera and wiggled his tongue back and forth.

"Ooh, yeah." I was so excited, I decided to go next. I hooked my thumbs into the waistbands of my pj's and panties and accused, "I suppose you're also one of those guys who look up a girl's legs to see her panties."

"Uh huh."

"Maybe, I'll just pull these off," I said, rocking my hips seductively, I slowly tugged both down over my hips until the creases between my thighs and my belly were mostly revealed. Derek could see the upper reach of my shaved mound.

"Oh wow. Oh wow," Derek extolled. "Don't stop," he begged. His hand was holding the bulge in his shorts.

But I did stop. I turned away. Hooking only the PJ bottoms, I bent way forward and slid them to the floor aiming my bare tush at the camera. Unplanned as this was, my panties were plain blue cotton ones, not the thong I wished I had worn. I tried for the same effect by pulling as much of the fabric as I could into my butt crack. The crotch was covering my vulva while exposing the skin of my thighs to the very top. I could tell the cloth had pulled into my slit and showed the shape of my pussy lips.

"Geeze, Candy, you sure know how to fire a guy up."

I stood and turned back around. I squeezed the leg openings together to once more mimic the minimal modesty of a thong. "Your turn, big boy."

Derek didn't object. He slowly pulled down his zipper and paused.

"Don't stop, mister," I complained.

He pulled his belt out through the loops in his shorts and paused again. Now my hand was the one rubbing, rubbing through my panties. "Pull 'em down!" I ordered. He did.

My eyes traced from the pile of shorts up his hairy legs to his jockeys, then along the ridge formed by his shaft. At the waistband, oh yes, the tip of his penis peeked out, telling me how long it was. He touched the tip and said, "Peek-a-boo!"

It was my turn to proceed. "I bet you want me to take my panties off?"

"Duh!?"

To add to the tease, I turned sideways before I bent forward to pull them down my legs. I made sure he could see my hanging boobs and swung them side to side.

"If you tease me any more, I'm gonna start crying," Derek objected. "Boo-hoo."

"OK, OK," I relented, stood up, and turned to face him, with my hand covering my sex.

"Boo-hoo. Boo-hoo."

"OK, OK," I said again, and took my hand away. I stood there with my hands on my hips revealing all.

"Oh God, you're so beautiful."

I turned away and bent down, letting him have a full view of my sex from behind. I backed up to get closer to the camera and pulled my lips apart to reveal my glistening pink wetness. Slowly, I teased my clit, and for a few seconds, pushed a finger into my vagina. Finally, I stood back up and faced him with only my vulva and a probing finger in view. "Alright, what's in those jockeys, there."

It was his turn to tease. He turned away and slid them off. He started to jerk off, but I could only see the motion of his elbow at the side.

"No fair," I complained.

"Look who's talking," he rebuffed, but he turned sideways and allowed his cock to point straight out in profile. He stroked it some more. Then he turned to face me and moved forward so his organ filled the screen. We were both masturbating like crazy. My hips rocked forward and back as two fingers fucked me and my thumb rubbed sideways across my clit. He had trouble keeping his cock in view as he wanked away.

Then I had an idea. "Wait," I said. "Come with me to our bedroom." I grabbed my laptop. Aiming the camera forward, I led him virtually from the study to the bedroom. I removed the drawer from my nightstand and took out my blue penis dildo hidden behind it. "This is your competition," I teased. "My husband is OK with me having toys, but he says a penis would make him jealous. So, I have this one hidden away. Oh no! It's not making you jealous, too. Is it?"

Picking up the jealousy theme, he said, "You're gonna let that guy fuck you, aren't you? Right in front of me!"

"Yep."

I thought for a few seconds about how I could use it on the camera and watch Derek at the same time. Luckily, my laptop folded all the way into a tablet so I could lay it flat on the bed. I straddled it on my knees with my pussy over the camera. I could still watch the screen. I set the penis on the screen below where his cock was showing and used it to play between my labia. "Fuck me. Fuck me," I begged, as if he had a role in this.

"Yes, yes, I'm gonna fuck you," he muttered. I could see he was stroking mightily. As I eased myself down, he said, "Oh shit, it's going in! So awesome."

I rode down and up on the blue penis and used my hand to rub up front. My orgasm was building, building, building. I was half moaning, half screaming as my climax arrived. Derek's grunts grew louder and more spastic. My juices ran out and down the blue shaft. Suddenly, a jet of white jism flew out of Derek's cock. Then another and another. Luckily, none of them hit his camera. I sat down hard on the penis and sat there letting my cervix send wave after wave of heat through my body. Then I pulled it out and tossed it aside. I held open my gaping vagina and said, "Just imagine your white jelly leaking out of me here."

"It's all over my screen. Haha, it's all over your cunt," he laughed. His camera was upright, so when he decided to get a washcloth to clean his computer, I watched his beautiful naked butt as he left the room. When he came back his cock was hanging down but still swinging back and forth as he walked toward the computer.

========

The company eventually made us come in twice a week. Social distancing, masks, and all made it awkward. But there Derek was. "In the flesh," I told myself. It scared me how attracted I was. Was I going to cheat with him IRL?

Derek broke the unspoken tension during one of the first few days back. "I don't live far from here," he said after pulling me aside. "Why don't you come to my apartment after work?"

I felt myself getting wet, but I was terribly conflicted. "I can't. Arthur and I have plans," I lied. "Besides, you know I'm trying to clean up my act, at least in real life."

"If you change your mind," he replied. We both went back to our desks.

I couldn't concentrate. I was shaking. Was I being silly? What we'd been doing online once or twice a week hardly qualified as being faithful to Arthur. And oh my, I so wanted Derek's cock pushing its way deep inside my belly. I wanted to feel his load oozing down along his shaft and dripping onto the sheet. "Maybe next Thursday instead of you know," I whispered when our our paths crossed in the hallway.

But the company saved the day in a most awkward way. That Tuesday, they promoted me to engineering supervisor. Derek reported to me. I had to tell Derek, almost in tears, "I'm afraid our thing has to end. If we continue and it comes out, we'll both be fired." I added, "I have to treat you equally to the others, and people would believe I'm not doing that."

Derek worked for me for almost a year. We did our best to hide our mutual attraction.

The company rotated new employees to different groups to give them a better feel of the organization. They rotated him to a different branch across the country. I wasn't going to see him again.

However, there was one nice result of Derek's upcoming move. For the last week or so, before left, he no longer reported to me. I had long ago decided to go back to my unfaithful ways if I ever got a chance to bed him. Our online affair had suffered from frustration and repetition, but this could be a chance to sprinkle red peppers on the salsa. I showed up for work in the same blouse I wore that first time we stripped and made virtual love across the internet. Derek noticed right away. Of course, pajama bottoms were out of the question, but I substituted a pair of baggy pants to get the message across. And underneath, a red thong. This time, my pushup bra was a matching color, which caused Derek to smile when he checked out my cleavage. It felt odd showing off like this while wearing a mask.

We rendezvoused in the hall. "Your blouse brings back memories," he whispered. He was trying to push a hardon to a less conspicuous orientation.

"Your place after work?" I answered.

He checked both ways in the hall, and finding it safe, briefly palmed my left breast. "Maybe we could leave a bit early," he suggested. That first-ever erotic contact with him and the accompanying anticipation caused a rush of arousal between my legs. I grabbed at his cock, but he pushed it down to one side to hide his bulge. With deep breaths, we both slinked back to our workplaces.

Now comes the part why I never told this story on Candy on Candy. It became too frustrating for a good story. Just before lunch, my face felt flush. Before I took my mask off to eat, flush became feverish. I was scared. I told Derek and left work to find a clinic. It was Covid 19. I was going to be out of commission for a couple weeks. Derek was kind and considerate online, but his travel plans and household move were set. After he moved, we managed a couple Skype visits. He would sit on the boxes in his new apartment for our virtual trysts. But it wasn't the same, so we stopped. I didn't see him in person again.

That is, until this year, five years later, right after New Year's Day 2026. But that's the next story in this series.