I M Home Babe

This was intended to be a 750 story, but I couldn't get it to fit. It's stll very short.

Not sure where to put it, but finally figured it's kind of a Loving Wife Story. I apologize to those category guardians who will disagree.

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It was Wednesday, noon. Time to collect the rent from Sophia Moretti. Todd licked his lips. He always looked forward to Wednesday afternoons.

Todd was not attractive by any means. Fat and ugly, were actually a kind way to describe him. But he owned several apartment buildings. He was set up for life. He thought he'd finally be able to get a girl. He'd finally be able to stop paying the call girls' outrageous prices. But girls just didn't seem to go for him. A few told him directly, he was creepy. One told him, maybe. Maybe if he tucked in his shirt, stopped breathing through his open mouth, and got a new face, maybe she'd think about dating him. That had gotten a big laugh from her friends.

But it no longer mattered. He had Sophia Moretti. Her husband, Ricardo, had been charged with murder and was now serving a life sentence. Sophia claimed her husband was innocent and had spent their entire savings on his defense. Now, he was in prison and she was working at a 7/11, trying to support her 8-year-old son, on $18/hour.

Moretti had leased the apartment for $4000 a month. Sophia's take-home pay was less than $3000. She was beautiful so he had let her go in arrears for a few months. She was very grateful until he told her that it was time to work off the debt or he'd padlock her apartment and put a landlord lien on her possessions. She and her kid would be out on the street.

Desperate, she finally agreed to 'service' her debt on her midweek day off, Wednesday. At first it was straight sex, but then he'd forced anal on her. She cried but had no option -- he'd secretly filmed her agreeing to prostitute herself for the rent. He would just claim she was trying to blackmail him. When she still cried and complained, he dragged her to the window and showed her the tent city that had sprung up along the river. "Your son will love living there," he'd taunted her.

So, he'd gotten what he'd been paying out thousands of dollars to whores for, for the cost of one apartment. The last holdout had been oral. She absolutely had refused, even when he threatened to evict her. So, he'd friends over on a Wednesday, and faced with the threat of gangrape, she had capitulated. He still insisted she suck off his friends. He considered it as breaking her in. "Oral is never off the table, babe," he laughed at the sobbing woman.

In the beginning, when she had thought he was being a friend, she had wistfully confided that she missed her husband, that he used to come up behind her, put one hand on her shoulder and one on her ass, and guide her to the bedroom, saying, "I'm home, babe." That was his signal for sex. She was embarrassed, realizing that she had told him something so intimate. She really regretted it when he started approaching her that way on Wednesdays.

Now, Todd let himself into the apartment, calling out for Sophia. A male voice answered from the living room. He was shocked to see Ricardo Moretti.

"Hello, Todd. Sophia's not here today. I thought we should talk." Ricardo's smile failed to reach his eyes. Suddenly, Todd's knees were shaking.

"What, uh, uh," Todd was unable to formulate a sentence.

"What am I doing here? My lawyer was watching an old game video and saw the main witness at my trial in the stands. The game was on the day he claimed to have seen me 'do the deed'." Ricardo pulled out a cigarette and lit it. "Seems there's one legality that works in my favor -- you can't be in two places at the same time. My conviction has been thrown out."

"Sophia didn't tell me..." Todd sputtered.

"No, I asked her not too." He drew on his cigarette and blew out the smoke. "I can't say I was happy to see those hickeys you kept putting on my wife's neck. I assume you did that to let me know you were doing her."

"I, I, I..." Again, Todd was incoherent until Ricardo cut him off.

"I know, the rent. I appreciate that you sheltered my family for me. Small payment for that mercy, I suppose." Moretti smiled again.

Todd began to think maybe this would work out okay, after all. "Don't mention it," he mumbled.

"No, I understand. We need sex. You get used to it. Hell, three years in jail, I've had a couple of 'cell wives', new fish who would do anything to be safe." He blew out more smoke.

"I kind of miss it. Anyway, I've got no money, no job, and right now, no prospects. So, I guess we'll have to keep exchanging sex for rent for a while." Moretti grounded out the butt in the ashtray.

Todd took a deep breath. This was going to be all right. He'd get to keep his Wednesday sex dates, with Moretti's permission. "Well, when is Sophia getting back." He turned to look at the front door.

He felt Moretti move up behind him but was still shocked when the hand gripped his shoulder, and its mate grabbed his ass. His blood ran cold when Moretti whispered in his ear, "I'm home, babe."

He struggled against the ex-con's grip, but years of weights in the yard had made escape impossible. As he guided Todd towards the bedroom, he whispered again in his ear, "And oral is never off the table, babe."