A word of warning before you start reading, this tale is possibly even more strongly cuckold oriented than my previous effort. This story was written about twelve years ago so some of the values mentioned may seem a little low at today's prices.
*****
I met Jane just before I got my degree when she too had almost finished with college. We dated for six months, lived together for eighteen and then, on the strength of a marvellous job, got married and bought a house. Jane has blonde curly hair framing her face, I think she is beautiful and many other men seem to concur with my opinion. At just over five feet two inches tall, she has a dream figure and her face can melt my heart but it was really her character that I fell in love with. At times she is very feminine and almost helpless and yet at others can be determined and extremely stubborn. One day in the flat, after a very enjoyable afternoon sex session, I reclined contentedly and asked, "So what was it that first attracted you to me - my high intelligence or these rugged good looks?"
"What rugged good looks?" she came back with a laugh, " - and how can a person with supposed high intelligence even consider asking a question like that?" That was the other thing I liked - her healthy sense of humour.
"Seriously though - why me?"
"If you must know - it was because you were the first guy to really talk to me as a person before trying to get into my pants."
These days no guy can really expect to find a girl still pure and unsullied and I had hardly been a monk so, our previous sex lives had been left undefined by mutual agreement but her remark triggered a niggle of curiosity. "How many did get into your pants?" I heard myself asking.
"A whole lot less than would have liked to," she said sharply and that was the end of that conversation.
I got a job working in electronics on a rather fantastic salary but it meant moving to another city. Jane got transferred within her insurance company and at that time was earning roughly half as much as me. The house we bought was near the limit of the five times combined salary equation but we both had excellent prospect for promotion so the initial hardship was not likely to be of long duration - we thought. I admit that we also ran up some substantial credit furnishing the house but the future looked good. A year went by. I will not name the firm I worked for but can offer a couple of clues - it was named after the inventor of radio and its stock market value famously plunged from over thirty billion to under one billion is less than a year.
Inevitably there was major rationalisation and my job was one of the first to go. I was fortunate to quickly find new employment in an office but my wage was now slightly less than my wife was earning and this meant we could only afford two thirds of our mortgage. Although house prices were rising nationally, my ex firm had been a major employer and in consequence there was a glut of houses for sale in my area. The net result was that a year further on we were three months in arrears on our mortgage payments and had already received notification of possible repossession of the house, if the debt remained outstanding. I was regularly working the whole of Saturday's as overtime but this was doing little more than delay the inevitable.
It was this dire situation that prompted Jane to come up with her big idea. "In my first year at college I lived with an ordinary family," she said. "Their daughter had recently married so they rented her bedroom to me for £50 per week and I had a very happy year. I don't see why we can't do the same."
This seemed the answer to all our problems so we put a card in the local newsagents window that read, 'ROOM TO LET FOR FEMALE STUDENT. £200 PER MONTH.' After a fortnight with no response, the newsagent informed us there had been a complaint that our advert contravened the sex discrimination act and asked that it be rephrased. So we wrote, 'ROOM TO LET £200 PER MONTH. SUIT STUDENT - FEMALE PREFFERED." Jane took the new card down to the shop that Sunday afternoon and she had hardly got back when the doorbell rang.
Standing outside was a man and he was holding our card. I heard my wife say, "We really wanted a girl but you had better come in anyway," and the next moment she came back into the room followed by a male figure. I stood and politely offered him my hand. The stranger looked to be aged in his middle to late thirties, was a couple of inches taller than me and appeared to be about twenty pounds heavier. He had a handsome face spoiled by a hardened look and I had the impression that he was ex military of some sort.
I didn't like him. It was hard to put my finger on what was wrong because he was smartly dressed, looked intelligent and when he spoke it was with a reasonably cultured voice. On the other hand, he stood kind of loosely, seemed to glide when he walked and had far too much self-assurance for my peace of mind. I think the real reason for my dislike was the way he looked at Jane - but then lots of men look at her that way and I suppose that it is understandable. "I'm sorry but we did specify a girl," I said.
"I understand that," he said with an easy smile. "I'm no longer a student and I most certainly not a girl but having no financial constraints I will happily pay £300 per month for the privilege of sharing your lovely home. I'm working in this city for the next six months and would far prefer to be somewhere like this rather than anonymous hotel rooms."
Jane was already starting to smile at him so I jumped in quickly to say, "No - I'm sorry. My wife and I did agree that we only wanted to take in a girl."
My wife grabbed my arm, begged to be excused and bustled me into the kitchen. "You weren't seriously going turn down £300 a month were you? Whatever is wrong with you Dave - we need that money?"
I could give no valid reason for rejecting the man so I resorted to saying lamely, "We did agree right at the start that any lodger would have to be female. Anyway, we only actually need £200."
"You really are a selfish bastard," Jane hissed. "You were thinking we might get some dolly bird for you to ogle and hopefully catch wandering about only partly dressed. I was happy to go along with that but now a rather dishy guy turns up and because you think I might fancy him you try to put the block on it - never mind that he is offering one hundred pounds more than we asked for."
"There is something not right about him," I mumbled, but then, seeing the look in her eye, I conceded, "- but OK, if that is what you want."
"Right or wrong I'll take a chance for that kind of money," Jane stated but then magnanimous in victory she grinned. "We will get a nice bit of crackling for you to pant after next time - I promise."
We returned to our prospective lodger and gave him the good news. His smile was for Jane as he said, "I take it that I have you to thank for the change of heart - if so I'm very grateful. I'm Max by the way, Max Flemming."
