Recession

Many thanks to HMAuthor for first editing and improving this story.

Enormous gratitude to Arabic_Beauty22, whose sharp eye and sensitivity to how words help or hurt the flow of a story were dazzling. Even more unforgettable was the way this editor embraced the story and totally committed to making it better than it had any right to be.

As the recession plunged the economy into chaos, it did the same thing to our sex life.

Lily and I had been married for six years when I was laid off. There wasn't anything unusual about us. I worked as an accountant in the local office of a large national company, and she worked as an executive assistant for a bank officer. I thought of us as a happy couple.

We had a little savings and a mortgage. Lily's salary would cover the mortgage, but not much more. Even if we cut our expenses down to the bone, we'd run out of money within a year.

The first week after I was fired, I spent every waking minute making phone calls and sending out resumes. That covered everything locally. Because of the downturn, we knew that we couldn't expect money for relocation, so I didn't pursue anything outside our area.

One morning, Lily said she would ask for a raise. I could see by her face when she came home that she had been turned down. The next morning was the first time I saw a different side of her.

"If he won't give me more money, I'll find someone who will," she said at breakfast and then stormed out of the house. Within a week, she had a new job that paid more than double what she had been making previously.

It turned out she was well known to the other local bank executives, and as soon as a competing vice president heard she was available, he hired her on the spot. She told me he was divorced and had a questionable reputation, but the interview had been professional, so she accepted the job.

After a few days on the job, she came home and told me her boss had dumped a huge load of work on her and had been amazed at how she handled it. It seemed her new job was secure, and we were relieved that our financial situation seemed to be stable.

I continued to check online and read newspapers for job openings. Whenever I met someone new, whether in line at the grocery or at a coffee house, I always directed the conversation to whether that person might know someone who could use a hard-working, experienced CPA. Otherwise, I focused on our home and supporting Lily.

I took on all the household responsibilities that were once shared. I didn't mind the shopping, cleaning and cooking. It was the least I could do since she was working long hours.

Lily came home exhausted most work nights and spent most of the weekend resting up. It began to take a toll on our relationship.

Neither of us had been highly active sexually before we were married. I guess the best word to describe our sex life was compatible.

Lily had a pretty face, but her best physical asset was her body. She dressed in standard business attire, so few people noticed what I saw when we went to bed.

I was more enthusiastic about making love, but she had always been receptive. Except on rare occasions, we stuck to one position, with me on top. I always achieved satisfaction, and I think she usually did, too, although she never said anything.

Now she was so tired that she could barely go through the motions, so I didn't approach her often. After a few weeks of frustration, I brought it up at dinner.

"I know it's not your fault," I said, "but do you have any ideas? I don't think it's good for our marriage the way things are right now."

"I don't know," Lily replied. "I'm so tired from work that it just seems like more overtime to satisfy you in bed."

"What about you? Don't you miss it?"

"I enjoyed it when I had an orgasm, but it didn't always happen. I never minded before, but now I think about all the effort I put in with no guarantee I'll get anything out of it."

She paused for a moment. I could see that she wanted to say something, but she wasn't sure whether she should.

"What about trying some new approaches?" she asked hesitantly. "I was thinking about this a while ago. Maybe instead of trying to finish together, we could work on one of us at a time."

"What do you mean?"

She got up from the table and began unbuttoning her blouse as she walked to the stairs.

"Follow me," she said, "and don't worry about the dishes. You can do them tomorrow."

She sprinted up the stairs to the bedroom.

She was almost naked when I walked into the room and was soon sprawled on the bed watching me take my clothes off. When I joined her, I started caressing her breasts. Usually from there, my fingers went to her thighs and then worked my way up to her generous bush, stroking deep into the thicket until they reached her pussy and felt her moistness. That's how I knew she was ready.

She stopped my hands on her breasts and pushed my shoulders back. Taking my head gently in her hands, she pushed it down, at the same time shifting her legs so they were on either side of my head.

I looked up at her.

"Is that what you want?" I asked. "I'm not very good at this."

"Just try," she said as she opened her legs and pulled my head forward so my mouth was filled with her hair. "Listen to me and do what I say."

I began following her instructions about where to kiss, where to lick, where to insert my tongue and how to move it. Her talk was getting me going. I felt and smelled the evidence of what my tongue was doing to her. I started to move up for insertion.

"Wait," she said, panting a bit. "Not yet."

I continued working on her, and she continued to respond. Her breath came out heavily, and her body was writhing against my tongue. She pushed herself into my mouth, and then I felt her entire body shake as little high-pitched cries came from her. They lasted almost a minute.

When she stopped making noises, her body sank back. I heard a long sigh and looked up to see her drenched in sweat with a contented smile on her face.

"That was great!" she gasped. "Give me a minute and then let me see what I can do."

When she recovered, she said, "Turn over."

I rolled onto my back, and she got up on all fours and moved over me, facing my feet. I looked up and saw her matted, glistening pubic hair at the same time I felt her mouth take me in. I was already hard as she worked on me with her mouth while her hands played with my balls.

Eventually she settled down on me, and her bush was on my face while she was sucking my cock. I was in heaven. She lifted her head.

"Do you have any strength left in your tongue?" she asked, and then went back to sucking, licking and fondling.

I took my hands and parted her damp hair until I saw the swollen lips framing her open vagina. It looked all slimy and red inside, and it wasn't inviting to me, but I stuck my tongue into her anyway and began doing the same things she had told me to do earlier.

This seemed to invigorate Lily's efforts. Soon she had me on the verge of release. As she felt my body squirming beneath her, she sped up, and at the same time began rubbing herself all over my face as I worked on her. As I spurted into her mouth, I felt her shake again and heard those soft cries.

She got up and went to the bathroom. I lay on the bed exhausted but completely happy.

Lily and I continued to make love this way. Each time, I would begin with my mouth between her legs, bringing her to orgasm, sometimes twice. After that, she would usually get on top of me and use her mouth to make me come while I gave her more oral.

Other times, she would mount me after I ate her out and move around on top of me in various ways, eventually slamming her body hard against mine. Each way would give us both great orgasms.

One time, I attempted to move into the old position where I was on top, but she stopped me and said, "We know a better way now." I didn't try to get on top after that.

One night, she came home and almost fell into her easy chair. At dinner, it seemed like she could barely lift her fork. Afterward, I said, "Why don't you go to bed. I'll clean up."

"No," she said. "Leave the dishes. I really need you tonight."

It seemed like only seconds after we entered the bedroom that she was lying back on the pillows with her legs spread. I went to work with my mouth between her legs and gave her an orgasm. After I finished, she lay there lifeless. I waited.

She looked up at me.

"Do you think we could just go to sleep tonight?" she asked. "I don't have any energy."

I didn't respond right away, probably because I was aroused and frustrated.

She quickly said, "Oh all right. Lie down. I'll be right back."

She sounded irritated.

She got up and went into the bathroom and opened a drawer and then came back and got on top of me with my face in her bush. I could barely hear her as she said, "I'm too tired to use my mouth, but I'll make sure you are satisfied."

I felt her start to stroke me with fast motions. Her hands were covered with some kind of oily stuff as she worked urgently, and soon I was spurting into her hands. She got up quickly, went to the bathroom and was soon in bed next to me sleeping soundly. I couldn't fall asleep for a while.

The next time we made love, she used her mouth again, but as time went by, she did it less frequently, and finally she used her hands almost all the time. Sometimes she thanked me for being so understanding about her being tired.

One day, Lily really came home and collapsed into her easy chair. She did that often, but this time as she sat there and I looked at her sympathetically, a strange look came over her face and she said, "I could really use some of your magic right now."

She got up, pulled down her panties and stepped out of them. Then she pulled up her dress, lay back in the large chair and spread her legs over the arms. I looked at her exposed pussy. Her pubic hair already looked like it was soaking with her juices. She had an expression on her face that was a mixture of expectation and lust. It grossed me out. I got up and went to the kitchen to finish working on dinner.

Dinner was silent. So was the rest of the evening and the next morning. When she came home the following afternoon, I noticed she had the same fierce look on her face as the day she set out to get a better job.

"Sit down," she said. "I need to talk to you."

We sat in the living room facing each other as she spoke.

"I know you are trying to find a job, doing all the household chores, shopping and making dinner, and I appreciate it. But I'm working hard, and I come home exhausted. Is it too much to ask you for something simple to raise my spirits. I've been thinking hard about that since yesterday.

"This recession is the biggest challenge our marriage has faced. It's turned us upside down. Am I being selfish? Am I being unfair and demanding too much?

"Maybe we both need to think about what we have together. We're going through tough times. I don't mind pulling the weight, but I need your total support.

"Maybe you think I'm too high-maintenance and you'd be better off if we went our separate ways. We could think about it a few days and then talk it over. Before that, we should each look into getting a good family practice lawyer. Julie at the office told me that it can take a month to get an appointment to see the best ones.

"If you want to do that, it won't be complicated because we don't have children yet. I'm so thankful we decided to wait a couple of years.

"Julie thinks you will get half of what we have, which isn't much, because we owe a lot on the house and in this recession, it's not going to be easy to sell. I'm making enough to afford a decent apartment, but since all you have is your unemployment, you'll have to move into a small space in a sketchy part of town until you get a job."

I was stunned at her words. They felt like daggers she was sticking into me.

"You know I don't want that, Lily. I want to be with you. I love you."

I waited for her to reply, but she didn't do anything but furrow her brows and look hard into my eyes for at least a minute before she got up out of her chair.

Once again, she pulled off her panties and spread herself over the easy chair. She moved her legs so wide apart that it seemed like she was a circus acrobat doing a grotesque contortion.

I didn't move for more than a minute as three eyes stared expectantly at me. Two were wide open on her face. The third one was small, moist, bright red and in the middle of her dense thicket of pubic hair.

I slowly walked over, knelt down in front of her on the carpet and moved between her legs. I pushed my mouth through her bush to her pussy lips. Her sap was already flowing freely. Her humiliating speech to me had excited her so much that it didn't take long until she came.

It was sexual blackmail. Every work day from then on, she expected me to eat her out until she came. Usually, she wasn't satisfied until she came twice.

It perked her up for dinner, but after dinner, she watched TV for an hour and then went to bed and immediately fell asleep.

On the weekends, we did the other ritual, with me first satisfying her orally and then being pleasured by her hands while I satisfied her a second time.

One day, Lily came home from work highly agitated. She looked like she had been crying. She related to me how her boss finally showed his disgusting side and had come on to her.

She had resisted, but he had threatened to let her go and warned her that since the recession had gotten worse, she wouldn't find it easy to get a job that paid anywhere near what she was getting from him. After he hit her with the stick, he offered her the carrot. He would give her a raise.

"I gave in," she said, shaking. "I need this job, because you still have no prospects and we'd be out on the street without my income. Do you understand?"

I tried not to show her how crushed I was. I reasoned that she was suffering more than me because, after all, she had to do it, and I only had to think about it.

She got up and went into the bathroom without saying another word. I heard the water running as she spent the next five minutes in there. When she came back, she pulled up her skirt, sat in the chair and lay back. Her panties were already off. When I moved my face to her bush, I smelled the soap on her freshly washed pussy. I realized she had washed away the traces of what she had done earlier.

************

Her boss was as demanding sexually as he was with her work duties. Every day when she came home, she went straight to the bathroom and washed herself before coming to me. By the end of the third week, I could see something was bothering her, although she didn't say anything until she came home the following Monday.

"I'm so exhausted today," she said as she pulled off her panties and got into position. "I can't get up."

She gave me her expectant look. As I realized what she wanted, I became queasy. I made an involuntary sound of disgust and walked out of the room.

Again, dinner was silent and so was the rest of the evening.

The next afternoon, when she walked in, she said we had to talk. It was the same talk as before. I listened in silence as she spoke. When she finished, I asked her, "How can you ask me to do something so disgusting?"

"Disgusting?" she yelled. "What do you think I do every day at the office for you? And I do it a lot longer than the few minutes you put in. Are you telling me it's not worth it to you? Are we finished?"

"No, Lily," I said quietly. "We're not finished, but you don't think much of me if it doesn't bother you to humiliate me like that."


"You're a wonderful husband for being so understanding," she said, but it sounded like she was reciting a speech without emotion. "We have to work together to get through this."

She leaned back in her chair and didn't say another word.

After a minute of silence, I got up and went to her. I lifted her legs in the air and pulled off her panties. She spread her legs onto the arms of the chair.

As I crawled between her legs, I almost threw up as I saw traces of her boss's white slime on her hair. It smelled awful, and I tried to keep from gagging as I began working with my tongue. As she approached her orgasm, I almost lost it again. She pushed against me and a flood of foul-smelling come came out of her.

I tried to keep it from going into my mouth, but some of it went in anyway. It tasted vile. Some went up my nose and I couldn't get the smell out of there for the rest of the night, even though I rushed to the bathroom as soon as she came and washed my mouth and nose out.

How could I do this every workday? I would go insane.

I managed to do it, although I never got used to it. Each day was an ordeal. When I came out of the bathroom sputtering, after trying in vain to wash away the traces of my humiliation, she would give me a smile. As the days went by, I could swear she was getting aroused by my reaction to her degrading me. What was happening to us?

Lily and I had never talked much at home about our work, and she never said a word about what went on at her office until one day at dinner when she seemed to be particularly satisfied after I had serviced her with my mouth.

"My boss said he'd love to come over and watch you make me come," she said nonchalantly.

My food flew out of my mouth.

"What did you just say?"

My astonishment quickly gave way to anger as she told me her relationship with her boss had changed. He had been complimenting her on her work and on her looks. He caressed her in ways he knew she liked when they made love. He even allowed her to be on top most of the time.

Although he wanted anal intercourse, he accepted that she thought it was disgusting and backed off. He told her about sex with his wife, and she told him about us. Lily related all this in a matter-of-fact voice, without a hint that she felt any of it was wrong.

"How could you do that?" I asked. "How could you tell him about what we do? Don't you have any consideration for me at all anymore?"

"It's no big deal," was her response. "Don't get all worked up about it."

"I'm not going to perform in front of your boss," I said firmly, "and don't give me your lecture again, because I'm not going to change my mind. Before that happens, I'll live in a cardboard box on Skid Row. If that's what you want, Lily, tell me and I'll move out tomorrow."

She tried to brush it off.

"Calm down. I told him you would never agree to him watching."

I looked at her but couldn't tell whether she was telling the truth.

************

The discussion explained some things I had been wondering about.

She had changed a lot in the last few months. She was now more interested in her body than she had ever been. Sometimes she stood naked in front of a mirror and preened. While she moved into different poses, she experimented with her facial expressions. Her face would go from pretty and innocent to seductive to lascivious.

She seemed to enjoy me watching her displaying herself as a seductive exhibitionist. I had to admit it turned me on even as it disconcerted me.

Once on a Sunday, as she was manipulating me to orgasm, she caused my body to jerk.

"What was that?"

She was asking herself, not me. I barely heard her, and I couldn't reply because my mouth was full of her sweaty bush.

She figured out that she had touched a sensitive area between my ass and my ball sack. From then on, she directed her efforts there to get me off faster so she could move on to other things that were now more important than satisfying her husband.

After that, she began experimenting on me. She would find ways to caress me that would quickly bring me to the edge, and she would stop and leave me frustrated. She'd repeat the cycle a few times before finally allowing me satisfaction. I had a feeling she was using me as a laboratory to try out things to use on her boss, but I didn't say anything.