Chapter 3

When Jessie got the first reservations for the spring, she checked the B&B’s finances. The new salary schedule for her hadn’t been in effect long enough to solve all the problems, but she was coming to the end of the tightest time of the year without any real tightness. She realized that Stu had been as good for her finances as for her libido. Well, not that good, but ... First, he’d seen that she had a new car and several new pieces of jewelry. Then the joint account had taken over several tasks from her personal account. Then, her credit cards were current and were used only for mail order purchases.

The business account had been the last to benefit. Well, it had been the first, since he’d been a paying guest before he was a husband, but that had been more than a year ago, and not as great a benefit as it had seemed at the time.

But she had let her personal account get fat before she had reduced her salary to the point that the B&B profits were staying in its account. Stu had increased those expenditures at first. She was certain that the space heater in his basement exercise room was one reason the B&B electric bill was so high. He did turn off the radiators in unused rooms, which had probably helped with the oil bill. His breakfasts were increasing the food bill, and worst of all – there were new burglar alarm payments. He – technically they – paid to have the alarm installed, but the business paid the monthly service fee.

Now, though, with it paying her a smaller salary, a healthy balance was growing in the business account.

She felt better about the business than she had in a long time. As it was a major part of her life, she felt good about herself. And it had all been because of the changes that Stu had introduced into her life.

“I love you,” she said to him that night when they had closed the door of their suite.

“I love you, too. Is there something which brought this on? Is there something I should do?”

“Just keep on doing what you’ve been doing.”

“That’s too bad,” he said. “I’d thought I’d do something new.”

“That might be good, too.” They were still in her office, and she started towards the bedroom door. He stopped her with a touch.

Kissing her deeply, he backed her up until she felt her desk behind her. He lifted her until she was almost sitting on the desk. He kissed down to her neck, and his hands were tugging at her belt. She was enthralled by the kiss, but some corner of her mind noticed that Stu could control his hands enough to get her top open and out of her jeans and her bra unsnapped before he lay her down on the desk.

Then he was kissing her breasts, lifting her butt, and pulling down jeans and panties. His mouth left her only long enough for him to get her shoes, socks. jeans, and panties off. Then he was stroking her center while kissing her thighs.

The heat was building, and she was writhing and kicking her legs behind him. He thrust two fingers into her suddenly, and she burst into flame.

The flame burned through her, and she convulsed around him. When she had finished and before she could draw a breath, he jerked the fingers out of her and pulled her into a sitting position. She felt one more tremor run through her and some of her juices run out onto the blotter. Well, blotters were bought to be replaced.

He was sitting in the office chair and between her legs. He lifted her and pulled her off the desk. As she slipped down, he held her against his clothed body. When she slipped further, his lower body was bare. He held her for a moment while fumbling below her butt. Then he was entering her, and she was impaled on him.

Her bra was around her neck, and her sensitive nipples brushed against his rough shirt. He shoved the chair back, and she grabbed his neck to hold on. She got her feet on the floor; the two of them moved her up and down on him. The fire came back and built again.

This time, when she convulsed, he clutched her butt cheeks, rose a little off the chair, and convulsed in her.

“Jessica,” he said a long time later.

“Yeah?”

“Do you think you could get up?”

“Anchor the chair,” she said. The chair didn’t slip much when she pushed her feet against the floor and her hands against his shoulders. When he came out, a rush of fluid followed. She stopped moving for a minute to get the stuff on him instead of on the rug.

“You okay?”

“Ask me tomorrow.”

He laughed. Her clothes were on the floor, and his were down around his ankles. She could get a new blotter tomorrow, but the seat of the desk chair was fabric.

Wasn’t married sex supposed to be dull? Well, marriage to Stu wasn’t dull. She was in bed by the time he came in carrying his clothes at least the ones that belonged below his waist. There were a dozen beds in the place, and they had only used one of them since they had got back from the honeymoon.

She thought of the office as her space, even though Stu had to come through it every time he entered their bedroom. When he got the mail, he left three neat stacks on the desk one for her, one for the B&B, one he considered junk. Well, she sometimes bought things from those catalogs, but he didn’t throw them away; he left them there for her to throw away or keep.

(When she got the mail and there was a letter for him, she put it on the bed. Most of the mail was addressed to her, the business, or to both of them from people who had been her friends first.)

When he came in from the bath and cuddled her, his cock was cold. He must have rinsed it off. Well, he got warm soon enough.

As she drifted off to sleep, she thought of the difference between ‘rape’ and ‘ravish.’ She hadn’t said no; she would have said a definite yes if she could have found her breath. Still, he had certainly ravished her.

When she was considering her choice for the next Tuesday, she thought of that again. She had wanted to bring variety into their sex life, but she had gone about it in a sort of regulated, formal manner. Stu was diverse by his very nature.

Summer came, and with it better business.

Sally went off to school, and the leaves turned. It didn’t happen in the same week, but it felt like it happened in the same second.

Melissa was ‘the new Sally,’ but she was not as strong and not as reliable. Stu took up some of the slack, especially in making beds. He could do emergency repairs, and he bonded with the plumber, which got the plumber out sooner. He had cleaned rooms in her first emergency, but she felt she needed to clean those rooms again before she put guests in them.

She planned how she could put the extra money remaining in the Bed and Breakfast account back into the business.

First, she needed professional help on her web page. This was the main source of business, and she had known for some time that she needed someone better than her to do it. She had just never got far enough ahead to spend that money.

Repeat business was the difference between a just getting by B&B like hers and a cash cow. She got a little, but she hadn’t been in business long enough for much. Anyone could see that the more honeymoon business you did, the more 25th anniversary business you would do just not soon. Well, she now had the money to invest in that sort of long range planning. She thought of a 20% discount for honeymooners. It wouldn’t do any good unless she advertised it. She looked into the lead time for advertising in brides’ magazines and winced. Well she remembered her own use of the magazines in the library. You didn’t look in the one coming out when you had your wedding even her almost desperate rush didn’t. She needed an ad to run from January through June next year, and again she needed a pro to write it.

If she gave a 20% discount and got five instead of four, she would have the same income not the same profit. She’d start soon enough to get those rules in place and the ads next year.

The rains came, washing the last of the leaves off the trees. The guests that week went out less and groused more. The few reservations for the next week canceled. At last, the place cleared out on Sunday night.

“Thank God,” Stu said when the last couple had driven away. He went to lock the door and turn on the alarm. “I mean, I don’t want to ask for your business to slow down, but...”

“Well, I do. The business is great; the work isn’t.”

“Anyone for next week?”

“We might not have anyone before our anniversary,” she said. “That depends on the snow levels.”

“No Christmas?”

“Well, that. I have to get my long range planning done before the snow comes.”

Before she announced the new honeymoon rate, she needed to run everything by Karen.

“It’s great for the long run,” Karen said. “Do you really have the income to cover those expenses, though? Is your business really booming that much?”

“Income is up a little. The real gain is that I’ve been paying myself less. Stu has put me on a spending $2,000 a month from the joint account.”

“Jessie! You can’t let him control you like that! You have as much right to spend the money as you ever did. It’s money from the business you built.”

Karen had come to town when Wayne Jenkins had married her. He’d kept her isolated and controlled. Finally, he had abused her physically. She was obviously seeing Stu as another Wayne.

“He’s no Wayne, Karen. Look, I don’t know much about your marriage.” That was a white lie; Karen had told her lots about her marriage. “But what anyone can see from outside looks mirror opposite. Wayne kept you isolated among people he knew better than you. I get out and about every week, and the people I see that I don’t know well are guests that see me more than Stu. Our friends were my friends first.”

“Has he ever hit you?” Karen asked.

“Once, and he apologized abjectly.”

“They always do.”

“I swung first,” Jessie said. It was hard to explain. “Look, you’re wrong about the checking account. He manages it, and not one penny comes in from the B&B. All he asked is that I warn him if I’m going to spend any more than $2,000 from it. He even suggested that I buy the car from it, and I paid cash.”

“And how much does he take out?”

“I don’t know. He handles that ... Look. I have my old account, and the reason it isn’t full of cash is that I’ve been paying myself less. The B&B is now richer than it’s ever been. Okay, that isn’t what I mean by a joint account. Still, there’s a difference between an account you pay into and never write a check on and an account you write checks on and never pay into.”

“Well, you told me you filed a joint return,” Karen said. “How much was the total income of the two of you last year?”

“I don’t know. Stu did the taxes. I told you that.”

“He wrote it. Did you read it?”

“Why no.” She trusted Stu. Besides, she’d been busy.

“Did you sign it?”

“Sure.” If anyone knew about taxes, Karen did. Jessie couldn’t figure out why she didn’t know that you had to sign the return.

“Jessie, here.” Karen was in a typing chair, and she rolled over to a file cabinet and pulled out a blank 1040. “Read the words right over the signature line. You swore that you had read the return. That’s why I always show it to you and make you check it over.”

Well, though Karen was a great accountant, she wouldn’t willingly go to her for marriage counseling. She looked at Stu and saw Wayne. Stu wasn’t like Wayne in any way that Jessie could see.

Even if they were both a little controlling, Wayne had kept Karen from working to control her, and Stu encouraged her to keep her business running. Still, she now knew what she was signing on a tax return, and she could point that out to Stu. He wouldn’t want her to swear to something which wasn’t true.

When she got back home, Stu had run the breakfast dishes and was putting them away.

“I’m going to get a pro to do my webpage,” she said.

“Do you really need a webpage?”

“Well the B&B does.”

“I know a bunch about IT, but the web isn’t part of that.” he said. “I’m better at turning mattresses. Hire a pro.”

“I’m going to. I want to do a promotion for honeymoons, too. It’s a long term investment. The more honeymoons you get, the more 25th anniversary business you get.”

“Well, that’s another matter. The more business, the harder you work. This year, sure. In 25 years, are you sure you want to work harder then?”

“Yeah. I’m sure.” she said. “Besides, if I’m too busy, I can hire more teens to help.”

“Well, if you’re going to pay significant amounts out of the joint account, warn me first.”

She wasn’t going to pay anything out of personal accounts. Advertising and web consulting were expenses. Even if she thought of them as investments, the IRS wouldn’t.

Snow was slow in beginning, but it when it came, it came deep. The ski resorts were crowded, and some actually recommended her place. Both floors were full for months.

Stu manned the front desk in the early mornings. He dispensed her box lunches while she dealt with breakfast.

They had two couples who had reserved Christmas well in advance. All the rest of their guests that season were skiers.

In December, the first ads for the honeymoon discount came out. That didn’t affect business in January, but she never thought it would. Marriages are down in January, anyway; those which come with Michigan honeymoons are down further; who wants to take a honeymoon into a snow drift? (Though being snowed in is a much better honeymoon than a vacation.)

As a matter of fact, the first question that came in was about a June honeymoon. The questions trickled in, and some ended up with reservations.

The snow melted, and with it business. Valentine’s day and the weekends on either side of it brought reservations, though.

She was a little disappointed that Stu didn’t do anything about Valentine’s Day, but then she didn’t either. The place emptied out Sunday night. She cleaned up Monday, but she took some rest, too.

Monday night, Stu was in bed before her. When she joined him, he gave her a great kiss. She found that he’d just shaved. His kisses trailed down her body to her knee, and back up to her crotch.

He took her slowly up and over. The next climax came almost immediately. How long before the climax after that, she would never know. She thought that she dangled just at the edge for hours, but that might have been only minutes.

Then he had her on her stomach over their two pillows rolled together. He pierced her, and then fingered her where he’d been kissing her.

When she flared, he drove in and out through her clutches while she had spasm after spasm.

He finally flooded her, and they both collapsed.

“A belated happy Valentine’s Day,” he said when they finally got the pillows under their heads, the covers over their bodies, and her derriere in his lap.

The next morning, he gave her chocolates that he’d had hidden in the trunk of his car.

Their anniversary, on the other hand, he celebrated on the day. Even in being unpredictable, Stu avoided being predictable. He generally tried to avoid her busiest times, though.

The first couple to actually use the honeymoon discount came in for a weekend. They were Sam and Terry. Terry was the guy; Sam signed the register as Samantha.

Few people lingered downstairs after registering unless there was a fire in the living room fireplace. Terry and Sam, however, set something of a record for not loitering. What had attracted them to the B&B was clearly not the breakfast.

She tried not to grin when she looked at Stu. He didn’t even try, but at least he didn’t laugh audibly. She doubted that her guests would have noticed if he had.

She thought later that Stu might have been inspired by their guests. In their bed, he had her lie on her face. While he kissed down her back in slow stages, he stroked between her legs until she was just on the edge. Then he moved back to her thighs. When she cooled down a little, he rubbed one lower lip against another until she couldn’t stand the tension.

She rolled over, and he got between her legs. Instead of entering her, he licked the inside of her thigh, licked her lips, licked between them. She erupted, and he brought her up again. Then, when she was teetering on the edge again, he held her clit with his lips and sucked.

She writhed while flames consumed her.

When she collapsed, he spiked her to the mattress with his cock. He pressed all the way into her while he moved side to side. Only when she flared again did he drive in and out and join her orgasm with his own.

She collapsed utterly. She only knew that he got off her because he was holding her from the side when the alarm woke her.

She staggered into the bathroom, showered and dressed. She was fixing breakfast when he came in with some papers and an envelope in his hand.

“I did the taxes yesterday,” he said, “and I’d like to mail it today. Could you sign?”

“You mean that line which says I have read the form and swear that it’s correct?”

“Sure. Don’t you trust me?”

“Look, my hands are scrambling eggs,” she said. “Could you set the table for 4? Sure, the lovebirds are probably testing the bedsprings, but I don’t want them to come down and see that we think they are.”

When he took the dishes into the dining room, she grabbed the form and put it under the bag of rice in the pantry. She went back and was turning the eggs when he returned.

He looked around and saw that the tax form wasn’t where he’d left it. He probably also saw that she was close to tears. Okay, he didn’t want her to see their tax form. But he’d used oral sex the night before to leave her befuddled this morning.

Cunnilingus was special to them. She could ask for anything else; she was scheduled to ask for what she wanted every Tuesday. Those were special surprises, gifts from him to her. He had used it the previous night to get his form signed this morning.

They had eaten and Stu had left – probably feeling as awkward as she did – before the honeymooners came down. They had maps of the roads and trails in the area, and she gave them one with recommendations for which ones would be private this time of year. While they were eating, she took the 1040 into the office for a Xerox. She hid the original and the copy in two separate files.

When they were gone, she looked at the original. The total income from salary for the two of them was what the B&B paid her. They had no business income. Now, the B&B was incorporated, and her only income from it was her salary.

Since Stu had no salary and no business income, however, he got nothing from his Internet-security work. That made a weird kind of sense; she never saw him put any time into it.

Their major source of income was $74,372.86 from a mutual fund. She had never even heard about a mutual fund. They also got a 2-digit amount for a savings account at the bank. She hadn’t heard about that, either, but the mutual fund was the big surprise.

Assuming that all went into the joint account, that meant that he got to spend $50,000 a year, while she got to spend $24,000.

Of course, that didn’t count her private account. That mostly paid her mortgage now, though. And he lived in the B&B that mortgage paid off. Considering his exercise room in the basement, he got more out of the B&B than she did.