PluckingthePearl

by Afton Locke

  He wiped his hand on one of the clean rags nearby and she did the same. Then he leaned an elbow against the table and looked at her.

  “Why not, honey? We’re not married.”

  “In case you haven’t noticed,” she said, “we’re not the same color—or social class, for that matter. You’re the owner of this establishment and I’m just a poor—”

  He put two fingers to her lips to quiet her. The lingering scent of oysters drifted from them, making her breathe faster. She was beginning to like oysters…

  “Whatever you’re going to say, just stop,” he ordered. He put his arms around her and held her close until her nose rested against the musky, breezy scent at the base of his neck.

  Pearl never dreamed how wonderful it could feel to be held in a man’s arms. Did all men feel this good? Somehow she knew no one would come close to Caleb. She already felt an attachment forming that couldn’t be. Being alone with him in this room was like being in their own private world. Even the occasional car passing by sounded miles away. Going back to the Johnson cottage would be even harder after this taste of heaven.

  Kiss me again… Don’t let this end.

  As if reading her mind, he tipped her chin up with his finger and kissed her. This time his real tongue brushed against hers and explored the perimeter of her lips. She could feel his heart thundering just as hard and fast as hers.

  “I think you’re the one hiding an oyster this time,” he said when the kiss ended.

  She laughed. “No, I’m not.”

  “I bet it’s in your ear.” He planted a trail of tiny kisses across her cheek to her earlobe. When the point of his tongue flicked every delicate channel, she couldn’t hold back a tiny moan.

  “Ah, Pearl, you’re so responsive. It’s as if we were made for each other.”

  “We shouldn’t be doing this.” She kept an eye on the locked door, afraid someone would bust it down and discover them.

  He ignored her protest. “Hmm, it’s not in that ear. Let me try the other one.”

  She wanted the hardness she’d felt against her earlier inside her. The thought was too forbidden to even think but she couldn’t help it. Within a few hours, she’d completely changed from an innocent girl to a woman with insistent carnal needs.

  “It’s not there either,” he said. “That’s all right. I know a few more places I want to look.”

  Wet and hot, his mouth slanted across her chest above the bodice of her striped cotton dress. Wiry moustache hairs scratched her sensitive skin and she moaned again. It seemed the more time she spent around this man, the more she lost control.

  Her heart slowed to hard, pulsing beats as his mouth moved lower to her cleavage. At the same time, his hand covered one breast on the outside of her dress and stroked. Even through fabric, her nipple tingled in response, needing his mouth there too. Fluid, urgent and hot, trickled between her legs.

  Don’t stop, Caleb. Please.

  At that moment, she finally came to her senses and slapped him.

  He backed away from her, rubbing his cheek where her hand had made a red mark.

  “What did you do that for? I thought you were enjoying it.”

  She clutched the hand that had slapped him. “Oh, Mr. Rockfield, Caleb, I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

  He thrust his hands into his pockets. “It’s all right. I went too far too fast.”

  How could she have been so weak? So unbelievably shameful? Maybe it was a good thing her mother wasn’t alive to see what she’d almost done.

  Crossing the room, she stood in front of the opposite table, near the door. “I’m sorry to disappoint you but I’m not that kind of woman.”

  “I know.”

  She turned to look at him and squared her shoulders. “I’m saving myself for marriage. I can’t be your—” She hated to even say the word. “Your whore.”

  He stepped closer to her but not too close. “I wasn’t asking you to be.”

  But he was asking for something and they both knew it.

  “My mother raised me to be a proper lady,” she tried to explain. “It’s all I have…of her and for myself.

  “I understand and I respect you for it.” He touched her shoulder as if for reassurance but dropped his hand again. “I never expected this to happen either.”

  “Have I lost both jobs with you?” She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment as she waited for his answer. By letting her animal desires run away from her, she may have just thrown away the only home and sustenance she had left.

  He frowned. “Of course not. I’m not the kind of man to force myself upon an unwilling woman just because I can.”

  As she studied his earnest face, she realized he meant it.

  “Good,” she replied, “because the last thing I want is any trouble. Things are tough financially at home.”

  “So what do we do about this powerful attraction between us?” he asked, taking her hand. “You clearly want me as much as I want you.”

  She raised her chin. “We’ll just have to fight it when we’re alone together. We shouldn’t even be alone together unless absolutely necessary.”

  He nodded. “That would be the sensible thing to do, I suppose.”

  “I’d like to go home now,” she said.

  “I’ll take you to where Leroy is waiting.”

  As he unlocked the door, she licked her lips discreetly, savoring the taste of him and the forbidden kisses she could never enjoy again.

  Chapter Three

  “You all right?” It was the only thing Leroy said to Pearl as he rowed them home. She was grateful for that and only told him she had a regular job working after hours.

  She had never ridden in a boat at night before. The lantern on the bow cast a golden halo of light around them but everything beyond it was dark and hidden. The moon was not even out tonight.

  Since she couldn’t see much, her other senses sharpened. Sea creatures splashed in the water while others scampered on the shore nearby. The smell of brine pressed around her, thick and strong. When she turned her head to her shoulder, she caught the scent of something else. Caleb. It was so faint it was barely there. She kept her head turned for a while, savoring the scent and holding onto it as if the next breeze might steal it from her.

  Then she put her fingers to her lips. He didn’t know it but he’d given her the first kiss she’d ever had. Growing up in Annapolis, she’d tried to imagine what kissing would be like. Mama rarely let her out of her sight so she’d never gotten the opportunity.

  She’d thought kissing was merely a pressing of one set of lips to another. No one had warned her how such a simple act would consume her entire body with sensation. Had she really kissed a white man?

  It could never happen again.

  The cleaning job he’d given her was easy. Resisting him was going to take every bit of her strength because his appeal was more than physical. Despite his powerful position, he’d listened to the story of her past with such compassion and he respected her. He hadn’t even gotten angry after she’d slapped him.

  Caleb Rockfield was a special man.

  The sudden sound of the boat scraping on sand pulled Pearl out of her thoughts. Her stomach sank at the thought of facing her aunt. Maybe she’d gone to bed already but the light in the window suggested she hadn’t.

  Leroy tended to tying up the boat, leaving her to go inside alone. While Uncle Charlie snored from his favorite chair, Wilma and Sadie sat at the kitchen table, eying her as she walked in.

  “You didn’t have to stay up,” she told them.

  “Couldn’t sleep not knowing what you was doing,” the older woman said.

  Her words sent dread clawing at Pearl’s spine. She must suspect, but how? Had Caleb’s hands and lips left marks on her for everyone to see?

  “Well? Have you lost all our jobs?” Wilma asked.

  Pearl clasped her hands behind her back for strength. “No. Cal—Mr. Rockfield has hired me to work in the evenings cleaning
.”

  Wilma’s stern frown vanished into a wide smile. “So you’re going to be bringing in some extra money? How much?”

  “A dollar per hour.”

  Sadie slapped the table. “A dollar per hour? Sure can’t make that shucking.”

  “Hush, child,” Wilma told her daughter. Then she turned to Pearl again and waved her finger. “You make sure to do a real good job at that cleaning because you ain’t never going to be much of an oyster shucker. Keep Mr. Rockfield satisfied.”

  Heat raced across Pearl’s face. She had a feeling what made Caleb Rockfield happy had nothing to do with cleaning. Was her aunt indirectly telling her to go to bed with the man?

  A vision of lying on the concrete oyster table with Caleb on top of her raced through her mind. It was all too easy to imagine the sweet hardness that had nestled against her backside filling her instead.

  Sadie snorted. “Hmph. How come nobody ever asked me to do any extra work?”

  “I’m sure it’s because I have experience with housekeeping,” Pearl replied.

  “Or because she’s got a prettier face than you,” Wilma told Sadie.

  Pearl sighed, wishing her aunt weren’t so blunt. Now her cousin would dislike her even more.

  “The way a person looks takes them further than hard work. Ain’t fair but that’s how things is.” Wilma shook her finger at Pearl again. “If you’re smart, you’ll use that face of yours to find yourself a good husband with good wages.”

  Wages her aunt wanted a share of, no doubt.

  Leroy came in and washed his hands in the bucket of water.

  “You all hungry?” Wilma asked. The tone of her voice said there wasn’t much to eat.

  “No, Mr. Rockfield paid for a fine dinner at the Sapphire Crab while I waited to take Pearl home.”

  “The Sapphire Crab?” Wilma exclaimed. “And you didn’t bring us any?”

  “If he does it again, I will,” her son replied.

  Uncle Charlie stirred and coughed so deeply Pearl looked at him and then Wilma. “Is he all right?”

  Leroy dried his hands on a worn towel. “His heart’s giving out. Gets worse every year.”

  “Won’t be long,” Wilma added quietly. “This winter, most likely.”

  Pearl couldn’t read the emotions on her aunt’s face in the dim light very well but resignation dominated them all. The woman’s lower lip trembled so briefly it was just a flicker, but it told Pearl the hard woman sitting before her had once cared about her husband. She couldn’t help wondering if he’d ever made her feel the way Caleb did her but didn’t dare ask.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  Wilma sighed. “When it’s a person’s time, it’s time.”

  “Well, I’m very tired,” Pearl announced. “Good night, everyone.”

  She headed toward the small room she shared with Sadie to wash up and change into a nightgown. A mosquito whined near her ear. Her head was so full of thoughts she no longer noticed the loose doorknob, the hole in the window screen patched with cheesecloth or the scrap of wood supporting the short leg of Sadie’s bed.

  Tomorrow, she would see Caleb again but she’d be shucking all day. Would he look at her with disgust, regretting their kisses? It shouldn’t matter but it did. Important white men didn’t go around kissing and holding colored women like lovers. Whatever had possessed him to act that way would surely pass overnight.

  It would be just as well if he did reject her. Then she wouldn’t have to fight her passions and resist him. Mama had protected her from men but she wasn’t here anymore. Pearl was on her own and so was her heart. As long as she earned her keep, that’s all that mattered.

  * * * * *

  Caleb sat at his usual table at the Sapphire Crab the next morning. He nudged aside the red-and-white checked curtains beside him and looked at Oyster Harbor while he stirred just a bit of cream into his coffee. Seeing the erect masts of moored boats swaying back and forth reminded him how hard his cock had been when he’d woken up this morning. It was almost as if he’d become a teenager again.

  All because he’d kissed Pearl. Had it really happened or was it just a dream?

  He barely heard the din of voices and cutlery, barely smelled the coffee and fried food, barely noticed when the usual people spoke to him as they passed by.

  Mayor Dick Carter walked down the aisle, his large belly leading the way and straining the buttons of his blue jacket.

  “Good morning, Caleb.” The older man removed his hat, revealing a shock of white hair. “It’s time we went fishing again, isn’t it?”

  “It sure is,” Caleb replied, saluting him with his coffee cup. “We’ll do it soon.”

  He could think of other things he’d rather do. The mayor was loud and drank too much while boating. During their last fishing expedition, he’d nearly fallen overboard. To ensure his position of power on the island, however, Caleb had always aimed to stay in the mayor’s good graces.

  Kissing colored women wasn’t part of that plan. If the mayor only knew, he sure wouldn’t invite him to go fishing. It was hard to predict exactly what would happen to Caleb and his business but it wouldn’t be good.

  So why had he done something so foolish when it was so dangerous? Especially when kissing her had only whetted his appetite for more? Now that he knew a little about her background and her values he was more curious than ever.

  Why, for instance, did she arrange her hair like a film star’s? He sipped his coffee, the hot, creamy liquid reminding him of the taste of her skin and lips. Her skin was the color of this coffee, he realized—dark with just a touch of cream.

  If only she hadn’t slapped him when he’d been about to sample her breasts. How big were her nipples? Were they darker than the rest of her skin? And he could never seem to stop staring at her changeable mouth. Her lips weren’t full but their shape begged to be kissed.

  His imagination would have to do. They’d both agreed their attraction couldn’t go any further. At least the woman had sense. More than he did, apparently, because if it were up to him he’d have her up on the oyster table, tasting every last inch of her.

  “Your eggs and ham, Mr. Rockfield.”

  He looked up at Betty Lewes’ smiling face and then the steaming plate she’d placed before him. Although she was the daughter of the restaurant owner, she usually brought his food out personally.

  “Thank you, Betty. How are you this morning?”

  “I’m just wonderful, Mr. Rockfield.”

  Judging by the flush on her round cheeks and sparkle in her blue eyes, he’d made her morning even better by talking to her. She smoothed down a lock of light brown hair that fell around her face.

  She sang in the church choir and did some substitute teaching in addition to helping out in the restaurant, which she would inherit. She was one of the few single women on the island and Caleb knew if he ever got a hankering to remarry, she’d gladly oblige.

  It had even crossed his mind a time or two but he’d always been too busy to go through all the fuss and bother of a wedding. The oyster house took up a lot of his time and his single life suited him fine.

  So why, after five years of having her serve his breakfast, hadn’t he given her permission to call him Caleb? He’d given Pearl that privilege in just one day and their social standing was worlds apart.

  Pearl robbed him of his ability to think clearly. He’d have to be careful around her.

  “Can I get you anything else?” Betty asked. “More coffee?”

  He turned his attention to the food on his plate, salting the eggs and cutting the ham. “No, thank you. Maybe later.”

  As he watched her walk away, he realized he could never marry her. Apparently a few stolen moments in a small shucking room had ruined him for other women. What was it about Pearl? Her innocence and pretty face—not to mention the sweet curve of her ass—attracted him, of course, but there was more to it than that.

  He admired how she insisted on continuing to shuck oysters
in addition to her cleaning job. A lot of women would have taken the easy path. She carried herself like a dignified lady yet was so passionate. In the short time they’d spent together he’d managed to cut through her reserve and make her moan.

  So why had he hired her when the temptation to go further with her was so hard to resist? He chewed his scrambled eggs without even tasting them. In light of the financial situation of her family, taking the job away wasn’t an option. He’d just have to keep his distance.

  After he finished up and paid the bill, he walked outside and looked at the front of the restaurant before heading to the plant. The Sapphire Crab was painted in big blue letters flanked with two blue crab figures. His gaze lowered to the front door and the sign above it, Whites Only. A smaller sign beneath it read Coloreds Only and pointed to the back of the restaurant.

  How strange. He must have eaten here hundreds of times over the years yet he’d never noticed—really noticed—that sign until now. Its meaning washed over him like the cool morning breeze. It meant he couldn’t bring Pearl here for breakfast and sit across from her at his usual table.

  For the first time in his life, he realized if fate had changed the color of his skin, he would have to eat in the back too. That is, if he could even afford to eat in a restaurant at all. His life would be completely different. He sure wouldn’t be affectionately known as the “king” of Oyster Island.

  Time to head to his plant. That woman had scrambled his brains worse than the eggs he’d eaten. The fall oyster harvest was just getting started and he was about to become very busy. It was time for him to come to his senses once and for all.

  * * * * *

  Pearl took her same place at the shucking plant beside Leroy.

  Jimmy gave her a big smile from her other side. “Good morning, Pearl. Survived your first day, did you?”

  She smiled back. “I think so.”

  “Do you need any help or anything?” he asked.

  “No, I’m fine.”

  Why was he paying so much attention to her? He wouldn’t be the fastest shucker for long if he spent his time talking to her.