PluckingthePearl

by Afton Locke

  She hooked her fingers in the base of his suspenders and then gripped his hips, her frantic hands fisting the trouser fabric. With one stroke, she pulled him closer, not able to get enough of him. With the next, she forced him back because it was all too fast, hard and deep. It was as if he’d burrowed into her body, never to separate.

  His hands glided across her pinned hair—squeezing, tugging and expressing his pleasure. Their movements became an orchestrated dance that grew faster by the minute. Caleb became a beast under her hands and mouth, a beast she could no longer control.

  “I-I’m going to come.” His voice was raw, almost a growl. “Are you ready?”

  She nodded but nothing prepared her for the hot stream of liquid that shot into her mouth. It was endless. He yelled out as if he were in pain and gripped the back of her head so hard it almost hurt.

  Her heart pounded in tune to the insistent throbbing in her cunt as the warm fluid coated her tongue. She swallowed without thinking, her throat convulsing. Eventually the stream tapered off to creamy, round drops.

  “They look like pearls,” she said as she licked him clean.

  With the proof of his passion inside her, it was as if he’d claimed a bigger piece of her than ever.

  He put his member back in his trousers and when she stood up, she noticed his face was coated with sweat. He grabbed her shoulders and pressed her to the wall beside the window.

  “God, Pearl. No one has ever made me feel that good. We’re magic together.”

  “So you liked it?” she asked.

  He kissed her hard. “Liked it? I’m going to be thinking about this all night and all day tomorrow. Hell, I bet I’ll think about it when I’m on my deathbed.”

  She twisted one of the buttons on his shirt as the familiar sweet sadness that was Caleb engulfed her. “We shouldn’t have done this. I feel closer to you than ever.”

  “I know. The more we see each other the harder it’ll be to part.” He sighed and looked at the salad plate. “I should bring us something more substantial to eat.”

  Pearl shook her head, not wanting anything to erase the taste of him in her mouth.

  “Jimmy might be there tonight when I get home. How can I face him after this?”

  Caleb gripped her hand and scowled. “Why would he be there?”

  Pearl shrugged. “He insists on helping with the home repairs.”

  “Damn,” he said softly.

  “Wilma and Sadie suspect about us too.”

  Caleb turned from her and slapped the wall. “What? Does your entire family know now?”

  “I dreamed about you the other night,” she admitted. “Sadie must have heard me call your name. She dislikes me enough to cause trouble but Wilma is keeping her in line.”

  His head drooped as he stared into space. “Good grief. We’re making a real mess of things, aren’t we?”

  She nodded. “I hate the guilt and the lying. Jimmy is a nice person. He doesn’t deserve this.”

  He turned to her and kissed her forehead. “It’ll be over soon enough. Pearl, we can stop seeing each other right now if it’ll make it easier. It tears me up to see you worried and upset.”

  Again, his considerateness touched her more deeply than any physical caress could.

  “I don’t want to stop seeing you yet,” she admitted as she reached for his hand, “but we can’t do this anymore. I mean it.”

  He looked down. “I’m sorry. I was being selfish again. Tomorrow we’ll just spend time together. How does that sound?”

  “Wonderful.”

  “What we have is about more than passion. I want to make the most of every moment we’ve got left however I can. Just being with you is all I need.”

  She put her arms around the man who had all of her heart and held onto him as tightly as she could.

  “Me too.”

  Chapter Nine

  Pearl rubbed her bruised lips on the boat ride home, hoping no one would notice them. She’d been so caught up in the passion she hadn’t realized how hard Caleb had thrust into her mouth.

  She put her head in her hands. How could she have been so weak? She’d sworn beforehand she wouldn’t do anything improper with him.

  After disembarking from the boat, she cringed inside when she heard the sound of nails being hammered. Jimmy was working by lantern light.

  “I can’t believe he’s still here,” she whispered to Leroy.

  “It’s nice of him to do all that work,” Leroy replied. “Hopefully he won’t figure out what you been doin’ all night.”

  The words hit her in the face like cold water. While Leroy hastily tied the line and went to greet Jimmy, she hovered near the boat, wishing she could hide in it all night.

  She couldn’t face Jimmy now! She’d just had another man’s penis in her mouth. Kissing was completely out of the question.

  Pearl gripped the tree the boat was tied to and leaned her head against it. How could she be so unbelievably indecent? The things she’d done with Caleb in the beginning had been bad enough. Now she was involved with two men. She could almost feel her mother’s disapproval in the raw bite of the evening air.

  “Come on, Pearl,” Leroy called out. “Leave the boat be.”

  She approached the men, making sure to stay out of the circle of lantern light. The mounds of sawdust on the ground and smell of wet paint attested to hours of hard work.

  “Jimmy, what a surprise to see you here so late.” She hoped he didn’t notice how much her voice shook.

  He looked at the hammer in his hand. “Lost track of time, I guess, and I wanted to see you.”

  “I’m too exhausted to be good company, I’m afraid.”

  “You do look all done in, child,” Wilma said from the porch.

  When Pearl’s eyes adjusted to the dim light, she realized Sadie was sitting next to her. The whole family was up as if this were the middle of the day.

  “Did a bee sting your lips, Pearl?” her cousin asked in her usual sour tone, “or did you clean something tonight with your tongue? And what happened to your hair? It looks like some seagulls made a nest in it.”

  Pearl’s stomach flipped over and back again as she fumbled to smooth her hair and secure her loose hairpins. Why hadn’t she remembered to do this before leaving the plant? She’d been so focused on Caleb’s delicious cock in her mouth she’d been oblivious to what his hands had done to her hair.

  The only thing that kept her from fainting was the cool air. Why had she let Caleb talk her into messing around with him tonight? At the moment, exploring his body and seeing him climax had been the most important thing in the world. She was paying for her weakness now.

  Luckily Jimmy and Leroy were engaged in a debate on where to nail a piece of trim board. She hoped with all her might Jimmy hadn’t heard Sadie.

  Wilma bolted upright and pulled her daughter by the arm. “Time for you to go to bed.”

  “But Mama!”

  “Shut your mouth and come along.”

  The two women disappeared into the house.

  “I’m going to get some water.” Pearl’s voice was so shaky she could barely talk. “Do you men want anything?”

  “No, we’re almost done,” Jimmy said. “Come back out in a few minutes, though, so we can say goodnight.”

  “Of course.”

  As she headed for the door, the two men joked about fishing as if they’d been friends for years. Inside, she heard something completely different—Sadie crying in tune to the thrash of a belt.

  Wilma must be punishing her for what she’d said outside. Pearl put her hand to her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut so hard they hurt. Although part of her wanted to run back outside, she needed to get involved. After all, Sadie’s whipping was partly her fault.

  She flung open the door of the bedroom she shared with her cousin.

  Wilma held a belt in midair. “You’ll mind your mama now, won’t you?”

  “Stop it!” Pearl cried. “She’s had enough.”

&nb
sp; Wilma looked down at her daughter crouching on the floor on her hands and knees and then at Pearl.

  “I’ve a mind to thrash you too,” the older woman said, “for coming here tonight lookin’ like a whore.”

  The remark struck her harder than the belt could have.

  After Wilma left and closed the door, Pearl sat on Sadie’s bed and crossed her arms.

  Sadie looked up at her with a tear-stained face. “I’m sorry.”

  “Why do you dislike me so much?” Pearl asked.

  Sadie stood and plopped down on the bed near Pearl. “Why do you think? You got men chasin’ you right and left because of that pretty face.”

  “It’s not as much fun as you might imagine,” Pearl said, thinking of the guilt and the sensation of being torn in two directions.

  Turning to the table they used as a dresser, she picked among the items piled on top to get the small, cracked mirror they shared and held it before Sadie’s face.

  “What do you see?”

  Sadie pushed the mirror away. “An ugly girl.”

  “And do you know why?” Pearl held the mirror up again. “Look at that scowl. Look at the hatred in those eyes.”

  “I got plenty of reasons to scowl,” Sadie said.

  “Aunt Wilma is too hard on you,” Pearl agreed, “but you bring a lot of it on yourself.”

  Beneath the sour exterior, Pearl felt this girl’s pain. She wanted to take it away and not just because it would make her life easier. At some point, these people had gone from strangers she just lived with to her real family.

  “Beauty is deeper than skin,” she told her cousin. “It comes from what kind of person you are on the inside. When you go to work tomorrow, I want you to be kind to everyone and smile all day long.”

  Sadie snorted at the idea.

  “I bet you’ll be surprised how differently people treat you. If I’m wrong, you can go on hating me. Okay?”

  Her cousin grinned. “Okay.”

  Pearl dipped a cup of cold water from the bucket near the stove while Charlie snored from his chair. After drinking some, she dipped a rag into it and pressed it to her lips. She was so tired she nearly staggered back out the front door to say goodnight to Jimmy. Would this day ever end?

  When they saw her, the men punched each other affectionately in the shoulders and said goodnight. Leroy went inside, leaving her alone with Jimmy and the singing crickets.

  “Thank you for helping out here,” she told him. “It’s really nice of you.”

  Jimmy shrugged. “It’s nothing. Did your aunt tell you? There’s going to be a fish fry here Friday night. We’ll work on the house and some of your neighbors will join us.”

  Disappointment pressed down on her shoulders. That would be one less night she’d get to spend with Caleb. It was just as well, she thought. Seeing two men at once was madness. She’d chosen the path of respectability and it was about time she devoted herself to it completely.

  Jimmy reached out and touched her arm. Please don’t kiss me!

  Instead, he bowed his head and shot her a bashful look. “There’s something I plan to ask you then.”

  Pearl took a step backward as if a bolt of lightning had hit her in the middle of the chest. He was going to propose. She hadn’t expected it to come so fast.

  “I see,” she replied.

  “Good night, Pearl.” He hugged her and kissed her cheek before heading toward his boat.

  As she listened to his oars thump against the sides of the boat and then disappear into the night, she stood in the yard with her hand pressed over her mouth. She had to say yes. In two days her life would completely change.

  In two days she had to say goodbye to Caleb forever.

  * * * * *

  The next evening, Caleb sent Pearl to the small shucking room and joined her there with his usual basket. How was he going to keep his hands off her tonight when everywhere he looked in this room reminded him of their passion together? He couldn’t even look at the oyster table without seeing her shapely legs spread like the halves of an oyster shell, exposing her sweet, slick folds.

  “Good evening, Pearl.” He hugged and released her.

  “Good evening?” She raised a brow. “That sounds awfully formal.”

  He flipped one of the wooden stalls over as a bench again and fed her an oyster with his hand this time, not his mouth. The taste and feel of the slick oyster combined with her kissable lips would be too arousing to risk.

  When they sat down to eat crab cake sandwiches, he held her hand.

  “See how well I’m behaving myself?” he pointed out.

  She smiled. “You certainly are. Thank you.”

  He was so busy willing his cock not to get hard he’d hardly noticed how large and haunted her eyes looked tonight.

  “Is everything all right?” he asked. “Do you want me to stop behaving myself?”

  “No, I’m just tired. There’s been a lot of banging and construction on the house.”

  Caleb’s jaw tightened. Sending those building materials had backfired since it had caused Jimmy to spend more time with her. At least his dock was repaired and back to normal.

  He rested their clasped hands on his knee. “Tonight we’re supposed to talk and I want to hear more about your life in Annapolis.”

  “All right.”

  She looked awkward at first but the more she talked the more she smiled, showing him the happy girl she must have been. Her words were so vivid he could almost see her walking through the markets of downtown Annapolis and chopping vegetables in the kitchen with her mother.

  “She meant a lot to you,” he said.

  Pearl traced one of the stripes of her dress with a finger. “I still miss her terribly but it doesn’t hurt quite so much.”

  He touched her face. “Time has a way of doing that.”

  “What about you?” she asked. “I want to know how you became king of Oyster Island.”

  “Are you sure you want to hear such a long, boring story?”

  And it would be hard to concentrate with her earthy scent and the silky texture of her hand occupying his mind. His fingers and mouth ached to peel away her dress and taste every inch of her. The more he tried to restrain himself, the more he wanted her.

  “Caleb? You look uncomfortable.”

  Unable to stop himself, he leaned over and kissed her. That was a mistake because one taste of her entrancing mouth shot straight to his groin and made the blood rush through his veins like high tide.

  His body ached he wanted her so much but he had to do what was best for her. He’d been too selfish, just taking what he wanted from her when he felt like it, and it had to stop. She wasn’t some oyster he could pluck from the sea and use.

  He forced himself to pull his head away. “I’m sorry. I had a moment of weakness.”

  Passion flickered in her eyes too as she took a deep breath. “We have to fight it and, yes, I want to hear your story.”

  Caleb nodded. “Most of the credit goes to my daddy. He started the business with a one-room building a fraction the size of the plant today. I think I was shucking oysters before I knew how to walk.”

  She laughed. “I can almost picture you.”

  He told her about the excitement of watching the plant expand and how scared he’d been the day his father had died.

  “I couldn’t believe this business was mine. I was so afraid I’d ruin it within a year.”

  “But you didn’t.”

  “My younger brother helps too, of course.”

  The admiration in her eyes warmed him more than any kiss could have.

  “We should have done this before.” He rubbed the soft skin on the back of her hand. “I’m not much on talking but I enjoy it with you.”

  His chest tightened with something he couldn’t explain when she leaned her head on his shoulder. “Me too.”

  He sighed. “Unfortunately, the Sapphire Crab is having their anniversary party tomorrow night. I wish I could get out of it but I
can’t. They’re my biggest local customer.”

  “I can’t work tomorrow anyway.” Her lips twisted with dismay. “The family is having a fish fry. I can’t get out of that either.”

  “I guess we won’t see each other until Monday night then,” he said.

  It might as well be a million years away, Caleb thought. Why did their lives have to pull them in such different directions? Pearl was slipping out of his fingers faster all the time and he couldn’t seem to stop it.

  When she withdrew her hand and looked up at the ceiling with tears glistening in her eyes, fear stabbed straight to his gut. Something bigger was at stake here than waiting until Monday.

  “Pearl, what is it?”

  But he knew. He knew what she was about to say. If only he could stop it.

  “Caleb, I don’t know how to tell you this.” She twisted her hands in her lap.

  His jaw tightened. “Just say it.”

  “Jimmy is going to propose to me tomorrow and I plan to say yes.”

  When she looked at him, a tear dropped from each eye and rolled down her cheeks. “I’m sorry.”

  He grabbed her close, his arms convulsing around her. “Don’t be sorry, honey.”

  Tears stung the backs of his eyes too. Damn! He thought he’d be strong enough to accept this. Wasn’t he the king of Oyster Island, for God’s sake? And here he was about to cry like a little boy.

  When he pulled back, her lips trembled. “I’ll miss you so much, Caleb.”

  He couldn’t take any more of this. Jumping off the bench, he headed toward one of the oyster tables and hung his head as he gripped the edge of it.

  She’s mine! he wanted to scream to the world. The time he’d spent with her had been the most exciting moments of his life. How was he supposed to just hand her over to another man? He didn’t think he could do it even though it was best for her.

  Why couldn’t he be the one to make her a woman? To pluck her pearl?

  Soft footsteps sounded and he inhaled sharply when her soft arms went around his waist from behind. He clasped her forearms, never wanting to let go of this incredible woman who was as dignified, kind and hardworking as she was passionate.

  Henry was right. He was falling in love.