by Afton Locke
“This was nice,” she said.
He nodded. “It was. I suppose we’re capable of companionship after all.”
She smiled. “Yes, I suppose we are.”
Unable to resist, he put his arm around her and pulled her toward him. Not to kiss her but just feel her next to him. When she put her head on his shoulder, he felt complete.
When someone knocked on the door, Caleb frowned, not welcoming any intrusion on the private, homey world he and Pearl had built around this piano tonight.
“Aunt Wilma,” Pearl exclaimed as she answered the door. “What are you all doing here?”
“We came to see you, child.”
The older woman’s voice raised the hairs on the back of Caleb’s neck. This was the woman who’d pushed Pearl out of her house. She lived with him now and he wasn’t about to let anyone hurt her again.
“You doin’ all right?” Leroy asked Pearl as he shot Caleb a challenging look.
Caleb suppressed a smile at the boy’s protectiveness.
Pearl turned to him. “Cal—Mr. Rockfield, would it be all right if my family comes into the parlor to visit with me?”
Caleb got off the piano bench. “Sure. I’ll be in my study.”
Pearl’s two cousins looked uncomfortable as they sat on the Victorian chairs. Not willing to let Pearl out of earshot, he headed to his study where he could still hear everything. He lit a pipe and smoked it.
“I’ll go make us some tea,” Pearl said.
“Well, well, well,” Wilma exclaimed when Pearl returned. “You done right well for yourself.”
“It’s wonderful to be a housekeeper again,” Pearl replied.
“Just look at us here drinking tea like royalty,” Wilma exclaimed. “Child, I’m real sorry I kicked you out of the house. I just had my heart set on your marrying Jimmy. Looks to me like you don’t need him now anyway.”
“Do you remember Buck Jackson?” Sadie asked. “He asked for permission to court me.”
Pearl clapped. “Oh, that’s wonderful, Sadie. I’m so happy for you.”
“Must be nice, sittin’ around here all day like a lady of leisure,” Wilma said. “Some of us don’t have such pretty faces and gots to work hard for a living.”
“I work hard,” Pearl replied.
The old woman’s tone turned sly. “‘Specially in the bedroom, I’ll bet.”
Caleb bit down on the end of his pipe. He was not going to put up with anyone insulting Pearl in his house. Throwing the sour woman out would probably shame Pearl even more, however, so he stayed where he was.
“I am his housekeeper and nothing more.” Pearl spoke with firmness and pride. “Nothing goes on in this house that I wouldn’t want the whole world to see.”
Choking on a breath of smoke, Caleb was glad the world hadn’t seen the painful spectacle of last night.
A teacup clinked against a saucer. “Holdin’ out on him, are you?” Wilma asked. “That’s the way to keep him interested. You got more brains behind that pretty face than I give you credit for.”
Caleb blinked, unable to believe what this woman was saying in front of her family. As he studied his pipe, he realized why Pearl was so strict about her rules. She needed to hold her head high above a society that always assumed the worst.
And Aunt Wilma wasn’t the only one. Word of his new housekeeper had spread. His floor supervisor had even made an innuendo today about it.
When Pearl asked about her Uncle Charlie, Wilma explained the change in weather had made his illness worse. Pearl excused herself and entered the study.
Caleb put down his pipe. “I know she’s your relative but I’m about two minutes away from booting that woman out of my house.”
She put a restraining hand on his arm. “Aunt Wilma can be a bit much. I’m sure they’ll be on their way soon.”
“I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to embarrass you,” he added.
“I appreciate that.” An uncomfortable expression settled over her face. “Caleb, do you plan to pay me on Fridays like the workers at the plant?”
He shrugged. “I hadn’t thought about it. What do you prefer?”
“I’d like to get some of my wages now, if you don’t mind.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to give any of your hard-earned money to that spiteful woman. I won’t have it.”
She crossed her arms. “It’s my money and I can spend it how I please. Besides, it’s for the family, not just Aunt Wilma.”
He went to his desk and filled an envelope with the money he owed her, marking the sum in his ledger. After he handed it to her and watched her stash only a small portion into her bra, he grabbed her arm.
“You’re giving most of it away.”
“I have more than I need,” she said. “They don’t and they’re my family.”
A family that had mostly turned its back on her but that didn’t seem to matter to her. As he watched her leave the room, he realized she’d surprised him once again. Admiration filled his chest so quickly it actually ached.
This entire evening had played his emotions like the keys on that piano, leaving his knees weak and shaky. Wrestling with his physical desires in bed last night had been easier.
He had found a real pearl, he realized. If only he could keep it.
Chapter Fifteen
Several days later, Pearl put her finishing touches on the glass-fronted spice rack in the kitchen. She’d thrown out the old spices that had succumbed to waterfront dampness and made sure the remaining bottles were clean and shiny. She’d cleaned up the tins of flour, sugar and lard too.
The entire week she’d spent working hard to peel away the years of neglect from the house. She was careful to stay out of Caleb’s bed and didn’t even like to clean in his room.
He’d spent so much time away from the house it was as if he didn’t even live here. She hoped the smell of spices and roasting chicken would at least entice him to stay for dinner. They’d been so close the night he’d sat with her at the piano, almost like a married couple. Hadn’t he enjoyed the companionship too?
Maybe this spice rack would get his attention but she doubted it.
When she heard the front door close, meaning he was home from work, her heart sped up. Moments later, he came into the kitchen.
“Something smells good.”
“Please stay for dinner,” she said.
Caleb nodded, his eyes pale and unreadable. “How about if we go to the plant together and have oysters as an appetizer first?”
Pearl sighed. “Caleb, you know what will happen if we go back to that room. Things are different now.”
“I just thought you should get out of the house,” he said gruffly. “I’ll take a plate in my study but don’t go to any trouble the rest of the week. I plan to eat at the Sapphire Crab.”
“All right.” She pointed to the spice rack. “I fixed this up today.”
He hardly looked at it. “It’s nice.”
When she bent down to pick a dropped clove from the floor, he sighed as if in distress and walked away. She followed and grabbed his arm.
“Caleb, are you upset about something? You hardly looked at the spice rack and you’ve been so…distant.”
He folded his arms and bathed her in a cool expression. “I don’t care about the spice rack. How can I even see it when you bend over that way? All I can look at is the way that tight, flowered fabric caresses your ass.”
She took a step back, tugging downward on the skirt of her dress as if to make it cover her more. Knowing he’d been staring at her body flipped a switch inside her, heating her up like the electric oven nearby.
“This is a respectable work dress or so I thought,” she said. “I can’t help the way I look.”
“I know you can’t,” he replied. “The rules being what they are, I just have to keep my distance.”
“But didn’t you enjoy the time we spent at the piano?”
He nodded. “Very much. I tried, Pearl. I tried to let that
be enough but I can’t look at you without needing you in every way a man needs a woman.”
Her gaze lingered over his lips and moustache, making her remember too well how they felt on her face and breasts. All she had to do was say the word and he’d carry her up those grand stairs to his bed, spread her legs and thrust his powerful cock into her. He’d thrust hard too because he was so hungry for it. Just as hungry as she was.
“Caleb, ever since that day in church, I feel as if Mama is watching over me. Even if she’s not, she lives in my heart.” She clutched her chest. “Please understand.”
“I do understand with my head and my heart. I told you that.” He shrugged, looking helpless and torn. “But there’s a primitive man living inside me and I’m afraid he never will.”
“I see.” She looked at the spice rack she’d worked so hard on, tempted to dump it all into the river.
She wanted him in every way too but companionship was better than nothing to her. Apparently she didn’t have a primitive man living inside her like he did.
“I’m trying to be understanding of you too, Caleb,” she said slowly. “If I make you so uncomfortable, I shouldn’t be here, chasing you out of your own house.”
“Nonsense. We’ll work this out.”
“I was illegitimate,” she blurted out.
He blinked in surprise. “What?”
“It’s true.”
Then she told him the story of Mama’s life—how she’d been ostracized and destitute when her family found out she’d gotten with child. So why had their good life in Annapolis ended too? Maybe Mr. Stuart had sinned.
“That’s why Mama made me promise to be good,” she insisted. “So I’d have a roof over my head and a good life.”
He gripped her forearms. “Pearl, you are good. You can have a good life and me too.”
But she bit her lower lip and shook her head. He would never understand. She would have to be content with his respect.
After he went to his study, she took the chicken out of the oven, the steam fueling her tears. What use was it to live in this fine house, she wondered, if it was going to be so cold and empty? Having Caleb act like a stranger was almost worse than not having him in her life at all.
She didn’t know how much longer either of them could withstand living together under these conditions. Unfortunately she had nowhere else to go.
At least the physical activity that filled her days brought blessed sleep and forgetfulness. Once the house was completely in order, which it soon would be, how would she fill her days then? Thank goodness Caleb had a piano.
* * * * *
After dinner, Pearl closed the curtain over the small bathroom window and sifted pale bath salts into the steaming tub before turning off the water. She’d decided to have a nice bath and enjoy indoor plumbing while she still could.
She reclined in the claw-foot tub and closed her eyes, determined to think of anything but Caleb. Unfortunately she couldn’t think about anything else. The way he’d looked at her… The raw need on his face…
Of its own accord, her hand lingered over her breasts as she cleaned her body. When her fingers toyed with her nipples, making them tingle and elongate, they were his fingers. When she spread her legs, the hot water bathing her wet folds was his tongue.
She clenched the edge of the tub, determined to keep her hands out of mischief but her body cried out in need for Caleb. The fierce burning inside her core had to be satisfied even if only with her thoughts.
A finger slipped into her swelling folds, thrusting with increasing urgency. It was his finger, the evening he’d caught her sleeping in his bed. No, it was his cock—hard, slick and magnificent. Her head thrashed against the rim of the tub as water splashed with her mindless strokes…his strokes…faster and faster.
As her muscles tightened with her mounting pleasure, she reached for the washcloth and pressed it to her mouth. Caleb mustn’t hear her. To her surprise, she managed to gasp instead of scream as hard spasms clenched her finger.
The moment it was over, tears peppered the backs of her eyes as she realized her naughty deed had been a mistake. To her chagrin, she felt even less satisfied than when she’d begun.
Oh, Caleb. I miss you so!
* * * * *
An hour later, Caleb pushed his plate across the roll-top desk in his study. Even though the chicken was cooked perfectly, it tasted like cardboard. Everything did lately. The faint trace of tobacco scent in the room didn’t even inspire him to light his pipe.
All he could think about was Pearl’s curvy little ass under that thin layer of flowery cotton. He’d been more than tempted to have her bend over the oven and take her from behind. How good those coffee-colored globes would look with her juices spread all over them.
Just thinking about it made his cock tingle and burn inside his trousers like the end of a live electric wire. He dragged his hands through his hair.
I can’t take any more of this!
He had to get out of this house. As he walked upstairs to use the john first, disappointment weighed down each step. When Pearl had first told him about her silly rules, he figured it was just a brief phase she was going through from the shame of being forced out of her aunt’s house. Now it appeared to be anything but quick. He hadn’t expected to learn she’d been an illegitimate child but she wasn’t a child anymore.
The logical part of Caleb’s mind worked like the machinery at the oyster plant as he climbed. Pearl’s need for decency seemed to be tied to her mother but she couldn’t grieve for the woman forever. She was bound to return to her passionate and uninhibited self again. Unfortunately he was short on patience.
And if he couldn’t convince her financial security didn’t require moral perfection, his bed would eventually freeze over.
When he opened the bathroom door, he heard a splash. He couldn’t believe the sight laid out before him in the bathtub—slippery brown skin partially submerged in water made milky white with bath salts.
“Jesus, Pearl!” He gripped the door, his cock turning to concrete so quickly it hurt. “Are you trying to kill me? Why didn’t you lock the door?”
“I did. The latch must have slipped out.”
He slapped at the small hook attached to the door. “Damn lock needs fixing.”
She reached over the side of the tub, not quite able to reach a towel from the stack of them on the nearby rack without stepping out of it.
“Please go,” she begged him.
But he couldn’t move. “No. Let me look at you. Please. Just for a moment.”
Their gazes locked across the small room. His eyes dipped to the delicious dark peaks poking through the creamy water—water so creamy it looked as if he’d climaxed in it.
Boiling heat churned in his groin when he imagined tasting those erect nipples. Why were they so hard? The water looked steaming hot, not cold. Good heavens. She hadn’t been playing with them, had she? Despite her proper demeanor, was her body as starved as his? Of course it was. He had only to remember their passion on the island to know that.
His gaze slid down to her navel and the wet hairs leading to her swollen cleft. Come to think of it, why was that so swollen too? Was it just the hot water or had she rubbed herself? Had she come? He didn’t ask her because he wouldn’t be able to control himself if she had.
He gripped his suspenders so hard it felt as if his knuckles would pop off. If he stood there a moment longer, he was in danger of jumping into the water and claiming every bit of that wet, slick skin.
With every muscle in his body pulled to the breaking point, he stepped closer. When she moved, the splashing sound set off a fluttering sensation in his balls.
“I think I’m going to come right here and now just from watching you.” His throat was so tight his voice sounded like that of a monster.
“Caleb, get out. Please!”
With superhuman effort, he made himself retreat to the door. “I’d ask you to draw me a bath—a very cold one—but I don’t
trust myself to stay in the same house with you that long.”
He flung the door closed behind him and went into his bedroom. Pearl had drawn the drapes and turned on the lamp beside his bed. Desire, to the point of agony, consumed him. He had to get out of here but his cock made the front of his trousers protrude like a horn. He couldn’t go out in public in this condition.
After yanking open the front of his trousers, he braced one hand against the dresser and grasped his bare erection. Seeing Pearl in the tub had made him almost as wet as that water. Using his own fluid as lubrication, he rubbed himself with savage, punishing strokes.
Damn her! Damn her for looking so desirable and being so chaste. Each thought made him stroke faster and harder. If his cock weren’t so hard, he might be in danger of injuring himself. His hand rocked the heavy dresser, making it thump against the wall and rattle the glass prisms hanging from the lamp. The racket only urged him on. If only he and Pearl could rock his bed like this.
As usual, she was blameless. She’d accidentally fallen asleep in his bed, the bathroom lock had failed… It would be easier to get angry at her for purposely teasing him. Well, he was sure as hell angry about something but what?
Damn society! Because this wasn’t her fault. If Oyster Island would accept them as a married couple, he’d be in that bathtub with her right now, fucking her sweet little pussy instead of his hand.
As predicted, it didn’t take him long to come. He reached for the wastebasket, shooting his semen inside. After he’d spent himself and stuffed his sated organ back into his trousers, he was relieved to find some of the anger had gone with it. His shoulders heaved as he took a shuddering breath.
They couldn’t go on like this. Pearl might as well have married Jimmy after all. He was destined to lose her one way or another.
She appeared in the doorway dressed in a bathrobe, her face dewy and damp from her bath.
“Are you all right?” she asked. “I heard the furniture rattling.”
“I’m going out,” he replied. They both looked at the wastebasket at the same time. “I’m afraid I made a mess.”