PluckingthePearl

by Afton Locke

  “Then why make this harder?” she finally asked. “I refuse to live in Oyster Island with you and watch everything you built turn to dust.”

  He breathed hard. “I thought you loved me.”

  Sadness filled her chest until it ached. “I do love you. Don’t you see? That’s why I’m doing this.”

  “It must have taken enormous willpower to do what you’ve done. Your strength is something I’ve always admired,” he admitted, “but it can be damned inconvenient at times.”

  “You’re better off without me,” she insisted.

  “Let me be the judge of that,” he said. “Do you remember how I did the same to you on the island, pushing you away for your own good so you’d marry Jimmy?”

  A faint smile pulled at her lips. “I’d forgotten.”

  He smiled back. “Well, I haven’t. You made it plain you wanted to make your own decisions. So do I, damn it.”

  She pushed against his chest. “I can’t go back there and look over my shoulder all the time, wondering if they’ll kill us.”

  Caleb loosened his grip and his eyes suddenly looked peaceful and very blue. “Who said we have to go back?”

  She frowned. “What are you talking about? Oyster Island is your home.”

  “It’s true I’ve lived there all my life but it stopped being home when you left.”

  “Miss Wilson, is everything all right?” Berta walked toward them, her brow lined with concern.

  Caleb let go of Pearl and stood back. “Ma’am.”

  Pearl’s face burned with embarrassment as she wondered what went through Berta’s mind when she saw her pinned against a tree by a white man.

  “I’m glad you’re still here,” she told Pearl. “I just got a call from a lady whose mother has had a fall. She’ll need a caretaker for several months and I thought of you.”

  “That’s wonderful.” Pearl clasped her hands together. “Tell her I’ll take it.”

  Caleb looked at her with sad eyes. “Please don’t.”

  Berta fiddled with her hands, looking uncomfortable. “What should I tell her?”

  “Pearl, there’s something I need to show you,” Caleb told her. “If you still want to take this job afterward, I won’t interfere.”

  Pearl looked from one person to the other. Confusion tied her in so many knots she didn’t know what to do.

  “Please,” Caleb said, squeezing her hand as he turned toward Berta. “Ma’am, can you hold that job until the end of the day?”

  “I suppose I could, sir.”

  A waiter emerged from the dorm, calling Berta away and leaving Pearl and Caleb alone again. He tugged on her hand.

  “Come on. Let’s get in the car.”

  Her legs barely worked after standing frozen in front of that tree for so long. “You’re just going to take me back to Oyster Island.”

  A mysterious smile flashed beneath his moustache. “No, I’m not.”

  “Then where?”

  “You’ll see,” he replied.

  As he opened the car door for her, he looked serious. “I mean it, Pearl. If you still want to go your own way after this, I won’t stop you.”

  While he retrieved his dropped hat, she finally got into the car, realizing she was already losing the battle against Caleb. Breathing his scent and hearing his familiar waterman’s accent spoke to something primitive and deep inside her. He’d become part of her.

  Pearl hoped whatever he had to show her would be over with before she completely succumbed to his charms. A job and a new life were waiting for her and she had to take them for both their sakes.

  * * * * *

  Caleb’s hands shook so hard he could barely hold the steering wheel. Pearl was back in his car and hopefully his life. Part of him did want to take her back to Oyster Island and lock her up in his house.

  He noticed his ring was gone. Maybe she’d sold it for money. She’d never really accepted it anyway. She’d turned down every commitment he’d tried to make to her, including marriage.

  His chest felt tight as he wondered how she’d react to the ruins of the seafood plant. She’d probably tell him he was crazy and ask him to drive her back to the college so she could take that job.

  He had to at least try. At least he’d get to say goodbye to her on his own terms. Maybe he’d even spread her beautiful legs on the front seat of his car and take her one last time.

  The ruins were so out of the way he almost missed them. When he helped Pearl out of the car, she looked around.

  “What did you want to show me?”

  He pointed at the ruins. “That.”

  She squinted in the sun. “That? It’s a shambles. What is it?”

  “An old seafood plant. Come on.” He took her hand, feeling as lighthearted as a child as he pulled her toward the building.

  “What do you think?” he asked once they were inside.

  She walked around the main room. “It reminds me of the shack on that island.”

  He gripped his suspenders. “Exactly. What else?”

  “The small shucking room? Caleb, are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?”

  He grinned at her and tossed his hat in the air, oblivious of where it fell. “Yes. I have plans for this place.”

  Pearl tugged on her lower lip. “It needs a lot of work. What about your plant?”

  “I might sell it to Henry or at least let him run it.” He clasped her upper arms. “Do you remember how you told me your mama is watching over you? Well, my daddy is watching me too.”

  She smiled. “You look so happy.”

  “I am. This is how my daddy started out, with next to nothing. Running Rockfield’s was enjoyable but it was handed to me. It was never this exciting.”

  “Good luck,” she told him as she hugged him. “I know you’ll make it a success.”

  He looped his arms around her back and looked into her eyes. “Not without you. I found out we wouldn’t have the Klan or a mayor telling us how to live our lives. We could have children!”

  The possibilities flickered across her face. “Where would we live?”

  Caleb kissed her forehead. “In a shack at first. Later on, maybe you could do something with your piano playing. But don’t be mistaken, Pearl. Life would be very hard and primitive for a while. Can you accept that?”

  “I lived with the Johnsons, didn’t I?”

  “Your family might want to move here and help. I’ll need all the shuckers I can get. I’m going to name it Pearl Point, after you.” Excitement nipped at him like a dozen puppies, making his words run into each other. “What do you think of that?”

  Doubt passed over her face, hiding her smile.

  “What is it?” He had to get rid of her doubts even if it took all day.

  “You’re just doing this because of me.” She looked down. “It won’t work. Go home, Caleb, before you lose the rest of your money.”

  His arms tightened around her. “Don’t you see? I met you for a reason. You led me here. This is my destiny. You’re my destiny.”

  Worry still clouded her beautiful green eyes.

  He let go of her and paced. “I need to build my own company from the ground up the way my daddy did. I didn’t even realize how bored I’d become running the same old company year after year.”

  When she didn’t answer, he stopped to take a big breath. “Whether or not you choose to be a part of it, I’m doing this.”

  “You are? Are you sure?” she asked.

  “As sure as I can possibly be.”

  He watched as she fiddled with the back of her collar and pulled away a string with something suspended from it.

  “The ring,” he said. “You still have it.”

  She nodded as she took it off the string and handed it to him. Defeat dropped on him like a crushing weight, stealing his breath. So she’d chosen not to be part of his new life. Most women would do the same, he realized. Things would be very hard here.

  It was time to honor his word and let her go
. Time to lose her all over again.

  “Ask me again,” she said.

  He frowned. “Ask you what?”

  She placed the ring in his hand. The round pearl pressed a nerve connected to his heart, making it ache.

  “Ask me,” she repeated.

  The blood in his head dropped to his feet when he realized what she meant. He took her left hand and sank to one knee on the broken concrete floor.

  “Pearl, will you accept this pearl I’m about to give you? Will you live, breathe and eat oysters with me for the rest of our lives?” He paused to take a breath. “Will you be my wife?”

  “Yes, Caleb. Yes!”

  He slid the ring onto her finger where it would stay forever and jumped up to scoop her into his arms.

  “I love you so much, Pearl,” he told her as he pressed excited kisses all over her face. “My Pearl. Finally.”

  “I love you too, Caleb.” Her fingers traced his jaw and across his moustache, filling his cock with desire.

  “I think we need to christen the place, don’t you, Mrs. Rockfield?”

  “Mrs. Rockfield,” she repeated. “I like the sound of that but there’s no bed here.”

  “That never stopped us before, did it?” He sat on a nearby crate and pulled his cock out of his pants. “Come here.”

  She looked around uncertainly. “It’s too cold to take my clothes off.”

  “You don’t have to. I’m going to slip my cock inside those loose panties of yours.”

  After lifting the hem of her dress and straddling his lap, she paused. “No condom?”

  “Not anymore.” His balls throbbed with anticipation as he dug his fingers into the soft fabric of her dress and smelled her arousal. “This time there’ll be nothing between us.”

  The soft warmth of her hand nearly undid him as she stroked his shaft but he needed her, all of her. So impatient he could barely work his fingers, he fumbled with the loose leg of her panties. Time seemed to come to a halt as he slid his aching cock past silk stockings and the gossamer fabric to her silk.

  A jagged cry ripped from both their throats as his bare flesh contacted her searing heat for the first time.

  Her frantic fingers scratched at his face. “God, Caleb, you feel so good.”

  He was so choked up with desire and the beauty of this moment he could barely answer. “S-so do you.”

  Words couldn’t even describe what her sweet, wet, silky flesh did to him. The crate beneath him scraped the floor with his hard, claiming thrusts. This was his woman and he could finally tell the world. No more sneaking around. No more of her feeling like a whore. No more pressure from people judging them.

  Each stroke washed away everything that had ever come between them.

  It was so cold they could see their breaths puffing out in frantic little clouds. The raw smell of rust and salt around them mixed with the wet spice of their bodies. Pearl’s smooth throat arched back against a backdrop of rough, raw shapes.

  It couldn’t have been more perfect.

  “I must be dreaming this,” she said as she planted kisses across his face.

  He wound his hands in her soft hair, tugging at the pins. “This is no dream. We can finally love each other whenever we want. Now scream for me, honey,” he said, panting. “No one will hear us or judge us. Yell like you’ve never yelled before.”

  And she did.

  Caleb realized he wasn’t the king of Oyster Island anymore but he finally had his pearl. That was all that mattered.

  Epilogue

  The next day, Caleb and Pearl drove back to Oyster Island to prepare for their move. She looked down at the ring on her finger, unable to believe she was finally married to Caleb.

  They’d managed to find a justice of the peace the night before and Berta even directed them to a small inn that accepted them as a couple. After breakfast, Caleb found the seller of the property he wanted and met with him.

  Pearl yawned for the hundredth time. Caleb had kept her up nearly all night making love to her but she had no complaints.

  “I still can’t believe it,” she said as she looked at him.

  He smiled back at her. “Neither can I.”

  But the sight of Oyster Island made her wonder if it had all been a dream. It was the same feeling she’d had when they’d returned from their tryst on the private island. Everything looked the same as if they’d never left yet so much had changed it was as if they’d been gone for years.

  St. Mary’s County felt like home already and she couldn’t wait to return and start their new lives. Caleb’s face grew paler and more serious when he parked at the plant.

  “A lot of our plans depend on Henry,” he said. “I hope he cooperates.”

  “Me too.”

  Pearl looked around as she walked through the plant, unable to believe she was now the owner’s wife. Who would ever have imagined it? The banging of construction competed with the normal sounds of shucking. It was a different world from the quiet ruins Caleb had showed her yesterday.

  Aunt Wilma dropped her shucking knife and rushed over to them.

  “You found her,” she said to Caleb before grabbing Pearl’s arms. “Child, you had us worried to death. Are you all right?”

  Pearl couldn’t hide the pride on her face as she nodded. “Aunt Wilma, I’m married.”

  Wilma’s mouth rounded with surprise. “Married!”

  “We’ll talk later,” Pearl promised.

  Henry emerged with wrinkled clothes and hair all askew. “Caleb, where the hell have you been?”

  Caleb glanced around. “We need to talk. Is there any privacy left in this place?”

  “I’ve set up a makeshift office over there.”

  They followed where he pointed to a corner of the plant where Caleb’s charred desk and some chairs now stood. The three of them sat down.

  “Henry, this is Mrs. Rockfield,” Caleb announced.

  The man looked just as surprised as Aunt Wilma had. “I’ll be damned. Congratulations!”

  Then he dug through some papers on the desk, stirring up a charred scent that reminded Pearl of that awful night of the fire.

  “I’ve got some things for you to sign but I can’t find them,” Henry muttered. “Darn it, Caleb. You left me here for a whole day with no word of when you were coming back.”

  Caleb folded his hands in his lap. “I’m sorry. It looks as if you’re doing a fine job, though.”

  The other man sighed as he lifted a stack of papers and looked under it. “I’m doing my best.”

  “How would you like to buy the place or at least manage it?” Caleb asked.

  The papers dropped, cascading all over the desk. “I don’t think I heard you right,” Henry said.

  “I want to start fresh the way Daddy did,” Caleb went on. “I found a place in St. Mary’s County I’m going to fix up.”

  Henry blinked repeatedly and then laughed. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Please say you’ll do it,” Caleb told him. “I can’t live in this town anymore.”

  “Imagine us expanding into another county. Daddy would like that.” Henry looked thoughtful and finally extended his hand. “Yeah, I’ll do it.”

  Pearl smiled too as she watched the brothers shake hands. After facing so much opposition, her relationship with Caleb had finally found peace. While the men ironed out the details, she told Wilma about their plans.

  “Sure, I could come down there and help,” she said. “Leroy’s sweet on a girl now and wants to marry her. After Charlie goes, I won’t be able to stand bein’ alone in that cottage.”

  “I’m glad,” Pearl told her. “Family should stay together.”

  The other woman nodded. “I’m real happy for you, child. Ain’t everybody finds a love like that.”

  “I know.”

  After they finished at the plant, Pearl and Caleb drove toward his house to pack what they needed for their new life.

  “Will the piano fit on top of the car?” She smiled, know
ing very well it couldn’t.

  “To heck with the piano. I want the bed.” He threw his head back and chuckled. “We can send for them both later.”

  His laughter died when the mayor walked up to the driver’s side of the car. Pearl’s hands clenched into fists at her sides. Now she wished they’d never come back here. Everything in the house could stay there. They didn’t need it, just each other.

  “Well, if it isn’t Caleb Rockfield.” Mayor Carter glanced at Pearl and wrinkled his nose in distaste but this time she refused to feel humiliated.

  “You must be awfully busy rebuilding your plant,” the mayor continued. “You should have just let it burn to the ground and saved yourself the trouble.”

  Pearl gave Caleb a warning look when his jaw twitched. They’d already lost enough. The last thing she expected was to see him to smile.

  “That fire was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Caleb declared. “I’m finally a free man.”

  The other man glared at him, looking confused.

  “Now kindly step out of my way so I don’t run you over,” Caleb said politely. “My wife and I have places to go.”

  About the Author

  By day, Afton Locke is a logical programmer, but by night she swims in the mystical world of dreams. Intrigued by all things unexplained, like ghosts and karma, she delights in spinning dark, sensual stories that pull readers below the surface of everyday (and sometimes boring) life to the depths of forbidden fantasy.

  What else would you expect from someone with her moon in the 12th house/Pisces and Neptune in the 8th house/Scorpio? She lives in the mountains with her husband, dog and spooky black cat.

  Unlock your darkest fantasies with Afton Locke.

  Afton welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.

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  Also by Afton Locke