PluckingthePearl (4 page)

“Your hands are too soft to shuck oysters,” he said. “It
would be a shame to let them become rough and worn.”

Thankfully, he dropped her hand and common sense returned to
her. She even took a step away from him to break the spell he seemed to have
over her body.

“You could clean my office instead, after hours.”

She hadn’t expected this. “Thank you for the offer but I
need to earn the shucking money for my keep at home.”

“I can pay you a dollar per hour for the cleaning.”

“A dollar an hour!” It must have been the first time she’d
smiled in weeks. “Can I do both jobs? I don’t want to be idle all day.”

More importantly, she didn’t want Wilma and Sadie to see her
idle. They harassed her enough as it was.

“If that’s what you want, sure. Now that that’s settled,” he
said, “I’m going to give you a private tour of the oyster house and a shucking
lesson.”

When they went downstairs, she didn’t see a single person.
The building was so quiet and the floors were so clean it was hard to imagine
the noise and piles of oysters there earlier. It was almost as if they were in
a different place altogether.

Caleb showed her the shipping and receiving rooms,
explaining how the incoming oysters got loaded in through an opening in the
roof. Then he explained the steam sterilizer and the equipment in the
processing room where the shucked oysters were cleaned and packed. A stack of
cans in various sizes sported blue labels showing a picture of an oyster shell
with a pearl in it and cursive letters reading
Rockfield Heavenly Oysters
.

When she’d come to this window the first time today with
mangled oysters, she’d never dreamed she’d be getting a private tour of it from
the owner tonight.

“Do you do this for all your employees?” she asked.

For a moment, he resembled a bashful boy instead of the
owner of the company. “No. Can’t say as I have.”

“Then why me?”

He shrugged as he led her toward a back room, a much smaller
version of the main shucking room she’d worked in earlier. The cream-colored
ceiling was low here, giving it the feel of a cozy cabin. A few oysters sat on
the table. Had Caleb put them there? Her heart skipped a beat when he locked
the wooden door behind them.

“There’s just something about you,” he said. “I can’t
explain it.”

She crossed to stand near one of the wooden stalls. Looking
back at him and the locked door made her heart accelerate. What did he plan to
do to her?

“You’re not married, are you?” he asked.

Now she was almost certain he meant to have his way with
her. She shouldn’t have accepted the after-hours cleaning job.

“No. What about you?”

“I’ve been a widower for five years now,” he replied.

Pearl put her hand to her throat. No matter how giddy she’d
felt upstairs, she had no intention of being a loose woman. Because he was the
boss, he probably assumed he owned her. Maybe he did.

Leaning toward a window, she ran her hand along the sash,
checking to see if it could be opened. He gently moved her arm and pulled down
the shade of that window and the next.

Oh, Mama. Get me out of here!

“I only locked the door so we could have some privacy,” he
said calmly. “Can’t have everyone wondering why I’m giving you a private
shucking lesson.”

Daring to turn around, she almost fell over with relief when
she noticed an oyster in his hand. He placed it on the block in front of her
and picked up the clean knife lying on the table. Apparently he meant to give
her a lesson after all instead of attacking her.

He stood behind her, trapping her between his arms as he
reached forward and held the oyster. The contact of his entire body against the
back of hers erased all the silly fears that had just gone through her head.
Mercy, she almost wanted him to attack her. His scent engulfed her, making her
giddier than ever.

“The secret is in the first cut,” he said close to her ear.
The lilt of his accent wrapped the spell he’d woven over her even tighter.

“You’ve got to be quick and accurate when you cut.” He wrapped
her fingers around the knife and guided her hands, making the cut together.
“Then she’s easy to spread open.”

The hinged shell fell open with surprising ease under their
hands, revealing the slick glob of meat.

“There she is,” he added. “Isn’t that just beautiful? So wet
and tasty, just waiting to be plucked.”

Pearl didn’t reply. To her, oysters were ugly creatures but
he could convince her of anything right now. When he nestled against her more
closely, her eyes grew so wide she was afraid they’d fall out of her head onto
the table. Something hard and long pressed against her backside.

Caleb was hard, for her. The nipples of her breasts answered
in kind, tightening almost to the point of pain beneath her dress. Thankfully,
he stood still. If he moved against her now, she would be completely lost. She
concentrated on the rough surface of the concrete table with all her might.

“You’re standing awfully close,” she whispered.

“I am, aren’t I?” he whispered back. “Do you want me to
move?”

Yes! No! Oh Lord, help me. I’ve never felt so weak.

“Show me the next step—with the oyster, that is,” she said
quickly.

“Certainly.” He gripped her hand around the knife again and
made deft movements to cut the meat from the shell. “Cut here and there. That’s
all there is to it.”

“You make it look so simple,” she said, realizing he could
pull her out of her shell just as easily.

When he stepped away from her, her legs nearly gave out. It
was as if the hardness that had been nestled against her was the only thing
that had been keeping her standing upright in front of the table.

He stepped beside her and she watched, fascinated, as he
tipped the oyster half with the meat on it to his mouth. Watching the wet
creature slide past the dark hairs of his moustache intrigued her in a way she
couldn’t explain.

When he bent forward to kiss her, she was too aroused to
refuse. His pale blue eyes came closer than they ever had and all she could do
was stare helplessly into them. It was as if she floated higher and higher into
the sky, never to set foot on firm earth again.

She felt his moustache first, hot and coarse, and then his
lips, cooler and wetter. As his mouth worked over hers, something pushed
between her lips. His tongue? She met it with hers, stroking with an abandon
she refused to acknowledge as her own.

He tasted of the sea. No, not just one tongue. Two? She was
too distracted by the heat boiling through her belly to care. When he removed
his mouth, she realized he’d put the oyster inside her mouth.

Without thinking, she spit it out and it landed on the
floor.

Caleb tipped his head back and laughed. It was a beautiful
man’s laugh, musical and deep. Unfortunately she didn’t feel very amused.

“Now Ernie would have a fit if he saw you messed up his
clean floor,” he said. “I take it you don’t care for oysters.”

She crossed her arms. “No, I don’t. I thought you had
swallowed it. And you shouldn’t have kissed me.”

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.

“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.

“Hello, Jimmy,” Sadie said as she walked by. Pearl could
tell by the coy glances her cousin gave him she was interested in him.

He barely looked up. “Hello, uh…Sadie.”

Sadie glared at Pearl, as if his lack of interest were her
fault, before going to her station.
I can’t help how I look
, Pearl
thought. Besides, Sadie had nothing to worry about. Jimmy wasn’t the person on
her mind this morning.

Then she realized he was exactly the type of man her aunt
expected her to marry. The kind she herself expected to marry. He was
successful and seemed nice too. Mama would approve. She grabbed another oyster.
Jimmy was being friendly to her because she was new, nothing more.

She glanced around the plant. Where was Caleb? Had last
evening really happened? When she looked back at the small shucking room, she
saw the door wide open and people working in there. It was impossible to
believe she’d been there alone with the owner behind a locked door.

As soon as she placed the oyster on the cutting block, she
remembered her private lesson. Everything Caleb had taught her about shucking
came back to her.