by Polly Carter
Marcus didn’t speak or move as Linda stood up and walked behind the couch. She bent and kissed the top of his head then let herself out. In the shower a few moments later, Marcus was scrubbing his body as hard as he could as if to wash out the bad feelings he’d got from the conversation. He’d been so elated driving home from Pearl; now he felt sick and angry. There was no way his mother would permit his relationship with Pearl considering her family’s lack of money, and no way the board would consider him for the position of CEO without his marrying a wealthy wife.
He was aware his mother thought she had him in a corner. While he was paid a salary for his work at Holding Corporation, it was not a large one, and the relatively small amount of money he was allowed to have in his own name would not support the kind of lifestyle his mother and her associates enjoyed. If she found out about the ten million dollars he’d fortuitously made buying and selling bitcoin and had hidden away, and that he’d bought the apartment Pearl was currently living in with some of it, she might well literally explode. But he had no intention of telling her about his secret money or of investing it in Holding Corporation. He had his own, as yet vague, plans for the future, but it wouldn’t even occur to Linda that her son might choose relative penury and the woman he loved over billionaire status. It was why she had manipulated him by ensuring nothing was in his name. He lived in her house and even his car, despite it being a birthday present, was leased by Holding Corporation and not in his name. Linda believed, as he would take nothing with him if he left, that was sufficient insurance against his ever going.
By the time he was out of the shower, he’d washed away most of his reaction to his mother’s conversation, and as he fell naked into his bed and his hand moved to grip his growing erection, he was able to focus his thoughts on something far more appealing: his lovely Pearl, how satisfying it had been to use his lips and tongue to bring her to orgasm and how eagerly he was anticipating spending the following day with her.
Chapter 11
Pearl
When her eyes flickered open the next morning, Pearl was curled in a ball, wrapping her happiness up and holding it as close as she was snuggling her teddy bear. She squeezed one hand between her thighs remembering how Marcus had kissed her there and how lovely it had felt. Her phone beeped. She picked it up and read a message from him. Good morning, beautiful girl. Pick you up at 11. She replied Okay, and added five smiley emojis. She wanted to call him something nice, like he’d called her ‘beautiful girl’, but wasn’t brave enough to use endearments. What should she call him anyway? Darling? She giggled. No, definitely not that. My love? No. That sounded funny too and, besides, she couldn’t be the first one to use the ‘L’ word even though she was sure she did love him despite not having known him long. He wasn’t just handsome enough to be a film star, he was nice and kind, and fun to be with. He filled her heart with joy and she never stopped thinking about him and wanting to be with him.
It was way too early to get ready, so she made herself a cup of tea and sat in bed with her tablet learning about diamonds: what carats are, the different types of cuts, the different coloured diamonds and where they are found, and what determines the price of a stone. She already knew much of it but wanted to learn every single thing she could. When she finished studying, despite it not yet being ten o’clock, she couldn’t wait any longer to get ready.
Standing in her walk-in robe, she tried to think what outfit Marcus would like most. She went through the clothes he’d bought for her: the dress she’d worn the night before, three skirts, two pairs of tights, two blouses, a rainbow jumper, and a long, soft, grey cardigan. The clothes she’d brought with her from home were also hanging up but she wanted to wear something he’d chosen. She took them all out and laid them on her bed and then arranged them in different combinations. There was the denim skirt she’d worn before, a grey, pleated skirt, and a pink one with a pocket on the back with a white heart on it. The tights were both colourful: black ones with fairies, and red ones with flowers, and as well as the rainbow jumper she’d worn with the denim skirt, there was a white blouse with yellow stars and a blue blouse that was plain but had a red trim of hearts around the collar and sleeves.
It wasn’t going to be very warm so she pulled on the black fairy tights and blue blouse, the long, grey cardigan and a pair of white runners she’d brought with her, and then looked in the mirror. It was such a darling outfit, she wiggled her bottom happily and skipped into the bathroom to darken her eyes with eye pencil and mascara. She brushed her jaw-length hair and straightened the fringe, but frowned as she inspected the finished result in the mirror. Somehow her hair didn’t match her clothes or her mood. She pulled it up into pigtails, one high on each side of her head, which she held in place with elastic bands. Most of her hair was too short to be caught in them, so they stuck straight up. She giggled watching them bobbling as she jiggled her head up and down and side to side. She liked them but not the plain elastic bands holding them in place, so she found a piece of paper and wrote ‘pretty hair ties’ on it and put it in her bag.
She began to get quite shaky with nervous excitement as the time for Marcus to arrive drew closer. To distract herself, she searched for rubies on her tablet and discovered the word ruby is from the Latin word for red, and the stones get the red colour from their chromium content. Like diamonds, their value is also connected to their carat weight, colour, cut and clarity which she was beginning to have a good understanding of from her previous research. But, no matter how much she loved shiny, sparkling gems, she couldn’t concentrate properly with one ear listening for Marcus arriving. Ping! Her phone beeped. Downstairs. Coming up x
She jumped up and opened the door as soon as she heard him outside and before he’d even finished knocking.
“Hi, beautiful,” he said. She giggled and covered her mouth with her hand. “Or should I say cute little pixie,” he continued, admiring her outfit. “Or fairy, seeing you’ve got fairies all over your tights. Do you like those clothes, little fairy?”
Completely overcome now that he was finally here, Pearl squirmed and nodded but couldn’t quite bring herself to look at him.
“Are you shy, baby?” he said with a chuckle, pulling her to him and kissing her on the top of her head between her pigtails. He gently flicked them so they bounced. “I love these.”
“Yes, but I only had elastic bands to hold them.” Pearl forgot her shyness for the moment as she remembered the rather ugly elastic bands holding her pigtails in place. “I wrote ‘pretty hair ties’ on my shopping list,” she added, bowing her head and tilting it to one side so she could see him.
“Oh you’ve made a shopping list? That’s a good idea. What else is on it?”
“Nothing,” she whispered. “I couldn’t think of anything else except… oh… new laces for my shoes. See these ones aren’t pretty at all.” She pointed the toe of one of her shoes so he could see how dirty and discoloured her once white shoelaces were. Marcus nodded.
“Why don’t you add ‘pretty shoelaces’ to your list as well, then?” he suggested. “And what else? Would you like some cushions for the couch? Pictures for the walls? A rug for the floor? A prettier doona cover than that plain black one?”
Pearl surveyed the apartment, then shrugged and folded her arms with a heavy sigh.
“Never mind,” he said. “We’ll go exploring and see what we can find, shall we?”
Pearl nodded happily, picked up her bag and looked up at him, glad not to have to come up with any ideas or make any decisions right then. All she could think of was how handsome he was with his dark hair and blue eyes, and how his tight, dark olive-green jeans and long-sleeved T-shirt accentuated his muscular legs and chest.
By the time they’d finished, it took both of them two trips to carry their bags and parcels up in the lift. Pearl had never been on such a shopping trip before. She didn’t like to ask for things, but Marcus seemed to enjoy buying them for her anyway. It was like going shopping with Santa Claus
! The rug she’d chosen for the living room went straight onto the floor. Round and coloured in geometric cuts of white, grey, black, blue and brown, she had immediately recognised it. “It’s a diamond,” she had cried delightedly. “And, look, when you stand here, it’s sitting on the rug. It isn’t flat at all. It’s like magic.” She’d walked around, checking it out from every angle, fascinated by the way the colours had been combined to replicate the facets of a cut diamond, and how from exactly the right angle the diamond appeared to become three-dimensional and rise up from the rug. Marcus had bought it for her straight away without caring about the exorbitant price.
A second rug, pink with a white horse standing beneath a giant full moon went onto her bedroom floor.
“No jewels?” Marcus had teased her when she’d chosen it.
“No,” she said, shaking her head and making a sad face, then brightening immediately. “There weren’t any rugs with jewels, but I like this one anyway and I think there’s a castle just out of sight full of treasures.”
She jumped up and down on it and then stared at the bed where the rest of their purchases were piled.
“Happy, bunny?” Marcus asked, wrapping his arms around her from behind.
She nodded and wriggled. He kissed her hair and neck and bobbled the red hair ties with cherries hanging off that she’d bought and immediately twisted around her pigtails, then he bent down so his head was level with hers. “Would you like to open all the parcels and put everything away?”
“Yes, please!” She did a happy jump almost bumping his chin with her shoulder. He laughed, squeezed her and then took his arms from around her and walked around so he could see her face.
“Where would you like to start? How about with these?” He handed her a large plastic bag and she ran to the couch and upended the bag onto it. Four cushions tumbled out, two bouncing and falling on the floor. Pearl bent down and picked them up, and then hugged their softness to her chest. She held one out to Marcus who was watching her. “This is my most favourite one of them all,” she said.
“Which one is it?”
“The pink one that matches the doona cover with the pussy cat wearing a tiara covered in jewels and a rainbow. It’s got, three, no four things I love: pink, pussycats, rainbows and jewels. And I love this one, and this one, and this one,” she went on, arranging two of the cushions at one end of the couch and the other two at the other end, making sure the unicorn, the princess, the pussy cat and the puppy weren’t hiding each other. She surveyed the finished effect. “There! They are the loveliest cushions ever,” she decreed earnestly.
“Right then, what’s next?” he asked.
“Can we put the pussycat on the bed, please?” she begged, running to him, taking his hands and shaking them.
“Well, we can but if we do that first, we’ll have to move everything off.”
“But I want to see what my bed looks like with it on and it matches the cushion.”
“True, but you can’t see the cushion on the couch from your bedroom, can you?”
Pearl picked up the cushion with the tiara-wearing cat. She paused to study the sparkling jewels in the tiara that were glued on. “Can I have this one on my bed?”
“Of course. They’re your cushions and this is your home. You can have them wherever you like. Come on then,” he added as Pearl stood holding the cushion without moving. “Let’s do the bed.” He went to the bedroom and started moving the shopping onto the floor. Pearl followed and stripped the pillowcases off the pillows, and put them on a chair and the pillows on the floor with the cushion. While Marcus pulled the doona cover off, Pearl opened the packet containing the new pink set with the same tiara-wearing pussycat as the cushion, and shook it out. Together they put the doona in the new cover and the matching pillowcases on the pillows and arranged them on the bed. Pearl nestled the cushion between the pillows and sat her teddy bear, dog and cat around it, trying not to hide the bejewelled cat on the pillows and cushion, then sat on the bed and stroked the cat.
“Oh, it’s so pretty, isn’t it? I can’t wait to sleep in it tonight,” she said, lying down, closing her eyes and pretending to snore.
Marcus laughed and kissed her forehead. “Wake up, sleeping beauty. We haven’t put everything away yet.”
Pearl jumped up and found the bags containing the clothes they’d bought. She lay them out on the bed: a blue denim pinafore dress with a dark blue long-sleeved tee-shirt covered with stars and moons; another dress with sewn-on tiny rainbows and stuck-on sparkling jewels that Pearl had grabbed and hugged as soon as she’d seen it. She also brought home her first-ever onesies, a short white one with red and purple hearts and a frill and bow on the bottom, and a full-length grey, fleecy-cotton rabbit suit with a baby rabbit and carrot design. Pearl had loved it straight away, especially the hood with floppy ears, and the white fluffy bunny tail on the back flap. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to say how much she loved it, so had been surprised but over the moon when Marcus picked it up and insisted she buy it even without her having said anything.
But then he’d teased her as they left the shop saying, “You’ll wear this when I spank you before bed.”
She’d had a fit of the giggles imagining wearing it with the flap down and Marcus spanking her. Of course, he’d been kidding. He wouldn’t ever really spank her. At least, she was reasonably sure he wouldn’t. She’d peeked up at him, and he’d smirked at her like he was joking, but he’d also been a bit stern, too, like maybe he wasn’t joking. She’d been dying to know if he was serious or not but couldn’t find the courage to ask. And what if he’d said he was?
Seeing it on the bed gave her butterflies in her tummy and a warm ache lower down that made her clench her muscles hard. She stole a glance at him, and then looked quickly away as his eyes went from her, to the bunny suit, to her and he raised his eyebrows. What did he mean? Was he teasing?
She hid her face from him while she took some socks with frilly tops out of the second last bag and put them with the other things.
When they were all laid out, Marcus stood by her side with his arm around her. He kissed her forehead and hugged her gently. “Cute little clothes for my cute Little girl.”
Pearl wriggled her bottom happily. “Rainbows, rainbows, rainbows,” she sung. “Unicorns, unicorns, unicorns. And jewels!” She clasped her hands in front of her, trembling with excitement.
Marcus chuckled. “Where are your new laces?”
“Oh, I nearly forgot them,” Pearl said clapping her hand over her mouth. She found the bag she’d taken the socks from, retrieved a pair of pink laces with shimmery silver stars and handed them to Marcus.
“Why don’t you take off your shoes and I’ll replace the old laces with the new ones while you put your clothes away?”
Pearl dropped to the floor and pulled her shoes off, handed them to Marcus and set about clearing away her clothes.
That done and her feet encased once more in her now beautified shoes, she picked up the last bag and took it into the kitchen while Marcus collected the wrapping, stuffing the rubbish into one bag and folding the rest of the bags into a neat pile. In the kitchen, Pearl took two mugs from her bag, one with teddy bears which said Happy Little Bear that she put on the shelf with the other mugs, and another that said Best Ever in a big red heart that she’d bought for Marcus with her own money while he wasn’t watching but didn’t have the courage to show him. She hid it behind the others, and re-joined Marcus in the bedroom.
“Well, I think that was a successful shopping trip, eh, beautiful?”
“It was lovely. Thank you…” Pearl hesitated, blushed and hid her face.
Seeing her discomfort, Marcus sat on the bed and pulled her onto his lap. “What’s the matter, little girl?”
She shook her head, unable to speak.
“Come.” He regarded her with semi-mock sternness. “You shouldn’t keep secrets from me. I want you to feel comfortable telling me anything. What is it? Maybe I can help. Ther
e’s nothing I won’t do for you, Pearl.” The last was said in earnest.
“It’s just… just…” Pearl stammered and stopped.
“Just what? Come on, sweetheart, tell me.”
Pearl buried her face against him and mumbled into his chest.
“I don’t know what to call you,” she whispered, hoping he hadn’t heard.
“Don’t know what to call me?” He had.
She nodded, but wouldn’t look at him.
“Don’t you like Marcus?”
She nodded and buried her face deeper.
“What then? Does it sound too formal?”
This time Pearl nodded exaggeratedly. He was silent for so long she allowed herself a surreptitious glance up at him. He was watching her and her heart lurched. She quickly buried her face again. At least he hadn’t scolded her for being silly. He did seem to understand even if he hadn’t said anything. He made as if to say something, but then stopped. She peeked up. This time he seemed to be quite serious, as though he was thinking about something. Then, in an instant, the clouds lifted and he smiled, filling her heart with sunshine.
“I tell you what, my precious,” he said, crushing her to him and kissing her forehead, “we’ll have a think about it, shall we? Maybe we can think of something you’d like to call me that I would like too. It doesn’t have to be right away. You can call me ‘hey, you’ if you like.” He laughed and Pearl dissolved into giggles. “And if you do think of anything, you can tell me. Okay, little girl? But there’s no need to worry about it in the meantime.”
She nodded happily, her eyes shining.
He bent down to kiss her lips. Gentle ones to begin with, then deepening into long sensual explorations. Pearl felt herself melting in his arms. A small sound rose in her throat, and she slipped her arms around his neck as his lips continued to torment her. She could feel his body tensing, his breathing quickening and, under her, she could feel him hardening. His hand moved to cover her breast and a wave of sensual pleasure washed over her. She relaxed against him, opening, available, ready, but he broke away and, lifting her off his knee, stood up.
