Hard Candy Saga

by Amaleka McCall

  “So you think Broady just finally went over the edge on her?” Candice needed to know more details, even though she was getting angry just thinking about it.

  “With all the blood I saw on the steps, ain’t no tellin’ what that nigga went and did. The jake that was out on the scene mentioned gunshot wounds. Ain’t no tellin’ who did it, with shit the way it is in the streets these days,” Tuck said, hanging his head low.

  Candice closed her eyes and exhaled. She bit down into her jaw and forced herself to remain calm. After she learned about Shana’s condition, she would find Broady. Not only was he going to pay for allegedly participating in the massacre of her family, he was also going to pay for what he did to Shana.

  “You gon’ be all right?”

  “Yeah, I’ma be okay. But the cops better find Broady before I do,” Candice warned, her legs quaking with suppressed rage.

  “A lot of niggas lookin’ for Broady, including his own brother. He better hope the cops find him first,” Tuck said seriously, sitting in one of the newly vacated seats next to Candice.

  * * *

  Six hours later, Candice was startled awake by the voice of a man announcing, “Family of Bellamy!”

  She jerked her head from Tuck’s shoulder and jumped at the doctor’s call. She wiped her face with the palms of both of her hands, trying to clear the cloud of sleep from her eyes. “That’s me. I’m, um, her sister,” she answered, sleep still evident in her voice.

  “Okay then, Ms. Bellamy. We can go and talk,” the doctor said.

  Tuck stood up and grabbed Candice’s arm for support. He knew from police experience that whenever the doctors wanted to take family members into the “bad news” room, shit couldn’t be good.

  Candice followed the doctor in silence. She allowed Tuck to hold on to her because it felt good, and she honestly wasn’t sure if she could do this by herself. She finally admitted to herself that her feelings for Tuck might be a little more complicated than she had realized.

  “Have a seat anywhere you’d like,” the doctor offered as they entered a room with a long black conference table and swivel chairs.

  Candice sat down in the first chair she saw, and Tuck took the seat to her left. Candice steeled herself for the news. Her fists were clenched so hard, her knuckles paled, and her toes were balled up inside of her shoes. Tuck reached for her hand and twined his fingers with hers.

  “Ms. Bellamy, I’m afraid that your sister didn’t make it,” the doctor blurted out, sparing her the details. He had done it enough times to know that wasting time just prolonged the agony of the victim’s family.

  The doctor’s blunt words came across like an explosion in Candice’s ears. She blinked rapidly and stared at the doctor in disbelief, swallowing hard and shaking her head from left to right. She looked over at Tuck and then back at the doctor to confirm that she had heard correctly. Tuck’s expression erased any concerns she had with her hearing.

  “We tried to stop the bleeding in the brain, but it was too severe. Surgery to remove the bullet fragments from the skull is always touch-and-go. She never regained consciousness,” the doctor explained.

  Candice pushed away from the table and shot upright. She couldn’t deal with death right now. Not at a time when she’d just walked out on her relationship with Uncle Rock. Her world seemed to be crumbling down around her. She raced down the hallway, heading toward the nearest exit.

  Tuck was hot on her heels. “Candy! Wait! Let me take you home! You can’t drive like this!” he yelled after her.

  Candice continued at her feverish pace. She just wanted to be left alone.

  As Tuck gave chase, his cell phone started vibrating in his pocket. “Shit!” He chose to ignore the call. He raced after her until they both spilled onto the street.

  Candice sped to her car, refusing to stop for Tuck. Just as she hit the button to open her car door, Tuck threw himself in front of her, blocking her access. Her chest heaved up and down from the mad dash.

  Tuck’s chest rose and fell just as fast. “Candy, wait a minute!” he panted. “It’s okay. I want to take you home. You’re in no condition to drive,” he reasoned, struggling to catch his breath.

  Candice’s lip quivered. She just wanted to get home. Shana’s death had her vulnerable. “Please move,” she requested in a whisper-like voice. She didn’t know if she meant it, but she said it nonetheless.

  “No. Let me drive you home. I will even take a cab back to pick up my car later. Let me be here for you,” Tuck pleaded.

  Candice was overwhelmed by feelings she had never experienced before. His face was so beautiful. She felt weakened by his simple request to help.

  “Okay,” she whispered, the rush of emotion too much for her to handle. Tears streamed unhindered down her cheeks. And they weren’t all for Shana, a girl she hardly knew. Mostly, they were for her—for the life she had been denied.

  “It’s okay.” Tuck grabbed her into a tight embrace as she began to sob in earnest. Tuck held on to her as if she were the last woman on earth.

  Candice stood rigidly against his muscular chest. She had not been touched like this, held like this before. She wondered what it felt to be touched and carressed by a man.

  In more ways than one, she wasn’t prepared to deal with the overpowering sexual attraction she felt toward Tuck at this moment. As she let this stranger hold her closely, her mind became muddled and her judgment cloudy. Candice cried into Tuck’s arms, ignoring everything Uncle Rock had warned her about love. She knew Uncle Rock’s theories about love had been based on lies, to begin with. For the first time since she’d lost her family, she let herself be vulnerable.

  Tuck grabbed Candice’s car keys from her tear-soaked hands and opened her car doors, allowing her to enter from the passenger side of the vehicle. “Tell me your address,” he said softly as he started the ignition.

  “I don’t want to go home,” Candice whispered, looking at him with sad eyes.

  Tuck melted a bit inside. He sucked in his breath and pulled the car out of the spot.

  Tuck didn’t want to degrade Candice by taking her to the apartment Junior believed he lived at in Brevoort Houses. Feeling just as weak and vulnerable as Candice, he headed for his undercover apartment. He knew it was taking a chance, but he wanted and needed to be with her tonight.

  Although he was trying to be strong for her, he was also experiencing some serious trauma from his cheating wife. In fact, Brubaker was probably busy spinning a story about him to the DEA bigwigs right now.

  Candice lay her head on the headrest and closed her eyes. For some reason, at that moment, she decided to trust Tuck. Just being in his presence made her feel at ease.

  They rode in silence through the streets of Brooklyn, the city lights shining through the windshield and washing over their faces as they drove. Right now, they needed each other more than anyone else.

  When they arrived on the Park Slope block, Tuck luckily was able to find a parking spot on the usually overcrowded street. He shook Candice awake.

  She jumped up, clutching her bag close to her chest. Tuck was startled by her reaction, and he jumped too.

  “Hey, hey, you okay?” he asked softly.

  Candice exhaled slowly, gathering her wits. “Where are we?” she asked, looking around, her heart racing wildly. She knew better than to trust anyone, let alone a man. She couldn’t believe she’d been so stupid.

  “At my place,” Tuck calmly replied.

  Candice peered out of the window and looked up and down the block. “You live here?” she asked with furrowed brows. She had assumed he lived in one of the bad neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

  “Yeah. Let’s get going. You need to rest,” he said, reaching out and tucking her hair behind her ear.

  Candice flinched at his touch.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” he reassured, his voice a soft hum. He looked straight in her eyes as he held the back of her head.

  Tuck’s direct gaze made Candice feel extr
emely nervous. She wanted to bolt from the car, but her legs felt like two lead pipes. He pulled her head toward his and gently placed his mouth on top of hers.

  Candice’s mind told her to resist, but her body fell into step. When Tuck forced his tongue between her pursed lips, she resisted at first, but the hot feeling overcoming her body made her open up and accept him. Their tongues intertwined in a sensual dance. Candice kissed Tuck back like her life depended on it. What she lacked in experience, she made up for with enthusiasm.

  When they moved apart, she could feel a throbbing pulse between her legs. She had never felt such an intense feeling down there before.

  “You ready?” Tuck asked.

  Candice wasn’t sure what he was asking for, but she knew what she wanted him to mean. She nodded her head, completely at a loss for words. The pulsation between her legs was enough to drive her crazy.

  “C’mon,” Tuck said, opening her car door. He placed his hand on the small of her back and led her to his apartment.

  When Candice and Tuck reached the door of his apartment, he opened the locks with shaky hands, his mind completely clouded by desire. He was in violation of every rule he’d ever learned as an undercover. This apartment was supposed to be off-limits to anybody who could trace it back to him.

  Candice kept her eyes closed. She swallowed the lump of uncertainty and fear lodged in her throat.

  Tuck quickly swept his wire and undercover cell phone into the nightstand drawer. He scanned the room to make sure nothing else could expose his real identity. He returned his attention to Candice, slowly unbuttoning her pants as she lay on the bed.

  Candice was shaking all over. She started to feel some reservations about taking this any further. She was supposed to be on a mission, killing off the enemy, not sleeping with them.

  She thought briefly about her uncle Rock and what he would think about her current situation. She knew he would be beside himself if he knew what she was doing.

  With a small rebellious smile, Candice helped Tuck pull her pants off.

  Tuck was in awe of Candice’s beautiful skin and tight, athletic legs. His hot stare made her feel self-conscious and embarrassed.

  Candice moved her hands to cover her most private of places.

  “I want to look at you,” Tuck whispered sexily as he pulled his pants and boxers off.

  She moved her hands covering her neatly trimmed triangle, turning her head to the side. She couldn’t look at him directly.

  “Relax. I won’t hurt you,” Tuck said softly. He rolled on a condom and lay next to her on the bed. He could feel her body shaking. He looked at her face, stroking her hair softly. “You can trust me,” he whispered.

  The words just came before Tuck could even think about them. He didn’t even trust himself. He couldn’t tell her his real name and certainly couldn’t mention that he was a married father of two. He couldn’t tell her he was an undercover federal agent that was too dumb to get a handle on his emotions before he brought her to his house.

  “I want you, Candy.”

  Tuck moved in close, the scent of his cologne wafting to the back of her throat. I don’t know what you want me to do. I’ve never done this before. Candice stared expectantly at him, not knowing where to even begin. She wanted to believe that, for the first time in four years, she could trust someone other than Uncle Rock. No more tough-girl “cleaner in training.” Right now, she was just a teenage girl ready to give it up for the first time.

  Tuck kissed her passionately again. He moved his hot mouth from her lips and licked his way down her neck to her breasts. Grabbing each globe with his hands, he moved his tongue back and forth over each nipple until they were both rock hard. Tuck licked the pointed ridges of her areola until she lost her breath.

  Diving farther down, he licked across her stomach, stopping to kiss her belly button. Candice’s body was on fire. She moaned softly into the pillow, even though she wanted to scream out loud. She had never experienced such sensations in her life. Her nerve endings were supersensitive to his touch.

  Tuck stopped abruptly, gazed down into her tortured face, and smiled. Using his knee to make a space for himself between her trembling legs, he coaxed her to relax. His own excitement was making him breathless. He grabbed his manhood and placed it gently against Candice’s moist flesh. She jumped. Her legs were quaking against his hips. He bore down gently, assuming it was simply a case of the nerves.

  “Ahh,” she whimpered, grabbing a handful of the skin on his back. She felt a flash of fire between her legs.

  Tuck pushed with a bit more force, using the ridge of his dick to make entry.

  “Ssss!” Candice winced, a single teardrop escaping from the corner of her eye. The flash of fire had turned into an all-out explosion of pain.

  Tuck furrowed his eyebrows, realizing only too late the significance of her body’s resistance. Candice was a virgin. He suddenly felt an overpowering surge of protectiveness for her, exhilarated to know that she had chosen him to be her first. He pushed harder against her saturated labia.

  “Ahhh!” Candice screamed out again, part in agony, part in ecstasy.

  Tuck had broken through her barrier. Candice’s tight muscles gripped his shaft like a vise. The pressure felt so good. Tuck moved deeper into her folds.

  Candice held on to his back, digging her nails deeper into his skin. The burning sensation was overpowering, but so was the intense pressure against her clitoris.

  Tuck moved in and out of her body carefully, her juices soaking his throbbing pole. “You feel so good,” he grunted in her ear.

  Candice felt goose bumps on her skin. The longer he stayed inside of her, the better it felt. She instinctively began to move her hips in sync with Tuck’s. Soon their bodies moved together in perfect rhythm.

  Candice felt her body getting closer to a release, the “good feeling,” as she called it. The feeling she experienced only when she masturbated long enough. “Oh God!” she called out, almost at climax.

  Tuck bore down deeper, putting the pressure of his hairy pubis on her swollen clit and grinding gently. It was all she could take. Candice cried out in sheer pleasure. Her head jerked up and down on the pillow as the orgasm ripped through her loins, causing her body to buck against Tuck’s.

  “Yeah,” Tuck grunted, moving faster now.

  Candice’s release juices gave him more ease to move inside of her. The small pains shooting through her pussy were nothing compared to the explosion deep inside. When her body was done cumming, she felt Tuck climax as well.

  Tuck gently removed his wet member from Candice, flopping down on the bed with his face up to the ceiling.

  A cold feeling of guilt and shame came over Candice. She was terrified that Tuck would immediately dismiss her after their encounter. That was the lesson she’d learned from all of Uncle Rock’s lectures over the years. She covered her ears with her hands, trying to block out her uncle’s words. She turned onto her side with her back toward Tuck and drew her knees up into her body until she was almost in a fetal position.

  “Hey,” Tuck sang softly, touching her shoulder.

  Candice didn’t respond.

  Noticing her unresponsiveness, Tuck flipped onto his side and propped himself up on one arm. “Candy, are you okay?” he asked, his voice louder and more serious now.

  Candice was rocking slightly. She couldn’t make the feelings go away.

  Tuck realized he had taken advantage of her at a vulnerable time, but he wanted to make it clear to her that he wasn’t just some dirty older man that would treat her like shit afterward. He also didn’t know how to tell her he wasn’t the thug drug dealer she believed him to be.

  Candice was so disappointed in herself. She jumped out of the bed and began frantically searching for her clothes.

  “Wait, Candy, don’t go,” Tuck pleaded, rising from the bed as well.

  Candice already had her clothes gathered up, and she was whirling around, looking for the bathroom.

  �
��Just stay for the rest of the night,” he begged, putting his hands up to try to stop her.

  Candice brushed past him roughly. She didn’t want him to see her this weak. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She repeated the words in her head over and over again.

  “It’s on your left,” Tuck called out at her back.

  He sat down on the end of the bed in just his boxers. He placed his head in his hands and closed his eyes. It was all a mistake. It was all too much. First, his wife and Brubaker, then one of the main targets on his case might have murdered his girlfriend, and now he was falling for a girl he knew nothing about.

  Tuck stayed in the same position until he heard Candice attempting to get out of the maze of locks on his door. He quickly slipped into his jeans and threw a wife-beater over his head. He was stopped dead in his stride.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” he screeched, his hands raised high above his head.

  Candice stood in a shooter’s stance, her arms extended in front of her. She gripped her Glock 22 with the thumb-over-thumb grip, just as she’d been taught. Tears streamed down her face. The gun shook as her hands trembled.

  “Candy. I’m not your enemy. I swear. I just wanted to be there for you. We can talk about this.” Tuck swallowed hard.

  Candice squeezed her eyes tight to fight away the tears clouding her vision. She wanted to believe him, but he was a close friend of the man who killed her father. A fact she had lost sight of a few hours earlier.

  “Why did you lock me in here? Let me the fuck out of here,” Candice gritted through tears.

  “Let me help you open the door. I’m not trying to keep you here against your will,” Tuck explained, his tone pacifying.

  Candice lowered the gun slightly but kept it at the high ready, where she could return to the proper shooting position within a fraction of a second.

  Tuck observed her stance, her grip, and her use of the high ready, and he immediately became suspicious. She had definitely had some professional training. He made a mental note to himself to learn from whom or where she’d acquired those skills.