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 herâfor 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, except in a paternal way.
At eighteen, Candice was an adult in so many ways. She lived on her own, thanks to money her father had left behind. She could kill a man, thanks to training she received from Uncle Rock. She had the body of a grown woman, thanks to good genes. But, at heart, she was still a very innocent young woman. She wanted the love of a man to validate herself as a woman. She craved affectionate hugs and kisses, which Uncle Rock never gave.
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 tearsoaked 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 extremely 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. She closed her eyes, just as she had done when she practiced on her hand.
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.
As they walked inside of the dark space, Tuck didn't bother to turn on any lights. Turning Candice around in his arms, he grabbed her face and kissed her deeply again.
This time, Candice felt fireworks in her pants. She grabbed him around the neck like an experienced woman.
Tuck slid one hand under her shirt and unclasped her bra, and Candice's firm breasts spilled out of captivity. He caressed them gently, causing her to whimper. His hands felt electric on her flesh. He lifted her shirt over her head, bent forward, and placed his mouth on her areola, and she sighed contentedly, the heat of his mouth sending heated sparks all over her body.
Tuck was grunting, his breath heavy and ragged. He moved his head up and kissed her deeply again, with greater urgency this time. Bending his knees, he hoisted her off the floor.
Candice clutched his head and pulled him closer. She just let her legs dangle and wrapped her arms around his neck for leverage. Tuck used his strong arms to open her legs so she could straddle him. Then she buried her face in his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist, locking them together at his back.
Tuck carried her into the bedroom and placed her gently down on the bed. He clicked on a bedside lamp.
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 selfconscious 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. She had only ever seen a penis in the porn magazines she bought behind Uncle Rock's back to aid her when she explored her own body.
“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.