Читать книгу Just Like Candy - Kimberly Kaye Terry - Страница 8

Davis focused on Candy’s question, and not her hot little body wrapped in ass-hugging jeans.

“Angelica…what about her?” she asked, snapping him out of his thoughts and forcing him to remember the reason he came to her. It wasn’t to check out her ass, no matter how perfect it was. It was because he was worried about his child.

“Angelica and I need you. Whatever I’m doing obviously isn’t working. I’m afraid they’re going to try and take my child from me,” he admitted and felt the crush of fear weigh heavily on his heart.

“What do you mean? They can’t take Angel from you…she’s your daughter. Anyone can see how much you love her.” Davis heard the surprise and outrage in her voice, but it did little to stave off the crushing sense of failure that had been looming over his head for the last few months.

“Sometimes love isn’t enough. If someone feels she’s not being raised correctly, getting into trouble and she’s only nine…I’m at my wits’ end,” he admitted.

“I’ve been working in this industry—child welfare—for over ten years. Before I came to the center I worked with child services with the state. Davis, I know it takes a lot more than truancy for a child to be taken from a parent who takes as good care of his child as you do of Angelica.”

She rose from her seat and perched her plush bottom on the edge of her desk, her voice and the look in her eyes earnest.

“Thank you. It’s good to know you feel that way, that not everyone doubts my ability to raise Angel.”

“There’s no way that I’m the only one who thinks this way,” she chided, lightly. When she gave him a lopsided grin Davis swallowed, hard.

“No, you’re right. I’m just wallowing in self-doubt lately,” he replied. He rubbed his hands over his hair in frustration.

“That’s understandable.”

“If it was just the truancy, I wouldn’t be so worried. But it’s more than that.”

He took a deep breath, trying to gauge how much he should tell her, how much he wanted to disclose to a woman who had him hard one minute and confused about his feelings for her the next. But there was more at stake than his own tangled emotions.

Frown lines were etched deeply across his forehead.

Candy wanted to reach out and smooth them away with the tips of her fingers.

“It’s complicated,” he began, only to stop short. “Angelica isn’t my biological child.” Candy nodded her head in acknowledgment.

“Yeah, it’s no secret,” he gave a small shrug. “But I’ve always thought of her as my own child. DNA has nothing to do with that.”

Although she made no comment, didn’t ask for clarification, she was more than curious about the circumstances surrounding Angelica’s birth, or better yet her conception. Her curiosity must have shown on her face.

“Gail had just ended a relationship before we got together. I didn’t know this at the time. When she found out she was pregnant two months later, there were questions about who the biological father was.”

“And you were okay with that?”

He ran a hand through his hair, a gesture she was coming to understand meant he was either in deep thought or agitated.

“To be honest with you, I didn’t know this until after Angel was born.”

When he didn’t disclose more, and his expression closed, his mask of neutrality slipping over his handsome face, Candy felt a sharp pang of disappointment.

“Gail wanted Angelica to have good influences in her life. Strong women to help guide her. She made me promise I’d make sure it happened.”

“It is important. And your aunt and sister are wonderful influences.”

“They are, and they love Angelica nearly as much as I do. When Milly left, Angel was missing that. Mil was the main female influence in her life. I think her leaving reminded me of my promise to Gail.”

He looked away and Candy’s curiosity was piqued.

“What did she want, specifically?” she asked when it looked as though he might not continue.

“She wanted me to make sure a black woman was a part of Angel’s life.” His face flushed.

Candy carefully considered her words before she spoke. She didn’t want to offend Davis, his deceased wife or her request. It wasn’t for her to make any judgment on what the woman wanted for her child.

“I can see where that would be important for her. Particularly if she knew she wouldn’t be there for Angelica, as she grew up,” she said as gently as she could.

“She did know. That was the hardest part. For Angelica.” She heard the sadness in his voice, although his face was carefully blank. “She had very specific things she wanted for Angelica. A lot of those suggestions came from her grandmother.”

His square jaw tightened. He stood from the chair and walked over to her large window, staring out into the outdoor basketball court.

“Does Angelica have close contact with family members on her mother’s side?”

“No,” he said abruptly. “It’s complicated.” He continued staring out the window for long moments, before he turned back to face her. “Like I said, Gail was pregnant when we met, although she says she didn’t know it at the time.” Candy kept her face neutral, although she caught his slip.

“Gail was raised by her grandmother. She was a strict old woman. Her grandmother cautioned her about me raising Angel alone when she knew of her cancer. ‘That man has no business raising Angel alone’ was how it was put by a few well-meaning friends. Yet none of those well meaning friends stepped up to help raise her. Not that I wanted any of their help.”

“And her grandmother…?” she allowed the sentence to dangle.

Davis returned to his chair and sat. “Her grandmother is elderly. She doesn’t see Angel often.”

When he said nothing more, Candy dropped the subject. She was surprised he’d told her as much as he had.

“I have to meet with her principal, her teacher and the school social worker this coming Tuesday…and I don’t want to do this alone.”

“Can your sister or your aunt go with you to the school?”

“They could and would, but I think I want to go another route with this.”

“What do you have planned?”

He squinted his eyes and rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes never leaving hers. Candy sensed his unease.

“Would you consider coming with me? I think it would help the situation, if you were to be there.”

Her surprise, she knew, showed on her face. Davis mistook her shock for reluctance.

“Look, I’m sorry. This probably wasn’t a good idea. I told Milly—” he started, rising from his chair.

“No, wait. I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it—you spoke about this with your sister?” she stopped her explanation to ask.

“She thought it would be a good idea to ask you if you’d consider helping—look, I know this isn’t your problem. I shouldn’t have involved you in this.”

“No, it’s not that. I don’t mind helping. It just surprised me that you asked. That’s all. I consider it a part of my job to help any child or parent in need. You, Angel, and your family are important to Girls Unlimited. So anything I can do to help your family, I am happy to do.”

“Thank you. It means a lot.” He sat back down.

“Anything I can do to help, I will. The well-being of my girls at the center is important to me.”

“I appreciate it, Candice. I know you take your job seriously, as well as the girls, here. I admire you for that.” His steady regard roamed over her face, looking for what, she didn’t know.

Whatever it was he must have been satisfied. His once-taut features relaxed and he sat back more easily into his chair.

“It sounds like an interdisciplinary team approach to the problem.”

“What is that?” he asked.

“Nothing major, just the way most schools and social agencies work to help resolve an issue. You said her teacher as well as her principal and social worker are coming to this meeting?”

“Yes,” he confirmed.

“Then it seems as though this has gone to the next step. Which isn’t a bad thing,” she quickly interjected when she saw the instant look of worry cross his handsome face.

“You don’t have to try and make me feel better. I know it’s not a good thing when you have to meet with your child’s entire school network,” he laughed humorlessly. “Maybe with you there they’ll see I’m trying to correct the problem.” He glanced down at his watch.

“What time is the meeting and when do you want me there?”

When he smiled widely and the slashes appeared on either side of his cheeks, Candy’s heart lurched in response.

“Tuesday after school, around three o’clock…can you make that?”

“Of course. I just hired a new assistant, Pauline Rogers. Sister Pauline is what most of us call her,” she laughed lightly, thinking of her eccentric new assistant. “She’ll be here to help the other staff. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

“That sounds great. Thank you, Candice.”

“Call me Candy. Most of the kids do.”

“I wondered if that was your real name or not. You don’t mind the kids calling you by your first name?”

“Not really. Most of them call me Miss Candy Cain, which sounds even sillier,” she laughed with self-deprecating humor.

Davis laughed a low husky laugh that sent goose bumps racing down her arms. She knew she was beyond help when even a laugh from him gave her the shivers.

“I’d better go,” he said after glancing down at his watch again. “I didn’t know it had gotten so late.”

At the same time he stood from his chair, Candy jumped down from her perched position on the desk. She lost her balance enough so that she fell against his hard body.

Their touch caused an instant electric static, which made her jump, and she fell back against her desk, laughing nervously.

“This is getting to be a habit,” he said as he steadied her.

“I’m fine. Sometimes I can be a bit clumsy. Thank you,” she answered, embarrassed.

For a while there she’d been professional and had her act together…and then she’d had to blow it and fall all over the man. He probably thought she was a basket case, despite his avowal that he saw her as a professional.

“Please…I’m fine,” she insisted when it didn’t look as though he was going to let her go. “I just tripped again,” she grimaced as she looked up.

With her usual nervous gesture, her tongue snaked out and wet her lips, as she returned his stare, unable to look away. One of his hands moved from her shoulder to gently run the rough pad of his thumb over her chin.

“I think I may have misjudged you, Miss Cain. I’m sorry.”

She knew he wanted to kiss her and her body tensed; her mouth grew dry as he stared at her mouth when she spoke. Candy didn’t look away. She couldn’t.

Even as his head descended, one hand lightly cupping her cheek as the other rested on her hip, she still couldn’t…wouldn’t move away.

Her heart thudded against her breasts, as his lips met hers, soft but firm.

His hand remained on the side of her cheek. One callused thumb caressed the corner of her mouth while he brushed his lips against hers softly. When his tongue snaked out and licked the seam of her lips, Candy released a small groan.

Back and forth he ran his tongue along the length of her lips. When her senses cataloged the sensation, it was gone, forcing her to lean closer, in an attempt to capture his elusive caresses.

He dragged her tight against his body, her body slamming against his. He stopped the light teasing and drew her fuller bottom lip between his teeth. He tugged it completely into his mouth. The kiss deepened and Candy’s body melted into his.

Her breasts tingled and her nipples hardened, pressed so tightly against the hard wall of his chest. They tightened even more as her mound crushed against his hard, thick cock, straining against his rough-feeling jeans.

He deepened the kiss by plunging his hot tongue into the warm, wet recesses of her mouth, searching for hers. When the two connected in a hot, sensual tangle she heard Davis groan harshly.

The hand resting on her hip eased down, traveled lower, and cupped her ass. He forced her warm juncture in tight alignment with his dick. She felt the cream ease from her pussy and saturate the lining of her panties.

Candy moaned when he rained biting kisses down the side of her neck.

His hand remained on her ass, while the other cupped the nape of her neck, slanting her head, angling her for better access to her lips.

With a harsh-sounding grunt, he shoved her against the wall, crushing her between the hard plaster and his unyielding frame.

Releasing her neck, he pulled her hips against his groin and ground his cock against her.

“Damn, you taste good!” He released his suction hold on her mouth long enough to grunt out the words.

“Don’t stop,” Candy begged, her breath coming out in gasps. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him back down toward her aching mouth.

With a gruff laugh he obeyed and captured her mouth, again. He ate, nibbled, suckled and devoured her lips while bumping his thick cock against her mound. She frantically clutched at his wide shoulders, crying and whimpering against his lips, grinding herself against the thick ridge behind his jeans.

He shoved her top up. Cupping her warm breasts in his palms, he thumbed and toyed with her stiffened nipples in perfect orchestration, until she broke.

His mouth swallowed her mewling cry of release, the orgasm sudden and fierce in its intensity.

When she came back to awareness, it was to feel his cool, peppermint breath against her forehead, before he moved away and rested his forehead against hers.

For long moments they stayed in that position, until her heartbeat gradually calmed.

Candy brought her arms down from their position around his neck, and allowed them to rest between them.

Her arms and legs felt like wet noodles, they trembled so. She’d have fallen straight on her butt if he hadn’t held on to her.

Davis pulled away from her, his breathing harsh and loud as he looked down into her face.

“God! I’m so sorry,” his voice broke. He cleared his throat before continuing. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

“Please, don’t—” Candy was interrupted by a loud knock on the door.

They barely had time to spring apart when the door was flung open, and Pauline Rogers, a.k.a. Sister Pauline, waltzed into the office like she owned it.

They had only a few seconds to adjust their clothing between the time she knocked and when she walked in.

“Time for your session with the girls, Miz Candy!”

Candy turned frantic eyes toward the clock on the wall. Time had flown by. She had less than five minutes for her session with her girls.

Candy felt the heat flush her skin when the older woman turned her scrutinizing eyes toward the two of them.

It would have to be Sister Pauline to walk in and catch them going at each other like two dogs in heat, Candy thought with an inward groan.

As soon as Pauline had burst in, Davis had shoved her behind him, shielding her from the older woman’s eyes, while tugging his T-shirt down, lower, over his jeans.

Before she stepped around Davis, Candy peeked around his big body and saw the telling wet spot smack in the middle of his zipper.

She straightened her back, and looked at Pauline, plastering what she hoped was a nonchalant I haven’t been dry-humping a parent in my office, and having the best orgasm I’ve had in a long time look on her face.

“Uh, well, yes, Sister Pauline. I, uh, I’ll be out there as soon as I can.”

Her hopes were dashed when she noticed the sly look on Pauline’s face.

Candy glanced up at Davis and saw a matching flush steal across his lean cheeks.

Pauline peered over the top of the bifocals set low on her wide nose at them, adjusting the curly gray wig on her head as though it was a hat.

Candy bit the insides of her cheek to force herself not to squirm under the older woman’s penetrating stare.

“Umm-hmm,” Pauline hummed when no one said anything.

“Would you mind getting the session started for me? I need to conclude my, uh, meeting with Mr. Strong,” Candy asked as she tried, unobtrusively, to pull her top back down and tuck it into the waistband of her jeans.

Maybe asking her to start the session would throw Sister Pauline off the scent and the woman wouldn’t say anything guaranteed to embarrass her and Davis.

When the other woman’s ample bosom puffed out in pride at the request, Candy released a sigh of relief. She’d sidetracked her for the moment.

“Don’t worry about it. Sister Pauline got this, baby! Now you finish up in here and get down to session as soon as you can, you hear?” She immediately focused her stare on Davis. “Aren’t you that Angelica’s daddy?”

“Yes ma’am. Angelica is my daughter,” he said in a respectful tone, no doubt taking his cue from the way Candy spoke to the woman.

“Hmm. She a little hellion, that one. You might want to have Miss Thang hang around Miz Candy. Miz Candy is a good woman. She can teach your little bad as—behind,”—she caught herself when Candy coughed—“chile some manners.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m in total agreement.”

Pauline narrowed her eyes even more when he docilely agreed. Candy gave him major kudos for not squirming under the old woman’s piercing stare.

With a satisfied look she nodded her head.

“I’ll get the girls rounded up ready for you, Miz Candy. But don’t be too long finishing up here.”

Pauline popped her tongue against the roof of her mouth and gave Candy the look. Whenever Pauline did that, Candy felt like one of the young girls she mentored, all of ten years old.

“You might want to lock the door if you plan on having any more in-depth meetings. Understand?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Candy and Davis replied in unison.

Pauline withdrew the whistle she kept buried deeply in her bosom, and left the room, firmly closing the door behind her.

Seconds later they heard the shrill whistle and Sister Pauline’s booming voice. “Time for session! Don’t make me have to find y’all! You don’t want me to come and hunt your little narrow behinds down, trust Sister Pauline on that! If you’re in this session, saddle up, it’s time to roll!” Her heavy footsteps faded away as she stomped down the hallway.

“Who was that?” Davis’ voice was hushed as though he was afraid Pauline would overhear him and return.

“Um…that’s Mrs. Rogers, she’s my assistant.”

“Your assistant?” His deep voice held a discernible squeak. “Didn’t you call her Sister Pauline? Is she a nun?” he asked, horror in his voice, forcing a laugh from Candy despite the tension in the air.

“No. We all grew up calling her that. She’s one of the mattrons at the local church. It’s a sign of respect to call her Sister,” she explained. “Sometimes she’s a little gruff, has a tendency to quote biblical passages in one breath and well, say a mild curse word—or two—in the next. But she has a heart of gold.” Candy straightened her clothes and moved toward her desk, gathering what she needed for the session.

There was a strained moment before Davis spoke again.

“Look, I don’t know what came over me. I didn’t plan for that to happen,” he said, running his hands through his hair. “I’m sorry—”

“Please, don’t.” Candy held up a hand, forestalling him from continuing.

She didn’t know what to think, much less what to say, in reaction to what had just happened between the two of them. What she didn’t want was for him to apologize.

To tell her it was something he regretted wasn’t what she wanted to hear.

“I wasn’t exactly pushing you away.” She straightened her back and looked him in the face.

Davis’s eyes blazed before his expression shut down.

“I don’t know what came over me. I’m sorry that happened. It won’t happen again. I’d better go,” was his stiff reply.

His next words banished any desire she had for him to pick up where they left off before Pauline’s interruption.

“In case you get busy or lose track of time, I’ll have my secretary call you.”

Without waiting for a reply, he turned and left her office, closing the door quietly behind him.

Candy didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or throw something at her closed door.

Damn.

Just like that, he’d brought back to mind why one minute she wanted to jump his bones and strip off her clothes, and the next she wanted to hurt him. Badly.

After the intimacy of what they shared, she didn’t know what she expected to happen.

That odd exchange had not been it.

One minute he ran hot for her, giving her what she’d been dreaming of for longer than she wanted to admit, and the next, he insulted her by suggesting she was so feeble-minded she’d forget something that was so important.

They both were a crazy mess of contradictions, she thought, and gathered her things, preparing for the session with her girls.

Her mind was a chaotic jumble. Angrily, Candy threw her notebook into her bag, tossed it over her shoulder and left her office.