To Russia With Love (Countermeasure Series) (23 page)

He dipped his head and pulled one of the tempting tips into his mouth, sucking it deep in tandem with his thrusts. Jessica’s head fell back, pressing against the bed. She lifted her hips and ground tight against his groin as her hands moved to her breasts, cupping and lifting them. “Oh, Stephan—” she gasped out in a long breathless moan. “I’m so close! Don’t stop!”

Jessica sobbed under the pressure building inside her. She was divided between the need to reach her release and the need to relish more of him. Pressing her foot to the bed, she rolled them and inverted their positions, forcing him onto his back. As she straddled him, his hand gripped her hips and guided her back over his rigid erection. Their groans filled the room as she impaled herself on him. At the deep penetration, a spear of pleasure jagged its way across her.

Jessica bowed her back and leveraged her weight on her knees and hands, initiating a sensual dance, pulling from him then descending again, impaling herself to the hilt. Her heart thrummed in her chest as Stephan’s thumb covered her clit, pressing and rubbing against it.

She’s tight. Oh, God. So tight.
Stephan’s heart raced out of control with each ripple, each squeeze of her sheath around his cock. Her breasts bounced as she rode him, each sway of the rounded pink-tipped mounds robbed the breath from his lungs. He raised his torso from the bed and wrapped his arms around her waist, latching his mouth to a sweet nipple. He sucked and pulled at it with his teeth while her body rocked against him in undulating waves.

Stephan brought her down to him and captured her mouth with his in a hot, wet, tongue-thrusting kiss. Holding her tightly against his chest, he pumped his hips in a rapid succession of thrusts, flesh against flesh.

“I’m coming!”

“Yes! Do it for me.” His command was rewarded with her release. The quakes of her orgasm around his cock propelled him into his own. He came crashing into a mind-blowing climax while she rode him to the brink of reality, fisting and milking him to the last drop.

Her orgasm descended upon her in hot waves, flowed through her, and dropped her boneless and spent on top of him.

She lost track of how long they stayed entwined in each other’s arms, still joined. It was much more than she had expected.
He
was much more than she had expected. His hands caressed her lower back in circular movements, bringing ripples of desire to the surface again. She was not alone. His cock twitched to life inside her once, twice.

“Already?” Mirth colored her tone as she lifted her head from his chest to face him.

He had the most relaxed expression she’d ever seen, and a smile quirked his lips.

“We
have
wasted a lot of time. Lots to catch up on.”

“I’m so with you on that one.”

A deep laugh echoed in the room as he rolled them again, setting her on her back and breaking their connection.

“Hey! I thought we were catching up.”

“We are,” he grinned, reaching for the box on the nightstand again, pulling out another condom.

“Ah.” She smiled, anticipating another mind-blowing orgasm in the near future. She was fast becoming addicted to him.
Definitely addicted
.

“This time, exploring the benefits of foreplay is in order, something I regretfully ignored the first time around.” There was a trace of laughter in his voice.

“By all means, explore away,” she quipped.

Sheathing himself again, he crawled back and locked eyes with her. “As you wish.” His voice broke with huskiness as he slid down to the juncture of her thighs.

“Stephan—”

Venice of the North

U
PON THEIR ARRIVAL IN ST. Petersburg, they collected the rental vehicle at the airport and made their way to the apartment overlooking one of the many canals in the beautiful Russian city. St. Petersburg wasn’t called Venice of the North without reason. Its beautiful architecture and imposing monuments were a feast for the eyes. Cassandra admired the view from their car while Trevor juggled traffic with the expert help of his GPS.

Once they unloaded the car, Trevor helped Cassandra with setting up their little base of operations.

“You mentioned there’s a store nearby?”

“Yep. I marked it on the map I printed before we left. It’s tucked in the front pocket of your laptop case.”

He retrieved it and took a minute to look it over. “We need some basic staples for the morning. I’m going to get some things before it gets too late. Are you okay here?”

“Yes, sir.” She made fun of his stern tone. “By the time you get back we should be up and running. Just remember the most important thing on your list.”

“How can I forget your fuel? Besides, I want to survive this job in one piece.”

“Trevor Joseph! I am not that bad without my morning coffee.”

He pulled her into his arms and dropped a peck on her lips. “Not bad at all.”

Cassandra chuckled and waved him off. “Just go, you oaf.” Her laughter followed him as he left the apartment.

Standing by the window, Cassandra kept her eyes on the street below and watched as Trevor strode toward the store. The warm sunset rays glowed through the window. Any other time, she would have enjoyed sharing the view of the canal with Trevor, sipping a nice wine, whispering naughty promises in his ear.

She could see it so clearly in her head: the sunlight caressing the sharp angles of Trevor’s face, enhancing the deep ocean blue of his eyes, touching his cheeks and lips as it faded behind the buildings; the crimson shimmer of the wine glass in his hand as he lifted it to his lips, softly kissing the rim as he drank from it. The sensuality of the scene pulled at her insides.

She would enjoy the view of him, follow the lines of his trim, muscular body, love the way his navy blue shirt matched the color of his eyes, fitting him just right. His legs, encased in slacks, would be a feast for her eyes as they hugged his thighs and tightened across his ass as he moved.

She shook her head to clear the fantasy. It dawned on her that with each passing day his hold on her heart grew tighter and tighter. Turning from the sunset now hidden behind the buildings, she found Trevor leaning against the doorframe, watching her closely.

“Trevor! You startled me. Didn’t hear you come in!” Noticing his hands were empty, she shot him a questioning look. “Did you pick up anything at the market?”

“They are on the counter. I called out to you when I got back but you didn’t reply, so I came looking for you.” With a lift of his chin, he pointed at the window. “What caught your fancy out there? Sneaking a peek into an apartment across the street?” A wicked glint sparkled in his eyes.

The heat of a blush crept up her neck and flooded her cheeks.
Busted
. In an effort to compose herself, she walked to the laptop and turned it on. “Nothing really, I was just thinking about the case.”

“Hmm.” Closing the distance between them, he traced the blush along her cheek and down her neck with the back of his fingers. “I can see that it was nothing,” he grinned before kissing her softly on the lips. “Care to share?”

“Share what? My to-do list?” She turned her attention to the laptop’s screen, feigning innocence. Her heart was a wild drum in her ears as Trevor stepped up behind her. The weight of his hands dropped on her shoulders. His lips touched just behind her ear and trailed kisses along the curve of her neck, leaving a dusting of goose bumps in their wake. His hand brushed down the side of her body and around her ribs to cup her breast.

A soft moan slipped from her lips as he pulled her back snug against him. She all but melted into him as he licked a path back up from her shoulder to her neck, sucked her earlobe into his mouth, and licked along the shell of her ear.

“God, Cassie, I need you,” he whispered, his hot breath tickling her ear.

Her stomach clenched and her insides pulsed at his words and she shifted, turning into him. Her lips hovered close to his but, as they were about to kiss again, the sound of an incoming message echoed in the room.

“Fuck!” Trevor whispered harshly.

“Damn it,” she breathed longingly against his cheek at the same time.

“It’s George. He has the worst timing ever!” Trevor complained. “I’m seriously rethinking our agreement to help him with Jennifer.”

“Yes. Something to be considered,” Cassandra laughed softly before kissing him hard on the lips. She took the chair at the table, pulled the laptop closer, and toggled to the chat window.

Are you there? Hellooooo!

Trevor came up behind Cassandra and watched as she initiated a conversation with George.

Here. What’s up?

George replied instantly.
Have you already started the recon?

Trevor shook his head at George’s impatience. “Tell him we’ll be starting recon tomorrow.”

Trevor paused as she typed his response. When she reached the end of the comment he continued as she typed.

“I am also going to attempt infiltration from outside again. See if I’m lucky this time and can find a way in without having to put my ass on the line. Ask him if he has the location under watch.”

Cassie fingers did a quick step across the keys, posing his question.

All under watch, guys. Steady stream of people at all hours. Sending you more satellite footage and the latest transcripts of the calls made and received by Mikhailov’s phones as well as emails. Will be in contact once I get more for you.

His response brought a satisfied grin to Trevor’s face. George was precise and attentive to detail. If there was something to be found, he would definitely find it.

George’s contact, while brief, had taken long enough to interrupt the magic that had built between him and Cassandra earlier. Attention was diverted irrevocably to the task at hand and the job ahead.

Trevor took stock of the apartment. The small living room had a tiny dining table and a desk, which Cassandra had set up as workstations before he had gone out. Since she had laid claim to the table—by the look of her files already organized on it— he took the desk where she’d set him up and hunkered down to business.

He opened a shell connection and conducted a search for an access point into Mikhailov’s servers. That initial attempt would be the least intrusive as possible. Even if someone analyzed the firewall logs, it would show as a port scan—not worthy of a red flag.

There were many possible sources of vulnerabilities in any system. The key was to find the easiest and fastest way in. Trevor knew there was little hope that Mikhailov wasn’t wise enough to have his servers severed from the outside world. With his involvement in digital fraud came the knowledge about the many ways hackers found their way into a network. He would have secured his own by now. He performed a Network Enumeration, the first step to an external penetration test using the series of Internet Protocol numbers listed on file for Mikhailov’s servers. Those IP addresses worked as home addresses on the internet; they identified a connection exactly as a house was identified by a street name and number. He stared at the network discovery with the knowledge that he would eventually hit a brick wall.
It would be stupid to have some of the best hackers in the world on your payroll and not secure your own network properly.

Testing the connection to see if it was live, he made sure he stayed under the radar of an intrusion detection system by randomizing the test. Cassandra, knowing him well, left him alone as he dove deeper into the network. He found a live IP and initiated a trace route—a very tedious process, but it would identify any possible way in as well as which computers were accessible within the network.

His mind swirled through the several options he had available at that point. Triggering a quick vulnerability analysis, he scanned the network for open ports and for the list of applications running on any of the network’s computers to compare with available vulnerability lists. A good system administrator would know to patch all holes and follow all security guidelines. He was sure Mikhailov had hired the best, but he had nothing to lose by trying.

Even a fully patched operating system could become vulnerable if one of the many installed applications was not properly updated. Hoping to take advantage of any pitfalls in the system, Trevor inputted command after command, fingers flying over the keyboard, to reach his target. Using a less-known exploit, he finally gained access to the remote system. “Oh yeah!”

Cassandra looked up at him with a smile on her face. “I knew it wouldn’t take you long.”

“I’m not there yet. I’m not sure if this is the network where the decrypter is stored. If it is, then he needs to hire a new sysadmin,” he scoffed as he continued his search.

Installing tools on the system to enable remote control, it didn’t take Trevor long to gain full access to one of the machines. Using the list of files names provided by Paul Faber, he initiated a full network scan looking for them. Although he knew the chances of getting a hit on any was slim, disappointment bloomed in his chest when the scan turned up zip.
Fuck
! His blood always pumped faster whenever he was heavy into infiltrations.