Not wanting to lose the moment, she wound her arms around Devlin’s neck and pressed herself against him as well. “Where do we go from here?”
“Where do you think?” he replied with a seductive smirk.
Her breath hitched in her throat and she slid her hands around to rest on his shoulders. The man’s eyes darkened as Jessica fumbled with his tie and the buttons on his shirt, slipping her palms to the flat planes of his hard chest.
The doors closed all the way and he lifted her against the elevator’s chrome sidewall. He crushed his mouth to hers, as she groped to press the button for her floor.
He slipped his hands inside her plunging neckline and cupped her breast, his fingers pinching her nipple beneath her lace bra.
Vertigo hit, and she wasn’t sure if it was the elevator or the feel of his kiss, but suddenly the world seemed to spin and move in slow motion at the same time.
Devlin lowered her to her feet, letting her feel every inch of his hardness the whole way down.
Her sweater bunched over her breasts as his hands roamed her soft curves through her lace bra, and she moaned knowing her thin skirt was the only thing separating her from the bulge at the front of his suit pants.
Hooking her fingers into the back of his waistband, she slid her hands beneath the stylish fabric and cupped his ass. “You’re commando,” she murmured.
“Yes.”
“Me, too,” she murmured, pulling his hips close and lifting one leg so he could grind his hips against her sensitive bits.
Groping for her hem, his hands fisted the silky material of her skirt and hiked it over her thighs. He lifted it high enough to work his fingers around to the smooth skin of her shaved mound.
He grinned, caressing her silky slit. “Smooth as a baby’s ass and wet…so fucking wet.”
Jessica slid a hand around from the back of his pants and fumbled with the top button of his pants. She unzipped his fly, her breath catching at the feel of the thick corded mass bulging there, waiting to be released.
Freeing his cock, he lifted her against the chrome wall again, only this time when she wrapped her leg around his back, he drove his hard length into her soft, wet folds with one stroke.
Jessica moaned, digging her fingers into his shoulder as he thrust deeply. The elevator car shook, rattling to an abrupt stop, alarms bells ringing.
“Are you okay?” a voice crackled over the intercom only to pause. “Holy shit! What are you doing? This is a public elevator! Get a room before I call the cops!”
Devlin swore low in his throat before turning them so the only thing the camera could see was the wide expanse of his back. With a rough grunt, he thrust harder and harder until Jessica cried out in release. Her climax sent him over the edge and he plunged deep, his balls high and tight as he exploded inside her.
Jessica slumped against the inside of his shoulder, hiding her face. “We should probably move this party to my apartment,” she said, her breath jagged.
“You think?” With a laugh, Devlin slid Jessica down again, only now he helped her wiggle her skirt back into place. Still hiding her face, she helped him straighten the front of his pants before he pressed the up button.
The elevator doors opened onto her floor and he stepped aside, letting Jessica out first.
They walked side by side, neither saying a word, Jessica’s cheeks burning from the squishy, wet feel between her legs. She needed a quick wash before Devlin got anywhere near her nether regions again.
Digging for her keys, her hand shook as she unlocked her apartment door. She pushed the door open and snapped on the living room light. “Uhm,” she said, turning. “I’ll be right back.”
She dropped her keys, purse and jacket on a chair and then headed straight for the bathroom. Leaving the door ajar, she turned on the hot water tap and then leaned on the vanity.
“What the hell are you doing?” she chastised herself, “You don’t have hot, nasty monkey sex in public places.”
“You sure?” Devlin’s deep voice asked behind her. He slid his arms around her waist and kissed the damp nape of her neck. “As far as hot, nasty monkey sex goes, we’re a nine point eight out of ten. The Russian judge got wind of what we’re planning in Kyiv, so his nose is out of joint. Otherwise, it would have been a perfect score.”
She looked at him in the mirror. “We just broke about a hundred non-fraternization protocol rules.”
“You’re the lawyer, so I’ll have to take your word for it.” He grinned, letting one mischievous hand reach for the hem of her skirt again. “Honestly, the only thing we broke tonight was your elevator.” The silky fabric glided in a slow, sexy tease over her thighs toward her ass. “Care to try our luck at breaking a bathroom vanity, too?”
She gasped, but before she could reply, his cell phone rang.
It was time.
Operation Pony Express was in motion.
Chapter Four
“Jesus! It’s fucking freezing. Even my goddamned teeth are cold,” Teddy said, cupping his hands to blow on his fingers through his gloves.
The two waited in the apartment block as instructed, the cold seeping through the cracked concrete like pitiless sin.
Devlin tossed a pack of cigarettes and his lighter to him. “What did you expect? Warm weather and palm trees? It’s January in the Ukraine. This time of year, they get about an hour or so of sun per day, but at least it helps us with cover.”
“Well, fuck me stupid, professor.”
Grinning, Law turned back to his night vision binoculars. “Sorry, bud. You’re not my type.”
Their vantage point was from the sixteenth floor of the complex. From there, they had a bird’s eye view of the drop point across the street.
“Yeah, but your type is sitting pretty in a nice warm hotel room waiting to meet Ivan while you’re freezing your balls off with me. Did you see how they’ve got Banning decked out? Fur coat, fur hat, jewelry. The works. She looks like a goddamned Russian mob princess.”
Devlin didn’t flinch at the bait. “Jessica has to look as though she belongs at that swank hotel, so as not to arouse suspicion. The whole point was to make it look as though Ivan arranged for both her and the hotel for a hook up.”
“Fat lot it does us here if Princess gets into a sticky situation across the street. By the time our elevator rattles its way to the ground floor, it’ll be too late for us to do anything to save her sweet ass or retrieve the intel. Let’s hope she’s not only not arousing suspicion, but not arousing anything else while at it.”
Devlin ignored the intentional dig and kept his eyes on the drop, scanning the area for anything out of place.
“Like I said,” Meade continued. “Banning’s not cut out for this kind of work. She’s totally back office. A trained woman would get down on her knees to blow cock before blowing the mission or her cover. My guess is Princess will shit first and then run.” Ted lit a butt and blew a stream of smoke into the chilly room.
Devlin flipped the scope off his eyes and turned. “A trained woman? Do you hear yourself, Teddy?”
“I meant trained female operative, asshole, but now that you mention it, having a chick trained to go down on me at a snap of my fingers sounds pretty damn good.”
“You’re a piece of work, Meade. You know that?” No humor in his tone, Devlin shook head at his partner. “If I didn’t trust you with my life, I’d shoot you just for being a huge prick.”
Meade chuckled. “Hey, size matters, dude. Besides, you love me, bro. Warts and all.” With a wink, Ted picked up the surveillance schematic from the table and scanned the map.
His teasing sobered, and he looked up from the chart. “All joking aside, Dev. We need to think about how we approach this later. I may be a chauvinist, but I want Banning to pull this off as much as you. Unharmed.”
“I don’t like the set-up any more than you, but this is where the chief instructed us to stay. It was the only way Ivan agreed to show,” Devlin replied.
Meade rais
ed an eyebrow. “Think the guy has trust issues?”
“Wouldn’t you?” Devlin glanced past his shoulder at his partner again. “He knows he’s going down regardless of which side gets the goods on the scumbags behind this sicko sex ring. He’s hedging his bets. If he smells a ratsky, he won’t hesitate to take Jessica for leverage.”
“What makes you think he won’t anyway?” Teddy posed. “Think about it, Dev. The man has nothing to lose, so why not trade her for asylum? The prospect of life in a cushy American prison has got to be a far better option than looking over your shoulder everyday in this frozen war zone.”
Meade swung his arm out toward the apartment’s shabby furniture and plain walls. “And this is supposed to be the better part of town. An apartment block that looks more like a cell block, across from a five-star hotel.”
“The riots a few years back left scars on the city. Hotel chains have money to rebuild,” Dev replied. “But you’d know that if you surfed the net for news reports instead of porn.”
Ted leaned his chair back on two legs, both hands behind his head. “What gives? You’ve had your butt clenched since we arrived in this sub-zero hell-hole.”
“Forget it,” he answered with a dismissive exhale and then glanced at his watch. “We’re T-minus thirty minutes to H-Hour.”
Dropping forward, Ted’s chair landed on the wood floor with a dull bang. “No, man. For real. What’s eating you?”
“I don’t know.” Devlin shook his head. “Something about this whole set-up is churning my guts and not because you think I’ve got a hard-on for Jessica. Things aren’t adding up.”
Teddy pushed himself from the hard seat to walk to the window. “This vantage point is for the birds. Literally,” he said, taking the night vision binoculars from Devlin’s hand. “I don’t care how many languages our little sweetheart speaks. We need to get closer.” He nodded toward the drop point at the pavilion across the street.
“Look at how exposed she is at the mark,” Ted continued. “It’s a fucking side pavilion used in summer. Even the patio heaters have three inches of ice covering the stainless steel. I’m telling you, Dev, your gut’s not wrong. Good ol’ Frank didn’t tell us everything, and he’s left Banning out on a limb with no real field training. I checked. She trained all right, but never on point. She was a spotter.”
Devlin looked out the window and lit another cigarette. The sky was a dark blot. Heavy snow clouds obliterated even the weakest moonlight, so the only shadows were harsh and yellow from a few weak streetlights.
“You’re right.” Devlin looked at his partner. “We can’t stay here. Lauder must have a reason behind why he chose this place and didn’t give us a full briefing. Either that or he misjudged the distance and accessibility if things go south.”
Meade moved from the window and took a clip from the scuffed table before stuffing it in his pocket.
“No, Dev. He didn’t. My bet is he’s gone rogue. Our government is so busy sucking dick weighing how best not to piss off the Kremlin, our boy Lauder knew the window on this opportunity would close if he didn’t take matters into his own hands.”
Law dragged a hand through his hair. “He’s the one who said this was an international incident, so why aren’t the Russians here as well? As backup.”
“I told you, bro. The chief’s outside his jurisdiction on this one. There’s no official backup because this isn’t an official op. Hell, maybe Frank is sending us in under the guise of humanitarianism, when he’s covering his own ass and those of the ones truly guilty of protecting these scumbags. Maybe he’s involved.”
Devlin blinked, realizing how balanced Teddy’s conspiracy theory sounded.
“Ahh, I see says the blind man,” Meade replied to the look on Devlin’s face. “If Banning goes down or we go down, that’s it, buddy. Game over. That’s all she wrote. As assets, we were never here. Remember what he called us? The ghost and his shadow.
“As for Jessica, the chief thinks she’s untraceable, but if the Russians do facial and voice recognition, they’ll figure out who she is and where she’s from. At least, she’ll come up on their database as a British national, not American,” Meade added.
Devlin pivoted on his heel and grabbed two 9-millimer Glocks and shoved them into his waistband. He took a handful of cartridges and a second pair of night vision goggles and tossed them to Meade. He gestured to the rest of their equipment. “Did you sign this stuff out?”
Meade shook his head. “Nope.”
“Good.” Law nodded. “Take what we need and then destroy the rest. If we’re not officially here, then officially we don’t have to be in this flat, exactly. Let’s bust this trafficking ring, get our girl, and get out.”
A slow smirk spread across Teddy’s face and he raised an eyebrow. “Our girl, huh? Since when are you into sharing?”
“Not now, Teddy.”
The man’s grin widened. “I was right, you are into her! Admit it. I’ve been your partner for years, Dev, and I know you. Your dick is rock hard for our resident law expert.”
When Devlin didn’t make eye contact, Ted burst out laughing. “You dirty dog! You’ve already dipped your wick!”
“Drop it, Teddy. I mean it.”
“Why? I’m not the one who broke the cardinal rule and shit where I eat.” Meade paused, cracking a smile. “Not that I blame you. Banning’s brainy, but she’s got more curves than a German test track. She’s a looker in a full-figured pin-up sort of way.”
“Are you thick or just stupid? This is my last warning, Teddy. Enough.”
Meade whistled low. “You really like this one. I mean like, as in feelings and shit?”
Devlin didn’t reply
“Wow. Talk about a kick in the balls. What about our rule, Dev? No attachments. Just tap and go?” Ted asked.
“Jessica is different, Teddy,” Law replied. “Don’t ask me how I know. I just do. Now, are you coming or not?”
Meade chuckled. “Oh, brother. You got it bad, dude. Can you at least wait until we get back to Germany before tapping that fine ass again? Remember, I’m in the next bed. Unless, of course, you changed your mind about sharing.”
“Ted, Jesus! We have a job to do even if our government is planning to leave us up shit creek without a paddle.”
Picking up an AK-47, Teddy held the automatic rifle across his chest. “Fuck that, because we got us a badass paddle right here.” He gestured toward the door. “Let me go first. I can do a quick reconnaissance, and then signal when it’s clear. I doubt Ivan advertised his plans for the weekend. My hunch is he’s flying solo.”
“There doesn’t seem to be much activity on the street,” Dev added, taking one last look from the window. “Let’s hope it stays that way. We want collateral damage at a minimum.”
He gestured for Ted to look as well. “See that wide stairway that leads onto the side street? I scoped the position earlier. The road’s a two-way street.” Dev tapped the window. “That’s our withdrawal point.”
“Okay, lover boy. What do you have in mind then?”
Devlin hooked his thumb toward the table. “Grab the schematic. I mapped both directions from the drop zone, just in case.”
“Don’t worry about just in case.” Ted gestured to the building across from the drop. “You take cover in that office building catty corner from the pavilion if necessary. I’ll grab the car after I recon the perimeter and meet you at the mark.”
Law nodded. “Let’s hope Ivan’s bosses didn’t have him followed.”
Chapter Five
“When our meeting was arranged, I had no idea such a beautiful English rose would be my point person. You are a civilian, yes?” Ivan Solokovich reached for Jessica’s hand and she stiffened.
“If you shrink from me, malen'kaya mysh, my little mouse, it will give whoever watches us the wrong impression. We are supposed to be lovers,” he grinned, and one gold tooth glinted in the dim light.
Her body went rigid, but she plastered a sweet smile
on her face nonetheless. “Who’s watching besides my guys?”
“In my business,” he shrugged, “you never know whose eyes are all seeing. I am gambling with my life here. Same as you, my dear.”
Struggling not to cringe, she forced herself to relax, enough to keep her left hand in his, but slipped her right into her pocket, wrapping it tightly around her gun.
“I’d rather not discuss your business. Not unless you want me to shoot you where you stand,” she replied through a gritted grin. “I’ll take whatever intelligence you wish to share, but don’t fool yourself into thinking anyone believes this to be anything other than what it is on the surface. You’re hedging your bets, Ivan. No one and nothing will absolve you of what you’ve done to those children, those families. You are a piece of shit, and I hope you rot in hell along with the rest of your crew.”
His answering laugh stunned her to the core, and she was taken aback by the mirthless sound.
“Families?” he countered. “Do you honestly think those children were kidnapped from their beds?” He shook his head. “Their beloved families sold them to us. Eager for the coins in their pocket even as their children cried.”
Jessica’s hand tightened around her gun. The warmth of the fur did nothing to ward off the shiver his words sent up her spine. The hard metal in her hand, a sad counterpoint to the soft mink of her coat.
The man didn’t deserve asylum or any other kindness. Ivan deserved to die horribly, but not until she had the names of those in power responsible for protecting his vile enterprise.
“Enough chitchat,” she said, slipping her left hand from his. Glancing over her shoulder, she pivoted on her heel to move closer to the unlit patio heaters and distance herself from his close proximity. “Do you have what I came for?” she asked, turning again.
Dangerous Law (Suit Romance Series): A Rogue Operative Romance Page 3
