To Russia With Love (Countermeasure Series) (58 page)

Pushing from the doorframe, Nelson took a step further into the room and interrupted them. “Do you still need me to stay?”

Cassandra replied, keeping her eyes on Trevor, “Since you’re here, I was hoping you’d help us.” She paused before adding, “We can’t go back to St. Petersburg. It isn’t safe. The safest route would be across the border into Finland. From there we can find our own way to Prague.”

Nelson nodded; his face was closed and clear of all emotion. “Fine. We can talk in the morning before I head out.”

Trevor frowned, looking from one to the other. A strange vibe hung in the air. Something tense, unlike the usual friendliness and familiarity they displayed in the past. Trevor’s curiosity was piqued and he made a mental note to ask Cassandra about it later. The only things he wanted and needed were a hot shower and Cassandra in his arms. “Where is the shower?”

“I’ll show you.” Cassandra helped him to his feet and grabbed the first aid kit. As they walked past Nelson, she called over her shoulder, “Nate, you can take the bedroom at the end of the hall. I’m sure you can find pillows and blankets there somewhere.”

“No, thanks. I will make myself comfortable here.”

“It’s your call.” Cassandra could feel Nathan’s gaze drilling into her back as she led Trevor down the hall into the bedroom with the large armoire. Entering the room, she flipped on the light and set the first aid kit on the dresser while Trevor headed into the bathroom. Moments later, the shower kicked on.

She walked into the bathroom to find him fumbling one-handed with the buttons of his shirt and cursing under his breath. She brushed his hands aside. “Here, you stubborn Irishman. Let me do that.” His hiss of pain as she pushed the shirt off his shoulders gripped her stomach and squeezed it so tight she thought she’d be sick. She dropped a kiss on his lips. “Sorry.”

“Do that again,” he grinned.

She smiled softly at his attempt at humor and pressed her lips against his again. As the shirt dropped from her fingers to the floor, the full extent of his injury hit her. Her breath hitched and she cringed inside, her attention riveted on the stained dressing wrapped around his shoulder from front to back. Her hand hovered over the dressing. “You really were shot.” Her voice was filled with fear and accusation. “I heard the shot go off. But it didn’t feel real until just now.”

“I’m okay, Cassie. Friends helped me.”

Cassandra’s heart sputtered and her knees grew weak. “You’ve been shot,” she repeated, shaking her head, slightly dazed.

“It’s just a little sore.” Pain colored his tone and he grimaced again. “But hey, now we’re even. Later, you can show me your scar and I’ll show you mine.” He flashed a crooked grin and wiggled his eyebrows.

“Shit, Trevor! That’s not funny.” She pointed a finger at him. “That’s it, buster. No more wall climbing for you. First you fall on your back, and now you’ve been shot like a target at an amusement part. You’re bloody lucky you didn’t freaking break your neck!” Her eyes grew wide as she gently removed the dressing and stared at the injury just below his clavicle. “Holy shit! If it had hit you four inches down—” All of a sudden everything came crashing in. A sob crept up her throat and she swallowed hard, capturing it, preventing it from escaping her lips.

Trevor brushed his knuckle gently along the side of her face. The tenderness in his touch was more than she could bear at that moment. “It looks worse than it is. It hardly hurts now.” There was a softness in his tone as his eyes melted lovingly into hers.

Cassandra sniffed loudly and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “Yeah, yeah! So says you,” she whispered as she reached for the button and zipper of his pants.

Making quick work of them, she slid her hands inside, grazing over his hips and pushing the pants off to the floor. His warm skin tempted her, but she clamped down on her need. His came first. She turned and held back the curtain so he could step into the shower.

As he stepped in, her eyes swept over him and pain pierced her. The entire left side—front and back—was one massive bruise, and there was a slightly larger hole where the bullet had come out. Steam billowed above the shower, fogging the mirror in the small bathroom. Trevor raised his face to the spray, letting the water flow over him. His shoulders hunched over, as if weighed down by fatigue.

Disrobing, Cassandra stepped in behind him and slid her hands gently, possessively, up his back. His muscles twitched and rippled under her touch. She wanted to feel every inch of him, to reassure herself that he was whole, safe. How many times did she replay that scene in her mind while waiting for him?

“Hell, Trevor,” Cassandra whispered, kissing his shoulder as she eased her arms around him and pressed her length against his back. “Pure hell is where I have lived these past hours. When I heard your words and then silence, my heart…shattered.”

Trevor turned and wrapped his good arm around her waist, pulling her tight against his chest. “It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do
a ghrá,
but I needed to know you would be safe.” He brought his lips down to hers and kissed her.

His kiss was gentle and sweet. When they parted lips, she pressed a kiss on his chest and stepped back. “Shush. I don’t want to think about that now.”

She worked the soap in her hands and began washing every inch of him, concentrating on easing his pain and, at the same time, hers. She massaged shampoo in his hair and studied him closely as he rested his head against the tile, letting the water rinse the lather from it.

Cassandra’s heart beat wildly in her chest as her eyes traced the lines of his lean, battered body. Trevor’s shoulders no longer drooped so prominently, and the tension that had marred his face minutes earlier had eased. More than two weeks had gone by since she had last touched him like that. Cassandra reached up and brushed his hair back, rinsing the rest of the soap from it. Lulled by the heat of the water and her touch, his eyes grew heavy and dimmed with exhaustion. When the water’s temperature cooled, she shut it off. “Come on, Trev. It’s getting cold.”

Trevor didn’t want to move from the soothing heat and comfort he found in there, but he was struggling to remain upright. When he stepped out, Cassandra patted him dry, taking extra care of the area around the entry and exit wounds, before wrapping the towel around herself and herding him to the bedroom.

She sat him down on the edge of the bed and retrieved the first aid kit from the dresser. “We need to dress the wound and bind your arm again, mister.” She cleaned the damaged flesh with antiseptics and bound his arm while he watched her steady hands work on him. Trevor saw the strain in her features, the furrowed brow, and knew that she was hurting for him. The whole process stung him all over again, but he held it in as well as he could. He didn’t want to distress her even further.

Once done, he pushed the pillow against the headboard and leaned back against it gingerly, avoiding stress to the patch-up job Cassandra had given him. The effects of a clean shower and bandages left him relaxed and sedated all at once.

The room darkened when Cassandra turned off the switch, leaving them in the soft glow of the bathroom light. From under half-mast eyes, Trevor watched his wife as she released the corner of the towel tucked between her breasts. His cocked jerked in response when she tugged the towel from around her body and use it to briskly dry her hair before tossing it to the bathroom floor. His heart lurched, his pulse quickened, as his stark-naked wife joined him on the bed.

The weight of her head and the tickle of silky wet hair on his chest soothed him as she curved her body into his, her heat radiating through him like a furnace. He tucked her tighter against his side and Cassandra shifted into a more comfortable position, sliding her leg between his and gently resting her arm on his chest, fingertips caressing his bandaged arm.

Contentment for having her so close, skin to skin, invaded him in a rush, and Trevor released a deep sigh. Her scent permeated the room, filling his nostrils, and making him more aware of the time spent apart from each other, as well as the danger they both had faced.

He tightened his grip around her and rested his chin on her head. With Nelson standing guard in the living room, they both could comfortably surrender to a deep and restoring sleep.

*****

Lying on his back, Nathan tucked his arm behind his head and tried to make himself comfortable on the couch. His mind ran through all the information gleaned within the last hour over and over again. He had been wrong about many things. As hard as it was for Nathan to admit it, he now understood that what Cassandra felt for Bauer was not infatuation, but true love.

During their conversation before the Irishman had arrived, she’d had that crazed look in her eyes. The same look he’d seen on the faces of people who had lost loved ones in tragic circumstances. A look that he had hoped would register on Cassandra’s face should something ever happened to him. It had been there all right, only it had been for Bauer instead.

Nathan flinched as images of Cassandra and Bauer whirled in his mind. But for the first time, he admitted to himself that his fight for her was over. Fidgeting on the couch, Nathan tossed and turned as he listened for any disturbances. All was quiet, including the back of the house where the bedrooms were located.

Exhaling deeply, he set his gun at hand’s reach and folded his arms across his chest, hoping to grab some shuteye before they had to be up and on the road. The long hours at work, the panicked drive, and the jetlag finally beat him into oblivion.

*****

Sliding into awareness, Cassandra held her breath, hoping the wonderful dream she’d had was real. Shaking the last threads of sleep, she let her senses roam free. The warmth at her side enveloped her in a soothing cocoon. Breathing in deeply, a mixture of scents—clean and spicy—filled her nostrils and pierced her heart with images of Trevor’s arrival.

In the low illumination provided by the bathroom light, she could see Trevor was still in the same position he had been in when they had drifted off earlier. Resting her head on her hand, Cassandra gently traced the outline of the bandage with her fingers. He would be stuck with a sling for several more weeks.

She watched the steady rise and fall of her hand on his chest. A need to feel more of him, all of him, slammed into her, sucking the air from her lungs, sending a flow of dampness between her thighs. She rose to her elbow and her pulse beat a tad faster as she took in the length of his lean, muscular body. The line of his neck tempted her lips and the ridges of his abs called to her fingers. Of their own accord, they glided across the muscles of his flat stomach. A smile curved her lips as his cock twitched and hardened under her touch, as if cognizant of her deepest desires.

Cassandra rose and eased her leg across his body, straddling him and bracing herself on her knees. She looked down on a still deeply asleep Trevor, his eyelashes fluttering against his cheeks, his mouth slightly parted, little puffs of air escaping past his lips. The events of the past hours, the injury, had taken a heavy toll on him. He remained undisturbed by her movements as she positioned his erection. She held her breath and in a single motion, slowly lowered her body onto his.

Trevor jerked awake and was instantly alert as Cassandra’s warmth engulfed him, her muscles tightening around him. His breath hissed when she withdrew and impaled herself on his throbbing cock again, his moan mingled with hers as she ground her clit against his groin.

The feel of her skin against his, her juices coating the juncture of their bodies, was better than the erotic dream he had been immersed in moments before. In his dream, her fingers were wrapped around his cock, the movement of her hand sliding up and down along his length, driving him mad. A dream so vivid, it had caused his cock to grow hard and a heavy ache in his balls. Reality was so much richer.

Trevor’s heart seized in his chest when his eyes locked with hers and he saw the swirl of emotion in them. “Cassie—” his voice broke with huskiness as he brushed his hand in a soft caress from her thigh to her curvy hip.

She arched her body against his and moaned softly, “I needed you, Trevor.”

The emotions reflected in her eyes matched those constricting around his chest. He needed her more. “
A bhean
,” he whispered. A soft smile curved Cassandra’s lips at his words as she pressed against him. Her movements were slow, controlled, seeking both his and her pleasure without causing him more pain. His cock, clutched deep inside her, twitched and pulsed in response. Undulating her body, Cassandra kept a slow, sensual pace, lifting with her knees and slowly easing down again and again on him.

His good hand gripped at her hip and his heels dug into the mattress each time she withdrew and lowered her body. Trevor thought he had died and gone to heaven when her taut nipples grazed his chest as she leaned over him until her lips hovered above his.

“
Shite
, Cassie! I’ve missed you. This!” he whispered harshly, raising his head, closing the gap between them, and sealing his mouth to hers. Supporting her weight on her hands, she teased, scraped his lips with her teeth. Her beautiful thick hair fell around him in a rippling curtain as she nipped at his lips and licked along their seam before plunging her tongue deep inside.

Trevor fisted her hair as he angled his head, taking control and intensifying the kiss, mimicking the action of their bodies with his tongue, sliding and dancing with hers. She continued to move her hips, alternating between shallow and deep penetrations. A groan rumbled deep in his chest with each skin-to-skin, groin-to-groin contact, with each circling of her hips and grinding motion. He mimicked her movement and pushed his hips off the bed, thrusting deeper into her. A moan escaped her mouth and rolled into his. Breaking from the kiss, her hair cascaded down her back as she arched her graceful body and rested her hands on his thighs, exposing her round breasts to him.

The raw love etched on her face was too much to withstand. He swallowed the pain and, supporting himself on his good arm, covered her breast with his mouth, laving, sucking, licking her engorged nipple, then repeated the same on the other as she cupped them in offering to him.