a/n: This is the sequel to Damselfly.
Story Summary: As Kate and Shelby's relationship starts to blossom, it becomes that much harder to keep it secret.
Dragonfly: Chapter I
Kate couldn't help the girlish squeal that left her lips as long, deft fingers attacked her exposed ribs. She tried to escape them, but they followed her. So her next plan of action was retaliation-She was a Special Agent and always thought ahead. Unlike her, Shelby's weakness was the soles of his feet.
Kate ran around her room, Shelby never a step behind. All she needed was a second of surprise, that second of hesitation. She was half naked, and knew that she could use that to her advantage-he was a man after all. She scampered across the bed on her feet in four quick strides; she was agile and small. Shelby scrambled across the bed; him slower and bigger. That was when Kate made her move.
In an experienced move that would make any man jealous, she unclipped her bra and threw it across the room where it landed on the lamp on her dresser, and spun around to face Shelby, her hands on her hips. Shelby stopped right quick at the edge of the bed, his face mere inches from Kate's exposed breasts. His brows flickered and smile started to spread across his lips.
She saw her chance, and didn't hesitate in taking it. Shelby whooped in surprise as she tackled him playfully, but skilfully, to the bed. Before he could recover his senses about him, she used her hidden strength and flipped him onto his stomach. She pinned him by sitting on his backend and pulled his bare foot towards her chest. And thus began her revenge.
Shelby struggled against her at first: pursing his lips, burying his face in the scrunched blanked; but when she gathered up his other foot, wrapped an arm around his ankle and held them to her chest as her fingers danced across his sensitive soles, it was to much for him. It was muffled in the blanket at first, but them his head raised and laughter burst from him. It was loud, and he shook with it. It was powerful, and Kate bounced around with it, her determination to win keeping her in place. His hand pounded the bed with it.
"Oh, God!" He half laughed, half cried. "I can't take it!" Gasping, his ribs sore with it. "I can't."
"Say it." Kate told him, triumph in her voice.
Shelby wanted to hold out, to overtake her, but where would be the fun in that? He laughed. "I give! You win, I was a fool to ever challenge you. I am a tickle-amateur whilst you are a tickle-master."
"Mm." She agreed and accepted, pecking each ankle before letting them go. She rolled off of him and lay on her back down beside him.
He slumped, exhausted, his ribs still sore. He shifted on the bed so that he was now using her flat stomach as a makeshift pillow. He blew on the skin there.
"Mm." She moaned in pleasure, her fingers brushing through his short hair. It had grown out some since the hospital, nearly two months before, so he no longer had a military cut like his father's. She liked trailing her fingers through it. "So you'll think twice before you start tickling me?"
"Hm..." Shelby feigned thinking about it just to tease her. "Uh-uh. I kinda like the end results." He told her, and in a casual hand gesture, brushed her right breast with the back of his hand.
She leaned up onto her elbow and looked past her breasts' down at him, her brow raised. "Really-" She started at the innocent look on his face, but got no further when her cell phone interrupted her. She sighed and stretched for in on the nightstand, she laid back and answered it, making a quiet gesture to Shelby. "What is it, DiNozzo?"
"Good morning to you, too, Kate." DiNozzo returned sarcastically. "We got a case; dead sailor in the dog park."
"Fine. I'll be there in 15min." she said, getting ready to hang up
"Don't worry about it," he told her, "I'll be around to pick you up in five."
"What?!" Kate demanded, sitting up in her surprise. Shelby's training was the only thing that got him out of the way in time. "DiNozzo, I can drive myself." She said, sending a worried glance at Shelby, who sat up with her.
"You're wasting precious time, Todd." Tony told her. "Gibbs isn't gonna wait that long."
Kate clenched her teeth. "Fine!" She growled and hung up on him before he could her. She threw her phone back onto her nightstand and got up from the bed.
Shelby sent her a questioning look at her frustration.
"DiNozzo's gonna be here in five minutes!" She expressed as she quickly clipped her bra back into place, thankfully she was already half-dressed when Shelby started his tickle-war.
Shelby knew what that meant, and got up from the bed, picking up his discarded shirt from the floor, he slipped it over his head. He'd only met Tony a few times, but knew the man better through the talks that he had with Kate. While he was sure that Tony was a good man, he didn't have the redeeming quality of understanding another person's privacy. In other words: Tony was a brown-noser. And in Kate and Shelby's situation, that was a bad thing.
See, their relationship was a private matter- more than that, it was a secret. The only people who knew that it existed was the two of them, and the sole reason for that was because of one reason-or person-Leroy Jethro Gibbs. His father had a strict rules surrounding his team. And while those rules didn't apply to Shelby, he'd made it obvious that he didn't want Kate to be involved with him intimately. And unless you were ready for the eventual backlash, you never messed with or kept secrets from Gibbs.
Shelby had just finished with the belt to his jeans when Kate came out of the bathroom. She'd already slipped on a gray, cotton, v-neck long sleeve that went along with her black slacks, and ran a comb through her hair and touched up her makeup. He watched her as she sat on the corner of her bed and put a pair of black socks on. He followed her out of the bedroom and down the hall to her living room. From the closet by the door, she grabbed her jacket and slipped it on before slipping her feet into her shoes. She got her backpack and purse, and made sure that she had everything before she sighed and finally turned back to Shelby, who had been waiting patiently for her.
"Gonna give me a kiss goodbye?" He asked her.
She smiled, and stepped up to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. And he put his hands on her hips. "How could I forget." She stood up on her toes and kissed him. She pulled back after a second, but not far and just looked at him. She brushed her fingers through his dark hair before her thumb brushed lightly over the scar that began under his left brow, and ended at the at the center of his eye lid.
All of his injuries were healed, but this one would stay with him forever. Forever marking the day that his mentor tried to murder the both of them. His vision had returned, but he had to put drops in it three times a day, and were a corrective contact lens.
He gave her a small smile and she returned it before she let go and gave him a peck. "I'll text you later." She said, as she turned away and grabbed her bag and purse. She knew that she was quickly running out of time; she wanted to meet Tony outside, not have him come up to her apartment and risk him seeing that Shelby was there.
She opened the door and slipped out, pulling it closed behind her, bumping into Tony. She couldn't help the gasp of surprise; she hadn't even seen him there. "Jeez, DiNozzo!" She glared at him as he smirked back, and she quickly locked her door-Shelby would wait five minutes before he left himself.
"What's your rush?" He asked her, his gaze narrowed in curiosity. "You got someone back there?"
Kate's didn't show any outward reaction to his teasing-he had no idea. "Yeah," She said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Sacs." At Tony's open-mouthed expression, she smirked and turned, walking down the hall from her apartment. Silently, she let out a breath of relief-he didn't know.
Tony looked after her, but before he followed, he glanced back at her door... wondering. Maybe, just maybe.
chapter I end-y
