GIBBS

He could hear Tony rabbiting away in his ear and resisted the temptation to roll his eyes. At least having someone else doing the watching meant they could somewhat relax and enjoy, insofar as being undercover pretending to be completely different people was ever truly relaxing or enjoyable.

Tony would inform them if their mark appeared, and though Gibbs didn't particularly like not having the means to covertly communicate back, it was kind of nice not to be wired for sound, not to be constantly aware of someone listening to every word you said.

Kate was even luckier - she had no DiNozzo gibber to deal with. And... well, even if they'd wanted to put a wire on her, there wouldn't have been enough room in her outfit to accommodate it. Gibbs forced himself to look away from the generous amount of soft cleavage her dress (if you could even call it a dress) put on display, and guided her towards the bar area where they could surveil the room and still fit in nicely with others who were chilling with drinks, people watching, and enjoying the atmosphere.

He ordered juice for Kate and bourbon for himself. It was good stuff, on the agency's dime, and it was too bad he was only pretending to drink it. Pretending to flirt with Kate was a lot more fun than pretending to drink fine bourbon, and as they settled in he almost started to enjoy it. The music was a little too loud for much small talk, thank God, but between sweeping his gaze around the room and listening to Tony's updates, there was plenty of time to touch her leg or her shoulder, tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, and generally act like a casual but attentive date.

He was just wondering if he could manage to say something, in one of the lulls in noise level, to see if he could amp her smile up to a laugh, when DiNozzo swore in his ear. He waited for clarification, and when it came, it jarred him right back into business mode.

"Boss, you guys need to watch your backs. There's new intel, they don't know who but they know there might be Feds watching. Don't draw any attention to yourselves, okay?"

There was no mistaking the concern in Tony's voice. Gibbs frowned and sighed. These things were never simple. He touched Kate's knee to get her attention. "You want something stronger to drink?" he asked. Her eyes widened as she recognised their prearranged code for something going hinky.

She took a deep breath and recovered herself. "I'm fine." Good girl. She wasn't about to flake on him. She leaned over as if she was flirting, laid her hand on his thigh. "So, now you have me here, what are you going to do with me?"

He couldn't help a brief smirk. Clearly, Kate was asking about whether they should abort or not, and how he planned to play it if they didn't, but damn, when she looked at him with that mischievous sparkle in her eye he could almost believe it was real.

Whether it was that excuse for a dress or the parts they were playing or... well, whatever it was, Gibbs could only think of one simple way to make their cover more convincing, one obvious tactic to fit in with the other couples round them. He leaned down and pressed his lips against her cheek, a gentle kiss and an excuse to whisper in her ear.

"Maybe we should lay it on a little thicker, Kate. If we're just another loved up couple we won't stand out..."

He felt her take in a sharp breath, then nod. He had expected her to protest, at least a little, but was pretty relieved she didn't. "Wanna dance?" he asked out loud, sitting back up.

Kate smiled and nodded as she got up from the barstool, and he placed a hand low on her back to guide her to the dance floor. Getting into the spirit of it, she swayed her hips as she walked, glancing over her shoulder to give him a smouldering look from under her eyelashes.

Gibbs swallowed. Maybe it would be better for his mental health and general wellbeing if she didn't manage to get quite so much into character... And now he couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from her legs, which looked about a thousand miles long this evening.

Out on the dance floor they were able to relax a little. Gibbs allowed himself to move with the insistent beat and tried not to get too carried away by the combination of music and Kate. He had no idea whether this was Kate with her inhibitions loosened or Kate getting into the spirit of being undercover or what, but with her dancing so close to him all he could see and smell and hear was her, the whys were suddenly way more difficult to care about. Whose bright idea had it been for him and Kate to play the happy couple, anyway? Oh, that was right. His.

He was an idiot.

She turned her back to him and moved sinuously. He got a face full of her dark, soft, sweetly scented hair, and hoped she'd take his groan as character acting and his hands on her hips as wanting to stay in touch with his partner. He wanted to touch, all right, but not really in a way that would be in line with their professional relationship.

Even Tony's voice in his ear wasn't the bucket of cold water it should've been.

"Whatever you guys are doing, keep it up. Lots of chatter but no one has seen anything out of place. We're pretty confident you haven't been spotted."

Keep it up. He was tempted to laugh. Keeping things up was so not his problem right now.

Kate turned towards him again, and her face showed surprise at just how close he was dancing to her but she didn't move away, just smiled and linked her arms around his neck. It was foolish, but instead of moving his hands to safer territory, he drew her closer, pulled her hips into his, let his body move with hers, her head against his shoulder and his nose in her hair. His eyes closed involuntarily, his breath shuddering at her nearness, her Kate-ness, the way she felt and smelled, and if he wasn't careful he was going to end up with a disciplinary reprimand, and he really didn't give a shit.

They swayed in tandem, and he wondered if she could tell that despite his best efforts, he was getting decidedly, dangerously turned on. Not that his best efforts were amounting to very much right now. If he had the sense he'd been born with, he wouldn't be allowing this to continue, but her body was pressed up against his, warm, inviting, her curves fitting so temptingly well against him. He let his hands tighten on her waist, even though he knew it was really stupid, not to mention borderline insane, pulled her still closer and ground shamelessly against her with a noise that sounded a little too much like pure relief.

He heard her gasp. If she hadn't realised before the effect she was having on him, well, she certainly did now. He expected her to push him away, to give him a look that said he'd gone too far... not to tighten her arms and grind her hips right back into his.

He swallowed hard, then had to hold back a moan when he felt her mouth against the side of his neck. "Jesus."

She laughed at him, actually laughed, and sucked lightly on his skin. Well, it takes two... He ran a hand down her spine to stroke her butt, grinning triumphantly when she let out a little 'Ohhh!' of what sounded like both surprise and pleasure.

Pressing his advantage, he tangled his other hand in her hair and tugged slightly. She acquiesced so quickly he wondered if it was simple shock, letting her head fall back so he could nibble her throat, but the way her breathing stuttered and her fingers came up to curl into his hair, she was okay with him continuing. And she was... delicious.

There was still a little voice in his head telling him this was crazy, that it was stupid and dangerous and counterproductive even without taking into account they were in the middle of an undercover op here, but she felt and tasted so, so good, and the way she shivered at the feel of his tongue on her skin...

He made himself draw away, swallowed hard at her expression when she looked at him. Her eyes were dark, full of heat, and he could happily drown in their depths. He needed some time, some way of regaining his presence of mind just a little. At a loss what else to do, he closed his eyes and tugged her back in to his body, letting the music dictate a rhythm, forcing his breathing return to something approaching normal, even if he couldn't slow the way his blood was pounding.

He felt Kate chuckle into his chest and couldn't help laughing in return. Any pretence he wasn't ridiculously aroused had gone out the window. If they could get out of this safely and without Tony also being privy to that particular bit of information, it would be a minor miracle and would, sad to say, definitely count as a win as far as Gibbs was concerned. He wondered if Kate was similarly turned on, then cursed himself for the unhelpful thought, for realising that in this dress, there was precious little stopping him from investigating the question himself. She had responded unimaginably well to his overtures so far, but he was fairly certain she'd draw the line at him fingering her in public in the middle of an op.

Maybe in private, though... He had to hope.

In the meantime, he couldn't seem to help running his fingers up and down her back, over silky fabric and soft, warm skin, and he'd feel guilty about that if it wasn't for the low 'hmmm' of approval she let out against his throat.

"Guys, I think we need to go with plan B. They haven't spotted you but they're talking about searching everyone who's in the club. Get rid of the earpiece, stay inconspicuous, get out of there as fast as you can without raising suspicions."

No one was looking at them, so far as he could tell, but he leaned down to murmur 'Plan B' in Kate's ear, and used the moment to remove his earwig as unobtrusively as he could. It was easy enough to drop it to the floor and step on it, and then he just had to think about how exactly they were going to get out of here without drawing any undue attention to themselves.

"How about we go in search of some... privacy?"

Kate's murmur was as low as his had been, but it sounded a whole lot less innocent. He supposed 'horny couple making out' was as good as anything else as covers went, and though part of his brain was insisting this was dangerous in a new and special way, he couldn't think of a better plan and his libido really, really approved of this one.

Still not entirely sure how much she was just trying to play a role, and how much she might hurt him if he pushed too far, he danced them over to the wall then leaned in to kiss her on the mouth. It was supposed to be brief, nonthreatening, and then he felt her tongue insistent against his lips, and suddenly they were kissing for real and Kate was moaning into his mouth and fuck, it was good. Really good.

Either Kate was an exceptional actress, or she was just as into this as he was.

She grabbed his tie to hold him close, then abruptly released his lips and turned, tie still in hand, to lead him off the dance floor and into a quieter part of the club. He followed, bewitched, his tongue practically hanging out his mouth, and when she flopped down into a squishy leather sofa and pulled him down on top of her, he couldn't - didn't even want to - do anything but fall in line.

She wriggled under him, he groaned, she laughed, and they were kissing again and he really, really hoped she had a better handle on this situation than he did, because if she kept kissing him this way, his brain was actually going to explode. He was doing his best to retain some kind of situational awareness, he was, but the world could be going to hell in a handbasket and he probably wouldn't notice.

Or care.

He forced himself to pull away from her lips for a moment, just to catch his breath, then rolled his eyes when she started kissing the corner of his jaw instead.

"Caitlin."

She snickered into his skin. "You realise that's what my mom used to call me when I misbehaved."

"Appropriate, then." He tried to ignore the frankly delicious feeling of her mouth moving against his throat as she spoke. And failed. Horribly.

"See, you say that but you're clearly enjoying this." She scratched her fingernails lightly up his neck and into the short hair at the back of his head, and his lungs were suddenly not doing a great job of getting enough air. "I'm a profiler, you know, we notice these things."

He'd meant to dial it down, he really had, but she was flirting and he couldn't ignore what it was doing to him. His hands were moving without his consent, trailing down to her waist, pushing her dress up to touch her thigh above the lacy edge of her stockings, moving teasingly over her ribcage, even grazing the sides of her breasts as if he had a perfect right to touch her this way. He wanted nothing more than to get her somewhere private and peel her out of that scrap of fabric pretending to be a dress so slow she'd wanna cry.

It was somehow faintly terrifying to realise she might actually let him.

"Yeah, bet it took all your profile training to notice the bulge against your thigh," he grouched. "Am I supposed to be impressed?"

"No, not by that. Though I'm fairly impressed."

He narrowed his eyes. "'Fairly' impressed?" It really wasn't the moment to get all defensive over his manhood, but-

"Size isn't everything. Just 'cause you've got it doesn't mean you know what to do with it. I like to reserve judgement till I have a... fuller picture."

Okay, she was actually trying to kill him. "Katie."

She stretched and arched underneath him, with a little sighing moan, her body pressing up against him in all the right places, and he closed his eyes. "Yes, Gibbs?" she asked, in her sweetest, most angelic voice.

"We are supposed to be looking for a way out of here, you know," he murmured in her ear, sounding highly unconvincing if he did say so himself. The last thing he wanted to do right now was move.

She shrugged. "I've seen several couples heading out the door at my six. I think it probably leads to the alley near the surveillance truck, or at least nearby. I doubt anyone will be suspicious if we're sufficiently..." She let the sentence trail off, but he got her point. And tried not to think about the fact she'd actually been figuring out an escape route while he'd been busy grinding his pelvis into hers like a horny teenager. "It looks like a fire door someone's wedged with a brick so it won't trigger an alarm. If we leave it too long someone'll probably notice and close it off, but I think once we get out we should be okay."

"Good girl," he allowed, reluctantly.

She stretched again, and he groaned at how she rippled against him. "That depends how you define 'good'," she said, and he could almost hear her grin.

"Fuck."

"Not usually on a first date, but I might make an exception."

Good God, he was so far out of his depth it wasn't even funny. "Jesus, Kate. I think we should leave while there's some blood supply still reaching my legs."

Kate laughed, and he'd be more pleased by the affect of his attempt at humour if it hadn't just been plain honest. She stole another kiss from his unresisting mouth and then she was pushing him up and off of her, and he was holding out a hand to pull her up and back into his body, rather frighteningly unwilling to lose contact for any longer than was absolutely necessary.

They half-walked, half-stumbled over to the door she'd indicated, and it didn't take any acting whatsoever to have his hands all over her and drop kisses on whatever inch of skin presented itself for his appreciation. Once they were outside he took the excuse to pull her in close and drape an arm around her shoulders, his fingers lightly stroking the top of her breast. "Cold?"

She grinned up at him. "Really not," she whispered, her hand sliding round his waist and then down to caress his butt.

He leaned down to kiss her again, unable to resist, though he made himself keep it brief, forced himself to look away when he was done, to remember that even if this evening was a bust, with regards to the case, they still needed to let Tony know they were out and alive and safe and uncompromised. Well. At least in terms of being undercover.

The alley, as predicted, brought them out on a familiar road, and Gibbs waited till the last possible moment to disentangle himself before rapping smartly on the surveillance van's door.

"C'mon," he said with a sigh. "Let's go report."

Nothing was ice water on the libido quite like a couple hours talking to various people about how exactly an op had gone wrong, what they could or should have done differently, and what might work next time. Gibbs was about ready to chalk the evening up to experience. Then he got to his car and found her leaning on the passenger side door in a long winter coat.

"Hi." Her lips quirked up into a grin that was decidedly wicked and he didn't stop walking till his body was mere inches from hers, pulled in like iron on a magnet.

"Hi, Kate."

They stood and looked at each other for a long moment, and then Kate reached up, unbuttoning her coat one handed, and... He made a strangled, desperate noise. She was still wearing that devil-sent dress.

By her expression, she was very pleased with his reaction. She closed the last inches between them, her body soft and warm against his, shook her hair back over her shoulder, fixed him with a haughty look as she ran a hand over his chest.

"So, sailor. Ready to impress me?"

He couldn't decide if he was more proud of her for coming after him and screw the rules, or despairing of himself for not having the strength of will to refuse her, or even try particularly hard to put her off. "Debriefing didn't give you enough time to come to your senses, huh?"

She raised her eyebrows and grinned wider. "I rather think I need a more... literal debriefing now."

He looked at her for a moment and then guffawed. He was outclassed, outmanoeuvred, outmanned, and it was time to give in gracefully and hope he wouldn't screw things up too bad, too soon. He slipped his arms around her, under her coat, savoured the little shiver when his fingers touched her skin.

"Y'know, I think I might just be able to help you out with that."

"Glad to hear it." She fisted her hands in the front of his jacket and tugged him down for a kiss, a kiss with no one watching, and he pressed her back against his car, took his time, and drew several authentic, definitely not acting, one hundred per cent genuine Caitlin Todd moans of pleasure out of her before he was done.

It took a moment for her eyes to open, and he didn't miss the way she licked her lips, either. "Good start," she murmured.

He grinned, squeezed her butt with both hands, which made her giggle, and then slid a hand down over the fabric of her dress till he was touching her leg, where he started drawing slow, rising circles, feeling her shiver when his fingers moved from stocking to naked skin.

She laughed again, though this time it very definitely wasn't a giggle. It was low and throaty and it made his body clench.

"This dress is... dangerous, Kate. Prob'ly shouldn't be legal."

"Hmmm. So you're saying we should... get me out of it, huh?"

"Think I oughta get you home first," he managed, reaching round her to unlock the door.

She went up on tiptoe to swipe her tongue over his bottom lip, grinning when he made a desperate noise, and pulling away before he could get his head together enough to kiss her back. "Thought you'd never ask." She slipped into the car, crossing her legs languidly and slowly so the dress rode up over her thighs, leaning forward in a way that displayed her cleavage to remarkably good effect, and gave that throaty chuckle again as his eyes drank her in. "We going?"

Gibbs gave himself a shake, closed her door and then stood for a second, still slightly in shock. Her knock on the window and a cocked eyebrow kicked him back into action and he smiled as he walked around to the driver's side.

The evening had turned out a whole lot more enjoyable than he'd planned. And by the look on Kate's face when he slid into the driver's seat beside her, it was only gonna get better. Maybe this undercover op of his hadn't been such a terrible idea after all.

~ fin ~