Crush

Author: Lawral

Pairing: Surprise!

Rating: FR13

Summary: She'd never be interested in him; He'd always be intimidated by her

He watched her carefully as Ducky explained how the young officer had been slain. He'd never realized how gorgeous she was until his mind started to wander as Ducky proceeded on his long drabble of anecdote's that really had nothing to do with the case they were presented with.

He suddenly had an image of her arms around his shoulders, pressing her body into his. He could almost feel her soft lashes against his cheek as they kissed. He could feel her hands running over his body, under his shirt and across his sculpted muscles. His mind could almost make out the words she was whispering into his ear.

Her movement drove him from his fantasies and he smiled softly as she casually looked in his direction. Her eyes twinkled as she added some of her own comments about the victim in front of them. Her tongue darted across her lips as she recovered from Gibbs' glare. She was beautiful, exotic and dangerous. He'd overheard stories of the many ways she knew how to subdue a criminal, make him talk when he didn't want to, and bragged of the unique ways of killing.

His thoughts turned sour then. She was a trained killing machine. Why would she be interested in a normal Joe like him? Aside from the occasional drink outside of work and the dinner she'd cooked for all of them, they never really conversed outside of work. His normal night was sitting in his apartment and playing on his computer. Not really the interesting life she'd be interested in. Not to mention his lack of experience with women. He'd had girlfriends and wasn't a virgin but he definitely lacked confidence with the female being.

She was looking at him again. The smile stretched across her face and one of her lids closed quickly. She'd winked at him? He turned to look behind him for a moment before turning again and smiling to her.

"Bye, Ziva."

~*~

Ziva was smiling as Ducky went off on one of his usual exaggerations of something similar he'd seen in his younger days. She loved listening to him when he went off on his experiences. This time, however, she felt eyes on her. Someone in the room wasn't paying attention. Someone was watching her. She looked at the men and found only one who's attention wasn't focused on Ducky.

He was watching her. She tried to look away from him but for reasons unknown, her gaze returned to him frequently. She noticed that his eyes were glazed over and it seemed as though he was looking through her. His mouth was slightly ajar and his tongue darted out and glided across his lips. It looked as if he was imagining a steak.

Somehow, she started to see a different side of him. She saw his powerful arms running down her own. She could feel the muscles in his arms expanding and contracting as he pulled her closer into his arms while his mouth was attending to her neck and jaw. She felt his hands snaking under her shirt and pulling it over her head. She saw herself pulling him against her further and capturing his lips with her own.

She shook her head slightly. No, he was intimidated by her. Everyone, it seemed, was. She didn't know why. She wasn't all pain and violence. She had a heart and emotions. Yes, she had problem showing her emotions sometimes but she possessed them none-the-less. He'd always been nothing but nice to her; yet because of her character, he was intimidated. Why had her father taken a cute, moldable young girl and turned her into a trained killer? What happened to the young Ziva who'd always looked for her father at her dance recitals? Now, she looked for reasons to cause pain to any male who crossed her.

Perhaps she could change herself, for the better. Yes, that was it. She'd be nicer and then he'd notice her. Maybe then he'd ask her out for a drink after work or something. She noticed the men she worked with leaving and jumped on her feet. He was looking at her still. She winked at him and smiled. Yes, maybe she could change and he'd ask her out.

"Bye, Palmer."