yes I will get this finished eventually!

56.

KATE

This was definitely something she could get used to. She had always, in truth, assumed sex with Gibbs would be fairly mind-blowing, just as she'd suspected - and been proven right - that he kissed like some combination of devil and angel.

Even taking into account his capacity for incredible loyalty and kindness and even occasional sweetness, he was a complicated and difficult man, a hardass, a workaholic, a self-confessed bastard. No way had he managed to get or stay married as many times as he did - even if they had ended in disaster - without managing to keep a woman happy in at least one room of the house.

Given his personality, his dogged determination, how methodical he could be, his attention to detail, well... the bedroom had seemed like the place his traits would most likely be an asset. And she'd been right.

What she had never expected was that he'd be so... snuggly. Great sex was good. Being held afterwards as if she was incredibly special and precious, and he never planned to let her go and would fight anyone who tried to make him... Mmmm. Yup. It was nice. Very nice. So nice that 'nice' was the wrong word, but she was too mind-blown to think of the right one.

It made her think Abby's assertions of how Gibbs felt, how long he'd felt it, were maybe not so far fetched as they seemed. That his confession of love hadn't just been some endorphin fuelled moment of insanity. She took a deep breath and let out a happy sigh against his chest.

"Okay?"

She giggled. "Gibbs, are you really asking me if I'm okay after...-" she let her hand slide down his back and over his butt, gave him a little squeeze "-after that? My only problem right now is I don't think I remember how to do anything except breathe."

He chuckled. "I aim to please."

"It worked." She didn't even have the wherewithal to scold him for being smug, or to pretend she wasn't ridiculously, obscenely blissed out. She let out another happy sigh. Her muscles had officially been replaced by Jell-o and her brain by cotton candy, and she didn't even care.

Gibbs tugged her a little closer and dropped a kiss on her temple. "Whatcha thinkin' bout?"

She smiled. "Something Abby said."

There was a moment of silence and then he groaned and covered his face with his hand. "Oh, God."

Kate looked up at him, confused, then realised how it had sounded and laughed long and loud. "No, no, not like that!"

He peeked out at her from between his fingers, and she chuckled. Gibbs being cute was still a little surprising and, well, cute. Unexpected and rather adorable. "Promise?"

"I promise, Gibbs. If Abby and I have that conversation, I won't tell you a thing." She let the implication hang in the air for a second, then laughed again when he growled and pulled her back against himself with a mock spank on her butt.

"You are not having that conversation, okay?"

She giggled. "I wasn't planning on it, trust me. I think Abby was kind of curious, but not quite curious enough to risk ending up dead."

"Good." He grumbled softly into her hair. "Mmmm, 's nice."

Kate snuggled back into him. "Yeah, it is."

They lay in silence for a few minutes, and Kate could almost have fallen asleep except that she was loathe to miss a moment.

"So what was it?"

Gibbs' question startled her out of her reverie. "Hmmm?"

"What was it you were thinking about?"

"Oh. That." She propped herself up on his chest so she could look him in the face while she spoke. "I just wondered - I mean, Abby said-" She stopped and shook her head, tried to get her thoughts in order. Being cuddled up to a naked Gibbs did not do wonders for her ability to think straight. "How long have you- you know... wanted me?"

He let out a long breath, shook his head, chuckled. "Kate, first time we ever met? I pushed you, you pushed right back, outright told me you grew your own balls."

She laughed. Yeah, she supposed that was kind of right up his street. At the time she'd just been doing her job, had been doing her best to ignore that strange spark that had been there from the beginning, but she could see why he, of all men, would be... intrigued. "Okay. Right. Fair enough."

"Pretty irresistible." He paused. "Knew I liked you then. Knew I wanted you on the team. Told myself it was just 'cause you were good." She felt him shrug. "Took me a while to realise there was somethin' else goin' on."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Sometimes I'd get too close and your hair'd get all-" he gestured "-up in my nose and I couldn't..." He pressed his face into her hair and breathed in deep, then groaned. "You're... mmmm."

She could feel herself blushing. It was nice to feel so irresistible.

"By the time I figured it out, was way too late to do anythin' about it." He laughed softly. "Was a goner."

The warm rumble of his voice made her smile. She propped herself up on his chest so she could see his face. "Abby said she knew you loved me when you said 'please'."

He chuckled. "Abby's a romantic, where other people are concerned." He shrugged a shoulder. "She... had a point though, I guess. Took me a helluva lot longer to you know... get there. But I did..." He looked almost shy as he tried to put words round it, and he was quiet as he continued. "Don't really know when I realised. Didn't mean to do somethin' so dumb, fall in love with another agent. Did my best to ignore it."

"Me either. Monumentally stupid." She laughed. "Though right now it doesn't seem like it was such a bad idea as I thought a week ago."

He went quiet for a minute, his face thoughtful. "When-" he cleared his throat "-when Ari took you..." He shook his head, and when he continued his voice was so soft she had to strain to hear him. "I dreamt, I dreamt you'd died, that he'd- shot you. In the head."

Kate couldn't help the shiver. "I had nightmares afterwards, too."

He'd been looking off into nowhere, as if he was miles away, but now his gaze returned to hers. "It wasn't afterwards, Kate." He gave her a wry grin, a little embarrassed. "I mean - I was already dreamin' that, before. The day he took you, Abby an' McGee woke me up in the middle of it."

"I can't believe you had a bad dream about me. I..."

"More than once."

"My God."

"That day... I had to- had to come find you." He pulled a face. "Make sure you were okay, see for myself."

Sudden understanding dawned. "That morning at DC Beans?"

He nodded.

She shook her head. "That makes so much more sense now."

"Yeah, I guess that was pretty, uh..."

"Weird? Unusual? Out of character? Totally confusing?"

He shrugged eloquently and grinned. "All of the above?"

She couldn't help grinning back. "Funny thing is, I remember wondering if you were trying to flirt with me or something."

He shrugged again. "Uh... maybe a bit." He actually looked decidedly embarrassed now. It was... cute. Again. She decided not to use that word out loud. "Didn't mean to, but..."

"I'm just that irresistible?"

His mouth twitched with amusement. "Somethin' like that."

Yeah. She could definitely get used to him looking at her like he was just barely resisting the temptation to pin her down and make her scream with pleasure. Again. She leaned down to kiss him, then smiled and moaned against his mouth when his hand came up to tangle in her hair, holding her close, and the other tightened around her waist.

"Seems like you've recovered some," he remarked with a wicked grin when they surfaced.

She wriggled happily. "Seems like you have, too."

"Round two?"

She rolled on to her back, pulling him with her, wrapped her legs around him as his weight came to rest deliciously between her thighs, laughed at the way his eyes got unfocused as he groaned. "Bring it on, sailor. You up for the challenge?"

His teeth found the soft skin below her ear, and she heard him chuckle as his hands and mouth and body got to work making her come apart at the seams. "Oh, Katie," he murmured, voice full of promise and sex. "You have no idea."