First of all, the pool is closed and the pro-smut party won for all versions! I hope you'll enjoy it! I certainly had fun writing it.

Thank you to C3, SLE, hhs18, ncistonyziva, * () Gabi, Heidi and Lot56 for reading, reviewing and voting! Gabi, you are not spamming at all!!! I love reviews, the more the better!!!

Needless to say, rating is now up to M!

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Time passed slowly as Gibbs worked on the boat and waited for Ziva's return, the slow, methodical moves helping him to dispel the tension.

The young woman had been gone for almost five hours when he heard the floorboard over his head creak. He cleaned his hands with a rag and circled the boat, watching as Ziva walked down the stairs.

Her expression was resolute, and Gibbs knew she had made a decision—but it remained to be seen if it was one he would like.

She stopped in front of him, a serious look on his face.

"Gibbs," she said.

"Yeah…" he replied, watching her warily. He still had no idea of what she was thinking and it was making him nervous.

Ziva took another step forward and before Gibbs could react, he was pulled into a brief but tight embrace.

"I'm not afraid of you," she said, softly but confidently as she stepped back.

"No?"

"No. I fully admit what you said and showed me was very shocking, but I don't fear you. I've known you for three years and I trust you."

Gibbs nodded and relaxed a bit. So far, so good.

"As for the other matter…"

"Yes?" he prodded, needing to know what she though about his declaration of love.

Ziva smiled, a slow grin that started from her lips and spread on her face, finally reaching her eyes.

His breath caught in his throat as he watched Ziva with surprise.

The love he had hoped to find with the younger woman was there, so clear in the brown eyes staring at him, that he wondered how he could have missed it.

Ziva raised her right index and ran it over the fangs Gibbs hadn't retracted since he had first let them descend, hours before. She moved her finger slowly, gently, as if she was familiarizing with the sharp edges of his teeth. Then she dropped her hand and stepped even closer, her brown eyes luminous and full of emotion.

"Jethro…" she whispered, voice full of barely contained emotions. "How long have you been a vampire?"

"I was born one, Ziva. Contrary to the myth, we cannot turn humans into vampires by draining their blood—we just kill them if we do that. We aren't 'undead' creatures, we are living, breathing people just as the humans are—we're just different." He took her small hand and put it on his chest, over his fast-beating heart.

She nodded, "So your parents are vampires too?"

"My mother was, but the vampire's heritage is dominant. The progeny of a vampire and a human is a full vampire too."

"Was?"

"She died when I was twelve, an incident in a saw-mill where she was working to bring home some extra money. One of the blades got loose and severed both of her femoral arteries…" Gibbs turned his head away, as he remembered the day his father had come to pick him up at school to give him the news.

How he had been lost! His Mom hadn't been just his mother, she had been the only vampire young Leroy knew aside from the blond killer that still haunted him in his nightmares.

Blessedly, she had left his father instructions about how to contact other vampires, and the day of his Mom's funeral Leroy had met William Hendricks for the first time and discovered he wasn't alone with his secret.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Ziva asked, curious. "About this and…how you feel for me?"

Gibbs smirked, "It's not an easy thing to say. Oh, David, by the way, there is something missing from your dossier: I'm a vampire…" he shook his head. "The only human who knows I'm a vampire is my father—and now you. I never told any of my ex-wives."

She stared straight at him and murmured with quiet certainly, "Shannon knew it, yes? Was she a vampire too?"

"Yes, she knew, but no, she wasn't. Kelly was one…but when the car crash happened, she was still too young to know how to heal her body…I-I hadn't had the time to teach her how to do it…I was always away…" his voice died, as his never forgotten sense of guilt overwhelmed him.

Ziva wrapped her surprisingly strong arms around him and for the first time in a very long time, Gibbs let someone comfort him, instead of the other way around.

When he felt better, he raised his head from her neck, but her hand didn't fall away from his hair.

"Gibbs, you said before vampires drink blood to stay young…"

"Uh-uh."

"When was the last time you drank?" Ziva asked, tugging at his grey hair as if she wanted to make a point.

He smirked to himself. Always so perceptive, even when he would have preferred otherwise. "I've not drunk since Shannon died."

"17 years?"

"Almost 18."

"And this is also why the knee you injured in Kuwait has never completely healed…" she surmised.

"Yeah."

"But why?"

He slipped away from her arms and walked back to the workbench, where he drank a sip of bourbon to strengthen himself.

"Contrary to many vampires, who have no problem with drinking from any available donor, I'm not able to do it. For me, it has always been a very…intimate act, an experience I don't want to share with strangers I first must put in trance and then make forget what happened. Shannon… she never wanted me to put her in trance. From the first moment I told her what I was, she let me drink from her, baring her throat with a trust that has always taken my breath away…"

Gibbs blinked his eyes, and noticed Ziva was looking at him in an intent, almost rapt way.

"I told you I trust you, Jethro," she breathed, her voice like a caress on his hyper sensitized body, "drink from me…"

"Ziva…" he said in an almost strangled voice, as his heart pounded in his chest, "do you realize what are you offering?"

"Yes. I'm offering myself…all of myself…my blood, my body, my love." She took a step closer, so now they were so near they were breathing the same air. "I love you, Jethro. I've loved you for a long time, never daring to hope that one day my feelings would be reciprocated. I want you too... Do you…do you want me?"

Gibbs couldn't resist the plea in her voice or the needs of his body and heart. Suddenly the love he had buried for so long overwhelmed him.

He took a step forward and pulled the younger man against him. "God Ziver, I want you so badly…"

"Then take me…"

His groin tightened with desire at her words. He had the urge to push her back and take her against his boat, but he wanted something more for their first time together.

So he bent down and, not giving a damn about his knee, he swept Ziva into his arms and moved toward the stairs. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he started to climb the steps, their burning eyes never breaking contact.

They made their trip to his bedroom in silence, their hurried breathing the only sound breaking the stillness of the house.

When they reached his room, Gibbs walked inside and closed the door with his hip, before setting Ziva down. Only then did he do what he had been dying to do for weeks. He took her face between his hands, tilted her head up and kissed her-- but not before taking the time to retract his fangs. He loved to kiss with his fangs down, but he had to be cautious when he did it, in order not to nick his lover's lips or tongue, and tonight he was too needy to be that careful.

Ziva surrendered into his embrace, soft and welcoming as he pressed his tongue between her lips.

She made her own satisfied sound as his probing flesh moved across her teeth, delicately stroking her mouth. His hands moved restlessly against her back for a moment, ending at last on the swell of her bottom and crushing her forward against his erection.

Gibbs sighed at the sensations aroused by the brief contact. Every fibre of his body seemed to be yearning toward Ziva, but he tried to resist both the needs of his flesh and the call of his vampire nature… he didn't want to rush.

They separated due to the need to breath, and she used that pause to press passionate kisses along his neck and then, when it was covered, moving across his collarbone and along his chest.

He moaned and brought her face up for another long, passionate kiss. Unable to resist a moment more, he began to undress her, trying hard not to rip or break her shirt with his suddenly clumsy fingers. Why did that damn thing have to have so many buttons?

Ziva noticed his predicament and smirked, "Let me do it…"

She quickly got rid of her shirt, as Gibbs stood there, watching as her olive-toned bare skin was revealed to him.

As she bent to take off her shoes she looked at his still clothed form and said, teasingly, "What are you waiting for? I want to watch too."

He smirked and raised his arms, removing his t-shirt and throwing it on a chair, soon followed by his sweat pants and socks. By the time he stood in front of Ziva clad only in his boxers, she was naked, but for her bra and panties.

Slowly, as the predator that was the core of his nature, he prowled toward her, making her move back toward the bed, until the back of her knees hit the edge of the mattress. Almost hypnotized, her eyes never losing contact with his, Ziva sat down on the bed and scooted back on the mattress, as he fell on his hands and knees and followed her.

Only when she was in the middle of the bed did she smile and recline, opening her arms to welcome his weight atop of her.

Gibbs settled over her, making sure not to crush her, as he lowered his head and took her lips in a heavy, demanding kiss, his tongue thrusting deeply into her mouth, ravaging and possessive.

When he finally broke the kiss, they were both panting heavily. He could feel Ziva's heart hammer wildly as he deftly unfastened her bra and threw it away. He smiled a lopsided grin as he eyed her heaving breasts, her nipples already stiff with arousal, begging for the touch of his mouth.

He lowered his head and took one of her nipples in his mouth, relishing in the gasp she let out as he swirled his tongue around the hard nub.

Her moans became louder as Gibbs turned his attention to the other nipple and while he was at it, his hand strayed down her body, and slipped beneath the waistband of her panties, unceremoniously tearing them apart.

"Jethro!" Ziva exclaimed, but there was no protest in her voice, just raw need. The same need he felt as his fingers found their way between her legs. He needed to know she was ready for him, for he was aware he had almost reached his breaking point.

A relieved moan escaped his lips as he found her warm, open and wet, ready to welcome him.

He rose on his knees and quickly freed his erection from his boxers, then reached for his bedside table and fished inside the top drawer in search of a condom.

"No need…" Ziva murmured, her hand wrapping around his wrist and bringing it back to her body.

Gibbs nodded and settled back between her spread legs, as she raised her hips to accommodate him better.

Unable to wait a moment more, he thrust his hips and sheathed himself to the hilt inside her, throwing his head back with a growl of triumph. His fangs descended again and for the first time since he had last been with Shannon, he didn't rush to retract them.

Ziva dug her nails into his upper arms and he used every ounce of his force of will to prevent himself from losing his control.

For what seemed an eternity they remained there, as if poised at the edge of an abyss that threatened to devour them. Then, slowly, tentatively, they relaxed in each other's arms, and he started moving carefully, with long, slow strokes that had him retreating from her body then plunging deeply back into her. She raised her long legs and locked them around his waist, taking him more completely, her burning eyes silently urging him to go deeper and deeper.

Gibbs increased the rhythm of his thrusts and soon he was panting as heavily as Ziva, lost as he was in a pleasure that he had not felt in far too long.

"Jethro!" Ziva suddenly cried, as she tightened almost painfully around him and threw her head back against the pillow.

At the sight of her shuddering body and bare throat, he couldn't contain himself anymore. He surged forward one last time and bit her on her neck, his sharp fangs breaking her skin. His climax hit him at the same moment her blood flooded into his mouth and he moaned aloud at the ecstasy coursing in his body.

He then let go of her throat and collapsed exhausted over her heaving breasts, holding her as tightly as he could.

After a while Gibbs felt Ziva's trembling hand caress his sweaty hair and he raised his head to look at her.

"Wow," she whispered when they eyes locked, a lazy, satisfied smile spreading on her face. "This was really intense…"

He smiled back and lowered his head to lick the wound on her neck, using his saliva to stop the bleeding and heal the skin.

When he was done, he slowly pulled back from Ziva's body and collapsed on the mattress at his lover's side. She rose on an elbow and looked down at him, her index finger caressing his still exposed fangs.

"I like you like this," she murmured, her gaze intent. "It's what you really are and I feel privileged you allow me to see it."

"No more privileged than I feel because you allow me to be fully myself with you." A moment of pause, then Gibbs added. "I hope you know I love you, Ziva. This isn't a one time thing."

She nodded, and smiled. "I know, Jethro. I wouldn't be here, in this bed, if I didn't know it. And I trust you know I love you, too."

"Yep—I know."

"Good. And now, I need to sleep…I have to work tomorrow, and I've a slave driver of Boss who won't be very sympathetic if I arrive to the office with bags under my eyes…" Ziva said, reclining on the bed, facing him with a happy smile on her face.

Gibbs grinned and murmured, closing his eyes, "Sleep, Ziver…"

"On it, Jethro…"

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