"Gibbs?" Nico followed him up the stairs and into the bedroom.

"She enjoys the reminder of who is in control and so do I. We need time to talk." He watched Nico settle against the dresser even as it dawned on Gibbs that Ziva would soon need one of her own. "I want you to stay Nico."

"And, what about the ramifications… your team?"

"I'm tired of worrying what other people think. Being with Ziva was enough to cost me my job and it didn't. I want you here." Gibbs paused sparing a glance that was more direct than he was comfortable with. "If you want to be? I know you have your life back in Vermont."

Nico barely had to think. "It's a lonely one. I'd like to stay. But, only if you're certain. She said you were trying for a baby. It may look wrong to some."

"As I said I don't care."

"How long?"

Gibbs stared at the bed, thought on what answer he could give and finally settled on the most honest. "Again, I don't know, but I don't want you to leave any time soon."

"I care for her, likely more than I should. Does that worry you?"

Gibbs smiled, "No. She deserves to be loved as much as possible. And I'm not threatened by you. I know she loves me. However you both feel about each other is a bonus." He heard the chuckle from Nico and couldn't stop the question in his eyes.

"She said very much the same thing about us." Nico saw something in the way Gibbs nodded and waited for the explanation.

"She said we're intimate. Not in a physical way but that it's there between us. That I don't know how to explain."

Nico pressed back harder against the dresser almost laughing as he realized he was fighting the simple recognition of something that had always been unnamed. "It does not appear to bother her."

"It doesn't but it made me wonder. Have I missed something with you?" Gibbs felt the naked rush of uncertainty as Nico smiled at him.

"If you're asking have I ever been with another man Jethro, the answer is yes. But you and I we are something far different. I don't have the words but it's never been the kind of intimacy that has to do with the physical. Instead it's about the life we've shared." It cost Nico to share that secret, until the judgement he expected never showed and he could breathe. "I know that you are not of that interest. We are what we are and for all my relationships ours has been the most important. "

Gibbs was saved from any response when Ziva stepped into the room and announced dinner was ready. She looked to them both before she waited eyes downcast, silently waiting for whatever he would ask of her. The rush of love he felt when he saw her as she was never failed to hit him. "After we eat Ziva you will come upstairs and wait for us by the bed. Since you cooked Nico and I will clean."

"Yes sir." Ziva waited until they had started down the stairs and followed them.

Not quite two hours later, Ziva stood at the end of the bed her breathing not quite steady as they stepped in the room and stripped down to their slacks.

"You questioned me tonight Ziva. Your submission here in our home must be absolute." He stepped forward proud of the way her gaze never lifted from the floor even when her shoulders trembled slightly.

Ziva remained quiet not knowing what he expected in the way of a response. There was the sound of the closet door opening. But, she couldn't identify what was happening. There was the slide of silk across her forehead and then darkness. A quick pull of fabric and she was blind to everything in the room. She drew in a sharp breath but held steady.

Only then did she feel the slide of leather across her bottom. The soft slide of the fabric was tight against the wood that backed it. Though never having experienced one personally Ziva knew exactly what was tracing her skin. A paddle could be meant to enhance the arousal of someone in a specific moment. But she doubted in this instance it was Gibbs' intent. She had questioned him, and as a dominate he wouldn't take that lightly.

She felt the slightest push on her shoulders and sunk down to her knees. On the whisper of a guess she pushed her hands behind her neck and let her chin settled against the pillow that lay on the floor. Her bottom settled upward against Gibbs knees. One hand tugged on the cloth that covered her eyes. "Your first punishment was a gentle reminder of the control I require. This time will be to remind you just how imperative that control is."

He glanced to Nico seeing the faint hint of hesitation and ignored it. He focused on the woman positioned just as he would have commanded had she not already known. "You will count Ziva to twenty-five. If you miss even one number I will begin again and again until you can reach the full number. When we are done if you have pleased me then and only then will I take you. If this is something you cannot do say your word and we will wait until another day to try."

Ziva felt the slightest sweat break out on her neck. The number wasn't absurdly high from the reading she'd done but neither was it as low as most novices were given. There was both pride and trepidation as she considered Gibbs' question. She had easily endured pain far more than what she would receive from Gibbs' hand. It wasn't so much about the pain but about truly bending to his will, to giving herself over to him without reservation and doing whatever was asked without question. As much as she had settled into this life with him she also felt the rush of desert wind and the reminder of harsher hands intent on breaking her. Of having been betrayed far too many times before.

"What is your word Ziva?" Nico had watched with a pride he shouldn't have as she truly contemplated Gibbs' question. In turn Gibbs' waited without pressure or impatience for her answer. Kneeling he lifted her chin from the pose she held unfailingly and forced her eyes to his.

"I will have no need of my word Nico. I will do as Gibbs asks." She felt both the vulnerability of her position and the inherent power that came with it.

"And so we begin Ziva." Gibbs felt the tremble of passion and love as his hand brought the paddle down roughly against her flesh. For a moment he froze waiting for her to cry out her word, to bring to a stop the need he couldn't explain.

Ziva felt the sharp smack of leather and wood against her soft skin and it wasn't gentle. Nothing at all was held back in the way the paddle landed upon her. The sting was sharp and brought her breath sharp and rattling up through her lungs. It was only her will that kept from calling out against the pain. It was brief just the momentary bite and already it was gone. Somehow she managed to push out the simple word nothing more and nothing less. "One."

Nico watched something settled in Gibbs the satisfaction that came with power over another. It was a heady thing. When it came with the deeply personal connection the two shared it had to be even more so. Gibbs looked to him and smiled as though reading his mind. Two more times the paddle fell and the numbers left the sweet mouth of the woman at their feet. A roll of shoulders and Gibbs stood his hand falling again and again as Ziva chanted numbers her voice never faltering.

Ziva felt the burn, the pain she might have thought herself immune to as Gibbs laid the paddle against her skin none to gently again and again. The numbers left her lips in a mantra of acceptance but her mind had slipped somewhere beyond her reckoning. She felt adrift, somewhere between pleasure and pain. Even more was the mix of both lost and found. Here in the haven Gibbs had created for her under his control and protection she felt freer than she'd ever known. Still she spoke but only just the faintest of sound. Even as she knew the paddle had fallen for the last time she felt as though she were drifting her body felt like it was floating on water. Gentle hand eased her from kneeling lifting her until finally laying her against the crisp coolness of sheets that smelled of the two men hovering about. Her skin still flaming with the heat of the paddle, slid across the cotton causing a hiss of desire mixed with discomfort. The reminder, the demand Gibbs had sought to instill was not lost, it would hold long after this night. But for now she felt a heady wash of lust as arms surrounded her holding her close.

Nico smiled as Gibbs lowered her to the bed. Ziva was sighing out both pleasure and the hints of discomfort very much expected in this moment. Gibbs had known exactly how much she could take. She wouldn't forget what she'd learned tonight but neither would she feel any fear of either of them. As Gibbs laid her down gently Nico reached forward and stroked her hair kissing the soft skin of her neck.

Gibbs felt the shake in his hands as he settled Ziva in the sheets of what he now considered their bed. He hadn't expected her to experience subspace tonight. It caught him nearly off guard but not so much that he forgot to care for her. Her skin flamed from his reprimand and it was beautiful against the duskiness of her skin and the crisp white of the sheets. The contrast forced his hand to caress the same curves he'd just tempered. She shuddered at his touch even more so when Nico's gentle kiss became a gentle bite of shoulder.

The scent of her arousal hit the air and her hands sought his shoulders. As he turned her sideways in the bed his body lying parallel to hers he caught her gaze and still there was the headiness that was so potent he felt his cock harden to the point he thought he might not last until he was inside her. His cock brushed against her sex and she cried out digging her nails tight into the muscles of his shoulders. Barely able to speak he glanced at Nico "She needs us both tonight."

Nico hadn't needed to be told but the permission was welcome. Knowing what was next he grabbed a tube from the bedside drawer and readied himself even as his own hand shook. With as much patience as he could manage he reached between her buttocks and let his fingers explore. Her cry was one of nothing but pleasure and need even as her hair cascade around him. Only when her body pushed again him did he finally indulge the need to slide inside her. The tight pull of her muscles had him cursing in languages he'd forgotten he knew. Holding tight to her arms he knew tomorrow would warrant apologies for the marks he left.

Gibbs watched moisture seep from her eyes felt the way her fingers pushed even tighter into his skin pulling him closer when there was only one closeness left. Sliding inside her he felt her sigh, that sound along with the tight clamp of her body around him forced the small tremor into a full blown shaking. As a trio their legs wrapped together and a rocking rhythm took over. It should have been frenzied for all the need that hazed in the air. Instead a new balance was found. Together they found ecstasy, shedding the taboos and the doubts they lost themselves in each other and the moment.

Ziva had expected to dissolve into sleep, instead in a blur of time and movement she found herself lying in Gibbs' bathtub. One that was far larger than she might have ever imagined. Nico was pouring warm water over her and as he shook her head lightly she felt as though she'd just woken up from a particularly decadent dream.

"This will seem a ridiculous question, but what happened?" Nico's tender smile matched the movement of his hands as he washed her body.

"Not ridiculous Amorina, just not something we thought to warn you of." The endearment had slipped form his lips without his permission but she gave no negative reaction. "Subspace, not something every sub achieves but for those who do, it is a bit like being drugged. Or so I've been told. A feeling that allows the submissive to feel everything in a haze of pleasure, A dominate must be very careful when a sub reaches this state because often they will not recognize the need or be able to use their safe word."

Ziva felt the flare of worry. "I do not regret anything from last night."

"Gibbs reads you very well Ziva if I had worried I would have stopped him. But there was never a need or a concern. What you experienced was a gift."

"It felt that way." She yawned and accepted his hand as he helped her step from the tub and dry off. "I am not complaining but I have been bathing myself for some time now…"

Nico smiled as he rubbed lotion into her skin. There was no scent just the warm wet smell of the woman in his hands. "Aftercare as important as everything else this relationship entails. Even more so after what you experienced, not only is it enjoyable for me but it helps you to adjust to the real world again. Without it submissive often experience subdrop…"

"I have read about that. I think perhaps…." She blushed and then smiled. "That is why Jethro insisted you stay in bed. As you have said he knows what I need sometimes I think even better than I do."

Together they walked into the bedroom, Gibbs had returned bearing a tray with small snacks. In a way that should have been awkward they all sat in the bed munching in comfortable quiet until Gibbs fixed a look Ziva's way. "Nico will be staying here for the foreseeable future."

Ziva smiled as she munched on a handful of grapes Gibbs had brought upstairs. She nodded, feeling a comfort she couldn't explain.

"And because I cannot push my worry away one of us will be with you at all times. I mentioned it before but you will be sure to…"

This time it was real work for Ziva to swallow away the instinct to rebel. His request came from the need to protect her. Though she was capable of caring for herself there was still the worry in his eyes as he asked. And there was the possibility of a child. Whatever it cost her she would do as he needed. "Of course Jethro, I do not wish to cause you any extra worry."

"It isn't about doubting you Ziva." Nico spoke worried about the silence that had grown. Ziva's smile had him rethinking his concern.

"Jethro wants me safe I know that, it is only my pride that objects and that will pass." She smiled again meeting Gibbs' look cleanly with no regret.

"Thank you Ziva."

"No Jethro thank you for loving me so right.