CHAPTER 8 - USING HIS WORDS

Evening, Saturday, April 25

Tony leaned back on the couch in Gibbs' living room and raised his arms above his head in a long after-dinner stretch. "That was a good steak, Jethro." He caught Jethro standing in the doorway eying him like he wanted to eat him or something. Realizing that dark, intense look in Jethro's eye had been triggered by his shirt riding up when he stretched, he quickly tugged it down to hide his bare stomach. Covering up his embarrassment, Tony reached for his camera and started previewing some of the photos he'd taken on Sycamore Island on the small screen. "I can't wait to load these on my Mac and look at them full-sized. I got some good ones of those crazy plants in the greenhouse. Amazing they survived without anyone caring for them."

Jethro walked over and sat beside Tony, leaning into him so he could look at the camera's viewfinder. "There have been caretakers and preservation groups in there, on and off, over the years."

Tony scrolled through the images to find some of the interior of the house. "Look at this one. It's the ceiling of the library… what do they call it? A coffered ceiling? Those are all hand-carved squares in the shape of different flowers."

Jethro didn't reply. Instead, he nuzzled Tony's neck and inhaled deeply.

That felt good, like really good, but Tony continued talking about the architectural elements they'd seen in the Dwight mansion, and the project Jethro had taken on. He licked his lips and said in a slightly rough voice, "Did you know that kind of ceiling was first used in Ancient Rome to support the weight of stone ceilings?" A hot, wet tongue licked his neck and Tony found it hard to breathe. "Um… and in Greece… Oh, that's… that's really good. Yeah, right there… uh… in Greece…"

Jethro pulled away and whispered in Tony's ear, "You having trouble finding your words? I can stop."

"No! No, don't…" The tongue started up again, and Jethro nibbled at his earlobe. Tony closed his eyes and moaned. Fuck, this was making his dick harden, and he could hardly think, much less put one word after another. He managed to ask in a breathy voice, "Bed?"

Jethro turned Tony's head to face him, and kissed him thoroughly, and when he was done he asked, "You say something?"

Tony nipped Jethro's chin teasingly. "I said, 'bed.' You do have one upstairs, don't you?"

"Well, yeah," Jethro replied, as if it were a stupid question.

"Just that you either sleep on this old couch or down in your dungeon."

"It's a basement and yes, I have–"

Tony covered Jethro's mouth with his palm and asked, "Then why are we messing around down here and not in a nice big bed?" Next thing he knew, Jethro had grabbed his arm and was hauling him upstairs and into the one room in the house he had never before seen – the master bedroom.

Tony only had the opportunity to take a cursory look around before Jethro pushed him onto the bed and asked, "This what you want?"

Tony grinned and said, "Oh yeah," and started pulling off his shirt.

• •

Twenty minutes later Tony was lying beside Jethro, breathing hard, and covered in sweat and spunk. "Fuck, that was… Wow." Considering Jethro had never been with a man before, he sure knew what to do to make his partner happy. Tony rolled his head to look at the man who had just fucked him so hard he'd seen stars. "Wow," he said once again, grinning.

Jethro was lying limply beside him, chest heaving, groaning.

"You okay there?" Tony asked.

Jethro flapped a hand at him.

Tony laughed and rolled onto his side, throwing one arm over his lover's waist. "That was great. Stupendous, incredible, fun…"

Jethro made a sound that was halfway between a grunt and a moan.

"Can we do it again?"

Jethro rolled his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you said. Think you can use your words?" Tony teased.

"Oh God."

"Did I break you or something?"

Finally, Jethro said, "I've never… not like that. Not with…"

"Not with a man?"

"Not with anybody. Amazing."

"You see stars? 'Cause I did, in all sorts of pretty colors."

"Mmmm. Fireworks," Jethro said with a smile. After some silence, he asked, "You sure about this? You're not gonna change your mind and sign up as a deckhand on a yacht, are you?"

"Sail the seven seas with Captain Carol? It's tempting," Tony said with a grin. Sighing, he got serious. "You know, if anyone had asked me a week ago if I'd ever make love with my boss, I'd have told them they were crazy. Now, I'm thinking it was crazy not to. We should've done this a long time ago, Boss. You got me hooked."

Jethro reached over and caressed Tony's cheek. "You know I'm not going to be able to give you up. It's all or nothing."

Tony smiled broadly. "So this is forever? No matter what? Good, because I love you, and I know it's probably way too soon for you to get all deep, and talk about feelings, but… do you…? All I need is a small part of you…"

"You have all of me, Tony," Jethro said in a deep voice.

In reply, Tony wrapped his arms around Jethro's muscular back and hid his face in the crook of his neck. "You're everything to me," Tony whispered, his voice muffled against his lover's damp skin.

Jethro's response was to kiss Tony lovingly, and for Tony, that was the best answer he could ever get.

• •

May 2009

Before summer arrived, Vance relieved Ziva David of her temporary position at NCIS, accusing her of espionage, and told her that her father had a jet waiting for her at the airport. She kicked up a fuss, but as the hour was late, there was nobody but the director and two beefy security guards around to witness her meltdown.

• •

June 2009

Tony, Tim and Abby planned a road trip in the summer to see the abandoned grain silos and a wrecked ship on the Lakes, a massive gothic church with ornate stonework that had been used in several scary movies in Chicago, and, for Abby, an insane asylum whose electro-shock treatment equipment had been left behind. Jethro spearheaded the trip and acted as the safety manager. Even though both Tim and Abby knew of his relationship with Tony, they never said a word of it to anyone outside their little circle.

• •

July 2009

By the time the summer was in full swing, Jethro had taken Tony on a myriad of dates: to watch sports, hear music and explore a world of fine cuisine. They even had some dates at home, involving steak dinners and sex so good they both saw stars.

Admittedly, they had been sleeping together on a regular basis since the day they'd taken their first trip out to see the Dwight mansion. After they'd been dating for three months, Jethro took Tony on a dinner date he'd specially arranged aboard The Valiant.After being greeted by Captain Carol and her crew, and served a first-class dinner by the charter boat's perpetually pissed-off chef, they were left alone.

Jethro sat in the bow of the ship with his arm around Tony, and pointed at the constellations in the night sky. "See, there, above Hercules?"

"The box with the tail?"

"Yeah. That's Draco, the dragon that guarded the gardens of Hesperides."

Tony turned to Jethro with a smile. "How'd you get so smart?"

Jethro shrugged. "Read a little about using the stars for navigation. I was saving that one for you." He kissed Tony, gently at first, and then he took Tony's face in both of his hands and kissed him deeply, tasting of lobster and champagne.

When they parted, Jethro blinked at him as if he was just waking up from a deep sleep. All of a sudden he asked, "Move in with me? I'm fucking useless without you, and you're always going to be part of my life, Tony, and if you don't know by now that I'm… damn it… I am so much in love with you… Say yes."

Pretty much left speechless, all Tony could get out was, "Yes."

• • The End • •

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