Once sure that the glass partition was shut, Jack removed his seat belt and spun to face Ianto fully. He took hold of one of the hands in Ianto's lap. Jack brought it to his lips and kissed each knuckle, one at a time. Ianto inhaled swiftly after the first kiss and tried to pull his hand free, but Jack refused to relinquish his hand. Instead Jack chose to speak.

"Ianto Jones. You can do, say, act, in whatever way makes you happy and feel comfortable, but I am someone who tends to make public displays of affection, so don't be surprised when I touch your hand at the table, or rub my foot along your leg under the table – though that won't happen on the first date, I promise. I know this is not the norm for you Ianto, but can I make a suggestion? You need to relax more. Think you can just go with the flow tonight? Everything is in hand, but I can promise there aren't any cheesy, grandiose romantic gestures. I tend to leave those for after the 10th date, so you've got a long wait. Does that make you feel any happier?"

"What if I don't really do public displays of affection? What if I like to keep everything away from prying eyes and behind closed doors?"

"Then we find some kind of compromise between the two."

"Okay," murmured Ianto. Willing to give a display of affect a try, even if it wasn't public just yet, Ianto drew his hand, still attached to Jack's towards his mouth and kissed the tip of one finger.

"Not bad for your first try, but how about we go for a real kiss? Nothing more until we reach at least double figures in date numbers though. I don't want you to take advantage of me in this situation," said Jack in an attempt to put Ianto more at ease, which it did.

Their lips met in the middle of the distance that had separated them.

It took several coughs and a cold gust of wind through the open passenger door to finally get both men to register that the car had stopped, and their driver was waiting for them to exit the vehicle. Startled Ianto pulled back and hit his head on the back of the head rest in his haste.

"Give us a minute Jared, and shut the door" Jack stated, without turning towards the patiently waiting chauffeur. Jared must have heard, as within seconds the door closed with a snicker.

"Are you okay, Ianto?" Jack asked perhaps a little gruffer than he meant to, aware that their non public display of affection had definitely been made public to their driver.

Ianto breathed deeply, eyes closed with his face turned upwards to the ceiling.

"I'm going to need more than a minute to get a handle on things."

Jack's eyes moved to Ianto's lap, without intention, seeing the dilemma he was referring to.

"Normally I'd think of something really unsexy to help...abate the situation. False teeth in a glass, the owner of the false teeth smacking their lips together, and googly eyed dolls trying to murder me. Maybe a cold shower, or an ice bat would be more of a useful visualisation."

Ianto opened his eyes at the weirdness of the words coming out of Jack's mouth. Ianto had never had to control himself like this before now. Then again he'd never been in a situation where he'd have to control himself. It appeared that being with Jack was going to require a great deal of self control and concentration against desire. Or use Jack's suggested tool, images to put you off wanting to have anything to do with sex.

Ianto had once read an article in a local magazine that was entitled 'How to stop thinking about sex'. He'd given the article his full attention, because he was in need of something to read that day, but hadn't really given it any thought since then.

The article involved 7 steps, and Ianto thought about them now, pulling them from his eidetic memory:

Understand what your triggers are – well that was easy! Jack and the things he could do with his tongue.

Develop your willpower – Ianto had been very certain, before this incident that he had very strong will power, but upon self reflection it appeared that he was going to have to develop more of it, and soon.

Understand that there is nothing wrong with thinking about sex – his mind had been on sex more times in the last 20 hours than it had been in the last 5 months. It may be because he had not been pleasuring, or pleasured himself in that time. His only reservation now was that gigantic transition between sex with a female and sex with a male.

Don't forcefully try to block the thoughts from your head – difficult when you want your erection to go away, but he'd give it a try.

Find a way to occupy yourself – well that would be simple, if only he could walk without awkwardness or pain shooting from his groin. He'd then have the rest of the evening to occupy his time.

Avoid giving in to temptation – Jack had made certain that there would be no giving in to temptation until at least the 10th date, which was great news in his mind, but not so good news for the rest of him. He knew that Jack had some willpower, and between them they would be able to sort through the next 10 dates (because the first one hadn't really started yet!).

Talk about it with somebody –could he really talk about this with Jack? Seeing as he was the cause to this?

The more he thought about the questions, the more he felt an ease in the stretching feeling in his trousers. Finally he looked at Jack and smiled.

"We can leave whenever you're ready Jack," said Ianto, proud of himself for his ability to grasp his situation and control it, given the circumstances.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Jack asked quietly, wanting reassurance he hadn't pushed things too far again, as he had the day before.

Ianto decided he would follow the advice of step 7.

"I'm not used to controlling these kinds of urges. It's not something that I've come across, but I've worked out a system that managed to help. We should really try to keep a lid on those kinds of kisses I think. At least until we hit date 8 or 9. Is that okay?"

Being honest felt refreshing, but held a certain vulnerability, thought Ianto.

"I'm more than fine with it Ianto, if that's what you want. Nice and slow."

"I don't think I can look Jared in the face after that though. How long was he waiting for us to stop?"

"At least a few minutes, I guess. It doesn't matter. He's here to be invisible. It's just unfortunate that we didn't stop a little sooner."

"Shall we go then?"

Ianto had not yet looked around to see where they were.

Jack pulled the handle on the door, and Jared, expecting this, pulled it wide. Once out, Jack leant against the side of the vehicle, looking across at their venue. Ianto got out and looked around.

"Penarth Pier?"