Title: Beginnings
Summary: Prequel to ″Reconciliation.″ Jack's first time with each of his subs.
Rating: AO for graphic sex, violence, and mature themes.
Fic Word Count: 34,444
Fic Pairings: Jack Harkness/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/OFC, Suzie Costello/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/Suzie Costello/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/Owen Harper, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness/Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams
Fic Contains: biting, blood play mention, blowjobs, bondage, caning, canon character death mention, casual drug use discussion, clamps, cunnilingus, Dom controlling a sub's clothing, exhibitionism, Fetish clothes, fingering, first time with a man, gags, handjobs, one night stands, orgasm denial, PIV sex, sensory deprivation (blindfolds), sexuality discussion, spanking, threesomes, vampire gloves, violence mention, voyeurism
Fic Warnings: canon character death discussion, casual racism (outside of the main pairing), fetishization (outside of the main pairing), suicide contemplation, unwanted non-sexual touches (outside of the main pairing)
Chapter Number: Five
Chapter Word Count: 7,999
Chapter Pairings: Jack/Gwen/Rhys
Chapter Contains: caning, Dom controlling a sub's clothing, violence mention, blowjobs, threesomes, PIV
"No, I don't want the fucking coffee!"
Gwen didn't think Owen had actually meant to knock the mug out of Ianto's hand. He'd turned around to wave Ianto off and he'd accidentally hit Ianto, presumably because Ianto was standing much closer than Owen had anticipated, and Ianto had dropped the mug. It shattered on the floor and the coffee seeped around their shoes, and they both glared at each other and seemed to be half a second away from accusing each other of having done that on purpose when Jack snapped them both out of it:
"What the Hell is your problem?!"
Both men went pale and immediately turned to face Jack.
"I'm very sorry, sir! I really should have been more careful—" Ianto said, as Owen said "I just didn't want the fucking coffee and it's not my fault he was—"
"Stop." Jack said. Once they'd both obeyed, Jack calmly said, "Now take a deep breath, both of you."
They both did.
"Ianto," Jack said politely, "Will you please clean that up?"
It took Ianto a second to process that Jack wasn't angry at him, but then he nodded. "Of course, sir. Right away."
"Thank you," Jack said. He looked at Gwen for a second and frowned as if her presence was suddenly somehow inconvenient to him, which confused Gwen because she'd had nothing to do with the scene that just unfolded and as far as she was aware she hadn't cocked anything up all day, but before Gwen could figure out a way to ask Jack what his problem was, Jack dismissed the thought and turned back to Owen. He spoke again, this time in a much sterner tone: "Owen, step into my office, please. You and I need to have a talk." Gwen had never been called to Jack's office. Not in that tone of voice. She'd gathered, however, that when Owen was summoned to Jack's office (a fairly regular occurrence), it meant something bad. Owen never seemed terribly distressed coming out of those encounters, but he always looked upset going into them and he did anything he could to get out of them. This time was no exception.
"Jack," Ianto said quickly, shooting a nervous glance at Owen, "That was my fault! Don't—"
"I didn't ask whose fault it was," Jack said, and while he said it, his tone briefly got slightly harder, but then it soften again as he went on: "I don't care about a broken mug. These things happen." He glared at Owen. "Owen. My office. Now." Jack turned and led the way to his office.
Owen went a step or two out of the way to bump into Ianto as he followed.
"I saw that," Jack said, though there was really no way that he could have.
Gwen and Ianto didn't move until Jack and Owen were both out of sight.
"Ugh," Gwen said. "He can be such a child sometimes." Ianto hadn't actually done anything wrong, except perhaps invade Owen's personal space a bit, but that when understandable in light of the fact that he was trying to get Owen's attention and hand Owen something. He hadn't been pushy, but Owen had been absorbed in his work and when he didn't answer when Ianto said he had coffee, Ianto must have assumed, as Gwen had, that Owen hadn't heard him.
Ianto didn't acknowledge that Gwen had spoken. Instead, he looked nervously at Tosh. "Did I just get Owen into trouble?" he asked.
"No," Tosh said, not looking up from the wires she was soldering. "Owen doesn't need any help getting into trouble."
"But I—"
"You might want to do as Jack asked before he gets back out here," Tosh suggested.
Ianto seemed to recognize the wisdom in the suggestion, and so did Gwen, so they both immediately returned to work.
In Gwen's case, what Jack had asked her to do was to read a large stack of reports about Silurians and use her finely tuned detective skills to determine whether or not the half-eaten corpse they'd found earlier that night fit the pattern for Silurian kills. It was extremely dull work, and duller still because once every couple of pages she'd have to stop and ask the rest of the room what sort of creatures lived on the Ninth Moon of Owwebk or how a reptile can learn to speak English. (Having to explain this had done nothing to improve Owen's mood.) Gwen was actually impressed with herself when, upon returning to her work, she made it five whole pages before she realized that she had no idea what "peptide bradykinin potentiators" were, and since the phrase had just come up three different times in one paragraph, it seemed important.
Ianto was fetching some cleaning materials and Tosh didn't know either, so Gwen excused herself and went to find Jack and Owen. She walked right into Jack's office, just on time to see Jack bring a cane down hard on Owen's bare arse.
Owen and Gwen both jumped.
"Four," Owen hissed.
Jack raised the cane, prepared to hit Owen again, but he caught a glimpse of Gwen over his shoulder and stopped.
"You know, there are a lot of social customs in the 21st century that are useless and condescending," Jack said casually. "Knocking is not one of them."
Owen made a noise in the back of his throat, and Jack turned around and hit him again.
Gwen flinched as the cane collided with Owen's already-red skin.
"Five!" Owen said, but he'd barely lifted his hands off Jack's desk when Jack stopped him:
"Don't get up yet! If you can't be patient, you can take an extra hit." Jack sighed and turned back to Gwen. "Owen and I are kind of in the middle of something here."
"...I can see that!" Gwen said. "What is it?"
"None of your business," Jack told her. "If you need either of us, please wait outside. We'll be with you shortly."
Gwen knew that she was gaping at them, but she couldn't actually formulate a proper sentence, so she turned around and walked out of the office, hoping that by the time that they were finished, she'd know what to say.
She stood there and tapped her foot angrily for a minute or two, and then a thought occurred to her, and she rushed back to Tosh and Ianto.
"You knew, didn't you?!" she asked them.
Tosh glanced up from her work, but said nothing.
Ianto debated lying for so long that Gwen would have seen right through him if he'd tried, so he decided on the truth: "Yes."
"How can you be okay with this?!" Gwen said.
"Still trying to figure that out," Ianto said. "I'll let you know when I know."
"Do you really want us to sit around and judge each other's sex lives?" Tosh asked. "Lighten up, Gwen. This is the 21st century..."
Gwen was still processing Ianto's answer, though. "Ianto, what does that mean? Does he hit you too?"
Ianto shrugged. "'Hit' is a very strong word."
"'Hit' is an accurate word," Tosh said. "But it's still none of Gwen's business." Tosh glanced up again to give Gwen a quick dirty look. "Stay out of other people's personal lives. They're not hurting anyone."
"Not hurting anyone?" Gwen repeated. "Should we run that by Owen?!"
"Owen has no comment at this time," Owen said flatly, pushing past Gwen on his way back to his own workstation.
"Remember what we talked about," Jack said sternly, still standing behind Gwen.
Owen muttered something incoherent. Gwen wasn't listening to him anyway. She turned around and glared at Jack.
"Gwen, was there something you wanted to talk to me about?" Jack asked.
"Yeah," Gwen said. "Sexual harassment. Have you ever heard of it?"
"Yes, I've heard of it," Jack said calmly. "It's making unwelcome sexual advances or unwelcome comments of a sexual nature about your employees or coworkers, right? Gwen, as your boss, I'm going to have to ask you to stop that."
"Me?!" Gwen said.
"Actually, yes," Tosh said calmly, though she'd stopped looking up from her work.
Gwen gasped and gave Tosh a deeply offended look that Tosh didn't seem to notice at all, and then Gwen redirected her attention to the real victim here: "Owen—"
"No. Comment." Owen was back to work on a severed arm from the scene of the crime.
"Okay, but Ianto—" was not in the room anymore.
Jack didn't look angry. He looked... comforting, and slightly concerned. "Please step into my office, Gwen," Jack said, "We have some things we should talk about, and I want you to try to keep an open mind."
Gwen followed him. She didn't feel like she had much choice. Once they were inside Jack's office, Jack shut the door calmly and walked over to his desk. He didn't sit down, though. He just stood behind it and stared at her for a minute.
Gwen let him stare. Jack was the one who'd wanted to have this conversation. He could start it.
"He likes it," Jack said, after a solid minute of silence. "They like it. I wouldn't do it if they didn't."
"Then why doesn't Owen ever look like he wants to go with you?" Gwen asked. "Why did Ianto feel bad when you went off with Owen? Why were they both so damn nervous?"
"You know," Jack said, "I'm not Ianto, so I can't really speak for him, but I think that his nervousness just might have something to do with the fact that six weeks ago he committed treason against the entire human race and nearly got all of us killed." Jack shrugged. "I'd be on edge too."
"You hit them!" Gwen yelled, fighting the urge to punch that smug look off Jack's face. "Would you hit me?!"
"With the way that this conversation is going?" Jack said. "No. Definitely not." Jack sighed. "I don't hit anyone until after we've had a long conversation about how I'm going to hit them, what we both expect to get out of it, and what it means."
Gwen said nothing.
"Haven't you ever wanted something and not wanted it at the same time?" Jack asked. "Ever gotten off on danger?"
Gwen tried to keep her face blank, but Jack smirked like he'd just scored a game-winning goal.
"This is Torchwood," he said, as if Gwen had forgotten. "We are five people in a basement trying to delay the Apocalypse a little bit every day." He smirked. "It's terrifying. Humans shoot at us. Aliens try to eat us. Sometimes we almost get incinerated. Sometimes we almost get converted into emotionless robots. Our most popular retirement plan is a 3x3x8 drawer in our freezer. Second most popular is a memory wipe. None of us would be here if we didn't get off on the danger." He stared right into her eyes. "And you? You were a cop before this. Owen was a doctor—little bit of excitement there, not quite like this—Tosh had a desk job, Ianto was temp... Me, I was a criminal. A good one. There's a lot of money in crime, if you're good at it. A lot of excitement, too. Women like you used to chase me all over the universe." Jack leaned back in his chair. "I miss those days, sometimes. I miss some of those women pretty often."
Gwen was pretty sure her face wasn't blank anymore, but she didn't know what Jack wanted from her, so she didn't say anything.
"It was fun, wasn't it?"
"I never chased you," Gwen said. "Unless you wiped my memory—"
"I signed on with Torchwood long before you were born," Jack said. "Don't worry."
"Don't bullshit me, Jack," Gwen said. "You're what, ten years older than I am? Maybe fifteen."
Jack smirked. "I got lucky, Gwen. My immortality came with an anti-aging patch. I've looked like this for a really long time."
Gwen's face softened. "So how old are you?" she asked.
"That's a rude question. Anyway, I never retconned you, other than that one time. Never met you before that night in the rain. But you chased criminals. Dashed through the night on the heels of Cardiff's worst, never knowing what a dangerous criminal might do to you to keep himself out of a jail cell..."
"I worked in Cardiff, Jack, not Murderville."
"You'd have taken a transfer to Murderville in a second if they'd offered," Jack said. "In fact, you kind of did. You've come a long way in just a few months. You're not the same woman who I caught wandering around murder scenes and secret government bases looking lost." Before Gwen could defend herself, Jack shrugged. "Of course, you don't bring me pizza anymore, either. I miss that." He leaned in closer. "My point, Gwen, is that no one here should understand this better than you and I do. I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say that you're not looking forward to an early grave or a long life as a cyberman?"
"Of course not."
"So quit."
"What?" Gwen said immediately.
"Yeah," Jack said calmly. "You don't like the risk of getting killed... or worse... So you must hate this job, right?"
"No," Gwen said. "I love this job. I just..."
"What about it?"
"What?"
"What exactly do you love about this job?"
"I love protecting people," Gwen said.
"So if I stuck you in a desk job, you'd be fine with that?"
"What?"
"It's still an important part of the job," Jack said. "You'd still be helping people."
"Yeah, but I want to be out where the action is!" Gwen said, and then she paused. "Point taken."
"They don't like being spanked," Jack said, "But I think they would all be very disappointed if I ever stopped. They could tell me to stop at any time they wanted, and they don't." Jack sighed and shrugged. "I think they get other things out of it too. It calms Owen down. Grounds him, I think. I think it's mostly cathartic for Ianto. Tosh seems to like how it heightens emotions and other pleasures, same as me."
"I imagine it's a lot easier to enjoy it on your end," Gwen said.
Jack shrugged. "I used to be where they are."
Gwen sighed. "So, what, do you graduate from being hit to hitting?"
"No," Jack said. "It doesn't work like that. It's more like... there are people I like to dominate, and there are people I like to be dominated by. Sometime people only like one or the other. Some people like both with everyone. I like both at different times and with different people."
"You make it sound so neat and easy," Gwen said.
"No," Jack said. "It's not really neat or easy. But it's also not hurting anyone." Jack sighed. "We're consenting adults doing something that we all feel we're benefiting from. I've been trying to keep it out of your sight and I will continue to do my best in that area, though I'm going to need you to work with me a little bit there. I'm not asking you to get involved. I'm not even asking you to be okay with it. I'm just asking you to live and let live, and don't interrupt when I want to be alone with one of them."
Gwen nodded.
"Are we okay?" Jack asked.
"Yeah," Gwen said, nodding again.
Jack gently steered her toward the door. "Come on." They walked back to the others, and then Jack loudly announced, "Okay, I want everyone to go home for the night." Everyone looked at him as if he couldn't possibly be serious. "I mean it. Tosh, get to a stopping point and stop. Gwen, leave those files as they are. Owen, put the severed limbs in the freezer. Ianto, start locking up. I want you all to go home and get some sleep. We'll regroup at 8:00am and see how this thing looks with fresh eyes."
"It's only 10:00..." Tosh said. 10:00pm was an absolutely unreasonable hour to keep your employees at most workplaces, but at Torchwood, it was normal when they were in the middle of something big. This was why they were all very well paid and had nonexistent social lives. Usually, if they were in the middle of a case as big as this one with leads as cold as their current ones, they'd get dismissed at 3am if they were lucky.
"Go," Jack said. "Now."
Gwen strongly suspected that their early dismissal was due to her outburst, and she had a feeling that everyone else suspected that as well, but Gwen actually appreciated the decision; thanks to her, they were all on edge and none of them were going to be working well. Besides, no one was going to object to getting one last good night of sleep before they really got into this case. It would mean that Jack would be riding their asses that much harder the next day, but Gwen was willing to pay that price. She led the way out the door.
Rhys was already in bed when she got home, but when she climbed in next to him, he rolled over and pulled her close. He wasn't asleep yet.
"I thought you'd be out all night," Rhys said.
"I thought I would be too," Gwen said, snuggling into his arms.
"What's wrong?" Rhys asked.
"Nothing," Gwen said.
"Don't do that. I can hear it in your voice. Is it a case? I understand if you're not allowed to talk about it, but don't lie about it."
Gwen swallowed hard. "No. It's not a case. It's a conversation I had at work today." She rolled over so that she could look into his eyes. "Rhys," she said, "If I asked you to hit me, would you?"
"What?!"
"I'm not asking!" Gwen said quickly. "But if I did...?"
"I would never hit you," Rhys said.
"Not even if I asked?"
"No, Gwen!" Rhys sat up slightly and stared down at her. "I don't want to hit you! How did this come up? Who's hitting people at your work?"
"No one," Gwen said, grabbing Rhys' shirt and pulling him down. "It's nothing, really. I'm sorry I brought it up." She sighed. "Let's just go to sleep."
A week went by. Gwen couldn't quite forget about what she'd seen between Owen and Jack, but she got on with her life as normal, save a few fantasies that she didn't take much time to explore. Rhys had certainly shut the whole topic down, for better or for worse. No one at Torchwood mentioned it, either. They found their flesh-eating alien, and things returned to what passed for normal at Torchwood.
It was such a ridiculous thing that brought it all up again.
Ianto walked downstairs with coffee, and Gwen would swear that Jack didn't even look up from the sonic canon he and Tosh were tinkering with before saying, "Ianto, are you supposed to be wearing that?"
Ianto froze. He looked down at his outfit, which was a solid brown thing that Gwen had seen him in maybe once before, and he frowned. "… No..."
Gwen couldn't imagine why not. It was entirely work-place appropriate, and much dressier than anything anyone else, including Jack, was wearing. Didn't Jack like Ianto in suits?
"Want to tell me why you are wearing it?"
"Er..."
"First of all," Jack said, looking up at Ianto and smiling slightly, "Bring me some coffee. Then just be honest with me."
Ianto brought him coffee immediately, and gave Tosh hers while he was over there, but the answer was not forthcoming.
"You've changed your mind about that one?" Jack offered.
Ianto paused for a second, then shook his head almost imperceptibly.
"It's laundry day?" Jack tried.
"No," Ianto said. "I just..."
"Didn't think I was being serious?" Jack offered.
Ianto said nothing.
"Didn't think I'd notice?" Jack continued. "Wanted to see what I would do?"
Ianto looked like he was already in pain. "… Yes to all three, a little bit...?"
Jack was still smiling. "Were you in the middle of anything?"
"No," Ianto said.
Jack looked at Tosh. "You're fine on your own," he said.
It wasn't a question, but Tosh nodded anyway.
Jack put an arm around Ianto's shoulder and started to guide Ianto toward Jack's office. "Let me show you something."
Ianto was tense, but he followed Jack.
Gwen waiting until they were out of ear-shot, and then she couldn't help but look over at Tosh and Owen. "What was that about?"
"Gwen..." Tosh said with a sigh.
"No," Gwen said, "I just mean—His clothes? I didn't take Jack for being that petty."
"It's not really about the clothes," Tosh said. "Ianto's new to all of this. Jack is trying to break him in easy. 'Don't wear that,' 'Don't eat these,' etc., and they'll work their way up to more intense training activities."
"They're both testing each other's limits now," Owen said. "Jack makes stupid rules to see if Ianto will obey, Ianto disobeys just to see what Jack will do. From an outsider's view I guess it is sort of petty, but they're just figuring each other out." Owen shrugged. "It's probably the color or the cut or something like that"
"So now he's going to spank Ianto for wearing his own clothes?"
Tosh and Owen exchanged looks that Gwen couldn't read.
"Don't know," Tosh said.
"That wasn't really an 'I'm about to spank you,' tone of voice," Owen said.
Tosh shrugged. "You can never tell sometimes. He'll do something, but you'll have to ask Ianto if you want to know what."
Gwen didn't know how to respond to that, so she didn't. They all got back to work, but Gwen couldn't just stop thinking about what might be happening to Ianto downstairs, and Tosh and Owen's answers hadn't really reassured her. He wouldn't be spanked, so what would Jack do to him? What were the alternatives to spanking in today's BDSM world? Why would Ianto even agree to not wear certain clothes just because Jack didn't like them? Gwen would tell Jack to fuck off if he ever told her not to wear any of her clothes.
She thought she would, at least.
On the other hand, the sight and sound of that cane hitting Owen's red backside made a powerful argument.
Why?
And why couldn't she get it out of her head?
She needed to hear something bad about it. She needed a reminder that being spanked hurt and that she didn't actually want this.
Ianto was back within the hour. He'd changed into some of Jack's clothes, which didn't quite fit him right, and his hair seemed a little out-of-place, but he otherwise looked no worse for whatever Jack had done to him.
"How was it?" Gwen asked him.
He raised an eyebrow.
"… with Jack," she clarified.
Ianto shrugged. "It could have gone worse."
That was not the answer Gwen had been hoping for. "Did he...?"
"No."
"Then what?"
Ianto smirked. "Why do you ask? I thought you didn't want to see any of this."
"I'm just curious," Gwen said.
Ianto nodded. "You should ask Jack. He's better at explaining it all."
Well, she had permission. It wouldn't be harassment this time. She slipped away into Jack's office, and her stomach did a slight flip when she saw the scissors lying casually on the desk and strips of brown material in the garbage. "Did you..."" she looked from the scissors to the bin.
"That's really none of your business," Jack said calmly.
"It's just that Tosh and Owen didn't know and—"
"Good. It's none of their business either."
Gwen swallowed hard.
Jack looked at her reproachfully. "What do you really want to ask me?"
Gwen knew what she really wanted to ask him. She'd known for about three days, and she suspected that Jack had known for at least four days. She just didn't know how...
"Just ask," Jack said calmly.
"Will you..." Gwen shook her head and sighed. "I don't know the words."
"I'll teach you them, if I need to," Jack promised. "For now, say what you understand."
"I don't want to have sex with you," Gwen said quickly, because it seemed like an important thing to establish. Jack looked shocked and slightly offended, so she quickly clarified, "I mean, I do, in a way, but Rhys wouldn't—I have Rhys. And I don't want to lose Rhys." She and Rhys had the 'What is cheating?' talk shortly after they'd started dating. Gwen had been a party-girl back then, and things had happened. Sex was obviously not allowed, and neither was kissing, but most other things were okay. Spanking had never directly come up, but Gwen couldn't imagine any interpretation of their discussion that would make it out-of-bounds. It had been a long time since they'd had that talk, but Gwen understood the boundaries they'd put in place then to still be in place.
"And I don't want you to lose Rhys," Jack assured her. "No sex unless Rhys is okay with it. Got it."
"Rhys would never—"
"Rhys has never met me before." Jack smirked. "A couple of weeks ago, you thought you'd never, too. Didn't you?"
Gwen dropped her gaze.
She could still feel Jack smirking. "Tell me what you want me to do, Gwen."
"Aren't I supposed to say that to you?"
Jack shrugged. "I don't know. Are you?"
Gwen sighed. "Yes, Jack. Tell me what to do."
"I'm your boss. I already do that," Jack pointed out. "The trick is getting you to listen."
"Spank me until I listen," Gwen said. Already, her face hurt and she was fighting the urge to run.
But she was fighting it.
"Spank me," she repeated. "Show me what I can take. I'm curious." She regretted those last two words as soon as she'd said them. She'd been trying to sound cool and casual about the whole thing, but as soon as they were out of her mouth, she heard how unnatural they sounded and how wildly inappropriate they were for this situation. She didn't want him to think that she wasn't taking this seriously.
Jack's smirk got bigger. "That's a dangerous request."
If he was trying to scare Gwen off, it didn't work. In fact, it refocused her. "Weren't you telling me just last week that I clearly get off on danger?"
"I'll do it," Jack said calmly.
"So do it," Gwen said..
"Pick a safeword," Jack said.
Gwen paused. She hadn't thought about that.
"Do you know—"
"—I know what a safeword is, yeah," Gwen said. "I just hadn't thought about one."
"Think fast," Jack said.
"Cornwall," Gwen said.
"Fine," Jack said. He stood up. "I'm going to go get my cane," he said. "I think Rhys might object to me using my hand."
Gwen had a feeling that his motivations for using the cane were slightly less altruistic than that, but she wanted the cane, so she didn't object. Jack was back in a moment, cane in hand, and he sighed and looked her over. "What are you hoping to get out of this?"
"I just want to know what it's like and why everyone else in this building seems to think it's so great," Gwen said. "Why?"
"Because," Jack said. "I think that at best what you're going to get out of this is some good emotional release and some answers, and at worst, what you're going to get out of this is disappointment and pain, which is a bad combination that I can't be held responsible for."
Gwen swallowed hard. "Okay."
"It's going to hurt," Jack said. "For days. I don't want to be condescending but I need you to understand that. There will be marks, too. If Rhys sees you naked any time soon, he will know."
Gwen nodded. Part of her was already trying to stitch together half-formed sentences into an explanation for Rhys, but she dismissed those thoughts. Figuring out how to explain this could wait. It would be easier after she knew exactly what she was explaining, anyway.
"Drop your trousers and bend over the desk." His voice had changed. She'd heard him use this tone of voice before, but never on her. It was a tone that promised consequences if he was not obeyed.
She fumbled with her trousers for a minute—three buttons! Why did her trousers need three buttons? That had never been so annoying before—and then bent over the desk in the nearest approximation to Owen's position from last week that she could manage.
"Hands farther apart, feet closer together," Jack said.
Gwen obeyed.
"Use your safeword at any time," Jack said. "But try to last as long as you can. You'll get more out of it."
Then it started.
The first tap of the cane on her arse brought two sensations: The first was, of course, pain. The second was the feeling that overwhelms you in the second between when you step off the diving board and when you hit the water: the feeling that this was probably a bad idea, but there was no turning back now.
The second blow brought only pain, and it shook her out of the state of shock that the first one had put her in and actually made her yelp.
"Stay put," Jack said.
Gwen hadn't noticed she'd moved, but when she looked down, her hands were definitely in different places. She fixed it, and half a second after she'd done so, the third blow landed.
Jack didn't speak to her while he hit her. He stood behind her and slightly to the side, and swung the cane casually. It didn't look like he was hitting her as hard as he'd been hitting Owen, but Gwen was having a difficult time imagining blows more painful than these. Sometime around the eighth, she gave up and swore, but Jack didn't miss a beat in bringing down the ninth blow, or the tenth, or the eleventh.
That was when it really sunk in that Jack wasn't going to stop until one of them decided that she couldn't take any more.
The thirteenth blow was when she decided that she wanted him to be the one to decide that, not because he knew that he'd broken her, but because he was sure that he must have by then. He was holding back on her because he was afraid she was delicate and breakable in a way that Owen wasn't, and she wanted to prove him wrong. She wanted to impress Jack. In a way, she had since she'd met him, but now it was a very conscious and very painful desire.
Gwen was nothing if not strong-willed, though.
The pain moved by degrees from a dull throb to a sting, and the sting got harder with every new blow to an already-abused area. Was Jack hitting harder now? Gwen looked,but she didn't trust her own memory or judgment. She'd snatched Jack's keys off his desk and was squeezing them so tightly in her left hand that her knuckles were white. Her right hand needed to stay firmly planted on the table, because before long she was leaning forward onto it.
She thought about using the safeword when she first put the keys down to rub away the tears. Crying did not seem like a terribly impressive move, and if she wasn't going to impress Jack, what was the point? But no. Jack was the experienced one here, and Gwen wanted to defer to his judgment and give him all that she had. If tears meant that she'd had enough, let him decide that.
Tears did not seem to mean that she'd had enough. She wiped them away a few more times before giving in and letting them flow, and as they ran down her face and dripped from her chin onto the desk, the cane strokes continued to fall on her arse, just as hard and steady as they'd ever been. She was swearing with every other hit, but she was not going to give in. She held her ground, though she could feel her legs shaking.
The throbs were so bad that she didn't even notice when Jack stopped. She'd stopped trying to keep count somewhere around hit number twenty-five, and with no breaks and no counting, the caning had blurred together in a hazy memory of tears and pain. It wasn't until Jack touched her shoulder and said "Can I hold you?" that she realized he'd put down the cane.
She sobbed something that was meant to be a 'yes' but bore only a passing resemblance to the actual word, and he grabbed her by her shoulders—one of which was touching the desk, and she wasn't entirely clear on when and how it had started doing that—and lifted her upper body up and into his arms.
Jack's shoulder was far more comfortable to cry into than the desk, and she liked having his arms around her. It wasn't like resting in Rhys' arms. Jack was sturdier, but less comfortable. He smelled different. Not better or worse, but different. He stroked her hair, not her back, and he didn't say anything to her for the longest time, though he did shush her soothingly a few times. He just held her, supporting both of their weight and waiting for her to pull herself together while he protected her from everything bad in the world. She liked it.
And that was the thought that made her step away from him.
"I need to go," she stammered, but she couldn't think of a believable explanation for where she needed to go to, so she dashed into the bathroom and hid there until lunch.
She was contemplating calling off sick when she got a text that said:
'Stay home. Talk to Rhys. I'll tell the others you're sick.'
Gwen wasn't entirely sure she wasn't ill.
She'd enjoyed that beating. That was the exact opposite of what she'd been hoping for and now she had no idea what she was going to tell Rhys or how she was going to make this work. And aside from that, her head hurt almost as badly as her arse did. She needed a fucking nap.
Gwen woke up to the sound of Rhys coming home. She crawled out of bed, hating herself for sleeping all afternoon but feeling much better for having done so, and met him in the hallway.
"You're actually home," he said, smirking slightly. Then he noticed her red face, messy hair, and smudged make-up. "Is something wrong? Did something happen?"
"No," Gwen said quickly. "Well, something did happen, but it's not what you think."
"Okay," Rhys said. "So what happened?"
Gwen sighed. "Remember a week ago when I came home and I was very upset and I asked you if you'd ever hit me?"
"Of course I remember," Rhys said. "That isn't the sort of conversation you just forget." Rhys' frown got deeper. "If someone hit you, I swear I'll—"
"I asked him to," Gwen said quickly.
Rhys froze. "You what?"
"I... well..." Gwen took a deep breath. "I asked my boss to spank me. And he did. Pretty badly. I'm telling you now because you're going to see later anyway, but... but I asked him to do it, and I could have stopped him at any time and I didn't, so if you're going to be mad at someone, be mad at me. Okay? Because he didn't do anything wrong."
"I..." Rhys said. "I'm not mad. But, Gwen, why?"
"Don't know," Gwen said. "Jack had this whole long bloody explanation and he made it make sense, but I don't know."
"Jack," Rhys said. "That's his name?"
"Yeah," Gwen said, not sure where he was going with the question. 'Jack' was not exactly an uncommon name.
"You let Jack hit you," Rhys said quietly. "Because Jack made it make sense."
"Well..." Gwen said, "I asked Jack to hit me, because he made it make sense, and because everyone else seemed to think it was good..."
"Was it good?"
"Yes," Gwen admitted. "I'd like to do it again."
Rhys got quiet. "You'd like him to hit you again?"
Gwen nodded. "And you should know, he does a lot more than that to the others, but I don't—"
"He fucks them, yeah? I know what BDSM is, Gwen."
"—But he won't fuck me. Not if I don't want him to and I won't want him to if you don't want him to!"
"I don't want him hitting you!"
"Well, I'm not asking you about that, am I? What business is it of yours?!" Gwen asked. Then she didn't want to be there anymore. She pushed past Rhys and marched out the door into the rain without an umbrella or a coat. She huffed and decided to just hope that a stroll around the neighborhood would help her feel better, or at least help her sort out what she wanted. As she set off, she pulled out her mobile and sent a text to Jack: That didn't go well.
When she was about half a mile from home with dripping wet hair and a less emotional outlook on the situation, she started to miss home. Still, she couldn't call Rhys to pick her up from her tempter-tantrum, and if Jack was still at the base, it would take him twenty minutes to get to her. She could walk home in that time. Besides, he hadn't answered her last text yet. He might not even have his phone on him. (Or he might be busy with one of his... lovers? Well, with Ianto, Owen, and/or Tosh.) Gwen wasn't about to call anyone else and explain the situation to them, and she didn't have any money on her for a taxi or bus fare. She decided to suck it up and walk home.
When she got home, there was still no reply from Jack on her phone, but his van was outside of her flat.
'What did he do?! Gwen wondered, half panicked and not entirely sure which 'he' she meant. She jogged to her door and opened it to find Jack and Rhys cuddled up on the sofa, staring down at a packet of papers in Rhys' hand.
"Just once," Jack was saying, "and it's actually a funny story, but it can wait because Gwen's back."
Rhys didn't look angry anymore. And Jack had certainly gotten cozy.
"Glad you're back," Jack said with a smile. "I brought cheeseburgers. Yours is in the kitchen; just pop it into the microwave. Sorry to seem cheap but I didn't want to show up empty-handed and your text sounded kind of urgent. I didn't realize you wouldn't be here when I got here, but it's fine. It gave Rhys and I a chance to talk, and I explained everything. It was easy after he stopped trying to punch me."
Gwen nodded slowly. "And what's that?" she asked, nodding to the paper in Rhys' hand.
"Largely irrelevant," Jack said, snatching it away from Rhys and putting it down on his other side. "Rhys isn't comfortable with us having sex, and your relationship with him comes first, so really, we shouldn't waste time." Jack looked at Rhys and smiled. "Right, Rhys? No sex with me?"
"Right," Rhys said.
"Good," Jack said. "Because I really don't want to break you two up," He put his hand on Rhys' knee. "And I fully understand Rhys' concern about you taking other lovers and having a sexual relationship that's entirely separate of him. That can be problematic for some people. I wish we could find some compromise, some way to include Rhys, but Rhys doesn't want to have sex with me, right?"
Jack's hand was halfway up Rhys' thigh.
Rhys couldn't seem to decide on a good answer for that one. He just stared at Jack's hand, which was in very close proximity to a noticeable bulge in his trousers, and considered possibilities he had never considered before.
"I mean it," Jack said, looking from Rhys to Gwen. "I don't want to get in the way of your relationship with each other. What I would like is to be a part of it, at least the sexual part of it. You're both very attractive people." He leaned in close to Rhys and whispered directly into his ear, but the room was so quiet that Gwen could hear him anyway: "Say the word and I will blow you, right here, in front of her."
"And then what?" Gwen asked, trying to keep her voice steady.
Jack shrugged. "I'm just throwing ideas out here, but then... what if I fuck you on that coffee table?"
Gwen nodded. "Alright." And then she realized that that had been a bit hasty. "I mean..." She looked over at Rhys.
Rhys took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright."
This wasn't their first threesome. They'd had one about seven months into their relationship with a friend of Gwen's. It had been fun, and as far as Gwen could tell, the only reason they hadn't done it again was because that friend had taken a job in Lancaster and no one else had offered to take her place. This was, however, their first threesome that meant something. Gwen wasn't entirely sure what it meant, but it did mean something.
Jack got onto his knees on the floor, and Rhys spread his legs to make room for him, still looking a little bit like he couldn't believe he was actually doing this. Jack, for his part, looked completely comfortable as he unbuttoned Rhys' trousers and pulled Rhys' cock out of them. He ran his tongue along it slowly, savoring it and admiring its thickness.
Gwen's stomach lurched when she realized that Rhys' cock was the only one she'd seen in quite a while, and that was about to change. Jack... Was he rough with his... with people in Gwen's position? Would he be rough with her? Rhys wasn't rough. He didn't have it in him, and Gwen had always loved that about him. He could get angry and talk tough, but at the end of the day, he was a soft and comforting man. Jack was unbalancing and Gwen didn't think anything about him could really be described as soft.
Rhys moaned as Jack ran his tongue around the head of Rhys' cock, and then Jack's lips curled around Rhys' shaft and Jack took Rhys' cock into his mouth.
Rhys gasped. He was staring at the ceiling, and Gwen wondered if it had actually occurred to him yet that he was having sex with a man, for what was far as Gwen knew was the first time in his life. He really seemed to be enjoying it, at least.
Jack's fingers teased Rhys' balls as Jack's mouth continued to eagerly suck away at Rhys' shaft. Jack apparently didn't like being ignored, though. He let a long, low moan that brought Rhys' gaze down to him immediately, and they made eye contact. If Rhys hadn't realized what he was doing yet, Jack certainly wanted him to. Jack wasn't the sort of man who liked being used as a substitute for other lovers.
Rhys' hand went to Jack's hair, and for a second, Gwen worried that Rhys was going to be hit by what he was doing and push Jack way.
He didn't, though. He stared into Jack's eyes for a moment, ran a hand through Jack's hair, and stammered: "I—I'm about to—"
"Mmm-hmmm," Jack hummed, and Rhys came right into Jack's mouth. Jack swallowed every drop.
Then he stood up and smirked at Gwen. "Strip," he said in a commanding tone, and Gwen saw the moment for what it was. Now or never. She could do as he said or she could tell him to fuck off, and either way it would set the tone for the rest of their relationship.
She stripped. In her ideal world, she'd have done it slowly and sexily, but in the real world, her arms were suddenly made of lead and she just wanted to get it over with so that she could have something more stable than her legs supporting her weight. She got the job done, and the smile Jack gave her seemed to say exactly that.
"Come here," he said. She walked into his arms, and he held her for a second, kissed her on the lips and worked in a bit of tongue, and then gently, if that word could really be applied, set her arse down on the coffee table.
It was fine for about a second, and then she gasped and tried to stand. He'd spanked her raw just a few hours ago.
"No," Jack said sternly, but he didn't lay a hand on her. "Stay."
She sat back down. The stinging was actually entirely bearable. It wasn't comfortable, but she could stay, if that was really what he wanted.
Rhys was watching from his seat. He was silent, but he looked interested.
Jack undressed. For the first time, Gwen found herself staring at his naked body, and she had to admit, she was impressed. He didn't give her much time to admire him, though. As soon as he was naked, he walked over to her and spread her legs. Stings were still sparking along Gwen's arse when he pushed into her cunt, but she took it all quietly, for him. It didn't take them long to get comfortable together, and then he began thrusting,
As the pleasure from Jack hitting her g-spot began to flood her senses, her abused arse rubbed on the table, mixing the sensation of pleasure with the sensation of pain. The discomfort heightened the pleasure, rather than diminishing it, and the knowledge that she was causing her own pain every time she met Jack's thrust or squirmed from pleasure. The pain got worse as the pleasure got greater, and when she finally came, she screamed Jack's name and she wasn't sure if it was in thanks or a plea for mercy. Jack came right along with her, and they held each other and panted for a few seconds before Gwen pulled back and smiled up at Jack weakly.
"Can I get up now?" she asked.
"Yes," Jack said, and he offered her his hand and helped her stand. "Let me see..." He walked around her and began to inspect the damage to her backside.
"Are you going to spank me again if it's not to your satisfaction?" Gwen asked, trying to sound casual about it.
"Naw," Jack said. "You're not in trouble. Give it a couple of days and I'm sure you'll give me cause..." He walked back around to face her. "If that's alright?"
"That's... very alright..." Gwen said. Then she looked at Rhys. "Right?"
Rhys shook himself out of whatever headspace he'd been in, and stammered, "Well... I don't think you should... I mean... wear a condom, right? Because if you..."
"Right," Jack and Gwen said.
"You're sure?" Gwen asked.
"Yeah," Rhys said. "Let's try it."
Gwen turned to Jack. "What now?"
Jack snatched up the packet of paper he'd taken away from Rhys earlier. "This is yours," he said, handing it to Gwen.
Gwen had been vaguely aware that contracts were common in this sort of relationship, but this wasn't a contract. It was more of a checklist, asking her to discuss her comfort with various activities as a basis for further discussion. It was also several pages long.
"Take your time," Jack said. "Ianto had his for two weeks."
Gwen began to thumb through the list, and Rhys still didn't seem to know what to say.
Jack smiled and headed for the door. "I'm glad we had this talk!" Jack said. "Gwen, I'll see at work tomorrow! Rhys, I'll see you soon." He winked, and then he left them.