Chapter Six

Jack took a bite of pizza and chewed happily as he watched the man sitting across from him. Ianto had tucked one of the white paper napkins from the pile Jack had put on the table into his shirt collar, and – to Jack's astonishment – was eating his slice of pizza with slow, careful deliberation using the knife and fork he'd requested. Amused to no end, Jack couldn't recall observing a more adorable sight.

When Ianto's gaze lifted to meet Jack's and his eyes narrowed, Jack realised that he'd been caught staring. He swallowed and reached for his beer, taking a generous swig. "How's the pizza?"

Ianto swallowed, put down his knife, and reached for his own beer. "It's good. Delicious, actually."

Jack grinned. "You sound surprised."

"No." Ianto gave an emphatic shake of his head before taking a sip from the bottle. "Well, yes. Maybe a bit."

"I'm not a talented professional like you, but I love to dabble in the kitchen. I guess you could say it's a hobby." Jack shrugged. "Nothing fancy, and I'm not much for following recipes. I usually just do my own thing. Most of the time it works out pretty well." He took another mouthful of beer and chuckled. "Sometimes, not so much. Pizza's are easy enough and fun to make, although it took me a while to get the knack of making the bread dough."

Ianto nodded. "I tend to avoid the kitchen at home unless I'm baking. I've never been much for cooking meals. Rhys loves to cook. He makes a brilliant lasagne. It's sort of his signature dish."

Jack reached for another slice. "I love lasagne. I'll have to ask him for some tips."

He took a big mouthful and continued to study Ianto as he chewed. He couldn't seem to take his eyes off the Welshman when they were together. Swallowing, he gave Ianto a mischievous grin. "So... I got you to have dinner with me after all."

"You mean you tricked me into having dinner with you." A slight scowl darkened Ianto's handsome features, although he seemed more amused than irritated. "For the record, this isn't a date."

Jack shrugged. "It could be. It's actually quite intimate. Not the same as a fancy restaurant where I could wine and dine you, of course, but pizza and beer isn't a bad first date. Besides, it's the company that counts."

Ianto sighed with what was now clearly annoyance. "Jack..."

Realising that his teasing was putting him on treacherous ground, Jack put down his slice of pizza and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Okay, okay. It's not a date. It's just two friends having a meal together. That's all right, isn't it?"

Ianto's eyebrows lifted. "Friends?"

Ignoring the scepticism in Ianto's voice, Jack nodded. "Sure. I don't make pizza for just anyone, you know."

He didn't add that he rarely cooked for anyone other than himself, and he'd never gone to the trouble for anyone he'd wanted to get naked with before. The truth was that he'd never needed to impress anyone outside of the bedroom until now. He'd never needed to woo or seduce, or make much of an effort at all. On the rare occasions when someone who caught his eye wasn't interested, he'd just move on to someone else. His philosophy had always been that there were plenty more fish in the sea. It was another belief that meeting Ianto Jones had caused him to re-evaluate.

Ianto's expression shifted into a puzzled frown, almost as if the notion of them being friends didn't quite compute. Or perhaps he was simply trying to figure out Jack's angle. "I... uh... I'd like us to be friends." His eyes studied Jack intently and with a hint of warning. "But just friends."

"Just friends." Jack tried to sound as nonchalant as possible. He offered Ianto another slice of pizza and they continued eating.

Ianto was the first to break the silence. "So, what do you like to do with yourself when you're not working or cooking or gorging yourself on my baked goods?"

Jack laughed and stopped himself from pointing out that baked goods weren't the only thing of Ianto's he'd like to gorge himself on. "This and that. I spend a fair bit of time keeping in shape. And I watch a lot of movies." He gestured towards the other side of the living area, where his DVD and Blu-Ray collection was on display. "I guess that's kind of obvious."

"You've got quite a collection." Ianto reached for his beer again and took a sip. "I noticed you've got the Bond box set." A sheepish smile crept over his lips. "I'm a bit of a Bond fan."

"Yeah?" Jack smiled in return, happy to have stumbled upon some common ground. "I thought all my Christmases had come at once when the set came out on Blu-ray. I spent four days watching them all. I loved the older Bond movies as a kid. Bond, Star Trek and Star Wars. I could never decide who I wanted to be the most: James Bond, Captain Kirk or Han Solo." He chuckled at the memories of his juvenile fantasies. "They were kind of my idols. I had posters, books, all kinds of stuff. Even action figures."

Ianto's mouth twitched and was accompanied by a mischievous glint in his eyes. "I can see that. They're all dashing heroes and completely shameless."

"You think I'm dashing?" Jack gave Ianto his best cheeky grin. He couldn't in all honesty refute shameless.

Ianto rolled his eyes. "Don't let it go to your head, Jack."

Jack laughed with delight. "I had a soft spot for Kirk, though." He sighed a little wistfully. "He got to have sex with all those hot aliens, and he flew around the galaxy in a cool starship. What's not to love about that?"

Ianto raised a challenging eyebrow. "Space sickness? Tribbles? Transporter mishaps?"

Jack shrugged, still grinning. "Well, every job has a few downsides." He took another bite of pizza.

Ianto smirked and shook his head in what was clearly amusement. He picked up his fork, but then put it down again and exhaled a soft sigh. "It's been a while since I've watched any films. Don't really seem to have the time anymore."

"It can't be easy running your own business." Jack had nothing but admiration for Ianto's obvious drive and passion, not to mention skill and talent, but he could see it was a stressful and exhausting undertaking. "I can imagine how easily it takes over your life. Still, you need to take some time for yourself too or you'll burn out."

"I suppose." Ianto sighed again. "I just want the bakery to be a success."

"It will be." Jack was a little surprised by the determination in his voice. He looked into Ianto's eyes and tried to give him a reassuring smile. "Plus, you've got me on your team now."

Ianto's smile didn't quite reach his eyes, but it nonetheless appeared genuine and grateful. "I appreciate all your help, Jack."

Jack waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "So, here's an idea. Once we've got the website done, we'll have a movie night to celebrate." He snapped his fingers as inspiration struck. "Even better – we'll have a Bond-athon. Three Bond movies. We'll each pick a favourite and draw for a third. How's that sound?"

Ianto looked at him with a confused frown. "A Bond-athon?"

Grinning widely, Jack nodded. "Yup, that's right. A Bond-athon. It'll be fun."

Ianto studied him with a curious, contemplative expression, and it almost seemed like he was going to decline. But then, to Jack's relief, he nodded and smiled. "All right."

Jack had to refrain from giving a shout of victory. It seemed that he'd managed to wrangle himself a second date.

###

With the rest of the pizza eaten and a second round of beers in hand, they adjourned to Jack's office to work on the website.

Having decided on the basic layout during the week, Jack had done most of the groundwork already and had a preliminary version set up on his computer. Ianto had written the text for the various pages, so most of the work was now piecing together the words and photos and fine-tuning the layout and aesthetics. Jack had created a logo using the same stylised, cursive font and white on dark red as the shop's frontage, and he'd set up a showcase area on the home page which rotated through various images of the bakery's products.

He wasn't an expert by any means and website creation wasn't his forte – his computer expertise was more in the area of photo editing – but he'd dabbled with a few websites in the past and knew the basics. Fortunately, the Myfanwy's website didn't require any coding or complexity. Its purpose was simply to provide pertinent details about the bakery and what it offered, showing the range of products in an easy-to-read, visually pleasing manner. Anyway, if he ran into any technical problems, help was only a Google search away.

They worked solidly for a couple of hours, getting Ianto's text onto the pages and finalising the selection of photographs. Ianto had a good eye, knew what he liked, and his aesthetic sensibilities weren't too dissimilar to Jack's. Despite the constant distraction of Ianto's sitting beside him, they worked well together, and Jack enjoyed working on something different. It was exciting to bring his photos together into a final product rather than hand them over to someone else as he'd done with other projects in the past.

He completed a few more tweaks to the home page layout and refreshed the browser window to examine the results. He glanced sideways at Ianto. "There. What do you think?"

Ianto leaned closer, his shoulder briefly nudging against Jack's, and Jack felt his skin prickle with the awareness of Ianto's proximity. Breathing in, he caught a whiff of Ianto's now familiar scent. Ianto smelled every bit as good as he looked, his scent as unique and appealing as the man himself. A lingering trace of Ianto's warm, woody aftershave with its spicy undertone combined with the hint of natural, musky male, and it was complemented by the aroma of coffee and freshly baked bread.

Not for the first time since Ianto had arrived on his doorstep, Jack had to resist the urge to pounce on the man and ravage him senseless. Even the knowledge that Ianto might be horrified by the full extent of his lustful thoughts did little to dampen his desire. Maintaining a look but don't touch policy was proving to be a particularly heinous form of torture and testing his self-restraint to its limit.

Ianto studied the screen, and Jack tried not to think about how a mere turn of his head would bring his lips to within kissing distance of Ianto's. Imagining how those full, soft lips would feel against his own was almost his undoing.

Fortunately, Ianto interrupted his wayward thoughts by pointing at the screen with one of his elegant fingers. "Can we have a bit more white space here? And make the size of this font a little bigger?"

"Sure." Jack mentally shook himself and reached for the mouse, taking the opportunity to brush his hand against Ianto's, ostensibly by accident. He quickly made the adjustments and refreshed again. "Yep. That looks better."

Ianto nodded. "It's looking really good, Jack."

"Yeah, it's definitely getting there." Jack smiled as Ianto's eyes met his, and his chest did a strange little flutter as their gazes held for a moment.

Fearing that he might be tempted to act rashly, Jack made a show of blinking and rubbing at his eyes, then pushed back his chair, rolling his neck as he stood up. "Time for a break. You can make the coffee while I get our desserts ready."

After Ianto's revelation about having a fondness for chocolate, Jack had come up with what he thought was the perfect dessert. He'd bought the richest and most decadent chocolate ice cream he could find, along with rich chocolate sauce and a block of expensive dark chocolate to shave over the top.

Ianto's eyes widened and almost looked like they were going to pop out of his head when Jack presented the bowls of sinful indulgence. They made their way over to the sofa, mugs of coffee and bowls of ice cream in hand.

By the second spoonful, Ianto's eyes had drifted closed, his features relaxing into a blissed-out expression, and Jack couldn't help wondering if this was how the Welshman looked post-orgasm.

"Good?" He took a spoonful from his own bowl, silently complimenting himself on the genius of his delicious, calorie-laden creation.

"God, yes." Ianto eyes opened and met Jack's. Seeming to realise that he'd lost himself for a moment, he smiled self-consciously.

Jack couldn't help staring as Ianto slid another spoonful into his mouth, slowing dragging the spoon away before the tip of his tongue darted out to trace the lingering sweetness from his lips. It was without question one of the most erotic sights Jack had ever seen. He shoved another mouthful of ice cream into his mouth as a shiver ran down his spine and heat pooled in his groin.

A couple of spoonfuls later, Ianto let out a soft moan that sounded of pain rather than pleasure. He put down his bowl and rubbed at his temples, a grimace contorting his features. "Ow..."

Jack reached for Ianto without thinking, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Ianto, what's wrong?"

Still massaging his temples, Ianto gave Jack one of his cute, sheepish little smiles. "Ice cream gives me a headache."

Biting back a laugh, Jack rubbed his shoulder in a soothing gesture. "Brain freeze, huh? Just give it a minute to pass."

Ianto nodded and reached for his coffee, taking a cautious sip.

Jack smiled ruefully to himself, giving Ianto's shoulder one final rub before reluctantly breaking contact. Just when he thought that Ianto couldn't possibly be any more adorable, the Welshman somehow managed to prove him wrong. He started speaking before he could stop himself. "How is it that you're not taken?"

Ianto looked up with a frown. "Sorry?"

Jack gestured at him. "I mean, look at you. You're perfect. Gorgeous, intelligent, witty, talented. How is it that you haven't got women lining up around the block for a chance with you?" An unpleasant thought occurred to him. "Or maybe you have?"

Ianto made a sound just shy of a contemptuous snort. "Hardly." He sighed, shaking his head. "There was someone a while back. Her name was Lisa. I... I loved her. I thought we had a future together." He shrugged. "It didn't work out. We wanted different things."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Jack hadn't failed to notice the flicker of pain that had passed over Ianto's features as he'd mentioned the woman's name.

Of course he didn't know Ianto very well yet, and the Welshman might have a darker side beneath his neat exterior, but he couldn't help thinking that this Lisa was a fool to give up a prize like Ianto Jones. At the same time, he couldn't help but feel selfishly grateful, no matter how slim his chances seemed at the moment.

"So you hope to settle down someday?" Jack couldn't resist asking the question. "Get married?"

Ianto picked up his ice cream bowl again and took a smaller, more hesitant spoonful. He nodded. "Yeah. And with Rhiannon getting married soon... I suppose I envy her more than I like to admit."

Jack sighed and nodded in sympathy. "I can relate to that. It's not easy being single when everyone around you is happy and in love and getting married." He went on to briefly recount the series of weddings he'd attended in recent times. "I want to get married too."

Ianto appeared surprised by the admission, and Jack supposed that was an understandable reaction. He did a pretty good job of portraying the image of a happy, carefree bachelor. On the surface, he probably didn't seem like the marrying kind. A part of him still wasn't sure that he actually was, but he didn't want to spend the rest of his life alone either. Plus, now that he'd actually met someone who he could imagine wanting to marry, the prospect was all the more appealing.

"You'd marry another bloke?" Ianto asked the question hesitantly, but there was curiosity in his eyes.

"Sure." Jack shrugged. "Why not? Same-sex marriage is legal in Wales now. Why? Does that shock you?"

Ianto shook his head. "No... no, of course not. I don't have a problem with two men or two women getting married. It's just that... well, it can't be an easy road, can it?"

Jack couldn't disagree with that, much as he would have liked to. Acceptance of less traditional relationships had come a long way in the past few decades, but there was still plenty of ignorance and prejudice in the world.

He finished eating his ice cream, watching as Ianto did the same. He put down his bowl and reached for his coffee, taking a sip. "Tell me something, Ianto. Have you ever done anything sexual with another man?"

Ianto froze, his eyes widening. Then he frowned at Jack and sighed with obvious annoyance. "Jack, we've been through this. I'm straight. I realise you might wish otherwise, but..."

Jack held up a hand in a placating gesture. "I'm just curious, that's all. So, is that a no?"

Ianto looked away and picked up his coffee. Finally, he shook his head in what Jack assumed was confirmation.

"Okay, fair enough." Jack knew that he was pushing his luck, but now that he'd broached the subject, he wasn't ready to let it go. "But this is what I don't get. If you've never been with another man, how do you know that you wouldn't enjoy it? If I'd only been with women, I'd be curious as hell. And think about it. Who knows better about how to satisfy a guy than another guy?" He paused to take a sip of his coffee. "You can't tell me that you haven't at least thought about it."

Ianto looked up sharply. "No. I haven't. Why would I?"

Given that Ianto seemed relatively open-minded, Jack found his denial a little hard to believe. Still, he continued on, undeterred. "You love coffee, right? But if you'd never tried it, you wouldn't know that you loved it. It's like anything in life, you can't really know if you're going to enjoy something until you've tried it." He grinned. "Me? I'll try just about anything at least once."

Ianto gaped at him, open-mouthed. "You can't seriously be comparing coffee to having sex with another bloke."

Jack shrugged. "It's just an example. Anyway, my point is that lots of people experiment with their sexuality and discover that it's not as black and white as they thought. Why go through life without at least exploring all the possibilities?"

Ianto continued to stare at him, apparently lost for words. He looked like he was about to speak, but then seemed to think better of it and closed his mouth again.

Deciding to quit while he was ahead, Jack patted Ianto's knee and stood up. "Come on, let's get back to work."