The Ties That Bind (28/34 + epilogue)
Title: The Ties That Bind 28
Beta:Blackcat1000
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Donna, John Hart, Owen and James Harper, Mickey/Martha, Toshiko/Tommy, Claudia, Phillip, Suzie, Saxon, Rhiannon, OCs
Rating: NC-17
WordCount: 75K+
Warnings/Contains: Explicit sex (does that need a warning?), witchcraft, horror, supernatural themes, minor character death.
Summary: Ianto is a powerful magical warrior, one which Jack Harkness has never been able to resist. Once enemies, then almost lovers, he broke his heart. Years later, Jack must return to his hometown and seek help before it is too late. Jack and Ianto must now put aside their past and work together to defeat an evil threatening to overwhelm and take control of Jack because of his unique bloodline. Secrets and foretold prophecies will plague them and in this paranormal battle, they will need more than magic to survive.
A/N: Shower fun anyone? And a surprise...
Chapter Twenty Eight
Ianto told him to lead the way, and ten minutes later, he finally understood what was so wonderful about showering with a lover. There was something deliciously erotic about standing together in the warm water, their hands stroking and slipping all over each other’s bodies.
“So what now?” Ianto asked, enjoying the feel of Jack’s hands lathering soap over his shoulders and arms. “Your mission to save the world has been completed. Are you going to leap tall buildings in a single bound?”
He stared down at him through dark lashes that were beaded with water, his mouth kicked up at one corner in a sexy grin. “I think I’m more of the Batman type.”
“Hmm. Dark. Broody. I can see your point.” Ianto pressed his mouth to his, kissing him slowly, deeply, loving the way he kissed him back. Loving this slippery, steamy, provocative intimacy that had wrapped around them. He never wanted it to end.
So stop stressing. Just enjoy it...
Breathless from the kiss, he rested his head against Jack’s and tried to follow the good advice. But failed. “Seriously,” he rasped, “what’s next, Jack?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted with a shrug.
Ianto pulled back a little and locked his gaze with him. “Well, I’ve been thinking.”
Jack lifted a worried-looking brow. “And?”
“I could try something. A spell. One that would pull Rhiannon to me, and hopefully anyone who’s with her. Then your friends and I could kill the Master and get it over with. Heck, I bet even John would help.”
“You don’t have that kind of power,” he argued. “If you did, you’d have used it when you were searching for Rhiannon.”
“You’re right. At the moment, I don’t have that kind of power. But I know how to get it. Spells like that fall under the darker side of witchcraft, which I’ve always steered clear of. But I’d be willing to learn, if it means keeping you safe. All it would take is a little research and a few phone calls.”
“No way in hell,” he growled. “You’re not doing it.”
Ianto frowned. “Why not?”
“Because I don’t want you messing with that crap. It’s dangerous. And if it worked, that bastard the Master would find some way to hurt you.” His words punched with brutal force, betraying his emotions. Fear. Anger. Panic. “Damn it, Ianto. That’s got to be one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard.”
“Then I guess I’m just too stupid now to know a good idea from a bad one,” he said softly, unable to get angry when he could sense how worried Jack was.
“You’re not stupid. I wish,” Jack muttered, a pained expression on his rugged face. “You’re too bloody smart for your own good. Not to mention stubborn and brave. It all makes for a pain-in-the-ass combination.”
“Come on, admit it. You like me plucky. A doormat of a lover would bore you to tears.” Cocking his head a little, Ianto watched him. “And speaking of lovers, I hear you have a hell of a reputation when it comes to potential sexual partners.”
“Jesus,” he growled. “Don’t listen to the shit that Owen talks.”
Ianto arched one brow. “You’re denying it?”
“Like I said, I’ve dated,” he admitted, an endearing flush of colour darkening his cheekbones, as if he was embarrassed. “But never anything serious.”
“No one ever tempted you to settle down?”
“They might have tried, but it was a waste of time.” One of his hands curved around the back of Ianto’s neck, the other settling against the side of his face. “I’ve always been too hung up on you.”
Just like that, he floored Ianto.
“It’s true,” he told him, reading the shock in his eyes. “Sex has been fun, but it was never anything like this. Like what we have.”
“But I don’t even know what I’m doing,” Ianto whispered, making his chest rumble with a gritty laugh. “I couldn’t have been that good.”
“If you were any better,” he rasped, “it would have killed me.”
Despite the sexy grin on his lips, Ianto could see the shadow of sadness in his eyes. “Why do I get the feeling that this confession isn’t leading to something good, Jack?”
“Because what I want doesn’t matter.” He pulled back from him, hands fisting at his sides, and his voice dropped. “Until I deal with the Master, I can’t ask you to be a part of my life.”
“Then let me try the spell,” he pleaded, placing his hands on his chest.
Jack shook his head, his expression grim. “I’m not letting you get involved in this, Ianto. I don’t want you anywhere near that bastard.”
“Then what’s your plan?” Ianto demanded, his voice shaking with frustration. “Are you going to lock me up? Hide me away somewhere?”
“I’m going to get you someplace safe,” he growled, “and then I’m tracking down the Master and putting an end to this once and for all.”
Ianto started to tell him that it would be a cold day in hell before he let him run off and face that monster on his own, then changed his mind. Instead, he reached down and took him into his hand.
“What the hell, Ianto?” He made a rough sound in his throat as he stroked him, his cock responding with a hard pulse. “You gonna try to control me with sex?”
A grin touched his mouth. “Maybe that’s exactly what I’m going to try.” Ianto ran his thumb over the heavy, swollen head, where a pearly drop of moisture had gathered, enjoying the ragged sound of his groan. “Will it work?”
Jack grabbed him, practically lifting him off his feet and quickly pressing him against the wall of the shower, his expression dark and intense, as if he was thinking hard about what he wanted to say. And then he told him to put his legs around his waist, and he worked himself inside him with a thick, breathtaking lunge, making them both groan.
“I’ve told you why I left that night. But do you know why I’ve stayed away all these years?” he asked, keeping him pinned to the wall.
Ianto shook his head, his throat burning with emotion as he waited for Jack to tell him.
He kept his eyes locked on his. “Because I knew I couldn’t stay close to you and not fall harder than I already had. I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from falling completely in love with you. Wouldn’t have been able to keep my hands off you. And that scared the living hell out of me.”
Ianto opened his mouth, but Jack placed his fingers over his lips.
“Just listen to me,” he told him. “As pissed as I was at Brandon that night, his words were true. I didn’t have any business messing around with you.”
Pushing his hand away, Ianto said, “Why? And before you give me that crap about you being dangerous, you know I don’t believe it, Jack. I didn’t care about your bloodline.”
“It wasn’t just that. You were too young.”
“I was old enough to know what I wanted.”
His quiet laugh was wry, tinged with pain. “Not the way I would have given it to you.”
Ianto couldn’t help but challenge him. “If it was anything like what you gave me tonight,” he said huskily, “I would have been extremely satisfied.”
Tiny lines fanned out from the corners of his eyes as he narrowed his gaze on his, and then he quietly said, “I want you to tell me why you were still a virgin.” Jack’s chest brushed against his sensitive nipples as he pulled in a deep breath. “Did something happen? Did someone try to hurt you?”
“Jack, it’s not something I want to talk about.”
“Please.” He pressed his forehead to his. “Please, tell me something, Ianto. Anything. The not knowing is driving me crazy. Haven’t you wanted sex?”
“I’ve wanted sex,” Ianto admitted in a low voice, running his hands over his slippery shoulders, the hot water beating down hard on his back. “I’m a flesh-and-blood man, and I have needs like everyone else. But…you’re the only man I’ve ever trusted enough to have it with. Who’s made me willing to take the risk.”
“I don’t understand,” he grated, lifting his head. “Why’s it a risk?”
“Please, just drop it.” He tried giving him a teasing grin. “You know, I might be new to this whole sex thing, but shouldn’t you be...moving?”
The look on his face said he knew exactly what he was doing, but he let him get away with it. “I’ll get to the moving part,” he told him. “But you are new to this, and I’m giving you time to get used to me.” He started to kiss him again, then pulled back his head, his pale gaze glittering and sharp. “You know, you could have come after me, Ianto.”
“After what Brandon told me?” He gave a soft snort. “I don’t think so.”
“What did he tell you?” His blue eyes were piercing, demanding an answer.
Ianto tilted his head back against the wall and answered his question. “He said you told him that I was too inexperienced for you to waste your time on a repeat.”
A scowl settled between his dark brows. “I never said that.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore if you did.” Ianto tried to move his hips, wanting him to get on with it, needing that violent rush of pleasure to burn away the pain of this conversation, but he kept him pinned against the wall.
“I’m telling you the truth, Ianto.” He reached up and brushed his hair off his brow, his mouth compressed into a hard line. “Brandon must have been trying to protect you.”
Ianto lifted his hand and touched his face with his fingertips. “But I don’t need to be protected from you. Do I, Jack?”
He flinched, his gaze flicking over the scar the Master had left on his arm. “Ianto, I’ll fight this thing till the bitter end, but there’s no guarantee that I’ll win.”
“Jack, there’s never a guarantee. All we can do is enjoy what time we have with each other, for as long as we can,” he said in a low voice, putting his face close to his, and then kissed him, pouring everything he felt into the touch of his lips against his, lost in the warm silk of his mouth, and Jack finally lost control, thrusting into him with deep, hammering drives.
“Come,” he rasped as he reached between their bodies, stroking Ianto’s cock with the callused pad of his thumb, and he climaxed within seconds, as if his responses were Jack’s to command. The orgasm was lush and tight, but it didn’t ebb, but in fact increased in its energy, his libido giving him pleasure he had never dared dream of, let alone experience. Emotion washed over him, blissful and surreal, like a dream that he didn’t want to end. But Jack’s arms were solid and strong, keeping Ianto tight against him, his grip one of greed and possession. It eased Ianto to know that Jack wanted this as badly as he did. That he needed it.
Jack kept thrusting, Ianto’s body accepting him more easily now, and with his mouth at his ear, he told him how he felt to him, the wicked words making him shiver with excitement. Ianto loved the feel of Jack’s powerful body pressed tight against his. He loved the flexing of those strong, rippling muscles as he moved against him…inside him.
Ianto cried out in renewed fervour and his body soared as his climax finally exploded and tore through him, and it was like having pleasure shot through every cell, his body writhing, pulsing with heat. Jack rode him through it, his hips moving faster, slamming into him, and he loved it. Loved the feel of Jack’s raw power. Of his primal aggression. And when his head fell back, his throat corded with strain, he loved that Jack was the one who’d made him shudder and gasp as he exploded inside him. That he was the one who pulled that guttural shout from Jack’s chest. The one who held him as he collapsed in his arms.
They stayed braced like that against the wall, locked into that tight, clutching embrace, until the water finally turned cold. Then Jack wrapped him in a towel and they moved back out to the bed, and held each other tight. Ianto thought he might have started to doze, his hand resting against Jack’s leather charm, when someone knocked on the door, and they both stiffened with surprise.
“Do you think that’s John?” Ianto asked, pushing up on an elbow.
Jack shook his head and climbed off the bed. “The demon knows better than to bother us,” he said in a low voice, pulling on his jeans.
Ianto slipped out of the bed and threw his clothes on as Jack went to the door, a low curse on his lips as he looked through the peephole. “Who is it?” Ianto asked around the knot of dread in his throat.
Jack sent him a worried look over his shoulder. “It’s your sister.”