“Surrender,” James said in a satisfied tone. “Fuck, it’s always so bloody beautiful, I sometimes wonder what the hell I’m doing, making art.”
“You want to draw them.”
He turned to me, yearning writ clearly across his face. “There is something very big, very real inside me, that makes me want to immortalise each and every one of you.” He stared at me as the sounds from Jackson got louder, rawer. “I feel like if I don’t, it’ll all slip through my fingers.”
There was something prophetic about his words, something I sensed even then, as my hand tightened around his like I could literally stop that from happening, but then the here and now beckoned.
“You gonna take his big alpha cock?” Tristan asked, hanging over Jackson, staring down into the other man’s wide open eyes.
“Answer the omega, Jackson,” Len said, pushing another finger in.
“Yes…” Just a whisper at first, but all the biggest storms start the same way. “Yes…” Jackson sang a song I knew well. A ragged shanty, dragged from the depths of his soul as he got something he’d been yearning so long for. Another finger, then another, were pushed in as Jackson’s body gave in to Len’s.
“I think you’re ready, beta.”
“Yes, Len, Jesus Christ, fuck me.”
I sucked a breath in and held it as the massive alpha moved up and over the beta’s body, kissing him hard, then giving Tris a small kiss as well.
“Jacks, this gets too much, you tell us to stop. No pineapple bullshit, just say stop. But Tris here, he’s going to hold you down, make you give in.”
Jackson nodded sharply.
“It’s been too fucking long. I’d forgotten what it was like, being inside you, but I remember now, beta.” Len worked a handful of lube up and down his cock, then notched himself against the other man’s arse. “And I don’t think I’ll be able to forget again.”
I could almost see a much younger Len and a much younger Jackson now, the reckless grin on Len’s face almost boyish, right up until his smile faltered. He sank into Jackson, face-to-face, and then they couldn’t escape each other. Tristan might be holding Jackson down, but right now, it was them, their past, their experience, the weight of everything that had been said and what hadn’t, that held them in this moment. Jackson’s body was opening for Len as I thought his heart always had, and right now, he couldn’t hide it.
“Jacks…?”
Just a small rasp, a quiet thing, drowned out by the beta’s groans, but I understood perfectly what James meant right at that minute.
A single beam of light that had gotten past the blackout curtains struck Len’s face, spelling out the realisation happening inside him. Did he know exactly how Jackson felt? I didn’t think so, but he knew more than he had before, and neither could escape as the turmoil began. Len’s eyes locked with his lover’s, catching every damn response to what he was doing to Jackson and how Jacks felt about that.
“Len…” Jackson begged, reaching out, and I swear to god, the world stood still as I watched. Jackson was a trapeze artist, throwing himself off a perfectly good swing out into the unfeeling air, but Len, the inherent warm sweetness of him, couldn’t leave someone out there, putting himself on display, without picking him up. He grabbed Jacks’ hand, held it tight, as they began to move in earnest now.
When my focus shifted, I saw Tristan smiling down at them with that curious catlike smile of his, watching the two of them tear themselves apart and then put each other back together.
As Len started to drive himself deeper, as his strokes got longer, harder, faster, as he lost some of that control, the rhythm getting erratic, he reached down, ready to stroke Jackson through to the finish line. But Jacks shook his head.
“Don’t need it.”
“You gonna come just from what I give you?”
“Fuck yes, Len, fuck yes.”
“Then take it.”
They were like boulders slamming
together in a landslide, cars hitting each other at speed, the power, the brutality, the tenderness, all utterly alien, yet I couldn’t look away. They would never dare to be so rough with me, something I treasured and envied in a confusing way I couldn’t untangle, but I didn’t get to dwell. Jackson’s body arced up, his cock throbbing as Len thundered into him, one, two, three more strokes before they both exploded.
Jackson called to the moon and the sky and the gods above in a series of incomprehensible shouts, then cum erupted from him, jetting across his chest and abs, right as Len thrust as deep as he could, his knot preventing anything more, and came just as hard.
For a moment, there was only the ragged sounds of recovery before I received a peck of a kiss on my cheekbone and James slid off the bed.
“I just need…”
With that same inscrutable smile, Tris watched him stumble out of the room, then went about soothing Jackson back into his body, combing his hands through his hair, stroking his face.