Bright Star

by Grayson Reyes-Cole

  Jackson leaned down to press his face close to hers. His lips brushed softly across her silken hair. Her scent was ethereal. He imagined she smelled as Circe had smelled. Beautiful. Undeniable. Disastrous. With lips nestled close to her ear, the words that had haunted him, rattling around in his head for as many months as he had known her slipped from within him to snake their way inside of her, “I hate you.”

  Jackson stood up. He walked away. He was satisfied that she hadn’t heard him. Still, he wanted the words to permeate, to hurt. He wanted her to feel pain. He wanted to be the cause of the pain. He didn’t look back. He turned out the light… and was bathed in blue. He stopped.

  Flicker.

  Flicker.

  He turned back. Her eyes were open and radiating; her eyelids flickered as if she were trying to wake but was unable to manage it.

  He stood, caught in what had become a tractor beam. He found his way back to her. He stared down and her eyes were wide, but dazed.

  Flicker.

  Flicker.

  Her perfect lips fell open. “Rush,” she whispered thickly. Jackson closed his eyes as he stood before her. She thought he was Rush. She wanted Rush.

  “Rush,” the name was whispered again like an incantation.

  Jackson kept his eyes closed against the site of her. He worked his High Energy into a ball that would hopefully propel him from this room, from a cooling Hell. He jumped at the feel of soft hands against his abdomen, a delicate finger delving into his navel and swirling to create an immediate tightening below.

  “Rush,” she whispered again. Her hands reaching around his hips, drawing him down, down, until he was kneeling on the bed with a knee on either side of her hips. She rolled onto her back and looked up. For a moment, her eyes seemed to focus. Twin beams of royal light piercing Jackson’s pupils. He blamed it on panic, on an adrenal and sexual panic. His mind left his body, a body that, in a blink of an eye, had become different, a replica of another’s with a face that was stolen as well.

  “Rush,” she crooned, the word a curse on her lips.

  Jackson stretched his stolen body out to lay over her. Her body was trapped between his legs. Her ethereal face with its fine features was cradled within his thick forearms. For a moment, he just studied her. He had wanted her since she had been an orb of light in a puddle of darkening scarlet blood.

  “Rush,” she cursed him again.

  To silence her, Jackson dipped his head and pressed his lips to hers. He was instantly plunged into darkness as the bright eyes closed and mercifully allowed in the darkness of night. Her lips opened to him and the soft, wet inside was too much of an enticement. Jackson slipped his tongue inside, tasting her. She tasted like light. The light poured into him as he sampled, pressing its way through his body, collecting inside him until he believed it would burst out of him. He needed to be closer. He needed to be inside. He lowered his weight all the way onto her and squeezed his eyes shut at the exquisite feel of her plump breasts pressed into his chest. Her puckered nipples pricked him as they demanded. He reached between them with one hand and cupped one of the globes, flicking the starved peak with his thumb.

  His lips scored her forehead and cheeks. He sucked in one petite earlobe then traced the shell of her ear with his tongue. A soft whimper escaped her lips and her eyes started to open. Quickly, Jackson brushed his lips over them, commanding them to remain shut. If she would just keep them shut… just keep them shut… he would not need to persist in his deception.

  He slid down her pliant body, his kisses now adoring her throat. He was encouraged by her soft, warm hands at his nape, and playing over the muscles in his arm and back. Those hands lingered on him, reveling in the way his body felt. They were encouraging him as he lapped at her hot, softly scented skin.

  He worked his way down her throat and over her collarbone. He paused for a moment to savor the sight of her extraordinarily pale breasts with the dark circles and large nipples. Her breasts were large and firm and he could feel the tightening in his body just at the first touch. He held them in his hands then pressed them against his cheeks. Lowering his body down to hers—between her parted legs—he held her breasts as he licked their undersides and skimmed his tongue over their peaks. He heard her moan and felt shame but not enough to overtake the primitive male satisfaction at wringing that sound from her. He took one of the stiff nubs into his mouth as he rolled the other between his thumb and forefinger. Beneath him, her legs slid further open and her pelvis tilted up until her sex was against his abdomen. She was drenched. Jackson could feel the cool moisture on his skin. He bit his lower lip and stilled himself. He had to pace himself or he would be finished before he started.

  Recognizing he couldn’t spend the time on her breasts that he wanted, Jackson continued to kiss his way down her softly rounded belly, pausing to dip his tongue into her navel. She let out a quick yelp and Jackson raised his head, praying that her eyes were still closed. They were. He went back to kissing her until he found the neatly trimmed patch of silken red hair. Below it, he could see her cleft. It was already glistening for him. He licked the cleft. Her body went stiff all over, but her eyes still did not open. He inserted one long finger into her, and her breathing went ragged. He sucked hard and explored with his fingers until a primitive grunt was wrenched from deep within her. Her legs began to quiver; then her entire body began to quake. Her ankles flexed against his shoulders, her toes balled tight against his back. Her feminine mist seeped out against his tongue.

  Her legs opened and opened wide. They opened wider as her knees bent and her ankles hooked on the edge of either side of the bed. She arched her back as well so that her head was tilted back and her breasts were offered up to him. She would grant him access to every part of her body.

  He squeezed tight to hold off the explosion just waiting to be unleashed. He pressed his head into her glistening cleft. He grimaced with the pleasure of how tight and hot her sex was. Slowly, painstakingly, he eased into her, deeper and deeper. He ground his teeth into the inside of his jaw, fighting the urge to pummel her with his body. The control he exerted was causing sweat to collect on his chin and nose as he strained above her. The perspiration bathed her face and neck and she rubbed it into her skin as if she were being anointed. She let her hands travel to her breasts. She touched his chest, then touched her own, rubbing his sweat in there as well. Jackson let out an anguished sigh and slammed into her welcoming heat. Only to find that it wasn’t so welcoming. He plowed through the barrier until he was sheathed to the hilt. What should have been pain for her, instead, produced another bone-deep bout of shaking. This time every shudder, every contraction lavished him, milking him until he exploded inside of her. It was an accident.

  Jackson had not intended to go this far. He had never intended to spill inside of her. But he had. And it had been wonderful. But he wasn’t satisfied. He wasn’t done. He was still rock hard inside her and the come from both of them mixed to lubricate and manifest an electric glide. His hips moved in and out, his thick erection moved with unnatural speed with only the most pleasurable friction. She brought her legs up until he grasped the underside of her knees in each hand and pressed them to the sides of her chest. Her body was tilted up to him and vulnerable.

  The next stroke ripped a yelp from his throat. He rolled his hips again. This time, the sound came from her. And then, his strokes came faster and deeper until he was wheezing sharply in the night and she sounded as if she were sobbing.

  “It’s so good,” she cried, “so good.” When his head dipped down to bite at one nipple then the other, she shrieked. “Please! Please! Please!”

  And she did not say his name, but Jackson knew that she knew him, that he was not Rush in her eyes, but Jackson. He dropped one of her legs, to loop his arm under the small of her back to position her for his final earth-shattering thrust. Demanding a kiss, his mouth over hers, he ingested the scream torn from her throat while muffling his own. She returned his kiss then pulled away to ni
p at his chin. Jackson collapsed on top of her.

  Warning

  His chest was on fire. Jackson shot up. His eyes popped open and he found himself gasping for air. One hand clawed at his throat, which felt swollen shut. He could not get oxygen into his lungs. The burning in his chest started to spread to the other parts of his body. His muscles strained. He lashed out, pounding the wall in desperation. That was when he caught sight of Rush and went still.

  Rush stood at the edge of the bed with his arms hanging loosely at his sides. His black eyes were intense and unblinking as he watched Jackson. His nostrils were flared. His lips were pressed into an unwavering line. His jaw ticked and ticked again.

  It was then that the obstruction in Jackson’s throat vanished and he was wracked with coughs. He gulped in air as he rolled, quickly covering his naked body in his sheets. They were damp and still clinging with perspiration. He put up a hand to shield his eyes from the daylight that pierced the blinds. “Rush, what are you doing?” he rasped.

  “I would think that was obvious,” Rush responded without emotion. Jackson started to cough again.

  Jackson massaged his throat with his hand as he continued to cough. “You did this?” he asked in disbelief. Rush did not respond. “But why? Why Rush? What did I—” And then he knew. Every detail came back to him. Every one. He could still smell her on his own body. His body went hot again and his face colored a mottled red from embarrassment. Rush knew, too.

  “Yes, Jackson,” Rush spoke finally. “That is the question, I think. What did you do?”

  “I—I don’t know what you mean,” Jackson sputtered, amazed that he would lie. Rush already knew. He already knew. That’s why he was there. And even if he didn’t know before, he could easily peer into Jackson’s mind to find out. Rush slipped in and out of his mind with the ease of a permanently invited visitor. There was no point in lying. And yet, he couldn’t admit to it, either. He couldn’t confess to the betrayal and the depth of that betrayal.

  Images of hands came to his mind. His own hands Shifted to look like Rush’s. Dark hands grasping soft, creamy flesh. Long fingers flicking her dark rose nipples. Jackson wanted to vomit. Even there in the face of his brother’s discovery, even when faced with what he had done, he could feel himself hardening at just the thought of the experience. Rush’s eyes were still on him and Jackson was certain, again, that his brother knew exactly what was happening to him.

  Rush’s hands fisted, defining the veins in his forearms. Still, though Jackson had been sure it was coming, Rush did not call him on the untruth. Instead he stated plainly: “I have never been with her.”

  Any other day, Jackson would have challenged his brother’s words. He had seen them together and he knew that no matter what Rush said, there was a connection between he and Bright Star. And no one could ever deny Bright Star’s invariable devotion to his brother. It was why he felt the near unbearable weight of guilt. If Bright Star and Rush did not have that connection, then this would not have been such an unforgivable betrayal. He would not feel like the traitor he was. But Jackson would not challenge his brother’s words on this day. He couldn’t bring himself to increase the tension in the room. There was no denying that Rush spoke the truth. The blood he’d found had been no suggestion. His head hurt.

  “Why are you telling me this?” Jackson asked and for a moment, guiltily, he wanted to believe his brother was telling him that what he’d done was okay. But he wasn’t. The stone-faced expression could barely contain the strong emotion simmering beneath the surface. Jackson only wished he could know which emotion his brother was working so hard to hide. He tried reading Rush’s eyes but could not. Instead, he found himself averting his haunted, conflicted gaze from Rush’s mesmerizing one.

  “I wouldn’t have been with her even if I wanted to, and I didn’t. You will never understand it, Jackson. Never. But—and listen to me carefully—I do not want her.”

  That, Jackson found impossible to believe. How could any man living not want her? She was pure beauty and unadulterated devotion. Physically, she was undeniable. Emotionally, well, no woman could love a man or commit herself to him in the way Bright Star had committed herself to Rush. Every man wanted that. Jackson wanted that.

  Rush shook his head slowly. Jackson couldn’t help but believe Rush was contradicting his thoughts. And then—it was sudden, so sudden—Jackson realized what that emotion was. It wasn’t anger, as he had feared. It was worse. The emotion was pain. “You don’t know what you’ve done—what you’ve almost done. You have no idea.” Those last words were barely more than a broken whisper.

  “I didn’t—” Jackson cut himself off. There was no point in denying it. Rush knew.

  “You didn’t even think to ask yourself why she allowed it. You didn’t even take one second to find out why she would do it,” Rush walked over to the window and peered out.

  “You think she made me do this? With Shift?”

  “Don’t be a fucking idiot, Jackson!” Rush growled. Then his voice softened again, “We both know it wouldn’t take Shift to get you to do what you did. Oh, she would have used it if she had to, but she didn’t have to. But have you asked yourself? Have you stopped for one single fucking minute to ask yourself?” Rush was screaming and his eyes were glistening, “Why Jackson? You spent all that time in the iso tank figuring out everything. Why are conveniently not understanding this? Why would she have done it?”

  Jackson was embarrassed. He tucked his chin to his chest and looked at the floor. He moistened his dry lips with his tongue before he spoke. He had questioned, but he had gotten an answer and accepted it outright. “She thought I was you.”

  “She knows me. Whether I like it or not, she knows me. She knows me better than anyone, including you. Including you, Jackson. She knows every nuance. She knows the sound of my voice. She knows my smell. She knows my Energy. I’m asking you again, why didn’t you take one second to wonder why she let you do it?”

  “I did!” Jackson fired back, “I told you I—”

  “You’re not stupid.” Rush snapped. His words were sharp but he didn’t even mildly raise his voice. “But you wouldn’t question it too strongly when you were getting something you wanted for so long.”

  “What?” Jackson did not understand why he pretended shock. More ingrained than anything. He did not actively try to deceive Rush. No. He actively deceived himself.

  “Jackson, you know you can’t hide anything from me. You know you can’t lie to me. What you don’t know is what you’ve done,” Rush admonished as he faced his brother again. His expression had softened. It could have been called mild. “I know your feelings for Bright Star, but they will only bring you misery. You have no idea why she did what she did. And it never occurred to you to ask. Even after you went AWOL in Sense Dep. Even after finding out the truth about Mom, me, and yourself. You didn’t figure out why she was doing it. Bright Star is studied, organized, disciplined. She is thoughtful, observant, and she plans. But, above all else—and I say this without ego—she lives and dies for me. She never, never would have made that mistake. I told you, she knows me. You chose to ignore what you knew to be true.”

  “Well obviously,” Jackson countered defensively. “Obviously she was upset with you and the fact that you won’t listen to her. And, she needed… she needed…”

  Rush did not say anything. There was a look in his eyes. It was like a fire suddenly extinguished. There was no need. He had told Jackson not to try to lie to him. “Jackson why does everyone know it but you? Even after what you experienced in Sense Dep: Your love can’t save her,” Rush told him baldly. Rush ran a hand over his face. When his eyes were visible again, Jackson could identify the full-on pity in them.

  Anger broke like a wave in Jackson’s chest. His brows drew together. He wanted to lash out but his nakedness and the undeniable truth of his brother’s words kept him in the bed. Dragging his blanket with him, he swung his legs over the side and reached for some jeans lying on the floor.
He snatched them on. “No. My love can’t save her. It’s obvious. The only thing or person that can save her is you!” He pointed his finger accusingly at his brother and breathed heavily as he stared into those dark eyes.

  Rush didn’t answer. Instead he walked over to his brother and placed his hands on his shoulders. He stared into Jackson’s soul. Jackson tried to turn away but found that he could not. Rush held him captive. When he spoke again, his voice was deep and clear and devoid of emotion. “Jackson, your love can’t save her. I can’t save her, either. No one can save her and in this moment—you won’t believe me, I know—she should not be saved. But I can save you. I will save you. And I will save—fuck. You don’t know what you almost did. It would have been the wrong—” Rush bit off his words with a snarl. He jabbed a finger at his brother. “Leave her alone! I’ve corrected the wrong that was done today. Leave her alone.”

  Corrected? Jackson thought. “She only thinks of you,” Jackson whispered finally.

  Rush lost his patience and flung his hand out wide, shattering the windows in the room with Shift. The crash was loud and the glass exploded inward toward them. But before the shards even reached their skin, the glass stopped in midair, then reversed. Each and every shard returned to the place it had been originally and the windows looked as they had just minutes before. The flame in Rush’s eyes ignited once more. “How can you be so fucking stupid? How? You have never been this… this… dumb! It doesn’t matter who the fuck she thinks about. It doesn’t matter whether she loves me or not, loves you or not!” Rush shook his head with a rueful, joyless smile. He started out of the room. “I know what she thinks about, Jackson. If she thought of anything else, we might all escape damnation. Unfortunately, her infatuation is going to completely destroy masses of fucking people. No matter how much of a moron you are, I won’t let you be one of us.”