Chapter 11

Jareth entered Miranda’s house and could immediately hear her speaking, most likely to herself, again. He found it amusing to listen. He felt more certain in being here this day, more at ease with his inner turmoil. He paused at the top of the stairs to listen.

“If I go dressed normally, my chances are going to suck! Girlie girl? How do I do girlie girl?”

He smiled as he stepped into the room. She was inside her closet, speaking on the phone and not to herself this time. His eyebrows shot up as he looked at her state of dress. She wore those delightful undergarments, in black today.

In his mind he knew he should alert her to his presence, but all that was male in him appreciated all that he was looking upon. His eyes traveled down to her legs. She wore stockings that were just as black, and he marvelled that they stayed up on her slender legs without straps or ties of any sort. What a sight this was, her bottom bared to him, with the soft flesh of her uppermost legs bare.

She turned and grinned at him, not at all surprised he was there. His eyes assessed the front of the black frill on her hips and one eyebrow shot up as he reached her breasts. Although he could see the flesh beneath the cloth, they were cradled, very appealingly so, matching the lower attire. His groin tightened as he appreciated the entire ensemble, right down to her painted toenails.

He realized he just stood there gawking at her like some drooling brute, but if facts be known, he had no wish to look away or move.

Randy tossed the skirt in her hand on the bed, grinning at Jareth as his eyes moved over her again and again. She sighed into the phone. “Slow down, I found it...heels or flats?” She nodded and turned back to the closet. “I don’t have anything that high, Jode. Geez, I’d break both my ankles... Yeah, I have those still.” She spotted the mentioned shoes and nodded. “Okay, I’ll call you as soon as I get out of the office.” She nodded again. “Okay. ’Bye.” She hung up the phone and tossed it on the bed.

Scooping up the shoes, she turned to the silent man behind her. “I have a job interview. I’m so nervous. This firm is huge and if I get in there...” She bent down and slid the straps of the heeled shoes onto her feet. Straightening, she looked down at herself. “Do you think the heels are too much? Maybe I should go with flats...” She looked at him and the expression in his eyes shot heat into her faster than she could take a breath.

She stepped away from the bed and leered at him. “Liking the view?”

Jareth’s gaze jerked from her legs to her face. He cleared his throat. “I feel there is no word I could speak. . .to express my thoughts on the. . .view.” She leered at him. “You are wearin’ more than this?” he asked, then placed his hands on his hips and looked at her.

She looked down at her thigh-high nylons and underwear, trying to ignore the way her heartbeat increased at his pirate tone having returned. “You think I should?”

He scowled. “You cannot mean to leave this room dressed as such!” He crossed his arms over his chest and stood appraising her once more.

“Relax, I’m putting clothes over it.” He nodded. Shaking her head, she pulled the blouse off the hanger and slipped her arms into it. It was a deep purple, sleeveless, and she always thought she looked good in it. Buttoning it quickly, she kicked off the shoes to pull the skirt over her legs.

She zipped it and put the shoes back on before walking over to look in the mirror. The dark skirt hugged her hips in just the right way. She adjusted the seam so the small slit in the front landed on her thigh and gave just a small peek to what the rest of the hem hid. “Do I look businesslike but still girlie-girlish?”

Jareth cleared his throat, forcing his eyes to look at her face again. “I do not know what ‘girlie girlish’ is, yet I do know if I could touch you...we would not be leaving this room for some time to come.” His voice dropped lower as he spoke the last.

She walked over to him. The height of her shoes brought her face closer to his. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

His eyes caressed her face. She was wearing the colored powders again, and he had just noticed this. “Is this how one dresses for an interview?”

Randy brushed her hands down the skirt. “If you want the job, it is.”

He nodded abruptly. “Which you do.” As she walked back to the closet, he had to appreciate the way the garments enhanced the sway of her tempting bottom. “Do you always dress as such for your job?”

Randy shook her head. “Nope. I like slacks and flat shoes usually...but I really need this job, and Jody figures using what I’ve got might help me get it.”

“What you’ve got?” He frowned.

Pausing in the doorway, she motioned down the front of her body. “This is what I’ve got, and it’s a man interviewing for the job.”

“I see.” He scowled as he watched her walk out the door toward her art room. He followed quickly. “Where is this interview taking place?” he slowly gritted out.

Unzipping a large case, she laid it open on the table. “Where, like location or building or what?”

He leaned in the door arch wanting to come across as being much more at ease than he truly was. “I thought perhaps if it were within my boundaries I could accompany you.”

Her eyes widened. “You didn’t like the last car ride.”

“I could become accustomed to it with practice.” He tried to sound carefree with it, but the more he appraised her dressed as she was, the harder he struggled.

She grinned. “We can go for a drive later if you want, but I don’t think I can take you. I mean, no offense, it’s sweet of you to offer but...” She sighed. “I can see you and talk to you, and if I slipped up and forgot no one else can, then I’d come across as some loony who talks to herself...”

“Of course, I had not considered that.” He moved to stand right in front of her. “May I await your return?”

“Of course you can.” Her eyes moved over his face, lingering briefly on the scar. “It was really nice having you still here this morning.”

He felt drawn into her eyes and smiled. “I found it refreshing to stay.”

Tilting her head, she studied him. “What did you do all night? I mean, you don’t sleep, right?”

Jareth shook his head. “Not in all the years of my confinement.” He brushed a hand down her neatly brushed hair. “I watched you sleep the entire time. I felt very much at peace through the darkness.”

Miranda’s eyes reflected his own feelings of wanting more. Then suddenly she spun back to her case. “Crap! I have to get going. I don’t want to be late.” She zipped up the case and scooted toward the door.

He followed her and wished that he in the very least could hold the door for her as a gentleman should in the presence of such beauty.

Sighing, he watched her climb into her automobile. That was an untruth at best; he wanted no such gentlemanly motions. He wanted a bloody body so that he could carry her alluring little self back into the house and straight to the bed.

~

Jareth paced to the window once more. How long did an interview take? He had not noted the precise time she had sped away, but was aware that she had been gone far longer than he had anticipated. He had not even a location to go to, to see how she faired. Gritting his teeth, he headed for the door, then shook his head when he noted he used doors to enter and exit now, although opening was not required in his form.

Outside in the yard, he stood on the dirt path and looked in the direction she had gone. He could happen along on that bearing without being bothersome. If it resulted in coming across her, then so be it. He would not meander about the walls of her house wondering a moment longer!

~

Randy sniffed and looked at the steering wheel. “I will not cry. Crying isn’t going to change a damn thing!” She brushed the hair back from her face. She had never felt so awkward in all her life! How could a firm that was supposed to be the best at what they did screw up like that?

She had arrived for her interview in plenty of time and waited patiently in the lobby as instructed. After twenty minutes she was finally called in, only to be apologized to. “I must apologize, Miss Story, it seems the position was already filled and I was not notified.” She snorted. “It was probably filled by some spoiled relative or cousin to his second sister’s uncle or some crap!” Seriously, if the man who was looking for new candidates wasn’t even aware when one had been found...then maybe it was a good thing she didn’t get a job there. Jody had said pretty much the same thing when she called, seething over the whole thing.

Blowing out a slow breath, she glared at the dash of her car. “And you”—she struck the steering wheel with the palm of her hand—“are not helping. What is it with you and dying right here?” She looked out the window to the exact same tree where she had had conversed with a butterfly a few days before. “Is it this spot in particular? You know, if I had a choice I would never take this stupid road again!” She unfastened her seatbelt and climbed out, twisting her ankle as she did. “Ugh! I hate heels!” She turned back to the car and dug in her purse for an elastic band to get the hair out of her face.

Jareth stopped several feet from the car and groaned. She was bent over half inside of the door, and he had no choice but to stand there a moment longer and admire...the view, as she had stated it. She straightened, fiddling with her hair and pulling it up to reveal the whole of her face. With her hair as such, she appeared childlike. His eyes roved over her body with great interest. He shook his head freeing the conflicting emotions created inside him, that she could seem both woman and child at the same moment. When his eyes moved back to her face, he caught the distraught look in her eyes.

Randy looked over at him and moaned. “Oh, Jareth. Today really freaking sucks!”

Jareth frowned and went over to her. “The interview did not go according to your wishes?”

She snorted. “No! They gave the job to someone else, before I even got there!” She motioned to her outfit. “I got dressed up for nothing.”

“I would not say that. I greatly appreciate how you look.”

“Okay, not completely for nothing then.” She sighed and went around to pop the hood.

“May I ask what you are doing?”

Propping it open, she looked at him. “The car died.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Yet again?”

She nodded and leaned over to look at all the parts she knew nothing about.

“Mayhap it is in need of something new?” He looked down into the opened space.

Randy wiggled the battery connection, or she thought she did—she wasn’t certain. Cars weren’t her thing. “A few new somethings, I’m sure. I should have called someone about it the other day.” She waved her hand around. “Either that or my car just likes this exact spot.”

He turned around to appraise where they stood. “Is this not the same—”

“Yep.” She smacked her hand on the black box thing of the engine. Not knowing what it was or what it was supposed to do, she liked to think she was smacking some sense into the car. “I don’t know why it likes right here, but this is probably the fourth time I’ve had problems with it right on this stretch of road. At least before, it kept going, just sputtered a bit...” She straightened to see him standing with his back to her looking at an empty field. “Jareth?”

When he didn’t respond, she went over to him. She looked up to see anger and then a look of defeat go through his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“I know of this place too well.” He shook his head. “I had not noted the location in the days prior; I have shunned it for the most of a millennium, and it is altered from my memories.”

She looked out into the small field; there was nothing there but two really big old trees and lots of long grass. “What is it?”

He took a few steps toward the overgrown path. “There, betwixt the trees...” He pointed. “once stood a small modest structure. I obtained it during a card match and would hole up here when I felt the desire to be solitary.”

Randy looked back at him. “Are you saying you owned this property?” She glanced around the area quickly. “Do you still?”

“I’ve no wish to.” His jaw clenched.

She studied the cool, almost frightening look in his eyes. “Jareth? Is this where you and the gypsy were?” He looked down at her but didn’t answer, just looked back toward the trees. She didn’t need him to tell her she was right. She kicked her shoes off and left them lying at the edge of the tall weeds. Bending down she peeled the nylons off her legs.

“What are you doing?” He frowned down at her.

“I can’t walk through that long grass in heels and nylons...” She pulled her skirt up a few inches so she could take wider steps and went down into the ditch.

“Miranda?”

Turning, she glared at him. “Come on. Time to face your past, pirate.” She started through the long thin grass, not bothering to see if he followed. “There is a reason why my damn car keeps crapping out on me right here, and we’re going to find out what it is!”

Jareth was conflicted. He moved along behind her, a few paces behind. His life had halted the time he last was here, and he had no wish to recall that moment. His eyes flicked over Miranda as the long grass half-consumed her, even while she determinedly kept plodding forward. With her creating his new path, he could not stand on the side like a coward and watch her take on this task. He quickened his step and caught up to her.

“Little one, this is not—”

“Just show me where the shack, or whatever it was, stood.” She paused long enough to look up at him. “There has to be a reason why my car keeps dying here. Look at the other day. It wouldn’t go at all, and then you showed up and it would.” She cocked her head. “Can you say there isn’t a connection?”

He sighed. “I cannot.” He inclined his head toward the center of the two old trees. “It was directly betwixt them.”

She nodded, took a deep breath, and then continued toward the trees. As she reached the trees, she slowed down and looked down at the ground. She flattened the weeds and grass down and then looked around. “It’s a pretty spot.”

“I used to believe so.” He was beyond uncomfortable being here again, yet a small part of him ascertained there might indeed be a reason he needed to be here.

“Is this a board, or what’s left of one?” She squatted down and moved the grass.

Jareth knelt down beside her, wishing for solid hands to pull the rotted wood from the weeds. “We are directly in the midst of where the walls stood, if I recall correctly.” He watched her pull at the plank. She brushed at the dirt under it, covering her pretty hands with damp soil. He hissed as she uncovered what he thought was metal. Could it be?

“I need...something...” She turned, dug through the grass, and spotted a small rock. Dropping to her knees, she stretched out to reach it. Her hands were coated in mud by the time she freed it. She crawled back over to the metal and used both hands and the rock to gouge at the dirt surrounding the metal.

Jareth clutched his heart. Surely his eyes were seeing things. As she scraped away the soil, it revealed something very familiar. “It is my cutlass.”

She looked at him quickly but kept digging. “Your sword? We’ve found your sword? Are you sure?”

“I would know my own weapon.”

“Of course.” She had to dig deeper to find the direction of the blade. “There’s some sort of case here, at least I think that’s what it is.” He offered no reply, just leaned over it watching her every movement. “Do you think it protected the blade?”

“I am uncertain; it was of the finest hide I could barter.” He longed to use his own fingers to free it from the soil, but he had to bide his time and watch her.