Chapter 17

Jareth entered the room and looked around. Miranda wasn’t there. He had waited and stood for quite some time in her art room, allowing her to settle herself before speaking to her again—and she was not even in the room. Had he missed her going back down the stairs? He didn’t think he missed any movement she made. He sighed and glanced out the window. He was halfway to leaving the room when he spotted a piece of rope going out the window. Going over he followed the rope to the leg of her bed. She had tied the bloody rope to her bed and went out the window!

Spinning around, he leaned out the window and looked down. She was halfway to the ground. “What are you doing?”

Randy jumped and her foot slipped off the wall. Twirling around like a corkscrew, she winced when her shoulder connected with the siding on the house. She braced her feet out, stopped the spin, and then looked up at him. “I was practicing, at least until you scared me to death! Geez, Jareth, next time just scream in my ear.” She clutched the contraption on the rope, squeezing so she wouldn’t slide down it too fast again. She squinted and looked up at him. “It’s not as hard as I thought it would be.” She motioned with her chin to the thing in her hands. “This makes it pretty simple to go back up—”

“Come up here.” His voice was very low and quiet as he spoke.

Looking down at the ground, she tried to figure out if it was closer than the window. He had that look again and she didn’t feel like another grunting match with him. She was still mortified that she had thrown the vase at him. Yeah, it was ugly and wasn’t special to her, but she didn’t lose her temper like that—ever! If she slipped down too fast and landed on her butt again while he watched, he’d freak and that wouldn’t help anything. She closed one eye against the sun and looked at him. “Are you still pissed at me?”

“At this very moment in time I am anxious that you are dangling from a rope tied to your bed, and that you very well might fall right to the ground.”

“Are you saying I’m too heavy?” She was going to smile, but...

“Miranda, I am losing my patience. Get back up here!”

Yeah, he was still pissed. Blowing out a breath, she looked back to the ground and started to ease up on the contraption that let her slide down slowly. She jolted and clung to it when she suddenly started going up, really quickly!

When she looked up, she saw his hands grasp the rope, wrapping his arm through it and heaving her up, faster then she could have ever done on her own. Wide-eyed she looked through the window at him when she reached it again. Without so much as a word he reached out with one hand and grasped the harness, and after releasing the rope, pulled her upper body toward the window as he reeled her in by the harness.

Her feet didn’t even touch the floor and she found herself stripped of the harness and set roughly on the bed. Opening her mouth, she shut it again, having no words other than wow playing through her mind.

“Do you want to bring harm to yourself, or do you just not think before you act?”

She sat there in shock and looked into his dark eyes filled with concern. “I wanted to see if I could—”

“Fall and break a leg or do worse harm?” he interrupted.

She pouted. “No. I wanted to see if I could climb the house; it seemed easier than a tree or rocks to start with,” she finished quietly.

He grasped her face between his solid hands, taking care to be gentle, and looked at her beautiful face. “I am quite at my wits’ end watching you do things you ought not to consider.” He exhaled slowly, urging his heart to slow its pace. “If you had waited a moment or two before hurling things at my head and let me finish what I wanted to say, this entire event might have ended quite differently.”

Jareth straightened and for a moment wondered if he should waste his solid form with words. Yet he had to calm himself, so he continued. “The words I speak are not as close to yours as I’d wish, but I need to put things at ease betwixt the both of us.” She continued to look at him. “I did not intend to have you believe you had no choice in this, but if you had stayed calm for a moment more...” This was not coming from his mouth the way his mind wished it to. “I would say to you that I may feel watchful of you...mostly where men are concerned, yet I will also cherish the very air you breathe and shelter you in my arms from all that is wrong for you.”

Kneeling before her, he whispered. “You were made to be mine, little Miranda. All powers that may be have proved that just by revealing me to none other than you.” He brushed his hand with care down her cheek. “I did not seek to cause your anger toward me. I was consumed with envy for what the boy had, and what I did not.”

Randy placed her hand over his mouth, sure that she couldn’t sit here and listen to another of his heart-wrenching words without suffocating him by squeezing his head against her. “I get it, Jareth, and I’m sorry I overreacted and tried to break something with your head. Not that it could have hit you, but still. Next time I’ll try to remember that we have a small language barrier, okay?”

Jareth pulled her hand from his mouth and kissed her palm. “I am forgiven?”

She sighed. “Yeah, you’re forgiven.” He leaned toward her slowly, and she knew if he kissed her now, she’d lose her nerve. “We’re going tomorrow afternoon.”

He watched her mouth. “Going where?”

“To the island to get your stuff,” she said quickly and then held her breath.

He studied her for a long moment. “I cannot change your mind?” She shook her head. He clenched his jaw for a moment. “Mayhap you might practice more...”

“No, it has to be tomorrow.” She leaned back away from his face and looked at him.

“So soon? What is the reason for this?” His eyes kept moving to her mouth and she knew he was going to kiss her soon.

Randy leaned back on both hands. His being solid and this close was clouding up her head—and her body. “Because all we do is fight now, and to be honest, half the time I don’t even know why I’m mad.” She inhaled deeply. “If getting that stupid thing and finding the family it belongs to is the only way for us to be together and not angry and frustrated all the time, then I want it done yesterday.”

“I do not fully grasp why all I do is raise my voice to you, as well. All I’ve a wish for is to hold you within my arms and see you laugh.” He offered her a small smile. “It’s never forced, and I am able to feel it through me when you do. As I do also feel your tears when they fall.”

“Jareth, I wish...”

He placed a finger on her lips gently to silence her. He did not know how long his form would stay, but he was done with words for now. “Shh, little one, let us not use all this scarce time with talk.”

Taking no time to heed his words, she swathed his neck with her arms, pulling his mouth down to hers. He took her mouth more roughly than he had intended, yet her heated response assured him that she did not mind the zealousness of his passions.

Reaching out, Jareth lifted her from the bed, pulling her level with his face as he stood. Her slight legs locked about his middle and secured her body to his. He cupped her bottom, kneading it some and turned to the wall to brace them against it. Crushing his mouth to hers again, he kissed her with all of the need that coursed through him. He would not think of fading this time—he needed her unlike he had ever before.

Her hands were pulling at his shirt until it was all the way up his back. He pinned her with the weight of his hips to the wall and slipped the shirt over his head. Her mouth was on his flesh before he had released it to the floor. Her lips blazed a trail over his neck and he truly did not know if he could let her continue for long. It had been over two hundred years, and he was but a man, after all.

Randy nipped his neck between her teeth and then licked over the muscles leading to his shoulder. He grasped her hair to bring her mouth back to his. His tongue plunged into her mouth and scraped along her teeth. She pulled back and reached to pull her own shirt off. “No stopping,” she whispered breathlessly.

As she pulled the tank top over her head, she found herself being moved to the bed. He crawled up it with her still wrapped around him. When his mouth found her nipple she grasped his hair and arched into him. His hands were at the waist of her jeans and he suckled on her. She reached to help him. All of her body was on fire.

He lifted his mouth and knelt to pull the jeans from her body. As the cloth slipped beyond her knees, she pulled her legs free with haste. He knelt and looked at her in only a red pair of the little delights. She reached up and started pulling at his pants. He removed the sash in one movement and untied the top of them. She was pushing them off his body before he had the chance to move. Lying back she pulled the red cloth down her body and from her legs.

She knelt with him and brought his mouth back to hers. As his mouth obliged her hungry one, he grasped her waist and lifted her up against his chest. The feel of his bare flesh next to her hot skin was a feeling he knew he could never tire of. Leaning his weight back, he grasped her bottom and lifted so she could wrap her legs about him while he knelt on the bed.. She lifted her mouth from his and looked at his eyes as he lowered her onto him.

Moaning deeply as he was slowly sheathed by her wet heat, he knew if he lived two hundred years more he would never come to know anything that felt as close to heaven as this.

She groaned in pleasure as he moved her down onto him. He wasn’t a too large man, yet she was so tight around him, the feeling of forcing his size to fit had him gasping with her. He moved her slight weight and noted she was more than happy to let him.

While still buried deep inside her on his knees, he moved to the top of the bed where he could let her rest some of her weight. She grasped his shoulders and helped to raise her body up his again. He clenched his jaw as he was consumed with sensations long forgotten. He looked down to see her eyes focused wholly on his face he kissed her fiercely as he lowered her again.

He moved his mouth to her ear. “I’ve not got long, love.” He closed his eyes as she drove herself back down on him. “Too many years have passed.”

She pulled his hair so his mouth came back to hers. Biting against his bottom lip, she moaned quietly as his hand found her sensitive nipple.

“I’m really close, too...just...hard, Jareth...” She dropped her head down and moaned.

Lifting his head, he braced one hand on the wall as he grasped her ass with the other. He moved her with a new strength and pounded up into her. She braced herself by holding his shoulders and pushed down so their bodies ground together each time they connected. Biting her lip she panted and dug her fingers into her shoulders.

When he looked down to see her impaled on him and lost what small tether left on his control. Leaning back he grasped both her hips and slammed her down onto him as hard as he could without injuring her. She moaned and dug her fingers into his flesh; he looked up to see her eyes close and she panted. He felt her squeeze around him, so tight, so wet, and lost any staying power he had left. Dragging her roughly onto him again he felt the whole of his body ignite with fire that felt so remarkable he growled out in pleasure.

When his mind returned from floating about, he lifted her lax body and lowered her to the mattress. He kissed her mouth sweetly, as he tried to return his breathing to normal. She moaned into his mouth. Keeping his weight from crushing her, he moved his hips slowly and felt her body clench against his own. He continued to move several more times until she shuddered in pleasure.

“Mmm...” She licked his neck and looked up at him. “You’ve quite a skill with that, pirate.” She grinned at him.

He smiled at her, mimicking his own way. “I had worried my skill might have left me.”

“It seems to have stayed with you well enough.” She closed her eyes as he pulled from her body and moved down beside her. Opening her eyes, she gave him a stern look. “We are getting that damn cup tomorrow.”

He winked at her. “As you wish, love.”

Moving over, she wrapped her leg around his hips, and snuggled as close as she could. “No objections now?”

“My brains have been made mush by you and that wee body of yours; I’m man enough to know when not to speak and ruin the possibility of having you again.”

She kissed his chest. “You stay solid and you can have me as often as you like.”

Rolling to his side, he pulled her into the shelter of his body. “I’ve a plan to do just that.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” He kissed her sweetly, knowing the signs were near: he would not have her in his arms for much longer. His heart ached. On the morrow he wished for nothing more than this curse to be ended so he might truly live again. He looked into her eyes as she, too, knew the fading was upon him.