Chapter 6

He was uncertain why he found the clear stone attached to her belly so appealing, but knew if he could touch her he would spend many long moments caressing her and tasting her right there.

Her movement past him brought him back out of his dazed thoughts. He lowered his eyes to the floor and waited until he knew she was out of the room and his sights before lifting them. Taking in an unnecessary lungful of air, he ran his hand over his inflamed groin and attempted to settle his blood.

Did every part of this woman have to intrigue him so strongly? The first person he had spoken to in all these years, who could speak right back to him, and he wanted her with every ounce of his soul. Did he even have a soul? He was not certain. Knowing she was returning the inquisitive looks and letting her own eyes stray over him did not help to push him to virtuous thoughts of her.

Sighing, he stood up, looking around for something to distract him. Of course that was a useless attempt when he was in fact inside her home and everything within his sight was all about her. If his blood were real essence, it would be pounding through his veins with the need for her. Real essence or not, he could still feel in his between state and he felt the burn to possess her small, appealing form.

“I’m sorry.”

He spun around at her voice close behind him. “You are? Pertaining to what?”

Randy played with the top on the drink in her hand. “If talking about all of this is bothering you... I’m trying not to drag up tons of bad memories...”

As he stood there with his hands hanging down at his sides, wanting nothing more than to reach out and touch her, hold her. “You have no cause to apologize. I assure you a long time has passed” He offered her an encouraging smile. “I have had many seasons to come to terms with the way of things.”

She nodded slowly. “Okay, if you’re sure.”

“I am.” He gestured toward her computer again. “Tell me how you think you can use that to find the answer to the curse.”

She glanced over at the computer, then looked back up at him. “I really don’t know. I’m kind of winging this whole thing...” She looked down at the can in her hand for a moment. “Do you remember what she said? Or were your wits too lulled to understand her?”

Smirking at her usage of his own words. “They are ingrained in my very soul, the words she spoke.”

Randy nodded and went back over to the desk. Setting down her drink, she picked up the notebook and looked back over at him. “Say it slowly and I’ll write it down.”

Jareth closed his eyes and could at once see the woman with the long, tousled raven hair hissing words at him so long ago. He spoke quietly and slowly. “For the sins of a cold heart on mine and mine own...I curse this form to be forever bound here... Not a breath will he take nor a last one be... ’Til he does release the riches of the ones before of my blood...Or his heart thaws to open to find what he never sought before.”

With his eyes closed, he stood there for a few seconds after, remembering the coolness gradually covering his entire form after her words. She had laughed, the raven-haired witch, and turned to leave him. After a long pause, the reality had hit him, and he recalled running after her, only to discover at a certain point he was not allowed to continue. Some force he could not see or touch halted him in the same place every time. He had spent years wandering this unseen line to discover she had truly placed him within an invisible barrier and left him here to suffer alone for all time to come.

“Jareth?”

Her soft-spoken plea caused him to open his eyes. “I was recalling that time,” he said in a strained voice.

“If it bothers—”

He shook his head quickly. “I am fine with it. I feel more foolish about the entire event than forlorn.”

“She was a bit of a nasty, huh?” Shrugging, she looked back to the paper. “How much of this have you figured out?”

Slowly, he walked back toward her. “I know the facts it involves.” He hesitated. “She was greatly upset by the idea that I was not going to return an item I had procured, well within the limits of the laws as applied to myself and my crew. Most of the items taken from the capture we sold or traded and split the gain among the men. I kept but one piece for myself and hid it away.”

“Like a trophy?” she asked cautiously.

Crossing his arms over his chest, feeling defensive. “I had no want of trophies. I merely kept this piece to myself and hid it away because to barter it would have brought the law upon my own head. There were markings that had been deemed illegal, markings that signified witchcraft and witches, and I was protecting my crew and myself from prosecution.”

Her eyes became serious. “I guess it doesn’t make you feel better to know that you were right and it was associated with witches, huh?”

“Not in any measurable way,” he muttered.

Looking down at the words she’d written, she frowned. “What does it mean, ‘I curse this form to be forever bound here’?”

He sighed. “As it says, I am confined to an area here on land. I, quite simply stated, cannot go beyond a certain boundary. Some force I cannot see stops me from doing so.”

“How large an area?”

He turned and looked out the window. “From all that I have discovered, and understand that I am uncertain of the exact names, I can safely journey from Moose— I mean, Eastport to Machais and as far down as Cutler.”

Randy closed her eyes. “Wow, not only did the bitch stick you in a really small area to wander around forever, but she kept you away from the water.”

He glared out the window. “Of this I am more than aware. I can see it and see over it, but cannot go close enough to say I reached it.”

Randy studied the stiff way he stood facing away from her. “I can’t even imagine how that feels to you, Jareth. To be so close but not close enough. And the small area you’ve been stuck in for this long, seems like a slight overreaction on her part over just one material possession.”

He sighed at the sorrow in her voice. “I have thought as much all these years.”

“Maybe it was something important.”

“It was a goblet, of no precious gems or metal, just ordinary materials with markings scribed into it.”

She frowned. “Maybe it was important in a ritual kind of way; I mean, obviously she was a witch.”

“Indeed she was.” He came back over to stand closer to her. “Nonetheless I cannot do one thing to prevent what took place this long ago.”

“Right. What else have you figured out from the verse?”

He sat again in the chair near to her. She wondered if he felt the chair and was really sitting, or just making it look that way for her sake.

“Not a breath will he take nor a last one be, is I am certain to mean I am neither dead nor am I alive.”

Nodding, she looked from the torment in his eyes to her notes. “And the next line indicates you’re stuck there until you release the goblet and give it back.” She pouted her lips out. “I don’t see that happening, considering we don’t know who she was.”

“Yes, I have ascertained the same.” His tone was defeated and rather morose.

She shook her head and looked up at him. “I am not getting this last line.”

“I have drawn the same conclusion as you.”

“Or his heart thaws to open and find what he never sought before? What have you never sought before?”

He shrugged a shoulder. “I am certain I do not know. My heart is not cold, as she states it to be. I lived a carefree life, yet was always sure to smile and return kind with kind...so I do not comprehend what its meaning is.”

She watched him as he spoke. His gestures continued to remind her of his masculinity. “Have you ever been in love?”

A defensive look crossed his face as he looked in her direction. “I am certain I can claim such emotions from time to time.”

“Yeah, I guess everyone has been in one way or another.” She tapped her pen on the book and thought for a moment. “This sucks! Obviously the last line is the out if the goblet isn’t returned, and it’s encrypted so no one can figure it out.”

“I cannot express what I feel about your wanting to assist me with this, Miranda.”

She looked up at him, knowing her eyes were betraying how she felt when he said her name. She’d never really liked her name, but coming from him, in that tone, made her happy. She smiled at him. “Let’s hope I actually do help, then.”

As he lifted his hand slowly toward her, she couldn’t have moved if the house was on fire. He stopped his hand just when it would have touched her skin and held it over her cheek. The tingling across her skin told her that his hand was large and would have made her feel petite and secure if she’d been able to truly feel it there.

“I find your very presence a help, Miranda.” His eyes had darkened, telling her that he also felt the faintness of this contact and it drew her to him even more. She felt his thumb move so if they were actually touching it would have brushed lightly over her lips. “And I thank you for it.” He moved his hand away slowly.

Randy felt her body shiver all the way down her spine. She watched his pale eyes darken with the same lust she felt. Letting out a slow breath she looked at his mouth and then back to his eyes. “You don’t need to thank me. Believe me, I have my own reasons for wanting to help you through this. They may not be the same as yours, but they are strong enough to motivate me.”

He watched the way her chest heaved a few times and looked back up to her eyes. “My reasons for wanting to have flesh again, they may not stray too far from your own, little one...or so I am coming to hope these past few dawns.” When she continued to sit there and look upon him with desire in her eyes, he could only stare back. He wasn’t sure how long they sat as such, but he finally cleared his throat. “I find the strong need to have some moments away from you at this time. For a short while, at least.”

His words reached her brain and finally processed. She sat straighter. “Oh! Okay.” She didn’t want him to leave, but who was she to barge into his years of solitude?

Jareth stood slowly and looked down at her. His eyes caressed her hair as he wished his hand could. They moved slowly over the swell of her breasts that her top revealed to him, just as his mouth longed to do. “May I return this eve?”

Randy nodded slowly.

He felt like a giant towering over her where she sat. The imagery only made him feel more enticed by her petite size, and all of his senses flooded with lustful wants. He smiled down at her. “I shall return this eve then, and perhaps we can further progress in the breaking of this curse.”

She nodded again but didn’t speak. He turned as he was leaving to find her eyes followed his every movement. Her cheeks were flushed and his breathing was still fast. After letting his eyes stray over her once more, he left with ease.

~

Jareth stood just beyond where he knew she could sense him and watched her through the window. His breath caught in his throat as he saw her lean back and sprawl, legs wide open in her chair with wheels. Her bare middle was calling him as it was completely stretched out before him in her position. He clenched his jaw and wished for a way to lightly nip the soft flesh between his teeth.

Her breasts were rising and falling to match his. Her hands traveled from her knees up over her thighs to rub the center of her body a few times before moving to caress her bare middle. His groin was immediately inflamed and throbbing with needs he thought long dead. Groaning, he rubbed his hand firmly over his own hardness and tried to ease the ache of wanting her. It didn’t help to know that she wanted him in the same manner as he did her. The idea that she was wet and needing his touch as much as he was hard and needing her, made him growl again in frustration. He watched her for a few more moments before turning to go wander to another destination to distract his lust-filled mind.

Silently, he cursed the gypsy who had done this to him. To take his body but leave all his manly urges was a torment worse than any other he could name.