Chapter 10

The rain finally stopped, well after dark. The sky cast the moon’s shadow across the house as they sat close to the computer going through the e-mails that had begun to trickle in from the fortune tellers.

Randy sighed and deleted another e-mail. Most of those that had come back so far were ads for amazing services at discount prices. Those were deleted immediately. She glanced at Jareth again out of the corner of her eye; he had been acting strangely since he’d come back. He wasn’t very talkative, and when she asked him anything she received short, blunt, colorless answers. He kept changing the subject and only wanted to talk about the e-mails. He had wanted to leave twice so far and he’d only been there a little over an hour. She could feel his eyes on her again and turned to look at him. “Are you okay?”

He frowned. “I am fine. Why do you ask?”

She sat back in the chair and turned it to face him. “I don’t know, every time I look at you, you’re giving me a look...”

“Which look?” He sat back and studied her.

“That one right there! It’s like you want to tell me something, but you aren’t sure of what to say.”

“I apologize.”

“You don’t have to apologize. Just either stop giving me that weird look or say what you want to say.”

“I cannot,” he stated quietly.

“Can’t what? Say what you want or stop looking at me...”

He stood up and paced a few feet away before spinning back to her. “Do you pass blame to me for this?” He motioned a hand up and down her body. “Look at your reflection and find the answers you seek!” He paced over to the window. His mind was fogged with anger and frustration. He did not want to quarrel with her, yet he could not speak in soft words with her, either.

Randy got up and went over to him. “What is going on?”

Clenching his jaw, he looked down at her. Did the light of the moon have to come through the window to cover her in that way? He walked with a heavy foot, wishing his boot were real enough to pound on the floor. He was on the other side of the room before he looked back at her. “I have gone alone and completely adrift for so many years at a time...the loneliness consumed me, leaving me wanting to howl as a wounded beast does.” He waved a hand in frustration. “Now, after all I have suffered through, I find I am able to be heard when I speak, to be seen by other eyes, and I have to fight every breath with the way I burn for you.” He walked in large strides closer to her. “I take notice of your every movement, your every breath, and I cannot even touch you one time!”

Miranda stood there, her eyes huge and locked to his. “I’m...I...I feel the same way, Jareth.” She motioned to the monitor. “I’m trying, really I am.”

He hissed out a breath. “I did not imply otherwise.” He looked down into her brown eyes and wished again he had the strength to turn from them. He could tell untruths to himself for the reasons he was here with her, but he could not tell them to her. “I am sorry, little one. I am not of much assistance when I spend all my moments with you looking and...” He sighed.

“And?” she whispered.

His eyes searched hers. “Longing, wanting, craving...” He looked down her body before moving back to her eyes. “The clothes you wear show me how you are shaped beneath, and yet I am still disturbed to absolute distraction with the images inside of my own head that your appealing shape gives to me.”

She tilted her head and looked up at him, her cheeks flushed and eyes soft. “Would you like to see more?”

“Yes,” he hissed as his mind screamed no. How could he put himself through the torment of seeing what he desired more than life and yet not touch, not taste?

She swallowed and turned toward the door. “Come with me.”

He felt like he had as a young lad, following along behind her, not sure what to say or do. All the reason in his head told him to politely take his leave, yet he was not able to speak outside of his own head at that moment.

His stomach clenched, even though he knew he truly did not have one to do so. The last woman he had ever touched had been the gypsy witch, and for that he would regret another thousand years. Being turned into nothing before one managed to tie his pants again tended to take the satisfaction of it away hastily. He shook his head as he followed her slowly up the stairs. He could not be with Miranda, body and flesh, so what was he doing?

Randy paused in the doorway of her bedroom to see if he was behind her. She had no idea what she was doing. Big surprise there, she thought. She had just offered to strip for her pirate, and after that, well, she was lost on what would come next. She walked into the room and stood beside the bed, taking a deep breath before turning.

Jareth stopped and his eyes flew to the bed. It was awash with the glow of the moon, and she knew he wished as much as she did that they could be together right there in that light. He took a few steps, stopped at the foot of the bed, and looked at her; she felt her cheeks get hot just from his glance. “Miranda, you do not...”

She shook her head to stop him. She was a big girl, way past being some silly teenager who didn’t know the score. He wanted to see, so let the man see. The light from the moon shone right through him as it landed on the bed, only reminding her more of how he had suffered for so many years. If stripping for the man would ease the hell he’d been tossed into, then why shouldn’t she?

Exhaling, she reached down to unzip the hooded jacket she had on. Lifting her chin, she looked at his face as she pulled the zipper down slowly. He swallowed as his eyes followed her hand every slow inch of the way. This could be interesting.

Jareth knew he no longer had a heart, yet he was convinced he could feel it pounding with the anticipation of watching her pull the coat from her arms and drop it on the floor. She stood there with one of those half tops on, the stone at her middle reflecting back at him, calling his eyes’ attention.

It was a good thing he did not require air to breathe, for he could not draw breath as her hands moved to unfasten the tight pants she favored wearing. As the cloth slid down over her hips, he was not sure if his eyes should stay where her hands traveled or focus purely on the utterly see-through garment resting on her hips. It was dark purple, a shade he had never set his eyes on before, and it intrigued every inch of him when her pants slid down to her knees and revealed the sum of the fabric; a very modest sum indeed.

Randy kicked her legs out of her jeans, pushing them out of the way, and simply stood there for a few seconds. She wasn’t bothered at all that his eyes were nowhere near her face now. His expression let her know that he more than appreciated lace thongs, even purple ones.

His eyes briefly flicked to hers and she noticed he had that pirate look on his face, the one that said you didn’t argue with him. He motioned with his hand for her to turn around. She suddenly felt shy and looked down at the floor as she slowly turned.

Needing to see what he thought of the back of her thong, or lack of, she turned and looked over her shoulder. She had to smile when she saw him. He stood with his hand over his heart and his head tilted to the side. The expression in his eyes told her all she needed to know, she turned slowly around to face him again.

If Jareth’s life had been at stake, he still would not have been able to speak a word or move to defend it. The garment that she wore, if it could in fact be called a “garment,” was truly the most alluring and arousing thing he had ever seen. Whatever person had created this should have been made a king, or at the very least, a duke.

When her hands grasped the bottom of the half top she wore, his eyes moved up to the stone lying against her flesh. If she had moved any slower in revealing what the snug top concealed, he might have believed she wasn’t moving at all. As more pale flesh was revealed to his eyes, his whole body tensed, giving her the entire focus she was worthy of.

As the cloth moved past her breasts, his groin tightened. To his eyes they were perfection that he had never recalled seeing in all his years before. They were made for a man’s mouth, and not so large they would hinder any activity. He licked dry lips and looked back down to that stone. Each inch revealed to him thus far was any and every man’s dream, or to be sure it should have been.

She dropped the top on the floor and moved her hands to the top of the purple garment. “Do not...” He cleared his throat to find his voice. “Leave it be.” Her hands dropped to her sides. He took his fill of looking at each inch of flesh as his eyes worked their way back to her own.

His mind tried to suggest to the rest of him that leaving would be the best direction. His feet, however, were not caring for it as he started to take slow steps toward her. Her eyes watched him, waiting for him to speak, yet words were not near to the surface of his thoughts.

Randy tried to stand there and wait, but God, the way the man was looking at her. It was like a mix of worship and devouring at the same time, and there wasn’t an inch of her that couldn’t feel it. Her heart was fighting to find a rhythm as she watched him move closer to her. “Did my clothes lie about my shape?” Her voice was soft and shaky.

He looked at her with heavy eyelids, and she felt her own temperature rise. “They did you no justice.” His voice was so thick with lust she could barely understand him.

“Will you do me a favor?” She felt too exposed standing in front of him like this.

“Ask it,” he said with a hoarse voice.

She smiled and looked up and down his body. “At least take off your shirt so I don’t feel alone in this.” Serious, sexy eyes the shade of steel looked at her for a moment before he reached to pull his shirt out of his pants. She bit her lip as he pulled the white shirt over his head and tucked it through the sash at his waist in one practiced move. He made it look so natural that she knew he’d stood on the deck of his ship many hours, just like that. Her eyes moved slowly over his chest and her palms itched to stroke lightly over every inch of it.

He stood there as her eyes caressed his upper half, and he had never felt such torment in his long life. He had never been this aroused, ever. Again his mind attempted to restrain him from any further movement, but his body disregarded it. Stepping closer to her still, he slowly lifted one hand and held the back closer to her face. The slight tingle seemed to be burn this time, and he was glad for it.

Jareth carefully ran the back of his hand to outline the slope and curve from her delicate face down her throat, pausing where he wanted nothing more than to place his mouth lightly. While there was no flesh gliding over flesh, Miranda still took in a ragged breath and her soft noise caused him to forcibly take one as well.

As his hand move down over one perfect globe, he glanced to her face to see her eyes close. He clenched his jaw and swallowed a hard lump down his throat. How could fate be this cruel to him? To her? “Can you sense where my hand lingers, little one?” His voice came out with a rough undertone.

Randy opened her eyes and nodded. “Yes, it’s a warm tingling...and it’s driving me crazy.” An evil smile crossed his mouth briefly as his eyes burned into hers. “Can you feel it, too?” she asked.

“Yes,” he murmured. He continued to move his hand outside of her form downward, noting as his hand passed her nipple how erect it was, begging for his mouth. Heat rushed to his already hard groin, every muscle responded to this, and were he a true man he would not have needed any further persuasion to satisfy the both of them.

His hand moved to the narrowness of her middle and down to the very top of the delightful purple garment before sliding to pass over that tantalizing gemstone, not once but twice. “I feel deep regret for not being man enough to finish this, little one.” Her eyes opened and shot to his face.

She moved both hands toward his chest. “Don’t give up on me yet, pirate man,” she whispered just as her hands reached his skin. He immediately felt the warm feeling touch him. “Do you feel it?” He opened his eyes and looked at her.

He drew in a harsh breath. “Yes.” Her hands moved from his shoulders in toward the center. He could almost feel her soft palms moving over his flesh, and his muscles clenched in response. As her fingers danced slowly down over his ribs and his waist, he sucked in air and clamped his teeth together. It felt like nothing he had known.

He leaned his head down so his mouth was closer to her. “I am halfway to mad with wanting you, Miranda.”

She looked at his face as he leaned closer. “I’m already there.” Her eyes flicked to his mouth. “Is there any way?”

Jareth watched her teeth bite against her lower lip. He lowered his mouth and placed it over hers without bothering with a reply. His lips did not tickle this time; they burned. She gasped, letting him know she felt it as well. He moved his mouth again as if it were brushing against hers. He longed to crush her against him and kiss the air right out of her.

Lifting his mouth away, he leaned his head down to her ear. “I long to feel you beneath me, to feel your breath on my body...” He heard her hiss out a breath. “I’ve a wish to glide my mouth over your skin and taste you.”

“Jareth,” she whispered, turning her face toward him. “Do you...can you -.” She panted softly. “Do you feel, uh...pleasure? I mean, surely in over two hundred years...”

He turned his head to look at her. What could her mind be plotting? “More of a sense of it than fact.” He straightened when she stepped back from him and backed up to the bed. “You cannot mean to...”

“Shh.” She had to do something; she was going to burst into flames if she didn’t. When the back of her knees touched the edge of the bed, she crooked a finger at him to move closer. He did without question as his eyes roved from her feet back to her face. “I figure since I can’t touch you and you can’t touch me”—she paused and then chastised herself; this wasn’t the time to suddenly feel bashful—“we can touch ourselves and be as close as possible.”

He did nothing to stop her as she leaned back on the bed, her legs bent at the knees and feet still dangling toward the floor. She lifted her hands above her head and looked up at him. The way he was looking at her made her feel as if he was trying to consume her. Her own heartbeat was so loud she had to take a deep breath before she could speak.

“Tell me where you’d touch me.” Just the way he was looking at her was making her hotter.

“Everywhere,” he huffed out.

Randy kept her eyes on his face as she slowly lifted her hands to her own. She ran one hand down her neck as the other one slowly moved over her face. She inserted one finger into her own mouth and sucked it briefly before pulling it out and dragged it down over her lip. “Are you hard?” She moved her hand down to her waist and ran her hand over her belly ring.

“Yes.” He groaned.

Her eyes slid down the front of him slowly as her other hand slid over her breast. “Touch yourself for me, Jareth.” She moved her other hand back up and brushed her palms over her aching nipples. “Please.” She gasped. He moved one large hand to rub over the hard length of himself. His eyes closed for a moment before they opened again and burned into hers.

She grasped her own breasts and kneaded them; he rubbed himself again. She lightly pinched her nipples and sucked in a breath. While kneading one breast she moved her other hand down and ran it over the front of her thong. “Do you want me to take them off?”

He squeezed himself through his pants as he watched her hand move over the purple thong. “No,” he growled. He ran his hand up and down the length of himself as her hand moved between her thighs. His eyes flew back up to her other hand that continued to mold her breast firmly.

He had been alone for so long; she ached, wanting to touch him.

“Slide onto the bed further,” he said so low it took her a moment to understand.

She paused to follow his words.

“Place your feet on the bed.” He stroked himself as the globes of her ass were revealed. “Open for me, Miranda.” She obliged him. Her eyes were smoldering as they watched him for his next command. “Moan for me, little one.”

She moved her hand back between her legs, using her other one to pull one knee up further. She watched him as he reached into his pants and stroked himself faster. She rubbed her hand down between her legs gently a few times. Moving her hand back up her body, she ran it inside her thong and hissed at the direct contact with her swollen flesh. Dropping her leg, she moved the hand back to her breast and squeezed it.

Jareth watched as her hand glided up and down her own wetness. She bit her lip and fondled herself, moving faster. He suddenly wanted the covering gone. “Move it so I can see,” he growled. She dropped her other hand down and pulled it to the side to reveal her inflamed wet flesh. She held herself open for him to see as her hand continued to rub, making soft wet noises. He stroked himself hard, clenching his teeth together to keep his eyes open and take the gift she was giving him. “Use your fingers, love.”

Miranda moaned when she inserted her fingers, causing him to harden further. They made a sucking noise as she pulled them out. She lifted her hips and rocked them gently as her hand moved faster. She was panting now and he knew she was close. When she moaned softly in the back of her throat, he had to swallow. She opened her eyes and looked at him, and then she gasped and rubbed faster.

The sounds she made engorged him close to the point of bursting. He dropped to his knees, bringing himself near face level with her wet parts. She moaned again and he fought to control his own breathing. Her legs started to shake as she panted faster; moving her hand so roughly that he felt himself near completion just watching. When she cried out, he finished so abruptly he lost his wind completely.

He crawled up onto the bed and held his body between her legs. When she opened her eyes, she saw him there and gave him a satisfied smile. Lowering himself slightly, he felt the burn travel over every part that would have touched against her if he were not cursed as he was.

Randy sighed. She smiled at him again and slid slowly from beneath him and up to the pillows; he followed without moving from above her.

Lowering his head slowly, he brushed his mouth over hers and then looked into her eyes. “Thank you.”

She grimaced. “Geez, don’t thank me.” She watched him move to lie on the pillow beside her. She turned on her side and looked at him. “I can honestly say I didn’t do anything.”

He opened his eyes and studied her. “I had not so much as a slight urge in more years than I have counted...until these days near you.”

She bit her lip and looked at him. “As soon as we get your body back, I expect many hours of touching...real touching.”

“As you wish, little one. I will endeavour to do nothing but please you for hours too numerous to count.”

She bit her tongue and grinned at him at him for a second. Did she say please, or okay to that? “You’d better,” was the compromise her mouth came out with.

“You must sleep now.”

His commanding tone still sent chills all over her. “Stay.” His eyes told her he was going to object. “Please, I want you to.” His dark lashes lowered, hiding his eyes from her.

“As you wish.” He searched her face for a moment. “I cannot say I will stay within these walls, but I shall vow to be here more than less.”

“Good enough.” She sat up quickly, pulled up the blanket, and slid her feet down under it. When she turned to lie back down, she saw his eyes roving all over her nakedness. “Should I get dressed to sleep?”

“Your body should never be confined to clothes again.”

Her eyes softened for him. “Okay, I’ll do naked more often, but only when we’re alone.”

“A good thing, indeed, for I do not have form enough to kill any other who gazes upon you.” He gave her a wicked smile.

She gave him a curious look. “You’re going to be real trouble when we get your body back, aren’t you?” He gave her a look that screamed sin and promise at the same time. She inhaled deeply and snuggled under the covers. “Good night, my pirate.”

His heart warmed at her words as she closed her eyes. “Sweet dreams, little one.” He leaned back and looked at her as her eyes drifted shut.