Chapter Twenty-One: Sarah's Luck.
Very few things in life had the amazing capacity to confound Sarah as thoroughly as Jareth did. He was cunning and controlled and, above all, he knew his opponent well. The man knew (or at least claimed to know) what her dreams were made of, and if that wasn't a reflection of the soul then she didn't know what was. It wasn't fair, because when it came right down to it, Sarah knew next to nothing about the Fae lounging on the opposite side of the coffee table. He wasn't to be trusted or taken at face value either, but what else? She didn't know, and it terrified her. In the end, she had absolutely no idea why he was doing any of this at all. She couldn't rule out the possibility of revenge, but then, she couldn't support it either. There were better ways to make someone suffer for their victory; of course, given her general amount of discomfort over everything that had happened, there probably weren't many other ways that would be as entertaining for him.
Jareth's eyes flashed like blue flames, content arrogance radiating from his every move. "Pay up," that decadent voice said in a tone that was quiet, but carried to her ears all the same.
"No; I still think you're cheating!" Sarah glared at him. It was true that the Goblin King was damn easy on the eyes, but when every line of his face conveyed a growing ego she just wanted to slap him.
"Don't be silly. We both played fairly and you lost. Now pay up," he said in amusement, but there was also an undercurrent of command in his statement; he would not be robbed of his prize.
She huffed and glowered, but she had no actual proof that he was cheating. "Fine," she growled, upset, "take it!" Jareth grinned devilishly while reaching across the table; Sarah cast a longing glance at the apple pastry that was slowly being dragged away from her. She pouted as he began to reshuffle the deck, his fingers manipulating the pasteboard court with a mastery that would have made even the most skilled con-artists envious. If she had known that he was so good at Blackjack then she wouldn't have agreed to play!
After reaching their compromise, Jareth had suggested that, for the sake of appearances, they go downstairs and continue convincing everyone they were a happy normal couple. Not wanting to face another of Karen's overeager interrogations, Sarah decided that they would play cards. It was something that a lot of people did, and would allow them to make their presence known without becoming the target of uncomfortable conversation. They had had trouble agreeing on a game, seeing as most of the ones he was familiar with she had never heard of, but Blackjack was something they both had in common. Traditionally, Sarah would only bet with cookies but Toby had finished the box off the night before, Jareth had absolutely no use for her money, and she refused to bet anything relatively important. In the end they had settled on some of the different fruit pastries that Karen had left out. Things had gone so smoothly that she should have realized something was wrong; she should have known better than to do anything he seemed so willing to participate in.
It wasn't like she was a state-champion or anything, but Sarah fancied herself a rather skilled player at cards. Well, if she was skilled then he was a master. She had won the third hand and no more, as testified by the small collection of bite-sized desserts on Jareth's side of the coffee table.
"Don't pout Sarah. You're not doing that badly," he commented after he had finished dealing. The sincerity of his statement was completely ruined by the fact that he was still smiling, rather too widely if you asked her.
"One out of ten games, Jareth. Yeah, I'm really giving you a run for your money," she bit out sarcastically.
"Your luck is hardly his fault Sarah. Now don't be a sore looser," Karen put in from the sofa, where she had been watching them from behind a magazine for the past half hour.
Jareth snickered. How wrong that woman was! True, he wasn't manipulating the cards in the slightest; he had determined to leave that up to simple chance, so Sarah's losses were her own. The rest of her luck, however, had quite a bit to do with him. He would relish the day when it had a lot more to do with him, but until then he would content himself with the dance that their social interaction had become. There was simply no end to the subtle ways that they could outmaneuver each other. He would win when it all came to a finish, but she was most certainly a worthy opponent.
Sarah growled as she lost another hand and Jareth decided that he loved it; such an angry and bestial sound coming out of those sweet rosy lips made him burn. It wasn't a noise that tiny human females should have been able to make; it was guttural, restless, animalistic. It was him.
How long before she noticed that her capabilities were beginning to stretch beyond the norm? A slight change in her vocal powers was hardly something that would make itself readily apparent but still, if the Karen-creature's shocked glance was anything to go by, it wasn't entirely subtly either.
Sarah gathered the cards and began to angrily (and ineptly) shuffle the deck. "We're switching games," she commanded, frowning at what was left of her own pastry stash.
Jareth smiled and shook his head slightly. He would indulge the childish behavior for now, she was simply too adorable when she was frustrated, but he would have to teach her how to accept defeat with grace later on. For him it was refreshing to be confronted with such genuine emotion, however raw, but there was a chance that others would see it as a most unbecoming trait, and that simply wouldn't do.
"Ah. What are we playing now then, dearest?" he asked, emphasizing the endearment just to bother her, knowing she couldn't say anything with her stepmother in the room. She had avoided discussing the kiss with him so far, but he knew it was only a matter of time before Sarah tried to lay down some ground rules. He suppressed a smirk; she was going to have to say something eventually because, whether she liked it or not, couples had a tendency to get at least mildly physical, even in public. Royalty be damned, there was simply no way that he was going to pass up the opportunity to learn Sarah more intimately, not when it was finally within his rights to do so (however shady those rights may currently be).
She gave him a look. Not quite a glare, he noted; perhaps they were making progress. "War. That way we'll probably end the game before either of us wins, and I'll be able to eat some of these pastries before you steal them all."
"I didn't steal a single one," he reminded her as she began to deal, "I won them fair and square."
From the sofa, Karen laughed. "You two already sound like a married couple."
No one ever finished a game of War; no one except Jareth, apparently. Still, she had managed to eat most of what she had had left before the game was over. So all in all, it hadn't been a total loss. There had been some nice dessert, and Karen now seemed to think they were the perfect couple. It still worried her how much her family was taken with him, seeing as it would simply complicate things when he ran out of time, but she had resolutely told herself not to think about it. She would just have to take things as they came, because trying to plan anything was completely fruitless and would probably drive her insane.
They had finally drifted away from cards before Jareth had politely informed everyone that he had to leave. It was, and was not, a relief. He had behaved, and now she had at least one explanation that she could ask for. She should have felt relaxed knowing that a little more of her time had been paid back and, at present, she was delightfully alone. But for how long?
It made her uneasy.
He could come back. After all, Jareth didn't have to play by the rules of a normal boyfriend, not if he didn't want to.
Sarah shifted in front of her vanity, gazing at her reflection, trying to organize her thoughts. There was something else that was making her uneasy.
Until that moment, her brain had put off thinking about the kiss. Everything had just happened so fast… Well, she had jumped at his suggestion to go downstairs for more than just the sake of appearances. If she kept her mind busy with something else, with being a believable couple, then it couldn't focus on that one event until it had recovered enough to make sense of any of it.
Sarah hadn't recovered enough, that was the only explanation. Just thinking about the way his lips had brushed against hers, gently at first and then more persistently once he had gotten a taste, made her blush. Or the way his teeth had delicately scraped across her neck, it made her want to melt, even now, nearly an hour later. It hadn't been natural; she had been kissed before and it had never felt that overwhelming. And that's what it had been, overwhelming; like something within her had been straining to break free. Through some unknown force of will she had managed to stay still but, dear god, how she had wanted to run her hands through his hair, to have parted her lips and deepened the kiss, to really know what if felt like to be consumed by him.
She still did.
A/N: Yes, I do realize that eased you down before building you back up a bit. That wasn't truly my intension, but I can't honestly say I'm sorry. I wanted to make this longer, but I've run out of time so you'll all have to wait for the next chapter. Just as a heads up, I have two research papers to write by March 8th/9th, so Chapter 22 might be a bit delayed. But after that is Spring Break, so I'll try to make it up to you all.
Thank you so much for the reviews! It never ceases to amaze me what wonderful praise and encouragement you're all giving me. Still, if I'm doing something wrong, tell me! Extra special thanks to everyone who said last chapter was yummy, it was the first time I've written about a kiss so the kind words were greatly appreciated.
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Disclaimer: I do not own anything that came from the movie Labyrinth. Any similarity between this and other stories is purely coincidental, and not meant in any harmful way whatsoever.