"It's snowing," Sarah said, looking from Jareth's third story window. "Did you do that?"

Beside her, Jareth shook his head. "No," he answered, looking down at the street where large, pure white flakes were beginning to cover the sidewalks and the awnings of the buildings. The snow swirled around the lights of the lamp posts, glistening in their glow and scattering over the street below like stardust. Sarah touched a finger to the cold window pane where a few big flakes had fallen and stuck, their crystalline patterns bright white against the backdrop of black sky.

Jareth leaned toward her and nuzzled against her neck. She smelled like evergreen and candlewax. Sarah turned in to him and kissed the top of his tousled head. He had calmed a bit since his nightmare, but there was still a sense of unease radiating from him. He was still tense, guarded.

"Tell me what's wrong," she whispered to him.

"Nothing," he said, his head still on her shoulder. "Nothing is wrong. Now."

He raised his head and kissed her mouth. Taking her face in his hands, he kissed her cheeks, then her nose, then her eyes. His lips returned to hers, softly brushing over the corners of her mouth before sweeping down and across her jawline. His mouth stopped at her ear.

"Sarah," he whispered and she shivered. "Sarah love, come to my bed."

She gave him a peck on the lips and a sweet smile before answering. "Okay," she said, taking him by the hand and letting him lead her down the hall.

Jareth kissed her in the doorway as if asking permission to proceed further and Sarah answered in kind, giving him her unequivocal consent. He pulled her through the door and into the shadowed bedroom. His large platform bed loomed in the middle of the room, unrumpled and beckoning and Sarah wondered how long it had been since Jareth had used it for romantic purposes. How often had Luca laid there tangled with him? Had there been anyone since? Surely there must have been others. Maybe one of those silly co-eds from…

"Earth to Sarah," Jareth said quietly at her ear. "Where did you go, love?"

"Sorry," she said, blushing. "I'm just… I was wondering… How long has it been, Jareth? Since-" She didn't finish the sentence.

Jareth smiled, understanding exactly what she was asking. "Oh, I'm a terrible slut," he answered. "I had a threesome up here just last night."

"What?!" Sarah cried and he threw back his head and laughed.

"Oh Sarah, love," he cooed. "Ridiculous, beautiful Sarah. Does it matter?"

"I'm only curious," she replied.

He took her hands in his and kissed them. "I've not been close to anyone in quite some time," he told her. "Intimacy is not something I take lightly, at least not as I am now. As the king of the goblins I may have been a bit more generous with my affections, but I was younger and freer then. The Fae aren't quite so concerned with fidelity and romanticized ideals about relationships. I've learned that's not the case for human mortals." He paused and smiled.

"Your kind is terribly romantic. You write songs and poems and paint pictures and make movies about the horrors and wonders of Love. And you feel it fiercely. It burns so bright inside your bones and flesh I don't understand how any of you can breath under its flame. It's what drew me to the Above. I could have gone anywhere, but I chose to be here, living among humanity with its searing, desperate need to love and be loved."

"There's a great deal of hate too, Jareth," Sarah said with a frown. "What happened to Luca-"

"Was a lack of love," Jareth interrupted. "Don't give Hate too much credit, Sarah. It's not a thing on its own. It's merely the absence of Love and like a starving belly, the gnawing emptiness of a heart without love given or received can make people commit terrible atrocities."

"I-" Jareth silenced her with a quick kiss.

"No more talk, Sarah," he said. "We're going to be lovers. Isn't that remarkable?"

She laughed. It was remarkable. She, Sarah Williams, was going to be the lover of the former king of the goblins. It was ridiculous and wonderful.

Jareth pulled her into a sensuous kiss, one that made her heart stop and her brain activity dull into crackling static. His fingers found the buttons of her blouse and made short work of them, opening the garment and pulling it over her shoulders and down her arms. She shrugged out of it, letting it fall to the hardwood floor.

At her neck, Jareth caressed her skin with his lips. His mouth swept down over her collarbone and onto her shoulder. His hand came up to slide the strap of her bra down and Sarah drew in a sharp breath. His teeth gently nipped at her shoulder before his mouth moved downward. With his nose, Jareth nudged the cup of her bra aside and burrowed his face between the lace material and the heated skin of her breast. His hand left her shoulder to cup beneath her breast while his mouth explored the fleshy mound, kissing and sucking at her nipple. She gasped and arched against him and felt him grow rigid against her hip.

Insatiable, Jareth yanked off her bra and buried his face between her breasts. He squeezed them with his hands and circled each rosy nipple with his tongue while Sarah sighed and ground her body against him. He was hard and pulsing against her center and the feel of him was driving her to near madness. She unfastened his leather belt before unbuttoning and unzipping his khaki pants.

Jareth groaned against her breast when her hand slipped beneath the waistband of his boxer briefs and wrapped around his erect shaft.

"Gods, Sarah," he hissed. He leaned back and closed his eyes as she slid her fingers over his satin skin. "That feels so good."

"Yes," said Sarah. He did feel good. Steel and velvet at the same time. She liked the feel of him in her hand and could only imagine how he would feel under her tongue. Between her legs.

"I need you right now," Jareth said, jerking away and turning her toward the bed. Sarah sat down on the bed and scooted backward, lying flat on her back under his intense gaze. From the foot of the bed he stared down at her breasts, rising and falling with her heavy breaths. His erection bobbed from the opening of his pants and Sarah finally got a full view of just how well he was endowed. He grinned at her gaping, obviously pleased by her wide-eyed awe.

With one fluid motion, he removed his pants and underwear and stood over her in only his printed tee-shirt.

"Do you like what you see?" he asked and Sarah nodded, goggle-eyed.

"Well then, fair's fair," he told her, reaching for the ankles of her jeans. He pulled them down her legs and tossed them into a dark corner. Hooking his fingers into the sides of her panties, he slid them off and chucked them away to the same corner her pants had landed in. He yanked his tee-shirt over his head before moving onto the bed. Jareth crawled, hand over hand until he was directly above her, looking down into her eyes.

"Sarah," he said, his voice barely a whisper. "Tell me what you want."

Sarah ran an index finger down the smooth plane of his chest. She brought it back up over his sternum before lightly tracing it around one flat nipple, making him shudder.

Say your right words…

"I want you to fuck me, Jareth," she told him.

He growled and pressed forward and she could feel the heat of him at her inner thigh. His proximity was maddening.

"Jareth, please," she begged.

He smiled above her before bucking his hips and sliding into her center.

Sarah let out a little strangled cry as he filled her, pulsing and stretching. Her nerve endings surged with an exquisite pleasure-pain when he moved inside her, searing and raw but sinfully satisfying. Her body hummed around him as he thrusted in a steadily increasing pace and she felt the tinglings of ecstasy dancing at the base of her spine.

Jareth picked up the pace, softly grunting as he rocked against her. He grabbed one of her legs and wrapped it around his waist groaning in satisfaction when he sank deeper into her. Sarah raked her fingers down his back, feeling the tell-tale stiffening of his body against hers as bliss beckoned.

"Oh Jareth," she moaned and gave herself up to the tidal wave of pleasure that washed over her. Above her, Jareth tensed and spasmed.

"Sarah!" he cried as he came, shuddering and emptying himself inside her.

He collapsed on top of her, panting and quivering with his release. Sarah ran her fingers through his hair and kissed his forehead as their blood slowed and their breathing evened out. Jareth finally heaved himself off her and fell in a heap at her side, a satisfied grin on his face.

"Gods, Sarah, that was…" he couldn't think of an appropriate descriptor. Amazing? Incredible? Magical?

"Mm-hmm," Sarah murmured beside him. He propped up on one arm and looked at her. She was magnificent: her face relaxed, eyes closed, skin flushed and dewy, breasts lifting ever so slightly as she breathed. He leaned over her and kissed her lips and she opened her eyes.

My lover…

She didn't say it with her tongue, but rather with her eyes and he answered by laying a gentle kiss on each breast. She moved in closer to him, nestling into the space under his propped up arm, feeling drowsy and a bit delirious. His heartbeat was at her ear, the steady thrum a soothing lullaby to her buzzing body and blissed-out brain. She felt his fingers comb through her hair and she closed her eyes.

When she opened them again later, he was gone. The space beside her was empty and cold, but the light from the hallway told her he had not gone far. She wrapped a rumpled sheet around her naked body and padded out to the lounge. Jareth was seated in his chair, wrapped in a plush red robe, a book in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. A plate of olive and goat cheese canapes sat beside him on the coffee table. He looked up when she came in.

"Hello, love," he said, smiling. "I hope I didn't wake you."

She shook her head and snatched one of the canapes from the plate before sitting down on the sofa.

"Hungry?" he asked with a sly grin.

"Ravenous," she replied, her grin just as sly.

"I'll make us breakfast later," Jareth said. "Unless you had something else in mind."

"Maybe," answered Sarah. She loosened the sheet a bit and stretched out of the sofa. "It's still dark out. What time is it?"

Jareth squinted up at one of the clocks on the wall. "A bit after three," he said.

"Come here," Sarah commanded.

Jareth smiled and set aside his book and wine and left his chair to sit on the edge of the sofa next to her. Sarah lifted a hand to his cheek and traced the sharp lines of his jaw.

"Did you want to sleep with me when I was fifteen?" she asked.

Jareth chuckled and grabbed her hand and kissed her palm, his tongue flicking out over her fate line. "Yes and no," he answered.

Sarah stared at him with her brow furrowed and he continued.

"You were tempting even then, dear," he admitted. "In the ballroom, I saw your potential. The woman you would become. You looked quite grown-up in your shining gown, but your eyes… Those were not the eyes of a woman ready for a lover. They were the eyes of a young girl still playing dress-up. Others of my kind might have seen nothing wrong with our pairing, but I knew I couldn't pursue you as a romantic partner then."

"But you tried to kiss me."

He leaned down and kissed her lips. "Yes," he said, his voice low. "I may have been mindful of your innocence and naivete, but I still wanted to win."

"Pity you lost."

He cocked his head to one side and smiled. "Did I?" he asked.

"I'm ready to go back to bed," Sarah told him, matter-of-factly. "Are you coming?"

"Oh, most definitely."

A/N:

Surprise! It's my birthday week so I've brought YOU a gift in the form of an early BONUS chapter! I hope you enjoyed the sexy times.

Many of you are putting the pieces together regarding Jareth's dark secret. There will be a lot revealed about Sarah in Thursday's chapter, so stay tuned!

Thanks!

~Fanny~