A/N: Hello, hello, to all you readers. As we near the end of this little journey, I'd just like to say thank you for all your reviews and support. Well, here's the chapter I know you've all been waiting for… but let me first just reinstate the R-rating! "Smut, smut, smut!" a gaggle of voices screams out.> Woah, hold on there… I tried, but I don't know how smutty this really is. I'm afraid I don't have any prior experience in that sort of writing, and although I sure can read it, the thought of writing it makes me wanna run to my room to bury my head in a pillow.

Disclaimer: I'm almost done anyway, so I promise to put them back before anyone realizes they're gone.




Best Laid Plans

- Chapter 9 -


Lights off
Time to set this party off
Baby pull down the shades
They're gonna be like that for days
Clothes off
For a private dance tonight
I wanna take you down horny street tonight

Baby let's keep it private cause
Were getting ready to ride it
Ecstasy on the balcony
Going down for more on the kitchen floor
Slipping and sliding
I want you to ride it
On my knees I'll have you screaming wait, wait, wait,
Don't let it go

Don't you wanna come along for the
Ride of your life (somebody)
Somebody's gotta be on top
Cocoa butter skin I can't wait till I get in
Your body
Somebody's gotta be on top

--Joe, "Somebody Gotta Be On Top"--



Sarah grasped the collars of his shirt with both hands, pulling at them and giving him no choice but to follow the path to the bed. Just as he seemed resigned to his fate and his lips moved in to meet hers, she twisted her body and rolled them both across the bed so that she was on top, straddling his waist. For a moment she remained as she was, staring down into his bewildered expression. Certainly, this wasn't the side of Sarah he had expected to see—hell, it wasn't even a side of her that she had believed existed. But it was one that she had decided she enjoyed.

With a smile serving as her only warning, she suddenly reached down and ripped open his shirt, sending the few remaining buttons flying in various directions. "And these are going to have to go," she murmured, pulling off his black leather gloves and tossing them aside. Then running her hands over his smooth chest, she leaned forward to kiss him. When she pulled back, she saw the familiar smile settling on his lips and the sudden shift in his demeanor caused her heart to leap to her throat.

"Equal treatment, Sarah," he whispered, and before she could even contemplate the meaning of his words, she was on her back again. And her t-shirt was gone. He hadn't even taken it off, just magicked it away.

"That's not fair!" she replied with a slight, unconscious pout. After she had to work so hard to get his off him the old-fashioned way, he took the easy way out!

His deep rumbling laughter accompanied his next words, "Then I wonder how you'll feel about this." Now her shorts were gone.

Suddenly realizing that she was dressed in only her panties, Sarah blushed a mild shade of red. The bravado that had brought her this far was starting to crumble. But still, she had come too far to walk away now. With a small, shy smile, she replied, "Equal treatment."

A smirk on his face, he leaned back away from her. "My pleasure."

The next thought to enter Sarah's mind was, Oh my god, he doesn't wear underwear! Not that, if she really stopped to think about it, she believed that he would, but the fact was that she hadn't stopped to think. Hence, she was not quite prepared to see—that. The shock was more than evident on her face, and she couldn't help but stare.

When Sarah realized that Jareth was finding a great deal of amusement at her reaction, she snapped her mouth shut and pulled her eyes away, up to his face.

With a mock repentant expression, he remarked, "It looks like I got a step ahead of myself." He reached down and hooked his thumbs in the waist of her panties. Just as it looked as if he were going to pull them down, he abruptly tore the material right off her and tossed it aside. Cocking his head slightly to one side, he glanced at her and asked, "Better?"

If it weren't for the butterflies that had invaded her stomach over the course of the past five minutes, Sarah would have laughed at the question. Instead she only gulped and stared back at him with wide eyes.

Jareth paused, taking in her expression and the sudden shift in attitude. "Why so suddenly shy?" he asked, his desire even more evident now that he was naked.

Sarah shook her head. "I'm just…" but her voice died out as she realized that she didn't have the words to explain how she felt.

"Afraid?"

She wanted to deny that, she didn't want to admit to such a weakness. But they were no longer in the Labyrinth, no longer opponents, and there was no reason to put up false fronts. "A little," she replied.

"Sarah," he said softly, "There's no reason to be afraid anymore." As she stared into his eyes, filled with an expression she had never before seen there, filled with love, she found it easy to believe him.

She reached up with her arms, and wrapped them about his neck, pulling him closer. "Show me," she whispered. "Show me how not to be afraid."

Letting himself be drawn down, he said again, "My pleasure." As their lips met, his hands slid down her body, one to rest against the curve of her hip, and the other to cup a breast, thumb grazing against an already-erect nipple. Her gasp was swallowed by his mouth as he continued kissing her, his tongue exploring her with gentle insistence until she returned in kind.

Slowly, his lips began to descend, placing open-mouthed kisses along her neck and the length of her collarbone. Everywhere he passed, he left behind a wet trail of tingling flesh. By the time he reached the top of her breasts, Sarah's breath was coming in small panting gasps, and her chest heaved with the effort. When his mouth replaced his recently departed thumb, she arched her back and cried out.

He teased her with lips, tongue, and teeth, moving from one breast to the other until she was little more than a quivering pile of nerves and vocal chords. Her hands clutched desperately at the silky blond hair, and some time during the whole affair her legs had managed to wrap themselves around him once again. She found herself unconsciously thrusting against him in perfect rhythm to the movements of his mouth.

When he finally turned his attention from her breasts, it was like when he'd pulled away to "talk", only a hundred times worse. Opening her eyes to see why he'd stopped, she found him gazing back at her, his eyes so darkened with passion they were nearly black. At that contact he abruptly entered her, causing Sarah to cry out from the shock of it. With one more sudden movement, he buried himself completely within her, and when the searing pain hit her, it was all she could do not to scream.

Immediately Jareth stilled his movements, and as he looked down into her face, his expression one of concern, he kissed away the few tears that had managed to make their way down her cheeks.

"Are you alright?"

Swallowing a sob, Sarah nodded. She wasn't really; all the lust, the passion, and desire had all but deserted her in the past thirty seconds. But somehow she was of the belief that such an answer would have been inappropriate in the present circumstances.

Still Jareth restrained himself to kisses along her face and mouth, his hands gentle and seductive on her body, causing the feelings that had been lost to rebuild. Finally the pain receded and she squirmed under him. "You can, um, move now," Sarah told him, a slight flush appearing along her body.

Jareth smiled at the discomfort that was no longer pain. "As you wish," he replied, laying a simple, closed-mouth kiss on her lips before he obligingly pulled out and thrust back in.

This time Sarah's cry was of a completely different nature. It was hard to believe that this same motion had caused so much agony only moments earlier, but she found herself unable to dwell on the fact as he repeated his actions.

Jareth continued his movements at an ever-increasing pace and soon Sarah was returning his thrusts with her own. She was enveloped in a warmth that defied the temperature of the room, sweat breaking out along the length of her body and mingling with the salty liquid that fell from his. Her hands clutched at empty air above her head, until his reached up to join them, their fingers entwining in an intimate embrace.

The tempo increased, faster and faster, her eyes fluttering open to find him staring down at her. And she couldn't look away, not even if she had wanted to. But why would she want to?

Then, overcome by a sensation she could never hope to capture in words, she abruptly tensed, her body arching up as much as his would allow. It was as if her world was falling down around her, and on her lips was the name that was always meant to be there, which she screamed it out with abandon in her ecstasy, "Jareth!"




- END OF CHAPTER 9 -



A/N: Before you say anything, let me just tell you all why I wrote this scene the way that I did. I've read a lot of fics where Jareth seduces Sarah (well, it is in character), but I was really intrigued by the idea that when it came down to it, what if it were the other way around? Hell, why not. Besides, it gives her a form of power in the relationship that she wouldn't have if it were the other way around. I mean, she's always seemed (to me, at least) afraid of "giving in", and this was a way that I could see them ending up together without her doing just that. Okay, enough of my opinion, please tell me what you think.