Accepting: Chapter 4

Jareth was the first to wake. It took only moments to register that he held a sleeping girl in his arms. He moved a few tendrils of dark hair away from her face. She stirred and he thought that she was awake, but when he heard her mumble he realized she was dreaming.

"Jareth? Where are you?" His heart jumped at the sound of his name on her lips. He held her tighter to show her that he was there.

"No, stay back! Help! Jareth!" she was screaming now and awoke, flinging herself into a sitting position.

"Shh...I'm here. It was only a nightmare." He comforted, while embracing her once again.

"It was so real. That monster was chasing me. He was so close, I could feel his breath hot against the back of my neck."

"I won't let the creature harm you again." He soothed.

For a few minutes, Sarah stayed close to Jareth's hard, bare chest. His scent of wild trees and musk calmed her. Jareth reveled in simply being close to the woman he loved.

"Lets get you dressed." Jareth said when she began to untangle herself from his arms.

"Um… I think I can do that on my own, thank you." She shortly replied.

"Lets see you try." He smirked.

Sarah knew he had that old smirk on his face and wanted to slap it off, if only she could see where his face was at the moment. Instead she just sighed.

"Could you just hand me a dress and lead me to the changing curtain? Please."

Jareth could never have ignored her plea, even if he wanted to. "I can do better than that." He stated and with a wave of his hand she was changed into a light green dress. Her outfit was made complete with matching slippers on her dainty feet.

She felt her body and realized she was now dressed for the day. "Th…Thank you. That was easier than I expected."

He went to her and took her hand in his. He raised that hand to his lips and placed a delicate kiss on her open palm. "Anything for my queen." He whispered and was rewarded with a blush that peeked out from beneath the bandages that covered her injured eyes.

000

After the brief ordeal of getting her dressed, Jareth led Sarah down the staircase and into the dining room. She fared rather well at feeding herself, only missing her mouth a few times to the delight of Jareth, who had to cover his mouth to hide his mirth.

"How old are you?" she suddenly asked while they were eating.

"Old enough." He answered around a mouthful of bread.

"No, seriously. How old are you?"

"Hundreds of years old. But I don't feel a day over ninety-nine." He joked.

"Hundreds of years. Wow, that's ol….um…I mean…" she stuttered.

"You think I am old." He finished for her, with a smile. "To a fae, hundreds of years are comparable to months from a human perspective. So I am somewhere around thirty in your time."

"Oh, well that's not so bad." She stated. After a few more bites of food she opened her inquisitive mouth again. "Are you immortal?"

"Yes and no. If you mean immortal as in I cannot be killed, then no. But if you mean immortal as in able to live on for many, many years without looking any older than I do now, then yes."

"Am I now immortal?"

"No...well at least, not yet. You will only become immortal after we…" he searched for a delicate way to put this…"consummate our marriage."

"C…consummate!" she stuttered. 'I hope that means something else here than it means where I come from!' she thought frantically.

"Yes, but only when your ready." He soothed in a loving voice.

She sat there for a few minutes, now too stunned to eat. She searched for some way to change the subject.

"When will my eyes be healed?"

"Hopefully, no longer than a month. I do not think that you will want to wear those bandages to our wedding ball. They would certainly clash with your gown." He said with a smirk.

"Wedding ball?"

"When a fae couple is married, there is always a ball." He replied, matter-of-factly.

"Oh." Was her reply and she went back to her half eaten, nearly cold, breakfast.

000

Not such an exciting chapter but I do love making Jareth so cute! Thanks for the reviews! More reviews faster updates.