Ring Around the Rosie
In the beginning it had been a game. A boring game, to be precise, one he'd won a thousand times before. The selfish, spoiled children who'd run rampant through his wild kingdom, playing a game of life and death, was too numerous to count. Sarah had been no different, just another willful child with pale jade green eyes and a hair-trigger temper. He had played with her as an old cat plays with a mouse - almost with disinterest but with enough predatory instinct to keep up the ruse. But he hadn't been paying attention and now she was closer to the heart of the labyrinth than anyone had ever been. It was an accident on his part, a neglectful oversight. Nothing more. But it was high time he took back control.
The peach was a bit of a joke on his part, a splash of fantasy and illusion to demonstrate a universal truth about teenage girls. They all pined for the dark hero, whose raw sexuality and animal magnetism could be trapped within the structured confines of a dance of love. He played the game of love better than anyone, grace and charm mingling sweetly with the subtle taste of taboo. His gaze lingered just a little too long, his gloved hand pressed just a little too close, and his words danced just a little too close to crossing the line between suggestion and offer. He employed a piercing wit to keep them guessing, and sporadic kindness to temper the sting. They all lived to circle in his orbit, a ring of women falling at his feet in the throes of love.
But for all their fevered passion it was a game for them too. He was untouchable and irresistible, the perfect device in the game of love, where satisfaction is the surest path to defeat. Yearning, not possession, was the food of love. Without want, humankind would wither and die. So he teased and tempted, letting them whirl around him in a riot of color while remaining forever out of reach.
He kept the greatest distance from her. Sarah was looking for him, he knew, a sugar-spun lily in a field of damask roses. Her inexperienced heart was still searching for the fantasy of a love that lasted forever. She hadn't yet realized her greatest dream was an ephemeral phantom. Until now she'd been reaching for stars. Now he was the moon that dominated her sky. But Jareth would never admit that sometimes he tired of this orrery.