Chapter 16. Unscheduled session

Sarah opened her eyes as shadows danced on the wall looking like strange little creatures moving about. She sat up feeling groggy, her mouth tasting like cotton wadding. "Where am I?" She asked aloud.

"My office." A voice said from behind her. "Would you care for a glass of water?"

Nodding, she spoke. "Please." She held out her hands to accept the glass and drink slowly to relieve the dryness of her parched mouth. "What happened? The last thing I remember clearly is pushing Meg's brother off me in the park."

Mayfaire took a seat on the couch beside her and looked at her eyes. "I think you were drugged."

"Drugged?" Sarah scoffed. "I don't do drugs."

"I didn't think you did." He said with confidence. "I think someone used a chemical on you to make you open to suggestions. Your coat smelled like it had been soaked in paint thinner." Carefully he measured her reactions.

"Meg said her scarf had been at the cleaners." Sarah handed the glass shakily back. "Why would Meg do something like that?"

"Tell me what you remember, Sarah." Mayfaire ordered.

Her head was beginning to throb and his voice was irritating. "I don't remember." She said crossly. "Meg asked me to meet her and Lana and Terry at the rink. We skated and then went to the park to eat." She placed a hand to her throbbing forehead. "We were messing with the scarf that Meg was wearing and she wrapped it around my face." Her head now was pounding. "I need an aspirin." She complained. "My head feels like it's a drum in a rock band."

Mayfaire left her for a moment, returning only when he had tablets for her to take. "She wound a scarf around your face?"

Sarah took the tablet and nodded. "Yeah."

"Where did Meg's brother come from?" The man asked softly, seeing she was really in pain.

"He was at the rink with friends." Sarah shrugged and leaned back not able to stay upright. "I feel like I want to die. Is this what a hangover is like?"

"Somewhat, yes." He placed a cool hand to her brow.

Sarah looked up at him, a soft smile on her lips. "You saved me again, Goblin King."

"Are we back to that?" He asked.

"I'm so sorry," she reached for the hand at her brow.

"For what?" He asked gently.

"For being so rude to you in the tunnel for starters," Sarah sighed. "I didn't mean it."

Mayfaire raised a brow and gave her a sarcastic smirk, "Oh, you didn't?"

Sarah shook her head slowly from side to side; "It was just that you were being so intimidating, and I," she paused, placing her own hand on her head, trying to spot the renewed pain caused by trying to shake her head. "I wasn't sure what you really wanted, leaning over me that way." Sarah sighed. "Did you have to drop me into an oubliette?"

Mayfaire pulled back, "Sarah, do you even know what an oubliette is?"

Sarah still held the hand over her brow; "It's a place you put people to forget about them." He tried to pull his hand back, and she gripped it tighter. "But you didn't look at me like someone who wishes to forget."

"Who could possibly want to forget you, Sarah?" He said before he'd thought about the consequences of the statement.

Sarah sat up again, "I am sorry, will you forgive me?"

Mayfaire's face held a strange expression. "Sarah," he warned. "I'm not your Goblin King."

Crushed, the girl reclined. "Are we back to this?"

"Sarah," the man stood up, pacing room to keep busy. "I believe you were traumatized by the events of that storm, overwhelmed by the responsibilities of babysitting a teething baby, and perhaps other issues were at play. The French doors opened, an owl entered the room and you concocted this fantasy after reading a story and playing it out earlier in the day."

"I didn't concoct the helping hands or the oubliette!" She called out defensively.

Intrigued he moved back to the couch and his patient; "Helping hands?"

Crossing her arms over her chest she groused; "Yeah, helping themselves to a quick cop-a-feel, if you ask me." Suddenly, she sat up and curled her legs under her. "And the way you dressed Hoggle! I mean that vest was," she searched for a word. "Overt!" She crossed her arms once more and gave him a sharp nod to emphasis her comment.

Mayfaire took a seat, "Hoggle?"

"The dwarf you sent to take me back to the start of the Labyrinth," she said in an ill-humored tone.

Taking a different tact, he crossed his arms, mirroring her. "What was wrong with his vest?" He challenged.

"Look, I like a good joke as much as the next guy, but that face in leather with the tongue hanging out… I mean really, what was I to think?" She huffed.

"What indeed?" He teased, cocking a brow at her. "What did you think, Sarah? How did seeing that vest make you feel?"

"I felt nothing." She lied, but seeing his brow go even further up, she sighed. "Okay, I felt naughty, dirty!" she dropped her arms turning her head away from him; "Excited."

"And the helping hands, how did they make you feel?" He asked in a dark tone that demanded an answer.

"Turned on, is that what you want to hear?" she leapt from the couch. "I was turned on! Hands all over me, touching me, feeling me, groping, and I was turned on." She turned her back to the man.

"Sounds like fun." He quipped.

Sarah spun around, "Well maybe to a sick mind like yours, Goblin King, but not to me!"

He gave her no time to retreat, but stood up and took her chin into his fingers and said in a low growl; "Little liar."

Sarah shivered under the fingers gently touching her chin. She backed up. "I'm not lying." She kept backing away until she'd backed herself into a wall. The man standing uncomfortably close placed on arm over her head on the wall. Sarah gasped for breath; he was repeating the way he'd stood in the tunnel after she'd escaped the oubliette. Her lips parted to speak but no words would form. She plastered herself to the wall and looked up at him, trying to and succeeding in intimidating her once again. He smiled at her and raised one elegant brow.

"Enjoying ourselves, are we?" He asked cockily.

Sarah heard the roar of blood in her ears, struggled to breathe and stared at his mouth. "Do you have to do that?" she asked in a moan.

"Do what," he bent closer.

"Be so damned sexy?" her voice was a whispered capitulation.

Mayfaire pressed closer. "Does it frighten you?"

"Yes." She gasped.

"But you want it, don't you?" He teased with eyes and warmth he knew she could feel. "You want it bad, don't you?"

"Is this your way of getting even with me for winning?" She asked. "Coming here, making everyone think you're some kind of doctor? Making everyone think I'm some kind of sexually deranged teen?"

He laughed softly, "Sarah, all teens are sexually deranged." She watched his lips speak, he pressed on. "What did you want, Sarah?"

"My brother." She gulped.

"Was that all you wanted?" his breath bathed her face.

"No," She closed her eyes refusing him, refusing the memory, but unable not to answer. Green eyes opened, pleading with him for mercy.

"Sarah." He said softly. "Don't turn back now."

"That's not what you said at the beginning." She gulped. "You told me to go back to my room, play with my costumes and my toys."

"Sarah, the way forward…"

"Is the way back," She finished her eyes filled with tears.

Mayfaire withdrew his arm from above her. "Sarah, I'm not the Goblin King."

"Liar." She closed her eyes, and slapped her hand on the wall behind her. "Liar!"

"Sarah, come and sit down." He took her arm, leading her back to the couch. "I think some of your imagination has gotten the better of you. You're at a time in your life that is filled with change."

Sarah looked at him, hurt in the green eyes. "I don't trust you, and I don't believe you."

Mayfaire whispered, "Sarah, were I this Goblin King, do you really think I'd be so reserved with you?"

"You're trying to trick me, again." She moaned.

"No," he said firmly. "Someone is, but not me." He rose up and brought her coat over to her, he sniffed the collar and handed it her way. "Smell that collar, and tell me what you smell."

She looked at him with doubt, but did as she was bid, and withdrew her face. "That's the smell that was on Meg's scarf."

"I think for some reason Meg wants to incapacitate you." He advised her softly.

Sarah glared at him, "No," she stomped her foot in a childish display of temper. "No! This is you all over again, Goblin King. Meg is my friend. Just like Hoggle was my friend. You made him give me that poisoned peach, and now you want me to think that Meg tried to," she pulled her coat on defiantly. "Send your bill to my father for this littleunscheduled session; I'm sure he'll be happy to pay you for your time."

Mayfaire watched as she stormed out the door. He heard the flapping of wings above and sighed as he answered the desk phone that now began to ring. "Yes, yes, she's gone." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'll be along shortly."