Ok, here is next chapter - sorry to have kept you waiting - my classes have finally caught up with me, as hard as i tried to run away! At least its a long chapter!

Thank you so much for your reviews! i hope you'll like where this goes!

LadyTari

5

He sincerely wished it could be Adam's blood he drew.

As dance position was vigorously assumed, Sarah found that she couldn't really breathe at all. Nope. Not even a little.

Close? CLOSE? Close was nothing compared to this.

This was more like skin-tight.

Thank goodness she didn't have to look at him now, her eyes going straight past his shoulder, past the row of hungry eyes and faces behind him, and to a spot of light-yellow color on the opposite wall.

Just focus on the spot, she told herself firmly, do not make eye contact; do not think about your relative body positions.

She tried to ignore the noxious scent of his perfume, and the heat of his body. It wasn't repelling in itself, but its closeness, it's penetration of her personal space bubble - that she liked very much, thank you! - was utterly disturbing.

Adam was looking at her quite intensely from time to time. She could see it out of the corner of her eye, but did not give any indication that she could.

Ignore it, and it will go away… she thought, chanting it in her head like a mantra. But it did not go away. Perhaps because ignoring it was not an option.

Suddenly all of the metaphors she had heard and had been so confused by in connection to the tango became clear to her.

Clear as crystal, actually.

Enlightenment hit her, like a cartoon light bulb going on inside her head. She could nearly hear it buzzing.

On the other hand, that might be the blood pounding in her ears.

Whichever.

Trying to force herself to breathe at a normal rate, Sarah waited, pressed up unwillingly against her dance partner. Ready to move, to run, to at least take that saving step back.

Jareth was attached to the crystal, forgetting to breathe as he watched Sarah struggle to remember how to. Lack of oxygen didn't really affect him, he was Fae.

But goodness! What was that insolent boy doing to his Sarah? Their legs were, touching! Locked! Jareth had never permitted himself to even hold her closely! And this piece of…

Cake, indeed.

She had to say it, didn't she?

Her over-the-top confidence had made her move like a queen, and she did not remain unnoticed for long. Jake had been edging his way towards her, smiling as he went, nearly oozing charm, but Adam had simply taken big steps, less preparation and come from behind. He had gotten there first.

Now Jake watched with narrowed eyes as his rival took her into close contact

And Jareth watched both with cat-like attention. If he had a tail, it would definitely have been twitching in anger, frustration and concentration.

As the pairs in the center moved forward, completing a basic step before going into media-corte, Sarah discovered another very interesting and not terribly pleasant fact about dancing the tango for real.

She was practically joined at the hips with her partner, and he knew it far too well for her liking.

Much as she tried, she could not get away from him. His hold on her loosened enough to let her take her step back, but he went forward at the same time, right along with her, not letting her break the uncomfortable contact.

She even struggled - as much as she could without attracting attention.

He noticed and grinned wider, but held her tighter to him in response. She was pinned, trapped, held between his chest and…umm…well… him in front and his hand at her back.

And there was no way out.

And it was all too familiar.

Although, she didn't remember Jareth being that physically forceful with her. She supposed he could have been...

But she had struggled, and he had let go, not keeping her beyond a certain point of discomfort. Now, she was grateful for that, finding out that it could have been much worse.

She wondered now whether that was her achievement or his that she had broken away. She had always attributed it to her unyielding willpower and wish to leave. Now, she acknowledged that, had he wanted her to stay, he could have easily kept her there.

And more.

Strangely, she didn't feel properly upset at the thought. She felt slightly terrified with that prospect, and strangely excited as well. The unexpected thoughts registered in her mind, but there was no time to process.

Sighing, Jareth, shifted on his throne, sending a sleeping goblin flying with a kick.

At least she was acknowledging that he wasn't all evil. That was a good thing.

But at what cost?

To him, it was like watching his Sarah lose her innocence.

Good thing she wasn't really dwelling on that parallel, having realized it just now in an disconcerting flash of insight..

"Stop, stop everybody." – came the teacher's voice, like a saving grace.

Adam let her out of dance position and they stood facing the old man. Sarah couldn't stop shivering. He was still looking at her.

"Ok. Now, remember what I told you about tango. The man is the predator. PRE- DA-TOR. The woman, the FLEEING prey. Girls, you've got to look like you DON'T want to be caught. Got it? He's CHASING after you – you run away. And guys – be a little more macho. None of this wishy-washy stuff. MANLY, now!"

Talk about saving grace. It would have seemed impossible a mere 5 minutes ago, but the teacher had actually made the whole thing worse.

"DO IT AGAIN, I'll be watching you!"

Again trapped, Sarah prepared for flight. At least she didn't need to be a good actress to do this. Definitely no pretending necessary.

And no lines that were always getting forgotten.

This time, they danced to music. As it started and her partner moved forward, Sarah nearly sprang back, trying to get away.

Adam kept up.

The chase continued through the steps of the basic, promenade and media-corte moves ending with the fiasco of the dip.

Sarah's more experienced partner played, toying with her. He let her think she'd gotten away and then snatched her up to him again, feeling her breath escape her.

Jareth had to give him credit, he was doing a good job.

But that would by no means save the boy.

" Good! Good!" she heard the teachers voice somewhere nearby. "Now you've got it, Miss. Williams!"

The latter tried to look in the direction of his voice, but couldn't concentrate on much of anything, overawed by the confusion, sensuality and fast pace of the dance. The dip was just as miserable to her as the rest of it.

There went that ideal of a dance move. In fact, there went the entire ideal of a tango, if not dancing in general, she thought vehemently, feeling murderous and sorry for herself at the same time.

During the dip, she had suddenly found herself at her partner's complete mercy – held suspended between him and his hand, this time horizontally.

While she was still vertical, she had at least had the floor to dig her feet into, - all toes tensed, like a cat clinging to its favorite chair, unyielding in the face of any attempt at separation.

In the dip, she had nothing but her partner's arms.

Never-the-less, she clung to the floor in every way possible, not trusting her weight to Adam for an instant. It made the whole thing look and feel awkward, but Sarah was too dazed to care. There was already too much going on that was directly and very tangibly affecting her to leave room for attention to how she looked.

Jareth, however, managed to pay attention to everything, not Fae Goblin King for nothing.

He winced as, once again, her rough-handling partner forced her back into a dip, trying to break her of the habit of resisting.

That's not how it's done – he wanted to scream – and especially not how it's done to Sarah!

He knew, more than anyone else, that an open challenge to Miss. Williams would result only in open and potentially violent warfare from her side.

And the young miss did not take to loosing very well at all.

She would fight with all she had, and that's were it would get rough, and she could easily get hurt in more ways than her still-naïve mind could fathom.

Jareth knew it. He had held those choices in the palm of his hand.

So to speak, of course.

And he had chosen to let her go, to let her come to him on her own, to win her trust by granting her the freedom to choose him. Naturally, he would leave her few other options, but that was not the point.

The point was that breaking Sarah into being handled the rough way would ultimately backfire and mess with her psychological health.

Not that she kept herself in tip-top shape in that department anyway.

But then again, every little bit helped, and Jareth was counting on literally every little bit to win her back to him.

This Adam character was really getting in the way.

As he led the stormy-eyed Sarah back to her place amongst the whispering Herd, Jareth was forming a pleasant plan in his wildly spinning Fae mind…