"Sarah…"

One hand cradled her face as they lay side by side, long fingers fanned beneath her ear in exquisite tenderness as he kissed her deeply. His other hand threaded with hers, the ribbon tying their wrists together knotted between them.

He unlinked and rested his fingers gently just above her knee. Sarah laid her hand on top of his since there was nowhere else to settle without inadvertently tugging him away.

His palm slid upwards, taking her with him beneath her skirt.

"Say it again," Jareth purred against her lips. "Say you want me."

Sarah smiled back.

"Are you going to make me put it in writing?"

"If you did, I'd frame it." The hand cradling her face slipped off her jaw, raising her chin to meet his gaze with two curled fingers. "But right now I want to hear you ask for it." A nip of a kiss fluttered her eyelashes closed for a heartbeat. "And later beg for it."

"You're more the begging kind, Jareth."

The hand on her leg squeezed gently, just enough pressure for Sarah to relish the width of his hand, firm enough to offer encouragement, the warmth of his bare fingers so inviting.

"Don't tease," he warned, but the obvious mirth playing at the corners of his mouth was only further incentive to do so.

Sarah leaned close, made to kiss him. He tilted his head for it, and Sarah pulled away and changed direction, catching his ear in her teeth. He moaned, and she bit gently, earning a shiver.

"I've claimed you, haven't I?" she asked.

"You know you have," Jareth whispered back, the reverence of his tone expressing clearly that he'd been claimed by her far longer than just this singular glittering night.

Soft fingers carded to the back of Sarah's head, encouraging her teeth against his neck. She bit him. Kissed him again. Tasted the sweetness of his skin. Felt his pulse jump against her lips and a sudden surge of possession brought her lips back to his in urgency.

His bound hand inched higher, pulling her with him up to the highest swell of her thigh.

"What would you have done, precious…" he asked as the air between them began to shimmer with heat, "if Roswen hadn't been such a willing forfeit?"

Her free arm wrapped around his shoulders, needing something to cling to as his fingers and tongue threatened to steal all cognitive thought.

"I would have broken another window," she answered blithely when he let her up for air—mostly joking, but not really—her words hot against his mouth as he kissed her again. "Maybe I don't handle jealousy well."

Jareth chuckled darkly.

"You handle it beautifully," he murmured as his fingers trailed inwards between her legs, sparkling sensitivity making the muscles quiver beneath his touch.

"You're not supposed to like it," said Sarah, swallowing around the tightness in her throat. "It's an ugly emotion."

"The most beautiful girl in the world, green on my account?" His knee pressed between hers, widening her legs. "It's my favorite emotion."

His questing fingers finally slid between her thighs. Sarah drew in a sudden deep breath, the anticipation that had all but bowed her into his touch suddenly arching her back as he cupped her fully, taking her hand with him. She held him by the wrist, breathing into his neck as he squeezed in a rhythm, adding pressure with his middle finger between her folds, separated by the silk underwear she'd worn beneath the dress.

Sarah panted against his neck, feeling the tendons in his wrist flexing beneath her grip.

Pressed between Jareth and the chaise, the back of her hand grazed the laces corseting the front of his trousers, the noticeable bulge hard beneath.

She hooked a finger into a loop and worked it loose, tugging out the cord until the waistband slackened.

"Sarah—" Jareth released an enraptured sigh as she laid her hand over his stomach. Her fingers slid lower, inching along his skin until diamond-hard flesh filled her palm. He jolted into her touch, crushing her against the back of the chaise as her hand wrapped around him.

His fingers twitched away the wet silk between them, and Sarah gasped as his fingers teasingly grazed her core as his mouth found hers again, teeth pinching her lower lip as he moaned into her mouth and she gasped into his, her hand sliding over his length in what dwindling space there was between them.

"I've wanted you for so long," he groaned hoarsely as he spread her folds. "My Champion... My waking dream…."

She shivered at his words as his fingers pressed seamlessly into her up to the knuckle, working her with the same rolling motion she was stroking him with. She brushed her thumb over the head of his cock and he moaned, his fingers crooking inside her as he twitched in her hand, writhed against her.

The tip of his middle digit hit a low note of sensation and she clenched tight around him, panting fitfully as white-hot sparks filled her belly with fire, bringing her up to the edge of a burning inferno and holding her there with the tips of his fingers.

"Oh God," she whispered against his collarbone. She was starting to tremble, a tell-tale ache beginning to spread from her belly to her thighs. "Jareth…"

"Sarah…" His lips brushed her temple, and she could feel he was shaking too with restraint. "Tell me jealousy isn't the only thing you feel for me," he whispered—pleadingly—as he pulled his fingers out of her. He took her hand away too, bringing her leg over to straddle his hip as he slid between her thighs, his cock notching at her soaking core. "Tell me it isn't just tonight, this thing between us?"

Sarah breathed shallowly, barely able to focus as her heartbeat threatened to gallop out of her throat. The only anchor to surreal reality was the look of apprehension and devotion on the sharp planes of his face.

"Not just tonight," she agreed, only just capable of forming a sentence as wet fingers linked with hers. Every shimmering moment between them was clogging her throat, solidifying into words she hadn't thought herself capable of confessing—not least to that wicked grin, those mismatched eyes—but it was too late to turn back now. She was doomed, but it was such a beautiful damnation.

"I want you." And then, unsteadily, those two dangerous words; "I'm yours."

Jareth's breath caught in his throat, eyes scanning her face for insincerity. He finally took a breath when she kissed him, and he sank into her whole bodily.