Geva barked a too-loud laugh, and whirled away from him, yanking off her dress with shaky hands. “Well, maybe Ishouldaccept Jule’s offer,” she shot back, without looking. “She was kind and considerate toward me, and respected me, and explained things when I had questions! She wanted me to feel comfortable, and prepared, andvalued!”
She made to hurl her dress away, but Rathgarr lunged around before her again, catching the dress in his hands. While a strange, urgent light flashed in his eyes, looking almost like… panic.
“Please, poppet,” he breathed. “Geva. Please, do not leave me for other work. Mayhap I — I can pay you more gold. Double what we first spoke of. This shall please you, ach? You shall stay?”
What? Geva’s mouth fell open, her heart plunging horribly in her chest, and the sound she made could have been a laugh, or a sob. “You — your response to all that is to offer memoregold?” she choked at him. “Really, Rathgarr?!”
Rathgarr only stared back at her for an instant, his shoulders rising and falling. And suddenly Geva couldn’t bear to look at him anymore, and she scrabbled to yank off her shift, and her boots and stockings. To at least escape him in the bath, to feel a blast of merciless, ice-cold water streaming against her hot, miserable face.
“Poppet,” Rathgarr hissed, his hand again catching on her wrist, and Geva yanked it away — only to find it there again, even tighter than before. “Wait.”
Geva flailed and yanked away again, but again he was close before her, his huge body blocking hers in, his hand still clutching her dress, and somehow her shift, too. And even as she made to reel backwards, her eyes caught something — moving, at the door behind him. Somethingwalking in.
It was — more orcs. Two more orcs. And not only that, but they were both… familiar. Killik, andUlfarr. The huge, angry Skai orc from the forest.
And damn it, because Geva was standing here completely undressed, and only shielded from the orcs’ view by Rathgarr’s big body, hovering between her and the door. Blocking her, she realized, because he’d smelled them coming, damn it,damnit.
“Greetings, brothers,” Rathgarr called over his shoulder, his voice deceptively light, even as he gave Geva a wincing little grimace, his body easing closer toward her. “How fare you two, this eve?”
There was a loud, heavy harrumph from Ulfarr in reply, and when Geva shot an alarmed glance toward him, he was leaning against the wall beside the door, his eyes contemptuous, his huge arms crossing over his bare chest.
“You ken this is the Skai wing, Rathgarr,” Ulfarr replied, in a deep, dangerous voice. “What do you wish here among us?”
Rathgarr grimaced again, but his answer over his shoulder was still light, even casual. “Just what it seems, Ulfarr. I wish to bathe with my sweet mate.”
Ulfarr’s answering scoff was loud and mocking, his eyes flicking between the water, and Rathgarr’s fully clothed body. “There is nobathinghere that I see,” he replied coldly. “Mayhap you have rather come to seek Skai gold, ach?”
Something flashed oddly in Rathgarr’s eyes, even as he outwardly laughed, the sound easy, almost amused. “Ach, no,” he said. “And Skai have gold now? I should never have fathomed this.”
Ulfarr instantly growled, and beside him Killik was frowning now, too. “Do not dare to mock my clan, Ash-Kai,” Ulfarr hissed. “Most of all whilst you stand here within Skai walls, and speak false to us of why you are here! Now either bathe, orget out!”
Gods curse it, because even Killik wasn’t arguing this, only leaning casually back against the wall beside Ulfarr, his brows raised. Suggesting that they were indeed going to keep standing here,watching,while Geva and Rathgarr bathed.
And before Geva, Rathgarr’s expression was aggrieved, and annoyed, and… regretful. His shoulders heavily sagging, his exhale prickling against Geva’s bare skin. “Do you yet wish to bathe?” he asked, quiet, as he angled a glance down toward her clothes, still clutched in his hand. “Or shall we go?”
Geva searched his eyes, her thoughts uselessly spinning, because shedidstill want to bathe, damn it — and Rathgarr was still staying here, shielding her, blocking her from their view. And had he guessed that they might follow her, that she truly might not be safe here alone?Your safety is of greatest import to me…
And as she kept blinking at his waiting, resigned eyes, it occurred to her that leaving now would just lend credence to what Ulfarr had said. That it would only increase the animosity between them, and make all this that much worse. And she did not owe Rathgarr anything, especially after today, she did not…
“No, I’d still like to bathe,” she heard herself say, with a desperate attempt at a smile toward Rathgarr’s face, and then over toward Killik and Ulfarr. “As long as our generous Skai hosts are sure they don’t mind?”
Ulfarr’s expression hadn’t changed in the slightest, but Killik shrugged, and gave a careless, magnanimous-seeming wave of his hand. Telling her, very clearly, to proceed.
Geva drew in breath, and nodded, and met Rathgarr’s eyes again. “And you said you’ll bathe with me, right?” she said, her voice almost pleading. “Please?”
Rathgarr’s throat bobbed, his mouth thin, his eyes still quiet and regretful on hers. Looking almost sorry, almost sad — but then he jerked a nod, and brought his hand to her face. Tilting her chin up, his thumb gently brushing her cheek, in a gesture that felt suddenly too raw, and far too meaningful.
“Ach, my lovely poppet,” he murmured. “I should be most honoured to bathe with you.”
Of course it was another lie, another act, but even so, Geva’s cursed face was heating, her gaze dropping. Only distantly noticing as Rathgarr carefully tossed her clothes toward one of the benches lining the nearest wall, and then began pulling off his own clothes, and tossing them over, too.
Geva’s eyes reflexively darted back toward him, catching on the sudden, still-unfamiliar sight of his broad bare chest. Of his smooth grey skin, heavily dusted with thick black hair, and then thinning to that single line down over the relative softness of his abdomen below. Far softer than Killik’s or Ulfarr’s, Geva realized, and her uncertain glance back up at Rathgarr’s face showed it slightly reddening, as if he was very well aware of that fact.
And suddenly Geva was very conscious of her own nakedness, too. Of how she’d just been standing here, brazenly displaying her own full breasts and belly to the room. And though Killik and Ulfarr surely still couldn’t see through Rathgarr’s bulk — not much, at least — Rathgarr most certainly could, and had been, all this time.
But as Rathgarr’s hands dropped to his belt, and shoved his trousers downwards, the sight behind them was… slack. Uninterested. Hanging there small and innocuous, as though he hadn’t even noticed Geva standing here naked before him.
The hurt bloomed swift and sharp in her chest, the heat again prickling behind her eyes, and gods, what was wrong with her, why did she care? Why was she even doing this, why did she keep giving him this, when he just kept —
