The floorboard creaked as Gendry shifted his weight. His feet felt like anvils, but that was nothing compared to the weight he felt along his shoulders. Kasil waited quietly behind him as he fished the key out of his pocket, fumbling before he could get key and lock lined up. To achieve the telltale click proved even more difficult with shaky hands, but he managed to open the door, eventually.
She'd walked past him, smelling of the sour, earthy ale she'd been serving, and he followed her while facing the door as he closed it behind them. Without the least shred of his dignity left, he couldn't bear to look in her direction. Sighing, eyes closed, and brow leaning against the cool pine door, he told her, "I'll give you the coin you need without…" He couldn't bear to say the rest so he just let his words trail off.
Behind him, he heard the floor creak softly under her and the rustling of her dress along it. "I don't need the coin," he heard her say from the other side of the room. "I have enough. I just wished to share your bed."
Gendry's head snapped in her direction, dumbfounded by what he'd just heard. What he saw surprised him even more. Kasil was already stripped down to nothing but a gauzy shift, her outer clothes pooled in layers at her feet. "If your friend believed I would share your bed without trade for something, he might have insisted I extend the same courtesy to him. This way, I could have simply told him I have enough and do not need what he has to offer." Her gaze rose to meet his as she slipped the material off of her shoulders and the last of her coverings cascaded down to the floor with the layers of her dress.
There was something lodged in his throat, or at least it felt that way. And his blood coursed through is body, all leading to one place that pulsed to life, full and proud. He hadn't been this ready for a woman since…
Gendry shook his head clear, and then once again made eye contact with the woman that offered herself to him freely. In her eyes, he didn't see the red witch. In her eyes, he didn't see himself reflected as some lowborn in a game he couldn't understand. What he did see was need, desire…for him. *