The first memory Bethany had was of this room, the common space of the Inn she had lived in since her father sold her to the Innkeeper Jorel when she was a toddler. This was the room she slept in, ate in, and worked very hard in. Bethany knew she had some life before here, but this room was the first thing she could remember.
Jorel and his wife Shelby were kind enough. She was rarely beaten, and well fed. The work was very hard, but she worked no harder than Jorel and Shelby did themselves. Being an Innkeeper on the King's Road was difficult. Trade was brisk and the people demanding.
Bethany worked for her keep, there was no slavery in this Kingdom, but she had no money of her own, every lick of work went to pay for her food, clothes and lodging.
That is until she became a woman. After she had begun to bleed Shelby had suggested to her that she begin to take men to her bed to earn coin of her own. The agreement was that Bethany could keep half what she earned on her back, and the other half went to Jorel to pay for the shame of having an Inn with a whore in it.
Terrified the first time Bethany had given herself to a travelling blacksmith. A huge man with hard hands and a huge muscular body. He had been gentle enough with her, she supposed, he had paid extra for her virginity and knew to be slow with her. It had hurt, but not terribly. It had actually felt nice by the end, when suddenly he finished by squirting inside her.
And with that exchange of coin she had started to earn the money needed to go out on her own.
The trouble was she didn't know where she wanted to go.
Years went by and still Bethany stayed in the Inn working hard day after day, sleeping in her own room now under the main stair to the patron's rooms, hiding her coins from anyone who might seek to take them.
Judging from the compliments she had garnered over the years, and the glimpses she had of both herself and noble ladies she had bathed here in the Inn, Bethany deemed herself attractive. Worn looking, but pretty. She had a mop of very curly blond hair that she'd been told glinted gold in the firelight. Her pale skin was soft in most places, save her hands and feet. Her body was both hard with use; scrubbing, carrying, chopping and all the many difficult tasks set her day after day, and soft where her breasts pushed against the too small shift she wore.
Bethany bathed whenever she got a chance, in the river nearby or in warm water from the kitchen fire. She hated smelling men when she lay with them, and thought they wouldn't want to smell her either. Also a hedge witch had once told her the best way to avoid the rots that plagued whores was to bath after lying with a man, and thus far that had worked. She didn't know how, but never once had she been infected with any disease.
And so her youth faded into adulthood and Bethany became a celebrated landmark along the King's Road. The gentle voiced, sweet harlot with the beautiful body.
The day the swordsman entered the Inn Bethany felt her world shift. Looking at this lean, hard looking man made her feel weak in her legs. He was handsome to be sure, but she had lain with good looking men before. He also looked dangerous, but so too had she been with dangerous men, some soldiers, some just farmers. This man's danger came not just from his strong lean frame, but from his intelligence. As he looked around the room he seemed able to read each person there and assess their worth.
When his eyes fell on Bethany standing looking back at him, a tankard of ale in each hand waiting to be served, the swordsman smiled a hungry predatory smile that unnerved her, not in a frightening-for-her-life kind of way, but in a fear-that-her-heart-would-soon-be-broken type of way. The danger in this man was the threat to her very essence as a woman.
The room resumed their various conversations as the man made his lazy way to a table in a corner. Bethany delivered her ales and tried to ignore the man, but Jorel told her to go see what he wanted.
As she approached the swordsman once more looked at her in that appraising manner and she felt moisture gather in her sex, her breath short and skin warm.
"You look like a sight for sore eyes, lass." His voice was soft and pleasing, like everything else about him. "I've spend days on this road and never once seen beauty like yours."
Blushing in spite of knowing he lied, she asked, "What's your pleasure sir." Immediately she regretted her usual opening line. His wolfish grin told her what his pleasure would be, and it made her tremble to picture it.
"What say we start with an ale and some of that stew over the fire, then later we can discuss the real pleasure I desire." His smile grew less predatory, and she grinned nervously in spite of all her best efforts.
As she worked the night away, rushing from table to table never once did the stranger's presence leave her focus. His eyes were everywhere, and yet always on her. His stillness drew her gaze amid the bustle of the inn common room, and Bethany felt dizzy whenever she needed to approach him.
The man booked a room for the night and Bethany felt near drunk when he ordered a bath. The image of his firm, muscular body glistening in the water had her shudder with lust.
Finally the man stood ready for his steaming bath. He placed a coin in her hand as he passed and in a low quiet voice said, "Attend me lass."
Scarcely able to walk Bethany followed in his wake, the coin held lightly on her outstretched palm, a mute entreaty to Jorel to dismiss her from her duties the rest of the night. No protest followed her up the stairs so she dimly accepted that as assent and followed in the wake of the swordsman.
In his small room the bath tub steamed and the man began to remove his clothes. As each of his parts were bared Bethany grew more fevered. His chest was lightly hairy and crossed with scars, but none deep. The muscles of his stomach were iron, and rippled with his movements. His back was broad, defined and also scarred, but not bulky. Everything about him radiated strength and speed. He legs as they were revealed showed long and strong musculature. And his buttocks were smooth and delectable. When he turned to her grinning his member stood out proud, soft yet large and promising to be the biggest she had seen.
"I want you to disrobe as well. My baths tend to be... messy."
Her mouth grew dry and she forced herself to tear her gaze from his bobbling prick. As the man sat in the scalding water Bethany began to remove her own clothes in a dream like manner.
The handsome stranger watched her every move as he soaked in the water, smiling his delight as her body was revealed.
Bethany usually felt pride as men watched her undress, knowing that they enjoyed her body, but tonight she feared this man was too experienced to appreciate a scullion's wiry body. But his smile, genuine and broad seemed to enjoy how muscular and lean she was. Her breasts were still full and buoyant, the nipples achingly prominent as she exposed herself.
"Very nice." He murmured, making her thrill inside. "Bath me lass. " He demanded, and his tone of command made her sigh out loud. Bethany had always enjoyed pleasing people. Her place as an indentured servant gave her a purpose that grounded her. When men used harsh language with her, and were demanding of her sexually she felt the greatest of desire. Making a man happy was the road to freedom, even if she didn't know what freedom she desired.
Moving to him she took a sponge and some soap and began to lather him up. Running her hands along the muscles of his body made her tremble with delight, she used the sponge minimally to maximize the caresses she could use on his amazing body.
The stranger sighed and leaned back allowing her full access to his front. She scrubbed him thoroughly, yet slowly, no rigorous abrading for him. Lovingly scouring him she massaged him and kneaded his body relishing the feel of him. When she reached his crotch she felt his semi-erect manhood brush her hand, like a hidden danger under the water.
Moving past it she continued washing him, and he did not stop her. Instead he lifted his legs out of the tub and she moved to his feet and cleaned them, and worked her way up his legs.
