That he was so skittish around her was an endearing thing. Normally, men were brash and brazen things, especially around her ilk. The grin that split her face practically in two was a genuine thing as the man twitched beneath the suds at her close proximity. How could she resist poking at him a little more, especially with the heat of his stare straying to other areas. Leaning down on her stool while her hands worked their magic into the taut bunches of his muscles, her voice teased his ear just as the scrape of her breasts, barely concealed by the fabric, rested against the back of his shoulders as her fingers slid forward to dig into his collar then back up to work the tension from his neck. “I’ve never seen a man get so worked up over a massage, Mr. Elim,” she teased him, leaning forward so that the full plushness of her chest rested against him. “I wonder what would happen if I just got in the tub with you, huh? I could really scrub you that way.”<br/><br/><br/>Feisty as she was with all that bright red mane, she slid her cheek against his rougher one and latched her teeth against the lobe of his ear to give it a little tug. She released it with a low chortle and rocked back so that her palms focused on his shoulders. “Though it does sound like you have a vendetta out there. Who did a sweet man like you wrong?” Being behind him like she was, he couldn’t see the way her features tensed up and her own shoulders bunched. Erol knew something about people doing her wrong. There was a reason she was holed up in a brothel -- and it wasn’t similar to the rest of the women here. She had almost raised enough of her past debt to pay it off and be done with this town. Then, perhaps, she could finally return home and make something useful of herself.<br/><br/><br/>But there was a blood feud back home, started by her own family. Erol was safer playing pretend, though the fact that she crawled into a man’s bed on the regular was not at all pretend. As much as she felt ashamed of what she did, contrary to the presentation she put forth for the sake of the men whom she kept company, she extra that she received from services rendered only made her time hidden there go by faster. She was quiet after her remark, to see if he would respond, but the commotion outside the door made her hands still on his naked flesh. Cerulean blue lifted up to the closed door as her nose bunched on her face while she strained to hear what was happening in the hall.<br/><br/><br/>Her name rang out soon enough with, I’m here to see Erol, the voice on the other end, while muffled, devastatingly familiar. Her hands dropped immediately from Elim’s shoulders in the bath as she stiffened up in alarm. The stool scraped the floor as her bare feet planted on the ground to push her up into a standing position right before the door flung open and the hulk of a man stood looming with a scowl on his face, nearly hidden by the course dark beard that smothered his mouth from the cheeks down. Likewise, thick black hair was pulled back out of a broad planed face into a long tail that trailed down past his shoulders. Judging by his unkempt appearance, Vash Remington was fresh from the road and this was his first stop. Following suit with Elim’s sense of humor, Erol forced a smile on her face and gestured down toward the tub. “Now, Vash, you’re more than welcome to join Elim here if he’ll have you sharing his bath and you two boys can just share my company. Especially if you aren’t gonna wait your turn, you naughty man.”<br/><br/><br/>Only Vash didn’t appear to find the humour that the other two seemed to have. The man’s scowl only deepened as he stalked deeper into the bathing chamber, followed closely by the head Madame of the establishment. The tall female with her almond dark eyes cast an apologetic look toward the both of them as she settled her fingers on the man’s thick arm. Whipping his head around, Vash’s nostrils flared like some great bull and thrust out the arm that she grabbed, flinging her back with the sheer force of the motion. The dark haired Madame stumbled back as she was pushed away, and was about to snatch the man’s arms again with a firm protest when his hand came back again, this time dealing a blow with the back of his meaty hand that cracked against her cheek. This time when the Madame stumbled, blood flew from a new split in her lip. “Not your business, woman! Get out of my way!” Roared the man dressed in leather before he whipped himself back around to face Erol and Elim.<br/><br/><br/>Erol had backed herself up against the wall, intentionally inching herself over into arm’s reach of the bath supplies on a shelving unit in one corner of the room. She snatched a scrub brush from where it dangled off one corner of the cabinet as soon as the big man, Vash, had back handed her Mistress who, shaking herself as she recovered, was slowly moving her own hand underneath the skirts she wore. Damp and barefoot, Erol took a stance as she glowered at the man.<br/><br/><br/>“Girl, you owe me for that trinket you owe me from last week. It didn’t work the way you said it would,” he growled, taking a lunging step closer to the redhead that swiped out with the scrub brush as if to whack the back of his head. Vash, despite his size, easily side stepped the would be attack and groped the hem of her shift, jerking it up while one beefy paw grasped her chin to force her to look up at him. “I’m going to let you either pay me back those marks I paid for it or you’re going to let me take it out of your flesh. You hear me?”