Ar'Tok - Alana Khan Page 0,37

and rip his clothes off. Actually, I did drag him to bed, just to sleep.

“Ar’Tok,” I call as I turn on the shower, “I think we missed a memo.” Yuck, my skin feels dry and sandy and sticky. “Even though we were in the water all day yesterday, I think we were supposed to take showers when we got home.”

“Lesson learned,” he calls through the door. “Is there a reason we’re leaving our room today? I thought we had something very important planned.” Even though I’m in the shower, I imagine his eyebrow waggling in a sexy statement.

“Fun is on the agenda. You’re going to love it. The girls promised we’d both love mani-pedi’ing. All the guys are coming, too.”

“What is it?”

“I’m clueless.”

Half an hour later, there’s a whirlwind of second introductions in the hallway because no one could expect me to remember everyone’s name. A few minutes after that, we’re in the uber fancy nail salon off a long hall from the main entrance of the Multi-Pleasure.

Mani-pedi, I’m told, is short for manicure and pedicure. A lovely female of a race I’m not familiar with, super-thin with an emerald green wig, helped me into a contraption where my feet are currently soaking. Ar’Tok is adorably ensconced next to me, his eyes bright with excitement as his hot-pink wigged attendant hunches over his feet.

We’ve overrun the ‘spa’, as I’ve been instructed to call it. The women all look at home and are laughing and joking with each other. Each male is dutifully sitting next to his female with a bemused look on his face.

Who do I vote as most out of place in this shop? I’ve narrowed it down to two. My first choice is Dax, who is huge, bearded, and not only soaking his feet, but has his face covered in ‘curative’ mud.

“It’s definitely a thing, Dax,” his mate Dahlia scolds. “She’s doing me next. It makes your skin feel fantastic. Don’t worry, she’s working around your beard.”

The runner-up, though is Zar, sitting like a king on a throne, his furred, feline feet in the bubbling tub of water beneath him.

“Feels great, doesn’t it?” Anya asks, her hands being attended by not one but two royal-blue-wigged assistants. “Okay, ladies, on the count of three I want you all to hold up your polish colors. I might want to change my mind.”

There is a vast array of colors, from pale pinks to corals to turquoise. I hold up the little pot of clear I found hiding at the end of a row of bright colors.

“You can’t bogart the clear, Star,” Brianna scolds. She’s ensconced between her twin mates, Axxios and Braxxus, looking comfortable and happy. “All the males will need that.”

“Why?” Humongous Dax demands. “I had my eye on that purple.”

“Yeah, why?” Shadow asks, looking as masculine as a bionic alien can look. “There’s a green over there that matches my eyes.”

Petra, his mate, giggle-snorts, clamps her hand over her mouth, and tries to squelch her amused squeal.

“What?” Shadow asks, his face serious as a heart attack.

“You want moss-colored nails, my love, you’ll get moss-colored nails. You’ll look handsome,” Petra says.

An hour later, we’re all admiring our good taste as the polish finishes drying. Most of the couples decided to each pick a color and then have every other nail painted. Ar’Tok picked Happy Skies Blue, I picked Sunshine Yellow, and we each have every other finger and toe painted blue and yellow.

Dahlia and Dax wave their fingers at us. Every other nail is purple and gold in honor of the local holiday.

“How can you not love a planet that celebrates Blessed Peace Day?” she asks as she wiggles her fingers.

My favorite couple isn’t a couple at all. Brianna and her two males picked red, white, and blue, which I’m told are the colors of the American flag. Even though three colors on ten toes isn’t symmetrical, it looks bodacious.

“Let’s get going!” Maddie, the chef, says in her unique singsong way. “We have less than an hour to get to the studio.”

“What studio?” Ar’Tok asks without giving her eye contact. He can’t drag his eyes away from his gorgeous toes.

“Have you never watched the Peripatetic Epicure show? It’s all over the Intergalactic Database. He travels the galaxy in search of the most exotic foods, then whips them into complex and delicious dishes.

“He’s here on Paragon, doing only six shows. We were lucky enough, with Star’s pull, to snag tickets to be in the audience. The tasting audience,” she adds as