Luna reaches over and taps something on the wall, then groans loudly. “Roughly the equivalent of seven a.m. Earth time.”
I pull a pillow over my head. “Do we have earplugs?” Surely we can drown out the noise.
Someone starts pounding on my door. “Wakey, wakey! It’s Christmas morning, and we don’t want to waste a moment of this fabulous day!”
I blink at Luna. “Kheph?”
She grimaces. “Yep. He’s not going to leave us alone until we go and join them, FYI.”
I run a hand through my hair, which is even more unruly after our bedtime fun last night.
“Fine, but I need a shower before I’m doing anything.”
Luna sits up in bed looking a lot perkier. “Can I join you?”
I arch an eyebrow. “Is the shower big enough?”
She waggles her green eyebrows at me. “Ab-so-fucking-lutely.”
We race to the bathroom, giggling all the way. After brushing our teeth with some interesting minty extraterrestrial cleaning powder, we spend the next twenty minutes washing one another in the enormous shower that’s part of the en suite in my quarters. The hot water is divine and goes a long way toward waking me up.
“This is awfully handy,” I murmur as I scrub my scalp with a fresh, citrusy shampoo.
Luna grins cheekily. “When we were designing the ship, Kheph and I were very hopeful that we would eventually have special someones to share a shower with. Najar thought we were dreaming—boy was he wrong. Anyway, me and Kheph wanted tomake sure all the units were large enough to accommodate our fantasies. We’re brilliant like that.”
I chuckle and help Luna wash her tentacles, which is a fascinating experience. If we weren’t in such a hurry, I would probably take a lot more time in the process. But I make a mental note to myself to be sure to do so at another time when I’ve got more leisure to explore the magnificent appendages.
Once we’re suitably clean and refreshed, we get out of the shower. Luna shows me how to use a special heated-air drying device on the wall that blasts our whole bodies with delightfully warm air and evaporates all the water on our skin. It even dries our hair until it’s only damp. Man, how I could have used one of these devices when I was in med school. I find my toiletries kit and run a little bit of gel through my hair to make sure my curls don’t go mega-frizzy on me, then get dressed while Luna sneaks back to her room to change into fresh clothes.
We reunite in the hallway when we’re both dressed, and she leads me to the ship’s dining area, which they call the Sustenance Bay. There we find everyone waiting for us. Khephren is decked out in a full-on elf costume and has bells tied to each of his dark pink tentacles. When he sees us, he waves his appendages in the air, making the bells jingle.
“Merry Christmas,” he cries with the delight of a child—albeit a rather large one.
His human partner, Sasha, gives him a fond smile and a faint rolling of his eyes.
Felix is snuggled in Najar’s lap on a chair and looking incredibly pleased with himself.
“Isn’t this cozy,” Luna says as we join everyone at a communal dining table.
Khephren hurriedly begins passing out mugs of a steaming beverage. I sniff and find it’s reminiscent of coffee, but definitely not the java I’m familiar with.
Sasha gives me a little head tilt. “It’s called kavga. Not coffee, but damn tasty and ultra-caffeinated. I’m convinced it might even be capable of waking the newly dead.”
That sounds both creepy and awesome.
Luna doctors mine with some sugar and cream while flashing me a glowing smile that basically screamsI got laid last night. Not that I feel any need for us to keep quiet about it, but I’m beginning to gather that Luna’s facial expressions always reveal exactly how she’s feeling.So. Freaking. Adorable.
“I think you’ll like it better like this,” she explains with a smile.
I grin back at her and take a sip. My eyes immediately water and my heart hammers in my chest. It’s like a fucking injection of caffeine straight to my brain. Hell yeah.
I slurp back some more, my mind beginning to fire on all cylinders. It’s really damn tasty, and I suspect I’ll be a kavga addict in no time.
Sipping on her own kavga, Luna is far from subtle as she dreamily stares at me the whole time.
Sasha smirks at us. “So it’s like that, huh? Congrats.” He reaches out to fist-bump Luna.
Khephren hurries back over to the table, his tentacles all aquiver, clasping his hands in front of his chest. “Is it true? Are you two officially a couple?”
