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“Let me worry about losing my position as a support advisor. I’ve no intention of completely giving up my diplomatic work, but I need something else.” Something that didn’t make him feel dead inside.
“I’m not just talking about your job.” Kwon leveled a stern glare at Rane. “I witnessed what happened to your father.”
Rane grunted. “That’s a different thing.”
“He was an artist, just like you. Nobody understood why he created those odd-looking sculptures.”
“There was nothing odd about them. They were beautiful.”
“So beautiful that he made the mistake of presenting one to our president.”
“This is not the same thing. The whole situation was different.” Every time Rane dwelled on what had happened to his father, a deep wedge of anger formed in his gut.
“You have to admit you’ve got a problem when it comes to your art. You need to be careful.”
“Art isn’t a problem. It’s a solution to things. People admire it. It gives them something beautiful in a world that can be messed up, especially if you’re on the wrong side of the wormhole.”
“So, you don’t have any issues?”
Rane scowled at him. “We all have issues, even you. How do you deal with yours?”
Kwon grinned and raised the bottle he held. “If you’re looking for a distraction that doesn’t involve paint, I know of something that will take our minds off the negotiations and Cowes’s whip cracking. Something to focus our primal urges and get the blood pumping to vital parts.”
Rane glanced at his paintings. Now he was here, all he wanted to do was pick up a brush and get to work. It looked like that wasn’t happening anytime soon. “Go on.”
“Would you be interested if I told you it was artistic?”
Rane arched an eyebrow. “Perhaps.”
“And distracting. You need to be totally focused. Well, maybe not totally focused, but your eyes will be glued to a few things in particular.” A smile spread across Kwon’s face.
“Don’t tell me you want to try one of those ridiculous spacewalk tours again?”
“Not spacewalking. This distraction will be full of hot women.”
Now Rane was interested. “What is it, and where do we need to go?”
Kwon laughed. “It’s not until tomorrow evening, and we’ll need outfits.”
“Outfits? What the hell sort of distraction is this?”
“It’s a lot of fun. You’ll love it.”
“Providing it has nothing to do with diplomacy and boring meetings, I’m in.” And if there were a few hot females there to take his mind off his worries, so much the better.
“Trust me, you won’t even know your own name by the time we’re done with this distraction.”
Rane chugged down his beer. Art and hot women. It sounded perfect.
Chapter 7
Nell finished clipping her hair off her face as she waited for her students to get into position and stop chatting.
She taught two classes a week of Egyptian belly dancing on the station. She’d learned the skill when on Earth and found dancing always made her feel better. It was easy to express your emotions when moving and working up a sweat. Easy to forget about everything else and simply follow the beat.
Nell wasn’t one to go to the gym. She hated forcing herself into tight lycra and working up a sweat in a room full of other people grunting and groaning as they lifted weights.
Belly dancing was nothing like that. In her classes, you wore floaty, brightly colored outfits that moved with your body. She wore amber harem pants with tiny sequins dotted around the waist line and ankles. She also had a matching scarf that was tied loosely around her hips. Two small chimes were sewn into the hem, so that every time she moved her hips, they jangled.
