“Nope, not a trace,” she replies, leaning forward to whisper in my ear. “And I can promise that I’ll suck your dick when we’re done.”
Andthat, my friends, is how Reno Swain ended upin a nail salon.
“Swear to Christ, I’m going to buy one of these chairs for my house,” I groan as some kind of mystical balls roll up and down my lower back.
“Right?” Juliette asks from the chair beside me, her eyes closed in relaxation.
I watch as the nail lady, Audra, squirts some gloopy, lumpy stuff on my right calf. “What is this stuff?” I whisper, and Juliette peeps one eye open before closing it again.
“It’s a sugar scrub, and it’s divine.” Her hand reaches blindly for mine, and I link our fingers together.
Audra begins scrubbing the gooey, sandy stuff up and down my leg. It’s abrasive but feels good as fuck. She repeats it with the other leg and then does some kind of hot stone massage that has me stifling multiple groans.
When she pulls out a device that resembles a cheese grater, I squeeze Juliette’s hand. She looks over at me questioningly, and I dart my eyes downward in awhat the fuck is happening heregesture.
She giggles and explains, “It’s to remove the dead skin.”
Audra turns into a filing beast, sawing at the bottoms of my feet with quick, practiced motions. I’m appalled at the amount of shit being produced.
“I think I’m going to have to forgo the parmesan cheese on my salad tonight,” I murmur to Juliette, and she covers her mouth with one hand. But her indelicate snort of laughter makes me smile.
While Juliette is getting hot-pink sparkly polish applied to her toes, Audra proceeds to nip and file and buff at my toenails with all kinds of things that I’m pretty sure she purchased from some instruments of torture shop that’s only frequented by terrorists and Sicilian Mafia members.
“Shit,” I hear from my right, and I look over to see Juliette pulling her redLibrarians Do It Quietlyball cap down over her eyes. “Kat just came in,” she hisses, scrunching down in her seat like she’s attempting to melt into it.
The resort manager’s green eyes rove around the room but stop when they land on Juliette. Then she heads our way, her heels clacking across the terracotta tile floor.
“She’s coming over here,” I warn under my breath, and Juliette winces.
“Ms. McNamara,” Kat greets, stopping beside my date’s chair. Juliette lifts her face and plasters on a smile.
“Oh, hi, Ms., um, Kat.” Her voice is an adorable squeak of awkwardness. So far, she’d been able to avoid the manager after her rambling diatribe on her arrival day.
“I’m so sorry about this, but when housekeeping was cleaning your room, there was a small accident.”
Juliette’s eyes widen, and she sits up straight, concern instantly replacing her embarrassment. “Oh no. Is everyone okay?”
“Yes, yes. Everyone is fine,” Kat reassures. “But she accidentally broke your phone charger when she moved it to make your bed.” She holds up a black cord with the USB end hanging on by a thread.
“That’s okay,” Juliette says, visibly relaxing. “I can pick up another one in the gift shop.”
“Already done,” Kat tells her, holding up her other hand, which is holding a box. “The only problem is that you had a six-foot cable, and all we had available was a three-footer. But,” she adds quickly, “I have a longer one on order, and it will be here on Sunday when the first plane arrives.”
“That’s really not neces—” Juliette starts, but Kat stops her with a sharp shake of her head and a stern look.
“I insist on replacing it, and to apologize, we would like to gift you a free massage.” Her eyes shift toward me and turn shrewd before returning to Juliette. “Acouplesmassage. In-room. And dinner for twoon the beach with the guest of your choice.” She looks quite pleased with herself, and I get the feeling she put me in the cottage next to Juliette’s on purpose.
“That’s really kind of you, but seriously, I don’t expect any kind of special treatment. It was just a charging cord.”
“Here on Pineapple Island, we pride ourselves on taking care of our guests and minimizing mistakes. If we do make a mistake, we fix it,” the manager says with an upward tilt of her chin, as if begging someone to defy her.
“Then I accept. Thank you so much, Kat,” Juliette says graciously before cutting her gaze toward me. “And I’ll see if I can find someone to enjoy the dinner and massage with me.”
Kat laughs and hands her the charger. “I’m sure you’ll find someone. I’ll go arrange for the dinner, and by the time you’re done eating, our massage therapists will have everything set up in your cottage.”
“That was totally over the top,” Juliette says a few minutes later as we’re leaving the salon with our pampered feet. “Maybe we should walk around the resort so I can find someone to be my date tonight.”
I give her a firm swat on the ass, and she yelps out a giggle. “If you’re getting naked in your cottage, I’m calling dibs on being there.”
