A satisfied and grinning human, and dazed but smiling Martian emerged from the sandy alcove sometime later. They paused at the entrance of their hotel room door, their lips lingering against each other as they fumbled around for a room key. Vinnie finally managed to snag his, but Charlie's would need to be replaced. It had disappeared somewhere into the sand dune and wasn't likely to be retrieved.
Vinnie back-pedalled his wife into the bedroom and guided her to the shower where he used one arm to get the water running, while the other kept her tethered against him. When the water was how they liked it, he guided them into the shower where they stripped off their dirty clothes and let the cool rivulets sluice off the sand from their bodies.
"Damn that was hot!" Charlie commented as she continued to make out with her husband against the shower wall.
Vinnie chuckled against her lips.
"Apart from the sand up my crack!" he pointed out.
Charlie's eyes widened and she burst out laughing.
"I'm sorry hon, I didn't really think about that. I was too busy enjoying myself!" Charlie replied saucily, enjoying the knowing look in her husband's eyes.
He grinned to show he was more than happy with the end result of their little sea adventure.
Finishing their shower, they dried off and crawled into the king-sized bed. Charlie slung her arm and leg over Vinnie in her preferred marital sleeping position, and rubbed her head against her husband's chest fuzz.
"Is it really four in the morning?" she murmured between yawns.
"Guess so" Vinnie replied sleepily, his eyes drooping and finally shutting on their own volition.
This time, neither of them had any problems getting to sleep. Even the discreet knock on their door from Carbine was unable to rouse them for breakfast that morning.
"Must be tired, Vinnie would never miss a feed!" Carbine commented dryly as she left to join her husband and friends at the buffet. They decided to let the lovebirds sleep-in, and headed for a lazy morning by the pool.
Charlie and Vinnie eventually emerged, looking tired but relaxed as they reunited with the group for lunch.
"Nice walk?" Carbine asked Charlie, winking at her favourite person of the female persuasion.
Charlie's eyebrows shot up and she glanced guiltily toward her husband and back at Carbine.
"How did you...?" she managed to stammer out.
"Cos we've had a few little walks of our own" Throttle said sotto voce as he leant back in his chair to see Charlie better.
Charlie snorted with laughter and shoved a slice of Panini in her mouth to stop any more outbursts from emerging.
Laughing, Vinnie excused himself from his chat with Modo and leant back to get Throttle's attention.
"Any good spots bro?" Vinnie teased.
"Vinnie!" Charlie scolded him, expecting Throttle to turn as beet red as she was at any second.
"Further down the beach, there's a great spot with a small cave. Take a blanket!" Throttle advised, ignoring Carbine tweaking his ear.
"Enough now, or our earth-girl is going to turn into a tomato" Carbine whispered to him.
Seeing the human blushing, the charismatic leader immediately offered his sister-in-law a heartfelt apology.
"Sorry Charlie, I didn't mean to embarrass you" Throttle said sincerely, reaching over to squeeze her hand.
Charlie squeezed his hand back to show no offense was taken.
Vinnie scrutinized his wife's face and caught the merest flicker of her eyes toward him, back to Throttle and Carbine, and then back to him again. She seemed to be having breathing difficulties and this time, when she glanced in his direction, an intense hunger had taken up residence in her eyes.
Vinnie grabbed his fruit juice and gulped it down hard, his hand shaking slightly from overexcited fear.
"Olympus Mon's balls, I'm in trouble now!" he murmured under his breath, one primal part of his brain doing the happy dance.
"You'll need to know the security guard's schedule for the beach patrols" Throttle whispered solicitously to his white-furred brother, causing Vinnie's hand to shake harder and Charlie's face to progress to a healthy maroon colour.
"Throttle, that's enough!" Carbine roared, grabbing her husband by the ear and dragging him away for a reprimand only Vinnie usually received.
The normally calm and collected leader returned suitably chastened from the attractive General's tongue-lashing, and he kept gazing at her in mixed awe.
"So glad I choose to be a freedom fighter instead of the army. I would've gotten my ears blown off if I had been one of your cadets!" he commented dryly.
Carbine smiled sweetly at him and popped a piece of honey-dew in her mouth, secretly tickled by his admiration.
"What have we got planned today?" Modo asked from the other side of the table, his arms stretched behind his head as he digested his nasi goreng with chilli.
"We could go see the Damnoen Saduak floating market" Stoker suggested.
"That sounds good!" Charlie and Carbine chorused in unison, their female DNA coming alive at the thought of more shopping opportunities.
"Wouldn't mind taking in some of the culture of the place. Maybe see the Grand Palace and Wat Pho" Modo added.
"How about a Muay Tai match?" said Vinnie, joining in the conversation "And I've booked tickets to a show at 10pm for all of us."
"What show?" the rest of the group demanded to know.
"It's a surprise" Vinnie said knowingly, refusing to give out even a hint, despite threats of possible nipple twisting by Carbine.
"Wouldn't be worth visiting Damnoen Saduak today" Charlie said in disappointment, looking down at her phone. "But if we get up early tomorrow, we can catch a 7am bus and avoid the afternoon heat."Throttle weighed the options presented against the time they had remaining on their holiday, and drafted a quick mental itinerary.
"How about we do Modo's wishlist this afternoon, see if we can catch a bout before dinner and then head to Vinnie's show. Tomorrow we'll go see the floating markets in the morning" he proposed.
"Perfect. And tomorrow afternoon and night I want everyone to keep their plans free. I have one last must-do on my bucket list for this place" Charlie chimed in, excitement written all over her face.
"A Brochures kind of thing?" Vinnie asked teasingly.
Charlie turned to her husband and pressed her nose against his.
"Better than Brochures, way better!" she said enthusiastically, before pushing her seat back and getting up.
While the rest of the group discussed the itinerary in more detail, Charlie left to speak with the tourist desk. With their help, she was able to purchase tickets to a Muay Thai event starting later in the evening.
The group went to change into more respectable attire for sightseeing than board-shorts and bikinis. Grabbing their essential items and a bottle of water each, they set off by taxi to check out the homes of the famous Emerald and Reclining Buddhas.
They then made their way to the Lumpinee Boxing stadium. The crowd was pumped and the entire group of Martian mice were grinning from ear to ear at the buzz generated by the professional fighters displaying their prowess in the ring.
Realising time was getting away, Charlie grabbed her phone and showed Vinnie, pointing at the clock face.
Nodding, he put his hand on Throttle's shoulder and made the 'let's go' flick of his head, indicating the exits. Throttle did the same to Carbine and so on down the line until everyone started making their way out of the row and to the carpark.
"Let's order something light from room service, and then if we're still hungry after the show, we can go get something more substantial" Carbine suggested as Modo went to flag down a taxi or two.
The rest of the group agreed to the plan and they clambered into the taxis and headed back to the hotel. Charlie ordered gourmet hotdogs and cold beers and they convened on Charlie and Vinnie's room to eat.
"Where is this show Vinnie?" Throttle asked, eying his wife's remaining hotdog.
"Eyes off fuzzy-buns!" Carbine warned, before taking a swig from her Beer Chang.
"Mambo Cabaret" Vinnie replied, seizing a piece of onion off the top of Charlie's hotdog.
"Get out of it" she growled, swiping his hand away good-naturedly and shoving the last piece in her mouth.
"Ok, it's 9.30pm, let's go!" Vinnie said, pulling Charlie to her feet and ushering the group out of the room.
They arrived at Mambo Cabaret and purchased chocolates and drinks. Taking their seats, the group eagerly waited to see what was in store for their entertaining pleasure.
Charlie nearly spat out her drink when she saw the show start. She looked at her husband and tried to catch his eye, but he was too busy biting his lip.
Grabbing him by the ear, she pulled him toward her.
"Did you know what this was about before you booked it?" she asked him heatedly.
He nodded and flicked his eyes in Stoker's direction.
"Yep, but the old timer doesn't. Look at his face!" Vinnie replied, sniggering under his breath.
Stoker was in raptures. The cast of talented and stunning female singers had him engrossed from the beginning, and he happily sang along to the Earth tunes.
Charlie buried her face into Vinnie's shoulder to smother her laughter..
After the show finished, Charlie suggested they get photos with the entertainers, much to Stoker's approval. He posed with the singers and dancers, happily exchanging numbers with several of them.
Locating a nearby cafe, they ordered a late-night dinner and happily discussed the day's events.
In the taxi ride back, Stoker ardently extolled the lyrical and physical attributes of the entertainers.
"So you've really enjoyed your first ladyboy cabaret huh Stoker" Charlie commented, her face deadpan.
"Ladyboy?" Stoker asked, his face full of confusion.
Charlie googled the word and handed her phone over for Stoker to read.
Martian swearing erupted along with howls of laughter from Charlie, Vinnie and Carbine.
"You're gonna pay for that punk!" Stoker barked, tossing the phone at Modo and making a playful lunge at his youngest trainee.
Modo picked the phone up and read the description. A grin broke out on his face and he showed his leader. Throttle could only shake his head and hoot with amusement.
Knowing an early morning was imminent, everyone set their alarms for 6am and headed to bed, agreeing to meet in the hotel lobby prior to departure.