Get Inked: A Pucked Series and Clipped Wings Crossover Novella (Pucked #5.5)(16)

“I’m not getting a tattoo,” Sunny says.

“I don’t mean to get a tattoo. Well, I’m getting one—”

“You’re getting a tattoo?” Sunny’s voice is all squeaky.

Lily nods. “Yeah. Randy’s artist, Hayden, is drawing something up. Sweet Lord, that man is intense, and seriously hot.”

“All the guys in there are,” I say.

“Right?” Lily fans her face. “Hayden’s all angsty and broody, and he’s got two full sleeves. He looks like a model. And the other guys, they’re just as hot. Honestly, I was never big into tattoos before Randy, but now…”

“Are there pictures of these guys?” Charlene interrupts.

“I don’t know. Maybe? Let me check.” Lily pops up and runs across the patio to get her phone. She punches a bunch of buttons and frowns while she scrolls. “A lot of the images are sample designs and custom pieces… Oh! Wait—this is Hayden!”

She flips the phone around and shows Sunny the picture before she shows us.

Now, I’m not really a full-sleeve tattoo kind of girl, but I get Lily’s appreciation for Randy’s body art, because he’s a nice-looking guy with a nice arm and cool designs on it. I check out the picture on Lily’s phone. I’m pretty sure the hottie taking up her screen is the guy I got a brief glimpse of before Chris took Alex and me into the private room the one time I was there. From what I recall, and can confirm from this tiny little phone picture, he’s a panty incinerator.

Charlene grabs the phone to get a closer look. “He can’t really be that hot in real life.”

“Oh, he’s even hotter. Seriously, doesn’t he look like he should be on the cover of magazines?” Lily says.

“Or inside them naked?” Charlene adds.

“I think Miller is better looking than that guy,” Sunny says.

“Yeah, but you have an unusual affinity for yetis, so that’s not really a surprise.” Buck is blond, like Sunny, so all the hair on his arms and legs mostly blends in. There’s still a lot of it, but he trims routinely. When I was a teenager I used to come into the bathroom to find body hair tumbleweeds all over the place. It was gross.

“You have to admit this guy is hot, though.” Lily points to her phone. “You just need to meet him. I can’t explain it. He’s intense. Like, more intense than Randy, if that’s even possible.”

“Did you act like this when you were there with Randy?”

“Act like what?”

“Like you’re about to have heart palpitations and a case of the vapors.” Not that I blame her. I mean, the guy is smoking, even if he is kind of wiry. He reminds me of the emo guys in high school that I used to be a little afraid of. But not actually afraid, more like I was never going to be cool enough to hang out with them.

Charlene nabs the phone again. “You know, if this guy had a beard, he’d look a lot like Randy.”

Lily leans over her shoulder. “You know, I kind of thought the same thing. I’ve never seen Randy without the beard.”

“Ohhh, maybe you should ask him to shave it, just for comparison sake,” I suggest.

“I’m not sure he’d go for that, or that I want him to. I kind of love his beard.” Lily sigh-shudders.

“Don’t you find it scratchy? I always find Alex’s beard scratchy during playoffs. Sometimes it chafes my beaver, and I have to put aloe on it.”

“I’m sure Sunny really wanted to know that,” Charlene mutters.

I’m not sure Sunny is even paying attention since she’s busy looking at her own phone, but I apologize anyway.

Sunny shrugs. “I always find there’s less chafing after the first two weeks. Sometimes we take a day in between cookie-eating sessions until he reaches the soft and not scratchy stage.”

“Well, Randy’s beard is super soft. He conditions it a lot, though.”

“With your vagina!” I say.

Lily snickers, and we fist bump.

By the time the guys get back from golfing, it’s time for dinner, and we’re all sun baked and hammered—except for Sunny, who’s the only one smart enough to keep reapplying sunscreen throughout the day. It was a sunny, and we forgot to account for the fact that we’ve been hiding under warm clothes for several months, except for the few days we spent getting me hitched in Vegas.

After dinner, everyone goes home, and I take a cool shower to help ease the heat on my over-sunned skin. Apparently my time honeymooning in Hawaii didn’t provide enough of a base to avoid a burn. I grab the aloe lotion and drop down on the bed beside Alex, groaning my displeasure at the sandpaper feel of the comforter.

“You look a little overcooked. Want me to put that on your back?” Alex nods to the bottle in my hand.

I pass it over. “That’d be awesome.”

He pulls my shirt over my head and makes a disapproving sound. “Did you wear sunscreen at all?”

“I forgot to reapply.”

“Clearly.” He drops a small kiss on my shoulder, then reaches around and cups my boobs in his palms, sighing. “At least these aren’t burned.”

My nipples are each framed with a pasty white triangle. “I imagine burned nipples aren’t very pleasant.”