“You’re winning no prizes with this.”

“What if I tell you I want to condition my beard right now?”

“I’m all for public displays of affection, but I’m pretty sure we could get arrested for that, even if we’re on our own front porch.”

Randy fumbles with the keypad, punching in the code while he bites along my shoulder, his beard tickling me.

We manage to get inside the front door. I’m smart enough to set the envelope with the tattoo designs on the side table in the front hall before he gets me totally naked and makes good on his beard-conditioning promise.

* * *

It took me three days to decide on my favorite design. Randy never did voice any kind of opinion on it, but I saw him staring at the designs just as much as I was. Once I chose—I went for the biggest one with the most detail—we stopped by to see Hayden, and he sent me home with transfers. I’ve been wearing them all over my body for the past few days to help make a final decision on the location.

In this case, despite Randy’s insistence that I be the one to make the choice, he’s willing to help with the process. Using body paint.

“I thought you said this was out,” I murmur as he nudges my knees apart and dips his finger into the pink body paint. He draws a little heart high up on the inside of my thigh.

“I’m just making sure I don’t want it here.” Randy is not an artist by any stretch of the imagination. He is, however, very good at cleaning flavored paint off my body with his tongue. He’s also very thorough. My preferred licking locations are obviously those close to the Vagina Emporium, which is right where he is now.

Of course, he doesn’t stay there long, because he’s a tease. He moves up until he can rest his chin on my pelvis—I’m only wearing panties and a camisole, so he has nearly full access to my currently unmarked skin. Using the purple paint, which tastes a lot like grape Kool-Aid, he draws a little smiley face on my hip.

“I really think when you retire from hockey, you should see if you can switch gears and apprentice with Hayden,” I tell him.

“So you can start a fan club?” Randy covers the purple smiley face with his mouth and sucks the paint off, following up with a little teeth. I know he’s kidding, though he’s aware of all the girls’ fascination with Hayden.

“Just imagine the fun places I’d be able to get tattoos if you were the one to put them on me.”

I can’t imagine we would ever finish one, to be honest.

He turns serious, even with his head between my legs. “You know you can have one wherever you want it.”

I smile and run my fingers through his hair. It’s getting long, which I love. “I know.”

“I don’t want your decision to be based on my insecurity.” He kisses below my navel.

While an inner thigh or a hip tattoo would definitely be sexy, I’m not interested in slowing our sex roll with new ink. Even if I waited for him to be on a series of away games, he’d still have to be gentle for at least a week. Sometimes Randy and I have slow, sweet sex. But that’s the exception, definitely not the rule.

Beyond that, I want the tattoo to be visible—not necessarily all the time, but at least during the summer months. “I still think my shoulder is the perfect location. That way it’s visible when I want it to be and easily covered when I don’t.”

Also, Randy likes to kiss me there, so now he’ll have an actual target. It’s a special, meaningful tattoo, tied to so many good memories.

“Wherever you get it, it’s gonna be sexy.” Randy pulls himself up higher, kissing his way across my stomach.

“Well, I doubt it’s going to be my last one, so there’s plenty of opportunity to find other places, isn’t there?”

“Fucking right.” Randy settles between my thighs.

I circle my arms around his neck. I toyed with putting the tattoo on my forearm, but I don’t know if I’m ready for that level of visibility quite yet. I need to ease my poor mother in to this, one pretty design at a time.

In the meantime, I get to experience the excitement that comes with planning out a new sleeve with Randy. As I run my hands up his arms, one marked, one waiting to be marked, I understand his love of body art in a way I never did before.

It’s about wearing a piece of your history, a part of what makes you who you are. And sometimes it’s about the people who come into your life, and embed themselves in your heart until you can’t imagine where you’d be without them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

HELENA HUNTING

NYT and USA Today bestselling author of PUCKED, Helena Hunting lives on the outskirts of Toronto with her incredibly tolerant family and two moderately intolerant cats. She's writes contemporary romance ranging from new adult angst to romantic sports comedy.

OTHER TITLES BY

HELENA HUNTING

PUCKED SERIES

Pucked (Pucked #1)

Pucked Up (Pucked #2)

Pucked Over (Pucked #3)

Forever Pucked(Pucked#4)

Pucked Under (Pucked #5)

AREA 51: Deleted Scenes & Outtakes

THE CLIPPED WINGS SERIES

Cupcakes and Ink

Clipped Wings

Between the Cracks

Inked Armor

Cracks in the Armor

Fractures in Ink

STANDALONE NOVELS

The Librarian Principle

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Read on for a preview of

THE SMELL OF ORGASMS

LILY

I prop my skate up on the bench to tighten the laces. After this session, my sexy, NHL-player boyfriend, Randy Ballistic, is picking me up for a weekend getaway with our friends. The cottage we’re going to belongs to one of Randy’s teammates, Alex Waters, who I’ve incidentally known my entire life since his younger sister, Sunny, is my best friend.

The off-season is about to come to an end, and training camp will start in less than two weeks. This last-hurrah weekend will be at Alex’s Chicago cottage, not the Ontario cottage where Randy and I first met. As much as I’d love to revisit that location, any kind of weekend away with Randy and my friends is welcome, and this cottage is much closer.