War (Boston Bolts Hockey #3)

Two

DANIEL

“Are you going to hold my hand when he does it?”

War blinks at me, his expression one of disbelief. “You’re going to need to start over, and do not repeat that question.”

My stomach twists. “I really hate blood. I’m a lover, not a fighter.”

Chuckling, Brooks slaps me on the back. “Come on, Playboy, I’ll hold your hand.”

Behind us, Aiden lets out a humph . “You wouldn’t hold my hand when I did it.”

“Because I was too busy holding my own damn dick.” Brooks grabs himself as if he’s experiencing phantom pain. “You sure you want to do this?”

“Oh my god, stop babying him. If I have to hear him cry about not having a blinged-out dick one more time, I’m going to personally stab a bar through it for him.” War glares at me as if he’s imagining doing just that.

Suddenly, it’s all I can picture. The instigator coming at me with a needle, holding me down and?—

With a shudder, I cup myself and will away the mental images before they get more graphic.

“I have no idea how you got sweet Ava to marry you. ”

His wife is the sweetest woman. The exact opposite of War. She’s the head of charity relations for Langfield Corp, the parent company of the Boston Bolts. I bet she knits sweaters for the homeless in her downtime.

“It was the glitter dick.” Aiden laughs. “It’s how I got Lex, and how Brooks got Sara.”

Sara, Brooks’s fiancée, is the head of PR for our hockey team, and Lennox works with Ava, handling the party planning for the charity events. The three of them, along with my sister and Hannah, are close friends. Hannah is quite literally the hottest woman I’ve ever met. She’s gorgeous, sure, but her beauty and sex appeal come from so much more than just her looks. It’s her attitude that really does it for me. The way she talks down to me. Maybe it’s sick, but I fucking love it.

“Speaking of Sar,” Aiden says as he lifts his phone.

“Why is my fiancée calling you?” his brother grumbles, pulling out his phone. “I don’t even have a missed call.”

“It’s ’cause I’m the fun one,” Aiden says as he taps the screen. “Hi Sar.”

Brooks snatches the device from Aiden’s hand and taps the speaker button. “Why are you calling my brother and not me, crazy girl?”

“Brookie, are you getting jealous?”

His response is an unintelligible mumble.

Sara’s voice softens. “I only called him because he’s not replying to my texts.”

“Why aren’t you replying to Sara?” I swear Brooks looks like he’ll fight his brother for ignoring his fiancée. He is the definition of touch her and die , only its more make her sad and die . He’ll do just about anything to keep a smile on that woman’s face.

“Because I’m sitting here being a good friend to Hall so he can finally get the glitter dick.”

“Oh my god!” Sara screeches, her tinny voice piercing my eardrums. “He’s finally going to do it?”

Head dropped back, I groan. “Seriously.”

Aiden shrugs. “They’d all find out anyway. You know we don’t keep secrets from the girls, and they don’t keep secrets from one another.”

“Oh, Hannah and I planned to get our nips pierced when you finally did this. Should I call her? We can be there within the hour.”

“Nipples pierced?” My mood lifts instantly at the idea of Hannah’s nipples.

“Yeah, your sister suggested them.”

And there goes any and all excitement surrounding nipple piercings.

“Ya know what? I think we’re going to keep this activity for the boys only,” Aiden replies, giving me a knowing look. He holds out his hand for his phone.

Sara huffs. “Fine. But could you please send me the link to the house Lennox booked? She can’t find the email, and I want to show it to the girls.”

“Okay,” Aiden says, tapping at the screen of his device, “it’s sent. I’ll talk to you later.” After they disconnect the call, he holds the phone out. “House is sick, right? Just think, if you get pierced tonight, you might just be ready to test it out the weekend we’re in Arizona.”

Alarmed, I straighten. “That’s almost two months away.”

“Have you not done any research since you started whining about not having your own?” War says with a laugh. “You can’t have sex for six to eight weeks.”

I frown at Brooks, who just shrugs. “Didn’t matter to me. I wasn’t going near anyone back then.”

Aiden shakes his head. “I’d rather not think about when I was with Jill, but I can promise that if I’d been with Lex at the time, it would have been impossible.”

I swallow slowly. Do I really want to do this?

Calliope’s words replay in my mind. If a man gets himself pierced, he’s proven that not only will he be good in bed, but he’s willing to do the hard work.

“Ya know,” Aiden says, leaning against the brick wall outside the tattoo shop. “We ended up here because of a game of truth or dare.”

War nods. “Yeah and?”

“Maybe we need a little truth or dare to get him motivated. ”

Brooks nods. “Yeah, I only went through with it because I didn’t want to admit that I was a twenty-nine-year-old virgin saving myself for Sara.”

I can’t help but laugh. Thankfully, the tension in my shoulders dissipates a little as I do. “Worked out well for you, I guess. You ended up fake dating her not too long after that, right?”

Brooks nods. “And I asked War why he wasn’t honest with Ava about missing the charity event at the YMCA when we all knew he had a perfectly good reason.”

“Oh yeah?”

Our captain just shrugs. “Brayden called that day. His mom didn’t show up to get him after school. But at the time Ava hated me, and I was tired of wasting my breath trying to explain to her that I wasn’t a bad guy. My vicious wife never would have believed me.” Brayden is fourteen now, and War and Ava are raising him, along with their two daughters.

“You’re leaving out that part where you refused to admit you were obsessed with her at the time,” Brooks adds.

“And then you ended up in a fake marriage with the woman,” I point out.

“My marriage isn’t fake,” War grumbles.

Brooks arches a brow.

“Fine. It started out kind of fake. For her. I was always all-the-fuck-in.”

“What was the truth you refused to give them?” I ask Aiden

Jaw tight, Aiden nods at War. “He asked me why I hated shamrocks.”

“Back then, none of us knew that Lennox used the word when she broke your heart back in high school.”

“And after getting pierced, you ended up fake engaged to her.” I’m beginning to sense a pattern. Fuck.

War laughs. “That’s about right. After getting our piercings, Brooks fake dated Sar, Aiden ended up fake engaged to Lennox and I ended up”—his voice dips, and he grits out the words—“fake married to Ava.”

I swallow and nod. “Yeah. ”

“What’s the worst that could happen, Playboy? You take it one step farther and get a girl fake pregnant?” He laughs.

My balls have officially ascended into my body. “None of you are faking anything.”

Brooks rubs at his face, trying to hide a smile. “Yeah, Sara likes to say it’s the glitter dicks that got us all together.”

“Except I’m different. I’m not getting this for anyone.” Except them, but we won’t tell them that.

War smirks. “Calliope.”

Rolling my eyes, I laugh dryly. “Yeah, as if I’ll ever get to meet her.”

“If you do, better be prepared to knock her up, Playboy.”

“I don’t remember a truth being lobbed my way.”

“Fine.” War fixes me with a hard look. “Truth or dare?”

I stare right back, refusing to back down. “Truth.”

He folds her arms across his chest. “Why do you really want to get pierced? Why today? What changed?”

I think of the article. I think of Noah. Both are part of my why. But I refuse to admit either fact out loud.

Because what kind of man gets their dick pierced with the hope that one day he’ll impress a faceless woman hiding behind a pen name who writes articles about improving a person’s sex life?

And who gets pierced so they can prove they’re closer than some other guy is to a group of friends?

Not the kind of man who admits to it, that’s for damn sure.

“Let’s go inside.”

“Yes!” Aiden hollers. “This deserves a song.”

“No singing,” War growls.

“Can’t stop it,” Aiden says as he pushes off the wall and holds a hand up in front of him like he’s got an invisible mic. Before we can stop him, he dives into his own version of Taylor Swift’s “Don’t Blame Me.”

Don’t blame me, the bling made Lex crazy

Playboy wants it and he’s doing it tonight

Oh, Brooks baby, the bling made Sara crazy

Playboy wants it, he’s giving up the fight .

Playboy’s—”

War clamps a hand over his mouth. “If you use my wife’s name in your song about Playboy’s glitter dick, I’m going to put my fist through your face.”

Aiden blinks.

“So you’re going to stop singing, right?”

Aiden nods, his dark eyes wide.

War angles in closer, and I’m pretty sure he’s growling. Finally, he releases Aiden. “If we’re all ready to act like big boys now, can we get this over with?” He motions toward the door

I give myself one final pep talk before heading in.

When I walk out of here, I’ll finally have the glitter. And considering I can’t have sex for months, no one is getting fucking pregnant. Fake or otherwise.