The Nerd Who Stole The Quarterback (Astra and Zayne) novel Chapter 196

The Nerd Who Stole The Quarterback

That did it. She burst out laughing, snatched the wolf from under my arm, and took off through the crowd.

“Astra!”

She barely made it ten feet before I caught up, hooked an arm around her waist, and lifted her clean off the ground. A startled squeal tore out of her as her feet left the pavement, the wolf crushed protectively against her chest.

“Nooo!”

“You won me a stuffed animal and named it after another fucking guy?”

“It suits him!”

“Change it.”

“Never.”

My fingers found her sides, and whatever smartass response she’d been preparing dissolved into helpless laughter.

“Zane! Stop!”

“Change the name.”

“Okay! Okay, fine!”

I stopped tickling her but kept my arm around her waist as I lowered her back to the ground. She leaned against me for a second, catching her breath, while I took the wolf back.

“Well?”

Astra looked up at me, eyes still full of mischief. “Zane Junior.”

I glanced down at the weird blue-eyed wolf in my hand before giving her a look. “Acceptable.”

“How generous.”

I tucked Zane Junior beneath my arm and caught her hand before she could come up with another name for the bastard.

We kept wandering, stopping wherever Astra found something interesting, until she sent me to grab drinks while she disappeared toward one of the nearby stalls. By the time I found her again, she had somehow acquired bunny ears.

I slowed as she turned toward me, golden hair spilling around a white headband with two long, pink-lined cars sticking out of it.

She tipped her head. “Well?”

My gaze traveled over her. “Cute.”

She blinked, clearly not expecting that. “Cute?”

But her smile told me she was perfectly happy with that answer. Then her attention shifted somewhere behind me, and the sudden gleam in her eyes made me regret turning around.

“No.”

“You don’t even know what I’m looking at.”

“I know you.”

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The Nerd Who Stole The Quarterback

I was right. A few minutes later, black devil horns were sitting on my head while Astra stood in front of me looking far too pleased with what she’d done.

‘Perfect.”

“You get one picture, and then these are coming off.”

She immediately held out her hand. “Phone.”

“Bossy.”

I pulled mine from my pocket and handed it over anyway. Astra moved beside me and lifted the phone, angling it until we both fit on the screen. I wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her against my side.

Astra smiled at the camera, but somewhere between her lifting the phone and taking the picture, I forgot I was supposed to be looking at it.

She checked the photo afterward and glanced up at me. “You weren’t even looking at the camera.”

“I was looking where I wanted to.”

That shut her up. She dropped her attention to the picture again, fighting a smile that only made it more obvious I’d gotten to her.

Fuck, she was cute.

She thrust my phone toward me. “Take another one.”

Astra swiped between the two photos. “I’m keeping the first one.”

“It’s my phone.”

“Exactly. You can’t lose it.”

She locked the screen and handed it back before I could argue.

We wandered farther into the carnival until a photo booth tucked between two game stalls caught her attention. The next thing I knew, her fingers were threaded through mine and she was pulling me toward it.

“Trouble, that thing is tiny.”

“We’ll fit.”

That confidence lasted until the curtain closed behind us and we discovered there was barely enough room for my legs. never mind both of us.

Astra tried to squeeze farther onto the narrow seat. “Move over.”

“Where the hell would you like me to go?”

“Zane.”

“Unless you want me sitting on the fucking wall, this is as far as I go.”

“You’re taking up all the room.”

“I’m twice your fucking size.”

She tried to shove me sideways anyway, lost whatever space she’d managed to claim, and landed halfway across my thigh.

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The Nerd Who Stole The Quarterback

That ended the argument.

Astra went still against me, and for a second neither of us seemed particularly interested in how much room was left on the sear. Her gaze dropped to where she was sitting before slowly making its way back to my face. The blush came fast.

Well. Maybe the photo booth wasn’t such a terrible idea after all.

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10:13 Sat, Aug 15 MO.

The Nerd Who Stole The Quarterback

Proof It Happened

ZANE

I slid an arm around her waist, keeping her exactly where she’d landed. “Comfortable, Trouble?”

“Don’t.”

The warning would’ve worked better if she hadn’t been turning pink all the way to her ears.

Before I could make that worse for her, the screen lit up and started counting down.

3… 2… 1…

Astra immediately threw up two peace signs and crossed her eyes.

The flash went off.

I stared at her. “What the fuck was that?”

“A pose.”

“Looked more like a medical emergency.”

She shoved my shoulder, laughing just as another countdown appeared.

Fine. If that was how we were doing this.

I pulled the ugliest face I could manage right as the flash went off. Astra caught sight of the preview and doubled over against me, one hand clutching my shoulder.

“What is wrong with your face?”

“You wanted stupid pictures.”

“You look possessed!”

The third countdown began before Astra had fully recovered. She grabbed one of my devil horns and knocked it sideways, sticking her tongue out at the camera, so I folded one of her bunny ears across her face just as the flash went off.

She swatted my hand away and hurried to straighten the bunny ear. The final countdown appeared before she’d finished fixing it.

“Wait.” She hurriedly pushed her hair back into place. “Zane, don’t do anything stupid.”

The numbers started dropping across the screen.

3…2…

She was still fussing with her hair when I turned toward her,

I caught her gently by the jaw and turned her face toward mine. Her breath caught when I closed the space between us, my mouth brushing hers once before I pressed closer.

She went still for half a second, then her fingers curled into my shirt as her lips softened beneath mine. The flash went off somewhere beyond my closed eyes, but I barely registered it. Astra’s fingers tightened in the front of my shirt as I moved

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my lips against hers, slowly enough to feel the tiny breath that escaped her.

When I finally drew back, Astra stayed close, one hand fisted in my shirt. Her bunny ears sat crooked in her hair, her lips parted as she stared up at me like every thought had vanished from her head.

God, she was cute.

The machine whirred beneath us, finally pulling her attention away from me.

Astra blinked. “You did that on purpose.”

“Of course I did.”

“Zane, that picture is going to exist forever.”

“You say that like it’s a problem.”

Her mouth fell open, but the machine started printing before she could argue. The second the photo strip appeared, Astra reached for it, but I leaned across and snatched it first.

“Zane!”

I held it above her head when she climbed halfway across me trying to steal it back.

“Give me the picture!”

“Hang on.”

Keeping it out of her reach, I glanced over the photos. The first three were a complete mess-exactly what you’d expect from two idiots crammed into a booth wearing bunny ears and devil horns.

Then I reached the last one, and every bit of teasing left me.

The stupid accessories should’ve made the picture funny. Her bunny ears were crooked, one of my horns leaned sideways, and neither of us had been remotely prepared when the camera went off. But all I saw was Astra with her eyes closed, my hand against her cheek, caught right in the middle of kissing me.

Yeah, I was keeping that one.