Quarterback Sneak (Red Zone Rivals, #3)

by Kandi Steiner

Because all my life, football had been my one and only focus. It was all I cared about. It was my reason for waking up in the morning, and the only thought that consumed me when I laid my head down at night. It was my lifeline, my muse, the center of my attention. But in one fatal moment, that focus shifted. Julep Lee was the coach’s daughter. She was completely off limits. And yet, I knew right then and there that I had to have her.

“Trust me — you and I are nothing alike.” “Oh, I have a feeling you might be wrong about that, Julep Lee.”

“You should come over sometime though,” Leo added once he was seated. “And bring that roommate of yours.” “You mean the one who hates you?” Leo smirked, shrugging. “They all say they hate me, but words are cheap.”

AHHH LEO I love him so much

“Is this your not-so-subtle way of asking if I have a girlfriend, Julep Lee? Because I can save you the detective work and tell you that I don’t.” I scoffed. “Like I care.” “Seems like you might.” “Seems like they might need to order new helmets to fit your big head.”

“I haven’t been able to take my eyes off you since the moment you walked through that door tonight.”

“You can’t have me,” I reminded him, though my voice was shallow, weak. “Says who?” “My father.” His eyes fell to my lips, his next breath warming them. “As long as it’s not you saying it, I don’t care.”

That ghost I’d seen in her eyes since the first time I met her, I knew what it was now. It was the same as mine.

As if wanting her physically hadn’t driven me mad enough, as if pushing her buttons didn’t rev me up, as if that bickering with her and making her roll her eyes didn’t light some dead part of me back to life — now, I felt a connection to her I’d never felt to anyone in my entire life.

like vanilla romance sometimes… a sweet friends-to-lovers, maybe a second-chance situation.” “And those don’t have sex in them?” Giana snorted. “Like I’d waste my time on a book without spice.”

“I love your daughter, Coach Lee,” I said, though my eyes didn’t leave her. “I love her, and I don’t care what you or anyone else thinks about it. My heart used to belong to football, but now it belongs to her. And none of this,” I added, throwing my hands up. “None of it means a damn thing without her.”

“I will be here,” I said, tugging her hands to my chest again. “Every day. I’ll be right by your side reminding you that you matter, that you are needed, that there is a reason to have hope and a reason to live. I’ll be here reminding you that for me? You are that reason.”