OFF-LIMITS

**Robyn POV** I sat in the front of my mother’s car, with my knees jammed into the dash. The seat had been pulled all the way forward to make room for all of the boxes and suitcases we’d piled into the back seat. I balanced my backpack on my lap and chewed on my bottom lip as we pulled up in front of the big, luxurious house. “Well,” my mother said, gripping the steering wheel nervously. “Here we are.” She reached out and squeezed my hand. “This is going to be great, Robbi, you’ll see.” "That's what you said last time,” I mumbled, staring up at the house. And all the times before that. This was my mother’s sixth boyfriend since my father died three years ago. I should be getting used to this by now, but it was always hella awkward being the teenaged daughter that she dragged along to each new relationship. “Well, don’t just sit there! Let’s go inside and meet everyone!” She pulled out the keys and opened her door, but I continued to stare up at the big house. I had to hand it

The hostess led us through the dining room to a round table near the center. Dad politely held out a chair for his girlfriend. I turned to do the same for Robyn, but she had already pulled out her own chair and plopped her butt into it. I took the seat immediately to her right, which forced Jack to sit to her left."Order whatever you like!" my father said grandly. "Tonight we celebrate new beginnings!"I picked up my menu and, out of the corner of my eye, watched Robyn. Did she even know how to behave in a fancy restaurant? Not to be judgy, but she and her mother seemed rather common. Would she be intimidated by the white linen napkins and the excessive assortment of silverware?As if sensing my thoughts, Robyn took her napkin, shook it out carelessly, placed it in her lap, then reached for her crystal water goblet and took a sip before picking up the menu to scan the offerings.Most women were, in my experience, painfully predictable. Despite all the scrumptious options, they'd choo

Jack POV My father was apparently having some kind of late mid-life crisis. The man had hardly looked at another woman since our mother died, but all of a sudden he was all over Denise Drake. Dating her was one thing, but why the hell did he have to move her into his house? I hate change and everything that goes with it. I’m forced to deal with it on a professional basis, but at least my home should be stable and peaceful. "Phoenix had quietly suggested that it might be time for us to move out and get our own place, but I thought that this was the worst possible time for us to leave the old man to his own devices. Who knows, if we turned our backs, that woman might bleed him dry and leave him penniless. I didn’t even like the looks of Denise Drake. She was too thin, too fragile looking. And I bet that was part of the appeal to my father. She had that classic damsel in distress air about her, combined with some kind of nostalgia for days gone by. He was in a vulnerable menta

"Phoenix told us you found the gym this morning," my mother said, wrinkling her nose at me. She found exercise and anything that made her sweaty extremely distasteful. "Did you have a good workout?" "It was fine," I said with a shrug. I pulled open the fridge, not caring that it wasn't my house. If I was going to live here, I was going to make myself at home. "Do we have any lemons?" "Um," Andrew scratched his balding head. "The housekeeper does the shopping. If there is something special you need, just add it to the list on the side of the fridge." I dug through the produce bin until I turned up one shriveled lemon that looked like it was about two months old. I added lemons to the list on the fridge and then squeezed the little juice I could extract from the ancient fruit into my water bottle. "Would you like some oatmeal?" Andrew asked. I could tell he was trying really hard to be nice to me, probably in some misguided attempt to impress my mom. I could have told him he d

"Wow," I said with a dark chuckle. "That was an impressive attempt to shut me down." "But true," she said with a casual shrug. "I think it's best if we keep this purely platonic." This girl left me baffled. I'd barely flirted with her, and she just shot me down without a second thought. The worst part is, she was one hundred percent correct. She was very young. Seven years wasn't that much on the grand scale of things, but when the girl was only eighteen, it was huge. And I wasn't really seriously thinking of pursuing a relationship with her. Was I? Nah, she was just something new and curious that had caught my interest. Once the novelty wore off, she'd just be a boring teenage girl who happened to live in my house. Robyn POV I unwound my legs from around Phoenix's waist and positioned my feet against his muscular thighs. I used his legs as a springboard and pushed away from him. Letting him pull me in close had been a mistake. It was like flirting with fire, and I di