Off_Limits.

“Maya! Are you in there?”

Mr. Sebastian pulled back immediately. Too quickly.

One second he was close enough to steal my breath.The next, he was stepping away as though nothing had happened.

The door eased open and Luisa walked in.

Her gaze landed on us first.

Then on the shattered wine bottle by my feet.

Her expression tightened.

She looked at her father, waiting for an explanation.

Mr. Sebastian’s jaw flexed.

For a moment, I thought he might say something…Instead, he turned toward the door.

“Someone will take care of the mess later,” he said calmly.

His voice sounded perfectly normal.

Too normal.

“I’ll be by the helm if you need anything.”

He didn’t look at me again.

Then he walked out.

The moment the door shut behind him, the room felt strangely empty.

Luisa stared after him before turning back to me.

“Maya… what happened?”

I swallowed.

My throat still burned from the alcohol…My head felt light…My thoughts felt even lighter.

“I…” I struggled to find the words. “He caught me.”

“What?”

I nodded.

“Yeah. He walked in while I was drinking. I was already tipsy, and then the bottle slipped when I tried to…”

My voice faded.

Because it wasn’t just about the bottle.

It was about everything.

“Listen,” Luisa said quickly, changing the subject immediately. “There’s a party tonight at the Golden clubhouse. My cousin is throwing a party there and he said that lots of hot dudes and chicks will be there. We’re going, and you’re not giving me any excuses.”

I blinked.

“I don’t want to go.”

“You have to.”

“No.”

This time my answer came out firmer.

“I just want to sleep when we get back. I want to forget everything. And I don’t want to see Asa either.”

Luisa frowned.

“Asa…Asa…Asa. That’s all I hear from you,”

I looked away, pretending she wasn’t right.

“Why are you still hung up on him?”

“I am not anymore, trust me. It’s just that he wants nothing to do with me. And he might think I am there because of him. Especially because he’s best friends with your cousin,”

For once, she didn’t argue.

She simply reached for my hand and squeezed it.

“Tonight isn’t about him,” she said softly.

“It’s about you.” She smiled, then lifted her brows like she just remembered something.

“Oh! And guess what?!”

“What?” I rolled my eyes.

“I already ordered us dresses, it’s back at my house, we just have to head back and go get super sexy!” She said in a bubbly tone.

I wanted to refuse again.

But Luisa had always possessed a terrifying talent.

Once she made up her mind, the universe usually have no choice but to follow.

So I let her pull me toward the door.

And by the time we stepped outside the yacht, a thick blanket had been draped over the sky, darkening it into something unreal, like the universe was trying to hide secrets from everything below it, including the sea.

*****

Later that night, music pulsed through the air.

Colored lights flashed across unfamiliar faces. Even before I could protest, Luisa was already dragging me onto the dance floor.

“Just dance!” she shouted.

I barely heard her.

I closed my eyes and moved anyway.

For a few seconds, I almost succeeded in forgetting.

Almost.

But my mind kept drifting back to the yacht.

To the cabin…

To Sebastian.

The way my name sounded when he said it.

The bottle shattering against the floor…

The look in his eyes.

And then…

His hot breath against my lips.

My eyes snapped open, anchoring me back to the present moment.

The crowd moved around me in a frenzy of hip hop movement and joyful laughter

But all I could feel was that moment.

Frozen somewhere beneath my ribs.

Luisa spun me around and grinned.

“See? You’re fine.”

I tried to smile back.

But my expression didn’t match my insides.

Because I wasn’t thinking about the party.

I was thinking about the last thing my best friend’s father did before he left the room.

About how quickly he’d stepped away.

About how carefully he’d acted afterward.

And about the one question I couldn’t stop asking myself.

Had he been about to kiss me?

Or had I imagined the whole thing?

MR. SEBASTIAN VOSS POV.

This is insanity.

I gripped the yacht’s railing harder, staring out at the dark water.

The sea should have calmed me.

But It didn’t.

Because every time I closed my eyes, I saw her.

Maya.

Standing in that cabin.

Looking at me with those wide, confused eyes.

God.

How could I have been so careless?…

For years, I had kept my distance.

For years, I had convinced myself that whatever I felt would eventually disappear.

That one day I would look at her and see only what I was supposed to see.

My daughter’s best friend.

A young woman who deserved a future untouched by my mistakes.

But tonight…

Tonight, she’d looked at me and every lie I’d spent years building had cracked.

I could still remember the way her voice trembled.

The way she looked so heartbreakingly lost after that phone call.

And for one reckless moment, all I’d wanted to do was take her pain away.

My hand still felt like it remembered her skin…her soft, sweet skin.

Her alluring sea blue eyes…

Her pink and luscious lips..oh, her raspberry scent.

I thought I was strong enough to hold in what I had been feeling for years now…. I thought I was man enough to swallow that feeling, and pretend everything was okay.

That was the problem.

Because it had stopped being simple a long time ago.

It wasn’t just concern….it wasn’t just protectiveness either.

And God help me, it wasn’t temporary.

The realization settled heavily in my chest.

I wanted things I had no right to want…I wanted a woman who should have been completely off-limits.

I shut my eyes.

No!…Fuck!…No!

This can’t happen….Not with Maya.

Not with Luisa’s best friend.

Not with the daughter of a man I once called my brother.

The thought alone made me sick with guilt.

Whatever happened in that cabin could never happen again.

No matter how much I wanted it to.

No matter how impossible she was to forget.