All Chapters of Curvy and Off-limits: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Harper’s POVThe car ride home was quiet. Not the uncomfortable kind of quiet. The kind where words are not needed because everything has already been said. Declan drove with one hand on the wheel and the other resting on my thigh, his thumb tracing slow circles against the fabric of my jeans. Every few minutes he would glance at me, like he was checking to make sure I was still there. Still real.I was still shaking from him. From what happened in that alley. From the way he looked at me after, like I had given him something he did not know he needed.We pulled into the garage a little after two in the morning. The manor was dark, everyone asleep and we slipped inside through the side door like we had done this a hundred times. Maybe we had. Maybe this was just the first time it meant something more.He walked me to my door."You okay?" He asked it low, his hand still in mine."Yeah." I was not sure if that was true. "You?""No." He said it honestly and something in my chest ached.

Harper’s POVWestwood University is a nightmare on the best of days. It is the kind of campus that looks like a postcard, all red brick and ivy and students who have never had to worry about money in their lives. The kind of place where everyone knows everyone, where reputations are built and destroyed in the same breath, where secrets have a shelf life of approximately twelve seconds. Which is why Declan and I have rules.We do not walk together. We do not sit together. We do not look at each other for longer than absolutely necessary. We are step-siblings who tolerate each other now because we have to, nothing more, nothing less.Today is no exception. I got to campus early, grabbing a coffee from the cart near the library before heading to my first class. The morning was cold, the cold that settles in your bones and refuses to leave, so I was bundled up in an oversized sweater and my favorite boots, hair pulled back in a messy bun because I did not have the energy to do anything

Harper's POVThe water was hot enough to turn my skin pink, a welcome ache against the muscles I had worked all day in the garden. I stood under the spray, head tilted back, letting it run over my face, my hair, washing away the dirt and the exhaustion and the strange, heavy feeling my mother had left me with. The steam filled the bathroom, fogging the glass of the shower stall until I could barely see my own reflection, a blurred shape that was not quite me and not quite someone else. I was just starting to relax, just starting to feel the tension leave my shoulders, when the bathroom door opened.I froze, my heart jumping into my throat. "Declan?" I called out, my voice echoing slightly in the small, steamy space. "Is that you?"The shower door slid open and there he was, standing there in nothing but a pair of low-slung sweats, his chest bare, his hair damp from the steam. He looked like he had just rolled out of bed, all sleep rumpled and dangerous and the sight of him sent a fr

Declan's POVShe was still breathing hard, her chest rising and falling, a faint sheen of sweat on her skin making her glow in the soft light of my room. My hickey stood out dark against the pale skin of her breast like brand and claim. My possessiveness roared to life again, a territorial instinct that was both terrifyinb and overwhelming.I was propped up on my elbow, just watching her. Watching the way her curly hair spread out on my pillow, the way her brown eyes were soft and hazy, the way her lips were slightly swollen from my kisses. She was perfect. She shifted, turning onto her side to face me. A hint of shyness entered her expression, a vulnerability that made my chest ache. It was that expression I saw when I first met her that made me want protect her from everybody. "I want to..." she started then trailed off, her cheeks flushing a pretty pink."You want to what, Harper?" I prompted, my voice gruff with arousal because I could read her like open book. "Use your words."

Declan’s POVPractice was brutal, the kind of brutal that leaves you feeling like your bones have been rearranged and all I wanted was to go home and stand under hot water until I could not feel anything anymore. Coach had us running drills until the sun went down and my shoulder was still aching from that hit I took during scrimmage, but I did not care about any of that because I had one thing on my mind and it was not football. Harper had not had a cupcake in three weeks.She has been strict with herself lately, counting everything, weighing her portions, making comments about her jeans fitting differently and I have been watching her shrink in ways that make my chest tight for reasons I cannot fully explain. She told me she wanted to feel better in her own skin, that she wanted to be healthier. I respected that because her body is hers and I am not the kind of asshole who thinks he gets a say in what a woman does with herself. But there is a part of me, the selfish part, the par