All Chapters of Off Limits: Chapter 1 - Chapter 7

Maya's POV “This assignment will take up to eighty percent of your grade for this semester. I expect to see real research, emotions, character bibles, and a much better outline. See you next time.”Everyone started packing their stuff immediately after the professor left. I didn’t have friends in this class, so I slung my bag over my shoulder and exited the classroom.I was twenty and halfway through my second year at Pelt University, where I studied Literature. Since I was a child, I had always buried myself in books. My dad’s collection of vintage romance novels had raised me almost as much as my parents had. My mum used to complain that she could always find me in the oddest places with a book in my hands.Books had always felt like my only escape.Dad died when I was five.It’s weird how much I remember about that day.We were on our way to the grocery store when a truck hit us. The car rolled into a ditch, and everything happened so quickly. The steering wheel punctured his ribs

Present DayMaya's POV They were kissing in public.It wouldn't be an issue if they were just kissing. People kissed in public all the time. I had seen worse at parties, on campus, even in the middle of the street.But this wasn't just kissing.He was all over her.His fingers were tangled in her hair, pulling her closer whenever she tried to move away, while his other hand was firmly on her ass. She had her arms around his neck, and at one point, he nearly lifted her completely off the ground, her legs coming up as she clung to him.I stared for a second longer than I should have.Then I looked away.There was something almost embarrassing about watching them. Not because of what they were doing, but because I knew exactly who he was.Dean.Ethan's older brother.The same person who had spent years being an irritating presence in the background of my life. The boy I had been inexplicably drawn to when I was younger. The guy I had spent years trying not to look at for too long becaus

Maya's POV Living with Dean wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be.That was probably the most surprising part.The first morning after he moved in, I woke up expecting the apartment to feel completely different. It did, but not in the dramatic way I'd imagined.There was simply another person living with us now.Another pair of shoes by the door. Another jacket hanging over the back of a chair. Another toothbrush beside ours in the bathroom.And another voice drifting through the apartment.Dean stayed in Ethan's room with him. They were brothers, so sharing a room wasn't exactly strange. They had grown up doing it, and Ethan didn't seem bothered by having to make space for his older brother.In fact, he seemed almost happy about it.His department had given him and the other students a week off from regular classes to prepare for their upcoming exhibition. Apparently, preparing for an exhibition involved much more than putting paintings on a wall and hoping people liked them.

Maya's POV Chapter 7MayaI had never been particularly good at making friends.Not because I disliked people. I just never knew how to move past the awkward introduction stage.Ethan had always made that part easy for me. He could walk into a room full of strangers and leave with three new friends before I had even decided whether I wanted to say hello.So when someone dropped into the empty seat beside me before Professor Hayes's class, I wasn't expecting to actually enjoy talking to him.“Please tell me you did the reading.”I looked up.The guy beside me wore black-rimmed glasses and had a notebook covered in colorful sticky notes.“Yes.”He sighed with relief.“Thank God.”“You didn't?”“I did.”He paused.“Technically.”I smiled. “What's technically?”“I read the first three chapters, skimmed the fourth, read someone's summary of the fifth, and spent twenty minutes staring at the sixth while questioning every decision that led me to university.”I laughed.He grinned.“Cole.”“