Off Limits

✦CHAPTER 1 — The Party That Changed Everything

*Nova POV*

The bass thumps hard enough to shake the pictures off the walls. Cheap beer, expensive perfume, somebody’s cologne clinging to every breath. I shouldn’t be here—Mason’s friends, Mason’s house, Mason’s ghost—but Bri dragged me in anyway.

“Just one drink,” she promised. Now she’s somewhere on the dance floor, glitter catching light like she belongs in this chaos.

I hover near the kitchen, tracing condensation down a red cup, counting how many times his name has been shouted across the room. Then I hear another one—Luca—and it hits deeper.

He’s here.

I shouldn’t care. He’s Mason’s older brother. He’s trouble wrapped in a jawline and tattoos. He’s the kind of story you read in secret and regret in daylight.

But when he steps through the doorway—tall, quiet, eyes a shade darker than sin—the air changes.

He notices me instantly. Of course he does. We’ve been pretending not to see each other for months—family barbecues, random drop-ins, the funeral, the fallout.

Tonight the pretending stops.

Luca POV*

She shouldn’t be here.

When Mason told me he was skipping the party, I came anyway—needed noise to drown out the things I can’t say. And there she is, wearing black like she’s mourning something I killed.

Nova Vaughn. The one I wasn’t supposed to look at. The one I looked at anyway.

She doesn’t see me at first, not really. Then our eyes meet across the kitchen and the crowd fades. Her lips part like a secret about to spill.

I take a step closer.

She backs into the counter.

One more step and I could smell the vanilla in her hair, the cheap vodka on her breath, the danger between us.

“You lost?” I ask. My voice sounds rougher than I meant.

Her chin lifts. “Should I be?”

The corner of my mouth betrays me with a smirk. “Depends who finds you.”

Someone calls her name. The spell breaks. She slides past me, shoulder brushing my arm—small, electric. When she disappears into the crowd, the room feels colder.

*Nova POV*

Bri grabs me halfway up the stairs. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Lie. My pulse is a warning siren.

“Was that—”

“No.” Another lie.

She shrugs and disappears into a hallway kiss with some stranger. I grip the banister, look down, and catch Luca watching from below. He raises his cup like a dare.

I should leave.

I don’t.

*Luca POV*

Every rule I ever followed shatters with her smile.

And I already know—I’m not walking away.