Page 93 of Off Limits

“Exactly. Only instead of having one hero and a bunch of backup characters, they’re all heroes and back each other up. If they can find a way to stay on the side of good and work together, then they save everyone. If not, everyone loses.”

“That’s really cool. I imagine it’s fun getting inside their heads.”

“So much fun. They’re heroes, but they don’t want to be, and their motivations for fighting aren’t benevolent or anything like that. They’re literally trying to save themselves and have to do the whole teamwork thing with their usual enemies to save everyone, even if they don’t particularly think everyone should be saved.”

“Are these human characters?”

“Sort of. It’s set in an alternate universe where some humans have magical powers, and some don’t. And my version of werewolves and vampires and some other mythological creatures are in it too. There’s a lot of political subtext to it with the way I structured the power dynamics in the AU and set up their society so there’s a caste system that’s a mix of medieval and modern.”

“That sounds really good. I’d watch six seasons and a movie based on just that.”

His cheeks flushed soft pink with a blush.

“What else have you written? What were you working on before this series?”

His cheeks went bright pink.

“Okay, now you have to tell me afterthatblush.”

He shot me a look. “Do you promise not to make fun of me if I tell you?”

“Of course. You don’t have to tell me, but I promise I’ll never make fun of you or judge you for anything you write.”

He studied me for a few beats. “It was a trilogy.”

I waited for him to tell me the part that made him blush.

“A paranormal romance trilogy.” He toyed with his tongue stud.

“A romance?” I asked, not expecting that answer.

He nodded. “I started reading a series a few years ago that had really good bones, but the romance aspect of it was messy as hell. The world-building and the AU were top-tier, but there was a love triangle in it and the author created a ton of unnecessary drama between the main characters that dragged the story down. I stopped reading halfway through the second book because I just couldn’t bring myself to give a shit about any of them or their mission.” He snuck a quick look at me, like he was checking to make sure I hadn’t zoned out and was still listening.

“A few months later, I was in a reading slump, and nothing was hitting. Even my comfort reads weren’t doing it for me, so I decided to read something completely new and picked up a why choose book.”

“Why choose? What’s that? Is it like those old choose your own adventure books?”

He laughed softly. “No. They used to be called reverse harem books. Like one main character has a bunch of love interests, and at the end they get to keep all of them instead of having to choose like in love triangle books.”

“Oh.” I nodded slowly. “I had no idea that was a thing, but I get why it’s appealing to people.”

“It was eye-opening.” He smirked. “But after I read it, I started thinking about that paranormal series and how much better it would have been if the author had gone the why choose route. That sparked an idea for my own AU, and what was supposed to be a standalone turned into a trilogy.”

“Does that one have magic and werewolves and stuff in it too?”

He shook his head. “It has a regular human who has to help a harem of fae save their realm from a hostile takeover that’s been threatening to destroy both the human and fae worlds for thousands of years.”

“Okay, I’d definitely read that. Is the human character male or female?”

“Female.” He fingered the lock on his chain necklace. “The fae are all male.”

“What aren’t you telling me.” I tapped my leg against his. “Is it spicy?”

His face went beet red. “Yeah, it’s pretty spicy. And it’s different from most why choose stories because I made the fae bi. The idea that these ancient immortal beings would bestraight just doesn’t make sense to me, so I decided to mix things up.”

“Is it weird that I really want to read that?”

He shot me a surprised look.

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