title: Off Limits
author: Morgan, Eric
description: Off Limits is a work of literary social commentary written as a modern romance. It’s as provocative intellectually as it is sensually. A high heat, professor-student romance with its characters struggling against today’s American university sexual politics, it unabashedly explores the ethics, motivations and consequences of modern day anti-fraternization policies, of issues of consent, of the social status of women and of modern feminism. It is set in a small southern university and holds a firm footing in reality—no larger than life alphas, no extraordinary events, no ridiculously rich and famous characters, nothing you can’t imagine happening just down the road in Anytown, USA. Off Limits is written to highlight the extraordinary of the mundane, without fluff or fantasy, and without apology. It is sweet, funny, controversial, smart, and sexy as hell. Dr. Christopher Thomson is a forty-three year old European History Professor in a small but growing university in the coastal town of Layton, South Carolina. He is passionate about his job and takes great pride in identifying and shaping intelligent young minds. He’s very introspective, and a little theatrical, but overall very much just a normal guy. Upon grading the first papers of his History 102 class, he begins to notice Anna Gills, a smart and cute redhead with a head for numbers, a cocky wit and an arrogant confidence. He finds himself fascinated by her in a way he can’t shake and ends up inviting the freshman to join his upper-level Women’s History course, justifying it to himself that it’s really all about building his department and earning tenure. Anna Gills is an eighteen-year old Biology major who hates history and any subject that requires a fundamental understanding of how people think. She likes science, and mathematics, and facts and well-thought out and organized plans. On day one of college, she develops a cliché as hell but completely innocent schoolgirl crush on her captivating history professor which, much to her annoyance, only grows as the semester progresses. After an intense and spontaneous almost-kiss which makes Anna realize that her professor is also harboring feelings for her, Anna and her best friend Phoebe hatch a plan to ‘see what might happen.’ What follows is a hot and heavy tale of two people who know better making bad choices with great chemistry. It explores a relationship that goes from professor-student to friends to flirtations to a deep intellectual, emotional and physical connection that both end up ultimately benefiting from and wanting to fight for, each in their own way.