This is not just any excerpt, this is a HUGE feels-like-a-whole-chapter excerpt. I hope you're ready for a game-changer! I have a feeling Jethro won't see this change in Nila coming.
Scroll down for a few pre-order links and to add it to your TBR.
Title: Second Debt (Indebted #3)
Author: Pepper Winters
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Pepper Winters
Publisher: Pepper Winters
Pub Date: January 26, 2015
Excerpt
I’D TAKEN HER, but ultimately, she’d taken me.
I’d tried to destroy her, but serendipitously, she’d destroyed me.
This was the beginning of the end.
Not the end of my feelings for her but the way of my life, my world.
Something would have to change.
Something would have to give…
…
Someone would have to die.
EXCERPT ONE:
I EXISTED WITH a brain full of betrayal, schemes, and plotting.
Living with the Hawks was utterly exhausting. Every day
was a challenge to figure out the truths from the lies. But no matter how hard
I worked, I could never seem to unravel reality from fiction.
He’d won.
And with a winner came a loser. One triumphant and one
depressed. A trophy over misery.
Two days had passed since Kestrel had granted the truth to
one huge mystery. Two days in which I hadn’t been able to think of anything
else.
I wanted to hate Jethro for duping me—for stringing me
along like an idiot.
But whenever my anger boiled over, needing desperately to
confront him, I remembered one thing.
One important, vital thing.
He’d initiated contact before he was told.
He’d communicated with me almost as if it were a cry for
help, rather than a plot to deceive.
If this were another trick, then so help him, I’d find a
way to castrate him.
But, somehow, I didn’t think it was.
I had a horrible feeling this was the one way that he
would let me in. An avenue of truths that he felt comfortable enough to
continue, because a silent written word didn’t have as much weight as a loudly
spoken one.
Which brought me back to my vitally important conclusion:
Jethro wants to be honest.
He wanted to stop playing charades and show me everything
he kept hidden.
He wanted to talk to someone. Perhaps, for the first time
in his life, he wasn’t satisfied with the hand life dealt him and…
Stop fabricating excuses.
All day, I’d been coming up with theories on why he was
how he was and reading too far into things that he’d done.
It could be as simple as: he’d been told to get in touch.
Told to initiate contact in a way that could potentially mould me into a more
submissive captive, especially if I were to believe he was on my side.
I wanted to believe he’d acted against his father. But no
matter how much I wished it, it didn’t make it was true.
How do you explain the
knowing then?
I slouched against my pillows in bed. That was true. A
part of me just seemed to know. Call
it either sheer idiocy or feminine intuition. I believed he’d texted me because
I was the first outsider permitted into his world—the only one not a Hawk.
My brain hurt.
When we were alone, when we weren’t arguing or fighting,
there was an enchanting calmness. A connection.
Closing my eyes, I let my mind skip back to Kes’s
unwilling promise. The way his eyes had darkened with secrets as I’d collapsed
into his arms from the vertigo spell two days ago.
“Nila?”
A crushing headache
appeared from nowhere. It was the most I could do to stay present and not
permit my mind to relive every text Jethro had sent to see the hidden agendas
now that I knew it was him.
“I’m—I’m okay. You can let
me go.” I struggled out of Kes’s embrace, my skin humming from his touch. I
needed some space. I needed a world full of space to get over the treachery and
lies.
“You didn’t know? You
hadn’t guessed?” Kes crossed his arms, never taking his golden eyes from mine.
I glowered. “How could I
know? I thought the messages were from you!”
He flinched. “Yes, that was
the plan. To make you believe it was me, so he could continue on with whatever
little mind games he was playing.” Leaning closer, he added, “I haven’t been
privy to any of the messages he sent you or you sent him—so don’t feel like
I’ve intruded on details that I shouldn’t.”
Anger infused my blood. “If
you were both in on it—why didn’t he show you the messages? Why were you so
nice to me? What does all of this mean?”
Kes moved away, reclining
against a sapling. “I was nice because that’s just who I am. Yes, I come from a
family with twisted up morals and I’m loyal to those
twisted up morals, but I also did it out of loyalty to my brother. If you’re
pissed, direct it all on him. Not me.”
“Oh, believe me. I’m
pissed. Beyond pissed.” My hands balled as my mind filled with crazy ideas of
retribution and revenge. I would make him pay.
“I’d cool down before you
spring it on him. Best to keep it quiet. Cut doesn’t know. It was just me who
knew Jet had been in touch with you before he was given the go-ahead to collect
you in Milan.”
I froze. “Why did he
initiate conversation with me almost five weeks before he could claim me?”
Kes shook his head. “The
day I understand my brother is the day I’ll gamble my entire inheritance on the
stock market. I can’t work him out. The only thing I can do is be there for
him. And I only found out ‘cause he changed pretty much around the same time he
started messaging you. Something was different—we’re close. So, I saw it before
the others.”
My brain throbbed trying to
figure out just what had changed in Jethro. He’d seemed the perfect Hawk when
he’d come to collect me. Cold as ice and deadly as a sword.
Now that I knew his secret,
I had power. And I had no intention of giving that power back. Jethro had been
playing me for far too long. He’d successfully screwed with my head. It was
time for payback. “Don’t tell him that I know.”
Kes’s eyes popped wide. “Pardon?”
“You heard me. Don’t tell
Jethro about today. Let him continue to think I’m clueless.” My heart frothed
with rage and unhappiness. I was so stupid to believe I’d gotten through to him
on some level. The sex between us left both of us stripped bare. Something more
than family feuds and hatred existed when he slid inside me and sent both of us
shattering into dust.
I’d let him inside me. In
so many ways. It was my turn to do the same.
“You know I can’t do that,
Nila. As welcome as you are in our household, and as much as I like hanging out
with you, I can’t betray Jet. Not after everything he’s been through.”
I pounced on the small
thread of truth about my tormentor. “What has he been through, Kes? Tell me and
I’ll march back to the Hall right now and tell him myself.”
Kes shifted uncomfortably,
refusing to meet my eyes. “Slip of the tongue. Forget it.”
Crossing my arms, I hissed,
“Fine. Seeing as you’re so capable of keeping secrets, keep this one for me.”
Kes scowled. “Keeping my
own flesh and blood’s issues hidden isn’t the same thing as helping out a
Weaver.”
My heart raced. If Jethro
hadn’t taught me how to stand up for myself, I would’ve cowered at the thought
of being so pushy with a full-grown man all alone in a forest. Now, I was
raging and fully intended to get my own way. “Give me two weeks. Two weeks
before you tell him that I know. Do that and I’ll be forever grateful.”
His shoulders slumped in
defeat. “How can you be forever grateful when forever isn’t something anyone
has.”
Especially me, seeing as my
lifespan was destined to be significantly shorter than his.
“Just…please, Kestrel. One
favour.”
It took him a while to give
in. His allegiance to his brother was strong.
Finally, he huffed. “Fine.
But it won’t save you from his temper when he finds out.”
However, I had no intention of suffering Jethro’s wrath. I
had every right to deceive him after he did it to me. My revelations were
safe—for now. I trusted that Kes wouldn’t say anything. I didn’t know why, but
on some level I did trust Kes—just
enough to use him in my plans. And I was fully committed to tripping Jethro up.
It was his turn to divulge things he might not have if
he’d known the truth. Hiding behind the pretence that Kite was Kes had made him
softer the past few weeks. I would use that chink to make the crevice I’d been
trying to form since I gave him a blowjob after hunting me down.
I couldn’t think about anything else. I couldn’t focus on
sketching, sewing, reading.
Nothing.
My brain was a whirly-gig of Jethro. Kite. Jethro. Kite.
And I’d had enough.
Throwing myself out of bed after another sleepless night,
I wrenched back the curtains and glowered at the dismal weather.
The watery dawn did nothing to inspire either anger or
contentment. The sky was grey. Fog looked like haunting ghosts, threading its
ghoulish tentacles over the lower woodland of the estate. No birds chirped or
sun shone.
Summer had truly abandoned us. The bite in the air shouted
‘go back to bed where it’s warm’ but my brain had no such intention.
I hadn’t relaxed for two days. I’d stared at my phone,
determined to text Jethro and trip him into revealing everything he kept
secret, only to stare blankly at an empty message.
Now that I knew it was him, my willingness to show so much
had gone. Knowledge was power and he had too much of mine already. How could I
dig deeper into his mystery while maintaining all of mine?
The answer—I couldn’t. And that made me incredibly
nervous. To find out who he truly was, I had to show everything that made me
real. And despite the emotional growth spurt I’d endured at the hands of the
Hawks, I wasn’t ready to evolve again. I’d lost so much of myself already—how
much was I prepared to leave behind before I became a perfect stranger?
“Ah!” I dug my fingers into my hair. I needed a reprieve
from my racing thoughts, and I knew exactly how to do it.
Mother Nature’s sudden urge to switch seasons from summer
to winter couldn’t stop my itch.
I needed fresh air, and I needed it now.
Racing around my room in the new Weaver quarters where
Jethro had made me beg and come apart with his cock deep inside me, I found my
black spandex shorts and highlighter pink sports bra. Pulling the clothing on,
followed by my sneakers, I quickly smoothed my hair into a bun, and shot from
the room.
I hadn’t worn my exercise gear since the morning of the
Milan runway show. I’d sprinted until I’d collapsed off the treadmill at the
hotel, hoping I could dispel my anxiety enough to hide my stupid nerves and
prevent a vertigo spell in front of the press.
It had worked—mainly. Until Jethro arrived, of course.
The moment when I’d set eyes upon him, I’d been done for.
He’d been so dashing with his suit, tie, and diamond pin. So perfectly refined
with his elegant haircut, chiselled physique, and sculptured lips. Even though
his soul was dark, his body had summoned me.
He’d called to me, and like the stupid Weaver I was, I’d
followed him blindly.
Now, it’s his turn to
follow my whims, my rules.
Jogging down the corridor, my racing mind and temper
eased, already reacting to the stress relief I’d sought all my life.
I need him out.
It wasn’t fair. I was supposed to seduce him and make him
care for me—not the other way around.
I wasn’t supposed to fall for my own games.
Lust was as dangerous as love. Only it was worse because
it had the power to make even the worst ideas seem plausible—and even
recommended—when a sexual reward was given.
The moment Jethro gave in and kissed me, I’d betrayed more
than just myself. I’d betrayed my entire family line and all the Weaver women
who’d died before me.
I had feelings for him.
A dangerous softness toward my would-be-killer.
It has to end.
I had to find a way to seduce him…to make him love me, all
while I kept my heart frigid and locked away in an ice fortress.
I laughed under my breath. You sound just like him. I wanted to turn into the female
equivalent of his glacial shell.
Only, ice wasn’t impervious. Ice melted and succumbed to
fire.
I’d proven that over the past month.
The house breathed around me with gentle heartbeats only
ancient dwellings could have. Spirits of past generations lived in its walls,
revenants danced in the drapery, and figments of long forgotten lovers floated
through the tapestries.
A grandfather clock tick-tocked as I jogged past, showing
the time at six thirty a.m.
After being privy to the business meetings with Kes and
the Black Diamonds, I knew the men never got up this early. They worked late,
dealing with shipments and the transportation of stones worth more than any
dress I could sew. Darkness was their asset, the sun their foe.
At least I could run and be back before anyone tried to
stop me.
I didn’t want them to draw the wrong conclusion that I was
trying to escape again. I blinked as I ran head first into a horrendous
conclusion.
Even if you found the
boundary this morning, you wouldn’t leave.
My heart thumped harder at the tangled web I lived.
Freedom was something I wanted more than anything. But
even if I escaped the Hawks, I would only run back into the trap of pity and
vertigo. I wanted more than that. I deserved
more than that.
If I found the estate edge, I wouldn’t disappear. I couldn’t.
My captivity wasn’t just about me anymore. It was about
the future. It was about Jethro.
Admit it…
It was about living.
The passion, the intensity, the blazing ferocity of
existing with enemies and plotting beneath their noses was a much worthier
cause than sitting at home sewing for the masses.
This was about me. Me standing up for myself, and for a
future I wanted, not a future already planned for me.
This was about so many twisted things.
I wrenched open the French doors at the end of the
corridor and stumbled into the foggy dawn. Fresh air welcomed me and I found a
reprieve from my scrambled thoughts.
I can’t forget my ultimate
plan.
No matter how Jethro endeared himself to me—giving me
glimpses of someone barely coping inside his wintry armor—I wasn’t going to
forget my goal.
Freedom.
Not just for myself, but for the rest of my legacy. My
children and their children and their children’s children would never have to
go through this. I intended to be the last Weaver stolen.
It’s time for a new
debt—one that owes us life, not death.
Sucking in lungfuls of crisp air, I steeled myself in what
I had to do. In order to win, I had to guard my soul. I had to play along with
Jethro’s mind games and hope to God I won first.
A cool breeze whistled through the trees, sounding like
haunted laments. I shivered, wishing I’d brought a jacket.
You’ll be sweating in ten
minutes. Ignore it.
Gritting my teeth against the cold, I bent over and
stretched my quads. The tug and slow release of muscles was heaven after the
stress of the past few days.
My body hummed with the knowledge it was about to run.
And run.
And run.
For fun this time, not for survival.
Bouncing on the spot, I rolled my shoulders, eyeing up the
sweeping lawn before me. If I went right, I’d loop around the stables. If I
went left, I’d cut through the sprawling rose garden and orchards.
Go straight.
Down the meandering path that disappeared over the
horizon.
I switched from bouncing to jogging.
“And just where do you think you’re going?” a cool voice
whispered through the silver fog.
I wrenched to a stop, peering behind me.
No one.
“I thought you’d realised running wasn’t a viable option,
Ms. Weaver.”
His icy voice sent a strange mixture of hot and cold
desire down my spine. Jethro morphed into being, seeming to solidify from the
mist like a terrible poltergeist. He leaned against one of the pillars holding
up the portico, crossing his arms.
My heart collapsed, unable to untangle the maze of
hypocrisy between us. My skin begged for his touch. My lips tingled for his.
Every inch of me craved what he could
deliver.
Heat. Passion. An eruption that I felt in every cell.
But none of that was real.
And I refused to believe in trickery any longer.
Mirroring his body language, I crossed my arms. “I realise
escaping isn’t a viable option. But
I’m not escaping. I’m running. Running is my only option to escape the mess you’ve made.”
His jaw clenched. “The mess I’ve made?”
“Yes.” I took a step backward as he advanced. “You’re
messing me up, and I’m done playing whatever it is that you’re doing.” I sucked
in courage and embraced honesty. It seemed to work around him, and I needed him
to see how serious I was. How hurt I was with his deception.
He’s Kite.
Bastard.
Baring my teeth, I said, “It seems I have a weakness for
you, but I changed my mind. I don’t—”
A low growl escaped him. “A weakness? You call what
happened between us a fucking weakness?”
My breathing ratcheted as if I’d already run two miles.
“The worst kind of weakness.”
He smiled, but no mirth entered his gaze. If anything, his
golden eyes were luminous with anger. “You’re the one who started it…Nila.”
I gasped at the delicious decadence of my name on his
lips. The sound echoed in his mouth, shooting straight to my core.
Shit.
Jethro advanced again, his body trembling with barely
veiled lust. “You’re the one who
created this problem.” His hand came up, fingers slinking through my tied-up
hair, tightening around the back of my skull. “I can’t hear the name Weaver
without getting fucking hard. I can’t even think of you without boiling with
need.”
His nose brushed against mine, his lips so damn close to
stealing all my scrambled plans and sending me headfirst into a life of
debauchery.
“You should never have said those two words, Ms. Weaver. I
told you. We’re both fucked now.”
My mind was blank, every synapse focusing on his fingers
in my hair and his mouth only millimetres from mine. “What two words?”
He chuckled. The sound was self-deprecating and almost
morbid with dark intensity. “Kiss me.”
I shivered in his hold. “You’re reminding me of what
started this mess, or you’re asking me to kiss you?”
Ask me. And I will. God,
how I will.
I’d kiss him until I’d stripped him of his arctic armor
and destroyed it, I’d lick him until I tasted his truth, and I’d bite him until
I’d eaten every morsel of his soul.
I’d do all that so he had nowhere left to hide.
We stood wrapped in foggy silence. The drawn out
anticipation of a kiss turned my legs to jelly. If he pressed his mouth to
mine, I wouldn’t be going for my run. I would climb his body and impale myself
on his cock.
Fakery be damned.
Kite’s messages and deceit be damned.
I just wanted a raw connection—with this man, who made my
soul whimper for wrongness.
Jethro’s tongue slipped between his lips, hypnotising me.
Then…he let me go. “No, I’m not asking you to kiss me. I won’t ever ask
anything from you.”
I flinched as if he’d slapped me. “Why not?”
“Because I own you. Everything I want will be given, not
requested.”
Double shit.
I should hate him. I should smite him. So, why did his
every word seduce me, even while I knew his morals were chauvinistic and
heartless?
Forcing my body to obey, I shoved the weakness I had for
him as far away as possible. My eyes trailed down his front. He wore tan
jodhpurs, black riding boots, and a tweed jacket. The bulge between his legs
looked heavy and far too dangerous to be legal.
“You’ve been riding.”
A gentle gust of early morning air blew his scent directly
into my nose. I inhaled, soaking my lungs in hay, horse, and all things Jethro.
He nodded, crossing his arms once again. “You run. I ride.
Seems we have something else in common.”
Something other than being
forced into this debt and finding each other irresistible, you mean?
“Oh, what’s that?”
Jethro stepped closer, seeming to bring shadows into the
smoky light of dawn. “We both need time alone to hide from the things that
chase us.” He stiffened, his eyes churning with things he refused to voice. A
five o’ clock shadow decorated his strong jaw, his lips parted while his gaze
was pure brimstone.
Swiftly, he cupped my cheek.
Oh, God.
Electricity instantly sparked beneath his fingertips.
Would I always suffer the rhapsody of his touch?
My skin smouldered; pinpricks of light, of fire, of hell,
all burnished beneath his hold. I swayed, pressing my face harder into his
palm.
He sucked in a breath, his fingers digging harder against
my cheekbone.
The chemistry and need to devour each other thickened with
every heartbeat.
One beat.
Two beat.
Three.
We stood there, frozen on the stoop of Hawksridge Hall
just waiting for the other to move. The moment we did, our clothes would
disintegrate and I would willingly let him drag me into a bush and fuck me.
Lust and tension swirled.
I had so many questions and doubts; so many reasons to
hate and fear him. But when he touched me…poof.
I no longer remembered, nor cared.
We swayed closer, drawn against our will to close the
aching distance.
I couldn’t breathe.
Kiss me. Please, kiss me.
The moment stretched until it hummed with overwhelming
possibilities.
Then, it snapped.
Loudly.
Painfully.
Shattering around our feet.
“You’re too fucking dangerous,” Jethro muttered, removing
his touch and stepping away. Dragging his hand through his hair, he commanded,
“Wait here. Don’t go anywhere.” His hands went to his jacket buttons, undoing
them with nimble fingers.
I blinked, struggling to shed myself of heavy need and
focus on the true reason why I stood barely dressed in the freezing morning.
“I’m not escaping. I’ll be back in forty minutes or so.”
He shook his head, slipping out of his tweed and revealing
a black long-sleeved jumper.
My mouth went dry. Even in clothing, I could make out
every ridge of muscle in his stomach, every ripple of energy as he breathed in
and out. He was designed straight from my fantasies, and I hated him for being
so splendid.
My core clenched, sending flutters of wetness between my
legs.
I hadn’t seen him in two days, yet I’d panted after him as
if he’d been missing my entire life.
If he suspected I knew that he was Kite, he hadn’t let on.
After Kes had told me the truth, I’d waited for Jethro to barge into my room
and swear me to secrecy.
But he hadn’t.
He didn’t look at me any differently; he gave no outward
sign that his lies had begun to unravel. As much as he confounded and
frustrated me, I couldn’t help admiring his perfection at hiding.
I wanted to be like him. I wanted to protect my secrets so
damn well that whatever I did next would come as a surprise.
I wanted to rule
him.
“I’m coming with you. Don’t leave.” He disappeared into
the house, leaving me abandoned and covered in chills from both the morning air
and his departure.
Jogging on the spot, I deliberated ignoring him and
leaving.
Just go.
What was the worst that could happen? He’d have to chase
me again. My tummy coiled at the thought. I liked that idea way too much. I
liked the thought of what would happen after he found me.
The power I’d felt giving him that blowjob. The awe and
attraction that’d glowed in his eyes.
I want that again.
Screw waiting like a good little captive.
Make him hunt.
And then I would make him explode.
I bolted. 
Pre-order Available
iBooks: http://bit.ly/1ufkO3z
Add to your TBR:
Release Date: January 26, 2015
Blurb
“I tried to play a game. I tried to wield deceit as perfectly as the Hawks. But when I thought I was winning, I wasn’t. Jethro isn’t what he seems—he’s the master of duplicity. However, I refuse to let him annihilate me further.”
Nila Weaver has grown from naïve seamstress to full-blown fighter. Every humdrum object is her arsenal, and sex…sex is her greatest weapon of all.
She’s paid the First Debt. She’ll probably pay more.
But she has no intention of letting the Hawks win.
Jethro Hawk has found more than a worthy adversary in Nila—he’s found the woman who could destroy him. There’s a fine line between hatred and love, and an even finer path between fear and respect.
The fate of his house rests on his shoulders, but no matter how much ice lives inside his heart, Nila flames too bright to be extinguished.
Series Reading Order
Debt
Interitance (Indebted #1) ONLY $0.99
First Debt
(Indebted #2)
Second Debt
(Indebted #3) January 26th:
Amazon: TBD
Nook: TBD
About the Author
Pepper Winters wears many roles. Some of them include writer, reader, sometimes wife. She loves dark, taboo stories that twist with your head. The more tortured the hero, the better, and she constantly thinks up ways to break and fix her characters. Oh, and sex... her books have sex. She loves to travel and has an amazing, fabulous hubby who puts up with her love affair with her book boyfriends.
Her Dark Erotica books include:
Tears of Tess (Monsters in the Dark #1)
Quintessentially Q (Monsters in the Dark #2)
Her Grey Romance books include:
Destroyed
STALK Pepper: Website | Pinterest | Facebook | Twitter | Blog | Goodreads
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