Debt Inheritance (Indebted #1)
Copyright © 2014 Pepper Winters
Published by Pepper Winters
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
Published: Pepper Winters 2014: pepperwinters@gmail.com
Publishing assisted by Black Firefly: http://www.blackfirefly.com/
(Shedding light on your self-publishing journey)
Cover Design: by Ari at Cover it! Designs: http://salon.io/#coveritdesigns
Proofreading by: Jenny Sims: http://www.editing4indies.com
Proofreading by: Kayla the Bibliophile
Formatting by: http://www.blackfirefly.com/
Images in Manuscript from Canstock Photos: http://www.canstockphoto.com
For every reader, blogger, reviewer, and friend who made my dreams come true.
I write for you.
Forever.
This story isn’t suitable for those who don’t enjoy dark romance, uncomfortable situations, and dubious consent. It’s sexy, it’s twisty, there’s colour as well as darkness, but it’s a rollercoaster not a carrousel.
Warning heeded…enter the world of debts and payments.
If you would like to read this book with like-minded readers, and be in to win advance copies of other books in the series, along with Q&A sessions with Pepper Winters, please join the Facebook group below:
Indebted Series Group Read
Contents
Chapter One Jethro
Chapter Two Nila
Chapter Three Jethro
Chapter Four Nila
Chapter Five Jethro
Chapter Six Nila
Chapter Seven Jethro
Chapter Eight Nila
Chapter Nine Jethro
Chapter Ten Nila
Chapter Eleven Jethro
Chapter Twelve Nila
Chapter Thirteen Jethro
Chapter Fourteen Nila
Chapter Fifteen Jethro
Chapter Sixteen Nila
About the Author
Other books by Pepper
Playlist
Acknowledgements
Other Book Synopsis
THE WORLD WAS a dangerous place, but I was worse.
The human race left the dark ages behind—technology improved and ruined our lives in equal measure, and the devils in society hid with better camouflage.
As the years rolled by, and we left our barbaric ways behind, people forgot about the shadows lurking in plain sight. Men like me morphed into predators in sheep’s clothing. We preyed on the weak with no apology, and everything landed in our fucking laps. Civilization cloaked us, hiding the animals at heart.
We traded caveman mentality and murder for suits and softly spoken curses. I hid my true temper beneath a veil of decorum. I mastered the art of suave.
People who knew me said I was a gentleman. They called me distinguished, accomplished, and shrewd.
I was all of those things, but none of them. We might live in a civilized world, but rules and laws didn’t apply to me. I was a rule-breaker, curse-maker, life-stealer.
The projection was a farce—but even the worst of us had someone who owned us. Whether family, honour, or duty.
I’d embraced my inner barbarian, yet was governed by a hierarchy and when the Hawk matriarch snapped her fingers, we all came running.
Including my arsehole of a father, Bryan Hawk.
There, in the cigar and cognac laced library, I learned a truth that forever changed my life.
And hers.
My family owned another.
An IOU on their entire existence.
To this day, I didn’t know why, and I didn’t bother asking.
Who gave a shit why a wealthy family called the Weavers were indebted to us? Who gave a damn that they’d royally fucked off my family and earned the wrath of my ancestors?
All I cared about was the news I’d inherited something more than just money, possessions, or titles.
My twenty-ninth birthday gave me a pet. A toy.
A responsibility I didn’t want.
Debts I had to extract from unwilling flesh.
A job to uphold our family honour.
Nila Weaver.
One mistake six hundred years ago put a curse on her entire family.
One mistake sold her life to me in a mountain of unpayable debt.
I inherited her.
I preyed on her.
I owned her life and had the piece of paper to prove it.
Nila Weaver.
Mine.
And my task…
…
…
devour her.
“TOLD YOU THIS collection would be your break, Threads.”
I smiled, not taking my eyes off the model prancing down the runway. My stomach churned like an overworked loom with stress and adrenaline.
“Don’t jinx it. There’s still the couture collection to go.” I flinched as the model sashayed too much, wobbling in the insanely high heels I’d buckled to her feet.
My cell-phone buzzed in the only place I had available in this dress—my cleavage.
No, no. Not now.
I’d been waiting to hear from him for two days. Lying in bed in the fancy hotel, willing my phone to chime, granting me the intoxicating rush of flirtation. But nothing. Not a peep.
A month of this…what was this? It wasn’t a relationship. Liaison? Nameless courtship? I had no name for the craziness I indulged in. I panted for scraps of communication like a high-school wallflower.