First Debt (Indebted #2)(80)

Stop stalling!

“What is it?” I croaked.

His eyes tightened, staring at my shivering frame. “Buzzard. His nickname is Buzzard.”

I couldn’t breathe.

It’s not him.

Then…

Oh, my God.

The betrayal. The unfairness.

Please, no.

I swayed on my feet as a black gust of vertigo took me prisoner. I fell forward, crashing into Kes’s arms. “And Jethro’s?” My voice was just a whisper. “What’s his nickname?”

My heart roared. I felt sick. I felt suicidal.

Kestrel held me tight, his fingers digging into the bruises his brother left last night. The brother I’d believed was falling for my games.

But all along…was I falling for his?

Alarm at my sudden change of mood widened his eyes. “Nila, it’s okay. Sit down and breathe.” He tried to gather me close, but I flinched away. Blinking back the nausea and urge to topple, I breathed, “Tell me, Kes. What’s Jethro’s nickname?”

I waited with bated breath.

I cursed my flying heart.

I overheated with terror.

My sanity hinged on the answer Kestrel gave, but it was too late.

I already knew.

Of course, I knew.

Of course, it was true.

Why did I think otherwise?

My instincts blared an answer I didn’t want to believe.

The name reverberated with every panicked breath.

Kes placed his large, warm hands—so unlike his older brother’s icy ones—on my shoulders. “Jethro? He never goes by it. Never has.”

I don’t care. Tell me!

I swallowed back my scream. Impatience roared in my blood.

Kes sensed my unravelling. He narrowed his eyes, anger flushing his skin. “It’s Kite.”

I couldn’t do it.

I collapsed, landing in his arms.

He huddled me close, pressing a kiss against my forehead. “His nickname is Kite...but I think—I think you’ve known that all along.”

I wanted to cry, but no tears came.

I wanted to rage, but no sound remained.

Him.

He’d not only stolen my body but my mind and fantasies, too.

He’d infiltrated me when I still believed in princes and fairy tales. He’d corrupted me before he’d come to steal me.

Kite.

Jethro.

Kite is Jethro.

A wail clawed up my throat.

Not only had I given my body to my mortal enemy, but I’d unlocked my heart for him, too.

He’d gotten under my skin. He’d heard my innermost desires.

He was playing me like a master of duplicity.

My ridiculous game at making him fall in love with me pulverised.

I had no chance at winning.

Not when faced with the proficient firstborn Hawk.

My salvation was now my damnation.

Jethro is Kite…

…

And he’d successfully trapped me in an aviary of deceit.





“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 na?ve 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.




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Pepper Winters is a NYT and USA Today International Bestseller. She 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. She’s also honoured to wear the IndieReader Badge for being a Top 10 Indie Bestsellers, best BDSM series voted by the SmutClub, and recently signed a two book deal with Grand Central. Her books are currently being translated into numerous languages and will be in bookstores in the near future.



Her Dark Romance books include (click for buylinks from numerous online sites): Tears of Tess (Monsters in the Dark #1)

Quintessentially Q (Monsters in the Dark #2)

Twisted Together (Monsters in the Dark #3)

Debt Inheritance (Indebted #1)

First Debt (Indebted Series #2)



Her Grey Romance books include (click for buylinks from numerous online sites): Destroyed



Upcoming releases are (click the link to add to Goodreads)

Ruin & Rule (Motorcycle romance)

Je Suis a Toi (Monsters in the Dark Novella)

Forbidden Flaws