![\"debt](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.inkslingerpr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/debt-release-date-banner.png?resize=640%2C237\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Her life changed in an instant.<\/p>\n
And he’s the only one who could have prevented it.<\/p>\n
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Pact and The Lie comes a new standalone contemporary romance about those McGregor men.<\/em><\/p>\n Jessica Charles shouldn’t have even been in London when the unthinkable happened.<\/p>\n She should have been back at home in Edinburgh, perhaps hanging with her boyfriend, having drinks with her sister or doing yoga with her group of friends. She should have been going on in her normal, dependable life as always.<\/p>\n But on that fateful day in August, when a mentally-ill ex-soldier opened fire in public, Jessica’s world changed forever.<\/p>\n Now single and crippled from the gunshot wounds, Jessica finds herself scared and alone, losing faith in herself and humanity with each agonizing moment that passes.<\/p>\n That is until a stranger enters her life. A stranger who makes her live again.<\/p>\n Keir McGregor has always been the strong, silent type. Throw in tall, dark, and handsome and you’ve got pretty much the perfect Scotsman.<\/p>\n Except Keir is anything but perfect. He’s got a past he’s running away from and a guilty conscience he can’t seem to shed. But the more time he spends with Jessica, the more he falls in love with her.<\/p>\n And the more his secret threatens to tear them apart.<\/p>\n He may have been a stranger to her.<\/p>\n But she\u2019s never been a stranger to him.<\/p>\n ADD TO GOODREADS<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re not going anywhere,\u201d he says. \u201cSit. I\u2019ll get you another drink.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s getting late,\u201d I say feebly but I sit down anyway, my leg giving a protest of pain.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need something for that?\u201d he says, noticing my wince.<\/p>\n \u201cThe scotch will do fine,\u201d I tell him quickly, not wanting him to make a fuss. \u201cBut really, I should go.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u201d he asks from the kitchen. I hear the top pop off the bottle, the slosh of liquid in the glass. \u201cWhere do you have to be?\u201d<\/p>\n I have to think about that for a moment. He comes over and holds out the glass. \u201cI won\u2019t keep you here if you don\u2019t want to be here. But if you do want to be here, you don\u2019t need to make any excuses.\u201d<\/p>\n I take the glass from him, holding it delicately in my fingers. He stands over me, a massive wall, waiting for some kind of response.<\/p>\n \u201cI just\u2026\u201d I begin. \u201cI\u2026\u201d I take a sip for bravery. Swallow. \u201cI\u2019m not very good at this.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGood at what?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt\u2026this. Being with a man.\u201d<\/p>\n When he doesn\u2019t say anything to that, I look up at him. He\u2019s got a peculiar smile on his face, his brows raised. \u201cYou call this being with a man?\u201d<\/p>\n I clear my throat, feeling my cheeks grow hot. \u201cI mean. I\u2019ve told you before \u2013\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, how you don\u2019t do relationships, how you don\u2019t do sex.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI never said I don\u2019t do sex,\u201d I remind him quickly.<\/p>\n His eyes never stop searching my face. \u201cThen what is it? What are you afraid to say?\u201d<\/p>\n I have the sudden urge to flee and I know it must show because he suddenly points at me and says, \u201cDon\u2019t you dare say you have to go again. I want you to go back to what you said, that you\u2019re not good at this. What is this? Us? You and me? There\u2019s nothing mystifying about you and me, Jessica. You know quite well how I feel.\u201d<\/p>\n I stare at him in shock. I do? \u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n He looks off with an air of impatience. \u201cI invited you to dinner, you turned me down.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut then you said just as friends.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I meant it. But there are different types of friends. It\u2019s up to you to decide what kind we are.\u201d<\/p>\n I put my drink down with a clunk. \u201cHoly pressure.\u201d And now it\u2019s not just my face going hot but my entire body, flushed from head to toe.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re on fire, little red,\u201d he says, his gaze skirting over my limbs in such a hungry way I can almost feel them on my skin. \u201cI have to say, I like this look on you. Hot and bothered.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBack with the innuendos again,\u201d I comment but my voice is weak.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, no innuendos this time. You came looking for me tonight not because you wanted to confess but because you want something from me. What is it? What do you want from me? What do you think I can give you?\u201d<\/p>\n Jesus. This is so utterly unnerving. His words slice right through me, his eyes still peeling under the layers, trying to get at something I\u2019m not even sure of myself.<\/p>\n If I lie, he\u2019ll know. I can only be honest with him.<\/p>\n \u201cI want\u2026\u201d I take in a deep breath, my eyes breaking away. \u201cI want\u2026company.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCompany?\u201d He sounds surprised.<\/p>\n I nod. \u201cThat\u2019s the truth. I\u2019m lonely. And I\u2019m afraid. And I\u2019m tired of being both those things. I want to be with someone who makes me forget who I am. You make me feel fearless in a way I didn\u2019t think possible.\u201d<\/p>\n There. That\u2019s the truth. Most of it. It hangs in the air, thickening the tension like flour to stock.<\/p>\n He sits down next to me, has a mouthful of Scotch. \u201cWow,\u201d he says, running his hand over the beard on his jaw. \u201cAnd here I was thinking you wanted my cock.\u201d<\/p>\n I burst out laughing. So does he, a big wonderful bellow. The tension in the room eases up a notch.<\/p>\n \u201cSorry,\u201d I tell him when I catch my breath. \u201cI guess they can both mean the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n He sucks in his lip briefly, his eyes taking a lustful turn. \u201cIf you want it to.\u201d We stare at each other for a few heavy beats. Then his focus trails back to my gaze and he says, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you stay over?\u201d<\/p>\n And there I have it. The chance to know what those full lips would feel like on mine, what his skin would taste like. I swallow hard.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Halle is represented by the Waxman Leavell Agency and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster and Hachette in North America and in the UK.<\/p>\n Hit her up on Instagram at @authorHalle, on Twitter at @MetalBlonde and on Facebook. You can also visit www.authorkarinahalle.com and sign up for the newsletter for news, excerpts, previews, private book signing sales and more.<\/p>\n FACEBOOK<\/a> TWITTER<\/a> GOODREADS<\/a> AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pre-order:\u00a0 Kindle\u00a0 |\u00a0 iBooks | Kindle | Kobo | Nook Blurb Her life changed in an instant. And he’s the only one who could have prevented it. From the New York Times bestselling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[290],"tags":[432,38,453],"class_list":["post-11095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-news","tag-excerpt-reveal","tag-karina-halle","tag-mcgregor-boys"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/The-Debt-AMAZON.jpg?fit=150%2C234&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-2SX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nExcerpt<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.inkslingerpr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/The-Debt-2.png?resize=422%2C422\")
<\/p>\n
\nAbout the Author<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Halle](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.inkslingerpr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Halle-Headshot-221x300.jpg?resize=155%2C210\")
Karina Halle is a former travel writer and music journalist and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of The Pact, Racing the Sun, Sins & Needles and over 25 other wild and romantic reads. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.<\/p>\nCheck out our Karina Halle Author Spotlight<\/a> for more awesome reads<\/strong><\/h4>\n