Keep the Debt

I didn't come back to Merridale to fall into Joe Peachman's bed. I came back to save the only thing my mother left me — a bookstore that's three months behind on a loan he happens to own.

Joe doesn't do mercy. He built an empire out of buying what other people couldn't hold onto, and my mother's shop is next on the list — unless I take the deal he offers instead: I move into the apartment above his office, I work off the debt as his executive assistant, live by his rules, and answer to him for ninety days. No exceptions. No excuses.

I tell myself it's the only way to keep the store. He tells himself it's just business. Neither of us believes it past the first week, when his hand finds the small of my back in a room full of his board members like he's already decided I'm his to touch.

Joe is thirty-eight to my twenty-four. He's precise, controlled, terrifyingly patient — right up until he isn't. He doesn't raise his voice. He doesn't have to. Every quiet command, every look that lingers a beat too long, tells me exactly how this ends if I let it.

I am the one complication he didn't plan for. That's exactly why he can't stop making room for me.

Keep the Debt is a standalone, full-length Erotic Romance with a guaranteed HEA. Very high heat: frequent, explicit intimate content threaded throughout; a controlled, possessive hero; forced-proximity tension that never lets up; and a slow surrender neither lead saw coming.

Content Note: 18+ only. All characters are consenting adults. Contains explicit sexual content, power-dynamic tension, and possessive/claiming language.

Tropes: Billionaire Hero, Forced Proximity, Possessive Alpha, Age-Gap, Workplace Arrangement, Slow-Burn Forbidden