In Debt To Her Millionaire Foe by Aarti V Raman
She Hates Him But She’s In Debt To Her Millionaire Foe
Releasing on 25th October
About the Book:
When the songbird owes the business tycoon...
Former gangster, Devansh Thackeray has finally managed to carve the life he’s always aspired to.
Building a chain of seven-star hotels all over the world, a reputation for being an honest businessman...and all the women he could ask for.
Ansh’s life is perfect. Or so he thinks.
Because he is about to hit by a lightning bolt from the past that’ll make him question everything he’s worked so hard for.
And her name is Kahini Palekar.
Kahini’s life is a nightmare.
She works three jobs to pay off the loan sharks circling her.
But, Kahini doesn’t mind because she also gets to do the only thing she’s always wanted to do.
Sing.
Even if it is at a shady nightclub in the backstreets of Goa, the beach paradise of India.
Kahini’s day of reckoning arrives when Ansh arrives back in her life, right when she’s almost assaulted by the manager of the nightclub.
Ansh offers both salvation from her debt and a chance to sing at the most exclusive wedding of the decade.
But there’s just one catch.
Kahini hates Ansh’s living guts and blames him for the destruction of her life.
Even though he was the boy she once recklessly gave her heart to.
Can Ansh get to the bottom of the problems plaguing Kahini or will this songbird fly away again after repaying her debt to him?
Meet the Millionaire Foes - rising from ruin through ruthless ambition, these self-made tycoons have everything. Except, the heart of the one woman who means everything.
Building a chain of seven-star hotels all over the world, a reputation for being an honest businessman...and all the women he could ask for.
Ansh’s life is perfect. Or so he thinks.
Because he is about to hit by a lightning bolt from the past that’ll make him question everything he’s worked so hard for.
And her name is Kahini Palekar.
Kahini’s life is a nightmare.
She works three jobs to pay off the loan sharks circling her.
But, Kahini doesn’t mind because she also gets to do the only thing she’s always wanted to do.
Sing.
Even if it is at a shady nightclub in the backstreets of Goa, the beach paradise of India.
Kahini’s day of reckoning arrives when Ansh arrives back in her life, right when she’s almost assaulted by the manager of the nightclub.
Ansh offers both salvation from her debt and a chance to sing at the most exclusive wedding of the decade.
But there’s just one catch.
Kahini hates Ansh’s living guts and blames him for the destruction of her life.
Even though he was the boy she once recklessly gave her heart to.
Can Ansh get to the bottom of the problems plaguing Kahini or will this songbird fly away again after repaying her debt to him?
Meet the Millionaire Foes - rising from ruin through ruthless ambition, these self-made tycoons have everything. Except, the heart of the one woman who means everything.
The Millionaire Foe Quartet series contains four steamy romances set around the world, each of which can be read as a standalone.
Read an Excerpt from In Debt To Her Millionaire Foe (Millionaire Foe Quartet # 2)
In her head, Kahini Palekar was singing at a concert hall in Mumbai. Maybe the NCPA or the Andheri Sports Complex. She’d read about these places on page three gossip columns of the dailies. Read about the singers and starlets who performed there on a regular basis to thousands of adoring fans.
Decent, adoring fans who didn’t viscerally strip her naked every time she stepped on stage. Or middle-aged lechers who were always hoping for something more than a singing performance.
She’d never had formal lessons from a professional music teacher. Growing up dirt poor in the slums of suburban Mumbai didn’t run to music lessons.
Her mother had been the domestic help in nearby apartment buildings and her father had been a mill worker until the mid-90s when the mills had shut down leaving her father broke and bitter. Turning him into a mean drunk who knocked his wife around when the mood struck him, he’d had taken off when Kahini was a young girl.
Her much older brother, Vijay, had been the de-facto head of the family till…
Kahini shut her mind to the memories that still had the power to make her grieve and concentrated on the song.
It was a sweet ballad and she followed it up with a popular Hindi number that had the men clapping and whistling for her. A couple more Hindi songs and the crowd were good and going.
The spotlight ceased to bother her because she was doing the one thing she loved most.
Singing.
It didn’t matter that her current venue was a cheap, fleabag bar instead of a jam-packed concert venue. That she was getting paid peanuts for her midnight performance.
Or that she had a seven-am breakfast and lunch shift at Vincent’s Fish Fry Shack at Bogmalo Beach followed by her evening job sweeping the floors of the nursing home in downtown Panjim.
Then, she had to show up at Grungy’s tomorrow at midnight and sing till two am before grabbing a couple of hours of sleep, before starting the whole routine again.
Most days, Kahini didn’t know what month it was.
She just lurched from job to job to job based on her time cards and crashed on the mattress in the garret she called home near Calangute. It was the only reason she’d agreed to moonlight as entertainment at Grungy’s. Because it was so close to home.
Well, that, and she needed the money she earned from tips. The lechers in the bar did pay dearly to hear her sing.
If, in return, they needed a little bit of titillation and fantasy then who was she to deny them that small, harmless pleasure?
The short dress with the slit and the heels and the garish makeup that made her look years older than she really was. And it all contributed to the funds she desperately needed to pay off the loan sharks.
Her life had been reduced to the lowest common denominator and she didn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel. It was harrowing… brutally hard and the only solace she found was in the singing.
It didn’t matter where she sang, or whom she sang to. In her head, she was in another place, a kinder place.
She wrote a different story for herself when she sang.
~~~
Two hours later…
Kahini faced her rescuer and old enemy with defiance.
“What do you want, Ansh?”
He made a cutting gesture with his hand. The glint of his expensive steel wrist watch caught in the fluorescent light.
“What are you doing, Kahini?” he asked in a frankly bewildered voice. “Why are you here, in this filthy dressing of this filthy bar singing for these despos?”
Kahini smiled a bitter smile full of reproach and recrimination. Making her look decades older than the twenty-five she really was.
“Surviving.”
And she walked out without a backward glance.
About the Author:
Hi, I’m Aarti V Raman aka Writer Gal. I have been a former journalist, editor, and even a sometime-teacher before I plunged into my dream job. That of being a full-time writer.
In fact, my three favorite words are ‘happily ever after.’
This comes in handy as I primarily write bestselling contemporary romantic women’s fiction, which is all about living happily, after going through some hard times.
My more notable works include the Geeks of Caltech and Royals of Stellangård series, Something Old, Something New, More Than You Want, and The Perfect Fake among others. My chicklit family drama, The Worst Daughter Ever, has been picked up for screen adaptation.
I always love to hang with you, my dear reader friend. I’ve created Writer Gal’s Reader Pals on Facebook for this reason and I hope to see you there.
If not, I’m there on all social media as @aartivraman but I’m most active on Instagram.
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