I f$#ked up, Postmate

Plus all The July Book Club Biz

Mahalo,

I’m writing this edition of The Writer Gal Letter listening to Misio’s I See You. I kinda feel this song belongs to almost every single couple I have ever written or ever will. It also kind of resonates with the fucked up day I’ve had, Postmate.

But first, let me give you the good news!

BURN & BLAZE are both available in first person in ebook format, same as CLAIM. As with Claim, the two books are now ONLY 0.99 for Kindle and FREE to read in Kindle Unlimited.

The blurbs for Claim, Burn, and Blaze are below.

The paperback versions of all three books are still in the third person because Amazon takes time to review these things and there is a bit of back-and-forth happening on that front. So, if you’ve been eager enough to order the paperbacks PLEASE return them and wait for me to send the all-clear newsletter, so you can get the correct version and enjoy these books fully!

I would hate for you to spend your hard-earned money on a book that’s not for you when the story ABSOLUTELY is :D

The sorta-bad news is this. I uploaded Blaze in Tempt’s place in my eagerness to share this book with a whole new crop of readers so if you’ve downloaded Tempt today to read, please sync your Kindle account once so that the right story appears for you! I fixed it up on my end but it took some time - like I said, it’s been a day!

Thank you for your kindness and patience as I navigate this new normal, Postmate.

Claim

They call him the Monster of Silicon Valley...She's going to have to marry him.

Scholarship student Anya Mallya-Bhatt is trying to do it all. Graduate from her MBA program, work two jobs...and save her family from poverty. Desperate Anya finally ends up in an incriminating position!
This lands her in the crosshairs of the most powerful and elusive man in Singapore - Drake Fallahil.
His price to save her? Marry him. Be his loving wife. Just for ninety days. Or go to prison. Anya’s determined to make Drake pay for this monstrous marriage of convenience, no matter how badly she wants this ruthless billionaire's claim.
Drake's got a billionaire problem. He needs a wife in three weeks or he loses everything.
When he finds a mysterious beauty utterly at his mercy, he does the unthinkable. Takes her as his new bride. One who defies and intrigues him. Enough to make him break all his rules and need her beyond his ruthless control.
But, fatal danger is coming to rip Anya away from Drake forever. He isn’t sure he’s going to stop it because in this pretend arrangement, Anya's claim on him is certain…and that is surely a worse fate. Isn’t it?

Claim is a first-person dual POV 100K+ standalone, enemies to lovers, age-gap, billionaire’s marriage of convenience novel of romantic suspense set in the interconnected world of the Ruthless Billionaires.

Burn

Formula One golden boy, Nihaal Bhatnagar's future is about to be cemented. As a champion. A winner. But his scarred childhood collides with his bright future, forcing him to return home after fifteen years in exile, to head a billion-dollar horse racing farm in his small town

Nihaal hates it all. But he especially despises the hot fixer who engineers his return while making him mindless with desire.

Mili Iyer's favorite client and friend has just died, leaving her with his dying wish and a new job. She must bring the reluctant prodigy, Nihaal, home, so he can inherit what's rightfully his.

Mili keeps telling herself that Nihaal is only a job. But the brooding bad boy with six-pack abs attracts her as an engine does oil. Even though he’s making her job impossible by trying to turn down the chance to be a billionaire.

When Nihaal learns his father’s unbreakable will demands that the commitment-phobe marries within three weeks, or he loses it all, he has to come up with a plan. Coercing the devious Mili into marrying him in order to save the family’s billions will be nothing but a business arrangement.

But Mili has her own secrets, deadly danger is careening out of Bhatnagar Farm, and what began as a passionate night ends up in the arranged marriage from hell. Now Mili and Nihaal have to race or burn...

BURN is a first-person dual POV, forced marriage, enemies to lovers billionaire romance cliffhanger duet in the Ruthless Billionaires series. Nihaal and Mili's tempestuous story concludes in BLAZE.

Blaze

Nihaal's F1 season is not going well. At all! He has to score big with the investors who hold his dream hostage. He has to win all the remaining races if he wants to win the championship. Most of all, he wants to live without the bane of his existence - smart and feisty fixer Mili.

His new wife - who hates his very guts. And possibly wishes him dead.

Mili just came back from the dead a changed woman. All the grudges and secrets that were so important aren't important anymore. The one thing that hasn't changed?

Mili's hate for her brand-new charismatic husband. Or her infernal want for his race-roughened hands and the way this former playboy fits so well against her.

Never is too soon a time to see him... But, after their secret arranged marriage becomes public knowledge and the paparazzi descend on Mili and Bhatnagar Farm, this future Formula One champion has only one choice.

To protect Mili. To keep her safe. And to keep his desirous hands to himself while sharing his life with the woman whose smoky eyes, razor brain, and mile-long legs drive him insane.

The brooding billionaire is afraid he might have finally met his match with the prickly and independent Mili.

Because the last thing she wants is to be safe. Especially as she courts deadly danger head-on.

Nihaal knows the time has come to lay it all on the finish line - his skill, his passion, and his heart... All are set to blaze.

BLAZE is a first-person dual POV, forced marriage, enemies to lovers billionaire romance cliffhanger duet in the Ruthless Billionaires series. Nihaal and Mili's tempestuous story begins in BURN.

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Now, Imma jump into this month’s novella installment and book club freebies.

No Other Love - Chapter 14

Now, without any more fuss, let me share the next chapter of my sweetly angsty, second chance, marriage in trouble, small-town romance novella starring a desperately nerdy doctor and his feisty surgeon wife!

Author’s Note: I’ll be writing down the English translations of the Indian words to this story, as I introduce you to Indian culture :) If you’d like to read the previous chapter, click here.

Fun fact: This novella is actually set in a town founded by one of my oldest friends. I’ve been fascinated with Aronda since I heard her talk about it back when we studied together and wanted to set a story here forever! Vikrant and Anika’s is the one finally. :D

That night, and day, set the tone for the next two days. Vikrant woke up before her, getting her coffee in bed, waking her up with a slow kiss and a morning seduction that had her blushing during the first aarti. 

He even made unraveling a sari an exquisite form of torture. 

They spent their mornings working at the hospital and Anika appreciated all of the many, many hats Vikrant wore – counsellor, legal consultant, general physician, obstetrician and more. It was exhausting and fulfilling in its own way. 

And she could see, with the benefit of hindsight, that he was better suited to small-town GP in a way he’d never been in the humongous hospital they’d both worked at.

She thrived in the competitive, cut-throat environment of pediatric surgery. It was nameless. Faceless. All about the cutting.

Vikrant was going to go into internist medicine, with a specialty in intensive care. It was heartbreaking and a quiet unsung hero kind of job. It required patient interaction that Anika would have found impossible to deal with. But, Vikrant had a different kind of problem with the interactions.

It became apparent after he’d finished seeing one of the geriatric patients who required daily monitoring because they’d had a stent placed to alleviate a heart block. 

‘Lokesh uncle taught me mathematics in tenth grade,’ he said when he came back to the office she shared with him. She kissed his cheek and lingered over his lips. 

But, for once, he didn’t respond with reckless enthusiasm. 

‘Dr. Prajapati at our hospital refused to take on his case. Because he isn’t an ideal candidate. His blood sugar levels fluctuate a lot. He didn’t want to fuck up his perfect record and lose his bonus with the hospital board,’ Vikrant said meditatively. 

Anika sighed. Dropped down on the desk and toyed with his hand. His lovely healer hands. 

‘Sweetheart,’ she began hesitantly. 

‘It was hell for me, Anika. Watching good people, people who deserved to be treated not get their treatment because of insurance or something so selfish. It killed me everyday,’ he said baldly. 

The level of care he’d given there was dictated by monetary concerns, by the filling out of a hundred different forms from five different departments. A corporation after all required paperwork.

‘It was frustrating for me to deal with the ways bureaucracy interfered with patient care,’ he ended softly.’ 

And that, Anika now knew, combined with the pressure of studying for his Doctor of Medicine exams while his heart wasn’t in it, had led them down the disastrous road they’d taken.

All because neither he nor she had ever had an honest chat about who they were to the exclusion of the great love they had for each other. That’s why their love hadn’t saved their marriage in the end. 

‘I see it now, Vik,’ she said softly. Squeezing his hands. ‘You’re not just wanted or needed here. You thrive here. In this environment. Helping all of these people.’ 

This time, he tugged her down to his chair and kissed her brainless. His tongue sneaking into her mouth, squeezing hers till she felt the action deep inside her. But, they were at work so she reluctantly pushed him away with a murmur.

But his kiss was incendiary, indelible. So much so that she had to wash her face before facing the next patient a few minutes later. 

Anika realized all of this the more time she spent working with Vikrant at the clinic. Watching him treat and minister to patients with kindness, empathy and patience. While also being clinical and efficient and objective.

It was a masterclass in internist medicine. 

And she was so damn proud of him! 

#### 

Back home, the family – immediate and extended – did not question her absence over the last year. In fact, they were incredibly supportive and excited to hear about her cases. So was Vikrant.

And then there were the moments they weren’t working or entertaining the family as the ideal married couple. 

Those were the moments Anika captured in her mind’s camera, to cherish forevermore. 

Like the time they accidentally reached for the last naan and the family teased Vikrant mercilessly for generously giving it to her. Or when she’d almost chopped her own finger off because she’d been too busy making googly eyes at him instead of the onion she was supposed to be cutting. 

The nights…oh, the nights were special. Silky. Secretive. 

They made love in a frenzy and in slow, syrupy movements. Taking their time to learn the rhythms of their breaths, their bodies. Then, he draped an arm over her shoulder, hugged her close and they talked about medicine. 

Drunk on each other and what they were passionate about. In sync like they hadn’t been in a long time. It was perfect, an idyll, time out of time.

Because they didn’t talk about the past. Or the future. Content to live in the now. Knowing these two subjects were emotional landmines destined to blow them up. 

####

And more and more, Anika found herself wishing Vikrant would ask her to stay. To continue their lives together, divorce papers be damned. The hospital wasn’t exactly high-stakes surgery and she didn’t get the same rush she got when she told desperate, grateful newborn parents that their child would live…but it had Vikrant.

And wasn’t he worth the sacrifice? 

Vikrant kissed her every chance he got, touching her with confidence and ownership. She did the same to him, of course, and he actively encouraged her to do more. But he never said the words she longed to hear.

Will you come back to me, Anika? 

Although the hope that had been resurrected with his office kiss still remained. Stubborn and insistent, like a staph infection that just wouldn’t go. 

Of course, idylls ended and perfection couldn’t last forever. No matter how badly she wanted it to. 

For Anika, it came sooner rather than later on the fifth morning of her stay in Aronda.

No Other Love will be back next month.

The Kissing 💋 Books Club July Offering

This month’s TKBC book is the scorching hot The First Spark by ML Broome. And let me tell you, Postmate. This cover alone is enough to spark me in all sorts of ways!

So smash that pink button and get this month’s freebie, yeah?

If there’s one thing Asher Hammond can’t stand, it’s an uppity and opinionated woman. 

Especially when said woman is the gatekeeper to him opening his speakeasy.

Unfortunately for Ash, Oriana Thorne is both, and it’s going to take more than some easy flirtations to melt her frosty heart.

But when he finally gets her alone, Ash realizes there is more to Ori than meets the eye, and she might be everything he never knew he was looking for. 

The First Spark is your introduction to Spark Ridge, where the views are magnificent in and out of the city.

ML’s upcoming series has everything—sexy cinnamon roll heroes, sassy heroines, sizzling banter and off-the-charts steam all set against the backdrop of a New York town where anything can—and will, happen.

And the tropes—so many luscious tropes! If you love small town romance, then you’re going to love Spark Ridge and its residents.

The Romantic Suspense Co-op April Offering

This month’s offering from the Romantic Suspense Co-op is Regan Black’s Runaway Secret. With a DEA agent on the case and a woman with secrets, this one promises to be one heck of a ride, emotional and thrilling.

Check it out. Then hit the shiny pink button and grab the book, kay?

Marissa Richland knows love and sacrifice and duty. But she has built a life she takes pride in, despite the loss that haunts her. And she's working to make sure no one else has to make the choices she did.

Someone has to answer for their past...

Sean Grady knows pain and failure and perseverance. For years he’s relentlessly pursued the drug lord who destroyed his DEA team during a bust. When the man escapes, the trail leads Sean into the unknown territory of the Blue Ridge mountains.

And into an all-too-familiar grief.

Sean finds himself face-to-face with the one woman he’ll never forget. His fiancee—before she was killed in action. Marissa is a new name, but the warm eyes, cool voice, and cautious smile are exactly the same.

Amid the shock and countless questions, Sean presses on. He’ll protect her, whatever the cost. Even if he must choose between the law he vowed to uphold and the vengeance burning in his heart.

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This is all I have for this edition of The Writer Gal Letter, Postmate. I’ll be back next week with You’re Just Not My Type exclusives and more news!

Till then, burn and blaze away!

Xx

Aarti