Harlequin Desire January 2021--Box Set 1 of 2 by Maisey Yates (free biff chip and kipper ebooks .txt) 📕

it was different sitting in my bedroom, singing to a computer screen. They made me promise I’d come to do my first live performance at their club. I know it’s superstitious, but I believe the place is my good luck charm. I would never have thought about a singing career if I hadn’t accidently found out about their virtual open mic.”

“It’s a done deal. Tonight, you’ll be singing at Café Underground.”

She launched herself at him and gave him a hug. His arms automatically went around her waist and the feel of her took his breath away. His body went hot at the way her breasts crushed against his chest and her breath warmed his neck. “Thank you, thank you. You have no idea what this means to me.”

He gently disentangled himself before his body gave him away. What’s wrong with me? How could he go from wanting to marry Pooja to being insanely attracted to Divya? This was what he was always afraid of: that he’d turn out like his father. Connors men have a hard time holdin’ on to good. The pattern was always the same. His father, Wade, would lose a job, his mother would work longer hours to make money for the household, and his dad would go day drinking. His mother would come home and make dinner, while his father sat in front of the TV, drinking Jim Beam until he passed out. To this day, Ethan couldn’t stand the smell of whiskey. His mother had eventually left his father and married Bill. That’s when Ethan had learned what an ideal marriage looked like. Bill had adopted Ethan, and his father hadn’t thought twice about signing away his parental rights in exchange for never having to pay child support. Ethan wanted what his mother and Bill had, but he lived in fear of ending up like Wade.

There was a knock from the service door and the pilot stepped in, followed by Kathy.

“Sir, the operations control center is asking if we have a Miss Divya Singh on board. Apparently her family is looking for her.” The pilot looked from Ethan to Divya.

Divya’s eyes widened.

“No one here by that name. This is Pooja Chaudhry, my longtime girlfriend,” Ethan said firmly.

The pilot looked at Kathy, who nodded, and then he left.

Ethan mouthed a thank-you to Kathy, who smiled serenely and asked for their drink orders. He ordered a coffee and Divya asked for a glass of white wine.

Divya sank into a recliner as the jet began to taxi, and Ethan took a seat opposite her. She looked out of the window while chewing on her lip.

“Are you expecting your family to show up with guns blazing?”

She nodded. “I’ve snuck out of the house before, but this is a whole new level of rebellion.”

“You’re a grown woman. Why do you need to sneak out of the house?”

She sighed. “My family is very old-fashioned, even by Indian standards. They believe there is an etiquette that the women, the girls of the house as they call us, must follow.”

“Pooja’s family had some very strict rules on who she was allowed to date.”

“If her family was even half as traditional as mine, I’m guessing a white man was at the top of the list of unsuitable boys.”

He smiled. It had taken Pooja two months to tell him in polite terms that he was not what her family had in mind for her. Divya had bluntly stated it two hours after meeting him. “I was definitely not on her parents’ list of eligible bachelors, that’s for sure. How did you meet your fiancé?”

She rolled her eyes. “My brother set us up. Girls in our family don’t date random men. We’re set up with eligible bachelors who promise to behave themselves but, in reality, are just as wretched as a bar sleaze from the worst part of town.”

“Pooja called it a global dating service.” Despite the fact that they were living together, Pooja had still endured the occasional setup from her parents.

Divya nodded. “It’s great for people who actually want to settle down.”

“Who was the guy you were supposed to marry?”

Divya looked out the window as the jet shuddered, gathering speed in preparation for takeoff.

“Vivek. He’s an NRI, a nonresident Indian as we say in India. He’s a very nice guy…” She trailed off and bit her lip. “But I’m not ready to get married. To anyone. I came to Vegas two months ago to visit my brother. He set me up with Vivek and we started dating. When I went back to India, I thought our affair would fizzle out, but he proposed marriage to my family, which is the proper way of doing things. No one bothered to ask me if I really wanted it. They assumed that I was ready to get on the marriage-and-baby-making train. Arjun and Vivek planned this big Vegas wedding, and my family packed my bags so I could start my married life in America.”

“What’s wrong with marriage and babies?”

“Nothing. If that’s what you want. But I am thirty-two years old and I haven’t done anything with my life. I’ve traveled the world but haven’t really experienced it. I’m a lawyer but I work for my family business doing paperwork. I’ve never lived on my own or done things for myself. I’ve taken singing classes but never really sung to a real audience. I’ve done nothing in my life. There are things I want to do, and if I get married, I’ll never get a chance to do them.”

“Why not? Marriage isn’t a prison.”

“It comes with responsibility and a sense of obligation. Everything becomes about the family,” she said bitterly.

And what’s wrong with that? He had the freedom, money and time to do anything he wanted; it got lonely after a while. All his friends had long since married and he envied their complaints about soccer games, homework and birthday parties. They all had their own families and he didn’t.

The jet nosed into the sky, and Ethan followed