“Excuse me, do you have bathrooms here?”
Maribel exhaled. This—she could handle. “No, not public bathrooms here, but just two doors down, you’ll find public bathrooms in the drugstore on the corner.”
“Oh, thank you, thank you,” the woman heaved with relief and turned herself back into the street.
Maribel glanced over to Charles, who had returned his attention to his inventory sheet. Sensing her gaze, he peered up and smiled. “Every interaction is often not as glamorous as you might expect.”
Maribel smiled in return. She liked Charles. She liked his calm demeanor and his smooth voice. It was such a change from Thomas’ dramatic flare and the chaotic energy of the department store. She settled into her position behind the counter, and waited for the next opportunity to show Charles why she was the right fit for the job.
Her eyes suddenly fell down upon several diamond tennis bracelets. She immediately spotted a double link baguette diamond bracelet—one similar to the bracelet she had received from Miles. As if in a dream, she heard his confident voice, greeting to her.
“Hello, Maribel.”
Maribel glanced up and saw him standing before her. It wasn’t a dream; it was a surreal reality. Everything around her went strangely silent as he gazed down at her with his searing blue eyes. He looked impossibly handsome in his navy pinstripe wool suit and crisp white shirt.
“What are you doing here?” Maribel gazed at him in shock.
“I’m looking to find the right gift for someone,” he replied, slowly, cautiously, his voice filled with cool restraint.
Maribel glanced over at Charles, who eyed her from afar, waiting to see how she would handle a serious buyer.
Suddenly, Maribel remembered that Miles was a regular customer. Someone new. He’s already shopping for someone new. Maribel lowered her gaze and dug deep into her inner core. “How may I assist you?”
“Well, I don’t know the right approach for this gift, so it’s a bit of a challenge.”
Maribel heard his words. The irony was too cruel. It had been a script—all of it—and now, she was supposed to help him purchase a new gift for his next conquest.
“Something personal or professional?” Maribel tossed at him. She wanted him to realize—at the very least—that she was only playing along for show.
“Personal. Deeply personal.”
“I see…” Maribel said, controlling her anger and trembling hands. “Well, you can’t go wrong with earrings.” Maribel started forward, seeking out a way to distance herself from him, then she wondered how she was going to wade through the next minute, much less an entire sales transaction.
“Earrings,” he repeated. “Perhaps. Or perhaps something less conventional and more unexpected.”
Maribel glared up at him. “Sometimes conventionality and expectation are appreciated more than superficial frivolity.”
Miles smiled. “Yes, I can understand why you might believe that to be the case. So perhaps something that also conveys a message.”
Maribel glared at Miles. She hated his games.
“Like what kind of a message?”
“A symbol of pursuing something…intimate and long-term.”
Bastard. It had only been a week, and she had already been cast aside for someone Miles was now willing to commit to in a way that he couldn’t commit to her.
“Intimacy can be fleeting and misleading,” she said with bitter eyes.
“Yes, until it’s gone and you realize how much you can’t live without it.”
Their eyes locked. Maribel glanced over at Charles. She could feel his eyes, watching her.
“I see that you’re a bit undecided,” Maribel intentionally raised her voice. “Perhaps you might be interested in browsing our fashion accessories. I believe that’s on the second floor.”
She pushed Miles away with her glare. He needed to leave, and he needed to leave now. She no longer was his possession. She no longer felt the desire to submit herself to him. And she no longer was interested in wrapping her emotions around a man who bought fine jewelry for every woman who he seduced, but failed to realize that nothing was more important than her own dignity and self-worth.
Charles suddenly appeared next to her.
“Is there something that I can assist you with?”
“Yes, I’m certain now of what I’d like to buy,” Miles said, his long arm stretching out across the adjacent glass jewelry case.
“Very good, sir. Any one in particular?”
“Yes, this one,” he pointed down to a gorgeous two-carat diamond ring in an antique platinum setting.
“Excellent choice,” Charles nodded and opened the case with his keys.
Maribel stared at Miles. He gazed back at her and lifted the diamond ring from its case. “I’d like to see it worn. Would you mind?”
Miles waited for Maribel to consent. She refused with defiant eyes.
Charles moved towards her and slipped the ring onto her finger. “Please…” he encouraged her.
Maribel looked down at the ring—it was stunning, and breathtaking, and so clearly meant for someone else that a wave of renewed heartbreak overwhelmed every part of Maribel’s being. Don’t cry, don’t cry… not now, not here, not in front of him. She cleared her throat and channeled all her frustration and humiliation into her eyes. Finally, Maribel lifted up her hand and flashed the ring at Miles, as if she was giving him the finger.
Miles saw the gestured and smirked. He reached out and seized her hand before towing it into his chest and against his heart.
“Maribel, I miss you more deeply than you can possibly comprehend because I can’t comprehend it myself. But I’m begging you to please give us another chance because what we have together is more precious than anything I could ever buy for you—more precious than the most expensive diamond or the rarest gemstone. And I can’t claim to be a perfect man… God knows, I have made serious mistakes in my life, but I can strive to be a better one with you in my life. Please…I’m not asking for you to grant me the opportunity to commit myself to you in the future. I’m simply asking you to grant me the opportunity to commit myself to you—here and now.”
Maribel gazed at Miles, unable to comprehend his words.
“Well said, Brax,” Charles interjected. “It almost makes me want to kiss you myself. You’ve clearly made an indelible impression on him, my dear.” Charles turned to Maribel and snipped off the tag from the diamond ring.
“You know each other?” she whispered, speechless.
“He’s both my best and worst customer,” Charles confirmed. “He’s been calling me twice every hour. He’s terribly miserable without you, and as a result, he’s resorted to making me terribly miserable as well.”
“I asked Charles to put up the HELP WANTED sign,” Miles explained, “hoping you would eventually stroll by and see it.”
“You’re the store owner?” Maribel said, suddenly remembering the ruby tear-drop earrings Miles had purchased from him.
Charles nodded. “And I shall be happy to grant you a more formal job interview, my dear, after you have a chance to sort out whether or not you wish this madman to remain a part of your life. But for now, my job is done and I shall retreat to the backroom until one of you decides you’d like to purchase more jewelry. I’ll put the ring on your tab, Brax.”
Charles circled around from the jewelry cases and patted Miles on the shoulder.
“Thank you, Charles.”
Maribel peered at Miles, eyes swimming. He held her hand like he had no intention of ever letting her go.
“I’ve been trying to track you down for a week, but you’ve been impossible to find. You left your position at the department store and disconnected your phone. And you never called. This was the only way that I knew how to find you, and possibly persuade you to give me—us—another chance.”
Maribel’s eyes fell down onto the diamond ring, unable to deny its significance. “I don’t understand…why this, why now?”
“Because you’re the only thing in my life that matters to me. You’re the only reason why I’m happy when I wake up in the morning and relax when I go to bed at night. You’re the only person who makes me laugh when I haven’t smiled in days, and the only one who offers me tenderness and compassion at the end of a long, arduous day. And you’re the only person in years who has made me feel like I want to live my life for someone other than myself. I feel this way because I’ve fallen in love with you, Maribel. And I realize now that I’ve been in love with you for years—ever since those very first days, watching you overcome one of the most tragic circumstances of your life. But it’s only been in the past four days that I’ve finally found the courage to acknowledge it to myself—and to you.”
Miles pressed her hand deeper against his chest. She could feel the weight of the diamond on her finger and the furious beating of Miles’ heart.
“I’m in love with you, Maribel Martinez. Please say that you’ll have me back again. Please tell me that you believe, the way I do, that what we’ve shared together is more precious than anything else in the world. Please say you’ll give us another chance.”
Maribel gazed at Miles’ wounded eyes and earnest face. She no longer had the strength to deny the way that he made her feel, and everything that they had shared together. He was right. It was more precious than anything else in the world because it was a priceless bond between them that could not be reproduced or replaced—it could only be discovered and rediscovered through their own mutual desire to harbor and treasure it.
“What’s for dinner?” Maribel slowly relaxed her hand as well as her defenses.
Miles smiled in return. “Seafood.”
Chapter Twenty
Miles kissed Maribel with longing, holding her naked body between his arms and settling his chest against her own. They cuddled inside the triangular berth within the hull of Miles’ sailboat, a thirty-foot schooner that shuttled them far across the black waters of Lake Michigan to a secluded spot where they could no longer see lights from any shore. Miles embraced Maribel in his arms, and they gazed up through the ceiling hatch at the flawless night—every star in the sky twinkling just for them. Maribel relaxed her head inside the crook of Miles’ arm. The gentle rocking of the boat settled her mind, and the rhythmic pulse of Miles’ heart made her nestle herself deeper into his body.
Miles had whisked her away on his sailboat, just as he had promised, and made love to her in the serenity and peace of the silent night. There were no longer were any barriers between them; nothing had been left unsaid, and no part of their bodies had been left untouched, and there were no longer any expectations beyond the simplicity of their emotions and their mutual desire to remain physically and emotionally vulnerable to each other.
Suddenly, Miles’ cell phone rang.
Dismayed, Maribel dropped her head against the cushions. “You actually get reception out here?”
“Satellite,” Miles confirmed, rolling over to receive the call. “But don’t worry. This will be a short conversation. And I want you to hear it... Shoot, Gary,” Miles said, answering the call and setting it on speakerphone.
“The deal is done. Zale signed. The building his all his. Congratulations, Brax. You’re a free man.”
Miles dropped his head onto the pillows and shifted his gaze onto Maribel with a smile.
“And here I was, being an asshole extraordinaire, worrying about how you were pissing away the Olson deal when really you were negotiating behind the scene to sell the whole damn building to Harvey Zale. Never saw that coming…”
“Neither did they,” Miles said, stroking Maribel’s hair and peering deeply into her eyes.
“Yeah, we all thought you were just stalling on the lease terms. Never realized you were using the contract as leverage to get Zale to buy the whole damn property for a premium. Now, Gillian will have nowhere else to shop the deal and Zale will squeeze them for blood. And here I was, trying to keep you from losing thirty-five million dollars while you were busy making triple that.”
“We can’t all be perfect, Gary,” Miles quipped.
“No, just you, Brax. Just you.”
Maribel rolled her eyes. Miles nibbled at her ear lobe. She shrugged him off with a laugh.
“By the way, is that your little mouse?”
Miles coaxed her to answer.
“Hello…” she said softly, settling her head against Miles’ smooth chest.
“Well, hello to you, too,” Gary purred. “Make sure that Brax buys you some extra special bling-bling for your part in all of this. That disappearing act at the party was Oscar-worthy.”
Maribel’s eyes fell down upon her diamond ring, but savored Miles’ fingers whispering down her back even more.
“She’s already wearing it, Gary,” Miles confirmed. “And she hopes she never has to hear from you again.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve heard that, Brax. Wouldn’t be the first time,” Gary sighed. “Okay, love birds, I’ll let you two roll around in your bed of hundred dollar bills without my fuc—,” Gary paused and reconsidered his words, “without me ruining your night. Take care, Brax and little Miss Mouse, and call me when you’re ready to sell your other eight properties.”
“Already in the works,” Miles said, smiling at Maribel.
“Love that. Chow.”
Miles hung up the phone and shifted his gaze onto Maribel, searching out his own reflection in her empathetic eyes.
“You’re selling all of your properties?” she said with surprise.
“Downsizing,” he shrugged and nudged her for a kiss. “I want to make sure that I have time to be around…”
“Around for what?” Maribel asked, sensing the playfulness in his voice.
Miles circled her mid-drift and kissed it softly. “Babies.”
THE END
Note from Author:
Thank you for reading my work. If you enjoyed this novel, please be sure to sign up to receive updates regarding the release of its prequel, which follows Miles Braxton-Worth in his early years. Very best, Aria Hawthorne
Website: frenchkisspress.com
Twitter: @frenchkisspress
Priceless: Contemporary Billionaire Romance Novel Page 17