Free Priceless: Contemporary Billionaire Romance Novel by Aria Hawthorne Page A

like she was slapping Maribel through the phone.
    Slowly,
calmly, Maribel counted to ten and restrained the urge to verbally slap her
back.  Her years of working in retail had trained her well.  “I will be sure to
tell him,” Maribel answered, curtly.  She wanted to hang up the phone
immediately, but knew she had to wait until bitch-queen hung up first.
    Gillian . 
Maribel remembered that name and Miles’ reaction to her call during their
brunch.  She shivered and set down the phone on the kitchen counter.  No
wonder Miles was avoiding her .  Multi-million dollar deal or not .
    Maribel
suddenly felt the warm tickle of kisses fluttering down her neck.
    “Good
morning, good morning,” Miles said between nibbles.  “Whatcha makin’?” he
asked, peering over her shoulder.  He was naked, dripping wet, and wrapped from
the waist down in her powered blue bath towel. 
    “Toast,
scrambled eggs, and oatmeal cookies,” she said, popping the butter and brown sugar
together in her mixer.  The mixer had been a gift from her mother, and she
always loved making something fresh and homemade with it on Sunday mornings.
    “Really? 
Yum, yum… Deeeelish.”
    Maribel
smiled and shrugged off his prickly chin from her shoulder, and searched her
cabinets for the oatmeal.  She eyed Miles as he stretched his long, strong arms
into the air and heaved an exhale—the promise of a good day.  In the obscure
shadows of the night, she had been consumed, devoured, and dominated by the strength
and masculinity of his hard, naked body.  Now, in the honesty of the sunlight, Maribel
finally had a chance to take in the full scope of his athletic form, smooth
chest, and tapered waist.  Beads of water clung to the muscular arch of his sloping
bare back.  He fell onto her bed, a gesture of relaxation. Every muscle was
sculpted and defined, every movement was deliberate and determined, and he
watched her—watching him—with a complete lack of inhibition.  He was
impossibly handsome , she thought, but it was his uncompromising
confidence that was the sexiest part about him .
    “In
all my years as a man, I never realized the way into a woman’s heart was
through her rosebud sheets…” he joked, and spread his palms across her
mattress.
    “Who
said you’ve gotten into anybody’s heart?” Maribel sassed back.
    He
rolled onto his elbow and gazed at her. “ Touché ,” he said, assessing the
challenge.
    His
searing blue eyes were inescapable.  Maribel finally broke away to pour them
two cups of coffee.  Then, she glanced over at his phone on the kitchen
counter.  Gillian , she thought.  It was a thorn that threatened to pop each
bubbly exchange between them.  He was in such a good mood; she didn’t have the
heart to disrupt it.
    When
she turned around, she saw him sitting at her kitchenette table, legs crossed
at the knee and dressed in a tight marathon training shirt and matching
athletic pants. 
    “What’s
that?” she suddenly asked.
    “My
pajamas,” he wagged his foot, and watched her carefully.
    “No,”
she said slowly, stopping the whirling blades of her mixer.  Her eyes
acknowledged the familiar mint blue box that he had placed in the center of the
table.
    “Why
don’t you come over here and find out.”
    “Miles—”
she said, exasperated, and set down the coffee mugs.
    He
smirked and sipped from his cup.  Maribel peered down at the box—it was long
and rectangular. Clearly, it was not something small and inexpensive.
    “Don’t
look at me like that,” he added, noting the concern in her face.
    Maribel
silenced her protests, and tried hard not to seem ungrateful.  But she wasn’t
certain she wanted him to buy her any more expensive gifts.  What he had
already given her was enough.  More than enough .
    “I
knew I wasn’t going to win with the earrings,” he finally said, noting she was
wearing her original cubic zirconia studs again.  Maribel touched her ear
lobes.  In the middle of the night,