Loved by the Billionaire: A Torrid, Romantic BWWM Story (2 page)

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CHAPTER THREE

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CHAPTER NUMBER THREE

Three hours later, LaKeeta glanced over at Anthony Paulson with a murderous look in her eyes. Her skin glistened with sweat as she struggled to do what felt like the thousandth crunch of the evening.

He flashed her a smile that probably would have turned her on under normal circumstances, seeing that he was so downright fine and all. But as for at that moment, his handsome grinning face just made her want to sucker-punch him one.

“
You’re doing good, LaKeeta. Just two more and we’ll call it a day.”

She mumbled some choice curse words under her breath, then forced her body to do the last two exercise motions.

He grinned again. “Excellent, Ms. Hunt.”

LaKeeta took several deep breaths, then allowed Anthony to help her up. The workout had been grueling, but she felt proud of herself for making it through it. She wiped at the sweat on her brow using the fluffy white hand towel he’d given her. Her eyes met his. She smiled. “Do you really think I did good, or do you tell all of your clients that?”

He returned her grin. “Trust me. If you hadn’t done well, I wouldn’t have said you had.”

“
And that’s the truth,” a deep, masculine voice behind them added to the conversation.

LaKeeta and Anthony both turned around after the man had spoken.

“
I thought you were out of the trainer game, bro.”

Grinning, Anthony shook his head. “Once a trainer….always a trainer, Rob. You know that.”

“
Well, at least you can introduce me to your latest victim, Tony.” Rob moved his eyes up and down LaKeeta’s curvy body in appreciation. His look wasn’t exactly inappropriate or anything. It was delivered in such a way that it said,
I think you’re a cute girl
.

LaKeeta gave the new guy a smile. He seemed like a really nice person. “Hi, the name’s LaKeeta and I
would
offer you a handshake, but as you’ve already noticed, Anthony here has worked me into quite the sweat.”

Anthony felt the tiniest bit of a frown starting to form on his face. For some reason, he didn’t like how friendly his little brother and LaKeeta Hunt were being with each other. If he didn’t know any better, he would have thought that he was being jealous.
But that’s impossible, I’ve only known her all of four hours
.

LaKeeta continued speaking. “I’m gonna take a guess here, that the two of you are really brothers.” She smiled. “That’s based on how much alike the two of you look.”

Rob grinned. “Yep, we’re bros alright. I’m the younger, but much better looking one.” Rob chuckled, then pretended to pop an invisible collar. “Our parents saved all the best genetic material for me.”

Anthony shook his head. At thirty-five, Anthony was eight years Rob’s senior. Even though Rob was twenty-seven, in many ways he still reminded Anthony of the happy-go-lucky kid he’d been in high school and college — always kidding around and trying to make people laugh.

LaKeeta laughed at Rob’s attempt at humor. “Sorry Rob, you two could probably pass for twins. That is, if you were the same height and had the same eye color. I think your parents gave each of you your fair share of that genetic material that you were just talking about.”

Rob gave her a tiny smile. “Well, thank you then. And for that wonderful compliment, how about I treat you to a smoothie at the juice bar here?”

LaKeeta gave Rob a genuine look of regret. “Maybe some other time.” She smiled at Anthony. “I’ve already promised my trainer that we could meet at the cafeteria upstairs this evening to go over my new meal plan.”

For the first time since meeting LaKeeta that day, Rob noticed the way his brother was looking at the beautiful girl.
Well I’ll be damned
, he thought to himself.
It looks like Tony’s already called dibs on her
.

In the true sense of brotherhood, Rob knew Anthony had met LaKeeta first, so it was his job to step down. He gave his brother a look that communicated as much, then gave LaKeeta another smile. “I understand.” He paused for only a moment. “My brother will work you hard, but you honestly can’t find a better trainer this side of the Mississippi. He’s even sought out by celebrities and such.”

LaKeeta gave Anthony a look of admiration. “Wow, Mr. Paulson. I didn’t know that.”

Rob chuckled. “Yep. Get him to tell you about it while you guys are hashing out that meal plan.” He nodded his head. “Well, I guess I’d better get going. I have an early day tomorrow. Once again, it was nice meeting you, LaKeeta and I’ll see you later, Tony.”

Seconds after Rob had left, LaKeeta turned to Anthony and smiled. “You’re really sought out by celebrities?”

Anthony had a tendency to try to be as humble a person as possible. He could have told her about the Hollywood A-listers who were still trying to get him to work with. But, he didn’t feel like going there. It would be too much like ‘
tooting his own horn
’ in his eyes.

He smiled. “I’ve worked with all types of people in my journey as a trainer, LaKeeta. My most memorable client was a ninety-seven year old grandmother who wanted me to help her get in shape for her husband’s one-hundredth birthday party. They'd been married for seventy-two years.”

LaKeeta smiled, imaging that scenario. That's exactly the type of love story she some day wanted to have. Then she grimaced. There didn't seem to be a man like that on her horizon. All the guys she'd dated had turned out to be assholes. She'd pretty much gotten used to living the single life.

Anthony frowned. “Is something wrong?”

LaKeeta quickly shook her head and gave him a tiny smile. “No. Everything's okay.  I guess I'm ready to get started on those meal plans.”

“Alright. Great.”

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CHAPTER FOUR

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CHAPTER NUMBER FOUR

The next morning, LaKeeta rolled out of bed and groaned. Her muscles were certainly feeling the effects of her workout. Instead of her normal shower, she ran herself a tub bath and soaked for almost a half hour. As she was lathering on her favorite body lotion, she snatched up her trilling cellphone and answered it.

“Keeta, Angela had to go pick up Javon from the day care center. He's sick with a stomach flu or something. I think we're gonna need you to come in and cover for her. Things have been busy all morning.”

LaKeeta frowned into the phone. She didn't take days off from work very often, but when she did, she tried to enjoy them.

“I tried calling Terri before I called you, but she didn't pick up.”

LaKeeta shook her head, then smiled. She didn't blame Terri. If she had just gotten married less than  a month earlier, she probably wouldn't be answering too many calls to come to work on the emergency tip either.

I'd be holed up somewhere in bed with my man getting my coochy whipped
, she smiled to herself. For some odd reason, an image of Anthony Paulson's handsome face popped to her mind.

She licked her lips. Not knowing Anthony very long hadn't stopped her from noticing that he was one of the good guys, and a good-looking one to boot.
Though I'm pretty much sure he wouldn't be interested in my ass
.

She sighed into the phone, forcing her thoughts back to the problem at hand at her bakery, Keeta's Just Dessertz. “Don't worry NyAsia, I'm on my way.”

Ten hours later, LaKeeta turned the lock in the door after the last customer of the day had left the shop.

NyAsia pulled off the cap that she'd worn all day. It had the words Keeta's Just Dessertz inscribed on it in fun, purple letters. She pushed her chin-length, bob-cut hair back from her medium-brown colored face. “Whoa. We just got hammered, Sis. I know you were back in the kitchen for most of the day, so you probably wouldn't know anything about this....but everybody kept coming in here talking about some guy named Anthony had said they should check us out.”

LaKeeta pulled her eyebrows together in surprise. “Anthony you said?”

“Yeah. I don't know any Anthony. Except for Anthony Parker from third grade—,” she giggled, then continued. “Last I heard, he had moved up north to Vermont or somewhere.”

At that point, she glanced at LaKeeta, with a questioning look in her dark eyes. “You know an Anthony, Sis?”

LaKeeta tilted her head to the side, deep in thought. She'd casually mentioned to her trainer, Anthony Paulson, that she owned a bakery on Madison and 5
th
yesterday.
Could it have been him?
That's what she wondered to herself.

LaKeeta's eyes met her sister's. “I know I've been telling you for months that I'm gonna join Body Work Zone.” She paused for a moment. “Well, I joined yesterday. You've been there over a year, so I'm sure you've probably seen the tall, gray-eyed, muscular, fine-as-he-wanna-be trainer.”

NyAsia smiled. “You joined the gym, Keeta? That's great!” She totally skimmed over the trainer part.

LaKeeta nodded her head, then gave her sister a sheepish grin. “I really didn't have a choice. You know I had my physical yesterday, right?”

“Yeah, of course I remember.”

“Well, Dr. Harris said my blood pressure was too high. Girl, she threatened to put me on those pills that mama and Aunt Lorraine are taking.” She pursed her lips into a frown. “You know at twenty-seven, I wasn't having any of that.” She sighed. “Well, anyway....the guy I was just telling you about at the gym....the trainer....his name is Anthony. I kinda sorta mentioned I owned this bakery. I think it was him.”

A look that was half-smile, half-frown ran across NyAsia's pretty face. “Um, I know all the trainers at Body Work Zone. I don't remember an Anthony, Sis. Plus, based on the way you just described him, I'm pretty much sure I would definitely remember him.” She grinned. “You did say buff and muscular, didn't you?”

LaKeeta shook her head, but returned her sister's smile. “Uh, yeah....with a nice California-style tan. You know the type that look like he could be a beach bum, but in a good kinda way?”

NyAsia licked her bottom lip, just imaging him.

LaKeeta shook her head, then playfully swiped her sister on the shoulder. “You're a mess, NyAsia.”

NyAsia giggled. “What? It's nothing wrong with imagining a sexy guy is there? I'm a normal twenty-five year old, with normal sexual urges. Plus I'm single.” Still smiling, she cut her eyes at her sister. “You're young and sexy, too....maybe you should break this Anthony off a little nookie for bringing in these extra customers today. I'm sure the extra grand or so that we made can help go towards his trainer's fee.” She began giggling again at her joke.

“I don't owe Body Work Zone anything on trainer's fees for the next six months. He signed me up with a free premium training voucher.”

“Six months of premium training?!”

LaKeeta looked at her sister with a frown on her face. “Uh, yeah. Didn't you tell me you had gotten a voucher too when you first signed up?”

“Uh, yeah, I got one alright. It was for thirty days and for the basic training sessions. You know the ones that run about a hundred bucks per month?” NyAsia looked at her sister a little funny. “You sure it was for the premium service and for six months?”

“Yes. I'm positive.”

Nyasia let everything that LaKeeta had just said marinate for a few seconds, then she grinned.”Um, I think you just got given the hook-up, Sis. You better keep it on the down-low. This guy named Anthony probably likes your ass. Otherwise, why would he have given you almost three thousand dollars worth of services?”

LaKeeta frowned. “Uh, trust me, Sis. He was just being nice. I'm for certain I'm not a guy like Anthony Paulson's type.”

“Uh, why not? Cause he's White?”

LaKeeta had to admit to herself that that was part of the reason. The other part was that she'd only seen guys like him with thin, supermodel-type girls.

“You
do
know this is the two-thousands, right Keeta? People date and marry all over the color spectrum nowadays.” She smiled. “Don't be surprised if this guy is attracted to you, boo.” She giggled. “And when you call telling me you guys are on your first date, I'll try my best not to say '
I told you so
'.”

LaKeeta shook her head, then got back to work on shutting down the store. Despite her logical mind saying
my sister is crazy
, she felt a tiny part of herself fantasizing about, '
What if it turns out she's right?'
.

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CHAPTER FIVE

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