Loved by the Billionaire: A Torrid, Romantic BWWM Story (8 page)

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EPILOGUE

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EPILOGUE

Four Months Later:

LaKeeta couldn’t stop the tears from flowing from her eyes as she stood at the altar listening to her soon-to-be husband say his wedding vows to her.

After the CSI agents had tested the chocolates from her gift basket, they’d been able to discover — from the shipping company’s records — that Jan Schultz had been the person who’d sent them to her. Jan hadn’t even tried to deny that it had been her. She’d quickly admitted that she’d been in love with Anthony for years and had poisoned both LaKeeta and the other girl who’d been pregnant with his child. She was currently serving a life sentence in a maximum security facility on murder charges. She hadn’t even tried to contest the judgement.

LaKeeta smiled. She and Anthony had received another surprise. They were expecting another daughter, seven months from the day. Anthony was, of course, overly protective of her. The security guards that he had following her everywhere was a testament to that fact.

She hadn’t felt comfortable with the security detail— and she still didn’t. However, after everything they’d been through, she would allow it. She felt like she at least owed her soon-to-be-new-husband that much.

The minister turned to her. “And do you, LaKeeta Chanel Hunt, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

She grinned. “I do.”

All of their family and friends in attendance cheered loudly as the minister said, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

Please enjoy the following excerpt by Eve Brown:

Capturing the Billionaire Professor's Heart

A Torrid, Romantic BWWM Story

A Work of Fiction By

Eve Brown

Copyright © 2015 Eve Brown

All rights reserved. No part of the work may be reproduced without the expression written permission of the author.

This book is a work of fiction.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All characters, events, and incidents in this book are a product of the author's imagination.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all of my friends and fans. I'd like to say thank you for all of your support. I do this because of each and every one of you.

* STORY SYNOPSIS *

Twenty-eight year old Fredricka Anderson is beautiful, smart and sexy. When she loses her job at a Fortune 500 company, her income takes a nosedive. Without cash coming in on a regular basis,  she's left struggling and trying to figure out what to do.

Just when she thinks things aren't going to turn around for the better, she's offered a dream job—at a private university, no less.

When she meets the sexy, gray-eyed Professor Maxwell Andretti, the attraction between the two is mutual and instant. 

However, Fredricka's heart has recently been broken. She's been devastated by discovering that her ex was really a married man—one with a secret wife and kids at home.

Fredricka eventually realizes that she is falling in love with the handsome, kind-hearted professor. But, will Maxwell be able to break down the barriers that she's erected around her heart? Will he be able to convince her to love again?

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CHAPTER ONE

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CHAPTER NUMBER ONE

Twenty-eight year old Fredricka Anderson pulled into the crowded parking lot outside of Sarah's Steakhouse. She frowned. She hated going to Sarah's on Thursday or Friday evenings, because the place was always packed on those days. The close-to-capacity restaurant, always made finding parking quite a chore.

She looped around the lot two more times, then smiled. She'd just located a parking space close to the entrance. She quickly turned on her blinker, then prepared to pull into the open spot. Right before she could claim the empty space as her own, a sleek, silver-colored Jaguar silently maneuvered into the slot.

“
What an asshole!” she whispered hotly under her breath inside her empty car. “That was my freaking spot!”

She shook her head as the lone occupant of the sleek vehicle opened the car door and stepped out onto the hot pavement.

She normally wasn’t the type to engage in conversations with random people that she didn’t know, but the man stealing her space was simply over the top. Plus, she’d had a bad enough day already—one that had included five job interviews, but no employment offers at all.

As positive as she’d tried to remain while answering the interviewers’ questions that day, she could tel l— from the look on the men's faces—that they wouldn’t be calling her ass back in for a position.
Yeah, I’ve had a pretty bad day alright,
she thought to herself.

A scowl worked its way across her pretty, caramel-colored face as she depressed the button to roll down her window.

“I had my blinker on!” she hollered out of her car, directing her words at the tall, handsome man’s slowly retreating back. “That was my spot!”

Maxwell Andretti turned and grimaced at the beautiful woman who was staring him down. From the way fire was shooting from her lovely, almond-shaped, brown eyes, he was pretty much sure if she’d been standing next to him, she may have socked him one.

She was still sitting in her vehicle, but he could tell that she was a petite girl.
Probably only five-two or five-three at most
, he thought to himself. He had to stifle a smile as he imagined what her punching him in the belly would look like, seeing that he towered over her by at least eight or nine inches and was solidly built.

He took a deep breath, then placed a friendly look on his face. From the position he’d been in in the parking lot, he hadn’t been able to see her waiting with her blinker on.  He smiled. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you. If you give me a second, I’ll let you have the spot.”

Fredricka frowned, speechless. She didn’t know what exactly she’d thought he was going to say, but it certainly hadn’t been that. She’d honestly been expecting him to give her some heated words back, in return At which point she'd intended to just drive off. His friendly disposition had thrown her for a loop.

Suddenly she shook her head, a little ashamed of her actions. Her entire approach to the situation was totally out of her character. She was normally a mild-mannered type of girl.

She sighed. “Okay, I understand. It was an honest error on your part. I’m parking someplace else—,” she pointed towards his car, then continued. “The space is yours now, dude….you can have the spot. Sorry.”

Maxwell couldn’t help but stare as she rushed off and looped around the parking lot. As he walked towards the entrance to the  restaurant, a look of concentration came across his handsome face. He stroked his square chin, deep in thought. He had a photographic memory and he never forgot a face
. I know her from someplace, but where
?

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Less than five minutes later, Fredricka settled herself into the restaurant booth across from her younger brother. At nineteen years old, DeShawn was the spitting image of the photos they had at home of their deceased father at that age.

She gave her brother a smile. “Tired of the food on campus, DeShawn? That’s why you invited me here for dinner?”

Even though he’d placed a smile on his handsome face in response to her question, Fredricka could tell that something was wrong.

The waitress decided to come over at that moment and take their orders. After they’d told the friendly young lady what they wanted and she’d walked away, Fredricka turned to DeShawn and frowned. “What’s wrong, D?”

DeShawn took a deep breathe, then dropped his head in shame. “I’m in trouble, Sis. I owe Big Larry twenty-two thousand dollars.”

Fredricka shook her head in disbelief.
I must have heard him wrong
. She looked at DeShawn, then grimaced. She tried to keep her tone at a whisper when she said, “You owe him how much?”

DeShawn swallowed nervously, then wrung his hands together. The handsome young man expelled his breath on a sigh. “Twenty-two grand,” he repeated quietly, waiting for his sister’s response.

DeShawn had known she wasn’t going to like hearing his confession about owing the local loan shark thousands of dollars, so he’d strategically made sure to reveal his problem to her in a public place—that way she wouldn’t fuss at him too badly.

Fredricka was too far into a state of shock to chastise DeShawn like she really wanted to. She shook her head in disbelief. “I don’t have that much, DeShawn. I don’t have that much.” She closed her eyes, then buried her face into her hands.

After a few seconds, she looked back up at him.“Where the hell are you going to get twenty-two thousand dollars, D? These men are dangerous. They will kill your ass if you don’t come up with their money —”, she narrowed her eyes at her brother, “— you know that.”

Deshawn didn’t respond.

Fredricka took a deep breath. “I thought you had your gambling problem under control.”

DeShawn knew his sister was right about how dangerous the guys he had gotten the cash from were, and he’d thought that he’d had a handle on his gambling addiction. But after some friends had convinced him to ride with them to the local Indian casino, he’d quickly realized that he hadn’t.

After he’d blown through his first grand — his share of the rent and utilities money for the apartment he shared with a roommate no less  — he’d taken up Big Larry on his offer to front him five grand.

It hadn’t taken but an hour for that five to morph into a twenty-thousand dollar loan — plus interest. He’d been convinced that he was going to recoup his losses and come out in the black by the end of the night. But when he’d gotten to twenty-thousand in the hole, Big Larry had cut him off. The loan shark had decided that he was in too deep and refused to lend DeShawn anymore cash.

The good-looking teen grimaced. Almost all the loan sharks at the casino were familiar with him, seeing that he’d spent enough of his free time — as well as his not so free time —  in there. He’d been doing that ever since he’d turned eighteen a year ago, which was consequently the legal age to gamble in his state.

At first, Deshawn had been shocked that Big Larry — and other goons like him — had been willing to loan him so much cash, seeing that he was so young. However, it was common knowledge around town, and nationally, that DeShawn was being courted by several NFL football teams — ones who were anxious to sign him on for multi-million dollar pro deals.

Since that had been the case, all of the loan sharks had been willing to front him funds.

However, no one had been counting on him tearing his meniscus during training a month ago. The knee injury had cut out all of the pro-football negotiations for him.

He frowned.
When everything is said and done, I’ll be lucky to keep my full-ride football scholarship at Madison College
.

Fredricka sighed. Now she was worried as hell. “I don’t have it DeShawn….I was let go at ShadowView Enterprises three months ago. I’ve been living on my savings while looking for a new job.”

DeShawn hadn't known that his sister was out of work. She hadn't said a word to him about any of that.

It was at that moment that DeShawn realized what a dire situation he was in. “Oh, shit,” the nineteen year-old said under his breath. “I’m fucked.”

Fredricka shook her head, then closed her eyes. She’d been the mother-figure and guardian to DeShawn for the last nine years — ever since their own mother had passed away from a heart attack. It had been hell to take over care of her nine-year old brother alone, while trying to put herself through college and keep a roof over their heads at the same time.

Fortunately, their mother had taken out a small insurance policy. With the proceeds from the policy, Fredricka had paid off the house and had had a small amount of cash left over for them to live off of. Her college tuition had been taken care of by her full-ride academic scholarship.

“
What am I gonna do, Freddie?”

Fredricka could clearly see the fear and worry in her brother’s eyes. She wanted to fuss at him, to scream at him, to rip out her own hair. But she was well aware that none of that would've been appropriate. All three actions would've been immature, and  none of it would help.

She shook her head, then said plainly. "We're just gonna have to think of something. There's no other way."

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Maxwell sat on the other side of the restaurant booth, separated from the pretty girl from the parking lot by only a thin partition. He hadn’t intended on eavesdropping. However, he’d heard every word that the beautiful woman and her younger brother had just said. It was when they were halfway through their conversation that he realized why her face had looked so familiar.
That and the fact that the teenager had kept calling her Freddie
.

Her application for a position as an associate business professor had just come across his desk at Madison College two days earlier. Her resume had included a photo — that’s how he’d been able to recognize her face that day.

The wheels in his brain began turning. She was well-qualified for the position, and had therefore already made it into his top two choices for employment.

Now he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt who he was going to offer the position to. There was no other way around it.