SEDUCING THE BILLIONAIRE

Chapter One; Yellow Lies

"you're not?" they all spoke at the same time.

"Who are you dating?" Inonge asked.

Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh, my armpits started sweating and I went into panic mode.

"Duke Kalomo," I blurted out and regretted it the instant the words left my mouth.

"Duke Kalomo?" Dianne finally acknowledged my presence and even looked at me, "you're dating DK?" she questioned suspiciously, I should have come clean right there and then but nope, I nodded my stupid head.

"How come we don't know this? How come no one knows?" Rhoda inquired.

"He doesn't want it to be public, you know people are always in his business." Why was I still talking? Oh my gosh! "And I didn't say anything to you guys because I didn't want to get your hopes up, I don't know if he'll want us to get married soon."

"How did you meet DK?" Rhoda asked.

"Well, I was supposed to write an article about him, so I was doing research and I even emailed him, he gave me his personal line and we talked but my boss just got my research and gave someone else to write the final article... him and I continued talking after that." I continued with the lies.

Yes, I had been looking into Duke Kalomo because he used to be very active on social media and was a very hyper socialite, never missing events whether it was just a social or a corporate event. A year earlier his family got involved in an accident, he lost both parents on the spot and that was how he disappeared from social media.

I worked for a private media company under the lifestyle and entertainment unit and for the last couple of weeks I had been trying to look into DK, planning to close off the year with an article titled 'What Happened To DK?' under our 'Where Are They Now' section of the magazine. The article would be on our website and in both the physical and digital copy of the magazine. I hadn't really found out much yet but I believed I still had time.

.

My sisters were happy to hear that I was not single and they kept on asking questions, saying they wanted to help me seduce DK into proposing quickly.

My sisters were less hostile towards me and that felt really nice, for a moment I even forgot that they were only doing all this because they wanted to push me into a marriage. It was all fun and games until rumors started spreading and #DKsGirl? started trending. Everyone wanted confirmation, half of the people were shocked while the other half claimed it was definitely a lie. Why would my sisters let this out? I thought it was just between us! Hopefully it would quickly die down then I would tell them DK dumped me because I made our relationship public going against his wishes.

I was knocking off from work around 5PM on Friday, my colleagues had been indirectly trying to ask me about DK but I kept on playing dumb. I walked to my car and found a man standing besides it, he was wearing a hoodie, his head covered and he had sunglasses on. As if that wasn't enough he was also wearing a mask. The image was intimidating, why was he covered up? Was he planning on committing a crime?

I glanced back and noticed that the security guard was still there by the entrance. Hyping myself up and taking a deep breath, I tried to look confident as I stepped up to him.

"Excuse me, that's my car," I pointed.

"I know," he responded, I could hear the smug in his tone.

"Can I help you?" I asked, remembering that I had pepper spray in my purse, being a writer for such a magazine in that department could get dangerous sometimes, especially when we published people's secrets and scandals.

"I just came to pick up my girlfriend, see if she can have dinner with me tonight and tell me the story of how we met."

Oh shit, how didn't I recognize the voice? Was this really Duke standing there? I looked around and noticed a golden Mercedes Benz parked in the director's spot.

"Ahh... I ...." Oh God please tell me this wasn't happening; my tongue suddenly became too heavy and my wig too hot. "I didn't ... I mean...."

What was I even supposed to say in that situation? I had lied that I was dating this man, I was a 32 years old journalist writing glorified gossip articles and still living with my parents because no one was allowed to move out unless they got married and he was a 40 years old genius who had inherited a dying company from his grandfather and turned it into the first billion dollar company solely owned by a Zambian, he had inherited it when he was 21 years old and going to school part-time while working for his father as well. It became a billion-dollar company when he was thirty-three and that was when he went viral and almost everyone got to know about him.

Duke just stood there staring at me behind his sunglasses, watching me struggle to give an explanation.

"I'm so sorry," I finally seemed to be able to speak coherently "it was just a joke which got out of control, I didn't think my sisters would bring it to social media."

"Interesting, may I ask why out of all people it was my name which popped up in this joke?" he put his hands in his designer jeans and took a step forward.

"I was doing research about your disappearance from the spotlight so your name was kinda in my head," I confessed "I am so sorry for the drama it has brought; I didn't think my sisters would tell anyone."

"Sisters huh..." he brought out his phone and showed me a message he received on twitter "is this your sister?" he asked as I got closer to read the message.

'Do you think you'll ever marry Audrey or are you just wasting our time?'

It was Dianne who had sent the message.

"Oh gosh." I felt my cheeks heat up.

This was the most embarrassing moment of my life, and I just wished the ground would open up and swallow me whole.