SEDUCING THE BILLIONAIRE

Chapter 17

“How about you, Audrey? Do anything interesting today?” Duke asked. He had asked about their day, and Lindsey animatedly told them all about her day while Audrey just listened with a small smile on her face as she ate.
“Not really, just hang out with a friend” she responded to his question with a shrug
“Are your projects going well?” he pushed, that answer really didn’t sit well with him. She usually gave him something more, but he felt like she was holding back, and that was not a good feeling.
“Yeah, the interior designer got started this week” she answered, and that was where that conversation ended.
Later, when they were about to sleep, he walked over to her side of the room.
“Hey, are you okay?” he asked
“Yeah, why?”
“it’s just… you were so quiet during dinner, so I wanted to just make sure.”
She found that sweet, her wanted feeling wooed that at least he cared enough to check up on her, but her brain reminded her about Connie.
“Am good, I guess I am just tired.”
“Oh, okay, I’ll let you go to sleep then. Good night.”
“Night,” she gave him a small smile and dimmed her lights.
.
.
The more Audrey talked to Jerome the less she cared about what Duke was up to, she was easily falling into a comfortable position with Jerome where she could talk to him about her projects, her family, her personal life, everything.
“How are you feeling about court today?” she sent him a message that morning, she had heard Duke nervously pacing around in his room but didn’t bother to go and check on him, perhaps calm him down, let him call Connie and have her calm him down.
“The judge is a fair one, so doesn’t be too worried,” Jerome assured her.
At the hearing, as the judge was going through the application and even the recommendation from social welfare, he finally stopped on a request by Brenda.
“I see Mrs. Brenda is against the adoption and has a witness who can testify about the…” he looked up “… and I quote ‘toxic marriage which makes a hostile and unhealthy home for Lindsey’.”

Duke looked around the courtroom, his heart beating twice as fast upon seeing Connie seated just two seats behind a smiling aunt, Brenda. He locked eyes with her and clenched his jaw, stopping himself from saying something he might regret. If she ruined this adoption for him, he would make it his personal mission to ruin her entire life.

“Yes, your honour,” Aunt Brenda’s lawyer spoke up “We have Ms. Constance, who is Duke’s mistress”
Gasps were heard in the courtroom, and Duke clenched his fist hard, his head spinning. Surely, this could not be how it ends, not after everything.
“She can’t say anything, right? She signed an NDA, tell the judge!” he whispered to Jerome.
“let’s wait, telling the judge about the NDA is as good as admitting that she’s your mistress” he told him, and Duke impatiently sat there as the judge called for Connie to go up into the witness box.
“Will I have to go with Aunt Brenda?” Lindsey, who was sited with Audrey, asked, and she pulled her in for a side hug. “Is it true that she’s…”
“shhhh, don’t worry, everything will be okay.” Audrey assured her. He was really disappointed that Duke would do this to the little girl.
“Ms. Constance, please tell the court about your relationship. How and when did it start?”
Connie looked at Duke, and if looks could kill, his would have made her drop dead like a fly spread with doom.
“Well, I have known Duke for years now, we’re friends”
“Just friends?”
Connie looked at Duke, and then Brenda
“… I am sorry but… I can’t… I can’t lie… Aunt Brenda paid me to say I am having an affair with him, but it’s not true. Sure, we hang out a lot, but that’s because we’re great friends, and after the accident, he kinda shut down. I’m so sorry, Duke, I shouldn’t have taken the money, I shouldn’t even be here!” she dropped down from the witness box and ran out of the courtroom, of course, trust Connie to be dramatic about something she had been planning all along.
The judge did not appreciate Aunt Brenda bringing in false witnesses, and even though her lawyer tried to push the ‘Duke got to her and paid her to lie’, the judge brushed him off. Lindsey was brought to the stand and asked some questions, which she answered truthfully, making it clear that she did not want to live with her aunt.
“I’ve heard enough,” said the judge, giving a warning to Brenda to take the court seriously and only bringing justified and serious matters to the court “there is no child abuse here, the child is well taken care of with both a maternal and paternal figure, does your husband even want you to take this child? He is not even here” the judge called her out on her antics “I am approving this adoption.”
.
.
“Jerome, I owe you a drink and a bonus… Come over to the house and grab a bottle of whiskey” said Duke as they were leaving the courtroom, all smiles.
Aunt Brenda had started ranting in court, telling the judge that he would regret this decision when Lindsey’s money gets used up by her brother’s ‘gold-digging wife and side chick’ and she becomes a spoiled ‘slut’ just like the women in her brother’s life. She went on and on until the judge got fed up and had her arrested for contempt of court, saying she would spend 24 hours in jail and pay a fine of k20,000.
.
That late afternoon Duke invited some friends over to celebrate the adoption going through, he had been pushing for this for months now and he was glad that it was finally over, Aunt Brenda could get off his back and let him live in peace with his sister who was now legally his child.
Even the servants were happy that Lindsey would stay. The way Aunt Brenda always treated them when visiting had them resenting her a little bit.
Audrey was having a great time until she saw Connie show up. She walked up to Duke and gave him a hug, and then he led her away from the crowd. Even after the stunt she had pulled in court, he would welcome her? Or maybe that stunt of saving him would make him like Connie even more and be grateful? Audrey shook her head and went over to the mini bar to pour herself a drink.
As she took a sip, she felt her phone vibrate and took it out of her pocket.
“Hey, are you okay?” it was a message from Jerome.
She looked around and saw him standing with a few friends on the other end of the room.
She gave him a small smile and looked down at the phone to reply.
“I’ll be fine, I should be celebrating the adoption, not wondering why my husband’s side chick is here”
“I was promised a bottle of whiskey. Meet me in the cellar?”
Of course, he knew where the cellar was. He had been friends with Duke for a really long time.
Jerome was the first one to excuse himself from his friends and go down to the cellar, Audrey waited, finished her drink, and then went down there as well. The place was at the far end of the mansion and dimly lit. She walked in and found him looking at the bottles.
“He really does have a great collection,” Jerome commented as she came to stand next to him.
“Which one are you getting?” she grabbed one bottle and tried to open it “am sure he won’t mind if we drink some.”
“How much have you had tonight?” Jerome asked as he took the bottle from her and put it back on the shelf.
“Not nearly enough to deal with his bullshit,” she grumbled the response, then smiled up at him “dance with me.” She requested
“there’s no music.”
“doesn’t matter, I just want your arms around me” she said, and he chuckled but obliged, putting one arm around her waist, and pulling her closer as she put her arms around his neck, and they started swaying.
He kept on trying not to look at her lips, but from time to time, his eyes would wander. Maybe he, too, was a bit drunk because without even thinking about it, he asked.
“Do you think Duke would be mad if I kissed you?”
“Why would he be?” Audrey asked and pulled him down a bit, her lips almost brushing against his “am just someone he hired to play the role of his wife, he doesn’t care about what or who am doing” she giggled a bit, and he pulled her even closer, one hand coming up to cup her chin and tilt her head to the side as he leaned in and captured her lips with his. Audrey eagerly started kissing him back, her breasts pressed up against his chest. as their tongues were dancing the tango, his other hand moved from her waist down to her ass and he groped it, Audrey moaned into his mouth. Jerome pulled her even closer, his hardening cock rubbing up against her coochie.

Audrey brought one hand down and placed it between them, rubbing his cock through the fabric of his pants and soliciting a groan out of him as he closed his eyes and kissed her harder. when she tried to undo his belt that was when his senses seemed to come back, and he slowed down the kissing and groping which had been going on.
“what’s wrong?” Audrey asked, if he too rejected her, she would crawl into a ditch and die. There was only so much rejection one could take before they had had enough.
“Not here,” he said.
Sure, he was hard as a rock but doing it in Duke’s whiskey room didn’t seem right, doing it in his house didn’t sit well with him.
“Are you sure?” she asked, rubbing up cock with her knee “that must be very uncomfortable,” she teased him.
“And you’re making it worse,” he groaned and kissed her again “give me a minute to get myself together, and I’ll see out there.”

Audrey left him there, and he stroked himself a few times to get some release then later went out to join the party again, and Duke and Connie were also back from wherever they had disappeared to.