Rochelle could not stop looking at the tall and handsome man that was sitting right in front of her.
His broad shoulders and finely built body made her sweat in between her legs and his mouth was just yearning for his.
She had been sitting at the corner of the bar looking at Duke for some time right from the moment she had walked into the place.
"What is the fine man he is", she repeated heard a voice saying in her mind.
She had no idea that the man she has been eyeing happens to be one of the richest men in the country and the world at large.
She decided to put out her seductive moves on display to capture Duke and make him her's.
She lifted her left leg and with a charming look, she crossed it over the left swinging her gains from left to right, rolling her eyes as though she was in a beauty contest.
Her lips were colored with a pink lipstick blended with some crystals blinking just by looking at them.
She constantly licked her lips with a disturbing smile as if she was passing through messages in codes and wanted him to understand.
Duke pretended not to be seeing her moves and not to understand what was going on, but deep down in him without any lies telling, he was faultlessly aware of what the day that was sitting next to him wished for.
He knew that if he was to make just one move, he will be taking her to his penthouse and his bed without any struggle whatsoever as she was already fantasizing about the things she could do with him if they were to be just alone in a room.
It kept on going on for some minutes and Duke thought of how easy it was to have any woman you wanted in this world as long as you have money, power, and fame.
Ladies will always find their way crawling to you for your attention and love when they think about your status in society and money.
He didn't need any woman because he could have them in dozens if he wanted to and that one was right in front of him for the night.
With a lustful look, she looked at Duke in the eyes, and without any beating about the bush she asked,
" Are you married, Mr. Smith?". Her question fell like an atomic bomb that was brought into the world and had been designed to be released for years and when it finally hit the ground, the pressure from it make the ground shake so much that it could not abstain from it.
Duke was dumbfounded as he had never been asked such a topic by a lady before not more of discussing it with so much sensitivity.
He grinds his teeth in his mouth and a lump had formed in his through that made the following painful.
With a huge sigh of disbelief, he replied to her question with a smile that could be seen even by a child of 2 years that he was faking it.
"No I have never been married and I don't intend to", he responded.
With a surprised look, Rochelle couldn't help but wonder why he had to say that and why he never wants to get married.
Though it was a good sign for her, as she was already into him and was putting to place her charms to get her into his life and to lure him into her bed, she still wanted to find out why he had such a view though it was his opinion to either stay married or single.
Hissing out of lack of words following what her new friend had just said, she asked in a concerned voice,
" If I may ask, why do you have such a notion about marriage, or have you been hurt before by any lady, and because of that, you had vowed never to fall in love ever again?".
Duke knew that he had gotten himself in a boiling hot of soup with questions given the fact that Rochelle said she's a journalist.
Her questions were never going to end as journalists are known to be possessed with a talkative spirit that makes them can't talk all the time and about everything they heard or saw.
Rochelle who had been sitting in front of him noticed that he had been lost in his thoughts probably because he was looking for an answer to justify what he had just said.
So she touched him by the arm with a smile like that of a teenager and said,
"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it, I won't pressure you". She talked to him in a soft manner that made him question the way he had seen her.
Rochelle seemed to be a good girl who just wants to be friendly so there was no point for Duke to think of her negatively.
" No it's alright I have no problem talking about it", he said to her as he took a sip from his glass of whiskey as though he needed some motivation for the debate that was going to be engaged.
Rochelle looked at him in admiration as she had drunk his drink and his sweet red lips and white teeth were amazing.
"So tell me, what does Ms. Rochelle do in her free time?", he asked placing his gaze at her sweet body made of caramel.
Duke was naturally a smooth talker added to his long list of charms to get women into his life and arms finally in his bed.
His tongue was an instrument used to format the brain of the ladies he had met on a decent niche and whom he felt had some level of dignity and intelligence just like Rochelle.
" Are you asking me out on a date?", Rochelle asked excitedly like a teenage schoolgirl who was been asked that kind of question for the first time in her whole existence.
She was glad that she was beginning to talk more freely with him and that he wasn't so uptight like when she had just joined him for a drink.
Duke looked at her in amusement and while laughing he said,
"It depends on what angle you are seeing it Ms. Rochelle", he said as he gave her a long but teasing stare.
Rochelle was already feeling her body shrink of unexplainable fondness that she could not clarify but she knew that whatever was happening there was going to lead to something that same night.
Duke did not want to ask if she was there with someone or if she was waiting for someone but his friend Henry was not yet at the bar and he was wondering where he could be.
Whatever might be the problem, he knew that bad news spread like wildfire but he just hoped that nothing bad had happened.
Reasonably he had someone to keep him company and the conversation was rather much interesting so he wasn't bored.
Rochelle with the help of her left hand and a finger signaled the waiter that was closest to them of another round of drinks for the table.
Duke's expression was grim as he saw this. " It was more than something he sees on a normal day, a lady buying drinks when she's with a man on the table".
Any attempt of smiling could mean something else as he kept a straight face so that she wouldn't feel like he saw her as though she was showing off.
Hard-pressed not to laugh, he could not hold it anymore as he let it out with a long and penetrated stare.
He hadn't lied when he had thought that she was somehow different from all the girls that he had seen before.
Rochelle's look met with Duke's and with a friendly smile, she asked why he was laughing so much and what the look was all about.
Time seemed to go in slow motion but it felt like he had known her for some time.
Though she was stunningly beautiful, with fashionably styled hair and her skin which were her best assets, Duke could tell that she is not the woman that will make her change his notion of not getting married someday.
"I have always fallen prey for ladies who only wanted me for my wealth and position", he said with anger in his voice.
Rochelle could see how much he despised ladies so she asked,
" Do you think every lady is the same?". She knew that no one had ever been a victim of love before but depriving yourself of love just because you had encountered some bad seeds in life, only makes you lose the better ones who are by you.
Duke had been with a series of women and whenever he spoke to a lady he met with, everything she talked about was how she wanted to have a man that can offer her the moon and the stars.
They had no focus or goals for themselves yet they wanted to live luxurious lives with nothing in their heads.
Rochelle, listened to him keenly as an examiner that was receiving instructions for the exam that she had to write in order not to make any mistake when the bell goes out for her to start writing.
She wrapped her hand under her breast for support as her back had begun hurting from sitting in the same position.
"I am sorry about my unpleasant experiences with women. I have just been falling on the wrong ones for so long", he explained wiping off the sweat that was already forming on his forehead with the handkerchief he had in his hand.
Rochelle looked at him in compassion and slowly touching his arm she asked,
" What if you have found someone that is meant for you?". She mumbled smiling at him.
"Are you courting me?", Duke asked as he sipped from his glass again winking his left eye at Rochelle.
Rochelle felt shy and bowed her head down facing her feet from under the table squeezing her hands like a small girl who had just heard the word love for the first time.
" Do you want us to have something?", Duke asked pressing hard ok the question this time.
Rochelle sweating profusely tried dodging the question. She didn't know why she was feeling that way all of a sudden whereas she was the person who wanted a golden opportunity like the one that was presenting itself.
"Will my question has an answer or should I forget about it for today?", he said again making Rochelle more uncomfortable as her inner legs were already getting wet from the man that was sitting just in front of her.
" Do you think we can have anything together, I mean anything serious?", she asked him back in return.
"Why do you have to answer my question with another question?", Duke asked as he imagined what was going through her mind.
Rochelle immediately got a clue of the kind man she was sitting with and that she wished to have something with.
He seemed to be principled and teasing when he wanted to be and he must be a hard but to crack.
" I will like us to meet some other time and somewhere else", Rochelle said softly while searching her bag.
His eyebrows raised aloft.
"Oh you want is to meet again", he asked as though he wasn't going to ask that they spend the night together as he constantly did.
" Yes I do and that is if you don't mind", she responded eager.
Not only had she made mention of that she wanted them to meet again, but she had also found her card and handed it over to Duke and said,
"I hope you get the chance to call me someday", her smile rayon like the sun.
Duke took the card and with a short smile on his lips, he asserted that he will give her a call.
Rochelle had to have as she had to report for work very early the next day.
She kissed duke on his right cheek and left the bar in a fantastic mood. I was still there as I had nothing important to go do at home.
I had no one to go to except for my mom who was only going to end up in a query with her.
I could feel my phone vibrating from in my pocket but I still had my glass of whiskey in my hand.
I drank it with prudence so as not to get choked up by its strong taste and afterward I brought out my phone from my pocket.
When I unlocked my phone, there was a message from Henry apologizing for not being able to come to our rendezvous as he had to take his mother to the hospital.
I was in a panic as I wondered what had happened to her but that was only a question only he could answer.
I immediately dialed his number and the phone rang for some seconds and I heard it vibrate on my ear as he answered,
" Hello", Henry whispered from the other side of the phone.
I could hear his breath rising as a child that had gotten some bad news and his words weren't as plain as I knew them to be.
"Hey bro what is the issue, I had been here waiting for you all evening and I even called your phone so many times but it went straight to your voice mail", Duke narrated as he waited for his friend to give him explanations.
With an enormous sigh over the phone, I could feel his pain and frustration but he had to be a man.
He had to muster up some courage and with a tiny voice he spoke out to me,
" She was involved in an accident on her way back from the mall and I was called to the hospital immediately to show up because my mother had been involved in an accident", he narrated like a child that was undergoing some inexplicable suffering with no one to help him out.
Duke was devastated so he asked his friend to send him the address of the hospital and he headed to the place at once.
Henry was like a brother to Duke and he had to be there for him at such a time because he would do the same if he was the one in an analogous circumstance.
"I am going to bed now", Bethany said to her younger brother as she walked through the living room to the corridor tracing her path into her room to have some rest from the day.
She was finally in her room and that was her comfort zone.
The mirror was usually the first thing she notices whenever she entered her room as she had put it at the center to see herself whenever she wanted to.
Her room wasn't the most luxurious one but it was as neat as her and her toys were her greatest comfort when the night became cold and lonely.
She will hold them and squeeze them in her arms like she will never let them go and her body will be covered with her cotton-made blanket that provided the heat that she wanted.
Her most favorite spot in her room was the little rolling chair that was placed in one corner by the window that gave her a clearer view of the outside whenever it was winter.
She was also a lover of novels as she liked to read romance stories but had never lived it not even for a day.
While growing up, Bethany aspired to be a writer and she wanted to be specified in novel writings but her dream was shifted to being a social worker.
The reason why she later desired to be a social worker was because of the countless number of homeless kids she saw on the streets daily when she was either going to school or the market and even in front of her church.
Her heart was always heavy as she often gave them her meals and pocket money out of sympathy.
Another reason was the violence most women went through in the hands of the men they lived with or their divorced partners.
It was alarming how men always are utilized their ladies just because they thought that there was no one to advocate for them.
She had a big heart right from growing up as a young woman.
She was lucky to have a job at the social welfare in another city that was south of the city where she lived with her mother and brother.
Bethany had hesitated from going to Portclay municipality but her mother had convinced her to think about the pay because it was good.
She had actually left for portclay city and had started with her job and everything was going on well for her, but she received a call one day saying that her mother had a crisis at home and she won't die.
Bethany decided to resign from her job and come back to her family to take care of her sick mother as she would not forgive herself if anything had to happen to her mother in her absence.
Back home, Bethany could not secure another job in her social welfare domain as she had studied so she decided to do miners' jobs to meet ends mean to pay for her mother's medications and her brother's tuition fees too.
She worked for the companies and different shifts so that she could raise money.
Her life has not been a bed of roses since her dad passed away, but she was determined to make a living and in the most decent way possible.