Page 136 of The Bad Boy Prince in Love

“She lied to me?”Luke exclaimed.

“Well, I never said any of those things,” Hallie replied, a tiny laugh escaping her lips.

“Should I fire her?”Luke asked, a smile forming on his face as well.

“I don’t know...She seems so nice.”

“I’m sure she means well, trying to get us back together, but I’m not sure how I feel about an employee I can’t trust.”

“You have no luck with assistants.”

Hallie felt less angry at him now for showing up here without her knowledge.“I can see why you responded to my parents’ invitation,” she said.

“Yeah.I thought maybe you wanted to talk, but if you’re still mad at me, I totally get it.”

“I’m glad we got that sorted out,” Hallie said in a business-like way, hinting with a glance at the door that he could leave now.

But Luke seemed set on taking his time.He probably knew that the longer they were alone, the more Hallie spiraled into the hypnotic blueness of his eyes, clear as the Caribbean Sea and just as enchanting.

“So?”she said, feeling her pulse speeding up in spite of her.“Got anything else enlightening to say?”

He nodded his head slightly, looking cool as ever.“I believe you felt obligated to break up with me, but you didn’t really want to.”

Hallie let out a scandalized gasp.“Now there’s one delusion you can’t blame Ms.Simmons for.I don’t know how you got the idea into your head, but I suggest you quickly get it out of there!”

“Come on,” Luke urged, “can’t you admit that you at least liked me?And maybe you still do?Of course, catching me with Terry didn’t look good, but it didn’t mean anything.”

“Of course it meant something!It meant you didn’t really care about our...relationship.”Hallie didn’t want to go so far as to call it that, but she didn’t know what else to call it.

“I didn’t know you cared that much,” Luke objected.“You kissed what’s-his-name!”

Hallie realized he must be referring to Finn, but that was hardly a fair comparison.“That was before you and I got to the kissing stage.”

“Do we have to be so particular about it?”

“Also, I didn’t do it right in front of you.”

“I didn’t want to do it right in front of you either.It was bad timing.”

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

“Talk about bad timing,” Luke muttered.

Hallie didn’t care who it was, but she was glad of the interruptions and relieved for this conversation to end.

Terry was slouching in the doorway.“Can I talk to your boyfriend?”

“Oh, sure,” Hallie replied, “You guys probably want to make out some more.Go right ahead.”

Luke scowled and shrank away as she entered the room.“I don’t know if I want to talk to you, not after you nearly unleashed the media on me.That’s playing dirty, don’t you think?”

“Nothing personal, Luke,” Terry said.“This is more about my sister than it is about you.Even when you two are fighting, our parents are still obsessing over Hallie.I had to do something.”

“Yeah, we can’t just sit there and expect you not to weave any diabolical plots,” Hallie sneered.

“Exactly,” Terry said, “You understand.So, do you mind if we speak privately?”

“The two of you can go somewhere else then,” Hallie snapped.“This is my room, in case you haven’t noticed.”