Page 18 of The Bad Boy Prince in Love

“Your parents have high expectations too, I can tell,” he said, “Yeah, I know all about that.”

“You do?”she looked at him dubiously.

“What, you think my parents just took one look at me and knew I was a loser?”

Hallie laughed.“Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought.”

“Thanks a lot.”

Hallie had the whole picture in her head.“When you were a baby fresh out of the hospital, they thought, what’s wrong with this kid?He’s probably going to grow up to run away with people’s employees.”

Luke chuckled, giving her a slight poke on the shoulder.“Hey, I said I was sorry.”

He finished the sandwich and leaned back on the couch, resting his head on his interlaced fingers.For a while, they just watched the show in easy silence.

Hallie liked watching people compete in the crazy obstacle courses that tested their strength and speed.Sometimes, she knew exactly how they felt as they fell off or were swept off their feet by the foam-covered devices.She seemed to be failing all the time, in love, and in work.

Was this how she was going to go through life, wiping out over and over again?Only there wasn’t a nice pool of water or a foam mattress to catch her.

“I would like to help you if you still want me to,” Luke said at length.

“Why?”Hallie asked.

“There’s something really nice and welcoming about this house.I like being here.”

“Is that really it?”she asked dubiously.

“In Sarkadia, we say, ‘a welcoming house is better than silver and gold.’So from now on, I’ll be your pretend boyfriend as long as I can stay here.”

“And how can I trust you’re not going to lure the ranch hands away again or pull some other stunt?”

“The truth is, I do like to party.And I had been hoping for a fling with a real Texas cowgirl.But since I saw that wasn’t going to happen, I was just feeling a bit bored.I have a dreadful fear of boredom, but if you give me something to do around the ranch, I’ll be fine.”

“I don’t know...”

“Just give me a chance,” he begged, “you’ll see.”

Hallie drew a long breath.After all, how much worse could it be?She could keep an eye on him while he worked at his tasks.

“Okay,” she said.“I’ll put you to work tomorrow.”

“It’s a deal.”

They shook hands.

“Come on then, I’ll show you the guest room.”

“The guest room?”Luke protested, as if everything they had talked about was just a joke.

“You don’t want to sleep on the couch again, this will be more comfortable,” she said, leading the way up the stairs.

She walked straight down the hall and stopped in front of the last door on the left, opposite her own room.

“Here it is...”

Luke stood in the hallway, in no rush to enter his new quarters.“It’s going to work better if we’re sharing the same room, if you know what I mean.”His pouty lips formed a seductive half-smile, his eyes smoldering in the darkness.

Hallie was tempted.After all, here was a gorgeous man offering to enter her bedroom, trying to convey with every bit of body language that this part was not going to be ‘pretend’.