Page 23 of The Bad Boy Prince in Love

“You like my hair?”he said with delight.

“And put your shirt on.This is not a male strip club.”

“It’s seriously hot, though,” he complained.

Hallie scoffed as she walked away.“Yeah, welcome to Texas.”

But strangely, he did feel welcome in Texas.Over the next few days, Luke enjoyed life at the ranch, no matter what ridiculous tasks Hallie assigned him.

Most of them weren’t that bad.Brushing horses while trying not to get killed by their hooves, collecting hay and straw, digging holes for fence posts, and driving cattle to different pastures.Some of it was hard, grueling work, but he saw it as an adventure.

Not to mention, the family was very impressed with his efforts.Apparently, he did very well for a newbie.

Luke had plenty of experience riding horses as did every member of the royal family, but he couldn’t remember the last time he had groomed a horse.He may have been shown how to do it once or twice as a child, but now with over twenty different horses to take care of, brushing them and cleaning out their hooves was a daily chore that he strangely grew to like.

It was the perfect retreat from the boring demands of work in the city.

By the time the weekend came around, Luke was certain he had endeared himself to all the Mathews family members, except Hallie of course.

She was still wary of him and distrustful of his motives.But he had more than just hope.He had a sense that she was attracted to him.He usually wasn’t wrong about women and the signals they gave off.

And the plans he had for the dance would either get him kicked out of the Mathews’ ranch or finally lure Hallie into his bed.

Chapter 11: The Dance

Saturday was here,the day of the dance.Hallie sat in front of the vanity mirror in her room, curling her hair between texting Jessica.She finished with the last couple of strands and started pinning them up when her phone chimed again:

*Is Luke coming with you?*

She responded:

*Yeah it would look weird if we didn’t go together but it makes me nervous*

Jessica’s reply quickly flashed onto the screen:

*It’s a good chance to get to know him.Maybe you two could be a couple (five heart emojis)*