Page 42 of The Bad Boy Prince in Love

He almost felt guilty about the date he had planned with that gorgeous woman he’d met at the dance, Tessa.She was a friend of Hallie’s friend Amber.He hoped that it was a distant enough acquaintance that Hallie wouldn’t find out about it.

This time, he had a better plan.Up until now, he had avoided showing off his flashy Porsche.With Terry sniffing about, it was not going to be easy to keep a low profile on his princely status.But now he had no choice.He decided to get his car delivered to the ranch to give him more independence.

It was going to be expensive to have one person drive it and another driver in another car to take the driver back to the city, but Luke could afford it.

The silver sports car arrived precisely at 7 pm as promised, and he took off for his date at the Lonely Cactus bar.Only 20 minutes away, the bar was in a tiny village where the locals often went for their groceries and partying.

Tessa was already there, and she was just as lovely and voluptuous as he remembered, with curves in all the right places.She was displaying a lot of cleavage in her low-cut dress.Not exactly subtle, but that was okay as far as Luke was concerned.

“Nice to see you again,” she said, giving him a little kiss on the cheek as he sat down.

“Same here.So, did you bring your business plan?”he asked, although somehow he already knew this was not going to be a business meeting.

“I left it at home,” she said, “We could look at it after dinner.”

“Excellent.So, what should we eat?”He cast a quick look over the menu.This place seemed to focus on simple and greasy foods, which was also fine by him.Sometimes the menu at the royal palace and the fancy restaurants where he dined were just ridiculous with weird flavor combinations.“Too bad oysters aren’t on the menu.They’re a real aphrodisiac.”

“Afro-what?”

“They get you in the mood for love.”

“I’ve never known food to do that,” she said, looking surprised.

“Oh well, nothing wrong with burgers,” Luke said.“The rugged food of the wild west!Stick a slab of meat between two pieces of bread, and you’ve got a meal you can take anywhere.”

“You have fancy ideas about everything, don’t you?”Tessa remarked, gazing at him with a kind of awe.

“But tell me more about you.What do you do for fun?”

“I get together with my friends,” she replied, “get our nails done.”

“And you’re also a nail technician?”he asked unnecessarily since she had already told him that.Damn, was he losing his touch?Why would he ask such a dumb question?

“Yep.”

“It’s a very nail-centered life then,” he said, which sort of stumped him because he didn’t have much to say about nails.

“Yeah.”She giggled.

“Excuse me for a moment?”Luke strode towards the washroom, hoping to regroup.

“What the hell?”he said as he stared at himself in the wonky mirror while slow country music played in the background.The beer left a bitter taste in his mouth.Too much hops...“Okay, calm down.You’re overthinking it.This woman obviously likes you.”

He splashed some water on his face and felt calmer and more revived.After all, it didn’t matter that Tessa wasn’t the greatest genius the world has ever seen and that he couldn’t find anything they had in common.

He just wanted to have sex with a woman, and she would do.

By the time he returned to the table, his confidence was back on.

“Maybe we don’t need to order food anyway,” he said, giving her a slightly naughty glance.

“Is it true you have an advanced degree in science?”she suddenly asked.

Luke had been asked many strange questions in his life, but this had to rank somewhere at the top as one of the strangest.

“Well...yeah,” he replied, hoping it would score him some points.He wondered how that rumor got about.He did have a degree from St.Andrews University, but it was in international business, and he didn’t recall telling anyone about it at the local dance.Someone must have gotten something mixed up.

“What was your major?”the woman asked, looking up at him with respect or even apprehension in her large dark eyes.