Page 44 of The Bad Boy Prince in Love

Finally, she saw Luke go to the men’s room, and she seized her chance.

“Excuse me,” Hallie said, after walking quickly over to Tessa.“I couldn’t help but notice you’re here with that guy, Luke.It’s none of my business, but I just wanted to tell you he’s bad news.”

Tessa seemed somewhat outraged but curious, her pouty mouth jutting forward.“And how would you know?What’s so bad about him anyway?”

Hallie leaned down and whispered in her ear.

“Oh!Really?”

It seemed to have worked.Hallie hurried back to her seat and watched in amusement as the woman walked out on Luke.

This was just as well since she kept losing at slots.The three heart icons wouldn’t line up, and she was running out of quarters.

Finally, Luke spotted her, and she figured it was safe to come out of her hiding spot.

Hallie thought he might be mad; after all, this was the second secret rendezvous she ruined, but he was his usual relaxed self.

“Well played, Mr.Bond,” he said, leaning heavily into his Sarkadian accent.

Taking a seat at his table, Hallie felt very proud of how seamlessly she had pulled it off.

“It seems your date ran off on you,” Hallie said, not even pretending to be sorry about it.

“Well, what can you do?”Luke didn’t seem too sorry either as he leaned back and drank his beer.“She said she felt inadequate because of my advanced degree in science.”

“What?You have an advanced degree?”

Luke bit his lip in frustration, and she almost felt guilty for ruining his date.“No, but she asked what my degree was in, so I decided to go with it and said it was in geology.She seemed to find that very intimidating.”

“Wait a minute here...”Suddenly, Hallie had a light bulb moment, and the next thing she knew, she was rolling with uncontrollable laughter.

“What’s so funny?”

“A PhD!”she exclaimed, snorting with laughter.

“I don’t get it.”

“While you were in the washroom, I told her you had an STD.”

“You rascal!”He poked her in the ribs, which made her flinch back a little.“Oh, you’re ticklish!”Hallie was laughing harder than ever, barely cognizant enough to slap his hand back as he tried to tickle her even more.

“She must have gotten the two mixed up,” Hallie said as her laughter ebbed a little.

“That was close,” Luke said, “She might have known what an STD was and spread the word to everyone.”

“And seeing how many women you’ve been going out with, it would be very believable.”

Luke made his face into a shocked expression.“Are you...slut-shaming me?”

“With the way you’ve been carrying on, can you blame me?”she retorted.“Seriously, stop seeing other women.It’s not funny anymore.”

“Actually, I think it’s kind of funny.”

“You—” Hallie was about to seriously tell him off, when suddenly from the corner of her eye she saw a woman with wavy blond hair leaving the Lonesome Cactus.“It better not be Terry,” she said in a softer voice.

Just to make sure, she hurried to the door and burst outside, looking around wildly.Her heart shuddered when Terry’s familiar pickup backed out of one of the parking stalls, and with a crunch of tires on gravel, her sister made a quick getaway.

Luke joined her outside, looking over at her with concern.“What happened?”