*A little back and forth between Ace & Hallie at a birthday dinner.*

Ace shook his head, fighting a grin as he pulled away from her. “You’re ridiculous, you know that?”
    “Ya know, funny story, I’ve been told that a time or two.”
    “Two or two million?”
    “You know, if I didn’t know any better—”
    “Good night, the hell did you do to this cake, Hallie?”
    Mia burst out laughing from wherever she still stood off to the side. Hallie ignored her. “That’s the new way of doing it.”
    Ace got a small paper plate and somehow, after only a minor struggle, managed to get the deformed slice of cake onto the plate. He eyed it warily, but there was humor sparking in that gaze of his. “Do those filthy lies you tell yourself make you feel better, Hallie baby?” She wasn’t about to admit it, but the way he said that endearment, wrapped in affection and the hard steel that was Ace O’Hanlon, she melted right where she stood.
    “What lies? What are you talking about? Just because you don’t know how to cut cake, Ace, doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t.”
    “You sound as ridiculous as this cake looks.”
    “You like it,” she fired back.
    “You damn right I do.” 

Tempting Hallie, coming December 2022!