Secret Curves (Dangerous Curves Book 5) Read Free Page A

alone; she’d instinctively known not to make a big, public deal about it, and that made him love her even more.
    He stared down at the cake, blinking in shock. She waited, her glorious hair curling all around her perfect face.
    “You – you made this?” he finally said, more abruptly than he intended. “From scratch?”
    “Yes.”
    “For me?”
    She smiled at him. “It’s your name on the cake, Curtis. Happy birthday.”
    He stared down at it again, touched beyond belief. It had been a long, long time since anyone had given him anything freely, with an open hand. It had been even longer since anyone had done something nice for him ‘just because’. That was when he decided to open up to her, just a little bit.
    “Thanks, sweetheart.” Unlike every other guy at Curves – both staff and customers – Curtis never dropped casual endearments with the female staff. They felt fake and forced in his mouth, but with Tessa and in this moment, this one flowed out smoothly. He took a deep breath, prepared himself to be honest with her. “I’ve never had a birthday cake before.”
    “You haven’t?” She cocked her head at him, her brow furrowed in the most adorable way. “What about when you were little?”
    He shook his dark-blond head. “Never.”
    She was quiet then, looking up at him. He saw a hundred questions in those green-and-gold eyes, questions that he waited to see if she’d ask. And when she did ask a question, it wasn’t one of the ones that he expected… but it was pure Tessa.
    “Does it upset you that I did this?” she asked. “Should I not have – did I overstep?”
    “No.” Horrified that he’d made her feel badly after doing something so damn sweet, he rushed to reassure her. “ No , Tessa. I love it.”
    “You do?”
    “Yeah.” He gave her a rare grin now, all slow and warm, and she smiled back. “Weird to get my first-ever birthday cake at the age of thirty-four… but better late than never, huh?”
    She laughed. “So… you want to blow out the candle, too? Do the thing properly?”
    “Yeah.”
    She set the cake down on the table, and pulled a blue candle and a lighter out of her backpack. She stuck the candle in the cake and lit it.
    “OK,” she said. “Now, I have a terrible voice, but you can’t have your first-ever birthday cake and not have me sing ‘Happy Birthday’.”
    “Is that the rule?”
    “I think so.” She picked up the cake, and held it in front of her. “Brace yourself, Curtis. This is gonna be painful.”
    “I’m ready.”
    She hadn’t been lying, he saw, or more like, heard. Tessa’s speaking voice was sweet and sexy, but her singing was definitely sub-par. He didn’t give a shit. He stood there, watching the way the flame lit up her face, and made her eyes glow gold as she sang to him. It was hands-down the best moment of his whole life.
    “Make a wish,” she told him. “Go on, now.”
    Why, baby? he thought. I think all I ever wanted just happened.
    He nodded, though, blew out the candle, forgot about making a wish. The one and only thing he wished for and wanted to come true was standing right in front of him, and she belonged to another man. She laughed again, and then set the cake down.
    “You want a piece?” she said, already busy digging out a knife and paper plates and plastic forks from her backpack.
    “I sure as hell do.”
    “I didn’t know what kind to make you.” Tessa frowned at the cake, considering. “In the end, I decided on vanilla cake with lemon frosting.” She glanced up at him. “I didn’t think you were the kind who was in to sweet stuff.”
    “I like sweet stuff once in a while,” he said, holding her eyes. “Just depends what it is.”
    She stared back, her beautiful face a bit startled. Curtis knew that she was surprised by this different side of him, this softer, kinder side, a Curtis who teased and flirted, and he wondered if she was finding it too much, too soon. He was just about to apologize for his