Page 114 of Made to Sin

I couldn’t help the grin on my face, smiling until my cheeks hurt. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is the nicest thing anyone has done for me.”

It might have been a small deal to him, but nobody had gone out of their way to celebrate my birthday after Mamma left. To be honest, I didn’t expect anyone but Maria to remember. She usually made me a special breakfast, like this morning, and we never talked about it again.

My heart hurled itself from my chest and down by his feet. It scared me, but both my body and soul believed they were his. Whether my mind was in the same boat or not, I deluded myself into it for the time being.

“I wasn’t sure if you wanted a party, so I didn’t invite anyone. But if you do, I can close the club this weekend.”

As if he couldn’t make tonight better, he thought about every little thing I prefer. Whoever raised him to be so thoughtful deserved a gold medal. It was a simple yet rich quality a lot of people tended to overlook.

“This is more than enough.”

Loosening his hands from around my hip, I took a step back and gazed into his eyes. Seconds ticked by as we stared at each other with beaming expressions like idiots. Today, his irises showcased the gray, gleaming at me as bright as his smile was.

God, he was so handsome, it was hard not to drool.

Averting my attention to something I could drool about without humiliating myself, I admired the cake. It was a white, one-tiered circle with green frostings and a “Happy Birthday!” candle.

I swiped a finger through the closest side and popped it in my mouth like a child. “Mm, dark chocolate. How did you know it was my favorite flavor?”

“I pay attention to you and anything you concern yourselfwith,” he replied smoothly.

I rolled my eyes, thinking he was joking. “Yeah, sure you do.”

Another glance at him told me he was being deadly serious. The lively gray vanished as possessive clouds came to the surface.

“You were born on a Tuesday, you love the color green because it reminds you of your Mamma, you like to read about men who think shooting is the answer to everything but are too afraid of it in real life, your favorite thing to do when volunteering is to sort donations, you donate roughly five percent of your paychecks to the shelter, you hate eating cinnamon but love the smell of it… want me to keep going?”

Electricity zinged down each disc in my spine for every fact he listed off. Some I told him in passing, some he picked up on his own. I was mesmerized.

“You remembered all that?”

“You’re hard to forget.”

“Sounds like you tried to.”

He released a small huff of amusement, fanning his minting breath onto the side of my cheeks. “Every second of every day since we’ve met.”

My heart stilled. He’d thought about me since the first night?

Merda.

If we wanted to get to dinner, we were going to need to disperse whatever was in the air. If not, it was going to be a different kind of eating tonight.

“Hmm, if you know me so well, let’s see what takeout options you bought.”

I pushed out of his arms and went to set up food in the living room. From the spread of fried rice to the pan-fried wontons, tonight was everything I could have asked for.

We ate our food asGossip Girlplayed in the background. I used to watch the show as an escape from the sad truth of my life in New York, but it became something I watched with him toenjoy all the city has to offer.

A few wontons and half a wine bottle later, he gave me my present. I bounced my leg nervously as he handed me a lightweight box. “What is it?”

“Open it, and you’ll find out.”

I immaturely squealed, untying the ornate bow and tearing the wrapping paper. I wished I could say I was one of those patient people who took time unwrapping, but I wasn’t. One careful tape lift later, I was ripping anything I touched to get to the present.

As the last tear of wrapping paper peeled away, I gasped. There, sitting neatly in the box, was a brand-new Kindle Paperwhite and its matching green case.

Running his palm up and down my thighs, he explained, “You like to read, and since you’ve banned me from buying you physical books, I thought you might like something portable.”

---