Chapter Three

Curtis Manning stood in the gym shower, the hot water running over his aching, sore body. He had his massive hands against the wall, and he was leaning on them heavily, his forehead pressed to the cool tile. He was exhausted and hurting, and it wasn’t just because of the punishing workout he’d just finished.

No, he was a mess because for one of the few times in his life, he was at a total loss what to do about something. Usually when a problem presented itself, Curtis attacked it head-on, and since he was an ex-boxer, and a former soldier, and his job at Curves involved putting down angry, drunken idiots, that attack was usually physical.

But punching the crap out of something wasn’t going to do any good, not this time. He’d tried that with the bag this morning, and all he had to show for it now were throbbing knuckles and worry in the pit of his stomach.

He thought about Tessa at work the night before. Fuck, she’d looked bad, and he’d been seconds away from throwing her over his shoulder kicking and screaming, and just carrying her on out of there. He’d take her to his tiny apartment and force her to eat, force her to rest. He’d hold her down, if he had to, just keep her there with him until she saw just how badly she was hurting herself.

But that wasn’t going to work. The last time that he’d talked to her about how worried he was, she’d told him that he was nobody to her – that he was just a guy who bounced at the bar where she served booze – and that her life was none of his damn business. She’d stormed out of Jax’s house, and although she’d already been ignoring him because of a previous similar conversation, now she was at Siberian-levels of cold. He thought that she might actually hate him, and for real.

He sighed, forced himself to stand. Well, maybe she did hate him, but he wasn’t about to stop pushing her to open her damn eyes, and see what she was doing. Curtis never backed down when he cared about something… and he cared about Tessa more than he’d cared about anything in his life, ever. Well, ever since… since…

Ever since Mom.

Forcing his mind away from his mother, he scrubbed off the sweat from his body. As he did, he thought about the first time that he’d ever laid eyes on Tessa. He remembered it like it was yesterday, because Curtis had never fallen in love at first sight before. In fact, he’d never been in love before, full-stop.

Tessa, though. She was it: she was everything. Tall and curvy, with large breasts and a generous ass, with long curly blonde hair and the brightest emerald-green eyes ever to be placed in a woman’s face. She'd been sassy and gorgeous, and she’d just exuded sweetness and strength. And God, she was funny. Curtis wasn’t the laugh-out-loud type – he wasn’t even the smile-very-often type – but she made him grin with her teasing. Nobody else did that the way that Tessa could.

There had been an undeniable attraction there, at least for him, but she’d been with that Kevin dickhead even from the start. Finding that out had been a fucking kick to the balls, but Curtis wasn’t the kind to hit on another man’s woman. Not even when she was the closest thing to an angel that he’d ever seen on earth.

She’d shown up for her first-ever shift at Curves, and she’d been standing there at the bar, getting a few last-minute instructions from Aidan Carter, the bartender. She was wearing tight jeans that cupped that astonishing, rounded ass, and a tight pink t-shirt that showed off every one of her assets on top. She’d been so mouthwateringly hot, and every guy in the place was paying attention to the new waitress right from the word go.

Curtis had spotted her amazing blonde hair and curvy thighs from across the room, and he’d stood there and just openly stared. That was when she’d turned and their eyes had met, and Curtis had felt like he’d been simultaneously struck by lightning and hit by a car. It was that dramatic and extreme; it was also that permanently life-changing.

Falling in love with Tessa had been the single most shattering and explosive sensation in the whole of his dark, rough life. He’d had literally no idea that he was even capable of feeling that for another human being… he’d always thought that he was way too broken.

But there she was: the woman who was going to change his whole damn reason for living and breathing. He’d walked on over, pretending to want to meet the new girl and introduce himself, but really to take her in close enough to touch her. Not that he ever would: no way someone like him had the right to touch a woman that… that good.

As he’d crossed the heaving, noisy bar, he’d held her green eyes, saw that they had gold flecks in them. He’d been scowling, as usual, and she'd blinked a few times as he'd approached. He'd supposed his size and demeanor was off-putting, so he'd made an effort to give her an uncharacteristic smile. That had appeared to freak her out even more, and he’d quickly snapped it off, and resumed his usual angry-as-all-fuck glower.

Aidan had seen him walking over, and waved at him.