her story quickly, before she could be interrupted.

Finally his discussion and her story merges when he's talking about touching soft things. She's excited that they finally have something in common to talk about.  She jumps at the chance to carry on an actual conversation with someone else.

Curley’s wife laughed at him. “You’re nuts,” she said. “But you’re a kinda nice fella. Jus’ like a big baby. But a person can see kinda what you mean. When I’m doin’ my hair sometimes I jus’ set an’ stroke it ‘cause it’s so soft.” To show how she did it, she ran her fingers over the top of her head. “Some people got kinda coarse hair,” she said complacently. “Take Curley. His hair is jus’ like wire. But mine is soft and fine. ‘Course I brush it a lot. That makes it fine. Here—feel right here.” She took Lennie’s hand and put it on her head. “Feel right aroun’ there an’ see how soft it is.”

Unfortunately, this conversation leads to her death as Lennie pets her soft hair.  Sensing something is wrong, she begins to scream, and worrying he'll get in trouble Lennie accidentally breaks her neck.

Curley's wife lets Lennie touch her hair to see how soft it is. This moment is preceded by the two talking about their love of soft things, such as furry animals and velvet. Lennie brought this up when mentioning how he loves to pet animals, such as the mouse he had in his pocket before George made him discard it or the puppy he accidentally killed just before Curley's wife walked inside the barn.

Curley's wife also loves petting soft things and mentions that sometimes she likes to stroke her own hair. She allows Lennie to stroke her hair just to see how soft it is, but when he does not stop, she starts shouting that he'll ruin her hairstyle.

Unfortunately, Lennie is unable to stop, first because he does not want to (and cannot understand why he should) and then because Curley's wife frightens him with her shouting. He is terrified of getting in trouble with his friend George, who told him not to talk to Curley's wife under any circumstances. In a panic and unaware of his own strength, Lennie accidentally breaks her neck when trying to silence her. Ironically for both Lennie and Curley's wife, their one moment of human connection leads to both of their deaths.

The precise age of Curley's wife is not stated, but there are indications that she is very young. When Lennie says, "Gosh, she was purty," George blows up.

      "Listen to me, you crazy bastard," he said fiercely. "Don't you even take a look at that bitch. I don't care what she says and what she does. I seen 'em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than here. You leave her be."

"Jail bait" has always meant a promiscuous underage girl who can get a man sent to prison for statutory rape. (At that time the "age of consent" was eighteen.) At least one other man refers to her as "jail bait." Late in the novel when she is talking to Lennie in the barn she tells part of her life's story and indicates that she wanted to run away with a man when she was only fifteen. She could have been as young as sixteen when she married Curley. Her story makes it clear that she was anxious to find a man and get away from home as soon as possible.

The probable reasons for Steinbeck's making her so young were to make her seem physically frail and easy for Lennie to kill by shaking her. She would also seem more indiscreet than an older woman, since she has no worldly experience. An older woman might realize that it was not a good idea to be alone with a feeble-minded giant who liked to pet pretty things. The reader senses from the moment that Curley's wife appears in the barn that there is going to be serious trouble, but the young girl is oblivious to the potential danger. There are some very young girls who like to try out their newly discovered sex appeal on all men, and Curley's wife is of this type. (Steinbeck often deals in "types," as he does with Curley himself, who is the type of small man who acts pugnaciously and goes in for martial arts and/or body building to compensate for a feeling of inferiority.)

Craving attention and knowing that the ranch hands go all week without seeing any women besides her, Curley's wife certainly takes advantage of the men's sexual deprivation by dressing and posing in an alluring manner. In Chapter 2, she practices  her acting skills, positioning herself in a doorway with the sunshine at her back; her appearance is much like the vamp:

She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up.  Her fingernails were red.  Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages.  She wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers.

As she speaks to George she is playful and smiles "archly and twitche[s] her body" in obvious seductive movement.  That she is attractive is evinced in Slim's greeting to her as he passes through the doorway, "Hi, Goodlookin'." After she leaves, a dazzled Lennie remarks admiringly, "Gosh, she was purty." Seeing the look in his eyes, George grabs Lennie by the ear, scolding him and warning him that she is a "piece of jail bait"; in no uncertain terms, he tells Lennie to "leave her be." When Lennie argues that he has not done anything, George counters,

"No, you never.  But when she was standin' in the doorway showin' her legs, you wan't lookin' the other way, neither."

Clearly, then, Curley's wife is, indeed, attractive to all and, indeed, alluring.  Some interpretations of Curley's wife define her as the temptress, an "Eve" who lures the men away from the fraternity which will afford them friendship and support since she tempts Lennie and, thus, effects the dissolution of the dream.