Shattered (Anderson Special Ops #4) - Melody Anne Page 0,15
some insider information that they sometimes get some very famous acts when stars want to come home to where it all began,” Smoke said. He wasn’t telling her, but he knew for a fact that they were getting an extra special guest that night. If it hadn’t been for Brackish, he never would’ve scored the tickets.
They were early, and Smoke was glad to have a bit of time to talk to Amira before the show began. They ordered their meal, then sat back and listened to music as he gazed at the woman sitting across from him.
“I know I’ve said it a hundred times, but you seriously take my breath away. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a woman as beautiful as you.”
Amira grinned. “I have to admit you’re smooth, Smoke. I don’t want to take your compliments seriously, but they just might go to my head anyway,” she said with a laugh. She’d finished her first drink and the waitress placed a second in front of her. Maybe the alcohol would loosen her up a bit so her guard could come down. Smoke had a strict two drink an hour rule, especially when he needed to be on his toes. With Amira, he needed to have all of his wits about him. She was the sharpest woman he’d ever been around.
“I admit I flirt a lot. When I see something I want, I don’t easily change my mind about it,” he assured her.
“I can totally see that about you,” she said. More food was placed before them and she dove in without hesitation. Good. He hated taking women on dates who refused to eat. It was ridiculous and a waste of money.
“I know virtually nothing about you, Smoke, besides what you told Mrs. Clemens. You’re pretty closed-lipped about yourself,” Amira pointed out.
“I’m an open book,” he told her. “What do you want to know?”
“You played in the NFL?” she began.
He grinned. He’d loved his time, as short-lived as it had been, when he’d played professional football. “Yes, I was a natural athlete from the time I was born, and I was lucky enough to have a mother who supported and encouraged my talents. I practiced with a football before I was walking. My mother didn’t allow me to just play sports. She wanted me to use my brain too. So, if I wasn’t playing football, I was studying. My football talents got me twenty-eight full-ride scholarship offers, but I also had nineteen academic full-ride scholarship offers as well.”
“Wow, that’s impressive,” Amira said. Smoke puffed his chest out a little bit at her comment.
“I decided to accept the offer from Virginia Tech. It was close enough to home that I could be back within a few hours, but far enough away to give me a chance to see what life looked like in a diverse culture. Where I grew up, there wasn’t a lot of that.”
Amira nodded. “I know what that feels like. I grew up in a very exclusive community where my family appeared as if we didn’t belong.”
“Why do you say that?” Smoke asked. He hated when someone felt that way.
“Well, I have a Japanese father who is incredibly set in his ways and instilled in me a respect from where he came from. It was a shock and scandalous to our family when he married my mother from the Netherlands. But love supposedly conquers all. Then they had me, and we moved to a very wealthy area since my parents made incredibly smart financial decisions. It was a lot of snobby, narrow-minded people and I always felt as if I was the odd man out.”
“You seem pretty damn confident to me,” Smoke pointed out.
She smiled. “I am,” she told him, making him prouder of her than before. “I learned that their opinion of me didn’t matter. What mattered was how I felt about myself and how I conducted my own behavior. My parents wanted perfection. I wanted my own vision of the same thing. We’ve compromised through the years.”
“Do you still feel discriminated against?” he asked.
“No. I don’t allow that,” she said. “I feel people make rash judgements, but I give them the opportunity to know me and judge me based on my talents, my personality, and my ethics. Shame on them if they can only see my body, my skin color, or my gender.”
Smoke grinned hugely at that. “We think a lot alike,” he told her.