Page 10 of Her Captivated Hero

“So you’re a sniper and a lieutenant?”

“Yep. Are you a genius?”

She grinned. “Because I figured out you were a sniper? Yep.”

“So you’re a smartass and a genius. My favorite combination. Tell me about your testing.” Gray encouraged as he refilled her glass. “Why was it so bad?”

“My parents were first generation Americans. They came from Bangladesh and didn’t understand the Californian school system, and were confused by some of the things the teachers were telling them. In their defense, I think they were getting conflicting information. This started when I was in kindergarten. It took a while before they were able to navigate the school system and get me properly tested.”

“How did they figure it out in the end?”

“Because nobody could agree on anything, they left me in normal classes, so by second grade I began acting out and I was flagged as having behavioral problems.”

“That must have been tough,” he commiserated.

Her dark eyes sparkled. “Actually there were times I made the most of it. If I was expected to act out, I really acted out.”

“How old were you?”

“I was seven,” she said.

“So how did seven-year-old Riya act out?”

He couldn’t wait to hear this.

“We used nothing but pencils to turn in our work, right?”

Gray nodded.

“One day I managed to hide in the coat closet while everyone else went to recess. I erased everyone’s name off the papers they’d handed into the teacher.”

Gray laughed. He loved it.

“Did you have your hair in a long dark braid?”

Riya’s eyes got wide. “How’d you know?”

“I could just picture it. You were probably the picture of innocence, nothing but beautiful black hair and big black eyes. Did they suspect you?”

“Not Mrs. Ayers, but the counselor did. But he couldn’t prove it.” She squeezed another slice of lime into her water. “Luckily, my second grade teacher graduated from UCLA, so she was affiliated with the California University systems. She ended up getting me correctly tested at UC San Diego. She worked with my parents and walked them through the system.”

“Was it overwhelming?”

“My parents got really excited when they found out I could be part of a research study, so yeah, it was a lot of testing. I absolutely despised the exams, but once I got into the meat of the classes, I thrived. Not every child did.”

Riya’s eyes got wide with surprise. “I’ve never shared all of this with anyone outside of work. What kind of palm reading magic did you do?”

“If I told you, then it wouldn’t be magic.”

Riya gave him a considering look. “I’m thinking the real magic is that you’re nice.”

Hell, the last time he’d been called that had probably been as a child. At eighteen he’d entered the Naval Academy and left there a man and an officer. Later he became a SEAL.

Nice?That hardly entered into it.

Good. He strove to be a good man. Hell, not even Felicia, who he’d lived with for two years had called him nice. When they’d split, and they’d split on fucking great terms, she hadn’t called him nice. Nope, she’d called him impeccably fair.

“You still with me?” Riya asked.