"Her sun-burnished skin was smooth and healthy, her eyebrows were straight and fine, and her teak-colored eyes intelligent and quick. There’s an attractivenes

"Her sun-burnished skin was smooth and healthy, her eyebrows were straight and fine, and her teak-colored eyes intelligent and quick. There’s an attractiveness unique to mixed blood and she had it, perhaps a quarter of this and the rest of that. For our first meeting she’d chosen to wear a plain black halter blouse that showed her figure and bare shoulders to good effect and a peasant-style skirt of multi-colored, mixed- texture fabrics. Her dark cascade of hair was pinned up in a chignon, revealing her graceful neck. Her smile revealed even white teeth. She had the glow of the well-off and an unself- conscious confidence. She was poised, slightly shy and visibly curious about me. In other words, she was stunning. And needless to say, out of my league. "