Chapter Seven

"Damien!" A sweet female voice exclaimed out of nowhere. She looked dazzling with blonde hair and bright blue eyes but she had a petite frame and looked really small compared to Damien. Her outfit looked so expensive and I somewhat felt intimidated, I couldn't compete with that.

"Hey mum..." He said with a little bit of a smile.

Wait, what?

I stared at him, mouth agape. Maybe it's just a nickname. I tried assuring myself.

"How are you baby?" She asked fondly, bringing him close so she could place a peck on his cheek.

"I'm fine mum, how are you?" He replied, still holding her close.

"Hey bro!" A young handsome, blonde, blue eyed guy who seemed like the male version of the woman in front of me, came close and shook hands with Damien who glared at him.

"What did I do this time?" The blonde dude rolled his eyes.

"You weren't at the site to supervise the workers even after I instructed you to." Damien gritted sternly with a hard gaze on the poor guy.

"Damien... Now, now, this isn't why we're here, we agreed that business talks would wait." The woman drawled like she was speaking to a five year old.

Her eyes fell on me the next moment.

"And, who is this?" She asked sweetly, her eyes darted between Damien and I severally.

He cleared his throat and slightly nudged me forward.

"Mum, this is Ariana, my fiancé."

She gasped.

"Oh my goodness! So, the rumours are true!" She exclaimed. She came over and hugged me, which was absolutely unexpected. I hugged her back though. She smiled at me and I smiled back.

"Come with me darling, you'll sit beside me." She said and I looked back at Damien for his approval.

"Go on." He muttered, looking into his phone.

"Damien, put that phone down!" His mother instructed as we moved towards the other family members who chattered away. He pocketed his phone immediately.

So, he listens?

"Hey guys, there's someone I want you to meet." She said in a sing song voice.

Everyone's attention was now focused on us as she held my hand up.

"This is Ariana, Damien's wife to be."

They were all shocked.

"Oh my gee! Congrats big bro!" A teenage black haired girl with glasses screamed, turning around the table to hug Damien and then she came to me and did the same.

"You're so pretty!" She complimented, making me smile before giving me another hug.

The congratulatory messages kept coming and I officially met the family.

It turned out that that very young, beautiful young woman is Damien's biological mother, he's her first child and her name is Stella. I found it so hard to believe. She was so warm and sweet, I wondered why her son was so cold.

Damien is a splitting image of his father, Gerald with only age keeping them apart and Gerald's greying hair. Gerald seemed nice and very welcoming, just like his wife.

His immediate younger sister, Tracy, was about two years my senior, she was twenty five and didn't seem to be very fond of me. I ignored her indifference.

Damien's younger brother whom he scolded earlier, Jesse, happened to be about a year younger than me, about twenty two. He's so cute.

And last but certainly not least, Fiona. Fiona was sixteen, in high school, super smart and so adorable.

In all, they were a very cute family although, I did notice some friction between Damien and his father.

The highlight and most trying time of the night was when the questions came pouring in.

"So where did you guys meet?" His mum asked sweetly staring at me for an answer.

It was a cliche question that probably seems easy. But, no! We hardly rehearsed anything and I was so not prepared for it.

I stared in his direction and saw he was staring right back.

"Awwww, mum look at how they're staring at each other, it's so romantic!" Fiona butted in dreamily.

"I know right!" Stella replied in the same tone.

"We met at restaurant in New York." He said with a small smile.

"Go on" Stella urged.

"I saw her looking beautiful as always." He said playing with his food, tongue in cheek. I decided to play along.

"Awww, thank you baby." I pouted but internally cringed at how we were lying to everyone present. His eyes darted to me sharply as soon as I said that.

Fiona, Jesse and Stella kept giving us dreamy looks while I noticed Tracy roll her eyes while Gerald smiled at us.

"She captured my attention at first glance and I haven't been the same ever since."

I was utterly shocked at how well articulated his lie was.

I stared into his grey orbs just as he stared into my pitch black ones. We stayed locked in that stare down like we were communicating, but I couldn't understand what his eyes were saying to me. They were unreadable, but I knew that gaze said something which I would find out in due time.

"Er erm. It seems like we're getting in the way of something." Fiona teased feigning an innocent face as she broke our stare down.

Jesse smacked her head lightly from behind making her scowl and they started bantering back and forth like kids. It was amusing to watch and we all broke into laughter except Damien who managed a smile.

I wondered if he ever laughed, I really did.

Soon, dinner was over and we settled for dessert. Stella concentrated on me, asking questions about my background and I gave her the truth, fully aware that she would not judge my middle class background.

I was glad that I didn't have to deal with condescending in laws, they were receptive and didn't treat me differently.

I had great talks with Jesse and Fiona all through the night and I didn't want to leave anytime soon but Damien, being the killjoy AKA party pooper just had to ruin it by cutting the night short with the excuse of work and that I had a flight scheduled for the next morning. A flight I wasn't even aware of. Count on him to dampen your spirits and he'll do just that with his impromptu and spontaneous actions.

Unpredictable son of a queen!!!

Yes, I said queen.

Stella kissed me goodnight on the cheek and made me promise to come back the next week to start planning the wedding proper.

She was already making calls by the time we left and planning the wedding was in motion already.

Damien and I left soon after and I went back to being silent as we sat in the vehicle.

The drive went on for a while and I was slowly dozing off.

"I like how you called me baby back there." He said out of the blue, startling me and making me turn red. I said that reflexively, I hoped he wouldn't bring it up but he did.

I bit back a groan and turned away from his teasing eyes.

"You should do it more often." He teased further and my face flushed even more.

He gave a deep dark chuckle at my flushed cheeks. That was a first. I smiled at the thought of amusing him enough to get a chuckle out of him. It was cute.

I dozed off soon after.