Free Misty Blue by Dyanne Davis Page B

known in his heart. After their first time together when she’d walked away from Ashleigh’s after purchasing a wedding gown to marry James, he’d known she was the one. They’d sat in McDonald’s, of all places, for five hours.
    She’d smiled at him and listened to every word he had to say with real interest. It hadn’t bothered her in the least that he didn’t have a job. Damien laughed to himself at his musings. The job thing had bothered her. She’d told him to get one. But still, the fact that he didn’t have one hadn’t stopped her from falling in love with him.
    Damien was grinning widely, glad no one was around to see him. It seemed like all he ever did was think about Mia. How could he not? She amazed him. And the most amazing thing of all was it hadn’t even bothered her that he was a dog. He’d never forget the words she’d said to him when he let her out at her apartment after their first meeting. “Damien, I’m glad that I met you. You have a very good heart and a good soul.” He’d been taken aback and had teased her. “That’s not what my mother says.”
    “Then she should look into your eyes,” Mia had said. “You’re very special.”
    He hadn’t known how to answer her and she’d gotten out of his car without kissing him and shoved him away, laughing.
    “I think you behave as a dog so that no one will know how truly wonderful you really are.”
    He’d never heard these words spoken about himself before. He’d wanted to run after Mia, beg her to tell him how she knew he was special. But he’d only sat in his car thinking, Wow she thinks I’m special . I must be . He knew without a doubt that she was special. And if she thought he was also, it had to be true. Damien had set about trying for all these months to prove her right and his parents wrong.
    During the months they’d been separated, his mother had laughed every time she saw him, repeatedly reminding him that she’d warned him. But he hadn’t given up on them. If some other woman had told him to wait around for her, Damien would have had a different woman the moment the words left her mouth. But not with Mia. With Mia he’d not wanted anyone but her. And he’d waited for her, the wait tearing him apart, his mother’s taunts piercing him afresh each night and day. Still, he’d waited.
    And now, he thought with a smile, she was going to marry him. He grinned. He had to be special for her to marry him. He couldn’t wait to touch her in all the ways he’d wanted, to kiss her body from bottom to top, to make her scream out his name. The one thing he’d listened to his mother about was how he would need to be patient. He would remember that Mia was a virgin. He would take his time. She was inexperienced but she wanted him, she always had. That much he knew. He could hardly wait until the day they became man and wife.
    * * *
     
    “Are you ashamed of us? Who in the hell do you think you are? You think because someone’s letting you get your ass up on stage and sing that you’re a hot shot now? You’re still Damien Terrell, my son, my blood, and you can stop this act. We both know as soon as you hit it , you’re going to be back in the streets looking. God hasn’t made the woman who can take care of us the way we need.”
    Charles leered across the table. “There is not one woman that can keep men like us satisfied. I ought to know, you’re my son. Hell, it’s in your blood.”
    Damien glanced at his mother, wishing for more times than he cared to remember, that his father wouldn’t just say whatever the hell he thought. But the man had no moral filter. And it didn’t help that his mother had been content to play his door mat since way before Damien was born. Still, he wished that his father didn’t constantly throw it in her face that she’d not been enough for him.
    “Okay, I’ll set it up with Mia. She’d love to see you again,” Damien lied. “Dinner tomorrow night.”
    He got a sick feeling in the