Behind us, a voice sounds, and we break the moment, but I make a mental note that she likes being touched there.
"Roxy, the party turned out wonderfully," Marco's sister tells my wife.
"I'm glad I could help," Roxanne replies. "This is my husband, Damien Kaminski."
It’s the first time she’s actually introduced me to someone as her husband, in public, and the idiot organ in my chest is throwing a full-on parade.
"Gianna. Pleased to meet you," says the woman I recognize from other events I've been invited to.
I nod slightly, but my attention shifts to the terrace, where Marco's son appears to be having a heated discussion with someone.
Now, normally, I'd grab a glass of cognac and go see if there's room for me to sink my knife into someone, but since the guy is my brother-in-law, sort of, I feel the need to intervene.
"I'll be right back," I tell my wife while finding Stefan, the soldier I most often trust to watch her, with my eyes. He knows not to take his gaze off Roxanne.
Outside, a light wind makes my skin prickle.
"I warned you not to look at my wife again," Luca says as he holds a gun pointed at a blond man's throat.
In a few seconds, I'm behind him, and I almost burst out laughing because I feel like I'm channeling my inner Roman. Usually, I'm the one who needs to be stopped in these situations, not the one intervening rationally.
"As much as I enjoy a little chaos at a party like this, my wife worked really hard to make sure everything turns out perfectly, so I'd ask you not to ruin her evening. And by 'ask,' I mean put that gun down without me needing to intervene," I tell Luca, and both men now look at me.
The blond idiot has no idea who I am, so clearly he's not from this world, but Luca frowns.
"This situation isn't your business, Damien. If I want to use him as a voodoo doll, but with bullets, I'm going to do it. Because he dared to look at my wife twice in the same evening, like she was some fucking dessert at a candy bar."
Emotionally, I get it. I was ready to play ophthalmologist with that bald little man for how he looked at Roxanne, but rationally, the place is too crowded for that.
"There are two hundred people here, and over forty are part of the event management team. A gunshot would generate too much attention. Call two of your guys and rough him up a bit. The way he's looking at us right now, you'd be wasting the bullet on him."
His jaw clenches, but I know we won't have to discover whether Roxanne knows how to remove blood stains from Gianna's terrace tonight.
A moment later, Luca calls two soldiers and points at the man trembling like a leaf.
"I want at least the fingers on one hand needing splints, understood?" he tells them, and both soldiers nod.
After they leave, Luca says, "Thanks. You probably saved me from a monster argument with my father."
It's on the tip of my tongue to tell him we're family and he doesn't need to thank me, so I just nod.
"Why'd you do it?" he asks.
"Do what?"
"Why'd you intervene?"
Because you're the half brother of the only woman I love. Because if you knew who she is, I know if something happened to me, you'd protect her with your life. Because I want her to have the family she never had growing up.
"Because I didn't want to upset my wife," I answer with a smile.
He narrows his eyes at me, but he gives a short nod, so I turn back to the party.
And these idiots in the room better develop a sudden case of Alzheimer's so they forget how that red dress falls over Roxanne's ass, or I might be the one pulling out a gun and making a spectacle of this birthday.
When I find my wife, she’s on the dance floor with Marco, who's doing a terrible job at not giving away his secret.
He's looking at Roxanne with so much adoration, he's lucky he's my father-in-law, otherwise we'd be having a problem on that dance floor.
