His maniacal gaze was reserved for Enzo as he approached, leaving the front door wide open. He didn’t say a word, but his presence was utterly terrifying. The way he carried himself, the stiffness in his shoulders, the palpable anger that radiated off his body like hot rays from the summer sun.
Enzo took a step back ... and then another.
I was so utterly shocked by all of it that I couldn’t move.
I couldn’t really describe the phenomenon, but when Constantine spoke, he didn’t yell ... though his voice was loud. It carried, shook the walls, reached all of my neighbors down the hallway. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”
Oh Jesus.
I was tall, so every man I dated was also tall. Enzo was a little over six feet in height, but he looked tiny in front of Constantine. Not just in height, but in size and strength and masculinity. Completely dwarfed by Constantine’s potent presence.
“You don’t belong here, asshole. You forfeited the right to a minute of her time when you stuck your dick in someone else.” He continued to move forward, crowding Enzo, moving him back until there was nowhere else for him to go.
I wasn’t Constantine’s target, but even I was fucking scared.
“She’s mine now.” He slammed his fist hard into his chest and made a loud thump—like the muscle that covered his sternum was unbreakable. “Come near my woman again, and I’ll carve your eyes out of your fucking head and feed them to my dog.” Then he yelled. “You fucking understand me?”
His voice was so loud, it made me flinch and step back, moving toward the kitchen counter.
“Yes—yes.” Enzo raised both hands like he had a gun pointed at him. “Sorry ... I’m sorry.”
Constantine stepped aside so Enzo could pass. “Go.”
Enzo made a step for the door but glanced at Constantine, like it was a trap.
I wasn’t sure if it was a trap or not.
So Enzo moved around the kitchen table, walked past me, and went all the way around to get to the door.
Constantine turned his head and watched him the entire time, a hawk observing its prey slither through the grass. “Like a fucking table will save you, little punk-ass bitch.” Then he barked, barked likea fucking dog, and Enzo took off at a run. He smacked his shoulder into the doorway and grimaced before he made his way around it and into the hallway.
The door was left wide open.
Constantine miraculously dropped his ire when he looked at me—as if he could just turn it on and off like nothing. “You all right?”
“Yeah. But I was fine before you burst in the door like that.” Like a fucking guard dog.
He seemed to understand that I was upset, read it on my face or heard it in my words. “I’m not sorry.”
“You acted like you were going to kill him.”
“Your point?”
“You said you don’t hurt innocent people.”
“Did I hurt him?” he challenged, taking a step closer to me. “Why are you defending him?”
“I’m not. But when you scared the shit out of him, you also scared it out of me.” I’d never witnessed Constantine act like that. He was all smiles and jokes and sexy, smoldering looks. He’d never ... lost his mind.
“I would never hurt you.”
“I know that, but you were still fucking terrifying.”
“Well, I’m a terrifying guy.” He remained completely unapologetic.
“I’ve just never seen you like that. I’m a little shaken up.” I always believed him when he told me he was the Roman Emperor of the Roman Republic. But now, I really saw it, witnessed it with my own two eyes. I could imagine how lethal he was when his intention was to kill.
“It’s over now,” he said. “But I promise I would never come at you like that.”
