“Oh, I know what you vampires do. What do they call it? Enthrall me? No way, Luca, no one is going to mess with my mind. I thought you were different from the others.” She stood and hung her head in despair. She was barely getting her thoughts back in order and now he was threatening her too. He was just like the rest of them.
Samantha’s words cut to his core. Maybe he didn’t care for humans, but he was not as cold-hearted as she’d just described. Why couldn’t she be reasonable and see the danger? Regardless, he felt he owed her the truth.
“I am vampire, Samantha. Nothing more, nothing less. I won’t lie to you. If given the choice between leaving you here unprotected or bringing you back to safety, I will enthrall you to get you back on that plane. I’m sorry if you’re angry with me, but this is how it must be. When the danger has passed, you can return to this area and Tristan will help you get settled, living as a supernatural.” Luca felt bad about having to be so strict with her, but he needed to keep her from danger.
He approached her slowly and placed a finger under her chin, tilting her face upward. His eyes met hers. “Trust me, Samantha. It will work out for the best. Please, just come back to New Orleans, willingly, until we figure out who attacked you. I promise to make this as pleasant as possible. I don’t want to enthrall you. I just need you to be safe.”
A tear fell from Samantha’s eye as she looked up at Luca. “Okay, Luca. I’ll go. But I don’t want to go back to the coven. Maybe no one told you, but I can’t do anything remotely witchy. The witches don’t even like me there, and frankly, I don’t want to be there. Ilsbeth is fine but I’m just not comfortable staying with the coven. Can I return to Kade and Sydney’s? Maybe I could stay with them until we get this figured out?”
Luca did not think it was a good idea for her to return to Kade’s house with Dominique milling about the place. When Samantha had been bespelled, she’d silvered Dominique to a table in Sangre Dulce. Dominique could have cared less that Samantha had no control, and she wanted very much to tear into her throat and drain her dry for what she’d done to her. She was incredulous that Kade had saved her and taken her to the coven. If Dominique saw Samantha, it was likely blood would be shed.
“No, there’s no way you can safely stay at the mansion with Kade and Sydney. As much as Sydney would love to have another human visit, Dominique is at their place way too often, and she’s looking for payback. She probably won’t kill you, since Kade has made it clear you’re off limits, but I’m afraid I couldn’t trust her not to at least attack you,” Luca continued, knowing he was going to regret his next words. “You’re welcome at my home, however. I live next door to Kade within his compound. There’s plenty of room, and I have a spare bedroom.”
Samantha nodded in relief. “Thank you, Luca.” She toyed with the apple in her hands and broke eye contact. “You have to realize that things are so out of control for me. I just need to have a few things I can control, like where I live.” She rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe this is happening to me. You know, I haven’t even told my family. My mom and dad live outside of Baltimore, and I haven’t even gone to see them since I got back. I just called my sister, Jess, to tell her I was the unfortunate victim of a ‘mugging’ per the story Sydney set up with the police and my employer. I told her to tell mom and dad I was staying in New Orleans on a consulting job and would call them when I got a chance. I’m lying to her…I’m lying to everyone. What am I supposed to tell them?”
She walked away from Luca, looking around the floor for her shoes. “Luca, you don’t need to say anything. I know you didn’t cause this to happen. I’m just frustrated. I need to think.”
Luca couldn’t resist her any longer. She reminded him of a wounded puppy, albeit a very sexy one. He confidently strode over towards Samantha and put his arms around her, raking his hands through her hair as he brought her face against his chest. Settling his lips into her mane of hair, he kissed the top of her head. He wrapped his other hand around the small of her waist as he spoke gently to her. “Samantha darlin’, it’s goin’ to be all right. We’ll find who’s responsible for this attack and you’ll get your life back. I promise you.”
Surprised by Luca’s tender embrace, Samantha hugged him back, enjoying the feel of the sinewy muscles of his back. Somehow within his arms, she knew she could trust him. He made her want to feel again: desire, lust, love. But he was vampire. Strong and lethal. At six foot five, he could easily overpower her and drag her to New Orleans, bend her to his will. But instead, he was comforting her in the best way he knew how…with words, with an embrace.
The growing desire within her chest frightened her. How could she be so attracted to Luca? She inwardly laughed, knowing that it was not so hard to be physically attracted to him. He was ruggedly gorgeous but not a pretty boy. No, nothing boy-like about him; he was pure virile male. Samantha could feel his tight abdomen against her own and longed to see the hard planes of his chest without clothing hindering her view. Whilst he was muscular, he was also lean, with a spectacularly athletic build.
Reluctantly, she stepped out of his arms, and sat on the ottoman, struggling to understand what was happening to her when she was around him. She blushed as she scrambled to put on her running shoes.
“Thank you, Luca. Um…for comforting me,” she stammered, trying to tie her shoes as quickly as possible.
“And where do you think you’re going? It seemed just a minute ago that we’d come to an understanding,” he said, raising a questioning eyebrow at her.
“Going for a walk around the lake,” she replied as she walked back to the sliding glass door leading to the back deck. “Our deal is that we leave tomorrow. So for today, I’m going to do my best to relax. You’re welcome to come with me. If not, you could stay here or meet me down at the pier when I’m done. I promise to yell should I see any bears,” she teased.
“I’ll watch you from the deck. I don’t sense any supernaturals in the area right now, so you’ll be okay. But stick close to the lake and I’ll meet you down at the pier in ten minutes. I just have to make a few calls. I want to let Kade and Sydney know when we’ll be arriving. I have to call Tristan too.”
“Okay, meet you down there.” Samantha bit into her apple, walked outside, closed the door and headed down the path towards the lake.
Watching Samantha like a hawk, Luca took a deep breath, grabbed his cell and called Kade. He explained to him that he’d be back down tomorrow and purposefully left out the part about Samantha staying with him. He couldn’t believe that he’d offered to let her stay with him, but at the same time, he secretly wanted to spend more time with his little witch.
After calling Tristan to let him know they’d be stopping by his place early in the morning, he opened the door and headed towards the water. He didn’t relish having to stop at Eden, Tristan’s club, but he needed to feed and Tristan had promised to keep a blood donor waiting for him. He wasn’t about to feed on Samantha; she’d been through far too much trauma over the past weeks. His fangs elongated at the thought of tasting her sweet, magical blood. Goddammit. I have to keep it together. He retracted his razor sharp teeth, not wanting to risk Samantha seeing them.
As he got halfway down the path, he watched her stretch on the dock. He halted, admiring her firm ass as she bent forward to grab her right calf. His cock jerked to attention as he fantasized about ripping off her clothes and taking her from behind on her hands and knees right out in the open on the wooden pier. No one would see, he surmised, looking around at the isolated woods. Shaking himself from his thoughts, he sighed. He could not get involved with this human. He knew how fragile they were, how easily they could die. Luca refused to let that happen again.