Luca's Magic Embrace by Kym Grosso

must’ve been for hours, she thought. Sitting up and combing her hand through her dried frizzy curls, she tried to get a bearing on where she was. “Hey, Luca, where are we? South Philadelphia?” She’d answered her own question.
    “Uh huh, we’re goin’ to Tristan’s club, Eden. It’s only three in the afternoon, so we should be able to get showered and have something to eat before leaving. The plane is cleared to take off at nine tonight, so we have a few hours to wait. I was hoping to leave earlier but they had to make some minor repairs to the jet,” he replied, glancing towards her. “You okay?”
    “Yeah, I’m okay. You?”
    She licked her lips, and Luca tried not to notice. He grew hard with arousal, dreaming that her soft pink lips were wrapped around a particular part of him. He shifted in his seat. Damn, even after nearly dying in a fire, the woman looked sexy.
    “I’m vampire. As soon as I get a little blood, I’ll be more than fine,” Luca grumbled.
    Samantha wondered what was making him so irritable, and assumed he was hungry. She had honestly never given a thought that he might need food or that she was considered a part of his food chain. Samantha pushed the thought to the back of her mind, knowing that regardless of her qualification as a meal, he’d never hurt her. And she needed his help to find whoever was after her so she could get her life back in order.
    “I’m hungry too. And I smell like a fine combination of smoke and lake water.” She crinkled her nose in disgust.
    As they pulled into a driveway, she noticed they had driven into a subterranean garage. After going down two levels, Luca pulled the car into a large parking spot next to a set of elevators.
    “This is it. Let’s go,” he ordered as he turned off the car and got out. “Listen, this is a club for paranormals and humans. It’s pretty much a meat market in there.” He didn’t want to sugarcoat the situation. He also didn’t want her getting hit on or going off with strangers. “So when you go with me into the open part of the club, stay close to me. Or stay with Tristan. You never know who might be around. Not to mention someone just tried to turn us into French fries.”
    “Yum. Fries,” she joked. She couldn’t stop thinking of food. She’d only eaten an apple all day. “I really am hungry.” She smiled up at him, hoping she could sway his foul mood.
    Seeing her smile at him melted his anger, and he lifted the corners of his mouth in a wry smile. “Okay, hungry girl. Let’s see if we can go get cleaned up and find you something to eat.”
    He flipped up a security pad located near the doors and punched in a code. The elevator opened, and he placed a hand on the small of her back, guiding her into a small, mahogany-lined lift. Samantha felt a flip in her stomach and couldn’t decide if it was from going up so quickly or from Luca’s touch on her back. Following the commotion over the scorched cabin, she’d forgotten the desire she’d felt while kissing Luca in the lake. She blushed, thinking of how he’d tasted her mouth and caressed her breasts. She grew aroused at the thought of taking it further, touching his naked body once again, feeling him inside of her. She tried shaking the thought, knowing this wasn’t a good time to resume what they’d been doing. They hadn’t even spoken about what had happened between them, and she wasn’t sure if it was such a good idea to talk about it here, at Tristan’s.
    Luca’s eyes flashed red and then back to green, sensing her thoughts. Scenting her arousal was hard to ignore in the tiny, private elevator. He balled his fists and then stretched his hands, as he caught a glimpse of her hard nipples poking through her exercise top. He considered kissing her against the wall but was prevented by the ding of the doors opening.
    “Finally,” he muttered and strode across the room, hoping that putting some distance between them would help temper his rock hard