“Yeah, you said that already.”

But he shook his head. “That’s not what I mean.” He looked up and met my eyes. “Since Saul’s been gone, I’ve come to realize that what we did together served more than one purpose. Yeah, it was a sensual pleasure, for both of us. But it turns out it was a good way for me to blow off a little steam, too.” His eyes slid away from mine once more. “I have to be so careful with Dom,” he said softly, his breath stirring the steam that rose from his cup. “If I don’t. . let loose every once in a while, I’m afraid of what might happen.”

“Shit,” I muttered as I finally understood what he was getting at. “You really think you’d hurt Dominic if you didn’t play your little games at the club?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to find out.”

I let out a long sigh. Obviously, Adam wasn’t my favorite person in the world, but in this one instance I suspected he wasn’t doing himself justice. “Far be it from me to suggest you have any redeeming features,” I said, “but if there’s one thing I know about you, it’s that you’d never do that to Dom.”

He looked up at me, obviously startled. “You really believe that?”

“Yeah, I really believe that. I also really believe you need to talk to Dom about this. If you can convince me to cut you some slack about it, then I’m guessing you can convince him, too.”

Adam laughed, and I could almost see the weight lifting off his shoulders. I laughed a bit, too, but for different reasons. How ridiculous was it for someone like me to be giving relationship advice to anyone, much less to a sadistic demon?

“Maybe you’re right,” Adam conceded when he stopped laughing. “I’ll think about it, I promise. Now tell me, what on earth were you doing in The Seven Deadlies?”

“Good question,” I muttered under my breath, then proceeded to tell him all about my lame-ass plan to meet with Tommy. I’d drunk half my cup of coffee by the time I was through, but the jolt of caffeine didn’t make my plan sound any better.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Adam shaking his head. “And what were you going to do if by some miracle he blurted out a confession?”

I shifted uncomfortably. That had always been the weakest part of my plan.

“That’s what I thought,” Adam said, then leaned forward in his seat, drawing my gaze. “You’re not a cop. You’re not a private investigator. You’re an exorcist. Leave this to the professionals, love.”

Yes, he was totally right, but that didn’t stop me from bristling. “It was me Claudia Brewster hired, not you.” Well, maybe technically she didn’t hire me. I hadn’t accepted any money from her.

Adam seemed less than impressed. “You brought the case to me for a reason, and it wasn’t because you wanted to hang out with me. Let me do my job, okay?”

I’d have loved to argue with him if he weren’t making so much sense. Of course, being me, I wasn’t about to agree with him, either, so I just gulped more coffee instead of speaking.

“You said we needed to talk about something,” he said when it became obvious I wasn’t planning to say anything more. “Obviously it wasn’t about this, so what’s up?”

He’d already said he didn’t want Saul back in Dominic, but when I’d asked him, he hadn’t known that’s what Lugh wanted. I believed Lugh was right, and Adam was a good little soldier. What his king commanded, he would do, no matter how much it hurt him, or anyone else.

I knew eventually I’d have no choice but to tell him what Lugh wanted me to. But that didn’t mean it had to be now. Lugh shot me a little headache to let me know he disapproved of my decision, but it was only a brief stab of pain. If he really wanted to show his displeasure, he could hit me with a pain so bad it could bring me to my knees.

“Never mind,” I told Adam. “It’s not important.”

I’m sure he saw through my lie, but he didn’t challenge it. I glanced at my watch and was startled to discover it was already two in the morning. I hadn’t realized how long I’d sat in that damn club! The twenty-four hours Lugh had given me were almost up, which meant that if I didn’t tell Adam now, Lugh would hijack my body the next time I fell asleep.

I took one more look at Adam, then decided it was time to get a refill on my coffee.

Adam gave me a bit of a funny look when I returned to the table with my fresh cup of coffee. De spite a concerted effort, I still haven’t learned how to keep everything I’m feeling from showing on my face, and he probably knew something was wrong. Something other than his cheating on Dominic, that is. And though I fully understood why he was doing it, as long as Dom didn’t know, it seemed like cheating to me.

“I gather you haven’t had a chance to visit with Sammy yet?” I asked, hoping that would stave off any questions he was tempted to ask.

Adam raised an eyebrow. He knew a diversionary tactic when he saw one. Luckily, just this once, he decided to let me off the hook.

“I dropped by his office today and found out he’s on vacation. I’ll talk to him as soon as he gets back. But meanwhile, I’ll focus on Tommy. I suspect I’ll have no trouble getting some, uh, private time with him.” He stared at his cup of tea, though I suspected it had been empty for at least fifteen minutes.

It wasn’t hard to guess what he meant, and I had to fight my surge of disgust. “You mean he likes the hardcore shit,” I said, my voice rising, “and you’re going to cheat on Dom with him.”

I was loud enough that a few people turned to look at me. I swallowed hard and lowered my voice. “I’d rather you let me question him myself.”

Adam put his cup down and leaned toward me, anger glinting in his eyes. “I am not cheating on Dom,” he snarled. “And with your charming personality, you’ll have him clammed up and suspicious within the first five minutes. If I take him down into Hell, I can get him into a frame of mind where he’s not thinking straight. And since I’m a police officer, I can act on it if he tells me something he shouldn’t. You’ve done your part by bringing the case to me. Now stay out of it like a good little exorcist and let me handle it.”

I was getting pretty damn tired of being told to stay out of it, but for once my common sense spoke up in time, and I kept that thought to myself. I doubt Adam expected me to heed his warning, but I didn’t think arguing about it was going to help my case.

“Fine,” I muttered, slurping down more coffee. “You go on back to Hell. It’s where you belong anyway.”

I stood up, meaning to make a dramatic exit, but Lugh sent a stab of pain through my eye, and I stumbled. I almost pitched face-first into Adam’s lap, but with demon-quick reflexes, he caught me. For a moment that felt like forever, I looked into those dark brown eyes, my nose inches away from his. I caught the scent of the spicy aftershave he favored, and beneath that, a salty undertone that reminded me of an ocean breeze. Despite my dislike of him, despite his sexual habits, despite him being a demon, I had to admit to myself that he was one hell of a sexy specimen of manhood. Against my every wish, images flashed through my mind. Images of Adam, naked and aroused, images of him with Dom, images of—

With a jerk, I shoved myself away from him, shutting down that line of thought with all the ferocity I could. I did not want to think of Adam that way. I was already in love with Brian and in lust with Lugh. I didn’t need any more. . complications.

One corner of Adam’s mouth rose in a half-smile, but it wasn’t a nice expression. There was no question in my mind that no matter how much I wanted to deny it to myself, Adam knew I found him attractive. I had a distinct feeling he would use his knowledge against me if he had half a chance.

Knowing that anything I said would just make things worse, I settled for shaking my head before I turned on my heel and strode to the door. Lugh did the eye-stab thing again, but it was merely a brief annoyance. It wasn’t like this was a battle I could win. No matter how much caffeine I ingested, eventually I would fall asleep and he would take over. But eventually was better than now.