But it couldn’t have been Jaenelle. For one thing, she wasn’t supposed to come to Amdarh. For another, she wasn’t supposed to be that . . . healthy. She was supposed to hear the rumors from some well-meaning acquaintance who had scurried to SaDiablo Hall to convey the news, but she wasn’t supposed to come here and confront Daemon. What if he managed to talk Jaenelle out of breaking whatever ties remained between the two of them? What if he was doing a lot more than talking to convince Jaenelle to keep him?

No. Even that beautiful body, hot and ready for sex, wouldn’t be enough reason for a woman to forgive a man for breaking faith with her in that way.

Of course, that didn’t mean a woman wouldn’t enjoy him before tossing him out of the house.

Two hours. If it was Jaenelle who had arrived at the town house, she should have left long before now—even if Daemon had tried sex as a distraction from the accusations of infidelity. After all, even a man who’d spent centuries as a pleasure slave couldn’t spin out sex for two hours.

Could he?

The cab door suddenly opened, tearing her from that intriguing thought. She gasped and pressed herself against the back of the seat before she realized it was the driver standing there and not a member of the SaDiablo family.

“Day’s ended,” the driver said roughly, giving her a less-than-friendly look. “If you want me to drop you somewhere on my way home, I’ll do that. Otherwise, you can pay me for the time my horse has been standing and step out of my cab.”

“I’m not ready to leave,” Roxie said, putting the kind of aristo haughtiness in her voice that usually made merchants and other kinds of tradesmen back down.

“I am.” The driver held out his hand and stared her down. “Of course, I could always go across the street and knock on the door of that town house you’ve been watching. Someone there might be interested in knowing that a witch has been keeping watch of who comes and goes.”

Before she could rail at him for threatening her, a horse-drawn cab pulled up in front of the town house. When it went on, Surreal SaDiablo stood on the sidewalk, looking at the cab Roxie occupied.

The whore didn’t worry her, but it was more attention than she wanted today. “Very well,” she said as she called in her leather wallet and named a place that was close to the dining house where she was meeting Lektra.

She was outraged when the driver told her his fee, but that bitch Surreal was still watching them, and it would take so little effort for the driver to cause trouble. She handed over the marks.