"Am I supposed to know her?" Rupert took a sip of his coffee, trying to ease the discomfort in his body.

"She's... the new girl at work. She sent me here to treat you to dinner."

As Fay's name came up, Sylvia shot a glance at the heavy oak door.

Did Fay lock them in here?

Rupert caught her look and said quietly, "You two have some history, don't you?"

"Can I plead ignorance?" Sylvia still felt completely baffled by the whole thing.

Rupert spun the chunky silver ring on his finger, a frown creasing his brow. "Whoever locked that door definitely knew we were in here."

Sylvia caught on instantly.

She held out her hand to Rupert. "Your phone."

"Someone spilled a drink on me. It's fried."

"Really? That's a little too convenient," Sylvia said, suspicion clear in her voice.

"Want to frisk me?" Rupert held both hands up, palms open.

The overhead light made the garnet ring on his hand look even more striking, not

to mention the wedding band sitting snugly on his middle finger.


Sylvia tore her eyes away, pretending not to notice, and racked her brain for solutions.

Rupert followed her gaze, glancing at his own rings, then lowered his head and absently rubbed them.

back, behind the scotch bottles. Inside, there's a

and went searching,

"Where exactly?"

in the

the velvet curtain

clothes behind that curtain once, at Rupert's last private wine

room, all mahogany shelves and dim lights. She pushed aside a rack of rare bourbons and found a built-in wall safe, about

out, "It needs

for a moment before finally saying, "Try something you

was no time

in


Maybe Chris? Wrong again.

birthday. Still nothing. One more wrong guess and the alarm would go off, and then the whole

is it, Rupert?"

behind her, his breath warm on her neck. One hand braced on the shelf he

1125.

Sylvia froze.

It was her birthday.

hadn't celebrated her

some auctioned bottles of wine and a handful

pretending not to notice the code,

phone to Rupert. "This is

Rupert and

stared down at the phone,


to

bit. When Rupert finally

composed as if he'd never lost control

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