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She wanted a peek. Just a quick one. There was no way she could bring herself to ask Colin for a tour of this place; it would only make her look nosy and intrusive.

As if sneakily exploring it on her own didn’t make her look that way.

You’ll be quick, Andie assured herself. No one needs to know that’s what you’re doing.

She just wanted to see the downstairs, and then she’d come right back up, get a drink, and spend the rest of the night with Colin, behaving herself and keeping her curiosity in check.

At the bottom of the staircase was another hallway, just a bit narrower than the one upstairs. The voices and merriment were louder now, coming from a giant game room at the end of the hall; arcade games and varied gaming tables—billiards, foosball, Ping-Pong, air hockey—along with the biggest flat-screen television she’d ever seen and a tremendous sectional couch occupied the expansive room. She lingered for only a moment, attempting to appear as if she were looking for someone rather than nosing around, and she noticed the home theater across the hall, complete with tiered rows of plush recliner seats and an extremely intimidating-looking sound system.

Andie shook her head in disbelief as she turned to walk back upstairs, stopping when she spotted a third doorway at the opposite end of the hall. What the hell, she thought. She’d already given in to her shameless snooping. When would she ever get to be in a house like this again?

She realized what it was before she even crossed the threshold: a wine cellar.

“My God,” she said under her breath as she reached the doorway. It was practically the size of her apartment; the walls were floor-to-ceiling shelves full of bottles, and in the center of the room were several more independent shelves, filled to capacity. There had to be hundreds of bottles.

She stepped into the cellar in complete awe, her eyes fixed on the soaring shelves bordering the entire room, nearly tripping over something underfoot. Andie looked down to see a small wrought-iron step-ladder on the floor next to the door, and as she lifted her eyes back up to the impossibly tall shelving, she bent to grab it, dragging it over to the nearest wall of wine.

Just as she was about to climb up and take a closer look, a loud slamming sound caused her to jump, and she whipped her head around to see the cellar door closed behind her.

“Crap,” she mumbled, stepping down off the stool. She walked back toward the door and twisted the handle.

Nothing.

Andie froze, her eyes widening for a second before pulling a bit more forcefully.

“No,” she whispered, twisting the handle the other way and trying again. “No, no, no,” she begged, leaning back on her heels and grabbing the handle with both hands, yanking back with the full weight of her body. The substantial oak door didn’t budge. It didn’t even squeak. “Oh God, please no,” she whimpered to herself.

The voice came from behind her.

“Well, that sucks.”

She screamed before he’d even finished his sentence, whirling around and flattening herself up against the door.

Instead of being startled by the ear-piercing shriek that ripped from her throat, he seemed amused by it. The corners of his mouth curved up in a smile as his eyebrows lifted ever so slightly.

Andie’s instincts kicked in as she felt the panic begin to swell in her chest. Locked in a cellar with a strange man at a party where she didn’t know anyone, where practically no one would be looking for her. Weren’t there scary movies that began this way? For all she knew, the room was probably soundproof. She felt a surge of adrenalin heat her veins as she kept her eyes on him, her back against the door.

“Did you think that was down there for show?” he asked, nodding toward the iron step stool she had dragged over to the shelves.

Andie brought her hand to her still-thudding heart. “I…I didn’t know…I’m sorry,” she said, reaching behind her with her free hand and twisting the handle again. The uneasiness in her chest was begi





He shrugged indifferently. “We wait. Someone will probably be down here any second now after that scream.” He smirked as he added, “Nice pipes, by the way.”

Andie couldn’t help the frown that tugged at the corners of her mouth over his words. His lack of urgency bothered her. As did his flippant response. Not to mention the look he was giving her. It was a combination of amusement and condescension, that little smile still playing at his lips.

He was dressed much more casually than anyone she’d seen so far upstairs: jeans and an open button-down over a fitted T-shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He was taller than she was, and while he didn’t look particularly bulky, she could see the definition of his chest through the thin fabric of his shirt. The cellar was too dim for her to pinpoint the color of his eyes, but she could tell they were light, and his hair, a sandy brown color, looked like it was in need of a cut; it flipped away from his forehead and the tops of his ears in little curls. As if he could read her mind, he ran his hand through it, tousling it in a way that made it look stylish instead of disheveled.

Whatever this guy was willing to do, waiting was not an option for her; there was no way she was going to sit in the wine cellar with this stranger until Colin came to rescue her and she had to fumble through some feeble explanation as to why she was in the wine cellar in the first place. She turned and twisted the handle again. This time, she pulled back on the door so forcefully that a guttural grunt escaped her lips, and she heard him laugh behind her.

Andie looked over her shoulder. “A little help would be nice,” she said, trying to keep the a

“When that door sticks, you can’t open it from the inside. Hence the doorstop that someone chose to ignore.”

“Well excuse me for assuming a house like this would have functioning doors,” she snapped, irritated that he was mocking her. He didn’t even know her, for Christ’s sake.

He gri

“No one’s go

Ignoring his taunts, she turned around and used the flat of her other hand, banging again. Andie knew he was right; it was fruitless. No one would hear her, and she probably would end up hurting her hand, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of conceding.

“If you’re in such a rush to get back to the party, why don’t you just use your phone and call someone upstairs?”

Yeah, she could just see how that conversation would go. “Hey Colin, it’s Andie. I locked myself in the wine cellar while I was snooping around your friend’s house. Can you come let me out?” Besides, her phone was in her purse. And she had checked her purse upstairs.

Stupid, pretentious coat check.

Andie turned around, folding her arms. “If I had my phone with me, do you think I’d be standing here abusing my hands on this door?”

“Well I told you to stop, didn’t I?”

She shot him a look and he laughed again. “Relax. Trust me, someone will want more wine eventually,” he said, walking toward the first shelf in the middle of the room. He sat on the floor with his back against it, his feet wide apart and flat on the floor in front of him. He rested his elbows on his knees as he looked up at her.

“I’m Chase.”

Realizing that she very well might be trapped with him for a while, she figured it was probably in her best interest to at least attempt civility, even though he seemed determined to get under her skin.