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first.”
     
    For one ecstatic moment Chase forgot they were talking about her painting. “You mean you’ve never…”
     
    “No,” she laughed nervously, “I’ve been too afraid to show anyone. I mean, it’s one thing to think I might not be good enough but to have someone else confirm it would be heartbreaking.”
     
    Chase leaned back in his chair. “Have you thought about what you’d do if it didn’t work out?”
     
    “I have other skills I can fall back on if I have to. I suppose I could be a chef, but I have a degree in accounting and financial planning so that’s probably what I’d choose if I can’t make it as an artist.”
     
    “You have a degree in accounting and financial planning?”
     
    Maddy shot him a heated glare. “Why is that so hard to believe?”
     
    “My, you are a bit prickly aren’t you, sweetheart? I don’t find it difficult to believe, I just find it somewhat of a coincidence since that’s what my company does.”
     
    “You aren’t…but of course you are,” she said incredulously. Oh this was bad, very bad. “You own Malone and Associates.”
     
    “You’ve heard of me then?”
     
    She stood up an carried their dishes to the sink. “Not you personally, just your company.”
     
    Her father employed the services of Malone and Associates, which meant it was entirely possible they knew one another. That’s all she needed. What would Chase do if he figured out she wasn’t the impoverished struggling artist she was pretending to be? The only reason he’d agreed not to press charges and have her tossed in jail was because he thought she didn’t have any money and had taken pity on her. If he found out she was Alexander St. Claire’s daughter he’d be furious that she’d duped him and probably wouldn’t think twice about pursuing a lawsuit or putting her behind bars. She didn’t know what the sentence was for negligent driving and wasn’t too eager to find out.
     
    “This little arrangement just might work out,” Chase said. He drank down the last of his coffee and brought the cup to Maddy. “It’ll be easier having you help me since you’ll be familiar with the terminology.”
     
    She rinsed out his cup and set it in the dishwasher. “What exactly will I be doing for you?”
     
    “First, you’ll need to help me get dressed.” That rattled her, he noted with some satisfaction. “After that I’ll need your typing skills to respond to my e-mail and then we’ll probably work on some contracts.”
     
    “I thought you were on vacation.”
     
    “I am, but that doesn’t mean I can afford to be completely out of touch with the company. I’ve chose my staff carefully and for the most part they can run the place just fine without me, but there’s always a few things I prefer to handle myself.”
     
    Maddy shook her head, making a clicking noise with her tongue. “I’ll bet you couldn’t relax if you tried to.”
     
    “I know how to relax,” he said defensively.
     
    “Really? When was the last time you took more than a day off, and by that I mean two or more consecutive days where you did absolutely nothing work related.”
     
    “Well, I planned on taking some time for myself on this vacation.”
     
    “When exactly?”
     
    “I don’t know, just some time during the next few weeks.”
     
    Maddy didn’t believe it for a minute. “What were you planning on doing?”
     
    Chase rubbed the back of his neck, trying to come up with something plausible. “I was going to…read a bit and maybe take in a few movies.”
     
    "Geez, you really know how to live it up, Malone.”
     
    “So I hadn’t really given it much thought,” he said irritably. “That doesn’t mean I never intended to get some down time.”
     
    “Prove it.”
     
    “And just how do you propose I do that?”
     
    “Easy, take a walk on the beach with me.”
     
    “Right now?”
     
    “Sure, why not?”
     
    Chase thought of all the work he’d planned on getting