A MATTER OF TRUST Read online

  Ignoring the grumblings of her own stomach, Maddy dished up a dinner plate for Chase and carefully carried it over to the table and set it down in front of him. Inwardly, she was nearly giddy from the smile he rewarded her with when he inhaled the enticing aroma, though outwardly she kept her face as unreadable as she had back at the hospital. She didn’t bother asking what he wanted to drink with his dinner because she’d already examined the wine rack and selected a bottle of Chateau Petrus.

  Maddy was impressed with his collection. The bottle of Petrus retailed for fifteen hundred dollars and was one of the most expensive red wines in the world. It’s sweet black fruit and vanilla flavor along with the smooth and silky texture was the perfect complement to the meal she was serving Chase, and though he made no comment when she set the glass in front of him, Maddy could tell he was pleased by her choice. Returning to the cooking area, she searched the cupboards for storage containers and began the task of putting the leftovers away.

  “The food smells delicious,” Chase said, “but I think my appreciation of it would increase tremendously if I was actually able to consume it.”

  Maddy blushed profusely as she hurried back to the table. “I…yes, of course.”

  The color in her cheeks deepened when Chase pushed his chair back and nodded to the one next to him. She didn’t want to sit so close, but she had very little choice if she was going to cut up his food for him. Taking the seat he’d indicated, she scooted as close as she dared then sliced off a piece of the game hen and lifted it to his mouth. He took it hesitantly, as if he expected it to taste bad, but the minute his lips closed around the fork he let out a little groan of approval. Maddy speared a few vegetables with the second bite of meat, smiling to herself when he opened his mouth like a baby bird eagerly waiting for its mother to feed it.

  “Are you going to have some too?” Chase asked after he’d swallowed down the piece of flaky biscuit she’d popped into his mouth.

  Maddy shoveled another mouthful in and replied, “No.”

  He washed it down with a sip of wine, eyeing her curiously. “Why not, you must be hungry.” She responded with an indifferent shrug of her shoulders and held up another bite of food. He chewed thoughtfully for a moment, savoring the delightful blend of spices and idly wondering where she’d learn to cook like this. “It is because you don’t want to be indebted to me any more than you already are? Is that why you won’t eat anything?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” he started, and found another mouthful of food being shoved between his parted lips. He chewed and swallowed then caught her wrist with his good arm when she tried to ply him with more food. “Look, your room and meals are on the house, okay? I can’t expect you to live here without feeding you and if all your meals are as good as this one, I’ll consider myself fortunate to have you cooking for me. Are we in agreement?”

  “Yes,” Maddy said stiffly, acutely aware of the warmth of his hand on her wrist.

  “Good,” Chase released his grip and allowed her to continue feeding him.

  Such a timid little thing, he thought, as he openly studied her face. He supposed he should have felt at least a smidgeon of guilt for bullying her into taking care of him, but he was genuinely happy that she was here where he knew she’d be safe. Chase blinked, startled by the notion that he could have even the remotest of feelings for Madysen’s welfare.

  It was just that she seemed so pathetically incapable of taking care of herself and she was far too trusting. Even considering she’d been smart enough to glean some personal information on him so her parents would know where she was at and who she was with, he could easily have given her a false name and address and she’d have been none the wiser until it was too late.

  While he polished off the last biscuit, Madysen rose from the table to pull yet another delicious smelling dish from the oven. The rich fruity aroma wafted its way across the room and set his mouth to watering. How had she managed to pull together such a spectacular meal in just a little over an hour? Chase inhaled deeply and was practically salivating by the time she drew up her chair and fed him the first spoonful. As the heavenly concoction brought his taste buds to life, what little remorse he felt at forcing her to come home with him faded into oblivion.

  Chase sighed regretfully when the last spoonful was held to his lips. He would have loved to indulge in a second helping but he was stuffed to the gills and desperately needed to lay down for awhile. He waited until Madysen cleared the table and stacked the dirty dishes in the dish washer before pushing his chair back and standing up. The meal, or maybe it was the wine, seemed to have cured his headache but his arm hurt like holy hell. He winced, as even the careful steps he took sent shards of pain slicing through his entire arm.

  “I’ll need help undressing,” he said, the fatigue and discomfort lending a sharpness to his voice.

  Maddy whirled around, her face paling to find him towering over her. Why did she suddenly feel like Little Red Riding Hood about to be devoured by the Big Bad Wolf?

  Chapter 2

  Maddy followed him up to his bedroom doing her best to look indifferent. A nurse would do no less, she reminded herself, and it wasn’t as if Chase had asked her to strip him naked and hop into bed with him. A slow blush began working its way up her neck at the thought of lying in a tangle of sheets with Chase’s muscular body entwined intimately with hers. Good Lord, why was she conjuring up such carnal images? Besides the fact she’d never even slept with a man before, Maddy was painfully aware that a man like Chase Malone couldn’t possibly find her sexually attractive. Focus, that’s what she needed to do. Focus on why she was here and stop letting her thoughts stray to places they had no business being.

  Maddy didn’t say a word when Chase stopped beside his bed. She simply reached out and started unbuckling his belt as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Her fingers fumbled for a moment with the zipper before she managed to get a firm grip and tug it down, and all the while her racing heart was hammering so hard against her rib cage it was a wonder they didn’t crack under the pressure. Holding her breath, she hooked her thumbs in the waistband of Chase’s jeans and started to push them over his hips.

  “Boots,” he said.

  “Boots?”

  “My boots, they need to come off first.” Chase dropped down onto the edge of the bed and stuck out first one foot and then the other. “Every muscle in my body aches,” he groaned when he stood up again.

  Maddy merely nodded then took a deep breath and shoved his jeans down and helped him with his t-shirt. Stooping to pick up his socks and jeans, she looked around for a hamper and spied it through the open closet door. After depositing his dirty clothes in the basket, she turned around and discovered she was alone. Should she wait for him to come out of the bathroom or just leave? Not willing to face his wrath if Chase decided he needed something more, she wandered back to his bedside and waited for him there.

  His bedroom suited him, she thought. It was spacious and uncluttered, adorned with only a few large, masculine pieces of furniture and an enormous four poster bed that dominated the room. And it smelled like Chase; a musky male scent mingled with something else…sandalwood maybe?

  A few minutes later, Chase emerged from the bathroom and Maddy tried not to notice how well he filled out his boxers or wonder if he looked as good without them as he did with them, but it was nearly impossible to keep her eyes to herself and she once again found herself blushing. He grumbled all the way to the bed, lowering himself down on the edge with a groan. Guilt washed over her in waves. It wasn’t her fault the truck hit her and bounced her across the lane into Chase’s motorcycle, but she was still responsible for his injuries nonetheless.

  “I could…give you a massage if you like,” she said meekly. “You know, work out some of the soreness. It would help you sleep.”

  Remembering all of Madysen’s near mishaps in the kitchen, Chase wasn’t sure he was safe letting her anywhere near him, and her
hands were so small he doubted she’d make much of an impact on his aching muscles anyway. But it had to have cost the nervous little thing dearly to offer, and he just couldn’t make himself tell her no. Nodding his assent, he removed the sling then crawled up on the bed and lay on his stomach with the pillow fluffed up under his chin.

  A low moan whispered from his lips when her warm hands moved up over his calf and began to gently knead the tension from his muscles. Gradually, her touch grew more confident, her fingers skillfully working out the knots in each calf before tending to his thighs. Having a full body massage wasn’t a new experience for Chase, but getting aroused by it certainly was, and he was shocked by his body’s response. There was nothing erotic about the way her hands moved over him and nothing suggestive or even remotely sexual about the massage itself, so he couldn’t explain why his skin was tingling or why he suddenly felt flushed as if he had a fever.

  “Why didn’t you want the prescription for painkillers?” Maddy asked as she started on his lower back.

  “I don’t take drugs of any kind.”

  “No, I imagine someone like you wouldn’t.”

  Chase closed his eyes, willing himself to concentrate on their conversation and not the heat that was pooling in his loins. “What do you mean by that, someone like me?”

  “Nothing, it’s just…nothing.”

  “You had to have meant something by it,” he said crossly. “Don’t be so damn mousy about everything and tell me.”

  Maddy’s lips pressed together. He really was the most ill tempered man she’d ever met. “I just meant you seem like a very domineering man and…well, you probably view it as a weakness to fold to pain. Taking medicine would be too much like confirming that weakness, so you’d rather suffer than take something to ease the discomfort.”

  Chase had never really thought of it like that before but he supposed she was right. His brows furrowed. “Domineering? You hardly know me well enough to make that assessment, don’t you think?”

  Maddy smiled and applied more pressure to the taut muscles in his shoulders. “Commanding then, is that a more agreeable word?”

  “I can live with that,” he chuckled.

  ****

  Damn, the woman was good at what she was doing. He felt immeasurably better and though his arm still throbbed, the rest of him was feeling blissfully relaxed. Maybe she had some kind of mystical healing powers or something because all the tension seemed to have ebbed from his body, with the minor exception of one muscle in particular that remained stubbornly hard and firm.

  Unfortunately, there was only one way to rid himself of the problem and somehow Chase didn’t think Miss Nervous Nellie would be agreeable to helping him out. He could almost see the look of horror on her face when he suggested she hop on and ride him for a few minutes, for he had no doubt he wouldn’t last much longer than that. He smiled to himself, letting his mind play out the fantasy of stripping Madysen and making love to her when he was abruptly yanked out of his erotic daydream.

  “Turn over so I can do your front side,” Maddy said.

  His eyelids snapped open, and to his astonishment Chase felt genuinely embarrassed by the idea of turning over and letting her see the affect she had on him. As jittery as she was around him, she’d probably make a mad dash for the door and keep right on running. He decided the accident must have done something to him, scrambled his brains a bit maybe, because there was no way in hell he’d ever feel so drawn to a woman like Madysen Sawyer under normal circumstances.

  He’d always gone for tall, willowy females who had more beauty than brains, mostly because there was no danger he’d become emotionally involved so they posed no threat to his life as a confirmed bachelor. He liked his women to be poised and graceful, women who thrived on his demanding nature and enjoyed using their feminine wiles to entice him, not like this butterfingered little nymph who trembled every time he raised his voice and who seemed completely unaware of her own sexuality. No, Madysen wasn’t his type at all, but something about her rattled him and he almost regretted inviting her into his perfectly ordered life.

  “Chase, did you hear me?”

  “I heard you,” he snapped.

  She leaned over him, setting her hand lightly on his shoulder. “Do you need help?”

  He shrugged her hand off, an unreasonable anger stealing over him. “If I wanted your damn help I’d ask for it!”

  Maddy drew in a stilted breath, stung not only by his words but the harshness of his tone as well. “I’m sorry, I just thought…”

  “You’re not here to think,” Chase said impatiently. “Now kindly remove yourself from my bedroom so I can get some sleep. And Madysen…try not to break any of my things.”

  He was tired and in pain, she reminded herself, but it didn’t stop the tears from forming in her eyes and spilling down over her cheeks as she made her escape. She was being overly sensitive and she knew it, but so many things had gone wrong today and Chase’s hateful attitude did nothing but compound the feeling that she was a complete failure at everything she did. Obviously she hadn’t done a very good job at working out his tension, but she’d done her best so it was horribly unfair of him to bark at her like that.

  Maddy scurried across the hall to the bedroom she’d chosen when they first arrived. She hadn’t even bothered to look at the others because she’d instantly fallen in love with this one the moment she’d stepped inside and saw how bright and cheery it was. Chase hadn’t given her much time to explore but now she wiped away the tears and wandered through the room, examining the magnificent antique armoire and checking out the firmness of the mattress on her bed.

  She never would have guessed by the simple blue jeans and t-shirt he’d been wearing that Chase was a wealthy man but everything about this house screamed money, as in multi-millionaire money. Not that the size of his portfolio made any difference to her, after all, she'd spent her entire life surrounded by people who had more money than they could spend in one lifetime. But it did make her wonder what he did for a living, because whatever it was, Chase was obviously very good at it.

  Maddy rose from the bed and crossed the room, opening the double French doors to the balcony and let out a childish squeal of delight at the breathtaking view. She’d known they were near the ocean of course, but Chase’s house stood alone at the top of a stony cliff so she’d just assumed there was no access to the beach. Now she could see there was not only a clear view of the water but also wooden steps leading down to it.

  The rain had thankfully stopped but the overhang of the roof sheltered the balcony so that even in a downpour she’d be able to sit outside and paint. She couldn’t have asked for a better place to spread her wings and try her hand at capturing the beauty of the ocean on canvas and suddenly Maddy was anxious to get her art supplies set up so she could go to work.

  With a renewed sense of purpose, she slipped out of her bedroom past Chase’s partially opened door and hurried downstairs. She took only enough time in the kitchen to set some meat out to thaw for dinner and grab a quick bite to eat before hurrying out to her car and unloaded her easel, canvases, and painting supplies. So what if the circumstances for her being here weren’t exactly ideal? When she wasn’t tending to Chase’s needs, she’d be able to do what she loved most; recreate the beauty of nature through the strokes of her paint brush.

  For awhile, she was blissfully happy as she arranged her things near the balcony doors and unpacked her clothes. She’d had no particular destination in mind when the unfortunate accident happened, and Chase’s house was much better as far as accommodations went than staying in a hotel and having to cart her art supplies everywhere. Granted, she wouldn’t have as much free time to paint as she’d like but it was only a month delay and she’d given herself a full year to prove herself as an artist.

  Yes, Maddy decided, the remote location away from the sounds of the city and the breathtaking view from her room suited her just fine. She was just about to stroll out to the balcony t
o enjoy the peace and quiet when her tranquil afternoon was shattered by a thunderous roar from the green-eyed devil across the hall.

  ****

  “Where the hell have you been,” Chase barked, “I’ve been calling for you for twenty minutes!”

  Maddy knew he’d done no such thing, but she wasn’t about to work his temper up any more than it already was. “I’m sorry,” she said contritely, “what did you need?”

  “A charley-horse in my thigh,” he gritted, rubbing the offending muscles rather ineffectively with his left hand.

  She was by his side in an instant, pushing him back against the pillow. “Just lay back and try to relax.”

  “Easy for you to say, it’s not your leg that feels like it’s on fire!”