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encounter?
    His eyes met Maddie's and held her gaze.
"Okay. Tell me more. Who do I have to kill for this great financial
opportunity?"
    "Oh, it's nothing like that," Maddie answered
in a rush. "You just have to marry me."

Chapter 4
     
    Jake nearly choked on his coffee. He coughed
repeatedly, hoping he wouldn't cough up a lung. Finally, in a
strangled voice, he managed to speak. "Don't say something like
that to a man when he's having his morning coffee."
    Maddie rose and slapped him on his back.
Harder than necessary. The jerk. He'd been sticking it to her for
the entire conversation until she'd finally caught on. "I'm
offering you a great opportunity. Money enough to tide you over and
make you comfortable when you do go job hunting in a year."
    Jake rolled his eyes. "Hell. I didn't realize
this was a real job interview."
    "It's not an interview," she said tightly.
"Since you're the only candidate for the job, this is an
offer."
    "Then we need to negotiate salary and
benefits some more."
    Maddie pursed her lips. He was really
beginning to annoy her. "Why? What I offered is more than
fair."
    "I don't know. It takes a lot of guts for a
man to marry Mad Maddie."
    She felt as if he'd slapped her. In a quiet,
deadly voice, she said, "Don't call me that. Ever."
    Jake's smile mocked her. "Not so fond of your
nickname, huh?"
    When she just stared, stone-faced, he
chuckled. "Look, Red, I may be, uh, unemployed, but I'm not so
desperate that I'll marry a woman for money. Especially not
you."
    Maddie flinched. "What's wrong with me?"
    Jake rose and returned to the coffeemaker and
refilled his mug. In an offhand voice, he said, "What's right with
you?"
    Maddie lifted her chin. She refused to let
him see how his softly uttered words cut her to the quick. She was
accustomed to the rest of the world believing the garbage that had
been written about her and regurgitated every time it was a slow
news day. She'd thought Jake would be different. She pulled herself
together as she'd done so many times in the past. "My twenty-fifth
birthday is the first of April. I have to be married by midnight of
that day so I can receive my trust fund. If I'm not married before
April first ends, my trust continues to be managed by the trustee.
I'll have to wait another ten years for it."
    "Ah, now I see why you're so interested in
buying a husband. But, you're the Quinn heiress. I figured you had
already banked those millions. Or is it billions?"
    When she didn't reply, Jake pointedly asked,
"What's your trust fund worth, Red?"
    After a brief hesitation, Maddie shrugged.
"Currently, somewhere in the neighborhood of eighty million."
    Jake whistled. "Now that's a very nice
neighborhood. But why rush to get married? I'd bet my last nickel
that you still get to live the same affluent lifestyle you've
always lived. Right? You probably have your own little McMansion
until you get that monstrous pile of gray stone in River Oaks.
You've probably never worked for anything in your entire life."
    "Don't you mean my entire useless life?" Maddie plastered a bright smile on her face that told the
world she didn't give a damn what anyone thought about her. But the
sad truth was that Jake's opinion did matter. She took a deep
breath. It didn't matter. She wouldn't let it matter. Jake was the
only man she could trust not to try to fleece her for every dollar.
If nothing else, his mother would guarantee his good behavior. "You
don't have to like me, Jake. I don't think I particularly like you.
You just have to marry me, and I'll damn well make it worth your
while."
    Let him think whatever the hell he wanted to
think. She forced her voice to be light and faintly mocking. "To
answer your question, yes, I receive an allowance from the trustee,
and it's enough to keep me in thousand-dollar shoes and the
occasional designer dress not to mention the odd bauble or two from
a jewelry store." As if she actually spent it on useless things
like that.
    Jake's expression told her that he'd