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to see what you’re choosing."
    "Trust me," he murmured drily.
    "I’m warning you," she grumbled, "if I don’t like the final look, we’re going
to go through the whole scene again."
    "Don’t worry, you’re going to love the final look."
    It was going to be another case of "take me or leave me, Lacey realized in
annoyance. She could put her faith only in the fact that nothing he chose from a
store like this would be too terrible. Glumly she watched the salesman scurrying
to and fro.
    At long last the fitting-room door swung open and Jed emerged, straightening
the collar of an open-throated yellow shirt. He was wearing it with a new pair
of jeans. Automatically Lacey opened her mouth to protest, but he cut across her
irritation with a casual warning.
    "Be reasonable, Lacey. I’m going to be stuck with these clothes long after
I’ve outlived my usefulness to you. I refuse to wind up with a bunch of
high-gloss things I’ll never wear. Besides, remember what the general consensus
was back there at the hairstyling salon. The natural, macho look is in ."
He threw her an unrepentant grin as he prepared to pay for the parcels the
salesman was carrying over to the. cashier.
    He did look good, Lacey decided with a flash of artistic honesty. The yellow
shirt was of excellent quality and had the proper California nonchalance, with a
fit that was just snug enough across his broad shoulders. Everyone wore jeans,
regardless of financial status. Somehow on Jed everything did look right, Lacey
couldn’t deny it. There was an air of sheer male toughness about him that would
have made a mockery of some of the softer, trendier designs.
    Biting her tongue on the words of reproach, Lacey followed him over to the
cashier. "Did you get something decent for evening?" she demanded.
    "Don’t worry, madam," the salesman assured her before Jed could respond. "I
think that, On the whole, you’ll be quite pleased. Not precisely what you or I
might have chosen, but I believe it all works. We’re fortunate that Mr. Merlin
has a certain natural style that is well suited to the more casual, conservative
look."
    "A certain natural, macho style, would you say?" Jed inquired with a taunting
that seemed to go unnoticed by everyone except Lacey.
    "That sums it up rather well," the salesman agreed politely. "Will there be
anything else?"
    "I think that will do it," Jed told him, writing out the check. He collected
the packages, piling several of them cheerfully into Lacey’s arms, and Jed the
way out the door.
    As Lacey followed him to where her white Audi was parked at the curb, she had
the distinct impression she was losing control of the situation.
    "I’m getting hungry," Jed announced, taking the keys from her hand to open
the trunk while Lacey stood holding packages. "What’s for dinner? Or doesn’t
food and lodging come with the deal?"
    She eyed him warily. "You’re welcome to have dinner with me this evening,"
she told him formally as he took the packages one by one from her arms and
stashed them in the trunk. "It will give us a chance to discuss my plans in more
detail."
    "Thank you, I accept," he said silkily. "But if I have to eat off black
china, I’m going to insist we stop at the store for some paper plates first."
    "The china is white," she told him icily. "Now, if you’ll kindly give me the
keys, we can be on our way."
    "That’s all right," he grinned easily, tossing the keys into the air and
catching them. "I’ll drive."
    With a man like this, Lacey decided in sudden intuition, a woman had to pick
and choose her battles, because she couldn’t win them all. Her mouth twisting
wryly with that knowledge, she climbed into the passenger seat without
protesting. If Jed wanted to battle L.A. traffic, why shouldn’t she let him do
exactly that? And the man always had been inordinately single-minded when he set
his mind on something!
    For some reason she thought about the way he’d tossed the