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he'd watched her leave on Jeremy's arm last night. From across
the crowded room she'd felt the impact of his disapproving gaze.
    That thought caused her to flick open her long auburn
lashes and she found him standing beside her. Then she absorbed the running
shoes, shorts, and bare, bronzed torso. Lacey smiled sweetly. "And anyone
who goes jogging at this hour of the morning certainly has no right to make
remarks about my personal habits."
    "I run, Miss Seldon; I do not jog," he informed
her with the typical disdain of the one type of enthusiast for the other. He
crouched down beside her and grinned. "Care to join me? The path starts
right over there. . . ." He waved vaguely to indicate a point behind a
clump of trees. "Which accounts for my presence near your cottage."
    "I see. Thank you for the invitation," Lacey said
politely, eyes sparkling in amusement. "But as you have noticed, I have my own program for getting the day started."
    "So I gather," he admitted, his glance going to
the casually knotted coil of hair which had been clipped to the back of her
head. Wispy tendrils trailed down the back of her neck above the low, round
collar of her embroidered peasant blouse. Something in his look made her aware
of the fact that she wasn't wearing a bra. "But don't you like the idea of
beginning your days the same way you end them? With a certain togetherness?"
    "An intriguing thought," she mused, knowing he
was referring to her departure the previous evening. "Perhaps I should run
over and wake up Jeremy."
    "Come now," he chided firmly. "Let's be
sensible about this. Jeremy is undoubtedly sleeping quite soundly. I, on the
other hand, am here, I'm awake, and I'm willing. . . ."
    "You're also becoming rather aggressive. Perhaps you
ought to get on with your run and work some of that excess energy out of your
system."
    His mouth twisted wryly. "Give me a chance, Lacey. I'm
trying to apologize."
    "Apologize!"
She stared at him.
    "I realized after you left last night that I had been
behaving in a totally uncalled for manner," he told her with sudden
seriousness. "I'm surprised you even bothered to stay on here. I was half
expecting you to come to the office this morning and tell me you'd decided to
go elsewhere for the summer!"
    She hesitated for a split second, wishing she wasn't quite
so conscious of the lean power in his smoothly muscled body. But in the morning
sunlight there was something elementally attractive about the sweep of broad
chest, the strength of hair-roughened thighs, and the curve of shoulder and
arm. The very male-ness of him seemed to tug at her senses in a way which was
disquieting. In spite of herself she recalled the feel of his arms around her
on the dance floor. Firmly she thrust that thought aside.
    "You're . . . uh . . . worried about losing the business?"
she taunted lightly.
    He grimaced. "It would serve me right, wouldn't it?
All I can say is, I'm sorry for coming on like . . . like . . ."
    "Like my brother? Or my father? Or any one of a number
of other people I left behind in Iowa?" she suggested helpfully.
    "That
bad?'
    "Don't worry about it," she soothed. "I'm
rather used to it The only difference is that out here, I don't have to pay any
attention to it!"
    He shot her a quick, probing glance and then smiled
crookedly. "I can see where you might be a little sick of other people
always knowing what's best for you."
    "It's not that they know what's best for me," she
corrected carefully, thoughtfully. "It's that they know what's proper for me. There's a difference. When I was
younger I let myself be forced into the mold because I really did think the two
were synonymous. The right thing to do was also the best for me. "I've
finally realized that's not true. People want you to do the right thing because it makes life more comfortable
for them! Not
because it's necessarily the best thing for you!"
    "And finally, at the age of twenty-nine, you've
realized that, hmmm?"
    "I've simply realized that I've