beautiful stranger
Beautiful Stranger (A-List Novel #9)
Zoey Dean
To Dianne.
Loyalty is everything. New York was real and California was not.
T' was ever thus.
--Lauren Bacall
8
9
Blank Silk Christian Dior Gown
T here were many things that Anna Percy loved: classic novels written in the nineteenth century, the antique diamond stud earrings handed down from her grand-mother, the idea that a person could, if she really wanted to, reinvent herself. But at this moment, she wondered if the thing she loved most of all might not be slow dancing with Ben Birnbaum.
The orchestra was on a raised platform draped in white and gold, built for this very occasion. The music was smoky and jazzy--very retro. Anna had never heard the song before, but she didn't care. It was the first slow number since she and Ben had arrived at the lavish wrap party for Ben-Hur, and the first time she'd been in his arms all night. Transnational Pictures--the studio behind the Ben-Hur remake--was hosting the affair at one of its soundstages in its studio complex in Culver City.
"Maybe we should blow this off and go somewhere else," Ben murmured in her ear. His breath sent shivers up and down Anna's spine. Said spine was quite visible, in a black silk Christian Dior gown that appeared modest in front but slid below the waist in back. If Anna had been
1
10 the type of girl to give much thought to what clothes said about the girl underneath them, she would have mused that the dress was much like her on this particular August evening: modest on the surface, offering only a glimpse of the heat beneath. The reason she knew about that heat had everything to do with the boy with whom she was dancing.
"I can't do that to Sam," she whispered back, which was true. The star and director of Ben-Hur was Jackson Sharpe, America's best-loved action hero, and his daughter, Samantha, was the closest friend Anna had made since she'd come to Los Angeles seven months before. Anna couldn't very well duck out on her.
Zoey Dean
To Dianne.
Loyalty is everything. New York was real and California was not.
T' was ever thus.
--Lauren Bacall
8
9
Blank Silk Christian Dior Gown
T here were many things that Anna Percy loved: classic novels written in the nineteenth century, the antique diamond stud earrings handed down from her grand-mother, the idea that a person could, if she really wanted to, reinvent herself. But at this moment, she wondered if the thing she loved most of all might not be slow dancing with Ben Birnbaum.
The orchestra was on a raised platform draped in white and gold, built for this very occasion. The music was smoky and jazzy--very retro. Anna had never heard the song before, but she didn't care. It was the first slow number since she and Ben had arrived at the lavish wrap party for Ben-Hur, and the first time she'd been in his arms all night. Transnational Pictures--the studio behind the Ben-Hur remake--was hosting the affair at one of its soundstages in its studio complex in Culver City.
"Maybe we should blow this off and go somewhere else," Ben murmured in her ear. His breath sent shivers up and down Anna's spine. Said spine was quite visible, in a black silk Christian Dior gown that appeared modest in front but slid below the waist in back. If Anna had been
1
10 the type of girl to give much thought to what clothes said about the girl underneath them, she would have mused that the dress was much like her on this particular August evening: modest on the surface, offering only a glimpse of the heat beneath. The reason she knew about that heat had everything to do with the boy with whom she was dancing.
"I can't do that to Sam," she whispered back, which was true. The star and director of Ben-Hur was Jackson Sharpe, America's best-loved action hero, and his daughter, Samantha, was the closest friend Anna had made since she'd come to Los Angeles seven months before. Anna couldn't very well duck out on her.