Zoey Dean - Blonde Ambition

Copyright 2004 by 17th Street Productions, an Alloy company

All rights reserved.

Little, Brown and Company

Time Warner Book Group

Hachette Book Group, 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Visit our Web site at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

First eBook Edition: September 2007

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Cover photography (foreground image) copyright Pure/Nonstock

Cover photography (background image) copyright Ken Biggs/Stone

Summary: While Annas new job as intern on the hottest television show brings her into contact with an interesting new man and helps her see how possessive Ben has become, Cammie sets her sights on Adam.

ISBN: 978-0-316-02894-3

The Warner Books name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

THE A-LIST

GIRLS ON FILM

For Sam, Emma, and Carrie

Taking joy in living is a womans best cosmetic.

Rosalind Russell

I nside suite 15 at the six-hundred-bucks-per-night Montecito Inn in Santa Barbara, California, seventeen-year-old Anna Percy stretched languidly and took in her reflection in the antique mirror over the Van Lutz chest of drawers. Same long blond hair, classic high-cheekboned, patrician features that shed inherited from her patrician mother. But for the first time in her life she looked, she thought, wild and free.

Those were two adjectives that never came to anyones mind in describing her, she was certain. Cerebral, yes. Cautiousway too often. But wild? And free? The way her best friend, Cynthia Baltres back in Manhattan, was certainly described on a regular basis? Never.

Yet the deed had finally been done. Ben Birnbaum, the guy who at that very moment was bringing her back a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice just delivered by room service, had done it.

Only two weeks earlier Anna had left behind her safe, elite life on the Upper East Side of New York to move in with her father in Beverly Hills. Shed hoped, like so many over two centuries of coming to California, to reinvent herself. As she took the juice from Ben, who looked about as hot sans shirt as was possible without actually igniting flammable objects, she smiled.

Mission accomplished.

Hungry? Ben asked. He sat next to her and leaned in for a kiss.

Starved, actually, she admitted, sipping her juice. Youve kept me prisoner in this room for twenty-four hours without food or water.

Prisoner, huh? He traced a teasing finger down from her collarbone. I dont seem to recall any protest.

Beyond true. But Bens lips made Anna forget about food, and senior year at Beverly Hills High, and all the problems with her screwed-up family. She was able to shut down her constantly thinking/planning/analyzing mind and lose herself to the moment. The world outside suite 15 had ceased to exist. The sixty-dollar post-dinner breakfast theyd ordered remained on the tray. There was nothing in the universe but Ben.

R innng.

Bells kept going off in Annas head.

Riiing.

Her eyes flicked open. She could just make out the ceiling fan blades swirling the ocean breezes around their moonlit room.

Riing. Now she realized the sound was coming from her cell phone in her purse. She vaguely recalled leaving it on the window seat, whose view overlooked the magnificent beach. Ben was asleep on his back, with one arm flung over his head. His short brown hair was tou-sled, and she knew how electric blue his eyes were under the closed eyelids. The bulge of his bicep was golden against the white Egyptian cotton, hand-embroidered sheets.

The ringing stopped. Good. The real world could wait for however long she wanted it to wait. She snuggled against Ben. Her phone rang again.

She turned to see the red numerals on the clock radio. Six in the morning. She sat up with a start, heart pounding. Whod call twice at six in the morning unless it was a disaster? Or a drunk reaching a wrong number? Damn. She threw back the covers and padded across the room, locating her purse and her Motorola cell phone by the fourth ring. She flipped it open. Hello?

Anna?

Not a drunk. Her father.

Its Dad. Hey, sorry to wake you, but

What happened? Anna hissed.

Good news. About Susan.

Susan? Her sister? He was calling at six in the morning with good news about her sister? Susan hated their father. And with good reason. Hed paid off Susans college boyfriend to dump her because he and Annas mother had deemed him inappropriate. Fifty thousand dollars and the guy was outta there. Anna felt sick again just remembering. So what could be good?

Im taking her to rehab. In fact, she insists, her father went on. So Ive kinda got a dilemma here.

Hold on, Dad. Not wanting to awaken Ben, Anna went into the bathroom and closed the door. Dad, whats the dilemma? Thats great news.

Yeah, but Im afraid shes gonna change her mind. And she says she wants to see you before we go. To White Mountains, in Arizona.

Where is she now? Anna asked.

She went back to the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Dont let her out of your sight, Anna commanded. Her dad laughed. Not a chance of that. Shes at her bungalow, packing. Im in the lobby. And Ive got her car keys.

Thats good, Anna allowed.

So, can you come? Jonathan asked. For a breakfast before we take off?

Sure, Dad, Anna said automatically, without giving thought to logistics the ungodly hour the gorgeous naked boy lying in her hotel bed the drive the gorgeous naked boy lying in her hotel bed . She was just so pleased that her sister had finally decided to make a positive change in her life.

Where are you? Ill pick you up, Jonathan offered. In Santa Barbara, screwing my boyfriend.

Ha! How freeing it would be to actually say something like that. But it was pure fantasy. The reality was that in true good daughter form, shed be ready to leave in fifteen minutes and would arrive in Beverly Hills within the half hour.

Oh, thats okay. Im at my friend Sams. I can be there in an hour and a half or so. Stay at the hotel. Well eat in the Polo Lounge.

Fortunately Jonathan Percy wasnt the kind of father whod give Annas answer pause. If she said she was at Sams, thats where she was. No questions asked. Never mind that Sam lived approximately six minutes from the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Thanks for this, Anna, her father said.

Anna hung up, went back into the bedroom, and shook Ben awake. He was groggy but focused quickly when she explained the problem. So Ive got to go, Anna concluded.

Instead of jumping out of bed immediately to help get their stuff together, Ben wrapped his arms around her. Whats with us, Anna? he murmured. Were both trying to fix our fucked-up families. Maybe its time they took care of themselves.

She gently pulled out of his embrace. I really have to go, Ben.

His hands dropped to his sides. I guess I just didnt want this to end.

Neither did she. But she couldnt concentrate on him now. She kissed him quicklyafter a fast shower they packed up and departed. Since shed driven to Santa Barbara alone and Ben had surprised her there, they had two cars and drove back to Los Angeles separately. They convoyed it all the way to the entrance to the Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard, where Ben beeped his horn twice and turned toward his parents house.

Ten minutes later she was hugging her older sister, Susan, in the Polo Lounge at the world-famous hotel while their father waited discreetly in the lobby.