MISCHA WASN'T SURE what to do. She paused momentarily, wondering if she should knock on the door or something, but she heard Nicole Richie's muffled laugh and then Lindsay's, too, and she knew Rihanna could handle herself so she walked out of the room adjoining the bedroom to place some distance between them. She really wasn't in the mood for sound effects.392Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsa1IIaymR1
"Benito," she said. Where had she lost him? The casino, she guessed.
Mischa walked into the next room of the huge yacht, the main room, where they'd started. She heard a noise on the dock outside the boat. It must've been the fat American. He hadn't joined the fun in the bedroom. She hoped he wasn't still carrying around that idiotic camcorder.
Her head was starting to roar from the booze, laser blasts of pain against the inside of her skull. There was a refrigerator in the corner of the room and she fished around for a bottle of water.
"Benito," she said again.
The boat moved a bit, and Mischa could tell that someone was coming aboard.
"I believe that's my cue."
That voice, like a song. Mischa turned and straightened up and there he was, at the opposite end of the room. Her heart started pounding. Headache----what headache? It all came back in a rush, the intoxication, the giddiness, the loss of inhibition. She realized it then: it wasn't the booze that had turned her upside down tonight.
"Have we met, monsieur?" asked Mischa.
Benito took a step toward her. His eyebrows pitched, a hint of a playful smile. "Sorry I'm late."
Mischa took a step forward. They were inching towards each other. Every switch inside her had been flipped on. Her legs didn't feel shaky anymore.
"But you're here now," she said.
A scene in a movie, thought Mischa. Ironic, given her dance partner, a man who, unlike her, had his own star on Hollywood Boulevard.
Benito reached for his shirt, started to unbutton it.
"No," she said.
He didn't move. "No." He didn't say it as a question, but he knew it was.
"No," Mischa repeated. She walked toward him. Benito McLaughlin, international film star, stood silent, watching Mischa Barton, British-American TV starlet.392Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkHNJAOrczK
She reached him. She placed her hand where his was, at his collar.392Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0VizjHE0wn
"I'll do it," she said.392Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBnRNBvcd57
