Chapter 21

Damn it! Curled up against Julian's chest, Anna couldn't bring herself to laugh at all. Her cheeks were flipping colors like a traffic light—red one second, pale the next. Was it really that funny? Like, seriously? Laugh it up then, go on, laugh those perfect teeth right out of your mouth! "Anna." Didn't hear that. "Anna?" Who's Anna? That's not me. "Anna!" The moment she heard her full name, Anna—who had been desperately pretending she didn't exist—snapped upright like a spring. Back straight, face wearing a smile as fake as it could get, she said, "Hey, were you talking to me?" Julian looked at the overly eager girl in front of him and couldn't help but want to laugh again. Because of his background, the women around him were always the refined type—the perfect socialite, Ivy League grads, overseas returnees who were all polished and graceful, smiling with etiquette like they came out of some brochure. All pretty, all perfect, and all the same. Not a shred of vitality in them. But An