{Blog Tour} Cover Me (True North #1) By Carrie Elliott (@CarrieEBooks)

Derek Bast, always has the final say. In business and in his personal life, things are done his way, or not at all. So when a scathing review of his new band is published in The Scene and has his record producer second guessing his artistic choices, his band mate trying to call the shots, and Bast’s manager convinced he’s impossible to work with, it’s time to hunt down the source of his problems: Bess Halprin, reviewer for The Scene, the girl next door growing up, and his ex-best friend since senior year when she decided to hate him for no reason.

The last person Bess Halprin wants to see standing in the lobby of The Scene is Derek Bast. Unfortunately, she can’t deny that the last nine years look damn good on him. She expected to hate him. She didn’t expect the way he can still tug at her emotions, or the way his kiss—and his hands—set her on fire. Bess should’ve kept her distance, because Bast was right when he guessed her review was written for revenge. The problem is, to this day he has no idea what he did—how he screwed her over their senior year. The bigger problem? She’s giving him the opportunity to do it again, because she never could resist him.

When circumstances bring them both home to Santa Cruz, Bast earns his way into the heart of the girl next door, but when they return to L.A. and real life rushes in, will he be able to keep her this time or are the mistakes in their past destined to be repeated?

Exclusive Excerpt - 

Bess Halprin was never someone Derek Bast considered for a second. I was the girl who got straight A’s in my AP classes. The one whose idea of fun was hanging out with my church youth group. The one who never turned him down when he asked for a favor, even if he never said thank you.

“Here we are,” he said, pulling up in front of the valet stand at the Roosevelt Hotel.

“Of course you would bring me to a hotel,” I said. Who did he think he was? Dumb question. He knew who he was, that’s why he thought he could get away with bringing me here.

“Relax, Halprin. We’re only going to the bar. Right now I’d rather strangle you than screw you, so your virginity’s safe with me.” He got out as the valet opened my door.

Virginity? Not likely. Even us nerdy girls found a man every once in a while.

I waited while he tipped the valet, then stepped inside the lobby when the doorman opened the door for us. With the arches, soaring ceiling, tile floor and center fountain, I might have time travelled to the Spanish colonial era.

“When you’re done gawking…” Bast said, waiting for me to follow him into The Library bar.

Honestly, I wasn’t done gawking. I’d never been inside the Hollywood Roosevelt before. It was stunning. The bar actually did look like a library with leather chairs and banquettes, bookshelves along the walls and diamond-shaped window panes. Bast took my hand and helped me up into a chair at the bar before sitting beside me. “Thanks,” I said, somewhat shocked that he knew how to be a gentleman.

“What would you like?” he asked, waving to the bartender. There were only a handful of other people around us.

“Jameson on the rocks.”

The bartender heard me and nodded. “Make it two,” Bast said.

“So, the review.” I settled right down to business. Better to not pretend this meeting was personal. It wouldn’t do me any good when I didn’t see him for another decade…or ever again.

He pressed his lips together. His eyes narrowed. “The review.”

“I don’t imagine you enjoyed reading what I had to say, but I write reviews for my readers, not to kiss entertainer’s asses. Not even yours.”

The bartender sat my drink down. Perfect timing. I picked it up and took a healthy drink, relishing the feel of it burning all the way down to my stomach.

Bast gripped the edge of the bar and very slowly lowered his forehead down onto the polished wood. “I’m trying really hard here to not flip out on you. You should appreciate that, because it’s taking more self-control that I thought I possessed.”

I gave him an amused smirk. “Stop being such a diva and get over it. It was a bad review. So what? Can’t be the only one you’ve ever gotten? Or is it, superstar?”

He made a guttural growl deep in his throat, lifted his forehead and tapped it over and over again against the bar. “That’s not the point.”

“We’ll be here all night if you don’t start getting to it then.” I took another drink.

He turned his head to the side and looked at me. It wasn’t the face of a man who was being petty about a review. It was a man who was stung. “Whatever I did to make you hate me, Bess, was it worth trying to ruin my career over?”

“Ruin your career? Please.” I looked away from him and drained my glass.

About The Author - 

Carrie Elliott lives in Ohio with her family, loves going to movies that make her cry and has an ice cream addiction--we won't mention the coffee and chocolate! She's the author of the True North Series, Cover Me and Listen To Me now available, Resist Me coming Fall 2014. Find her on Twitter and Facebook and make sure to subscribe to Carrie's newsletter for exclusive giveaways, content, sneak peeks at covers and more! Sign up HERE!

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