Free Cover to Covers by Alexandrea Weis Page B

elevator. “Chris, you don’t need to take me up to my room. I’m fine.”
    “Monique, you’re not fine.” He came closer to her. “I’ll get you some coffee.”
    “No, Chris. No coffee.” She shuffled into the elevator. “I’m just going to go to my room and sleep it off.”
    Chris was about to walk into the elevator with Monique when Tyler stepped in front of him, blocking his path. “She said she’ll be fine,” Tyler growled.
    “Yeah,” Monique chimed in from the elevator car. 
    Chris took a step back, nodding his head. When Tyler turned around, he was surprised to find Monique holding the elevator doors open for him.
    “Aren’t you coming?” she implored.
    Tyler grinned and entered the car.
    As Monique pressed the button for the eighth floor, Tyler could not help but gloat when Chris’s lips tightly pursed together in an angry scowl.
    After the elevator doors had closed, Monique let out a heavy sigh. “Christ, he is getting impossible.”
    “What is it with that guy? Why is he so possessive of you?” Tyler demanded.
    She shrugged and rested against the side of the car. “I’m his biggest client and he’s terrified of losing me to some other publisher that will cut him out as my manager.”
    “Are you thinking of leaving your publisher?”
    She waved off his question. “Hell no. Donovan Books has been good to me.”
    “ Donovan Books? It’s his publishing house?”
    “His family’s business ,” she acknowledged. “He has a brother, Hunter, who manages the publishing company while he runs a separate promotions company for the authors.”
    “No wonder he’s so worried about losing you.” Tyler rested his hand on his hip. “I thought maybe he was in love with you.”
    “He isn’t in love with me…or at least I don’t think he is.”
    “I can’t believe you haven’t noticed how he acts toward you, Moe .”
    “I know any man that shows the least bit of interest in me, Chris runs off. Until you came along, I didn’t care who he ran off, because I never wanted —” She abruptly stepped over to the doors.
    He came alongside her. “You never wanted what?”
    “Forget it.” She kept her eyes on the doors as the elevator came to a stop on the eighth floor.
    He held on to her arm. “ What is it, Moe?”
    When the doors opened, she shirked off his hand and bolted from the car.
    “Wait,” he pleaded, following her down the hallway.
    Monique was almost sprinting when he caught up to her. Grabbing her arm, he spun her around to face him.
    “Tell me what you were going to say.”
    She struggled against his grip. “No.”
    Wriggling free of him, Monique scampered the last few yards to her room. Tyler followed dutifully behind her, determined to make her talk. When she reached her door, she had already removed the white key-card from her purse and was swiping it through the lock. But the gods of fortune were smiling down on Tyler, because the lock failed to register the key after her swipe and the red light on the lock blinked, denying her access.
    Tyler came up behind her as she hurriedly swiped the card through again, only to be denied once more. He took the white card from her hand.
    “Let me try.” He ran the card through the lock, and the light switched to green.
    Monique stood beside him as he opened her door. “You were right,” she whispered.
    “Right about what?”
    Her gray eyes were filled with the same fear he had seen back at the restaurant. “When you asked me if I ever wondered what we would be like together. I did lie to you. I used to think about it all the time.”
    “Are you thinking about it now?”
    She slowly nodded.
    He pushed the door all the way open. “Ask me to stay.”
    “What if you’re disappointed, or what if I don’t live up to—?”
    He placed his finger over her lips. “Moe, you could never disappoint me. If nothing happened between us tonight, I still wouldn’t be disappointed.”
    She took in a deep breath, clasped his hand, and led