Free Cover Me: A Rock Star Romance by Carrie Elliott Page A

repeated. “That’s it. That’s the song.” Something that had shifted apart inside me clicked back into place. “I want to work with you on it, Bess. Like with Cover Me. That’s where it started and what I want to get back to.” I cupped her cheek and made her look up at me. “Will you do it? Will you work with me on the song?”
    Her dark eyes clouded over and skittered away from mine. She sat up. Like the other night, I knew it was happening again. I was losing her.
Bess
    Events come full circle and moments repeat themselves. Déjà vu was real. I let Derek Bast back into my life and was faced with allowing him a second opportunity to drive a stake into my heart. Except I was prepared this time. I wouldn’t let him into my heart. Only my pants on a limited basis.
    “Bess?” He sat up beside me and rubbed his hand across my back. “You make the friendship rules, remember? I’ll follow them.”
    If I was in control, why didn’t it feel like I was? He couldn’t hurt me unless I let him, and there was no way I’d let him. “I’ll think about it,” I said. “Helping you with the song. I didn’t plan on staying. I have work to get back to.”
    He brushed my hair back and traced my ear with his thumb. “Why did you come?”
    There was no lying about it. We both knew my parents were gone. “To find out why you walked out on the deal and left Kurt. You didn’t mention it…that night. The next morning you, what? Woke up and decided to turn your life upside down?”
    His thumb glided along the side of my face, down over my jaw. “Let’s just say I didn’t get a lot of sleep that night and had a lot of time to think about what I wanted.”
    “Was it because I wouldn’t retract my review?”
    His eyes followed his hand as he stroked my hair and let his fingertips caress the hollow behind my ear and trail down the side of my neck. “It was because you left. I don’t like being someone you don’t know or trust. I don’t want to be that guy. If you don’t know me, then I don’t either. If you don’t know me, I’m not Derek Bast from Santa Cruz. I’m whoever nine years of being in the music industry has made me.”
    “The music industry has nothing to do with why I left.”
    “No. That’s on me and I’ll figure it out.” He leaned in and traced the rim of my ear with his nose. “Have faith in me, Bess,” he whispered. “I’m not the teenage boy who used to overlook you. He needed to grow up and realize what was always there in the room across the yard.”
    I felt my lips turning toward his, like they were magnetized. “What was there?”
    “My true north.” He kissed me and my resolve shattered. My eyes watered with tears I refused to shed. My heart ached, begging me to stop being stubborn and love him like I wanted to. Trust him. Cherish and treasure him. Believe it was our time to be together.
    He held the side of my face while he kissed me, his thumb resting under my chin, guiding me to him and keeping me there. My throat tightened with emotion. My eyes fluttered open to watch him kiss me, to memorize this moment. I stored away the golden tint of his tanned, smooth skin, and the sound of our mingled breathing and wet lips, pressing and parting again and again. The fan of his long dark lashes under his eyes, the bridge of his nose tilting against mine and the crease of his forehead, so serious and determined to convey his sincerity through his kiss. The thin veil of control was etched on his face, the struggle to hold back and let me keep the reins.
    Our lips parted and he leaned his forehead against mine. “How long can you stay? You don’t have to help me or even see me or talk to me if you don’t want to after today. Knowing you’re over there inside the window listening is enough.”
    I placed my hands on his cheeks and closed my eyes, willing my thoughts—the ones I wouldn’t let escape—to transfer from my mind to his. I wanted to stay forever if that’s how long he needed