Tempt Me Like This
Drew and Ashley ~ The Morrisons, Book 2
Bella Andre
A Note from Bella
When I introduced the Morrisons last year with KISS ME LIKE THIS (Sean and Serena's story), I hoped readers who enjoy reading about my Sullivans would also love this new family. But your response during the past year has absolutely floored me! Every day, I am flooded with requests for more books about the Morrisons, and I am thrilled that you're about to read Drew Morrison's love story.
As anyone who has read my books knows, I adore rock-star heroes and heroines. But as I wrote Drew's story, I quickly realized that he was far more than just a sexy rock star. So much more that my heart broke for him and grew bigger from page to page. Especially when I realized that Ashley Emmit was exactly the woman he needed in his life—and that she needed him just as much.
I hope you fall as much in love with Drew and Ashley as I have!
Happy reading,
Bella
P.S. I can't wait to write the next book about the Morrisons, which will be called LOVE ME LIKE THIS. If you'd like to hear about my new books as soon as they're released, please sign up for my New Release newsletter:
http://www.bellaandre.link/Newsletter!
Chapter One
San Diego, California
Drew Morrison was a rock god.
During the hour and a half that Ashley Emmit had been standing in the middle of the very crowded concert venue in downtown San Diego, she’d heard dozens of people say those exact words. Normally, she would have chalked it up to hyperbole or to collective excitement. But in that moment, there didn’t seem to be even a hint of exaggeration in the crowd’s claims. Not only were Drew Morrison’s songs incredible, but from the moment he’d stepped out onto the stage, Ashley hadn’t been able to keep her body from moving...or her heart from racing.
She was a numbers girl. She studied facts and figures. Her teachers had always said she was the very definition of a left-brained person. Sure, she’d always been drawn to music—not playing it, but listening to it. But even when she was on the verge of being swept away by a certain song, her enjoyment had always been tempered by her practical nature. She’d analyze the song’s structure, the chord progression, the rhyming patterns. She’d read dozens of articles about how the brain was hardwired to process music, as well. She didn’t just want to enjoy something—she wanted to understand why she enjoyed it.
That was why she was at this show. She had one last chance to get into Stanford Business School—and it all rested on figuring out every last detail of the way the music business worked. The graduate program had spawned a truly stunning amount of corporate innovation and had been her dream school since she was a teenager. It still hurt to remember the rejection letter they’d sent her: Our pool of applicants was truly phenomenal this year, most with exceptional real-world experience in their field of choice. We regret to inform you that we do not have a space for you and wish you all the best in the future.
She’d known it wouldn’t be easy to get in, but where other girls had pretty smiles and knockout figures, the one thing Ashley had always been able to count on was her brain. Somehow, though, her brain had let her down. Big-time. But since it was all she had, after wallowing in a freezerful of ice cream, she’d forced herself to brush off the devastating rejection and refocus.
Ashley had read every book written about the music business. She’d listened to every talk given by the experts. She’d pored over financial spreadsheets from both major and indie labels. But she didn’t have an ounce of practical experience. How could she truly understand how to innovate in the music industry when she’d never spent any time with a musician?
Going on tour with Drew Morrison was the crucial piece to her new plan: total immersion so that she could finally understand what was happening on both the business and the artistic sides.
As luck would have it, her father had been one of Drew’s undergraduate professors at Stanford, so even though Dad would much prefer she chose a steady and safe profession that had nothing whatsoever to do with the music business, he’d been able to pull some strings to get her a spot on Drew’s tour.
Ashley was so nervous about traveling from city to city in tour buses with Drew and the group of strangers who were in his band and crew, that she’d done what she always did when she felt unsure about things—buried herself in books and research. Even though she knew it would do absolutely nothing to help her fit in with the rockers on Drew’s crew, it had made her feel a little better to fill up a couple of notebooks with notes and questions, at least.