I stood and began to slowly pace, pressing my palm flat against my chest in an attempt to ease the sudden ache that had replaced the cold feeling that had been there. It was like now that it had a name—now that I’d acknowledged what it was—I was feeling its full effect.
You have something like that going on for what you claim is much longer than it was ever supposed to, and you don’t think there’s a reason for that?
It took the words from someone who was practically a stranger to make me see what I’d been doing, for how long, I wasn’t even sure. This thing between me and Wes was never supposed to be anything more than random scratches of an itch. I could have walked away at any given point…but I didn’t. Ichosenot to. I kept going back for more.
In the beginning, itwasstrictly about release, but somewhere along the way, something shifted. It stopped being about just sex and started being about the person who made me feel less alone. I knew things between us had changed, but I refused to see it for what it was until I was left with no choice.
Because now that I waswithouthim, I realized what I felt when I waswithhim.
It was that spark.
It was that all-consuming passion.
That intense desire.
Thataching needto be with him.
I hadn’t let myself acknowledge it before. It was like I had some kind of anti-Wes wall that wouldn’t allow me to realize thathe’dmade me feel all those things. They just came packaged differently than how I expected them to present themselves. They didn’t strike all at once but slowly over time.
All this time I spent waiting to find that person that made me feel the way I’d only ever heard about, and he’d been standing right in front of me this whole time. Wes Callahan—the man who spent years being an arrogant thorn in my side, who I once despised, who so effortlessly got under my skin—had somehow managed to burrow his damn way into my heart, and I…
“Oh my God…”
Wes turned out to be everything Ineverexpected. He was still cocky, sure…but over the course of nearly two years, I saw what was underneath the veil of arrogance. He was funny and made me smile and laugh even when I didn’t want to. He was thoughtful, even if he masked it under silly pretenses. He had a much bigger heart than he let on. And he was theonlyguy who had ever challenged me in his ownirritatinglycharming way.
My heart slammed against my chest as I swallowed thickly, still pacing the length of my suite as the epiphany became more and more clear.
Falling for Wes Callahan was a plot twist Ineversaw coming.
Yet here I was. I’d fallen…andhard.
Chapter 42
I rolledmy eyes with a small smile. “I don’t needhelp.”
“No, stop.Shhh.”
Lucas chuckled at Callie as her eyes shifted around. She scoped out the scene, and I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t help but smirk a little. They wanted to go out for Friday night drinks, so we met up at Agora. Lucas had blabbed to Callie about what I told him last week, and now she’d made it her sole mission to find me a “nice girl.”
A part of me wondered if she’d be so quick to help if she knew therealreason I was doing this. If she knew I’d fallen in love with her best friend and was trying to force myself to forget my one-sided feelings.
I pushed the thought aside. I needed to stop thinking about her so damn much.
“She’s cute.” Callie pointed to a woman at the bar.
I casually glanced over, following her line of vision to a brunette in a dark green bodycon dress. She was attractive anddidn’t seem to be there with anyone if her standing solo at the bar was any indication. But I made no move to approach her.
“So, this is the part where you get up and go say ‘hello’ and introduce yourself,” Callie said, and Lucas snorted at her sarcasm.
A part of me didn’t want to. Why?
Because she wasn’t Morgan.
And that thought wasexactlywhat made me finally stand from my seat. I couldn’t dothat. I couldn’t compare, or this would go nowhere and fast.
Callie chuckled. “Go get her, tiger.”
I huffed out a laugh as I walked away and headed toward the woman. I brought my glass with me, needing a refill anyway, and I leaned up against the bar beside her, signaling to the bartender. When he took my glass, I turned to look at the woman…just in time to see a guy approach her, sliding an arm around her waist.
