Chapter 6
Clare
Chanel and Forgotten Kisses
I gripped the steering wheel tighter as I willed the traffic to move along faster. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I should have been to Wes’s place nearly an hour ago. Instead, I’d been stuck in traffic that was moving slower than a turtle for some reason.
Seeing his building come into view, I smiled. “Almost there!”
Wes stirred next to me, then slowly lifted his head. “Where are we?”
“Just down from your condo.”
“Man, it feels like I’ve been sleeping for hours.”
I laughed. “Because you have. It’s taken almost three hours to get from Harmony and Preston’s house to here.”
“What?”
Glancing his way, it was clear he had slept off some of the alcohol. “How are you feeling?”
Wes scrubbed his hands down his face. “Fine. I am hungry, though.”
“Well, you’re almost home, so you can fix yourself something to eat.”
I felt his gaze on me, and I turned to look at him. “What?”
“You don’t even want to come up and have a snack?”
Letting out a humorless laugh, I shook my head and focused on the gridlocked traffic. “I’m not hungry.”
“What if I need help, getting up to my place?”
“Do you?”
“I don’t know, I might.”
“Why don’t you pull out your phone and call Mandy, maybe she’ll come help you.”
I could instantly feel the air in the car change. Peeking at him, he was staring out the passenger side window. I felt like an absolute heel for saying what I did. After all, he hadn’t told me his plans for me to throw it up in his face at the first chance that I got.
“I’m sorry, Wes. I shouldn’t have said that.”
When he didn’t answer, I reached over and pushed his arm. “I’m sorry, okay?”
“It’s fine.”
Exhaling a frustrated breath, I dropped my head back on the seat.
“I can walk from here.”
“What?” I said, suddenly feeling panicked that he was leaving. My gosh what was wrong with me? One second I didn’t want to be near him, the next I didn’t want him to leave.
“Yeah, I can just walk from here.”
“No!” I said as I reached for him and grabbed his coat. “Your family would kill me if I let you walk home after you were so drunk.”
“I wasn’t that drunk.”
I huffed. “Then why did you hit your head getting into the car and then promptly pass out.”
He turned and looked at me. “I hit my head?”
Gasping, I covered my mouth with my hand. “Oh my God. What if you have a concussion and I let you fall asleep after you hit your head? Do you remember what day it is?”
“Saturday.”
“What did we do today?”
He was quiet for a few moments.
My head jerked to the right. “Wes? Do you not remember what we did today?”
Shrugging, he said, “Did we go out?”
“Wh-what?”
“Did you and I go out?”
My mouth opened and closed I bet a dozen times before I finally found the words to speak. “No, Wes, we were at Harmony and Preston’s house making decorations for your mother and father’s anniversary party.”
He simply stared at me, and when the car behind me honked, I screamed. Wes put his hands to his head.
“Fuck, my head is pounding, Chanel.”
My heart dropped to my stomach. “Oh my God. Oh! My! God!”
“Why do you keep saying that?” Wes asked. The traffic had finally started to clear up, and I turned the corner and pulled into Wes’s parking garage.
“Do you know the code?” I asked, barely above a whisper.
“Yep!” he said with a pop of his P. “It’s twenty-eight, thirty-two.”
I punched in the code and the gates opened. “Parking spot?”
“Sixth floor number five.”
My mind was spinning. “How do you remember all of this other stuff, but you don’t remember my name?”
He laughed. “I remember your name. It’s Clare.”
I closed my eyes briefly and thanked God above. He had just gotten confused. That was all. It had nothing to do with him hitting his head, and everything to do with the residual effects of all the beer that he drank.
Once I found his parking spot, I pulled in and parked. “Wait, and I’ll open the door and help you out.”
“Chanel, I can get myself out of a sports car, trust me.”
He flung the door open and got out as I sat there in stunned silence. When he started to walk toward the entrance to the building, I quickly got out and ran to catch up with him. I didn’t even have time to grab my coat I had taken off and put in the backseat.
Wes punched in another code and the door to the building opened. We walked to the elevator and took it up to his floor.
“Wait a minute…why don’t you have a parking spot on your floor?”
He shrugged and swayed a bit.
“I can’t believe you’re still drunk!”
“I’m not drunk, Clare.”
Both of my hands came up to my mouth as I sucked in a breath. “They’re going to kill me.”
The elevator doors opened, and Wes stepped out. He looked to the left, then to the right. Then at me.
“I can’t seem to remember which one is my apartment.”
My heart pounded between my ears as I grabbed his arm and led him to his apartment. Thankfully I knew which one it was from when I was here the other day. There was another code which I wasn’t even sure how I knew, but I typed it in while he stood there. The door opened and he walked in as if he was perfectly fine.
“I think we should go to the hospital, Wes.”
He waved me off. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not fine. You keep forgetting my name, and you couldn’t remember where your apartment was.”
He tossed his jacket onto the back of a chair, then kicked his shoes off. He started for the balcony, and I made a mad dash to get in front of him.
“You can’t go out there!”
Laughing, he leaned in toward me and got so close our faces were inches apart. Then he drew back and held up a little remote. He hit a button and the shades started to come down.
Turning, he reached behind his back and pulled off the long-sleeve shirt he had been wearing.
“Um…what are you doing?” I asked as I stupidly followed him through his condo. We walked into his bedroom, and he stopped and took off his jeans. He was only wearing black boxer briefs.
My eyes blinked several times as I took in his perfectly toned body. I was pretty sure I swayed a little. His ass was perfection. When he moved, the muscles rippled beneath his skin.
“You must work out a lot.”
He looked back at me and smiled. “I do.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Yeah, I can tell. But anyway, Wes, I think we should have someone look at you,” I said as I walked farther into the room. It was huge! A king-size bed sat in the middle of the room with two nightstands. Large floor-to-ceiling glass doors showcased a view of the harbor. I glanced around for a remote to shut the blinds in this room but couldn’t find anything.
Wes was taking off his watch and setting it down on the dresser, so I walked over to the end table to search for the remote. When I turned back around, I ran into a solid form.
“Oof!” I said as grabbed onto Wes’s arms to steady myself.
“Whoa, are you okay?”
My eyes were everywhere on the man. His face, his mouth, his bare chest. Heat burned in my hands where I held onto his bare arms.
Then he slowly smiled, and I felt a pool of heat in the pit of my stomach. All the times I had dreamed of being with Wes, and here I was, in his bedroom, with him nearly naked, and he couldn’t even remember who I was.
“I want to kiss you.”
My tongue instinctively swept over my lips, and I swore his eyes darkened. A low growl came from deep inside of him.
For a half a second, I nearly lifted onto my toes to kiss him. Instead, I closed my eyes and took a step away.
“You don’t want to kiss me, Wes. You’re drunk and you don’t even remember my name.”
He took a step forward, placed his hand on the side of my face, leaned down, and kissed me so tenderly I felt my knees go weak.
When he drew back some, our eyes met. “I know exactly who you are…Clare.”
My eyes searched his face, for what I wasn’t sure. I tried to think of something to say, but no words came to me. I was in utter and complete shock. That, and extremely turned on but how gentle he was being with me.
Wes smiled once again as he stepped away. He reached for a loose strand of my hair and rubbed it between his fingers.
“Your hair is so soft.”
His green eyes met my blue, and we stared at one another for what felt like forever. This wasn’t real. He wasn’t really wanting to kiss me. He was drunk, and most importantly, he was still in love with his cheating ex. I wasn’t about to be a plaything for him to use.
Taking a step back, I cleared my throat. “I need to leave.”
Whatever spell he had been under was broken. Pushing his hand through his hair, he let out a soft laugh. “Jesus, I must be drunk still if I kissed you.”
His words were the ice water I needed to put out the intense feelings I was having for him.
With a tight smile, I gave a single nod. “Does your head hurt still?”
Reaching up, he touched his head and winced.
Shit. Is it safe to leave him?
“Do you have any Tylenol or anything?”
Wes sat down on his bed. “The bathroom.”
I quickly made my way out to his kitchen and got a bottle of water from his refrigerator, then made my way into his bathroom. I opened the medicine cabinet and quickly found the pills. I got two out and made my way back to where Wes was still sitting. He was staring out the window seemingly lost in his own thoughts.
“Here, take these and drink this.”
He glanced up and looked at me, then at the pills in my hand. He reached for them, popped them into his mouth, then drank nearly the whole bottle of water.
“I’m fine, Clare, you can go ahead and leave.”
“What if you have a concussion?”
He let out a small titter. “I don’t have a concussion. Your responsibility for my well-being is hereby completed.”
I chewed nervously on my lower lip while I watched him stand, pull the covers back, and climb in.
“Lock the door on the way out, please.”
“Maybe I should sleep on the sofa, just in case anything is wrong.”
Wes turned and put his back to me. “Do whatever you want, I’m going to sleep.”
I stood there for at least three minutes before I heard the soft snores coming from him.
Turning, I walked out of the bedroom, shut the door, then leaned against it. My fingers came up to my still-tingling lips. He kissed me. Wes kissed me. No, a drunk Wes kissed me. He won’t even remember he did that come morning.
I pushed off the door, looked around and saw a blanket folded up and sitting on a storage chest. I didn’t feel like I should leave him in this condition. He was probably right, everything was okay, but I still felt like I had to check up on him just in case.
Making my way to the blanket, I grabbed it and opened the lid of the chest. Bingo. There was a pillow, some sheets, and more blankets in there as well. I grabbed the pillow and walked over to the sofa. Kicking off my shoes, I sat down, tossed the pillow down, then set an alarm on my phone to check on Wes in an hour.
I set my phone on the coffee table, grabbed the blanket, and laid down. My mind spun with everything that had happened this afternoon and evening. Meeting Alex and having him smile at me the way he did made me feel good. It was nice having a man pay such attention to me like he had. He had asked me out to dinner, and I hadn’t been sure I wanted to go. I gave him my phone number and sent him a text so I would have his. Then I told him I’d check my schedule to see if I was free.
Letting out a small laugh, I shook my head. I was more than free. Something had kept me from saying yes. Had it been Wes? Was my stupid crush on him keeping me from going out with Alex?
My fingers touched my lips again and I squeezed my eyes shut. He didn’t want me, he wanted Mandy. And no matter how amazing that one single kiss was, it hadn’t meant anything to him. He had basically said it was a mistake two seconds after he kissed me.
Reaching back for my phone. I opened the text I sent to Alex.
Me: I’m sorry this is so late, but I would love to have dinner. Are you free tomorrow night?
Setting the phone back down, I pulled the covers up and closed my eyes. Using some breathing techniques to clear my mind, I finally drifted off to sleep.