Chapter 35 Too Damn Adorable

Pierce stared down at me with an intensity that was palatable. In the next moment he palmed the back of my head, drew my face up to his and planted a hard kiss to my lips as he made a raspingly annoyed sound in the back of his throat.

In the next instant he released me, his words scolding as he growled, "I told you to just pet the damn dog!"

I giggled as my hand was seized in a no-nonsense grip and I was practically dragged down the tree-lined path towards Pierce's front door, a snorting Ziggy trying to keep up with us.

Despite the tone of his voice I could see from his profile that Pierce was grinning. It was no surprise to me to find I was sporting a grin of my own. It was silly, really. We were being silly but it was oh so much fun.

I suddenly stumbled. Pierce's long strides when compared to mine were anything but compatible. As quick as a whip Pierce caught my arm. He paused and looked down at me with a half chagrinned look. The other half was still all arrogant Pierce.

I didn't say anything and neither did he, but his hold on my hand loosened and he twined our fingers together as he set off forward once more, this time his strides shorter to match my own.

He really was a good boy.

Pierce looked down at me and cocked his eyebrow when he encountered the huge grin splitting my face that I could not contain. I quickly shifted my expression and shook my head and gave him a watered-down version of the smile I couldn't completely get rid of. I thought it better not to tease him any further.

'Let sleeping dogs lie,' I thought with a mental grin, side eying the large man beside me.

The encounter set the tone for our night. Pierce was playful and I found myself, oddly enough wanting to play. So, we did.

We shot some pool. Pierce was good but I was better. We attempted darts but after a few horrible and very dangerous tosses on my part we quickly moved on to something where one of us was less likely to lose an eye. The incredulous look Pierce gave me as we walked outside to try a match of tennis would have been extremely hilarious if it wasn't so embarrassing.

We played only one game of tennis. Pierce kicked my butt and I had to run like a mad man to return his serves. I was hot and sweaty and begged off a second game. He took mercy on me and led me back into the house to the study where he had shared his most hated memory with me the first time, he had brought me here.

It was as cluttered as before with Ziggy laying in her bed, snoring. I plopped down on the plush sofa, my head leaning back against the cushion, and eyed Pierce who stood half a dozen feet away from me with a disgruntled expression.

I wasn't sure if it was my cross expression, my lack of athletic skill, or my less than stellar appearance that made him chuckle now.

"Laughing at me or with me?" I mused.

Pierce's grin grew larger and his top teeth came out to bite at his bottom lip as if trying to contain the growing expanse of his smile. He stuck his hands into the front pockets of his shorts and refrained from saying anything until he got his obvious mirth under control.

"As you are not laughing," he finally managed to say, "It would be an obvious lie if I said with you. But...," he went on, pausing to smash his lips together to squelch the smile that was appearing to be impossible for him to hide. "But," he repeated with added emphasis when he finally could, "I would never ever dare laugh at you."

My head lolling back against the sofa, I eyed him with lazy curiosity. Pierce, this man, was sharp and devious and a master wordsmith. I looked forward to seeing how he would try and get himself out of this one.

"So..." I prompted when he didn't attempt to say anything more. "You weren't laughing at me, but we also both agree you weren't laughing with me as I wasn't laughing. So," I drawled out making it clear I expected an answer.

Pierce rubbed absently at his forehead, the movement of his hand distracting me. I was a hot, sweat soaked mess but I couldn't help but notice that Pierce, aside from his hair being damp at his temples appeared almost as perfect as he usually did. His skin did have a sheen to it that I knew had to be perspiration, but that only made him look sexier.

Life was just not fair sometimes.

"I was laughing because you make me feel good."

My eyes stopped focusing on his hand and I looked back at him, quirking my eyebrow at the obvious sidestepping of my question, though I had to silently admit his answer pleased me a great deal.

"So, you are at least admitting that you were laughing at me?"

Pierce cocked his head at me in that arrogant way he had that both irritated me and made me shiver. In a few long strides he was standing over me and, in a heartbeat, he was bending forward, his long lean body crowding me as his hands rested on the back of the sofa on either side of my head.

"I admit I was laughing. I admit you were the cause of my laughter, though I am not sure you can construe my laughter as 'at you.' I admit I laughed because of you," he murmured, his breath a warm puff of minty air in my face. "And I can admit that I will be guilty of doing it again and again. But it's all your own fault, Jackson. You're, too damn adorable. Quirky. Sweet. Clumsy."

"This is all my fault?"

Pierce wrinkled his nose as he looked down at me, his eyes twinkling clearly enjoying himself at, yet again, my expense.

"Yep! That's pretty much what I concluded, too!"

"Huh!" I exclaimed in surprised confusion, my hands rising up to land on his shoulders pushing him away though he didn't budge. "That was me asking you a question, Pierce not me agreeing to your ridiculous conclusion!"

Pierce chuckled. I just shook my head at him. He was incorrigible.

"I'll tell you what," he suddenly said as his body remained closely hovering over my own. "Though I can never promise not to laugh because of you, not at you, and there is a difference. I promise that laughter will only ever come from the affection I have for you."

I blushed at his choice of words. Affection. It was an apt choice of phrasing. I knew it to be true on my part. It felt nice hearing he was feeling the same way.

"If you laugh with me or at me, Jackson. I don't care because in the end I am the winner as I get to see your smile and hear that sweet sound you call a laugh that is rarer to hear than it should be... than I want it to be. So, laugh away. Laugh to your hearts content. I'll just sit back in bask in every moment."

His words pleased me but they also peeved me a bit.

"You've just completely turned the tables on me, haven't you?" I demanded, looking up at him. "Now I'll just look petty if I try to get you to admit anything!"

Pierce winked down at me his eyes alight with laughter and pride.

"Quick as ever, I see," he said, admitting without admitting he had wormed his way out of having to admit he had been laughing at me all along.

I lowered my hands from his shoulders and crossed my arms over my chest. I had the feeling from the expression on his face he was once again finding me adorable but thankfully he seemed smart enough not to push his luck.

Instead he leaned down and kissed the tip of my nose before bracing his right arm against the back of the sofa, swinging his body around and landing with a definite thud to sit beside me on the couch, our sides pressed together from foot to shoulder. He swung his right arm up and around my shoulders, his body slouching further into the cushion, pulling me more comfortably into him. My head resting in the crook of his shoulder.

I gave up my stiff pose. He and I both knew I wasn't really angry anyway. I found for the first time I liked messing with him as much as he seemed to tease me. Of course, he was much better at it and teased me far more often than I was yet comfortable to do to him, it was still fun.

Through all the years with my friends, they had often played around like this amongst each other and with me. They were notorious for their pranks. But with me it had always been more a gentle teasing. Whereas it was no holds bar with each other. And I in return had never really joined in. I just always went along for the ride. It had been fun and I hadn't known anything was missing until Pierce.

It was hard to explain what made it different with Pierce. There was an underlying intimacy when we teased each other. And it was very mutual. I wanted to get his goat as much as he liked kidnapping mine. It had always been that way.

Well maybe not always.

There had been the first time we had met after all. He had definitely been trying to get a rise out of me and my friends that day. The glint in his eyes that night had been pure frozen steel.

He had since apologized. He had admitted he had been wrong. He had even eluded to there being a reason for his behavior but he had never confided that reason to me.

Though I still had tons of questions for Pierce and about Pierce that was the only remaining question that came with a red flag. We had become so close over the last few weeks and I wanted to grow closer. I wanted to build something with him. There were all the makings there for us to become something real and hugely important. Something I had never thought I could ever have in my life.

But that damn red flag continued to wave in the air at me. It was one of the unknowns about Pierce that scared me most. I could usually put it out of my mind. We were getting to know each other. Everything he had said and done since had showed his true character. He was someone I could trust. He was someone I could rely on. He was someone who looked out for me. He was a good man.

Except for that one question mark I just couldn't shake.

Sitting here tonight cuddled up with him felt perfect. Being with him felt right. Possibly even a gross understatement if I were to be really honest with myself.

Being with him made me feel. Period.

He touched me emotionally and physical and intellectually. He stimulated me in all aspects of myself. Had even awakened something I had not thought existed.

I didn't want to lose this.

I didn't want to get even more attached if that unknown dangling out there was something I couldn't handle. I couldn't imagine it being something that I couldn't get over but I could no longer wait to find out.

It was time for me to stop hiding my head in the sand.

We needed to talk.