Unlikely Places

Chapter 32 For Myself

Monday morning and I was still reeling from the weekend. Pierce had held me so long and tight for what had felt like forever. I had hated to let him go but my friends had been waiting and I knew them. They would have soon shown up at the front door to see what we were doing. As I was completely flustered already, I hadn't wanted an audience to make things worse.

I had reluctantly stepped back away from Pierce and unlocked my arms from around his neck and stepped down though my palms had lingered and had softy run down his chest before I had finally stepped back away from him, breaking complete contact. It had been more difficult than I would have ever expected, breaking that contact. What was usually my natural inclination had felt anything but natural yesterday.

It had felt wrong.

Pierce, too had seemed just as unwilling to break our connection but the rueful look he threw towards the front door said it all. He knew my friends were waiting and he also knew they would come if I wasn't back soon.

"All things considered, let's give them a break today. They can see me kiss you some other time," he had tacked on, making me blush and him laugh.

I never knew what would come out of that mouth of his. I only knew for sure how amazing it kissed. His mouth I was learning was a gift and a curse. Though it could annoy me with some of the things he said it definitely came with perks.

My fingers absentmindedly rubbed at my lower lip as I concentrated on the spreadsheet in front of me. Auditing numbers had never seemed less appealing than now. Pierce and kissing Pierce was about all I could think of.

And that had made things a bit awkward when I had finally rejoined my friends. Archer and Percy had obviously threatened the other three with dire consequences because Branson, Mick, and Noah had been on their best behavior. As a matter of fact, other than a few questions, they had changed the subject and we had actually enjoyed the rest of our get together. Of course, those few questions had been doozies.

The first was why had my wallet ended up with Pierce and what had I been doing not to notice it was missing? Of course, I knew that question had been coming so I answered it as simply as I could. I told them we had gone out on a date and it must have slipped out of my pocket. There were a few skeptical faces in response but I ignored them and Percy and Archer made it clear that particular subject was closed.

The second question had come from Archer himself and it had been quite simple but very much to the point.

"Do you like him?"

I hadn't hesitated in answering though I had stuttered a bit with my answer, only just realizing then it was the first time I had stuttered the whole day. Considering how messy it had gotten I was astounded.

"Y...yes."

Branson and Noah had immediately spoken up with their questions of why but Percy and Archer had nixed that in the bud by saying it was none of their busines and they needed to respect my feelings and my privacy.

"Just give him a ch... chance," I had quietly asked to the room at large. "For m...me."

A few grumbles had been my response but they had quietened almost immediately and instead they had all agreed to lighten up with Pierce when he was around. Noah and Branson's agreement had been halfhearted at best but I was satisfied enough. Archer and Percy had actually seemed quite happy about the entire thing while Mick had appeared to be riding the fence not yet ready to say one way or the other what he was thinking and had only commented, 'time will tell.'