Chapter 30 Holding His Hand

"Jackson?" Pierce prompted.

I exhaled slowly and slowly lifted my head, shifting my features into what I hoped was a neutral expression. I would die if he saw even a hint of the lust that had crashed in on me moments ago. With the guys a few feet away, now was not the time. I didn't think it would be the time even if we were by ourselves.

"I can leave if you would prefer," Pierce added when I stayed silent.

His words penetrated my scrambling mind enough to center me. I looked at him and smiled softly seeing the tension that remained in his shoulders but not missing in the least the concerned expression in his eyes. Concern for me.

As usual, he made my heart smile.

"I would like for you to stay, at least to come in and officially meet my friends," I immediately responded.

I wanted him to come in.

I wanted him to stay.

Yes, I wanted him to meet my friends and I definitely wanted him to clear the air amongst all of them, though just the thought of that had me tensing inside picturing Branson or Mick or Noah not making it easy on him. Quite possibly all three of them. But most of all I just wanted Pierce here with me.

He was becoming more and more a part of my life in a way I could not describe. I just knew it felt right. It felt good.

He felt right.

He felt good.

My solitude no longer seemed as appealing as it once had. How Pierce had changed all of that in so short of a time amazed me. I had not been looking nor had I wanted something more in my life than what I already had. Nothing had been missing.

Nothing until now.

I watched Pierce peer over my head and into my house. I knew he was trying to get a glimpse of what he was walking into but I also knew he couldn't see anything as the living room set off to the right, hiding everyone from his view. A small frown furrowed his brow and I smiled up at him softly, my finger without thought, reached up and smoothed at his warm skin.

My gesture caught him off guard and he quickly looked down at me with a surprised expression before a soft smile of his own shaped his lips. I was about to quickly withdraw my hand but he caught it with one of his, grabbing hold and pulling it down to hold in between us.

I felt my cheeks warm but I didn't try to pull away.

"First," he said, still holding my hand while reaching into his back pocket with his free one. "You dropped this last night in the car. I wanted to return it to you as soon as possible."

I was dumbfounded to find my wallet being held in his large hand. I hadn't even realized I no longer had it with me. I had no idea when or how I could have dropped it last night.

"You know," Pierce commented with a devilish glint in his eyes that had me tensing. "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and not assume you dropped it on purpose so I had no choice to bring it back to you. You know... cause you couldn't wait to see me again."

Fire! My face felt like it was on fire. My mouth opened and closed in a wonderfully horrible fish-like impression. I couldn't believe he had said that.

"I didn't..." I started to say but Pierce's chuckle and his squeeze of my hand had me quietening.

"Just teasing," he admitted as he bent down close to my face. "You were looking anxious. Can't have that. Embarrassed, angry, frustrated, exasperated with me... all of those are fine. I just don't want you to be anxious because of me."

I flushed both in irritation and pleasure. Pierce could be so over the top. Leave it to him to have some outlandish, half-baked idea of how to handle anxiety.

I suddenly chuckled and at the same time my irritation grew. Damnit! His ridiculous plan had worked. The anxiousness I had been feeling for the coming moments had subsided amidst his absurd shenanigans. I didn't know if this boded well for the meet and greet that was about to happen.

Pierce stood looking down at me, my hand still held firmly in his, a smile still teasing the corners of his lips.

"I'll behave," he suddenly promised in a soft voice, his eyes earnest as they looked into mine.

I stared back at him for a long moment.

"I'm not sure if you are capable," I finally muttered, half teasing, half serious.

Pierce flashed his wicked grin and winked down at me. His free hand reached up and grabbed my chin. Before I could guess his intentions, he leaned down and gave me the softest of kisses before he pulled back, still looking at me. His stare was as sincere as any promise he could have uttered with words.

Still feeling tense but more assured, I nodded up at Pierce before turning to make my way back into my house, dropping Pierce's hand as I did.

I wasn't ashamed to hold his hand in front of the guys. I just didn't want to complicate an already complicated situation. Those things could come with time. Like the time when they accepted him and actually liked him. Right now, I just felt like it would be gasoline on the fire. I glanced up at Pierce to see if my actions had upset him but he seemed not to be bothered and followed closely behind me as we walked through to where the others waited.

As I walked into the room, Pierce close at my heels, I could see immediately the encounter would be as unpleasant as I had anticipated. Except for Percy, all the other males in the room had varying frowns on their faces. Archer's was slight whereas Mick's and Branson's were downright scowls. Noah's expression fell somewhere in the middle. Percy just looked curious.

Just as I was about to speak to break the painful silence, my throat once again thick with tension, Pierce suddenly stepped forward a step around me and faced my friends.

"Hello. My name is Pierce Lucciano..." he started to say but was immediately cut off by Branson.

"We know who the fuck you are."

I frowned but before I could say anything Percy immediately reprimanded Branson. Mick spoke up then to defend Branson as did Noah. Archer continued to remain silent.

Percy shushed them. "Manners. Period. And you do remember you're in Jackson's house Mr. Kings of Overstepping. Let him finish speaking."

I had felt Pierce tense beside me as soon as Branson had spoken up. I had a pretty good idea that Pierce never let anyone talk to him that way and I was shocked that he had remained quiet throughout. I was feeling a little ticked myself and never more thankful for Percy.

I knew this wouldn't be easy but there was no excuse for that kind of rudeness. It was my house. And he was a guest. I kept silent though as I sensed that was what Pierce wanted from me. I remained silent as both anger and anxiety roiled in my stomach.

"I deserved that," he admitted into the now silent room. "I've acted like an outright ass and there is no reason for you to be polite. I sincerely apologize to all of you as I have already done with Jackson."

Pierce glanced down at me and gave me a small smile. "Jackson is someone I have come to be quite fond of and I would appreciate it..."

"Fond? As in you want to share him with us now? Won't that be stretching him a bit thin?" Mick broke in with his own nasty innuendo to remind Pierce of the awful thing he had once implied.

I tensed. The anxiety never far, had my hands shaking and my heart pounding. That combined with the relatively new experience of anger was not helping my overall condition. I wanted to speak up but seemed to have lost my ability to speak. I tried swallowing and then tried again.

I had felt Pierce immediately tense at Mick's words.

This was even uglier than I had expected. Before I could recover my voice, Pierce started speaking again as I quietly struggled to even out my breathing.

"It wasn't funny when I insinuated it and it isn't funny now. I screwed up. I won't make excuses. But I would like to offer my apologies and ask for another chance. Jackson and I..." Pierce was starting to say as he looked down at me but his words stopped immediately as his eyes landed on me.

I'm not sure what he saw but by his expression I must have looked worse than I was feeling. Without giving the other furious men another thought he turned towards me and grabbed my hands, looking down at me in concern.

"I'm sorry, Jackson. I shouldn't have done this now and like this without giving your friends a chance to know they would even be seeing me," he said with self-disgust.

I frowned as I breathed shakily not liking that he was taking all the blame. No one was really at fault. I knew the guys would act like this and they would have to get it out of their systems before they capitulated like I knew they eventually would. Pierce did have to apologize so the meeting had to happen. It was just me being me.

My friends were so important to me. And now so was Pierce. This wasn't nice and it wasn't pretty and my body simply didn't know how to handle the stress of it. I never liked confrontations, never more so than now.

"Look, I'm going to go. I'll meet them again when they know I'm coming. When it's fairer to them and we can all be more relaxed, okay?"

As we stood there looking at each other quietly talking, neither of us noticed the silence. Neither did we notice that we were being stared at with various expressions of astonishment.

"Excuse me," Noah's voice suddenly piped up.

I turned immediately to look towards Noah though I could tell it took Pierce a few moments as he was watching me as if still concerned, I might have a full-blown panic attack. I glanced back at him quicky to try and reassure him. My anxiety had in no way faded but Pierce's talking had soothed the shakiness enough to help calm me.

I gave his hand a light squeeze of reassurance and that was when I realized we were standing there in front of my friends holding hands and another second to realize that was where everyone's eyes were directed.

To my surprise I felt Pierce try to pull his hand away but with a determination that felt foreign, I grasped his hand tightly to hold on to him.

I should have never let it go in the first place.

The silence was not conducive to relaxation but neither was it filled with the ugliness of moments before. Our linked hands seemed to have magically soothed the dislike but I could tell it also was bringing forth a lot of unexpected confusion.

Branson looked over at Archer and whispered something then looked at Mick and Noah and they all nodded their heads.

"Jackson, are you okay?" Pierce asked quietly from beside me.

I could tell his thoughts were more about me than anything else. It made me feel warm inside and not a little mushy. To be that important to someone like him boggled my mind. It also melted me and soothed the anxiety I had been feeling.

"You're holding his hand," Mick spoke up to state the obvious.

I nodded my head, feeling shy.

"You never touch anyone on purpose let alone hold hands," Noah said.

I shrugged my shoulders. There was really nothing to say.

"What the fuck is going on here!" Branson demanded.

Archer who had remained silent finally spoke up, his tone mild and not without a little humor.

"What the hell does it look like, dumbass?"

After a moment of shock everyone started laughing. It was stilted and a little awkward but the ice had been broken. I still stood nervously beside Pierce in front of all my friends. They were eyeing us and smirking though Mick and Branson still looked at little miffed. Noah less so but he didn't look friendly either.

I had a feeling their forgiving Pierce was going to take a little longer than I had originally thought.