AN: Thanks so much to those who reviewed chapter one. Your responses mean a lot to me.

With a sigh, I climb out of bed. My leg feels surprisingly better but a dull ache lingers so I make sure to favor it as I neaten the covers, and then get some clean clothes of my own. While I run my soapy hands over myself in the shower, I can't help wondering why Peeta and I don't shower together. It suddenly seems so stupid that he always goes downstairs so we'll each be alone. He's kissed or touched almost every inch of my body, yet never even seen it in a well-lit room.

For a while, I was glad to keep our activities confined to the bedroom at night, but now I think I'm ready to try something new. I want to see him better. I want it to be more…fun. Not just something we do to relax or comfort each other, but something we both really want to savor.

I hurry up and rinse my hair, then quickly brush it out and braid it back. Once I'm dressed, I make my way downstairs and find Peeta in the kitchen, setting ingredients on the counter for breakfast.

"Can we talk?" I ask.

He turns around and sees me in the doorway of the kitchen. "Sure. Um…should I put this stuff away?"

I nod my head, then make my way to the living room, where I sit on the couch. I turn so my back is against the arm of it, shoulder touching its back. Moments later, Peeta comes and sits down, facing me in a similar way. "Are you okay?"

I nod, trying to decide exactly what I need to say. I don't want him to worry though, so I reach out and take his hand, holding it tightly with both of mine. I think about how good this hand can make me feel; how it knows exactly which ways to touch me. "I wanted to say," I begin, "that I'm sorry about what happened yesterday. For snapping at you when you were trying to help me."

Peeta smiles a little. "It's okay. You were tired and hurt. I don't blame you for being irritable. And I got mad first, anyway."

"You had a right to be mad. What I did was…stupid. I could have gotten hurt even worse. I'd be upset if you did something reckless like that." But I know you wouldn't.

Peeta's gaze softens and his smile grows. "I'm glad you understand." Quietly, he adds, "I can't lose you."

I nod. "I can't lose you, either." I drop his hand and slide my hands up his chest, wrapping my arms around his neck as I scoot closer to him. But before I can kiss him, he speaks.

"It reminded me of when I first came home."

I loosen my hold, letting my palms rest on his shoulders. "What do you mean?"

Tentatively, Peeta moves to hold me around my waist. "You didn't seem to care about yourself. About eating or sleeping enough. And…" He bites his lip, averting his eyes from mine.

"What?" I ask.

"You didn't seem to care that I was here. That you still have me. For a while after I came back from the Capitol, I didn't think you even wanted me here."

"I didn't care about anything then," I admit. "I couldn't."

Peeta nods. "I understand that. I mean, I kind of felt that way too, for a while. But yesterday, you seemed like you did back then, and it just…it hurt."

Tears form in my eyes. Even though it pains me to hear this, I'm glad we're talking about it. I wasn't exactly kind, or even responsive to him for a while after he planted the primroses. But he's helped me get so much better, as I hope I've done for him. I can understand why he would be sad and disappointed to see me seemingly revert to that bad time for us. But I haven't. It was just a bad day.

"Please don't cry," Peeta says softly, staring at me with worried eyes.

I bite the inside of my cheek and shake my head, blinking the tears away. "I'm sorry I made you feel that way." Before he can answer, I lean forward and press my lips to his. After a moment, I tilt my head further to the side and push my tongue against the seam between his lips. He instantly parts them for me and pulls me closer.

I run one hand through his hair and cup his jaw with the other as we taste and explore each other. That warm, pleasant ache starts to build in me and I think Peeta's feeling it, too. But before this goes any further, I have to say one more thing. I pull away abruptly and watch Peeta's eyes pop open. He looks taken aback as his gaze flickers around my face, lingering on my lips.

"Peeta," I say, causing his eyes to lift to mine. I open my mouth, but can't quite get the words out while he's looking at me like this. So I lean forward, placing a trail of kisses along his jaw and neck as he holds me snugly in return. When my lips are right by his ear I whisper, "I love you." He tenses in my arms, no doubt from surprise. This is the first time I've ever said those words to him, and I feel like they're long overdue. I kiss his cheek before adding, "I love you so much…it scares me sometimes." Because I always seem to lose the people I love.

Peeta pulls back to look at me, clearly filled with awe. His lips are parted slightly, his eyes wide, almost incredulous. He licks his lips then says, "I love you, too." He kisses me briefly. "You know I love you." Another, longer kiss, and this time it's a real struggle to pull back.

"Let's go upstairs," I say.

I expect Peeta to stand up, maybe take my hand and lead me up to our bedroom, but instead he pulls me onto his lap so I'm straddling him, wraps his arms tightly around me, and then stands. Honestly, I'm relieved, since I'm still injured and we'll probably move quicker this way. I hold tightly to him, trying to make myself easy to carry, and rest my head on his shoulder, smiling at the feel his arousal growing against me.

He gets us up the stairs and into the bedroom in probably a minute, but it seems to take far too long for my back to hit the bed. We kiss again, now with him leaning over me. But I remind myself that I want this time to be different. As different as I can make it.

So I shift us, pushing Peeta onto his back and moving so that I'm perched over his erection. I rub against him and he groans, sliding his hands up to cup my breasts. I can barely feel him through my bra, so I sit up, breaking our kiss, and reach up the back of my shirt to unhook it. Teasingly, I slip my arms out of the straps and toss it to the floor, but keep my tank top on. Peeta smiles roguishly, setting me on fire. I lean forward to kiss him again and continue moving against him. His hands return to my breasts, now only separated from them by the thin material of my shirt. He massages them with just the right amount of pressure, brushing his thumbs over the hardened tips and causing pleasure to shoot through my body, increasing the need I feel between my legs.

He's making it hard to concentrate on the first part of my plan. In this moment, I want nothing more than to pull our clothes off and sink down on him. I want to ride him fast and hard…but I manage to remember that that would end this too quickly.

I push his hands off me and sit up, so we're no longer kissing. I try to catch my breath and rein in my need. But Peeta's hands, which have now wrapped around my hips and are continually rocking me against him, are not helping.

"Wait," I say with a smile.

Peeta's lustful expression wavers. "Why?"

I kiss him briefly. "You're making it hard for me to think." Hard for me to be unselfish.

Before he can answer, I move off him, still favoring my ankle and ignoring a couple twinges of discomfort. I unbutton and unzip his pants, and Peeta looks relieved that I'm not putting a stop to what we're doing, but still unsure about what's going to happen next. He helps me pull his pants and undershorts off, then sits up so I can get his shirt over his head. I stare down at him and can't help smiling. The scars and his leg hardly even register; he's beautiful to me. Strong and perfect.

My gaze reaches Peeta's face and he looks a little uneasy about being completely naked, while I've still got my shirt and pants on. I mouth the words love you and he seems to relax, even smiling at me a little.

I run my hands over his chest and he closes his eyes, seemingly to better concentrate on my touch. I kiss and suck at his neck, then kiss my way down his chest. When my mouth reaches his lower stomach, and I run a hand along the line of downy blond hair, he says my name.

Lifting my head, I see that his eyes are open again. Peeta leans up on his elbows and takes a quick breath in. "What are you…?"

I smile coyly at him. "What do you think?"

"You don't have to…I mean, not because of our"- he clears his throat - "our fight."

I shake my head slowly. "I want to, Peeta. I want to make you feel good."

He's looking at me with wonder, like I'm too good to be true. "Really?"

Instead of answering, I dip my head down and lick him, from base to tip. A strangled moan comes from his mouth and I feel my lips spread into a grin. I love that sound. Glancing up, I see that Peeta's face is flushed even more now and he's panting lightly.

"Lay back," I say softly.

He nods slightly and straightens his arms, letting his head return to the pillow. I slide a leg over his so I'm straddling him, but resting my weight mostly on my left knee. I lean my head back down and lick him again, causing a different – less shocked sounding – noise this time.

I've never done this before, but it shouldn't be hard to figure out what he'll like. A few times, when he's been inside me, I've experimented with squeezing myself around him and this always makes him groan and start to move faster. Keeping this in mind, I lick my lips and take as much of him as I can into my mouth. My hands attend to the sensitive parts of him that don't fit in my mouth and he writhes beneath me. I would smile if I could.

Careful to keep my teeth away from his soft skin, I start to suck. Gently at first, then harder. Clearly, he likes this. He seems to be struggling to breathe, and he's started thrusting lightly against me. I raise my head up, then slide it back down, imitating the way he moves in and out of me at night, and continue sucking. I can tell Peeta has sat up now, and his hands reach down to cup my head and aid my movements as he groans and gasps above me. I love this, love making him feel like this. I never thought pleasuring him in this way would be so thrilling for me. I'm still burning to take him inside me, between my legs, but don't mind waiting a little. Right now, I'm doing exactly what I want to be doing.

After a while, he tells me he's getting close, and distractedly tries to push at my shoulders so I'll let up with my mouth before he finishes, but I don't stop just yet. I suck harder for a few moments and then, at what I judge to be the last second, lift my head. With both hands, I do my best to maintain the same kind of pressure I was causing with my mouth as he shudders, groaning, and his whole body tenses before he lays back down.

I only let up when the pulsing does. Gently, I release my hold on him and wipe the back of my hand over my lips, then surreptitiously grab a couple tissues to clean us both up, before I crawl up the bed and lay on my side, facing Peeta. His head is on the pillow, his eyes closed. If his chest weren't rising and falling noticeably, I might be worried about how still he is. That something they did to him in the Capitol weakened his heart and now he can't handle such intense feelings - even good ones.

But I know he's fine. I run a hand over his chest and he opens his eyes, turning to face me and cup a hand over my jaw. "You're -" he starts, then doesn't seem to know what to say.

"Good?" I offer.

Peeta laughs a little. "Unbelievable." He kisses me briefly, then lays back down, still not yet recovered I guess. With a smile, he adds, "Amazing."

I smile back, and lean in to rest my head on his chest. After a minute or so, he says, "What about you? I can -"

I lift my head to look at him, and interrupt him by saying, "Just let me know when you're ready for more." I'm dying for some attention, but want to let him bask in this a little longer. I try to be satisfied with squeezing my thighs together and telling myself that the longer I wait, the better it will eventually feel.

He nods and I lay my head back down. After a couple more minutes, Peeta shifts us, so I'm on my back and he's leaning on his side next to me. He pushes my shirt up and starts caressing and kissing my breasts, making me squirm and sigh. It's satisfying in a way, to finally feel him touching my bare skin but mostly I'm just getting more impatient. I reach down to unbutton my pants myself and together we make quick work of pulling my clothes off and tossing them to the floor.

Peeta's leg moves between mine, nudging them apart, but then the skin on his thigh rubs against me just so and I go wild. A high-pitched, desperate sound escapes my mouth and my body seems to have a mind of its own as my hands grip his lower back, to hold him in place, and my hips thrust up against his leg. I'm so wound up that I actually come from this…and surprisingly fast. My muscles relax slightly but that was barely satisfying. I need more.

Peeta releases my nipple from his mouth with an audible pop and grins down at me. "Really?" he asks good naturedly.

"It's your fault," I say, only pretending to be defensive.

Still smiling, Peeta moves so he's sitting between my legs. I lean on my elbows, watching him take his erection in hand and absentmindedly stroke it a little. I swear I can feel an additional surge of wetness from this sight and my hips start shifting toward him of their own accord.

Finally, finally, he slips inside me and the relief is immense. I wonder if I'll ever be able to get used to this. Maybe not. Maybe some things are too good to ever grow accustomed to, or take for granted. The usual thoughts flicker through my head in quick succession, grounding me in this moment: I'm with Peeta. He loves me. He's mine and I'm his. I know my body wanted him like this before my heart or head caught up and now that they're all on the same page I can't believe it took so long.

The feeling is so exquisite that I almost forget about my desire to try new things. Almost, but not quite…so in the midst of a kiss that has our mouths melded together, I manage to push on Peeta's shoulder in a way that makes him realize what I want. Together, we roll over so I'm sitting on him. I break the kiss and sit up straighter, somehow managing to remember to favor my injury. Using my bent left leg, mostly, and with my hands braced on Peeta's chest, I begin to rise up and sink back down. Slowly at first, then in a steady rhythm. I like this new position very much, like being the one in control. It definitely takes more work than having him on top but the exertion, and feeling like I'm the one fucking him, is incredibly arousing.

I steal a glance at Peeta's face and see that his eyes are heavy lidded as they stare at my bouncing breasts, and his mouth's partway open, tongue between his lips. I can't stop myself from quickening my pace, thinking only of my own pleasure, until I come again. With a soft cry I collapse forward onto his chest, too relaxed to do any more work at the moment.

Peeta is still rock hard inside me. His arms encircle me and he murmurs in my ear, "What am I going to do with you?"

"Oops," I say.

A light laugh rumbles through his chest and he sits us up, eliciting a gasp from me at the shift inside me. I'm pretty sensitive right now but the idea of pausing for even a few moments flies right out of my head. With more leverage now, Peeta's hands wrap around my hips and he starts raising and lowering me in his lap, rocking up against me as well. I lift my head to see his face and am shocked by the intensity in his blue eyes. I can't look away from him, can only stare back and relish this new level of intimacy. We have never looked directly at each other during sex before. I think he's wanted to but when I've felt his gaze seeking mine in the past, on those couple of occasions when there was a lot of moonlight in the room, I've always closed my eyes or pulled him closer and hidden my face against his neck.

Now, I rest my forehead against his until our pace speeds up, at which point I try to lean back a little but lose my balance, falling to the bed. Peeta, of course, follows me and we wind up in a more familiar position. His hands find mine, interlacing our fingers, and he pins them to the bed on each side of my head. I squeeze his hands in return, maintaining eye contact until he speeds up his thrusts even more and I can't handle this any longer. I cry out in unison with Peeta, arching my back and pressing my head into the bed as the climax crashes over us both. In these moments, my mind is beautifully blank. We are the only two people who exist – who have ever existed. My world is perfect.

Peeta somehow manages to maintain his fervent pace as we ride out the waves together, and then finally he collapses on top of me. I'm too numb to move or think of anything but the tiny spasms of pleasure that shoot through me as Peeta slowly pulls out, little by little, with each pulse of my inner walls. He winds up on his back beside me and the only sound in the room is of us both catching our breaths.

As the haze of bliss recedes, I reach my arms over my head and stretch from fingers to toes. I again become aware of my injury, of its dull ache. Of course Peeta and I were both careful to favor my ankle and shin but I'm still surprised at how little they've bothered me since we entered this room. I guess arousal can raise your pain threshold. Also, I think this was the very first time we've had simultaneous orgasms. Maybe Peeta was planning that all along and that's why he teased me a little about the two I had before he could catch up. But like I said, it's his fault.

My stomach starts rumbling and I glance over at the clock. Nine thirty? That means we've been up here for…what? An hour and a half? I can hardly believe that. The time flew by.

Peeta rolls onto his side, propping his head up so he can look down at me. His left hand strokes my stomach as he smiles lazily. "Hungry?"

"No," I lie, and he laughs lightly, leaning in to kiss me again. Another rumble annoys me and I wrap my arms around Peeta's neck, holding him close. I know we'll have to go downstairs eventually but I'm in no hurry whatsoever. Not when he's kissing me like this: so sweetly, and so full of the promise of more good things to come.

Our altercation yesterday, which now seems so irrelevant, scared me at the time. Like Peeta, I was afraid it might be a setback for us but now I feel so much closer to him than ever before. It's funny how things work out sometimes. How something bad can lead to something good. Great, even.

AN: The end. Thanks for reading.