Chapter Nine.
It has been two weeks since Peeta captured me.
Captured. That doesn't seem like the right word now, given that I'm here on my own free will. Perhaps twelve days ago I would have looked at our situation from a prisoner's perspective, but now I regard it happily. I don't relish the thought of having to leave, though I know that we are playing on borrowed time. Sooner or later reality will catch up to us and our little fairytale will disappear as soon as it came.
But for now, I am going to keep living in it.
When I wake up, my throat is sore. I touch it tenderly and hiss. Peeta sits up and wipes groggily at his eyes.
"Good morni-" His words cut off with a gasp, and he reaches for me and then catches himself, flinching away from me as if I were diseased.
"What is it?" My voice cracks, and I try to clear my throat, but that hurts, too. I roll out of bed and pad down the hall to the bathroom, where I look in the mirror to find my neck stained black and blue. Peeta appears over my shoulder and stares at my reflection with me, horrified.
"Oh God," he says, backing up. "Katniss, I am so sorry. I can't believe I did this. This is inexcusable, unforgivable. I can't even- Oh my God..." He trails off and leaves the room, his hand over his mouth.
"Peeta!" I follow him back into the bedroom. "Peeta, it's not that bad." I try not to wince as I speak, knowing that will only fuel his fire.
"It is bad, Katniss! I choked you- again! Do you know how wrong this is? How wrong all of this has been?" Peeta collapses onto the bed, his head in his hands. "I am so fucked up. I shouldn't even be near you."
"Hey!" I climb onto his lap and push his hands from his face. "You listen to me, Mellark. You need to stop talking like that right now."
"Katniss, this isn't okay. I am not alright."
"No, you're not." His eyes widen, probably because he was expecting protest. "You're really fucked up, Peeta. You went through so much trauma, and you're still not even close to being over it. But you know what? I'm fucked up, too. And maybe it's because I'm fucked up, but I don't care what's wrong with you. I'm not afraid of you, Peeta. I know you won't hurt me."
"But I did, Katniss," he says with a sigh, tracing a bruise so lightly I can barely feel his finger on my skin. "How can you say that I won't hurt you when the proof is right here?"
"I liked it," I blurt out. "I liked it a lot, Peeta. It might look bad, and yes, I am a tiny bit sore, but trust me, I would do it again in a heartbeat."
"Really?" Peeta regards me dubiously. I can tell that our serious discussion is long overdue. "Why don't you tell me exactly what you like, Katniss, because if we're going to continue this then we need to set some ground rules. Not that I haven't been enjoying myself, but I need to know how far you're willing to go here."
Of course, I blush furiously. Busying myself with Peeta's slightly unruly curls, I try to formulate an answer.
"I like what we've been doing so far," I mumble. "I like it when you're...rough."
"And you like it when I tie you up?" he prompts.
I nod. "I want you to be in control."
Peeta grins, and I catch a spark in his eyes. I know that if there is one thing he has lacked his whole life, it is control. Although he would never directly say it, I know he loves any opportunity to exert his dominance. "Okay. I think what we need to do is come up with a code word, something for one of us to say if anything gets to be too much."
"That makes sense," I agree.
"Any ideas?"
I think about it for a moment. "How about 'pearl'?"
"Perfect." Peeta kisses me gently. "But, Katniss, I know you said you liked it when I...choked you, but right now, I just don't trust myself enough to do that. It just makes me think of-"
"Shh," I say, clasping his face between my hands. "Don't worry about it, Peeta. Why don't we forget about that for a little while and focus on finding new things to enjoy."
A slow smile creeps across his face. "I like the way you think, Everdeen."
Senses. That's what Peeta told me to focus on. Taste, touch, smell, sound. Not so much sight, seeing as the thick cloth tied across my eyes prevents any vision whatsoever. I force myself to focus on other things to distract myself from Peeta's presence in the chair across the room.
Sound.
There are my breaths, coming shorter as the seconds pass. The soft tapping of Peeta's foot on the floor. I think that he can surely hear my heart beating, too, with how strongly it's thumping against my chest.
Taste.
When I lick my lips I can taste the remnants of our lunch: pasta and cheese buns. We ate outside under the midday sun, on a tattered old blanket on the wild grass behind the house. I sang for him again, a song my father used to sing to my mother on their anniversary.
Touch.
I am on my hands and knees on the bed with my head bowed. My ankles are tied together by a soft cloth while the cuffs have found their home again locked between the bedposts and around my wrists. A cool breeze fills the room from one of the open windows, and my nipples pebble when the air hits my body.
Smell.
With my face on the bed, I can smell Peeta on the sheets, but there's something else, too. I can detect the scent of my own arousal as I lay here, and the realization makes me blush. I shift a bit, spreading my knees a bit wider. I know that doing so leaves me more exposed, but Peeta's soft groan sends a jolt between my thighs and the scent intensifies, so I don't care too much.
The chair and floor both creak as Peeta stands and approaches the bed. I am prepared for his touch, so I don't jump when he trails a finger down my spine, but I cannot control the shiver that wracks my body as he does so.
"You look so glorious right now," he murmurs. "I might just leave you like this for a while so I can draw you. You deserve to see yourself like this."
"I'll take your word for it," I quip.
He chuckles. "You really don't understand your effect on people, do you?"
"Why don't you try to explain it to me?"
I hear his breath hitch and I smirk into the sheets. Peeta clears his throat.
"Well, let's see. Looking at you right now, Katniss...I don't think I've ever been this hard in my life."
A whimper escapes my mouth as his finger follows a trail down my spine, across the line of my ass and over my glistening heat, bared before him. He circles my clit with two nimble fingers as he speaks.
"I think what I'll do first is kiss every inch of your body, starting with your neck and ending right here." Peeta smacks my clit lightly, making me lurch forward. "Then, because I know by that point you'll be absolutely dripping, I will lick your sweet little pussy until you scream. I love it when you scream my name, Katniss. That's why I left your mouth free. I want to hear you at all times, do you understand?"
"Yes," I breathe. "I understand."
Peeta makes a noise of approval. "After that, I'm going to slip my cock inside you and fuck you so hard- Katniss, I'm going to fuck you until you can't even remember your own name. "
His hand moves from my clit to my ass. "Would you like me to do that, Katniss?"
"Yes, Peeta," I practically beg. "Please."
"I will," he promises. "But now...I'm thinking that there's something else I'd like to do first."
What?
"Do you remember our word, Katniss?"
"Yes, Peeta."
"What was it?"
"Pearl."
"Good." He doesn't give me a second to think before his palm smacks against the skin of my ass. I yelp and he immediately rubs the spot, trying to soothe the burn. Neither one of us speaks for a moment, and I know he is giving me an opportunity to use the word, to tell him to back off.
I stay silent.
Peeta delivers two more smacks, one to each cheek. The sting makes me hiss, but instead of flinching away, I arch into his touch, desperate for more. I am rewarded by one last swat, and this one is especially hard. I cry out especially loud as his hand comes in contact with my sore skin, and Peeta is immediately there with a soothing touch.
"Was that too hard?" he asks me.
"Yes," I moan, "do it again."
Peeta chuckles. "I think that's enough for now, Katniss. I want to make good on my promises."
That works, too.
The mattress dips as he climbs onto the bed. I can tell that he leaves his prosthetic on so he can kneel next to me, and he begins his gentle assault on my body, his lips finding purchase on the skin at the nape of my neck. There is not a spot left untouched by the time he is finished, and he was right about me. By the time his lips finally find my clit, I am so wet that I can feel myself dripping down my thighs.
"I could do this forever," Peeta groans in between licks. "You are fucking delicious, you know that?"
I can't even form a response. He resumes his attack, licking and sucking and flicking and nipping at my heated flesh. My orgasm builds quicker than ever, and when I come Peeta moans with me, lapping up my juices with fervor.
"Open your mouth," he growls when I slump forward against the sheets. He runs a finger along the length of my slit and then reaches beneath me to shove it into my mouth. I eagerly lick myself off his finger, not turned off by the taste at all.
"Mmm," I moan as I suck on his fingertip. I release it with a pop. "What about the rest of your promises, now?"
I wish I could see his face as he laughs. "Eager, are we?"
"Well, with the way you talked it up to me, I'm hoping for something bi- Oh, fuck!"
"Big enough for you?" he murmurs, fully sheathing himself inside of me. I can manage a groan, and Peeta grabs a fistful of my hair and tugs lightly, pulling my head up and off the bed. The dull pain as he pulls is overshadowed by the sheer pleasure I feel as he teases me with short, shallow thrusts that just barely brush the spot that makes me fall apart.
"More," I beg. "I need it harder, please."
"Ask me again," Peeta commands. "Say my name."
"Fuck me harder, Peeta," I say. He increases his tempo. "Peeta, please!"
He starts to fuck me in earnest now, with fast, hard thrusts that have my straining against my bindings, desperate to writhe around as he hits that spot over and over and over again. All that matters is what he is making me feel. His throbbing cock sliding in and out of my pussy, his deft fingers that have slipped back down to circle my clit as he pounds into me- everything is heightened. When he releases my hair and lands one single swat across my ass, I lose it completely.
I come with a scream and I feel a rush of fluid leave my body, but my mind is too clouded to worry about it. My orgasm seems to last forever, and I'm still riding the aftershocks almost thirty seconds later when I feel Peeta still and come inside of me, moaning my name.
"Did I live up to the hype?" he pants after he slips out of me.
I can only grunt in response, unable to form a coherent thought. His cum drips down my leg, and it's then that Peeta remembers my unusual occurrence.
"Shit, Katniss, did you really just squirt?"
"I-Is that bad?" I mumble, starting to feel embarrassed.
"No, not at all! That's...that's actually really fucking hot." Peeta chuckles to himself as he wipes the skin between my legs with some type of cloth or towel. "I can't wait to try and see if you'll do it again."'
He removes the blindfold and I squint against the sudden light and burrow my head into the sheets again. As he releases the rest of me, I am shocked by the abrupt change in his touch. It's unbelievable, really. Just moments ago, Peeta's hands were rough and demanding, but now he unties me with the gentlest touch, as if I were a newborn baby or one of the delicate designs he sculpted back at the bakery. He flips back and forth so easily between good and bad that it almost gives me whiplash, but I love it.
I love him.
The words don't scare me like I expect them to. In fact, the more I repeat them in my head, the faster the warm feeling in my chest spreads through my body. Peeta removes the last of my bindings and tosses them to the floor, then he sits, still naked, watching me.
"Thank you," is all I can manage, though after the words leave my mouth I kick myself.
"Thank you." Peeta runs a hand up my leg and settles it in the ticklish space behind my knee. "Thank you for trusting me enough to do that to you, to be with you."
"Peeta," I say, covering his hand with mine. "I need you to know something. I need you to know that there are so many things that I wish I could change, so many wrongs. I wish you had never been tortured, I wish we didn't have this rebellion on our shoulders, I wish the Hunger Games never existed. If I could change all of that and more, I would. But I would never, Peeta, I would never ever change knowing you."
The look on his face at that moment can only be described as angelic. I have never seen someone look so happy in my life- and I haven't even told him I love him.
Peeta starts to speak, but his words are cut off by a thunderous crash that shakes the house. I let out a small scream, but then I hear heavy footsteps, lots of them, and the dull roar of voices coming at us fast. There's a smash that I recognize as another door breaking, and then they're here.
We scramble to cover ourselves as the members of the Star Squad flood the room, guns trained on us. I am just able to wrap a sheet around my chest when Finnick drops his gun and winks at us mischievously.
"See, Boggs? I told you we'd find them like this."
Aaaand back to the real world, everyone. Playtime is over!
I am so sorry for the wait, guys. I hope you all aren't too mad at me. Thanks to wollaston for all her help, as per usual. And thank you all for reading! I am forever indebted to you.
xoxo