I just wanted to stop in and say hello! I've been posting most of my stories on AO3 these days, but I received a comment here for some more stories and decided to cross-post this story I'm currently working on to FFN:) You can also find me on AO3 under the same author name if you're curious as to what else I've been up to since I finished Our Story.
This story was a submission for Seasons of Everlark on Tumblr, and there will be one more chapter following this one. I hope you all enjoy!
Katniss had never intended for it to go as long as it did.
It was only supposed to be one drunken mistake during the Odairs' New Year's party.
Peeta was her brother's best friend, and somewhere through the haze of lust, she knew it was wrong. Like she was somehow crossing an invisible boundary. Not to mention that he generally acted like she was nothing more than Gale's annoying little sister.
He'd always give her the cold shoulder when she'd walk into the room. She never knew why. Katniss had been nothing short of decent to him since they met. And it usually never bothered her, knowing that people didn't like her. But it annoyed Katniss that Peeta didn't have a reason for disliking her, other than her simply being in his presence. And definitely, more than it should. They even got into an argument about it once⎯ an argument she started out of pure frustration.
After what seemed like months of bickering and trying to figure him out, she finally gave up and resolved that they'll never be decent to each other.
How wrong she'd been.
The second time they had sex happened after one too many glasses of wine as they protested Valentine's Day together. They were in her apartment watching corny romance movies, of all things. One minute led to another until they were a sweaty heap in the middle of the living room floor. She told herself it wouldn't happen again after that.
But she broke her word after Finnick's birthday party in April.
There were plenty of single guys from the fire station to choose from that evening, yet she'd somehow found herself in Peeta's bed by the end of the night. Letting him whisper filthy things into her ear as he brought her over the edge three times.
When it happened again during the summer, she had developed a bit of a crush on Peeta. They were also sober this time, so she should have attempted to hold back her urges. But she didn't. In fact, she made the first move by climbing into his lap on the couch in her living room.
He had frozen briefly, for every encounter before that moment never happened on purpose. Katniss remembered her heart felt like it would race out of her chest, but she was determined and dipped her head down to capture his lips with hers. Then, without question, he had picked her up and carried her to her room.
After that night, they couldn't stop. Every time they were alone, they couldn't keep their hands off of each other.
Then, there was the issue with Gale.
Although he wasn't entirely clueless, he noticed that Katniss and Peeta no longer fought when they were in the same room. And then there was that time Gale caught Peeta flirting with Katniss during a summer barbeque. Katniss feared what Gale might do to Peeta if she left the room since he tended to be… irrational at times. Like that time Cato Smith pretended he was going to kiss her in the seventh grade, and Gale popped his bike tires. Cato had to walk eight blocks home that day.
So she quickly tried to distract Gale with⎯ something.
Sports, maybe? Whatever she did, she knew she saved Peeta from suffering an unfortunate fate.
She hated keeping Gale in the dark, but it also annoyed her because they were all adults. She could see whoever she pleased without her brother's permission. Still, she knew it wouldn't go over so smoothly in Peeta's case.
Therefore, she chose the farthest seat from Peeta during Gale and Madge's rehearsal dinner. She didn't want Gale to grow any more suspicious than he already was. Unfortunately for her, this left her sitting next to Gale's slimy friend, Marvel.
Madge had insisted that she wear a dress, and Katniss regretted it for several reasons. One, they were nearing the end of autumn⎯ the high for the day barely capping thirty-five degrees. Second, Marvel's heavy stare down the front of her dress had her skin crawling all through dinner.
What a creep.
Meanwhile, Peeta sat next to Madge's cousin across the room. A beautiful model, no less. Cathy? No. Cashmere?
Katniss always prided herself on never being the jealous type. Still, it set her teeth on edge as she watched the perky blonde continuously place her perfectly manicured hand on Peeta's arm. Apparently, the well-trimmed dark suit attracted more than Katniss's attention. And Peeta entertained the woman by leaning over to whisper something in her ear. When a twinkling laugh followed, Katniss tried to not let her annoyance show. Though, she might have stabbed into her chicken more aggressively than necessary.
Honestly, she had no reason to be jealous. They'd never talked about the exclusivity of their… arrangement, so Peeta could flirt with whoever he pleased.
Still, it bothered her, and she had her crush to blame.
Peeta looked up, then, and caught her staring, one of his eyebrows arched in amusement. Red-faced, Katniss glanced away from him and turned toward Annie. She needed some fresh air and an escape from Marvel. If she sat there any longer, she'd surely pour the rest of her wine into his lap. "If the server comes back, can you tell him I want cheesecake? I'm going to run to the bathroom."
Annie smiled and nodded. "Yeah, okay. Try not to get lost along the way." Then, as Katniss pushed in her chair, she added with a smirk, "but I'm sure a certain firefighter wouldn't be opposed to saving you." Annie was one of the few that knew about her and Peeta.
Katniss rolled her eyes, her face growing warmer, and turned to weave through the banquet tables toward the venue hall entrance. She had no clue where to go once she was in the giant building's entryway, and she ended up wandering through the halls until she could find a restroom.
It was a beautiful venue nestled in the middle of a vast apple orchard. The manor was originally built by a couple from France and showcased a variety of chateau-esque architecture. From the conical roofs to the pilasters and the motifs delicately etched into the ceilings and walls. It perfectly fits Madge's princess-style wedding.
After what seemed like the sixth hallway, she finally found the restrooms near an empty conference room. She reached for the door handle but jumped as a hand wrapped around her wrist. Katniss frowned when she turned around to find Peeta scoping the hallway.
"Peeta? What are you-"
"Shh." He pulled her away from the restrooms and led Katniss toward another door in an alcove at the end of the hall. Peeta opened it. "In here." He ushered her inside the small coat closet and shut and locked the door behind her.
Katniss huffed, crossing her arms over her chest while Peeta tested the door handle. She could faintly smell perfume (Cashmere's most likely) on his jacket, which brought back her annoyance from earlier. "Would you mind telling me why we're hiding in a closet?"
When he decided that the door was secure, he faced her. "Because I needed to do this." Before she had time to ask any more questions, Peeta cupped her face between his hands and kissed her. She squeaked in surprise, but Peeta swallowed the sound with eager kisses.
While his hands roamed down her sides to grip her backside, his tongue dipped into her mouth to run across the roof and over her teeth. A low moan escaped her, and Peeta followed it with a groan, his hands pulling her tighter against him. They were so close that Katniss could feel the heat from his body bleeding through the front of her dress.
She trembled with the sudden rush of warmth that flared in her pelvis and reached up to grip the front of his suit jacket to steady herself. But a rustling outside the door brought her back to the present, and she pulled away, her chest rising and falling with labored breaths.
The idea that they could be caught at any moment had alarms going off in her head, warning her they should stop.
She tilted her head back against the wall as Peeta's mouth mapped a wet trail down the side of her neck. "Peeta. We shouldn't-"
Katniss's voice broke off with a breathy gasp as he pressed his thigh between her legs. Her eyes practically rolled to the back of her head, and her fingers tightened in his jacket. His trousers were rough against the front of her underwear, creating friction she didn't realize she needed.
"I couldn't stand the way Marvel was staring at you," he growled into her skin. His breath, harsh and hot against the side of her neck, made her head spin. Then his teeth grazed at her pulse, causing her hips to twitch involuntarily against the bulging tent in his trousers. "Katniss," he breathed, resting his forehead upon her collarbone. "And when I saw him stand up after you left, I had to…" Peeta trailed off, not finishing his sentence.
Wait. He was… jealous? For some reason, the idea made her stomach do a somersault.
She gently pushed at his shoulders, forcing him to look up at her. "Did you think Marvel and I left to fool around?" When he didn't answer right away, she continued. "You know I can't stand him, right?"
His lipstick-stained lips quirked up into a very brief smile. "I guess I made an ass out of myself."
Katniss shrugged one shoulder. "It's okay, I'm just slightly repulsed that you think I'd hook up with Marvel of all people."
He chuckled and pulled away from her, then placed his hands respectively at her waist. "We can go back to dinner if you want? You should go first, though. I- uh," he cleared his throat, reaching down to adjust himself, "I need a minute."
Katniss debated this for a second. Talking about Marvel had dampened the mood, but thinking about Peeta masturbating alone in this closet… the thought stirred something inside her. Surely they hadn't been gone that long, so what were a few extra minutes going to hurt?
Instead of leaving as she should have, Katniss tugged on his tie and pulled him down to press her lips to his. Peeta groaned softly as she sucked his bottom lip into her mouth, and he slanted his mouth over hers to deepen the kiss.
He brought his right hand up to tangle in her hair at the nape of her neck, loosening the low bun that Madge spent an hour to create. But she didn't care. Not at the moment, anyway. She was too aware of his other hand playing with one of the narrow straps of her dress.
Slowly, he pushed it down her shoulder until it fell softly against her elbow and exposed her left breast. She moaned as his thumb ran across her pebbled nipple. Once. Twice. Each time sending a shiver down her spine. Then he finally palmed her breast with his warm hand, and Peeta's name fell off of her tongue in a desperate plea for more.
He smiled against her lips. "You have to be quiet," he whispered before dipping his head down to take the pert nipple into his mouth. She muffled her cry against the back of her hand, while the other found purchase in his short curls. He let out soft, pleased sounds from the back of his throat as Katniss tugged and smoothed her fingers through his hair.
Peeta pushed the rest of her dress out of the way and moved to give her other breast equal attention, alternating between teeth, lips, and tongue. Katniss started to squirm, shifting her hips in search of relief⎯ as much as she wanted Peeta to continue his attention to her chest, she needed... more.
Her hand slithered between their bodies to cup him through his trousers. He jerked at her touch and released her nipple from his mouth with a hiss.
"Shit."
He growled her name, the sound sending a pulse of heat straight between her legs, then he covered her mouth with his. The kiss felt more urgent this time, more teeth than tongue, and his hips steadily ground into the palm of her hand. Katniss's eyes fluttered closed as he continued to grope her breasts, his fingers rubbing and tugging at the sound of her gasps.
Slowly, the closet filled with their heated breaths, the smell of arousal, and Peeta's intoxicating cologne. It almost made her light-headed.
Her hands moved to make quick work of the buckle on his belt and pulled him out of his boxers. Then Peeta picked her up and pinned her against the wall behind her. Her legs wrapped around his waist while she gripped his broad shoulders to hold on, but she practically arched out of his grasp as his hands carded over the tops of her thighs. Fingers traveling higher and higher, pushing her short black cocktail dress up until it bunched in a silky pile at her waist.
Peeta's knuckles pressed over the embarrassingly wet front of her underwear, the fabric stimulating her clit deliciously. He groaned against her mouth. "Fuck, Katniss, you're so wet."
"Peeta, please." She tried to keep her voice down. But she assumed whoever was near the door earlier had already heard their shuffling from inside the closet.
He reached in his back pocket for what she assumed was a condom, the sound of the foil packet being ripped, filling the closet seconds later. She watched between them in anticipation as he rolled the prophylactic down his thick length. He brushed the crotch of her underwear away with his thumb before he lined himself at her entrance.
Katniss's head smacked against the wall with a resounding thud as he pushed into her slowly, inch by inch. Once he was fully seated inside her, they groaned simultaneously, neither of them being as quiet as they should be. At this angle, she felt full, stretched to the point of it almost being uncomfortable. But she rolled her hips in his hands with a gasp, trying to accommodate him. It's only been a couple of weeks since they've last had sex, though, at that moment, it felt like months.
Peeta began to move, pulling out slowly, almost entirely, and pushing into her again. He did this two more times, then he slammed his hips into hers so suddenly that one of her heels fell off her foot and clattered to the carpeted floor. She had to bury the moan that followed into his neck.
Grunts and sighs filled the space of the closet, along with the repeated slapping sound of skin on skin. Peeta nipped and kissed a path from her shoulder up to her ear, taking her earlobe into his mouth. "God, you feel amazing," he said thickly, and her body clenched around his cock in response, her fingers digging into his jacket.
She could feel the heat in her stomach coiling, tighter and tighter⎯ a heat that consumed her with every press of his body into hers. Her arms and thighs trembled with the effort to stay in rhythm. And she didn't know how to voice this, the words coming out in an incoherent jumble. "Peeta- need-" she whimpered when Peeta tilted his hips at the right angle that made him grind against her clit with every thrust. "Yes!"
He stopped, quickly clamping a hand over her mouth, his dark blue eyes watching her in a mix of amusement and desire. She panted against the back of his knuckles as an unexpected shiver of excitement traveled up her spine. Her eyelashes fluttered against the top of his hand, silently begging him to continue.
His thumb smoothed over her chin, then he snapped into her at a brutalizing pace. She was immediately thankful for his hand on her mouth as it started to become impossible to hold back her cries.
It only took several more thrusts before the heat in her core unfurled, filling her with warmth. Her walls contracted around his cock as she came; soft, muffled moans rolling off of her tongue. Peeta grunted, his frenzied thrusts faltering as her body spasmed around him. A few moments later, his brows drew together, the tell-tale sign that he was about to come.
Out of the influence of her blissful high, Katniss tilted her head and took Peeta's thumb into her mouth. He watched her with hooded eyes, his lip curling, then she flicked her tongue against his skin. That was what undid him.
His thrusts slowed, becoming unmeasured. "Fuck," he grunted, and she felt him pulse inside her as he emptied into the condom. After a minute, he released a satisfied sigh, his warm breath blowing across her sweaty face, then he lowered his hand from her mouth. They slumped against the wall, panting, while Peeta supported all of their weight.
Peeta, still catching his breath, pushed a loose strand from her now destroyed bun out of her face, giving her that crooked smile that made her knees weak. "I think people might have noticed our absence by now." She laughed tiredly.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, and they froze. Then the person jiggled the handle. "Whoever the hell is in there, I need my jacket," her uncle Haymitch said from the other side of the door.
Katniss's face burned in mortification, and she hid it in Peeta's suit jacket.
"One moment!" Peeta called out.
"For God's sake, you better not have ruined my coat, boy," Haymitch said before they heard him walk away.
She lifted her head, glancing over at the door. "I don't think I'll be able to look him in the face again."
Peeta chuckled. "At least it was only your uncle. It could have been worse." His words were like a bucket of ice-cold water. God, Gale could have been the one to catch them. How long have they been gone?
Katniss cleared her throat. "Uh, maybe we should go back."
He sighed. "Yeah, you're probably right." When he pulled out of her, a hollowness ensued, then he helped her back to her feet. As Peeta wrapped the used condom in a piece of tissue from his pocket, Katniss tried to straighten out her dress and put her one shoe back on.
They looked like… well, like they'd been thoroughly satisfied. Peeta's shirt had some new wrinkles in it; his once neatly gelled hair now an unruly mess against his forehead. Not that hers probably looked any better. And she was pretty sure she lost an ivory button from the back of her dress.
After finding the missing button on the floor, she reached for the door, but Peeta stopped her by holding her elbow. She turned to look up at him.
He smiled demurely. "My place, tonight?"
She bobbed her head, incapable of telling him no. "Okay," she told him softly, then opened the door. Sure enough, Haymitch was on the other side, a glare cemented on his face.
"Well, it's about time! I thought you two got lost in there."
Katniss covered her flushed face with her hand and bee-lined it toward the women's bathroom. She really hoped her uncle knew how to keep his mouth shut... However, luck was not on her side that night. Because as she was about to walk into the restrooms, there, near the empty conference room, stood her slack-jawed brother⎯ his eyes watching the closet she and Peeta just exited from.
Well shit.
I hope you enjoyed this story! Also, you can find me on Tumblr (eiramrelyat) to chat or see what I've been working on:)