Gossamer

I love the Hunger Games. I will forever. Suzanne Collins owns everything!

Gossamer.

Katniss' thin, almost sheer nightgown cascades smoothly over her body. She loves wearing it, especially on nights like this one. Hot, sticky, and uncomfortable, the air is caught in-between phases. Evaporating with the slight heat of our body and condensing when it hits more air. The dew settles over her olive skin, and she's shimmering from the pale light of the hallway. The windows are all open, and so is the door to my bedroom. She's just standing there, waiting for an invitation that I have been denying her. I cannot have her. Not five days after I last hurt her from my episode. Her wrist still bears my grip, and I could barely look at her without flinching.

"Peeta," she calls my name. Despite my adamant refusal for fear of hurting her again, she still comes to my bedroom for sleep. She slips through in the middle of the night and nuzzles my neck when I am at my weakest. I am powerless to refuse her presence in the early morning hours. My body, betraying me as it craves to meld with hers in the dark for comfort. Holding her soothes every ache, especially in my heart.

Every night, our kisses deepen, and wandering hands explore each other's skin under our clothes. We exchange air and heat, feeding our needs and growing hunger that we refuse to fully satisfy. She feels so incredible over me and under me as we grind against each other's body, never reaching full completion - except maybe tonight.

When she came to my room, I was already awake and up in bed. My mind and body anticipated her, howling to my beloved with a pure carnal instinct that I have been resisting. "Katniss." Her name slips out of my parched mouth - another betrayal. In two steps, I have her in my arms. She gasps and grips me with her huntress arms. Her sheer gossamer nightgown provides so little barrier between my bare torso and her delicate chest that I feel like it's her skin that I am caressing. My embrace is hungry and lustful, pressing her body to mine as much as I could without hurting her. I would never hurt her again. She begins kissing my collarbone, exchanging between soft and open-mouthed kisses. She's searing a path through my skin that I'm sure will reveal what we're about to do. She is telling me that I am hers and hers alone. She's marking her territory like a huntress wolf.

My sure hands begin clinging to her moist skin, cupping her hips then her firm bottom. She's not the only one staking her claim of the land tonight. I glide my right hand under her slick thigh, opening her up to smooth into me while we're still standing. She's so flexible in this position, and when her hunger grows fangs, she straddles me to make a full connection. I curse in her mouth for our jarring collision. If it weren't for our nightclothes, the motion would have left me inside of her in one go.

Her hands weave and pull at my curls as they please, sometimes settling to play with my ears as she dips her tongue in my mouth. She's playing dirty, so dirty that she's already grinding on me in our upright position. We're still dressed, her in her sheer, teasing nightgown and me in my boxer briefs, fully wooden.

"Bed. Now," she tells me after making me breathless with her undulating hips. Her lips fit so perfectly, yet imperfectly with mine. We keep searching for the right kiss to bring us over the edge. We shift from warring for each other's bottom lip to surrendering to each other's bite. Slipping tongue to no tongue was delicious. Biting to just nipping, light to full-on mouth conquering, wet to wetter, upright to sideways to just everywhere - Katniss moans in them all. We've been freely experimenting every night, and we're both reaping our sweet harvest. Our wet pools grow with every exploration in the dark. At last, maybe tonight, we will get to taste each other's pure essence. I shiver at the thought.

I pin Katniss under me in bed, her sheer dress revealing her dark peaking nipples as sweat makes the gossamer cling to her skin. She's so slick all over in this muggy night. I love this fabric. In a maneuver she'd already mastered, she flips us over and pins me instead. She sits over my stomach, her wet underwear sliding against my repaired skin. Her gaze is fixed on mine as her hand fumbles to find the edge of her nightgown. Oh. Ever so slowly, so sensually, she slides it up her thighs and her hips, revealing petite underwear that sends me spinning. "Katniss," I whisper and hold her wrist to stop her hand from moving higher. She's about to show herself to me for the first time. I long to behold all of her, but I need her to be sure.

"I want to, Peeta," she tells me softly, then gently removes my hand over her wrist. She puts it over her mouth and kisses every finger, lingering before moving to the next one. Then she puts it back on her body - this time on her waist inside her nightgown. I curse in the air as her skin burns on mine. She's so hot, literally. My dirty mouth emboldens her, and she takes off the sheer fabric completely.

She's glistening. I stow her perfection in my memory. She floats her hands over her breasts and wide nipples, and I twitch at her teasing. I know she felt my length beneath her, and she rubs herself over it. "You're killing me," I say pleadingly, and my hips lift involuntarily. But it's too soon because she is already planning another way of taking my breath away. She tugs at my boxer briefs, looping her fingers over the elastic.

"Katniss, are you sure?" I ask. For the second time tonight, I stop her hand from going too far.

"Peeta," she begins. She bends over my body, her supple breasts pressing on my bare chest, and I lose it. She whispers to my left ear, "I'm sure, Peeta ... please ... I have a birth control shot." With that, she disposes of my boxers and herself with her underwear. I want to feel her breasts under my hands, but when she lowers herself to my hard length, I end up grabbing her thighs. One more bruise, I thought. I will make love to it and help it go away tomorrow.

I don't know how she hides the pain, for I know there must be a lot this first time. She touches my length as she lowers herself even further, and I'm a goner, again. She envelopes me with her softness, like hot oil that is not enough to burn. I study her face carefully and see her wincing. Though it feels so damn good to be inside her, I won't have it if she is in pain. I won't hurt her, especially not in bed.

"Katniss, you're in pain," I bid her and hold her cheeks softly. "I won't have it this way, love." It's the first time I called her that, and there's a slight upturn on her lips.

"Love," she says as if savoring it like luscious caramel. She kisses my lips then gently slides off of me. I suddenly feel cold at our loss of contact but am relieved that I'm no longer causing her pain. She lays beside me then pulls me again for a kiss. Her lips state that she still wants me, and it shoots electricity all over my nude body. She tugs at my shoulders, her leg hooking on my hips, summoning me to roll her over and hover on top of her. When I oblige, she opens her thighs wide. I grunt again at our contact.

"Peeta, I want you," she tells me while keeping my gaze.

"Katniss," I say like a plea.

"Just be gentle with me, Peeta," she replies. "I need you."

I cannot deny her anything. Especially when she uses those three words. Those words at the beach might as well be the first confession of her love to me. I needed her to live then. I needed her to move forward because she deserves to live a happy life. But for a few seconds, when she said those three words, I wanted to live that life with her. I brushed off that longing fiercely because she couldn't possibly die for me then. I strengthened my resolve at that moment because I knew she was determined to defeat me. Tonight, the circumstances of those three words are different. There is no arena to battle in, no tribute to eliminate for our own survival, and no President Snow to trump over. Tonight, there is only me and her - and the future that we wish to live together. Tonight I would gladly surrender to those three words because it will not lead to death but to reawakened life.

I kiss her lovingly, tenderly, with all my love welling out of my body in this warm and sticky night. She feels my passion and drinks it, circling her arms around my neck and back. We kiss until we are satisfied, and she moves my lips to kiss her body, giving me herself. I linger on her neck, loving it and tasting it thoroughly. Her hands wander where they please all over my body, going everywhere and nowhere at the same time. I am hers. She bids me to her breasts. Soft, mottled, divine breasts. She grabs a bar from the headboard as I suck and lick her climaxing curves. She arches towards me involuntarily, saying my name breathlessly when I tease her nipples. I half lift her hips off the bed, pressing her upper body against mine as I make love to her. She mewls and moans and gasps when I find her secret spots - behind her ears, the side of her left breast, above her belly button, a few inches left of her right hip, and the insides of her firm thighs. When I got to her core, her two hands were bunching the sheets. "Peetaaaa. Aaahhhh ... " she exhales when I use my tongue. She's intoxicating, and I'm getting drunk by the second. How and what Katniss is doing to me at this very night escapes me. She has no idea the effect she has on me. I'm howling like a wild wolf tonight, so instinctual and in heat in every way.

"Peeta, please," she says while I drink her in. "I need you now."

I rise to her lips and have her taste herself through my mouth. Our love and desire are so mixed up tonight that we propel each other mad with lust. If this is how first nights are, I want every night to feel like our first. "I love you, Katniss," I say passionately in between kisses. "So so much."

She doesn't respond right away but instead wraps all her limbs around me and flips us over. She's stronger than me in bed, I realize. "I love you too, Peeta," she confesses while running her palms on my chest. She slides her hands lower to my abdomen, smoothing the hair down my core. She reaches my length then begins pumping me. I guide her with my left hand until she gets the right rhythm and pressure. Her eyes are heavy with desire as she wraps around me. When I feel ready, I roll her over gently then steadily enter her. I watch her expression as I inch gingerly into her center. When I see the beginnings of pain, I pause and give her time to get used to my invasion, kissing her deeply to ease the pain.

"Peeta, please don't stop," she says in between insistent kisses. I didn't realize that I had been waiting too long. I slide in a little more and pause again, then she taps my lower back, signaling me to go further. When I'm fully enveloped by her, she kisses me so hungrily, my mind whirls from being connected to her in two erotic places.

She then tells me to begin.

I start gradually, remembering to be delicate with her. We keep each other's gaze as I move in and out of her. Inching, feeling her soft wall around me. She grabs the headboard with her right hand then my waist with her left. I'm taking all my cues from her, and when her eyes start to close in satisfaction, I move a little faster, but not stronger. I must take care of her. Katniss' grip on me and the headboard becomes firmer, her moans urging me to go further.

"Katniss, you feel sooooo good. Aaaahh," I release when she squeezes me.

"Let go, Peeta," she says breathless, followed by a groan that pleasures my ears. "Make me come."

I cannot deny her anything.

She finishes beautifully. Her whole body, undulating and trembling as she becomes like jelly as she rides her orgasm. I follow her soon after, spilling hot fluid inside of her. I bury my forehead on her neck as I let my completion radiate fully. Katniss is pure ecstasy. Better than morphling, better than anything.

"That was amazing, Peeta," she praises me as she caresses my hair, and I couldn't help but reply with lazy kisses. I close my eyes and kiss her, on her soft ear, on her sweat-covered neck, on her luscious jaws. We ride our high together.

With our lust fed, I make love to her again in another way. I whisper all the things I love about her. All I could possibly remember. All I feel for her in our entwined lives. How I live for her. How she is my life. She hated it when I confessed my love to her in public, but now in the privacy of our shared bed, she welcomes it like sweet nectar. We cling to each other, naked like the day we were born. Trusting in our love above anything else. I will love and make Katniss Everdeen happy for as long as she'll have me. She steadied me in my poisoned state. She is my life and my air. My reason to live and fight the monster inside of me harder, every day. I will do it all for Katniss. Katniss Everdeen.

"My love."

Please review! It's my first time writing something this explicit. I hope it wasn't too much!