Chapter 5: Claimed in Secret by Night

I am up early one morning, kneading the leavened bread like Peeta taught me, ready for the ovens, when the man himself comes strolling in, a knapsack over his shoulders.

"Papa, whatever happened to the middling meat? And where did you say the stale loaves were?" he calls to the Baker, who is busying himself over by the basement door, accepting sacks of lard as Rye passes them to him from down below.

"Far leftmost cabinet, son." He watches as Peeta nods gratefully and begins to load everything from the leftmost display window into the knapsack. His father smiles. "Going to make the Community Home donation?"

"Yes, sir." At the mention of the Home, my heart starts to beat faster as I think: Prim….

"I didn't know you participated in charity."

"We don't," Rye calls up, his voice preceding the rest of him as he emerges from the basement's gloom, slapping his hands together to clear them of floury powder. "At least, not often. District philanthropy laws are quite stringent: you can only give a certain amount at certain intervals. Plus, Mom's the kind of stingy person where she makes sure we don't run afoul of the law and even go far beneath it."

I perform a practiced sweep of my head, on guard for whether she might be listening. I've learned a long time ago to never say anything behind the Witch's back, even when it seems she might not be within earshot. You never know when she might appear or might be listening. At this, Peeta chuckles.

"Don't worry, Katty girl, she's in the back reviewing the account books."

"…. And they're all now shipshape!" The Witch appears, gaze catching mine and sniffing disapprovingly. "What's all this jabberwocky when there's work to be done?" She blinks at the sight of Peeta's knapsack. "And where are you going?!"

Peeta simply hefts the satchel with a tight smile. "Donation run to the Home, ma'am. These buns expired nearly a week ago."

Peeta's mother eyes him hard, scrutinizing, before finally letting out an almost put-upon sigh. "Oh, all right. But this is the last delivery to them for a good time, boy! You know the law!"

"Yes, ma'am," Peeta grimaces. I feel an odd swooping sensation in my chest, one borne of fear, like I don't want him to go. Peeta notices the concern in my eyes, for he sidles over to me as he makes for the back loading dock door. "Don't worry, Katty – I'll be back." He pecks me on the cheek, leaving me blinking dumbly and his mother turning up her nose in haughty disapproval. I stare after him as he departs, palm absently rubbing the place on my skin where he…. kissed me….

Several hours pass, and I am starting to fret. Did he encounter an unfriendly Seamer on the other side of the tracks? Was he searched by a Peacekeeper and thrown into the stocks for violating Twelve's philanthropy laws?

If I'm terrified, the Witch is practically livid, sighing and tapping her foot impatiently. When the back loading dock door opens, she growls out something unintelligible and starts right for the rear narrow hallway. My entire being sighs with relief when I see Peeta, looking unharmed.

"Where in the Capitol's good name have you been?!" the Witch demands.

"Delivering the stale goods to the Home…" Peeta shrugs.

"Don't lie to me, boy! It doesn't take hours to trek into the Seam and back!"

Even the Baker appears leery, as he and Rye drift in from where they've been inverting the chairs on the dessert tables. "Peeta…." his voice is far calmer and diplomatic. "Answer your mother, son. Where were you?"

At this, Peeta cringes. "Please don't freak out."

Rye actually laughs at this. "Peeta, Peeta, Peeta…. when you preface with a plea to not freak out, chances are we're going to freak out."

Peeta's wince widens, if that were possible. "I may have gone in on an investment for us…."

"Investment?!" The Witch's eyes pop. "What kind of investment?"

Peeta nervously stands aside, revealing a girl with blonde hair. I drop the ladling spoon I was using.

"PRIM!" I dash around everyone and fling myself to my knees, hugging her tightly. I don't notice and don't care how, behind me, the Witch's eyes pop with disbelief and rage.

"You didn't," she rounds on Peeta slowly.

"But I did," Peeta shrugs, and I have to praise his bravery, delivered in the form of nonchalance. "I'm 18, Mother; I'm allowed to enter these kinds of contracts. Plus, I had quite a nest egg saved up from my allowance; I only regret I didn't think of it sooner…" He smiles down at us both; Prim is crying.

"We can't take on two indentureds!" The Witch is shrieking. "Two growing Seam girls will eat us out of house and home!"

"They're not going to, and we're not taking on a second indentured!" Peeta snaps, remarkably firmly.

"You paid for the brat, didn't you?!" his mother demands. "You'll had to have signed a contact for her and everything and then taken it to the Justice Building…!"

"Which I did," Peeta explains patiently. "Moments after the district clerk notarized it, I asked that it might be dissolved, so Prim could be freed. A indentured servitude contract can be terminated at any time as long as the master wishes it."

I turn around where I am still squeezing Prim tight to me, my skirts fanning out around my knees. My grey eyes are huge. "What?" I breathe in amazement.

Peeta grins down at me, his hands taking mine so he can gentlemanly help me to my feet. "Isn't it wonderful?"

"I don't see how," the Witch scoffs. "You unwisely pay for a second servant without even getting a proper return on your investment? You FOOLISH BOY!"

"To the contrary, Mother," and Peeta doesn't even turn his head from where he's still smiling at me. "I think the investment I made was quite worthwhile." I beam at him and can't help but fling my arms around his neck.

The Witch throws up her hands. "Fantastic! If she can't work, then what are we supposed to do with her?!"

"She can bunk with her sister in the spare room." Peeta continues to speak all of this to me, and I'm shaking in delirious delight. I tremble all the more at how his strong, calloused hands now rest along my hips while he holds me. His impossibly blue eyes dim sadly. "I tried to free you as well, Katty girl, but the district clerk wouldn't have it. I only had just enough from buying Prim to pay for her freedom, at any rate."

"You wouldn't have been able to free the whore, anyhow!" the Witch sneers. "Her contract's in your father's name, not yours!"

Peeta nods absently, before bending low and whispering along my ear, "Thank the State for that. If your contract was in my mother's name…" He doesn't finish, though I agree with him. This is the best of the situation that we can make, and my only regret is that Peeta didn't think to spring my sister any sooner.

Leaning back out of our embrace, I cup his burned cheek rather intimately, not even really feeling the leathery texture to his mottled, pink skin. My eyes fill with tears. "Thank you."

That night, I steal from the bed I now share with my sister. Lighting a candle, I proceed down the stairs to the cupboard bedroom where Peeta sleeps. I creep into the cramped space, practically a closet, and the candlelight causes Peeta to stir instantly. He blinks blearily as I fling back the covers and climb into bed with him.

"Katniss….?" he whimpers nervously. I lie on my side, snuggling close to him, gazing at this selfless, brave boy.

"You saved her life…." I breathe, still astonished.

Peeta blushes bashfully. "There's no way to say for certain. I hope I didn't step on your toes…."

I shake my head, smiling softly. "You didn't. And…. you did. Save her life. I know it." I actually giggle somewhat madly, even as my heart constricts. Snow's Roses, when am I going to stop owing him? As if reading my thoughts, Peeta smiles in a way that is gentle, but to me is almost smoldering.

"You don't owe me anything, Katniss. Your working here is payment enough."

I reach up a shaking hand to caress his cheek. I'm not even repulsed by the burn scars across the right side of his face anymore. Peeta's face falls in confusion.

"Katniss….?"

I bring my face close, and I kiss him softly.

It's nothing but a tender peck, and it only lasts for a moment before I draw back, my grey eyes wide and luminous as moons over what I have just done. I shiver as I feel Peeta's arms encircle me, pull me close. And when he kisses me back, his lips are firmer, more urgent against my own. My eyes bulge wider still for a moment, before they drift shut, the lashes fluttering, and I sink into the liplock, daring to accept and return his kiss.

The kiss quickly deepens, even escalates. Peeta's tongue sweeps along my lips, and with a gasp, I part them to grant him entrance, my mouth petaling open like a flower bursting into full bloom. I can feel Peeta's weight pressing into me, pushing me down into the mattress, and I suddenly realize this won't do at all if I wish to repay the debt I feel I owe him. Assertively, I push against his chest and slam him onto his back.

Feeling brave, my bloodstream humming as though I've drunken hard whiskey, I swing a creamy leg of Peeta's waist as I gallingly move to straddle him. I sit astride his hips regally, almost enthroned there. Only now, do I break the kiss, just long enough to peel my nightdress over my head before casting it over the side of the bed, where, with a rustle, it pools on the floor. Peeta is gaping at me in awe and I stretch over him, bringing my lips back down to his. Kissing languorously, I feel Peeta squeeze me as his massive hands come to grip the skin along my shoulder blades. With shaking hands, I begin to untie the drawstring at his sleep pants, even though I'm terrified, and have no idea what I'm doing. When my fingers brush along skin that is stiff, I draw back slightly with a gasp into Peeta's plundering mouth. His lips leave mine to ghost along my skin and into the soft curve of my neck, and I bare it to him with a stunned groan.

"Katty girl…. do you want me inside you?" I shudder at the huskiness in Peeta's voice.

"Yes," I breathe, my eyelids still hooded, and rubbing against his thigh, I can tell the petals of my sex are wet and damp for him.

"I'll guide you into position. All I want you to do is bounce on me, you little minx!" Peeta's voice shifts almost seamlessly into a lustful growl, and I whimper.

Still kissing lazily, Peeta grips my hips and shifts me so we line up our entrances. I come down on him, sink onto his member with a sigh that quickly turns into a cry of discomfort. Peeta's lips pepper along my face, my eyelids.

"Breathe through the pain, Katty…. If you want me to stop…"

"No," I croak, shaking my head. "I don't want you to. To stop, I mean. Just…. go slow, please."

He gentlemanly does. And bracing my hands along his firm chest, I begin to ride him like the Seam slut his mother thinks I am. The bedsprings creak beneath us and my bare breasts sway tantalizingly above this man whom I have taken as my lover, my aroused nipples, pebbled and purple in the winter breeze.

Peeta sits up slightly so that we are nearly chest-to-chest, and I remain in his lap, so that he can suddenly take one of my nipples between his teeth and suck. I throw back my head and let out a cry of shock. We rut and jerk against each other, humping in between sighs and grunts.

"Huhhhh… Uhhhhhhhh…..Hmmmmmm….. Mmmmmmmm…!" The moans torn from my flushed, swollen and very-kissed lips make me sound like a whore. I writhe against him as Peeta continues to slather my boobs with his tongue, and I finally push him back flat into the mattress. I bounce on him faster, feeling his shaft slide in and out of my pussy.

Peeta grits his teeth as I ride him. "You're going to cum for me!" I groan.

"Please!" I choke. "Peeta, finish me!"

"Or what?" he snarls, pumping into me harder.

"I'll….. I'll scream!" I threaten, and I have to slap one hand onto the sloped ceiling of his bedroom to remain balanced across his thighs. Oh, Snow's Roses, if the house or the neighbors should hear!

Peeta grins wickedly. "Then scream for me, my beauty!"

"Peeta!" I cry. "I'll….. Ahhhhhhh… AHHHHHHHHHHH…. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

He makes me cum with a mighty shout, and I all but collapse onto him. Suddenly, without even fully realizing how I got there, Peeta has flipped us, and he is now pounding me mercilessly into the mattress. My eyes widen, and I make a kind of choking sound, my nails clawing at his rippling back. It's all I can do to hold on.

I feel another airy cry rip through me at the same moment a second orgasm crests over me. I feel myself grow limp in the aftermath, and sinking my hands into his shoulders, my voice lifts in dazed song:

"Ah, sweet mystery of life, at last I've found you!..." Peeta grunts like a beast and jerks deep inside me again, causing me to squeak. "Ah, at last I know the secret of it all!..." Kissing indecently, almost making out, we roll about the bed, clasped in each other's embrace until I am astride him again.

Rising lazily off of him and crawling down his body, I become fascinated with the sight of his cock, thick and bulging and now covered in a fine coat of virginal blood and a sticky, milky substance that must be cum. I gulp, studying it in fascinated wonder. Is that…. mine….?

Dipping my head, I rear forward and take him lustily in my mouth. I eventually swallow the entire length of his shaft, sucking him deep into my throat. My eyes flutter shut and my head bobs as I loll my tongue forward to lick the underside of his dick before finally tucking his balls hungrily past my bottom lip where I massage them. I've never touched, let alone tasted, a man's penis before, though I now found the sensation of giving Peeta head quite pleasant.

My paramour is now rigid on the bed, his fingers having woven themselves into my chestnut tresses, hard enough for the nails to pinch. "Katniss! Oh, Katniss…. Katty….."

My puckered lips smirk around his foreskin; I just bob my head and suck him harder. I didn't feel him ejaculate inside me when he was on top, fucking me raw, so now I am determined to give him the pleasure he gave me. I am determined to make him cum…..

And cum, he does. With a shout of warning, Peeta spills all he has into my willing mouth and I greedily gulp it all down like a good little girl. When I draw my lips off of his softening stalk, pressing a tender kiss to the tip, I sit back proudly on my haunches to admire my handiwork. The only sign that I have been with him is a salmon pink ring near the top of his manhood.

I let out surprised shriek as Peeta suddenly yanks me close and spoons me, pulling my back tight into his chest. We fall asleep like that, naked and sweaty in each other's embrace, our heart rates easing.

At least until Peeta awakens me, his hardness pressing into my buttocks and with a lustful glint in his eye and once again, we make love.