Chapter 9
In the state he was in, aroused and consumed with touching her, the walk from the elevator to his room flashed by in a blur.
Effie was all passion. She was intense and intoxicating from her kisses to her touches. His mind was buzzing and his body thrummed with desire.
Haymitch couldn't tell at which point they both got naked but she fell in his bed with an enchanting smile and he followed suit, kissing his way up from her stomach to her breasts.
When a moan escaped her lips and she wrapped her legs around his waist, he hesitated.
If they were to really do this, there would be no turning back. He could still stop it now. It would be better for both of them.
"Are you sure about this?" he pulled back slightly to look at her. "I'm not who you think I am."
He was trying to warn her without revealing too much. That was the problem, wasn't it? He had not revealed anything to her except for his name and where he came from. It would be in poor taste to sleep with her when there was clearly an ulterior motive to him being here. This was clearly a line he shouldn't cross.
"You are not about to murder me, are you?" she teased, raising an eyebrow.
He sucked in a breath because her hand was between them and she was slowly stroking him, reminding him of his needs.
"Be serious, Effs," he frowned, trying to focus.
He moved her hand away but she soon found a new way to distract him by running her fingers through his hair.
"Are you going to sleep with me and then steal my business?"
"I already told you I ain't interested in your business."
He was about to steal the life she had created for herself here which was worse especially after knowing what he knew. He felt disgusted with himself and tried to untangle himself from her but she had him locked around the waist with her legs.
"Oh," she gasped, her eyes widened imperceptibly. "Do you have someone back in Georgia? A wife or a – a lover... because that is where I draw the line. I do not sleep with someone else's man."
"No one. No prospect, remember?"
"Well, then, I am sure," she confirmed.
Effie stretched to kiss him and he felt the familiar stirring in his groin.
"Seriously, sweetheart, when was the last time you had sex?" he frowned again. "You're eager."
That question clearly offended her because she pushed him off her rather suddenly. Before he could comprehend what just occurred, she was already sliding off the bed to get away from him.
"Is that truly what you think of me? That I am desperate for sex?" she demanded and shot him a murderous look. "If you are not interested in me, you should have just said so."
"I am interested," he argued. "But it's just that… You act like it, you know?"
"I can't believe you! I am not – I am not a tramp."
"I didn't say that," he countered.
"I just happen to enjoy it! Men," Effie scoffed, grabbing her dress from the floor. "You think only you are allowed to enjoy the act of -"
"I ran my mouth but that was not what I meant and you know it. You're twisting words – what the fuck is happening?" he exhaled and ran his hand through the knots in his hair.
He was confused. They had gone from being passionate to having a full blown argument when all he had tried was to do something right. It had clearly backfired.
"I can always find someone else," she tossed the words at him, not even caring about his reaction. "I assure you, there will be other men who will throw themselves at my feet. The fact that you did not was what I found interesting and attractive about you. My mistake - you are clearly uncomfortable being with a woman much better looking than you."
"Wow – okay. You need to keep that overconfidence in check," he said snidely.
"You have already thought the worst of me. This was a mistake."
By now, she had clasped her bra and he was truly sorry to see the sight of her breasts covered. He was slightly sober now. The haze of lust was dissipating but everything was falling apart.
"Come on, don't do that," he reached out to take her hand when she slipped the dress over herself. "You don't have to go."
"What exactly do you expect me to do? Stay here and have a drink with you? Pretend that I am not embarrassed and mortified?"
Effie grabbed her phone and pointedly ignored him for the next few seconds.
"Red really suits you, it brings the anger in your eyes," he mumbled.
He was digging his own grave, he knew.
"My Uber will be here soon," she announced and took her handbag from the armchair.
Effie glanced at him and at the sight of him half-hard, she scoffed. She left his room without a backward glance.
With a groan, Haymitch collapsed on the bed and pressed a pillow to his face only to throw it aside a second later from sheer frustration when he realised that the pillow smelt of her hair.
He rummaged through his belongings on the floor – shirts and trousers – before eventually locating his phone. From the application Beetee had installed on his phone, the small blue dot was steadily moving towards the Eden Residences at the Capitol where she was staying.
There was that then.
He called Chaff and after some long rings, he finally answered.
"I fucked up," Haymitch blurted out. "She ran off."
"You came clean to her? Told her about bringing her home?"
"I didn't," Haymitch gritted his teeth. Goodness, he had not even gotten to that point with her yet. "She – uh – she came up to my room with me. She was fucking naked in my bed, Chaff."
"What?" Chaff spat at his sheer stupidity. "I'd congratulate you on any other circumstances with any other woman but you know better than this. You don't sleep with your target. I shouldn't even be telling you this. It's just gonna complicate things. Don't get attached. She's just an assignment... a mission for you."
"You can quit lecturing me on that cause nothin' happen, alright? I didn't sleep with her. Nothing fucking happen."
"What is that supposed to mean? You just said she was naked in your bed. What were you doing? Painting her like one of your French girls? Painting is more of Peeta's thing than yours," Chaff chuckled.
"She seduced me. I let her," Haymitch muttered angrily. He should have never let it get that far. "She's … really something. You should have seen her."
"Alright, buddy," Chaff said in a placating manner. "So you brought her to your room, got her naked and before you can have sex with her, she... what happened exactly? How did you fuck this whole thing up?"
"I couldn't do it. She doesn't know who I am and it felt wrong to lead her on like that. She thought I was here on business."
"You are there on business," Chaff pointed out.
"She doesn't know what for, does she?" Haymitch spat. "I tried to warn her, give her a chance to turn back."
"So you tried to be noble," Chaff said with a roll of his eyes, Haymitch imagined.
"I tried to do the right thing," Haymitch hissed.
"The right thing would be to not invite her to your room."
He wondered why he even called Chaff. Sure, Chaff had a right to know the status of the assignment here but he was also getting on Haymitch's nerves.
"What made her run away?"
In for a penny, in for a pound, the thought flitted through his mind. He was the one to call Chaff so he might as well just tell the whole truth.
"It might have sounded as if I accused her of being desperate for sex when she insisted on … going through with it," Haymitch winced. "Whole thing came off wrong."
Chaff's loud, booming chortle made Haymitch cursed and promptly hung up the phone in annoyance. His friend called back not long later, with a half-bake apology he didn't truly mean.
"Look on the bright side," Chaff said in between laughter. "She found you desirable enough to want to sleep with you. No comment on that pouch on your stomach, huh?"
"Like you're in a better shape than me," Haymitch retorted
"It's not as bad as I thought. It isn't the first time you ran your mouth and offended someone, yeah? She's just offended. The mission can still be salvaged. Go to back to the bridal store tomorrow or her house, and I don't know how you're gonna do it, but you fix it. Apologise or grovel or get her something fancy."
"Get her something fancy?" Haymitch snorted. "She ain't my girl, man."
"You don't have to take my suggestion but you don't screw this for both of us, Haymitch. Think of what is on the line here. I wasn't expecting you to strike that sort of deal with the Trinkets but since you did, it just put thoughts in my head, you know? It'll be nice to have our records gone."
He didn't need that reminder. He was well aware of what was on stake here, for Prim and for them.
After the conversation ended, Haymitch opened a fresh bottle of whiskey and drank until it dulled the sharpness of his mind, and he couldn't have any clear thoughts. He fell asleep to the recent memories of Effie undressing and stepping out of her dress, the insistent caresses and to the whispers in his ear when he touched her in a way that made the blue of her eyes darkened with desire.
The thoughts clearly had an influence on his dream because he was startled awake hours later with a hard-on, which he would have taken care of except for the loud knocking on his door. Using the bed cover to wrap around his himself for decency, he staggered to the door. The sunlight filtering through the crack of the curtain was too bright and too sharp for his eyes.
Her hand connected his cheek with a resounding crack. The slap stung his face and he was startled enough by the attack that he groaned in pain.
It seemed unnecessarily extreme given that it was morning and she had had hours to calm down from yesterday. Haymith tried to get a word in and make sense of what garnered that reaction from her.
Of course, she didn't let him.
"Haymitch Abernathy," she began reading from the tablet in her hand while still standing at the hallway, "is a focused and dedicated licensed investigator. Johnson's Investigation is equipped with specialised investigation skills and surveillance technology. We undertake commercial and personal cases, from marital affairs to corporate fraud."
His blood ran cold.
"So where exactly do I fall under, Haymitch? Commercial or personal?"
You know what they say about Murphy's Law- things that can go wrong, will go wrong for Haymitch. He's losing touch.
This was another chapter I was excited for you to read too, so excited in fact that I wrote Chap 8,9 and 10 all in the same day a few weeks ago. So I really can't wait to read your reactions to it from your reviews!