A/N: Okay kids, super honesty time. When I started writing this chapter, I honestly had no idea where I was going with it. So, it ended up being one long conversation between Katniss and Peeta answering some questions I had from the books and from the AU I've created. I hope it's not boring, but I had a ton of fun writing it.
Fair Warning: Most of this chapter is talking, but it ends in a steamy, smutty, graphic sex scene. You've been notified.
Later That Same Afternoon
We collapsed in a heap on our bed. I couldn't even find a sheet if I tried. Somehow, my bra is on the ceiling fan. Hmm.
"I've lost count," Peeta mutters.
"Huh?"
"I've lost count of how many times we've had sex today," he clarifies.
I giggle and kiss him.
"Numbers don't matter," I shrug it off.
"They matter when it comes to how many times I get you off," he retorts.
He's got a point there.
"I'll give you that," I say somberly. He laughs. "Seriously though Peeta, today has been, well, one of the best days of my life."
"Me too, Katniss, me too."
I smile at him and snuggle closer. We can hear the twins sleeping over their monitor. Other than that, the house is dead silent. I'm rubbing soft circles on his chest and he's running his fingers through my hair. Every now and then I lay a soft kiss on his chest, and he always replies with a kiss to my head. It's our little game.
"I love you," I mumble.
"I love you too," is his instant reply.
"Peeta?"
"Katniss."
"Can I ask you a question?" I ask shyly.
"No."
"What? Why not!" I pout and scowl up at him. When I look at him he has a giant teasing smile on his face.
"Honey you are too easy sometimes," he laughs.
"I'm not the one who keeps getting enticed into bed by their wife," I retort with a smirk.
"That's mutual and you know it," he points out.
"Fair enough," I nod.
"What's your question?" He softly asks.
I sigh and let out a breath. I've actually been wondering this for a while.
"How did you know you were in love with me?"
He chuckles softly and I wait patiently for him to talk. He doesn't for a couple minutes, but I know he's just organizing his thoughts. I turn to look at him so when he does speak, I can see him.
"Now that I really think about it," he starts, "I don't think it was a one second I'm not in love with you and then the next I was kind of thing. That first day of kindergarten, the first day I saw you, something inside of me just clicked. I didn't know anything about girls or dating or marriage, but I knew that you were the only girl I ever wanted to get to know. Is that love? Maybe for a five-year-old. Who's to say it isn't, right?"
"Right," I nod. "But even when we never spoke for eleven years, and I basically ignored you even after you saved my life, you still loved me?"
"Yes," he responds simply. "Kat, I've loved you for as long as I can remember. I wasn't joking or teasing when I told you and all of Panem that. I never even contemplated having another girlfriend or kissing another girl. I'm sure if I wanted to, I could've, but my heart belongs to Katniss Everdeen."
"Peeta," I sigh. "I feel horrible."
"What? Why?"
"Because for eleven years, you were in love with me, and I didn't say a single word to you. I knew who you were, even before the day with the bread. What kept us from talking? Why couldn't we have gotten to know each other earlier? Maybe if we had, we'd have been together much sooner than we did."
"But don't you see, Katniss, that we had to go through everything we did for our souls to come together? Look, I don't doubt for a second that if we met without the Games, we would still have fallen in love. We are soul mates, of that I have no doubt. Our hearts were meant for each other from the moment we were born. But, because we went through so much together, it's created a foundation, a bond, that nobody else but the two of us will ever understand. We're husband and wife, but we're also each other's shrinks."
I laugh softly and he joins me. He's right, we do act like shrinks with each other sometimes.
"Were you jealous of Gale?" I ask quietly.
He sighs and stays silent for a moment. I watch his eyes closely, as I'm the only person who can decipher every one of my husband's looks. I see flashes of pain, regret, and yes, jealousy.
"Every second of every day," he says somberly.
"Why? If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to."
"You really don't know?" I shake my head in the negative. "Katniss, he spent every day with the girl I was head over heels in love with. He made you smile. He made you laugh. I wanted to be the guy who did that for you, but I knew as long as you were happy, I was happy. That's why I never tried to interfere or come between you two."
"Peeta," I sob, "you are too good of a person. I kind of wish you had tried to interfere. Maybe all this with Gale wouldn't have gone down the way it did, or maybe we could have found each other years ago. But I know we can't live with what ifs."
"No, we can't," he affirms. "You know, for the longest time, I was sure you were going to be Mrs. Hawthorne."
I cringe at the mere mention of the name.
"Me too," I whisper.
"Would you have married him?" He asks quietly.
"Peeta…"
"You don't have to answer that. I'm sorry," he backtracks.
"No, I'm your wife. I tell you the truth. Always," he smiles at that. "I don't know. For a long time, it was what was expected of me. I knew if I had, it wouldn't have been for love, like our marriage. It would have been for survival, for mutual benefit between our families."
"I never knew that," he says quietly. "I'm sorry, Katniss."
"What? Why are you sorry?" I ask incredulously.
"Sometimes I feel like I hold you back," he admits so softly I barely hear it. Maybe I wasn't supposed to, but I sure did.
"What the hell does that mean? Sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude, but that makes no sense."
"I don't know how to explain it," he sighs and runs his free hand through his hair. I grab it and intertwine our fingers. "Before I came into your life, I'm sure you had a vision of how your life was going to play out. Now, I'm sure what you're living is nothing like that. I'm sorry that I took you away from your dreams, Katniss."
Is he serious? How can he not see that this, right here, is my dream? That this beats any life I would have lived with any other man?
"That's bullshit Peeta," I tell him firmly. His eyes widen. I continue. "That's complete horseshit and you know it. My 'plan' you speak of was one where I had to hunt every day just to put food on the table that night. Risk getting caught poaching by Peacekeepers and struggle to keep our clothes from turning into rags. Never ever ever finding love. Never knowing the joy of children. Dying alone. How can you say that you took me away from my dream, when this is my dream?"
He's stunned. I've actually made Peeta Mellark speechless. I deserve some kind of trophy. I smirk.
"Do you really mean that?" He asks sheepishly.
"With every beat of my heart, every fiber of my soul, with everything that I am, yes I do. I wouldn't lie to you about this, Peeta. I hope you know that I would never lie to you."
His smile is so huge that I'm sure his cheeks will hurt tomorrow. There's my Peeta.
He leans down and our lips meet, and it's an emotionally driven kiss. When we part, we lean our foreheads together and lightly rub noses.
"I love you more than baking," he whispers.
"I love you more than hunting," I whisper back.
We both chuckle. I settle back down into my previous spot and find his hand again. His other hand wraps around me, settling on my bare lower back. Oh, yeah, we're still naked. Obviously.
"Peeta?" I ask after a couple minutes.
"Hmm?"
"Um, if I had married Gale," it cause bile to rise in my throat even saying the words, and I have to pause for a moment. He understands. "If I had married Gale, what would you have done?"
"What do you mean, what would I have done?" He asks for clarification.
"Would you have gotten married, tried to break us up, move out of 12, what?"
"Honestly?" He asks.
I roll my eyes.
"Yes, honestly."
He sighs. He's not sure if I'm going to like his answer.
"I would have died alone," he mumbles.
"Peeta! No! Don't say that!"
"You wanted the truth, Kat. That's the god's honest truth."
"How?" I ask, genuinely curious.
"Do you really not know?" I have an idea, but I want to hear him say it, so I shake my head. He sighs again. "I told you, Katniss, you were always the only girl for me. If you had married anybody else, I would have been happy if I could see that you were genuinely happy. I love you so much that I was willing to let you go because your happiness means more to me than my own. It always has. Why do you think I never talked to you when you were around Gale? You were happy. A Katniss Everdeen smile used to be a rare thing, and Gale could get them out of you. I hated him for it, but I respected him for making you happy. So, if you had married another man, I might have seen other women, who knows? But I never would have fallen in love, I certainly never would have married or had kids, and-"
He stops mid-sentence, not wanting to finish his thought.
"And what?" I prompt.
"Don't worry about it," he tries to wave it off. This gets me even more concerned.
"And what?" I ask a little more forcefully.
"Katniss, I said don't worry about it."
"Peeta Mellark, if you love me, you will finish your sentence," I pout at him, giving him my best wide sad eyes. I see him breaking. He knows when I break out the 'if you love me' card, I'm deadly serious, and since he does love me, he always complies.
"You're going to be mad," he informs me.
"No I won't," I assure him.
"Trust me, Kat, I know you, and you'll be angry with me," he says quietly.
"Peeta, please just tell me. It's hard for me to get angry with you when we're naked in bed and we just had mind-blowing sex. I promise I won't get too angry, okay?" I try to appease him.
"I'll tell you if you promise that no matter what, after I tell you, you tell me you love me and kiss me," he begs.
"Really?" I smile.
He nods.
"Katniss, this is really hard for me, and I need to know that you love me, especially if I'm going to finish that thought," he says sadly. It breaks my heart. I thought he was joking.
"I promise, Peeta. No matter what, the first words out of my mouth will be 'I love you' and the next thing my lips will do is kiss you."
He looks relieved, but then realizes he has to tell me now. I see his tension level skyrocket, so I kiss his chest to try and calm him down.
"Here goes nothing," he mutters.
He takes a few more moments before he finally speaks, so softly I strain to hear it.
"I never would have married, or had kids, and I definitely would never have been happy."
Oh my god. This absolutely breaks my heart into tiny little pieces. Why would he ever think this would make me angry?
"I love you," I tell him, looking him straight in the eye. Before he has time to think or even respond, I lock my lips to his and kiss him with as much love as I can muster in my heart. He responds, and when we part, we're both panting.
"I love you too," he whispers. "Thank you." I nod.
I settle back down and ponder how to respond.
"You really mean that?" I ask.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I wouldn't have had a life with the girl I love."
Is it really that simple for him?
"But Peeta, if I was married to another man, I would've wanted you to be happy!"
He laughs.
"Why is that funny?" I demand.
"Katniss, before the Reaping, we had one interaction where we didn't even speak. If neither of us ended up in the Games, I'm pretty sure I never would have worked up the nerve to talk to you. So I can safely say that if you married another man, my happiness wouldn't have even been remotely on your radar."
He says it so easily, so casually, that it's hard not believe. Again, it just makes me incredibly sad, and I feel tears sliding down my cheeks.
"Baby, what's wrong?" He asks gently. "Oh, Katniss, I'm sorry, I didn't want to make you cry."
"Stop apologizing," I tell him through my tears. "Please."
"If you tell me what made you cry," he appeals. I nod and we wait until I'm calm enough to speak rationally again.
"The thought of not being here with you, of never even thinking about you. Never feeling the warmth of your arms around me, or the fireworks of your kisses. Never meeting our children. Never having the ecstasy of you inside of me. It tears me up inside, Peeta, it tears my heart apart just thinking about it. How close we came to that. How if just one thing hadn't gone our way, one or both of us would be dead or alone."
"Oh, Kat," now he's sobbing. Great. We're quite a pair. "But Katniss, don't you see? Everything did go our way. The two of us went into the Games, and for seventy-three years only one Tribute came out. But not you and me. We both came out. And that's because of you, my incredible wife. You might've picked a different tree to climb up when you were running from the Careers and me, and that tree might've not had a tracker-jacker nest. But the tree you picked certainly did. You could have easily walked right by me on that riverbed. I was in and out of consciousness for days before that. But you didn't. You found me. You could have missed Cato's hand and shot me with that arrow. But you didn't. Because you have impeccable aim, and I knew that. One of us could have swallowed a single one of those berries, but we didn't. And now, we're here. You and me. The world has tried, and will keep trying, to rip us apart Katniss. And we'll keep giving the world the middle finger. We'll take whatever plans the world has for us and rip apart the blueprints. It's like you said this morning, Kat. Nobody writes our story but us."
Wow. I'm – I'm stunned. I honestly don't know what to say.
"Together," I whisper. He nods.
"Together."
We're silent for a few more minutes, but it's a comfortable silence. There's no tension whatsoever.
"Katniss, as long as we're airing things out, can I ask you a question now?"
"Of course," I nod and smile.
"Can you tell me about how you realized you love me? You've told me that you figured it out in the cave, but you didn't go into detail."
I think about it for a moment. I guess I've never really explored that even in my own head. It's a complicated question, but if he wants to know, I'm certainly going to try and answer it. He takes my pause for hesitation, of course.
"Sorry, you don't have to answer that," he mumbles.
"No, I will," I assure him. "I was just – organizing my thought process. Give me a minute, please."
He nods and stays silent.
"It's – It's – Peeta honestly, I've never even explored the process in my head before, so I'm speaking completely from the heart here." He nods slightly with understanding, so I continue. "I have no idea when I started having feelings for you. Maybe it was when you threw me the bread. Maybe it was before that, because I had noticed you for years. I saw you through the window every time I came to the bakery, and I remember wishing you would come out and talk to me for some reason. Maybe it happened during the Games, but I've thought about that, and I know I had some kind of feelings for you before the Reaping."
"How do you know that?" He asks softly.
"That one's easy. Because when Effie called out your name as the male Tribute, I wanted to break down, cry, scream, anything. I thought my heart had stopped. If I hadn't already volunteered, I would have tried to volunteer for you."
"Wait, really? I was looking at you and you were completely stoic."
"I know. You know better than anyone how good I am at hiding my emotions. I've been so open with them for so long now that it's easy for both of us to forget that."
"Is that why you were so mean to me at the beginning?"
"That was a huge part of it, yes. I didn't want to get to know you better, because deep down I knew I had some kind of feelings for you, and if we got any closer, and I had to watch you die, it would have been that much harder. And I know how selfish that is now, Peeta, and it makes me ashamed of myself. It was also because somehow I had convinced myself that you were going to do anything you could to get home, because that was my mentality. I went in thinking every Tribute for themselves."
"Do you know now that wasn't what I was doing?" He asks shyly.
"Of course," I nod. "I know that you would have sacrificed yourself in a second. I know if I hadn't pulled out those berries, you would have found a knife and tried to kill yourself."
He nods sadly, guilt all over his face.
"Peeta, it's okay. I'm not mad at you. Actually, it makes me love you all the more. It proves that you truly are my soul mate, that you believed my life outweighed your own."
He smiles a little at that.
"But getting back to your original question. When I saw you with the Careers, I misunderstood, like I've told you. I was so incredibly angry, and now I know that's because I had feelings for you. I didn't want to believe you were cruel and sadistic like them. I wanted to believe you were the sweet innocent boy who threw me bread because I needed it. Then, when I dropped the nest on you, you immediately, without a second thought, risked your own life to scream at me to get out of there, then fought Cato to give me time to get away. I thought that I had hallucinated that until I woke up and thought about it for a while. That's when I realized what you were really doing all along – protecting me. It made me feel horrible for thinking of you the way I did, and treating you the way I did."
"It's okay, Katniss, I didn't tell you what I was doing."
"Ha. Because you know I wouldn't have let you," I retort.
"Yeah, that's true," he whispers. I smirk triumphantly.
"I think it's also why I got so angry at your after your interview with Caesar when you confessed. I was so confused, then you seemed so sure about your love. It made me angry that you had it all figured out while my mind was a complete jumble of random thoughts. To be completely honest, at first I didn't want to have feelings for you. I know how terrible that sounds, but you have to remember I was a different person then. I didn't believe true love existed. Then we went into the Arena, and everything changed."
"I thought you were pissed because I forced us into the whole act."
"No, that wasn't it. I knew the star-crossed lovers thing would help us, that was obvious. And it did lead to this, so I could never be mad at you for that."
"A'int that the truth," he smiles. I lean up and give him a quick peck on the lips.
"I still haven't answered your question though, Peeta. We keep getting sidetracked." He stays silent, his permission for me to continue. "I remember after Rue died, I was sitting against a fallen tree, in complete despair. She had told me you were alive, but I honestly didn't know at that point. I didn't know if you were injured or captured or on the brink of death, and it was killing me. I don't know what I was planning to do. I was so torn up by Rue's death that all I could do was sit and cry. Then they made the announcement about the District partners being able to win. That lifted my heart, made it soar. It gave me hope that maybe, just maybe, we could get out of there. When I accepted that there was a chance that I wouldn't have to see you die, that maybe there would be a life outside of the Arena for you and me, that's when my feelings started to sort out. Then came the cave. Honestly, at first, everything that happened in the beginning of our time in there made me so much more confused. I knew that for the cameras we had to act in love, but by then I knew it wasn't an act on your part. It made me feel so guilty. I hated it, Peeta, I hated it so much. Then you were sleeping and I was watching over you. I asked myself why I hated it so much. I shouldn't care. I was surviving, and that's all that matters. At least, that's what I tried to tell myself. Then I had my 'epiphany', the moment you painted so beautifully. That's when I admitted that I cared so much because I was in love with you. That the reason I got so angry when you were with the Careers was because I felt betrayed, not by my District partner, but by someone I loved. That I went and found you by that river because I wanted to be with you no matter what, not just to use you to get out of the Arena. That I tricked you and went to the Feast not because if you died it would have been harder for me to win, but because I couldn't stand to see you in pain. That's the real reason I threw down my bow. If one of us wasn't leaving that Arena, then both of us weren't leaving that Arena. I'm sorry it took me so long, but that's when I figured out that I'm in love with you."
"Wow, that was some speech Mrs. Mellark," he teases.
"Thanks, Mr. Mellark. My husband has been teaching me how to express my feelings." He smiles proudly at that.
"And please don't be sorry, Katniss. To be honest, I always thought you falling in love with me was a pipe dream, that it would never happen. That's why, the night you came over and admitted you lied, I was so wary. I thought at first you were playing some kind of cruel joke or teasing me. Then I looked into your eyes and I saw the very real pain you were in. The emotions racking through you. So please, never apologize for when you fell in love with me. For you and me, that's one of the most important moments of our lives."
"You're right," I admit. "That cave sure means a lot to our relationship. Both our first fake kiss, both our first real kiss, I realized that I'm in love with you, you admitted you fell for me when were kids, and the first time we slept together."
"Wow, I never put all those things together. That's amazing."
"Peeta, do you realize that since that night I showed up on your porch and we started dating, we've slept in the same bed every single night?" I ask.
"Really?" I nod. He thinks about it for a moment.
"Yeah. And if you hadn't come home early from the Capitol, our streak would've been broken. I remember you saying it was because you didn't want to sleep in a bed without me. It's like you knew, but you didn't." I explain. His eyes light up.
"You're right Kat!"
"Peeta, I want us to make a promise right now," I tell him. He nods that he's in. "I want us to vow, to promise, that every night for the rest of our lives we will sleep in the same bed. I don't care if we're in the middle of a fight or one of us is sick. I don't care if we're sleeping in a tiny twin bed or in a tent. Every. Single. Night. Forever."
"That's a promise that I will enjoy keeping, Katniss. Sleeping next to you, just having your presence next to me, is the most soothing thing there is."
"Me too," I agree. "So we both vow?" He nods. "Kiss on it?"
He smiles wide. I lean up and we seal our promise with a sweet kiss, whispering words of love against each other's lips.
Just then, as if it was timed, both our babies start crying over the monitor.
"Again with the timing," I mutter. Peeta laughs.
"Come on, let's both go," he smiles.
We get out of bed and pull on some clothes. I throw on one of Peeta's t-shirts and pull on my panties. He just pulls on some sweats. We walk to the nursery and both of them need to be changed, and we end up getting into a race to see who can finish first. I win. Peeta sulks. Then I have to feed both of them, and I scold Peeta for staring at least fifteen times. But every time, a few seconds later, I catch him staring at my boobs. I roll my eyes and eventually let him off the hook. It's not as soon as we get back to the bedroom, he's going to get to play with them as much as his little heart desires.
We realize that we'd been talking for a long time, and the sun is already down. We put the twins down, as both of them are back asleep after they've eaten their fill. We quickly go downstairs and just grab some cheese buns, eating them fast. We didn't agree to, we just both did.
When we've eaten, we head back to our bedroom.
"Let's take a bath," I suggest.
"I'm in," Peeta smiles wide.
We strip and make our way to the tub. Peeta turns the faucet on and it starts to fill up.
"Sit," I command, pointing to the edge of the tub. He complies.
I kneel down in front of him and gently remove his prosthetic. I can easily see it's red and swollen from all of our – cough – activities.
"Peeta, why didn't you tell me? Was it hurting?" I ask frantically.
"It's okay, Kat. It hurt a little, but what we were doing was way more worth it," he smirks. I can't really argue with that, now can I?
I gently wash and massage it, and I can tell it's helping him a lot from his facial expression. When I finish my regular routine, the tub's just about ready. Peeta starts to turn, but stop him firmly. He gives me a questioning look and I just hold up one finger. I bend down and kiss every single inch of his stump. Every piece of skin that I just washed and massaged is gently touched by my lips.
When I look back up at Peeta, he has a single tear running down his cheek.
We don't speak, it would ruin the moment. Instead, we get in the bath. Peeta gets in first and backs up against the opposite side of the faucet. I get in and settle on his lap, my back against his chest. My head angles to the right a little so our cheeks are right next to each other.
"This is nice," I mumble happily.
"Definitely. I have my gorgeous wife naked on top of me. How could I ever argue?"
Of course, he makes me blush crimson red. He kisses my cheek sweetly.
We spend a long time just soaking, kissing, flirting, and talking about anything and everything. We laugh and giggle, but never even get near an argument. We know this is one of our last nights of peace for god knows how long, and we both know not to ruin it. In actuality, I have an idea to make it better.
"Peeta?" I ask quietly.
"Hmm?" He whispers in my ear.
"Can you – um – can we – uh – let's have sex," I end up blurting out, gasping when I do.
He just laughs softly.
"You know, for someone as – vocal – as you are in bed, you get so shy half the time when you ask, why is that?"
I just shrug.
"Honestly, I don't know. It's not like I think you'll say no, but I think somehow it still embarrasses me a little."
"That's okay," he assures.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Well can we have sex?" I ask with a grin.
"Of course," he smiles and kisses my ear. "How would my baby like to do it this time?" He asks, ever the gentlemen.
I put my finger to my chin and ponder. He chuckles.
"Well, let's see. There's always the standard girl-on-top. That might be our best option given the space restriction. Then there's girl-on-top facing backwards. We've only done that a few times. There's always missionary, but I'm not sure how well that would work in this here tub." Where'd my embarrassment go off to? Huh? I can't believe I just said those things. Well, yes I can. But still!
"Wow, that was, um, well, that was hot," Peeta mutters. I giggle.
"We're going girl-on-top," I inform him. "I want to look in your eye when you're inside me."
"I'm good with that," he grins.
Without another word, we both start shifting and moving, and pretty soon I'm straddling him. I reach down under the water and grasp his already hard erection, sliding my hand up and down a few times. He moans. Before I let him enter me, I reach further down and grasp his sac. He groans even louder as I slowly, gently, massage.
"Peeta?" I ask softly while I continue my hand's work.
"Kat," he barely ekes out.
"What does it feel like when you come inside me?" I shyly ask.
His eyes, which had been closed, snap open widely. He looks at me and can see that I'm serious, even thought I'm biting my bottom lip out of shyness.
"It feels like fireworks going off in my body. It feels like my life is complete, that it couldn't possibly get any better than that exact moment. It feels like the two of us melt into one, that our mutual orgasms fuse us together. It's – it's – Katniss, it's the best feeling in the world. When you tell me to come inside you, it's the greatest thing you could ever ask. Besides 'marry me', of course. But, seriously. I mean, not only does it obviously drive me up the wall when you whisper those words, but when you let me do that, it's so magical. It's indescribable, really, but I tried."
"I love it too," I tell him honestly. I'm still massaging his sac slowly. "I can feel your warm release filling me up, and it feels like you've become a part of me. When we decide to have more children, it will be even more amazing, because I know that when you come inside me, we might be creating life together. It's – well – you're right, it's indescribable."
"Yes, it certainly is," he mumbles happily.
"Well, let's stop talking about and get there, shall we?" I suggest. He nods enthusiastically. I giggle.
I shift my body and release his sac, grasping him again in my hand. As I slowly lower myself, I guide him into me, both of us moaning softly. The first few thrusts I go slowly, taking his entire length and then almost letting it come back out before I descend again. Soon, though, we start to build up our speed. He has one hand gripping my breast, and the other between my legs, helping me along. I have one hand on his chest and the other tangled in his hair, gripping it for balance.
"Ohhh, Peeta, don't stop baby. I'm going to come. Oh I'm coming….." I groan. He smiles and doesn't stop for a second.
Over the months, our stamina has steadily grown. Peeta says that if I don't come at least twice before he does, we have done something wrong. Well, we certainly did everything right, because I come twice more before he's even close to his release.
"Peeta are you almost there?" I ask, burying him inside me and then moving around in circles on his lap, making him moan loudly.
"If you keep doing that I won't last much longer," he tells me honestly. I smirk.
"What if I do….this?"
With that, I quickly slide off, take a deep breath, dive below the water, and suck down his entire length. I slide it in and out of my mouth five times before I come back up for air. Instead of recovering or taking a break, I immediately straddle him and guide him back into me.
"Kat, I'm almost there," he moans. "Don't stop, please don't stop," he begs.
I can see him inching closer, and I reach down and grasp his sac again as I keep thrusting, trying to coax him into coming.
"Oh, baby, that's unfair," he mumbles when he feels my hand. I smirk and quicken my pace with my hand and my thrusting.
"Almost there?" I ask, teasingly.
He just nods, unable to form words. I know he's right on the brink, so I start whispering to him, which he absolutely loves.
"Do it, baby. Come inside me. Fill me up with your warmth. I want to feel you. I need to feel you come inside me, Peeta. Let it go, baby, let it all go. I love you, I love you so much."
Then I feel him come, and it makes both our bodies shudder. I make sure he's buried as far as possible inside me when he does, maximizing both our pleasure. I lift a couple inches at most and thrust back down a few times, coaxing all of his come out of him. He moans and groans my name, making me smile.
Finally I can feel he's given me his entire load. I keep him inside me as I collapse onto Peeta, kissing him soundly, then tucking my head under his chin.
"That was amazing," I whisper.
"No, you were amazing," he counters. "Thank your for letting me do that," he says sheepishly, like he's embarrassed.
"Peeta, honey," I say, raising my head to look at him. "You can do that every single time we have sex, baby. I love it as much as you do, if not more?"
"Really?" His face lights up like I just gave him the best present ever.
"Really," I nod my confirmation.
He takes my face in his hands and kisses me, and kisses me, and kisses me. I laugh against his lips.
"I love you, Katniss. Not just because of that, well partly, but I really do truly love you."
"I love you too, Peeta. Truly. Especially when you make me come like that," I smirk saucily.
"Always," he smiles.
"Forever," I smile back.
A/N: After re-reading this chapter, I realized that there were two night that Katniss spent at the Healer's. But, when I thought about it, Peeta never left her side and slept with his head on the bed. So let's say they technically slept in/on the same bed for those two night, and on the third, Katniss made Peeta get in the bed with her.
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Look at that cool box down there! Oh, it's just the review box. But still! Ha, had to do it at least ONCE.
