Author´s Note:
I started this story because of the `Love In Panem` idea on tumblr and written it than in a few days under not so great conditions (nosy coworkers!). A big, big thank you goes to roseymama on tumblr my wonderful beta! Without her editing of my dumb mistakes, this story would be a nightmare to read! Thank you!
This is also my first attempt to write smut, so please be gentle in your critic.
Would love to get your thoughts. You can find me on tumblr under: sagittaria-sagittifolia
Also 'The Hunger Games' and all it´s characters belong to Suzanne Collins.
"And don´t forget to always smile! Our recipients deserve the best service! Valentine's Day is the day of love and happiness! And we are here to spread the love! This will be such a great experience and so much fun. What a big, big, big day for all of us!"
'Maybe for you, in your pink, glitter, totally overdone Barbie costume, with heels that are just too high. You do not have to run around in a toga with wings on your back, a bow in your hand reciting poems and messages to total strangers. God, why the hell am I doing this? Valentine´s Day is so dumb!'
But Katniss Everdeen knew exactly why she was standing in a conference room of her mega-corporation, dressed like an idiot with 10 other people, getting a motivation speech from Effie Trinket, the assistant of the CEO of Mellark Industries and personal proclaimed "event manager" of the firm.
She was standing here because she was just a good girl, a fantastic friend, a manipulable person. But if she had known, she had to dress like an actress in a Greek tragedy, with wings she would have told Finnick to suck it. After all Finnick was the reason why she is wearing this nightmare made of cotton.
Finnick was from IT support, like her, and he was the only person that was nice to herwhen she started at Mellark Industries 5 months ago. Everyone was more than skeptic about her age. She is younger than most of the IT people and many think she is not qualified enough for the job, except Finnick. He was only 4 years older than her, and while 28, he was also so young that some of her colleagues in IT don´t appreciated his skills. So the two youngsters stuck together and become friends. Certainly the fact that Katniss also didn´t react to any of Finnick`s flirting tricks, helped to foster this friendship.
And this friendship, based on the plain reason that they were alone in their department, was the reason why Katniss is now in this annoying situation. She gives Finnick, who is sitting on the other side of the table, a nasty look. His eyebrows raise up, when he looks at her.
'Don´t look so smug.' She thinks.' This is your fault after all, only yours. I will kill you for this.'
"So my dears," starts Effie again and pulls Katniss out of her musing about Finnick Odair's imminent demise.
"If there are no more questions for me about your tasks, I would say come get your list with the recipient names and start spreading happiness and love!"
Slowly the people stand up and shuffle to Effie, in her pink nightmare of a business costume, who is smiling like crazy to get the cards with the name of the recipients and the messages for them. Katniss still doesn't get why these people were all here. She was literally pestered to fill in for the last missing "Cupid" and she knew the reason why Finn was here, but the others?
Maybe there is a bonus if you play one of Effie´s "Cupids" she doesn't know about after all. Or, an improbable reason she really can't believe when she looks at all the unmotivated faces, these people just love to dress up and play the message-bearer of the "Goddess of Love" or whatever Trinket calls herself.
Finnick walks next to her. "What?" he asks and looks at her curiously, when he sees her standard scowl adorning her face.
"Was it a mistake or totally calculated from your side that you forgot to mention the dress code?"
Finnick just smiles. "I don´t get your problem Everdeen. I thought you hunt in your free time so the bow shouldn't be so strange for you," he says and tucks playfully on the child sized bow in her hands.
Katniss jerks it from his reach. "The bow is not the problem, you asshole! The costumes are the problem! I mean look at me! I look ridiculous!"
Finnick´s eyes wander down Katniss' dress, which she desperately tries to pull down. "I don`t see a problem here" he replies in a suggestive leer.
"Easy for you to say, you look handsome in it. I look like an idiot," she says, ignoring his tone and looking at his toga that reaches his shins. Finnick has the physique and looks of a tall Greek god and he knows about his appeal, so there was no reason for him to be uncomfortable, insecure, ashamed, or anything else in any way.
Katniss, on the other hand, was short and not really curvy, insecure and shy most of the time. He looked like Amor; she maybe like a degenerated one.
Finnick starts to laugh. "Kitty-Kat you can trust me, you don´t look like an idiot. You look sexy and hot. Like on Halloween!" He says to her with a smile.
Halloween…that was a theme Katniss hated to talk about, a subject she avoids, still ignoring the fateful day and what happened on it. Even 4 months later, she gets red in the face when she thinks about Halloween, her so atypical behaviour and the party that was thrown in the office building.
The people, the heat, she, dressed as a cat with a short skirt, deep plunging shirt and a dark mask in place, totally drunk. It was all so unusual for Katniss, but the party and her whole life situation was so nerve-wracking for her.
She was new, Finnick the only person in the IT talking to her without any work-related reason, her ex-boyfriend just announced his betrothal, her two best friends were as good as married, her sister happy with her own boyfriend and even though she never planned to marry or even fall in love because she saw what had happened to her mother after her father´s death, she felt alone.
So to lose the acrimonious feeling in her stomach every time she saw a happy couple, she decided to take a page out of her college roommate Johanna Masons' `How to live to the fullest` book, and just live a little bit.
Dressing totally out of her comfort zone, thanks to the help of her friend Madge, going to the `great` Mellark Industries Halloween party and chugging one drink after another, and dancing with everyone was the start for her, but by far not the end of the evening. Maybe she wouldn´t have acted this way with a little less to drink, but she wanted to do the same as Johanna.
To drink was therefore the only logical conclusion at the time, after all, Johanna´s motto was to go to a party find a guy and score with him. So she drank, more than normal, a good deal more, and then she saw the blue eyed guy…
But that was in the past, 4 months ago and now there were so many more problems, her short skirted dress for example. This is not the "no rules, be unrestrained today" Halloween. This is a normal work day, not a day for a "no one is too drunk to remember it later" party. It's an "everyone will see you in the daylight in this dress" day.
"Stop it" she answers and smacks him. "I am serious. These costumes are dumb. Who got the idea?"
Finnick rolls his eyes. "What do you think?" he replies and glimpse to the overexcited bon-bon pink woman. The two were almost at the end of the line.
"I still think this is a dumb idea," Katniss whispers so that Effie can´t hear them. "You don´t know if she will even say yes, or if you even will get her on your list".
"The idea is brilliant" Finnick responds. "And she will be on the list. Brittany from the personnel department made the lists and I asked her to put Annie on my list."
"Asked," Katniss replies with a clear question in her words "You mean flirted, right? You flirted with a woman to get the name of another woman on your list."
"Semantics" he says. "In the end I got Annie." His gaze goes back to Effie, who presents them with their lists.
Finnick was totally nuts about Annie Cresta. Annie was a lawyer in the legal department of Mellark Industries and around 3 months ago she called the IT desk for help because of a minor problem. Finnick was sent in and the rest is history or destiny, like Finnick says.
"I met my future wife, Kitty-Kat!" he said to Katniss, the day he came back from his first meeting with the breath-taking Annie Cresta, the second he came back. "The future Mrs. Odair!"
"Sure Finnick. Like Susie last week and after 5 days she was not interesting for you anymore."
"No, no, you don´t get it. She is the one. I feel it!"
Naturally Katniss didn´t believed him, after all, even in the short time the two knew each other she was familiar with Finnick´s way of life. In the beginning he even tried it with her, the flirting, the touches, but rather quickly he found out that he would never have a chance with Katniss, Finnick was just not enticing for her.
But this time something was different. Finnick found very way imaginable to visit Miss Cresta. And it even looked like Annie was searching for reasons to call for IT help. Strangely with all his extroverted behaviour he showed day in and day out, Finnick didn´t ask Annie for a date. Even once.
"I just can´t Katniss" he said to her one time after she asked him, why he was too chicken to ask her. "What if she says no?" was his serious concern.
Katniss found this absurd. It was so clear how crazy the two were for each other that even she, a person who normally never notices these type of signals, could see it. So after she pointed it out to Finnick, he started to formulate his plan, or better said searched for a plan, which presented itself around 3 weeks ago when Effie Trinket asked in a memo for volunteers who would play "Cupids" that spread love messages or poems through the building.
Finnick started to write something for Annie and wanted to ask her through one of the "Cupids", but then he thought it would be even greater if he would ask her himself as a "Cupid".
That was the plan, but then Effie announced that they still needed one more "Cupid" or the whole event would not happen. So Finnick, in his desperation to get his message to Annie in the most memorable way possible, and the deep conviction that only in this way she would say yes to a date, annoyed Katniss unendingly until she said yes.
And now she was standing here waiting to deliver messages to strangers, in a white mini toga, with wings and a children´s bow…
`My life is a joke. Is this karma for Halloween?`
"My dear, dear Katniss, I really have to thank you again that you agreed to help us. This wonderful event would have been cancelled without you!" Effie says when it is Katniss' turn to get her name list.
"No problem Effie. I love to help" she replies in a monotone voice. The same sentence she had already said a 1000 times, every time Effie thanked her. And that has happened more than once.
Still smiling, Effie gives Finnick his list."Now you two, you know what to do, so hurry up! We don´t have so much time until the party starts"
Katniss grimaces. 'Oh damn, the party! I forgot it.'
As if it wouldn´t be humiliating enough that the peopleshe was to visit would see her in her ridiculous dress; no, after her 'Cupid' duty was over there will be a party for the whole building, and as a 'Cupid' she was expected to attend.
Something she was dreading more than anything else. After Halloween and the things she let happen, she didn´t participate at the Christmas party or any other social event the whole building was involved, totally deliberately.
Her fear to meet her blue eyed man was just too big. She was not sure what would happen, how she would react, if this scenario will come true one day.
But regarding the party, she was pretty sure that she will find a way to get away early and avoid her mysterious blond haired man. If he would be even there…or an even darker, more depressing thought, if he would even remember her.
'Maybe he doesn´t think about me at all. I was just a fling, or just too bad, or…`
"See" Finnick says and holds his list under Katniss' nose, tearing her out of her frustrating reflections. "She is on my list." His finger points to a name on his list.
Annie Cresta.
"Great for you" she says sarcastic and looks in his face, but apparently Finnick doesn´t get it and beams at her, until his eyes fall on her his smile transforms into a grin and he starts to laugh.
"My, my, aren´t you the lucky one? You got one of the big bosses."
Confused she looks down on her list and her eyes grow wide because at the bottom of the list stands the name of Peeta Mellark.
`Oh fuck no….`
The Mellark family started with a bakery.
The grandfather of the Mellark clan, Leven Mellark, founded a small bakery factory, making pies, cookies and more, that was so successful that soon another one was added and sooner than expected the Mellark family were running over 50 factories around the country. Faren Mellark, the son of Leven, started to expand the business even more. First it was coffee houses which were added to the firm, then supermarkets, still things related to the original bakery business, but soon Faren invested in oil, science, computers and many more things.
The name "Mellark´s" of the firm was changed to Mellark Industries, because of the many new different branches that were added to the original bakery factory and Faren took over as CEO.
That was 20 years ago. Officially was Faren Mellark was still the CEO but his three sons, Wheaton, Rye and Peeta took over many of the operating business.
Wheaton was a lawyer and the head of the legal department and responsible for all contracts for new investments agreements. Rye was the face of the firm. He was the head of PR and press spokesmen. He was there when there was a problem with the media, getting them out of the way, in a really successful manner.
And Peeta was finding new partners, making deals with them, convincing them to invest and he was so good at it. So good that everyone said it was only a matter of time before he would take over firm. Something everyone believed.
And now she has to give him a "Love message".
Katniss never had seen him personally. But this was definitively not the way she wanted to meet him, if she ever had to meet him.
"Oh right I almost forgot," said Effie. "His brother Rye has a message for Peeta and because we still could do this event because of your wonderful help I thought I should give you his message. Isn´t that a great opportunity? To connect with the future CEO is a great idea! Think about all the career possibilities!"
"Yeah.." answers Katniss "This is a great chance…" but personally she was just afraid, wishing that she did not have to do this and be just invisible like before. How she likes it.
She and Finnick got out of the room after they got the envelopes with the messages from a still smiling Effie.
The problem with the message to the future chief was Katniss didn´t want to be recognized. She was always an outsider, never interested to stand in the middle of the action. She was almost afraid to be in the center of attention. She just always stood in the background and she liked it that way.
`Except on Halloween, there I was pretty much in the middle of attention or better said in the center of the attentions of a blond haired, hot man. Argh! Why do I always have to think about Halloween and this guy?!`
In college she was the same. She maybe went to 3 parties in her whole college life, much to the displeasure of Johanna. She is happy with her mostly boring job, except maybe the mistrust of her colleagues. She is not so passionate to achieve a high position in the firm. She just wants to work in the anonymity of the IT crowd, get her money and help her mother to send her little sister to medical school. That is everything that she wants.
So the 'chance' to meet the probably, most likely, future CEO was not so high on her priority list. But she can`t change anything now, so she leaves the room together with Finnick.
Before Katniss could react, Finnick was already on his way, almost jumping in excitement to talk with Annie.
'Okay, you can do this Everdeen. You can do this!'
And with this thought she pushes out her shoulders, checks the first name on the list and starts to walk away. She is on a mission.
This is the most horrible thing ever!
Katniss had already spent 2 hours delivering messages, almost all her messages. Only in the situations, where she had to deliver something to women, everything worked without a hitch. For most men it seemed her short skirt was permission to hit on her or, like in the last case, to grab her ass.
John Marvel is a fucking disgusting pig!
She walks as fast as she can away from Marvel´s office and checks the next name on her way to the elevator. It was the last one and also the one she was most afraid about.
Peeta Mellark.
But she had a job to do.
So she takes the last envelope, enters one of the lifts and selects the right floor. During the ride her thoughts starts again to jumble around her head.
'What if I embarrass myself, what if I act so dumb I will get fired'
Strange unrealistic thoughts, but Katniss always expects the worst case to happen. 'Total pessimistic in an extreme way' her childhood friend Gale, and Madge's fiance, loved to say. But this is just the way Katniss is.
To get herself from her dark thoughts she opens the envelope with the special message for Mister Peeta Mellark. If she reads it before needing to recite it, then maybe she won't hang or mess up on a special word or be so awkward because of the content.
But when her eyes run over the words, she can´t believe what she is reading.
'Holy shit'
Without a second thought she knows that she can´t do this. Never in her life. NO!
Dear Peeta, regarding your current 'situation' we thought, we, as in your much more mature, wiser brothers, can give you good advice and because it is Valentine´s Day you get it as a poem!
Oh dear brother of ours,
We know you stand under the shower for hours,
Clearly frustrated with your ever present boner,
Which makes you even more lonely and a total loner.
A dark haired vixen wrapped you around her finger,
And pulled you through the ringer,
Like an idiot you run now around,
Searching for this girl that can´t been found.
We are getting full of worry,
And know have to say to you without saying sorry,
Forget this chick!
Just think with your dick!
And with these poetic rhymes we just want to say, little bro forget her and go ahead! Just go out and bang a few lasses!
With much love and concern that, due to your non-stop jacking off, you will lose your junk,
Your always worried and just wishing you the best in the world brothers
Rye & Wheaton
I can´t do this! This is…
But before she could select another level and flee from this childish, painful poem, that was clearly a cruel joke from 2 older brothers, the lift doors open and she is standing in the foyer of Peeta Mellark's office.
"Hey" says an animated blond sitting behind a big desk. "I`m Delly, how can I help you?" she asks.
Katniss has been spotted and now had no way to flee and just forget the whole thing. Katniss is still confused and so doesn´t directly answer Delly´s question. But even now, Delly´s smile doesn'tleave her face for one second. As she looks at Katniss she notices her costume and her smile only gets bigger.
"Oh you are one of the 'Cupids'! Rye told me that Peeta will get a message! The whole campaign is such a great idea! Wait a second I will just call Mister Mellark and tell him you are here."
Before Katniss could protest because in no way would she perform this "poem" in front of Peeta Mellark, Delly is already picking up the phone and calls the office. It only rings a second or two before she starts to speak.
"Peeta? One of the 'Cupids' is here with a message for you," a pause. "The 'Cupids'. The guys and gals going to through the building today leaving messages for people!" Another break."For Valentine´s Day? Please don´t tell me you forgot it is Valentine´s Day today." She starts to laugh, but still her smile had vanished after it became clear that Mister Mellark didn´t know what a 'Cupid' was.
Delly´s sugar sweet smile returns after a response on the other end of the phone.
"Okay! I will send her in." she replies to her boss on the phone and hangs up. She looks up again to Katniss.
"Mister Mellark is ready for you." And with that her hand points to the door on her left.
With slow, hesitant steps l Katniss moves in the direction of the door.
"Thank you" she says almost silently, preparing herself for the unenthusiastic receptionshe will get in a few minutes, after delivering this insulting poem.
Arriving at the big mahogany door, she lifts her hand, and after a few seconds, takes a deep breath and knocks on the door.
"Come in." a deep voice from within calls.
With the utmost reluctance, Katniss opens the door, walks in, and closes the door directly behind her. When she gets fired, she's not really interested in Delly hearing it. The whole situation is humiliating enough. Her eyes are still on the floor, too afraid to look up.
`Come on Everdeen, there is no way back. You are here, just do it.`
When her gaze is finally raising up, was this dumb poem in her hand, the last of her problems appears. In front of her, behind a big table, in a clearly really expensive suite was sitting Peeta Mellark. But for her it was not only Peeta Mellark. It was also the blond haired, blue eyed guy she slept with at the Halloween party.
And looking at his face, it seems he might not have been as drunk as she hoped and didn´t forget her at all. His face was surprised, and confused, but the recognition was clearly written on it.
"You.." he says and still gapes at her.
Hearing his voice starts to wake up memories that his sight did not.
Sitting on a desk in an empty office, papers littering the floor. Her head thrown back in ecstasy, the black cat ears on her head askew, one hand behind her on the desk, the other hand on the blond haired head between her legs, her tights lying over the broad-shouldered naked back of the man before her. Her loud moans and the more quiet sounds from his tongue licking her were filling the room. Only seconds later she reached her peak, screaming and he looked up. Glimpsing his face, his blue eyes behind the mask smiling mischievously, clearly not done with her.
She groaned, rose herself up, started to kiss him and tasted herself on her lips. His arms went around her waist, pulled her up to him, pushing himself against her. She felt him through his pants, her hands sneaking between them down his body.
"I thought" he starts again and pulls her out of her flashback of their one night together.
"I thought that you were just a guest…that you are not working here. I searched for you at the Christmas Party. But you were not there and then I thought you were just a guest at the Halloween party, because there are guest allowed at the Halloween party but not on the Christmas Party. And so I thought that you don´t work here and it made me crazy because I couldn´t stop thinking about you…. And maybe I should stop talking now."
For endless long minutes the two just look at each other.
Than Katniss lifts the card with the poem and starts to read from it.
When she finishes she looks again at him, doesn'tt say a word and leaves the office as fast as she can.
She practically runs through the foyer, jumps into the lift, that magically is still there and hits the button to get out of there.
'A nightmare, this has to be a nightmare. In a minute I will wake up and laugh about it. It can't be true. Please don´t let it be true. God, if you are really up there please don´t let it be true. Let me not have slept with my boss.'
She hears Peeta´s door being thrown open, and heavy footsteps come in her direction.
'No, no, no'
Her heart beats faster and faster the closer his footsteps are coming. Her finger beats fanatically on the button to close the doors.
'Come on, you piece of shit. Close, close, close!'
The elevator doors close slowly and a second before the doors are completely shut he squeeze through the door.
Katniss jumps back from the panel and presses her back to the wall of the elevator, and tries to be as small as possible. Panting like he has run a marathon and bending over with his hands on his knees, he stands before her while the lift doors are closing behind him. After a few deep breaths he straightens up and looks Katniss in the eyes, his gaze full of uncertainty and mild panic.
"I am so sorry if I frighten you in any way, but I just can´t let you get you away again. I know that I am maybe a bit too pushy but I just had to talk to you," he says and keeps staring at her.
Katniss didn´t know how react. The whole situation was just too much for her. She was nervous enough to meet the future boss and now she has learned that the guy, with whom she had a hot one-night stand at the Halloween Party, is the future boss.
Peeta was still looking at her, impatiently waiting for a reaction, the elevator still slowly moving to its destination. His hand suddenly springs forward and hits the emergency stop button.
'What the fuck…'
A jerk goes through the elevator. Peeta can hold himself up by grabbing at the handrail. Katniss can only barely keep standing on her feet. An annoying warning signal starts.
"I am so sorry to do this, but I just have to talk to you…and now I come off as a total creep that wants to take you captive, but please, please just listen to me. I don´t want to hurt you or lock you up. I just want to talk to you and I know this is kind of an extreme act but I am desperate."
He keeps on talking, or better said babbling, non-stop in a desperate attempt to shake off the "sociopath traps woman in elevator" appearance.
Something he doesn´t have to be afraid about, because in her eyes he would never look like a sociopath.
'More like a delicious dessert I can devour and that I am trapped with.'
Her thoughts were not really about his behaviour in this awkward position they were both in.
Since he entered the elevator she could only think about, naturally after the shock that her boss was the guy she had slept with, that Mister blue-eyed, blond-haired, best time of my life, about whom she still had sex dreams was in an elevator with her.
A completely empty elevator.
One arms length away and if she were not her usual self this moment, the ordinary Katniss Everdeen, she would have jumped him already, stranger or not. But this time she was not the drunk, cat-masked Katniss or her loud and brash college roommate Johanna. She is the shy Katniss, that always stays away from the spotlight. The Katniss that always stops seeing guys when the L-word is spoken, the girl that flees from serious relationships after she saw what love had done to her widowed mother. This Katniss had promised herself to never fall in love, not to become a shell like her mother when something happens to the ones she loves. She wants to protect herself.
The normal Katniss is unsure and vary of explicit portrayal of any form of emotions, the girl that even now that her mother was better, thanks to the help of her uncle Haymitch, could not really trust anyone but herself.
And she is mostly happy with it. But even with her strong opinions regarding love and partnership, she was from time to time really lonely.
And so on the day before Halloween, when she saw the happiness of her friends and sister and later was sitting in the house of her friends Madge and Gale, who were also a happy couple, she learned about her curse of an ex, who was an asshole, but still it hurt to heard that he got farther in his life, while she was still stuck. So she started her 'live a little more' plan.
During her rant with her friends that said again and again she should just live a little she had to think about her old college roommate Johanna that was always so open, partying like crazy, having fun and she planned to take her example and live more, be a bit crazy, just for one day.
That was the reason why she dressed in the black short skirted, deep cut out cat costume with heavy makeup, a mask and drunk more than her weight. Her one day of being free was the reason why she was drinking so much, dancing with everyone and when she saw him, the blue-eyed guy, she took him by the hand and pulled him to an empty office. She was still a bit embarrassed how she acted that night. But still she couldn´t stop starring at his lips, how they move and thinking what he had done with them on a night many months ago.
After a while dreaming, she woke up and started to listen again.
"..and so I just can say I am so sorry that I pestered you. You were drunk and I exploited the situation. I can only say I also had too much to drink that night and I would never had done anything like that without knowing your name and just so shortly after meeting you for the first time."
'What?'
"Wait" she stops him. "You think you used me?"
He looks at her strangely.
"Just to make it clear, I wanted it, not that I do something like that normally and yes, I was drunk but I was totally unimpaired, totally able to make decisions and I knew what I was doing and I wanted it."
His eyes are shining with disbelief.
"Really?" he asks. "But you were drunk and I basically attacked you, I mean you don´t have to say it just because I am the son of the CEO. Really! My behavior was inappropriate!"
"No, I was the one acting like a lunatic. I jumped you out of the blue, but I promise I wanted it. You didn´t harass me or force me to anything."
The troubled look slowly vanished from his eyes. His 'Okay' was still hesitated and Katniss knew he was still not 100% convinced. Still, a brilliant smile took over his face.
"You know" he started "I still don´t know your name."
'There is this charming man that I met at the party.'
She returns his smile.
„I'm Katniss Everdeen. From the IT department and at the moment dressed as a 'Cupid'."
His laugh goes through her whole body, remembering her why she choose him that night.
"Hello Katniss," he says and extents her, his hand "I am Peeta Mellark. Really nice to meet you."
When their skin meets again, for the first time after 4 months the heat comes back. His eyes are locked with hers. Slowly he pulls her to him until their bodies are touching and their linked hands lie on his chest. The whole time his thumb is caressing her hand. A shudder goes through her when she feels his pectorals under her fingers.
She remembers this strong body that was wrapped around her, the muscles in the back moving under her hands when he was thrusting into her.
The strong thighs between her legs, the narrow hips her useless legs were wrapped around. She can feel how she gets wet again just thinking about their tryst on a bureau table, so long ago. She can clearly feel him getting hard through his dress pants and her short dress. They are clearly thinking along similar lines. And that makes her even wetter.
"It is really great to meet you." He says with a seductive voice, his gaze doesn´t leave her eyes the whole time.
"You already said that" she answers lowly.
"Yes, you are right. I just mean I am really, really happy about it. We should go out. For coffee, or dinner, or lunch or whatever you want."
"Food is at the moment not number one on my priority list", she replies with a smile.
"And what is number one?" he asks.
"This," comes her answer, as she lets the bow she still has in her hand fall down and presses her lips on his pliable ones.
His mouth opens just a second later and he licks with his tongue over her lips. She lets him in and the two lose themselves in their kiss.
Katniss can feel how she is pulled up and pushed against the cold steel of the elevator.
Her legs loop around Peeta´s hips, her arms around his neck, sinking her hands into his hair.
He rubs his cock and body against her. His hands wander to her ass, squeeze it. He pulls his lips from her mouth and sucks on her neck.
Soft moans are coming from her, grunts from him.
Both don´t notice the elevator moving again, they are so concentrated on each other.
But both hear the horrified gasp coming form the open door.
Still pushed against the wall, her legs wrapped around the future CEO of Mellark Industries, his hands on her ass with his face buried in her neck, both their heads snap in the direction of the noise.
The doors were open, clearly opened by the technician standing in front of it, who looks surprised at her and Peeta. Next to him stands Effie Trinket her face red, the enraptured gasp clearly from her. Delly, Peeta´s receptionist, stand with her eyes are almost bulging out of her head, like most of the eyes of the around 15 people standing in front of the lift, nosy busy bodies wanting to know what kind of scandal was happening right know.
One person was grinning like crazy. Finnick stands next to Annie, who looks confused, with a devious smile bigger than she ever seen before, gracing his face. Before he even opens his mouth Katniss knows whatever will come will make her angry.
"Kitty Kat, when we said to 'meet' Peeta Mellark, we meant to talk to him, not thrust your tongue in his mouth. But I have to say you are really a very dedicated 'Cupid' spreading love and happiness! Nice to know that you already started the party without us!" he says laughing.
Many people start to giggle and even Effie´s scandalized face starts to change in amusement.
Her face becomes red and she hides it in Peeta´s neck. He is laughing, gives her a kiss to the forehead and says:
"What can I say? I always had a thing for dark haired archers." Everybody starts to laugh. Katniss looks up and sees Peeta smiling.
"Happy Valentine's Day, Katniss" he says.
'Maybe Valentines Day is not so bad after all' she thinks.