Chapter 1: A Fair Trade

With Mother's shawl draped over my shoulders, the hem of my blue Reaping dress swishes against my knees as I cautiously make my way to the front door of the Merchant shop. The Bakery.

Ever since Mother died not long after my sister Primrose's final Reaping for the Hunger Games, Prim and I have been struggling to find food, despite my best efforts at hunting. Slowly, over these last several years, we have been starving to death.

It all came to a head just the other day, as I was begging for scraps from many vendors at the Hob. That's when I bumped into him: the ashy blonde hair, those deep blue eyes as blue as a summer sky. Handsome face. Seeing my dilemma, Peeta Mellark, the Baker, promptly invited me to visit him at his Bakery this evening. He promised that he would have a gift for me. Though I hate owing people, and up until recently have refused any acts of charity, my curiosity refused to let me back out of the arrangement.

Now, I have quietly entered the front door of the Bakery, which has been conspicuously left unlocked, presumably for me. I remove the shawl from my head, looking about. All the same, I start when the Baker - who lives alone - appears from the back.

"Ah, Katniss! Good! I have something for you." And before I can speak, he is pushing warm bread - fresh from the oven! - into my arms. "Take them back to Prim and eat heartily! You may return as often as you like if you need more."

I gape at him, at a loss for words. If I had ever suspected in coming here that Peeta would give me bread, I never imagined it would be fresh loaves. Bread about to be thrown out and moldy would have made much more sense. But these... I can't accept these. It's too much! "Why are you doing this?" I whisper.

Peeta stares at me intensely. Taking a deep breath, he admits: "Because I have been in love with you since we were small children. I cannot bear to see you starve."

My jaw hangs slack. Peeta Mellark, the Merchant Baker, is in love with me! His choice of a desired mate surprises me, to say the least. Primrose is the real beauty of the Everdeen women. I am all skin-and-bones by comparison, with Seam looks instead of Merchant features from our mother.

And even if Peeta Mellark wasn't giving this bread to me because he loves me, he is risking his entire reputation as well as that of his business in just talking with me. Many Merchants are deeply prejudiced towards anyone Seam. Peeta's late mother was one of the worst offenders. Peeta can't just risk everything like this for me so freely. I find my voice. "What do you want in return?"

"Nothing!"

"That's not how it works," I tell him. "Everything has a price."

He shakes his head, taking a sip from a mug on the counter. "You don't owe me anything, Katniss. I wanted to do this."

If he won't name his price, then I'll have to choose it. I don't have a lot I can give him.

But there is one thing.

My expression blank but determined, I start undoing the straps at my dress, letting the bodice fall away so that my bare breasts hang free.

The mug slips from Peeta's hand onto the floor with a loud crash. "What are you... damn it, Katniss, no! I don't want that from you!"

"You say you are in love with me," I point out flatly. "All men want sex."

"Not all men!" Peeta scrambles behind the counter. "I mean, I find you incredibly attractive. Who wouldn't? But -"

His voice is cut off into a strangled gasp as I stalk after him behind the counter and brazenly cup him between his legs, my palm fisting his balls. Roughly, I slam my lips against Peeta's in a heated kiss of thanks as I begin to fondle him. I rub my naked breasts - peaked by hardened, rosebud nipples - against Peeta's muscular form to calm him. To encourage him to take me to bed and have sex with me.

"Fuck me," I whisper, hiss, in between desperate kisses. "Fuck me..."

After a moment, Peeta gives in.

I feel his arms encircle my slim waist and draw me flush against his muscular body. A calloused hand gropes and squeezes the accentuated flesh of my ass, and I purr in pleasure. All the while, Peeta and I are kissing shortly and frantically, gasping for air in between each one. Moaning, Peeta suddenly spins us around so that he slams me into the back wall. Keeping one hand in my hair, his other palm feeling up my ass boldly raises my leg to his waist, so that he hoists me off my feet. The hem of my blue dress rides up my thighs, as I fold my legs about Peeta's torso. Still kissing furiously, Peeta carries me into the back of the bakery and up the stairs to his quarters.

He is kissing me everywhere now, all over my face, and the sensation of a man's attentions makes my mouth hang open in amazement, before a slow smile of bliss crosses my flushed and kissed lips.

Thrown down onto Peeta's bed, I willingly spread my knees, open my legs to him so that we begin to make frantic, passionate love...

The sun is rising when I awaken hours later, wrapped in Peeta's arms and completely naked. I will have to rise early and depart for home in the Seam before the Baker's first customers arrive; Primrose will be wondering where I am, and I want to show her the bread. As I rise languidly from the bed I shared last night and begin to cover myself in my blue dress, Peeta awakens and catches my hand.

"Katniss, I can take care of you and your sister here. Will you marry me?"

I stare at him, shocked and yet deeply touched. And even though I once vowed to never marry, or have children, and certainly not with a Merchant, I lean over to him and kiss Peeta's lips soundly.

"Yes," I whisper.