Those Ocean Eyes

Chapter 8:

PEETA

Holy shit. Holy shit!

I can't believe how stupid I am. I can't believe that Katniss Everdeen actually did that. That she finds him attractive. Sure, she would blush now and then. I only assumed it was a small crush or something. But this? I didn't know she had it in her.

I want to sit down. To think this through. All this time I saw the girl as just that. A girl . She's just sixteen, a kid who's newly of age and she decides to do that for me. A 28-year old baker...

I try not to, but I want to laugh. I was so gone with thoughts these past two days ever since my brother visited me.

"Maybe if you got married, her worry would settle down a bit and she'd let the subject go." Rye had told me, but where the hell do you find a wife? Beautiful women walked into the bakery daily and I watched them like hawks, trying to find a suitable one that I could seduce but I didn't want to. Out of laziness? Maybe, but it felt wrong. Everything felt so fucking wrong and I hated my mother even more. Hated how I had to bake, bake, bake all this time to prove myself worthy and never be able to fall in love. And now I had to bullshit to a girl instead. Just because of my mother. But I can't give up. Not now when I went this far. So I tries to find one and I keeps looking at every lady that walk in and then;

"Mr. Mellark, I'm not a kid." Katniss was right in front of me. A girl that I didn't have to seduce. Because she already was.

She was right under my nose all this time and I found it funny. As I said, I never thought of her like that. She was just a kid that owed me and traded with his father when he was alive. And today, I completely forgot everything about my mother and that I'll sooner or later lose the bakery. I had so much fun with the Huntress. Laughing and having company while I baked. So when she leaned forward, I was so off guard.

And now I didn't need to worry anymore.

There were three things lingering in my head. Three thoughts that were set on replay all night.

First was my mother's voice. How she cursed me in front of the family while everyone at the table watched like it was some drama instead of abuse. What was it again she said? You're a disgrace, Peeta. Yeah, something like that. I would sometimes lay in bed resting or just cooking food when I heard my mother's voice pop up unexpectedly, and my body would freeze in pure terror. I usually deal with it when taking a smoke.

The second thought was Rye's word. Get married. Get married. Hurry up before mother sells your bakery! If I didn't think about Rye's shaken words at least once a minute, I was probably sleeping because his voice in my head wouldn't shut up for a second.

Especially with what happened yesterday...

That takes me to the last thought. The fact that I was a fucking pervert. I really made out with Katniss Everdeen. The same seven-year-old girl that I saved from her father's abusive hand.

It was nice of course, her lips were soft and she was inexperienced and it made my dick hard to think that I was the first to ever touch and feel her that way. The way she squirmed under me, the way she opened her little mouth for me, moaning and automatically clenching her knees together. Damn, it wasn't even nice, it was fucking amazing . I knew I was handsome. I always heard ladies whisper by the counter about my muscles, hair, eyes and whatever it was. But damn it did something to my ego when a teenager found me attractive. A young girl like Katniss rather has an old man like me than some fucking douchebag in her age, as a normal girl would do.

But Katniss was mature for her age, that was for sure. She had grown up the moment her father turned sour and bitter. She was working hard and didn't have a pleasant life either with a marriage proposal that put pressure on her. But even if she is mature, her age still remains. I realized that when we leaned out for air. When I glanced at my big, rough hand caressing her soft, tan cheeks. My hand looked too old against her skin and that's when it hit me.