Taming the Queen of Beasts

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*****

<strong>RIKA  </strong>

Not giving Gar any chance to respond, she closed the two steps between them and crawled into his lap, straddling his long thighs, her heart racing.

Gar's hands came to rest on the sides of her legs, gentle, as if he were uncertain. But even though she was nervous, she also had that trilling in her belly that drove her forward.

She really wanted him.

"I just want to touch you… if that's okay?" she said. "Just for a minute?"

Gar's eyebrows rose. "You can touch me as long as you want, Rika." His voice was deep and gruff, and the thrill in it made her smile.

"You're stunning, Gar, do you know that?" she said, holding his beautiful eyes.

"I, um, I mean—"

"No, Gar, I'm not being nice. You are objectively hot. Like, smoking."

Gar tipped his head, fighting a smile. "The feeling is mutual."

Rika smiled. "Okay, now shush and sit still. I want to touch you."

Gar made a great show of nodding and freezing in place, the animal in him going so preternaturally still so that she almost wondered if he was still breathing.

She felt like her own chest was vibrating with the force of her heartbeat. But it wasn't all fear. In fact, as she reached to cup his face first, to slide her fingers up that square jaw and feel the stubble against her palms, it felt like the fear was sucked out of her skin and into his.

The tree was near-silent around them, all of Anima in the Tree City, celebrating, or bemoaning. They were alone. Truly alone.

Rika's heart beat even faster with the thought.

She stroked his cheek with her thumb first, letting her nail catch in the shorthairs shadowing his jaw so it scritched on his skin.

Gar's face went serious, his eyes locked on her hers, while she let her gaze follow her hand from his jaw, down the long cord of his neck, her thumb tracing the line of the tendon that drew down his neck towards his collarbone.

His Adam's apple bobbed and she felt his body tense under her when she touched there, but he didn't move.

His breathing got deeper, louder.

Bringing both hands to his chest, she let her fingertips trail along his collarbones, marveling at how his skin was so warm and soft, yet lined over the steel strength of his bones and muscles.

When she let her hands drag down over his pecs, to the incredible musculature of his abdomen, his breath shuddered out and his stomach sucked in.

Side to side, rippling down, Rika tilted her head to watch herself trace the line of his muscles, to feel the hard forms under his skin, watch them twitch and respond to her touch.

Watch all of his body respond to her touch.

His fingers were tightening on her thighs, but she didn't mind. In fact, she wished he'd pull her closer. But even though her breathing had gone rapid and shallow, she wasn't done. She wasn't ready to stop looking at him. Exploring him.

Not because she was scared but because she wanted to savor this.

So she flattened her palms on his trim stomach and pushed them back up his torso, all the way to his shoulders, where she began again. This time, following the rippling lines of muscles that linked his neck to his shoulders, and down the outsides of his thick arms.

"You're… amazing, Gar," she breathed, stunned out of any kind of clever vocabulary. "So freaking beautiful." He literally stole her breath.

A tiny whine pierced the air and his fingers dug into her thigh.

"Fuck… Rika," he croaked as she gripped his biceps, then stroked back up to his shoulders again, unwilling to let him pull her close yet, because she was drinking in the sight of him.

She knew she was smiling like an insane woman, but she was still having trouble believing this was real. That this man, this male, this… incredible person wanted her. Gave himself to her with such abandon.

"Gar, do you know," she whispered as she leaned a little closer, letting her fingers follow the line of his neck up this time to his jaw, then splaying both hands on either side of his jaw and holding him there, making him look at her. "I think you're the hottest man I've ever seen? I'm still waiting for you to blink and realize what a… a… housecat I am compared to your lion. I mean… it's laughable." And she did giggle then, because it was true, and she didn't care.

"Rika, I'd never—"

"I know, I know," she whispered, still giggling. "I'm not… it's fine. I can feel how you want me. I just can't quite believe how lucky I am."

Gar grunted then and one of his hands came up to her face, taking her chin, making her lift it to meet his eyes. "Rika," he said seriously, his voice so deep it seemed to come from his toes. "It's more than want. I don't just want you—and believe me, I do," he added hurriedly. "But this is… so much bigger than that. I love you. Do you hear me? You own my heart."

Rika's vision blurred at the simple declaration.

"I love you, too," she said, with an amazed smile. "I don't know how it's happening, but it's happening and… I believe you," she whispered.

Then, before he could say anything else and make her cry even more, she kissed him.

Gar sucked in a breath as their lips touched. He let go of her chin and held her hips, his hands trembling.

Tangling their tongues, she arched into him, her hands clawing into his hair. "I want you," she whispered against his lips. And when he groaned and let his head fall back like he needed more air, she kissed her way under his beautiful jaw.

"You have me, Rika," he rasped, arching his head back, baring his throat without any guard—a movement she knew was meaningful for him. "I'm yours."