Page 20 of Rock Hard Alien

She rolled her eyes. “So it's truth or dare but without the dare.”

“We could add some dares, if you'd like.”

“No. Better not. Let's keep that for next time. You start. I need time to think of some evil questions.”

“Evil questions?” I laughed softly. “If that's how you'd like to play it... I will start with the ground. A simple one. What was your first impression of me?”

“I thought the ground was supposed to be about the past!”

“I feel like I have known you forever, which makes our first encounter the past.”

She blinked at me. “I'm not sure what to say to that.”

“You don't have to say anything. Just answer the question.”

Georgie shifted on the sofa. Our thighs almost touched.

“That one's hard because when I first saw you, I thought you were a statue. I'd looked at drawings of you, well, the Guardian. I'd known about you for years. But I didn't look at you as a living being. I saw the expert craftsmanship, the fine details, the realism in your wings and horns, the complete lack of decay. I did not think of you as a man when I first saw you.”

“And now?” My voice was husky.

She turned to me, eyes bright, a small smile curving her lips. “Now I know for certain that you're not a man.”

My tail clenched painfully.

“You're a gharrgoil,” she continued. “An alien. You're annoying, reckless, far too large for my house and still ridiculously gorgeous.”

Warmth rushed through me. “Ridiculously?”

“I hadn't meant to say the last bit. Don't let it go to your head.”

“Too late.”

She nudged my thigh with hers. It was a small touch, barely there, but she had chosen to do it. Heat sparked up my leg where she'd touched it.

“Your turn,” she said. “What was your first impression of me?”

I considered burying the stone.

Georgie narrowed her eyes. “It must have been bad if it takes you this long to answer.”

“I thought you were stupid.” And gorgeous. And a whole lot of other things.

“What?”

“You kept insisting you were dreaming while sitting on a castle wall and talking to someone you believed was a statue.”

“I'd nearly fallen to my death!”

“And then you nearly did it again.”

“Because you kidnapped me!”

I grinned at her. “That happened afterwards.”

She grabbed one of the cushions and struck me with it.

“Is this one of the human dares?”