“I know aliens are real. I mean, it would be ridiculous for there to be so many universes and not a single other planet has intelligent life on it. But whether we will ever communicate with them? I don’t know. But this?” She gestured to the screen. “We have aliens right here. We have a whole other galaxy we can’t even fully explore because we can’t dive that deep. How wild is that?”

I smirked, arching a brow at her as she continued staring at the screen wide-eyed and chomping on the dusty orange chips.

She was so strange, and intelligent, and curious, and full of wonder. She was like a child and a grown ass woman somehow wrapped up in one.

Giana must have sensed me looking at her, because she glanced my way before sucking the crumbs off her fingertips and asking, “Do you want to talk about it?”

I cracked my neck, looking back at the screen. “Not really.” I paused. “But… thank you. For this,” I added with a nod toward the TV. “It helped.”

She smiled, a little shimmy of her shoulders telling me she was proud of that. “Good.”

The light from the television battled with the shadows of her room, casting her figure in a soft blue light. I followed the length of it down to her cleavage, the sliver of skin showing above her sweatpants, all the way down to her feet and back up again. I couldn’t explain it, but there was something so comfortable about her in that moment, something that begged to be held.

That beast inside me reared its ugly head, rattling against the cage and demanding my attention. And I didn’t know if it was for her or for my own selfish desire that I did what I did next.

“So…” I cleared my throat. “Now that you’ve made me feel better…” I angled myself toward her, propping my chin on the heel of my hand. “Wanna practice?”

Giana frowned. “Practice?” she echoed around a bite of a pretzel dipped in beer cheese.

When she looked at me, I just cocked a brow, hoping the salacious smile spreading on my lips would be answer enough.

Her lips parted, eyes popping open wide before she gulped down the bite in her mouth. “Oh, my God. Practice! Yes!”

In a feat of agility and speed, she dropped what was left of the pretzel in her hand and cleared the plates and snacks from the bed between us. She hastily shuffled them into the kitchen before all but skipping back to the bed and jumping into it, landing on her knees and clapping like a little kid.

“Okay. What do we do?”

I smirked, sitting up to join her, but as soon as I did, she gasped and leapt out of the bed.