Page 10 of Tempting Her Grumpy Protector
She’d been smelling hot since she had come out of the fresher topless and wearing only that damned grass skirt, he thought. She might actually like putting herself on display, which was her right, even though he still didn’t think it was a good idea.
And now seeing the way the paints were used, she was definitely getting even more worked up. It wasn’t just her scent that told him—he could hear her heartbeat increasing, her cheeks were flushed pink and her pupils were dilated, making her eyes look starry in the torchlight.
Greer wished he wasn’t quite so fucking attuned to her. She was his Ward—not his mate! He shouldn’t be able to hear her heartbeat or be so sensitive to her scent that he could tell when she was getting sexually aroused. But he couldn’t seem to stop himself—he was helpless not to notice her arousal, especially when it was sexual in nature.
“Well—would the two of you like to use the Claiming Pigments on each other?” the guide asked them.
Greer expected Sunny to agree to this at once and he wasn’t about to fight her on it. He had to admit the idea of palming her full, heavy breasts and teasing her tight nipples as he painted her with the pigments made his shaft rock hard.
But to his surprise and irritation, his Ward shook her head.
“Let’s try going without them first,” she said to the guide. “I might learn more about your culture’s customs if I enter the Communal Hut as a ‘single’ woman.”
“Well, that is certainly true.” The guide nodded affably. “But then your mate must go as a single too—you must either both be painted or both be bare.”
“We’ll stay bare for now,” Sunny decided—not even asking Greer for his opinion on the matter, which irritated him mightily.
He grabbed her by the arm to keep her from walking bare breasted into the crowded Communal hut.
“You think this is a good idea, little one?” he demanded, scowling down at her. “Going in there bare and pretending to be single?”
“Who’s pretending?” Sunny shot him an arch look. “Besides, I’m just trying to learn about the Thropp’ian culture. Why do you object? Are you jealous, Greer? You want to lay a claim on me?”
The look she was giving him made him drop her arm at once. She wasn’t for him, he reminded himself fiercely. She never would be.
“Nobody said anything about being fucking jealous,” he growled, glaring down at her.
“Good. Then we don’t have a problem, do we?”
And with a flip of her silky, honey-colored hair, she headed into the crowded hut.
Greer felt a growl rising in his throat but there was nothing he could do but follow his wayward Ward into the crowd of half naked Thropp’ians.
He just hoped he could keep her safe and out of trouble.
6
SUNNY
Sunny was feeling pretty pleased with herself as she headed into the crowd of tall, thin blue bodies. Everywhere she looked, Thropp’ian males were checking her out, their eyes going wide as they saw the size of her breasts.
But it wasn’t the attention from the strange men surrounding her that made Sunny’s heart beat faster—it was her Protector’s hot glare, which she could feel right between her shoulder blades. Oh yes, Greer was jealous all right—whether he wanted to admit it or not. He was definitely going to want to stake a Claim on her while they were here on Thropp’ic Sigma—maybe even tonight!
After a while, however, she noticed that though lots of men were shooting her lustful glances, none of them were approaching her. And the women were giving her distinctly unfriendly looks—many directed from the third eye at the center of their forehead.
She was beginning to wonder if she had made a bad decision when the guide appeared at her side again and touched her elbow.
“Forgive me, Dr. Craythorn for interrupting your study of our culture, but would you be so kind as to come with me? The leader of our local tribe, Chief Lowhung, would like to meet you.”
“Oh, well…of course.” Sunny smiled and nodded obligingly. “Lead the way.”
She looked over her shoulder to see if Greer was following, but the big Kindred seemed to be in the middle of a knot of Thropp’ians. He was speaking but though she could hear the rumble of his deep voice, Sunny couldn’t make out the words.
Oh well—she didn’t see any harm in going to meet the Thropp’ian leader by herself. Greer could catch up to her if he wanted to.
She followed the guide deeper into the hut until they reached what must be the center of the long structure. There, sitting on a throne that was woven from some kind of lightweight wood like bamboo was an extremely tall and muscular Thropp’ian male. In fact, Sunny estimated that he might be almost Greer’s height if he was standing.
“Your Chiefliness,” the guide said, bowing low to the Thropp’ian on the throne. “May I introduce Dr. Craythorn, the famous scientist who has come from the stars to learn of our ways.”
