Page 4 of Tempting Her Grumpy Protector
All of which meant he was going into his last mission with Sunny running nearly on empty. Which was going to be interesting, to say the least, Greer thought dryly. But there was no time to get any more blood now—they were headed for the final planet on their agenda immediately—where they would be attending a sacred ritual which happened only rarely.
“I’m so excited to get to Thropp’ic Sigma and see their Binding Week ceremonies!” Sunny said, breaking into his thoughts. Her brown eyes were bright and her cheeks were flushed as she spoke. “They have the most unusual sexual gender dynamic of any people I’ve studied so far!”
“Oh? And how is that?” Commander Sylvan asked politely.
“Well, if what I’ve heard is correct, the female makes the initial advance, staking a claim on the male she wants,” Sunny explained. “But then once the male accepts her advances, he takes over and he’ll fight any other male for her if they try to stake a claim. It all sounds so exciting!”
Over her head, Sylvan and Greer exchanged a look. Greer knew what “exciting” meant—it meant The Sunny Effect was going to be in full force. The Goddess alone knew if he could keep his Ward safe and get them both back to the Mother Ship in one piece!
But that was his job and he was determined to do it.
“Just please be careful, Dr. Craythorn,” Commander Sylvan said to Sunny. “Try to avoid any, er, confrontations or accidents, will you?”
“Oh, of course.” Sunny gave him a brilliant smile and Greer had no doubt that she absolutely meant what she said. She never went looking for trouble—it came and found her.
“I’ll bring her safely home,” he said to his Commanding Officer.
And after that, Sunny would be someone else’s problem since this was their last mission together.
Greer didn’t know why that thought made his heart—which he was fairly sure was made of stone—ache. But it was better for both of them that their partnership should end, he told himself. Sunny was much too distracting…too irritating…too fucking beautiful and sweet and innocent for her own damn good! After this was over, he had to get away from her and stay away.
It was the only way to keep her safe, not just from any outside dangers but from himself—his hunger and lust for her would consume her if he let it out.
And Greer was determined never to do that.
2
SUNNY
Greer seemed even quieter and more uncommunicative than usual during their trip to Thropp’ic Sigma, Sunny thought, eyeing her huge Kindred Protector.
He was wearing his usual uniform—a black, long-sleeved button-down shirt with black leather trousers and high black boots. His hair was also black with white stripes at the temples, though she was pretty sure he was only five or six years older than she was. He wore it pulled back in the front but long in the back, which made her wish she could touch it and run her fingers through it.
However, her desire to play with her Protector’s hair was offset by yet another thing he was wearing—a fierce scowl.
Well, she’d been warned before she ever met him about what a growly, surly, moody bastard he was, Sunny reminded herself. Several people had told her they were afraid to even be around him, and her friend Kat had said,
“I’d tell you to stay on his good side, but honestly, doll—I don’t think he has a good side.”
But Sunny didn’t believe in pre-judging anyone—she wanted to form her own opinions. And what she found when she first met Greer was that he wasn’t mean or angry—it was that he was lonely—even if he didn’t know it. He needed a woman’s touch—but so far as she could tell, Sunny herself was the only woman who wasn’t afraid to get close enough to touch him.
Despite his massive size—seven feet tall and built seemingly entirely out of muscle—Sunny wasn’t afraid of her Protector. Well, she wasn’t very afraid of him, anyway. Despite his razor-sharp fangs and icy, pale gray eyes, she knew he wouldn’t hurt her. In fact, he had sworn the most beautiful oath that he would give his own life to protect her! But sometimes he got into a dark mood and even she couldn’t cajole him out of it.
Like right now, she thought, shooting him another glance from the passenger seat of the shuttle they were sitting in. Greer was piloting the shuttle and the look on his face was downright scary. Forget resting bitch face—her Kindred Protector had resting “I’ll fucking kill you!” face.
“Hey, aren’t you excited for our last mission together?” Sunny asked, trying to get a few words out of him. Usually he would loosen up and talk to her if she pestered him enough.
Not this time, however. Greer simply grunted and continued working the controls. He was flying them towards the red horizontal gash in space—the fold that the Mother Ship had created which would allow them to fly directly to Thropp’ic Sigma in a fraction of an instant—even though it was actually millions of light years away.
Folding space didn’t bother Sunny—much. It just felt funny in that brief second when you were neither here nor there but someplace in between.
“Hey,” she said, trying again to lighten the mood. “Aren’t you going to ask me if I’m pregnant before we fold space?” All Kindred pilots were required to ask this of their female passengers since folding space was extremely bad for an unborn baby.
At last her words seemed to get a result. Greer turned his head to look at her, his pale eyes blazing.
“I know you’re not pregnant, Sunny,” he growled in that deep, gravely voice of his. “Because if you were, I would have smelled another male on you.” His nostrils flared, as though imagining such an offensive scent. “And then I would hunt down the fucking bastard who had impregnated you and I would?—”
He stopped short but not before Sunny’s eyes had grown wide with surprise.
