Page 42 of Tempting Her Grumpy Protector
Sunny’s hands clenched in her lap. She didn’t know what was going on inside Greer’s head, but she knew one thing: as soon as they got back to the Mother Ship, she was going straight to Kat. Her friend had been married to Twin Kindred for years—if anyone could give her advice about what was going on with a stubborn Kindred male, it was Kat.
Until then, Sunny kept her mouth shut and her eyes on the stars, pretending she didn’t care, while her heart quietly broke.
31
GREER
Greer kept his eyes on the glowing streams of folded space, pretending he was focused on the shuttle’s controls. In truth, he could have flown this route blindfolded—his hands moved automatically, every adjustment instinctive. His real battle wasn’t with the helm. It was with himself.
He’d felt Sunny’s eyes on him the whole flight. She’d tried to speak to him, her voice soft and hopeful—reaching for a connection he ached to give her. Each time he’d forced himself to answer with a grunt or nothing at all. He knew it hurt her—he could smell the salty sting of unshed tears in her scent, could see the way her shoulders curled protectively inwards as she turned away from him and fixed her attention on the viewscreen.
It was fucking killing him.
Every part of him wanted to reach across the cockpit, haul her onto his lap, bury his face in her hair, and confess that she was all he thought about—day and night. That he wanted her, needed her—that she’d touched him in ways no other female ever had.
But then her voice came back to him, clear as the day she’d spoken it.
“I hate being bitten. Absolutely hate it.”
Those words had been a blade straight through his chest.
She didn’t know what she was saying. She couldn’t possibly understand what it meant for a Kindred male like him—for one of the rare Pitch Bloods who had to bite for blood on a regular basis—who had to drink from their mate once they were Bonded to her.
And if Sunny hated being bitten… if she feared it…
Then she could never be his.
Better to hurt her now with silence than to scar her later with truths she couldn’t accept.
Greer’s jaw locked as he made a plan. As soon as they docked on the Mother Ship, he would request a meeting with Commander Sylvan. He’d ask for reassignment—something in the Elite Espionage Corps that would take him far from Earth, far from Sunny, far from the aching torment of wanting what he could never have.
She deserved a Protector who could give her everything she needed. Not one who had to keep part of himself locked away in shame.
So he forced himself to sit rigid, stoic, unmoving, while his heart silently splintered into jagged shards inside his chest.
He would forget her. He would make himself forget her.
Even if it killed him.
32
SUNNY
Sunny sat cross-legged on the big, overstuffed couch in Kat’s cozy office, hugging one of the throw pillows to her chest like a lifeline. Kat bustled around, fussing with a tray of teacups, her auburn hair piled in a messy bun, her curvy frame wrapped in a bright blue dress that brought out her eyes.
“Now spill it, doll,” Kat said, plopping down across from her with a steaming mug. “Start at the beginning. What in the world happened between you and Greer on Thropp’ic Sigma?”
So Sunny spilled. She told Kat everything—even the embarrassing parts. She explained about the mating festival…about awful Chief Lowhung who had drugged her…the green slime wrestling pit…the Queening chair…the skuttlers— everything.
Kat never once interrupted, just listened with wide eyes and an occasional sympathetic nod of her head.
But when Sunny reached the part about Greer shutting down after tasting her in “the Chair of Female Pleasure,” she couldn’t hold back anymore and all the emotions she’d been suppressing rushed to the surface.
“And then he wanted nothing to do with me afterwards,” she whispered, tears stinging her eyes. “He wouldn’t even talk to me on the way home. Just grunted when I asked him questions and tried to make small talk—it was like I didn’t even exist!”
Kat sipped her tea and raised one auburn brow.
“Hmm. So he was extra grumpy? Maybe he was just thirsty.”
