Page 33 of Tempting Her Grumpy Protector (Kindred Tales Spicy Shorts #7)

SUNNY

The mission was over and they were heading home— Sunny had all the data she needed to finally write her paper.

The shuttle hummed quietly as it slid through the fold in space, the strange reddish light glimmering outside the viewscreen. Usually , Sunny would have been fascinated, feeling the way time seemed to stretch and compress at the same time. But right now, she barely noticed.

She was too aware of the man sitting just a few feet away.

Greer.

Her Protector .

He was at the helm, massive hands resting on the steering yoke, his pale eyes fixed firmly on the viewscreen. His jaw was tight, his broad shoulders set like stone.

Sunny had tried— twice —to speak to him since they’d left Thropp’ic Sigma .

The first time, she’d asked how long the flight back would take.

He’d answered with a grunt that could’ve meant anything from “two hours” to “leave me the fuck alone.” The second time, she’d thanked him again for saving her from Lowhung’s disgusting trap the night before. That had earned her another grunt.

And that was it.

Now he sat there, silent as a statue, as though she wasn’t even in the shuttle with him.

Sunny’s chest ached with hurt. After everything they’d been through together—after the way he’d protected her, after the way he’d tasted her in the Chair of Female Pleasure , after the way he’d made her body come alive in ways she hadn’t known were possible—she’d thought surely something would change between them.

She’d thought, once they were alone, he’d touch her again.

That he’d admit that he wanted her—wanted to be more than just her Protector .

Or at least that he’d talk to her.

Instead, it was like someone had flipped a switch inside him. Protector mode—on. Lover mode—if it had ever been real—completely off .

Sunny blinked hard, fighting the sting of tears in her eyes. She refused to cry in front of him. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing just how much he was hurting her.

So she swallowed down her questions and her shame, turned her head toward the viewscreen, and forced herself to stare at the swirling lights of folded space.

Fine. If he didn’t want to talk to her, she wouldn’t beg for his attention.

Still, her heart whispered traitorously, Why ?

Why had he touched her that way, why had he tasted her…made her believe there was more between them, if now he was just going to shut her out?

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.