Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 51404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
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.
“You…you would what?” she asked at last, finally getting the words out.
“I’d make him fucking sorry he ever came near you!” Greer growled.
“But why?”
“Because you’re mine!” Greer took a deep breath as though trying to control himself. “While you’re in my care, I mean,” he amended gruffly. “You’re mine as long as I’m your Protector and you’re my Ward. Now let me fly the fucking ship, Sunny.”
Then he turned his attention to the controls of the ship again, as though the conversation was closed.
Sunny just sat there and stared at him from the corner of her eye. She had never heard her Kindred Protector sound so…so possessive before. Why, Greer sounded like he wanted her all to himself!
For the first time, she began to wonder if maybe…just maybe, her gruff, stoic, growly Protector might possibly have feelings other than annoyance for her.
Of course, he was very patient with her and even extremely kind at times. He would kneel down to tie her shoe if it came untied, for instance. Or sometimes when she was struggling to reach something on a high shelf, Greer would come up right behind her and get whatever she was reaching for. It always made Sunny feel rather breathless when he did this, because he stood so close that she could feel the heat of his big muscular body against her back and smell his spicy, male musk which seemed to make her slightly dizzy.
He also lifted her down from the shuttle when they went anywhere because it was a long jump for someone with legs as short as hers. And once or twice he had even carried her in his arms when they were walking someplace muddy and he didn’t want her to get her shoes dirty. (Sunny especially liked the way he could lift her with seemingly no effort at all—which was certainly something her ex, Bernard, had never been able to do.)
But despite all his protectiveness and his little kindnesses to her, Greer was still extremely gruff and growly. Sunny had always gotten the impression that she annoyed him with her glass-is-half-full attitude towards life. But could she help it if she’d been born an optimist?
She told herself she wasn’t going to change her outlook, not even for a scarred, scary, seven-foot-tall alien warrior. Plus, sometimes when Greer wasn’t in one of his dark moods, she could get him to talk to her. He had even cracked a smile once or twice—though his version of a smile was lifting one corner of his mouth and quirking one eyebrow—the one that was bisected by the scar on the left side of his face—at her.
This was the first time she’d wondered if he felt anything but irritation and protectiveness towards her though. Could it be that Greer might have some kind of feelings for her?
Unbidden, the time when she’d fallen into the water supply on Prakus Prime rose in her memory. She remembered how all the tissue-paper clothing she’d been wearing had melted off. And then Greer’s clothes had melted off too, when he dived in to rescue her. Somehow he had looked even bigger when he was naked…all wet and muscular and mouthwatering and he had been holding her so close to his bare chest…
Well what about your last mission, where he sucked the bat venom out of your leg? whispered a naughty little voice in her head.
Sunny bit her lip. Yes—that had been quite a provocative situation. The little brown bat had flown right up under her skirt and before she could get it out, she’d felt a sharp little bite on her inner thigh.
“Oh—ow!” she’d gasped, jumping around and dislodging the bat. The Holy Father, who had just finished performing the Joining ceremony they had been there to observe, had gotten a grave look on his wrinkled green face.
“The bite of a boo-yang bat is extremely venomous!” he exclaimed, frowning. “We must bring her to the Health Center at once so that they may extract the venom!”
But Greer clearly wasn’t willing to wait for them to get to a Health Center. He had picked Sunny up and then laid her down right on the soft purple moss that carpeted the forest floor. Then, with everyone watching, he had pushed up Sunny’s skirt and parted her thighs with his broad shoulders.