Page 7 of Forced to Mate By the Mad Scientist

“So why do you hate Kross so much? Just because he’s a sarcastic jerk?” Kat asked, dragging Sylvie back to the present.

“Something like that.”

Sylvie continued to brush her hair with short, sharp strokes of the brush. She didn’t want to admit what had happened after the “moment” she and Kross had shared—a moment she now doubted was anything but wishful thinking on her part.

After coming back from taking the call at the front of the ship, Kross had treated her completely differently.

“Who was it?” she asked when he came back into the bedroom.

“Just the Mother Ship—checking that we were okay.” He wouldn’t look at her and his voice was short and clipped.

“Um, so are we going back now or…” She let the question hang in the air, wondering what was bothering him.

“Cover up, will you, Princess?” His eyes flared orange-red with apparent irritation. “Pull the blanket around you or something—you’re too fucking exposed.”

“What?” Sylvie looked up at him uncertainly. “You’re the one that told me to wear this,” she said, plucking at this maroonuniform shirt, which fit her almost like a dress. Only her bare legs were sticking out—was that bothering him for some reason?

“Well now I’m telling you to fucking cover up,” he growled, glaring at her. “And settle in—I’m about to lift off so we can get the fuck back to the Mother Ship.”

“Why are you acting like this?” Sylvie demanded. She felt betrayed—he’d been so kind and nice and so, well…hot just a few minutes ago. Now he was looking at her like she was a piece of dog shit he’d scraped off the bottom of his boot.

Kross had been headed out the door but now he turned on her, a mean glint in his red eyes.

“Like what, Princess? How am I acting? Am I not being sweet enough to please you,Your Majesty?”

“Don’t call me that!” Sylvie exclaimed. “You know I hate it when you call me that!”

“What else should I call you?” he demanded, his eyes blazing. “What do you want from me, Sylvia? All I do is follow you around the fucking galaxy to different fucking dangerous planets trying to keep you from getting your fucking self killed!”

Sylvie was taken aback by his outburst. He was usually just sardonic—he had never blown up at her like this before.

“I’m just doing my job,” she said stiffly.

“Right—and I’m doing mine. Because that’s all you can ever be to me—just a job,” he shot back. “I’ll never be able to?—”

“Able to what?” Sylvie demanded, because he cut himself off abruptly.

“Never mind, Princess. Just be sure you’re secure. I’m getting us off this Goddess-forsaken planet,” he growled.

Then he turned and left, leaving her feeling like crap and with no idea of why he’d done such a complete 180 and turned back into a jerk.

“He’s just an asshole,” she said to Kat now, pulling herself out of the bad memory. “He never wants to go on any of mymissions. He tried to get Commander Sylvan to refuse my latest request to go to Gim’bab Orious to gather some of thetangelinevines to study.”

“Why? Is thetangelinevine dangerous?” Kat raised her eyebrows. “Poisonous?”

Sylvie shook her head.

“No, nothing like that. It’s actually completely benign—the flowers it grows are supposed to help in the healing of damaged nervous tissue. Do you know there have been reports of the natives of Gim’bab Orious getting paralyzed and then being cured when they drank a tea made of the flowers of thetangelinevine? If those reports are true, we could have something really major on our hands. A substance that actually heals the spinal cord! That would be amazing!”

“Thatwouldbe amazing,” Kat agreed, frowning. “But that still doesn’t tell me why Kross doesn’t want you to go there.”

Sylvie made a shooing gesture.

“Oh, some stupid rumor he heard about Dr. Barbarous setting up shop on the Southern continent there.”

“Dr. Barbarous? Isn’t he the scientist who’s wanted on three planets for his bizarre genetic breeding program?” Kat asked, sounding worried. “I heard that his home planet expelled him for ‘crimes against Nature.’”

“Yes, yes—but it’s just a rumor,” Sylvie said. “And besides, thetangelinevine grows in the Northern continent, which is thousands of miles from the Southern continent. We’ll be fine.”

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