He snorts in response, neither confirming nor denying what he has no doubt she thinks she knows.

Even if he did care, she wouldn't understand and would likely take the human approach and read everything into it that it's not. Humans blurred the lines between respect and everything else they felt for one another far too often. They were a tangled mess of emotion, and while Vegeta did indeed have feelings of his own, he refused to allow himself to be ruled by them. That wasn't the Saiyan way and he hadn't survived for as long as he did by allowing his emotions to get in the way of what needed to be done.

Vegeta gave a damn about Bulma and her father insofar as he respected the positions they held: wealthy scientists, brilliant minds who came remarkably close to rivaling those who'd been in Frieza's employ — not that he'd tell her that. And Bulma herself was far too fascinating, too challenging to allow harm to come to her while he still found her useful and entertaining.

And not at all bad to look at, either, but it would be a cold day in hell before Vegeta told her he found her as attractive as she claimed she was.