Bad Nerd Rising (17 page)

“Is that wise?” Emma
pressed a hand to her throat.

She shrugged. “Sometimes
you have to do what you have to do. This is science, and it doesn’t
care about such things as eating and sleeping.”

“Can’t you delegate?”

“No, not this time. My help
are coming in early and staying late as it is. And they have lives
besides the lab.”

“So do you,” Aleksi said.
“We can locate more lab personnel for you.”

“I know. But we won’t need
them for long. By the time we train them, we won’t need
them.”

“How does it help for you to wear yourself
out?” Rich asked softly.

“I won’t. And I’ve done
this many times before. I did survive graduate school, if you’ll
remember.”

“Barely, love,” Emma said,
her eyes concerned as they swept over her face.

Tia’s lips curled into a
bratty smile. “Maybe you better send Granddad over. I might need my
knight in shining armor.”

“I don’t know, his card might be expired by
now,” Emma said, but her eyes lost some of their parental concern,
and the lines lessened some.

“I’ll be fine. You really
don’t need to worry about me. There’s a sofa in my office where I
can sleep.”

“We can arrange for a bed
for you,” Aleksi said, and she turned only to notice his eyes held
a similar concern as Emma’s.

“Honestly, the sofa is
fine. It’s more than I have in my office at home. And I make do
there.”

“You know if you need
anything—”

“I’ll just ask, yes I’m
aware of that.” Tia sent him a look that she hoped would reassure
him she understood they’d provide whatever she needed.

Emma hugged her again.
“Take care of yourself, love.”

“I will. Honestly, this is
only for a few days.”

“Okay.” Her aunt didn’t
sound convinced, and Uncle Rich didn’t look convinced, nor did
Aleksi for that matter, but Tia wasn’t worried.

“I’ll be fine, I promise.”
She’d be even better if she could sneak in a few kisses with
Aleksi, but she didn’t say that thought out loud. That way lay
madness, and she already had a difficult few evenings on her hands.
There was no need to add to her woes.

Of course, kissing him might relax
her...

She mentally snorted. Yeah,
like that was plausible. The man could raise her body temperature
with a molten glance. A kiss would probably cause a fever. One she
didn’t want to be cured of.

Oh, but he was a fine
specimen.

While she on the other
hand, was not. That meant she’d better keep her grubby little paws
to herself. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t fantasize. Except
that if she did, she wouldn’t get any work done, and since work was
the reason she was here in the first place, maybe she better
rethink this.

One
kiss
, her girls begged.
No
. Because one kiss
would lead to two kisses and two kisses would lead to four... and
she was a scientist so she knew all about math and chemistry. Once
the hormone frenzy ensued, there would be no going back and she’d
have to explain to the hot prince why she tried to rip his shirt
off, and then she would be embarrassed and her cheeks would go
bright red, which was not her best color.

Then before she knew it,
cats and birds would start to get along and the world would become
a chaotic place. His mother would be nice to her, and she’d pass
out and break her nose again. A woman with bright red cheeks and
blood on her face from her crooked nose was not an attractive
woman.

Why did she want to kiss a
man who was the prince anyway? That way lay utter insanity. She
already had enough of that. With her three brothers and various
cousins she didn’t have much gray matter to spare for additional
mental illness.

Aleksi cleared his throat
as they watched her aunt and uncle board the plane that would take
them home. In a moment of weakness, she wanted to run onto the
transport and return with them. Only in her first year of college
had she battled her hormones like this.

Back then, she’d managed to
conquer them because Aleksi hadn’t known she was alive, at least
that’s what she thought then. Hadn’t he told her he had known her
name all along? How had she missed that little fact?

Of course, missing things
like men’s interested glances were par for the course, at least for
her. The Apes picked up on those little nuances, but not her. If
he’d been interested then, she would definitely have hurt herself
in front of him.

Maybe fallen and broken her
nose and her leg. That was classic Tia behavior. Slanting a glance
at him, she liked how the wind ruffled his hair across the
masculine planes of his face.

He looked like a prince.

She looked like... Tia
Morrison. And everyone knew Tia was a big nerd.

Yet nerds were allowed to have fun,
right?

There wasn’t anything in
the nerd rule book that said she couldn’t kick up a little dust. As
a matter of fact, section C, part 1.5 clearly stated she was
allowed to let her hair down and blow off a little
steam.

Of course, the last time
she’d let her hair down, she got it caught in her department head’s
shirt button. His wife had not been amused. Tia had been mortified,
and avoided him for weeks afterwards.

Nerds letting their hair down probably
wasn’t a good thing.

They knew too much about Newton’s laws of
gravity, Einstein’s law of relativity, and Murphy’s law of
everything that could go wrong.

***

Aleksi watched Tia trail
down the hall, her shoulders uncharacteristically slumped. He hoped
the work wasn’t pulling her down. He definitely wanted to kiss her.
Maybe he could straighten those gorgeous shoulders. Plunge his hand
through her pretty blonde hair.

Even as those thoughts
enticed their way through his mind, he noticed the hall bustled
with activity. Of course. Everyone in the palace seemed to have
converged on the hall where the lab was located, so that Aleksi
couldn’t kiss his intended.

He followed her into the lab and glancing
around noticed none of the others about.

“Where are the others?”

“What?” She turned bemused
eyes on him. His eyes dropped to her lips and he forgot his
question.

“What did you ask?” she
repeated and he groped for what he had first asked her. The lab was
empty except for them, so he could kiss her. Ah, why was there no
one here? Better to make sure they would remain alone, at least for
the length of a kiss.

“Where are the others?”
His voice sounded huskier than usual. He swallowed and saw her do
the same.
Excellent.

“They’re out collecting
samples from the wells.” Her voice sounded tight, just like
his.
Better and better
. “We ran into problems this morning.”

“How long will they be
gone, do you think?” He took a step closer and traced a finger down
the smoothness of her cheek.

Her eyelashes fluttered
and her eyes peered at the floor. She looked like a woman who had
no idea what to do with him. Aleksi decided he could coach her on
that one.
Gladly.

“Probably an hour, maybe
more, maybe less,” she said and he started. Why had she said that?
Did she want him to kiss her for an hour?
He was willing – absolutely
.

Her eyes lifted to stare
into his and he remembered they were talking about her lab help.
And where they were.

They’re not
here
, a little voice reminded him. And
they weren’t expected back for an hour.

All the better.

Aleksi plunged his hand
into her pony tail, and tilted her head up. His lips took hers, and
he savored her gasp. The little parting of her lips gave him the
opening he needed to taste the inside of her mouth.

She was as delicious as he remembered.

Sweet, and tart at the same
time. One of his favorite combinations. He enjoyed the shudder that
passed through her body and the way her arms curled around his neck
in a near involuntary gesture. The way she tilted her head to offer
him better access.

Tia sagged against him,
like her knees had grown weak. A victory shout welled up inside,
but he tugged her nearer instead, wanting to savor this kiss. Never
had kissing brought such enjoyment. He liked how she whimpered and
pressed closer.

Loved the way her fingers
threaded through his hair to cup his head and draw him closer. He
felt like he mashed his lips against hers, but she didn’t seem to
mind. His tongue dueled with hers, and he liked the merry chase she
put on for him. Like she wanted to make him work.

He had additional plans for
her.

When they separated their
lips, her breathing was ragged and her chest heaved. He had done
that to her. Aleksi wanted to pound his chest in a show of power
for the boys. But his chest heaved like hers and besides pounding
on it might hurt, so he nixed the idea.

Instead, he bent and kissed
her again. “Is this a good idea?” she asked, breathless, against
his lips. He noticed hers seemed to cling to his.

He really, really liked
this woman. He knew she liked
him
, rather than his title and
position as the prince. Tia was a treasure untold.

“This is an excellent
idea,” he returned, smoothing his hand up her spine, pressing her
close. He spread his fingers, enjoying the feel and warmth of her
body plastered to his.

If only she could get
closer still. Then life would be beyond excellent.

“What if we get caught?”
The husky quality of her voice sent a thrill through him. He’d done
that to her. The most powerful man in Europe, because he managed to
make Tia’s voice even sexier.

“Why don’t we worry about that later?”

“Umm,” she said before her
mouth opened and her tongue beckoned his in. Aleksi’s brain froze,
then thawed, scattering his thoughts so all he could think about
was the warm, beautiful woman in his arms.

He felt her stiffen and
scrabble against him and he released her, confused. Staring down at
her as Tia hurtled out of his arms, he watched in bemusement as she
straightened her hair, and smoothed a hand down the front of her
lab coat.

Hurt, shock, and an emotion
he refused to identify all vied for his attention until the door
swung open. Helena and Maria burst through the opening, chattering
as they came. Aleksi caught Tia’s eyes and he saw why she’d been in
such an all fired hurry to escape his arms.

Though would it truly be a
bad thing for them to be discovered in each other’s arms? He knew
he wouldn’t mind, but the more he thought about it, the more he
realized maybe a relationship with him would set her on different
ground as a scientist.

She wanted to be taken
seriously, and even he had to acknowledge that gossip about them
might undermine her efforts. He didn’t want that, for certain. His
people needed to like and respect her before he made her his
officially. She needed to do this on her own, then his people
accepting her would mean so much more.

Her princess status would
be a culmination of her successes rather than him simply choosing
her. He wanted to choose her so badly. Wanted to kiss her in
public. Wanted to hold her until she purred. But he understood her
reasoning.

Unfortunately
.

That meant he needed to
suffer through several more days, possibly weeks of discomfort. He
decided he better formulate a plan for times to coax her into
kissing him.

Too bad they couldn’t eat their evening meal
together tonight.

But then his eyes swept the
room and landed on her office door. There just might be a way he
could share her evening meal. All it took was a little
planning.

Strategy was a strength of
his...

Aleksi smiled at Tia and he
liked how her cheeks flushed and her eyes dropped to the floor.
Like she was shy and modest. She was. But she could
kiss.

He waved goodbye to her,
winked, and then whistling, formulated how to maneuver his
princess-to-be alone this evening.

This, he could do.

Chapter
13

Oh, but that had been so
close
, Tia thought, panic foremost in her
mind after Aleksi left. They had almost been caught. She didn’t
know why the thought of being caught kissing Aleksi freaked her out
so much. And granted, Maria and Helena would have likely
approved.

Tia still couldn’t quell
the panic that ensued at the thought of anyone catching her and
Aleksi in a lip-lock. What if his people didn’t think her good
enough? She already knew she wasn’t. But it’d hurt even more to
hear them express the sentiment.

She would be beyond
devastated. The more Aleksi kissed her, the more she needed kisses
from him. No other man could knock her senses into such disarray.
Only the extreme fear of being caught had kept her from completely
enjoying the kiss.

Losing all track of time
was common for her when Aleksi was around. And he seemed to be on a
regular basis lately. Not that she minded, but he disrupted her
senses worse than a fire alarm.