Bad Nerd Rising (2 page)

His mother sniffed. “That’s probably the
closest to a prince she’s ever been.”

Again, he stifled a sigh. Even though she
was his mother, he managed to grow tired of her rather fast these
days. “She took some of the same classes I attended. I was a senior
when she was a freshman. She managed to sail through the classes as
though she was a senior.”

His mother frowned. The lines didn’t mar the
smooth lines of her face. “She was permitted to take senior level
courses while a freshman?”

“Yes. She didn’t struggle with the classes,
and one of them was grueling. A high level math class. It was a
difficult course.”

Aleksi smiled as he thought of the young
Tia. Her hair had been as long then as it was now. She’d been
rifling through her notes, trying to locate an answer for another
student.

The student had commented on how difficult
the class was and she’d stared blankly at him. She had no idea the
other student was interested in her. Nor had it occurred to her
that the class was hard. Tia had shaken her head and said this was
her easiest class. She had graduated from both high school and
college early and was used to tough classes, yet she hadn’t caught
on that the guy was flirting. Her innocence hadn’t been faked, nor
the naiveté that still clung to her.

He’d been intrigued by Tia then, but now
that he met her again after all these years she had become a near
obsession. More beautiful, more poised, and an accomplished
microbiologist now, he’d barely refrained from kissing her when he
stumbled onto her at a professional microbiological conference he
attended out of desperation. She came close to knocking him over in
her haste to make a seminar on time but he could overlook that, of
course.

“She’s the perfect solution,” he told his
mother.

She stared at him, and he could almost see
her weighing his comments. Like they had anything to lose.

“I don’t know,” she said and continued to
stare at him. He’d learned long ago to ignore her laser eyes.

He raised a brow. “You have a better
solution?”

“Well, no,” she hedged while her cheeks
tinged with pink.

“That’s what I thought,” he said. They only
had one solution and she came encased in a supermodel’s body and
face. Even his mother couldn’t deny her beauty and grace, once he
convinced Tia to come.

“When is she due to arrive?” His mother’s
tone dripped acid. Not graceful in defeat, Gracia de Leos.

“She’s not,” he admitted.

This time she raised an eyebrow.

“I still have to convince her. She hasn’t
been answering her mobile phone.”

His mother looked like a specimen from the
insect kingdom had skittered across the toe of her three thousand
dollar shoe. “She hasn’t answered the summons of a prince?” She
also sounded scandalized.

“She isn’t required to talk
to me, you know,” he said dryly. And Tia wasn’t. That made his life
a little more, scratch that, a
lot
more complicated.

Something he didn’t need since life had
taken a drastic nosedive since the passing of his father a year
ago. So far, life made him reluctant to climb out of bed these
days.

But Tia Morrison – she could probably
convince him to do a lot of things. With pleasure.

“It’s just as well. I’m sure you can find a
nice male microbiologist.” His mother turned a page in her planner
and forgot all about Tia, probably with the belief she’d won. “Now,
I’ve arranged for the Montclairs, Wellingtons, and Carnegies to
come for dinner tonight. They all have eligible daughters who would
make you a fine princess. Do speak to them, Aleksi,” his mother
ordered.

He refrained from rolling his eyes.
Fortunately, he’d already made arrangements for the evening.
“Mother, I’m due to fly back to America tonight. I informed you of
my intentions at breakfast this morning.”

She paused in her page turning to glare at
him. “You can cancel the flight. Or postpone it.”

He leaned forward, curious. “How? If I don’t
do this immediately, how many more people will be harmed?”

She blinked at him, as though she couldn’t
think of anything to say, so he pressed his advantage.

“We need a
microbiologist,
now
, before the entire principality is affected. How many more
children and senior citizens do you want to see die before we
address this?”

“But darling, you have to find a wife so you
can produce an heir.” Her protest fell on ears who’d heard it too
often of late.

“My heir isn’t important,” he said and she
gasped and raised a hand to her chest.

“Not important,” she repeated, aghast. “Now
that your father is gone, it’s the most important thing in your
life.”

This time he had to curl
his hands into fists and count slowly to ten, keeping his eyes
closed. His jaw was set so firmly he was afraid he’d shatter his
teeth. “Our people can’t drink the water. They can’t bathe, they
can’t wash their clothing, they can’t cook without boiling the
water. Their lives have been so profoundly impacted by this our
productivity and everyday lives have been reduced to mere survival
and your only concern is my
heir
?” He spoke through clenched
teeth, afraid if he unlocked his jaw, he’d say something he might
regret.

“They’ll work that problem out,” she said
breezily and waved a negligent hand. As though she didn’t care.

“They’ll
work it out?” he thundered, unclenching his jaw
and bolting from his chair in a movement of disbelief and anger.
“
Who
will work it
out?”

She blinked and shrunk back in her chair.
“There’s no need to raise your voice, dear,” she reprimanded.

“Who
will work it out?” he repeated, not bothering to decrease his
tone. “Finding the cure for this problem is
my
duty. No one else has the means,
or authority to do so. It’s
my
responsibility. Just as it would have been
Father’s if he were still living.”

“But your heir...” she said weakly.

“Isn’t as important as my people,” he said
through gritted teeth again. “That means I’ll be on that plane
tonight, on my way to America to convince our only hope for a cure
to come home with me.” He thought maybe his apparent anger stopped
whatever protest she might have made.

He would lose it completely if she kept on.
His father would have discovered the cure by now. Aleksandr’s list
of allies and resources had been extensive. But Aleksi didn’t have
the contacts his father had made. Aleksi was starting fresh, with a
brand new slate, which wasn’t bad, but in times of emergency like
this, it wasn’t good, either.

He needed a microbiologist.

He needed an heir.

His plan was to kill two birds with one
stone. And that stone even had a name.

Tia Morrison.

Chapter
2

“Tia, there’s a
prince
to see you,” the
department administration assistant hissed at her.

Tia jumped and stared into the bug eyes of
Joan Smithton, the dictator who ran the department. “What?”

“There’s a prince to see you,” Joan repeated
and her tone indicated Tia had better not embarrass them.

She blinked and had to swallow the bile that
rose to choke her. She’d changed her cell phone number. She still
contemplated moving. How had he found her?

“Oh.” She tried desperately to think of a
plausible way to dodge Aleksi, but with Joan glaring at her with
those bug eyes, the light reflecting off her large glasses, hair
wisping in the air conditioner vent, Tia knew Joan wouldn’t allow
her any quarter.

“I’ll send him in,” Joan said and sent her
you’d-better-pay-attention-to-him look. Tia recognized that look.
She also knew if she failed to meet Joan’s standards, her
photocopying wouldn’t happen, her supplies would mysteriously not
arrive, and her computers would crash at regular intervals.

Joan’s power was legendary. Her abuse of
said power even more so.

How had Aleksi known to use Joan as his
ally?

She swallowed, and nodded. Not that she had
a choice. Joan did what she wanted – showing little mercy if her
department members failed to toe the line.

“Dr. Morrison,” Aleksi-the-fink-prince
purred when Joan ushered him into the lab where Tia spent most of
her time. She noticed his nose didn’t curl up when he hit the point
where the room definitely stank. During an incubator malfunction
the bacteria housed inside had pretty much exploded. Not as breath
stealing as tetanus, but stinky nonetheless.

The stench clung to your clothes if you hung
out beside the incubator too long, even after three thorough
cleanings. His nose twitched a bit, but that merely indicated he
did have a normal sense of smell.

“Prince Aleksi,” she answered, through teeth
set on edge. This man hadn’t had time for her in college. She’d
been a mere freshman, and not beautiful enough to complete his
entourage. Nerds and princes didn’t mix, apparently.

His “friends” had been a compilation of the
most beautiful and successful people on campus. That meant he’d
never talked to her then, not once, even though they shared two or
three classes. Not that she had a crush on him. Not for long,
anyway.

Disgust had led her to despise the man
instead. Right now, Tia worked to draw on that disgust and
despising, because goodness knew, she was drowning in her own
hormones. Macy’s question floated back to haunt her, “Why did you
give him your phone number?” Tia still couldn’t figure that out. He
must have short-circuited her common sense. Exactly like he was
doing now.

All of her girls started a
girly cheer for him. Tia made a point to mute the cheerleading
chant. A girl who grew up in a household of all boys didn’t cheer.
She didn’t even
mention
anything associated with cheerleading within a
thirty mile radius.

Not if she wanted to survive her already
brutal high school years.

“You have been busy?”

“Yes, always,” she said and tried to shut up
the cheerleaders in her head. They definitely wanted to rumble with
Prince Aleksi. This couldn’t be happening. It was a nightmare.

“I thought that must be so. You have not
been answering your mobile phone.” His accent was killing her. No
man should be granted such a deep, smooth, European flavored
voice.

Tia worked industrially to keep from
drooling on him. Drooling wouldn’t create the picture of a
professional, and that’s all she had at the moment. She had a
Ph.D., for goodness sake. Handling a prince with dark curls, deep
brown, almost black, heavily lashed eyes, and the most perfect body
she had ever fantasized about shouldn’t be this hard. But it was.
Tia suppressed a whimper and the overwhelming need to hide in one
of the bench cupboards.

“I changed my number,” she blurted before
thinking.

His eyebrows soared. “Oh? You did not wish
to receive calls from me, perhaps?”

“Not you, I forgot I gave
you my number.”
Liar, liar, pants on
fire
, her conscience taunted. “I made the
mistake of giving it to some students. And they’re not responsible.
I was forced to change the number.” Her voice sounded stifled. That
was still professional, right?

“I understand.” He inclined his head in a
regal manner and she nearly drowned again. Could she wipe away the
drool inconspicuously?

Probably not.

Tia swallowed the worst of the moisture
again, afraid now he’d think her a compulsive swallower. Great. She
probably resembled some maniacal fish.

“What can I do for you?” she asked, and
moved a few feet away from him. She pretended to pick up a tool, a
bacterial loop, from further down the bench, but really, she just
needed some space between them.

“I wish for you to come to Rurikstan with
me.”

Tia stared at him. She managed to close her
mouth, as hanging with her jaws open in a lab like hers wasn’t the
smartest option. Go home with him? To view his etchings? She
sniggered at her own stupidity.

“You’re nuts,” she finally uttered. Tia
didn’t know if she was talking to him or herself.

He grinned, a slow, sexy,
overwhelmingly male grin that made her swallow convulsively again.
The man was going to kill her. And that was bad because then her
epitaph would read:
Dead by choking on her
own drool.
It was a distinct and
unfortunate possibility because the Apes would think it the
funniest joke ever. They’d override her mother to put something so
insane on her tombstone just because they could. Then they’d
snicker during the graveside service.

“I need you,” he said, his eyes imploring,
dark pools of want. Tia squeaked and took another step away from
him.

Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh
no
...

This wasn’t happening. She wandered if her
alarm clock was about to go off. That would be fitting. This was a
dream. It was only a dream and soon she’d wake up and laugh about
the whole situation.

She shook her head, and
looked at him, but he didn’t dissolve into the walls of her
bedroom. Glancing to the side, she identified the solid benches of
her workspace.
Nope, not a
dream.

Prince Aleksi had just told
her he needed her. Oh no. A man worthy of kings had told
her
he needed
her.

Tia groped behind her for a stool and
dropped into it. She didn’t care about grace or ladylike behavior.
Shell-shocked women didn’t tend to care about those things. Nerds
never thought of them.