Bad Nerd Rising (3 page)

“Why?” she finally asked.
It was one thing for him to need her, but
why
did he need her? She was insane
if she thought this man had flown to her country because he needed
her.
Insane
. Yes
that was an excellent summation of the moment.

He sighed and sat on one of the other stools
grouped around the bench where she’d been working before Joan made
her decree. She noticed he looked tired and a little distressed.
Aleksi had never seemed quite human to her before, but now that she
saw the lines etched around his mouth and eyes, lines that hadn’t
been there so long ago, she realized he was a human with a lot of
responsibility.

During that time in school
when she hadn’t been beautiful enough for him, she hadn’t thought
him human. But now, maturity brought a different perspective. And
now he
needed
her?

Yeah,
right
, her cynical side scoffed with a
decided snort. At least the cheerleaders had been silenced. Her
hormones settled into a subdued spatter and she could finally
concentrate again. For a man who hadn’t even acknowledged her
presence on the same planet, it seemed strange that he was
practically begging for her now.

According to the latest
poll, conducted just two weeks ago by the Apes, she still qualified
as a full-fledged nerd.
We have a problem
here, Morrison
. Nerds didn’t just turn into
fairy princesses. They stayed hunched in their labs and worked
until they died over their microscopes.

He ran a weary hand through his curls and
Tia snapped her girls back into place. Oh no. Her crush on this man
had been short lived and would only be resurrected over her dead
body. Which was a definite possibility when he slanted her the
sexiest glance she’d ever witnessed.

No, he’s not going to
coerce me into anything
, she told herself
firmly. She was the mistress of her own destiny and some sexy man
with a yummy European accent wasn’t going to convince her
otherwise.

He did ask for your phone
number and you
gave
it to him
, she reminded herself. At
the moment, she wasn’t liking
herself
too much. He’s a freaking
prince.

“My people,” he said and his voice cracked.
Oh no. Tia was a sucker for cracking voices. Oh my. He swallowed
and his Adam’s apple bobbed before he continued. “My people are
becoming sick. They cannot drink the water. They cannot bathe, or
wash their clothing and dishes. Not unless they boil the water.
That is all they can do. Our wells are dying. We’ve treated each
well, but the people are still becoming sick.”

He rubbed a weary hand across his brow and
Tia hated the interest that raised its curious head. She was worse
than her brother Nick’s cat. Curiosity was the other thing that
would kill her today.

“You think it’s a bacterial infection that’s
killing your wells?”

“I do not know. I haven’t experience in this
sort of situation. It could be viral. It could be chemical. We
cannot figure out what is wrong. We need to locate what is causing
the problem first. Several children and older citizens have died
from the water. Plenty more have fallen ill. Our hospitals are
overrun. Our medical staff are overworked.”

“Have any of them also contracted the
illness?”

He nodded. “In the beginning. One of the
doctors ordered me to put on the boiling ordinance. I had already
concluded that was necessary.”

She raised a brow. A doctor could order the
prince around?

Aleksi must have caught her thought because
he sent her a weary grin. It somehow weakened her knees. And she
was seated. “He delivered me. Dr. Mahon is allowed to order even my
mother about.”

She nodded. Okay, that made sense. “You need
me to come to your country and fix your wells?”

“Yes,” he answered emphatically.

Figured
. He didn’t want her, Tia Morrison, in all her nerdy
womanliness. He wanted Dr. Morrison, microbiologist. The even
bigger nerd.

“I need you,” he repeated, his voice almost
pleading.

Tia closed her eyes,
wishing he wanted her, the woman. But of course not. The woman was
a nerd.
Not princess
material
.

“What do you say? Tia, will
you
please
come
and help my people?”

She opened her eyes and stared into the dark
enticing depths of his. He’d asked for her phone number. For a
brief moment in time, she thought he was interested in her, the
woman.

As she stared into his gorgeous dark eyes,
Tia knew if she agreed to go with him, she had to make a decision.
She might be a nerd, but darn it, she was a good one.

If she went with Prince
Aleksi, House of de Leos of Rurikstan, she’d be not only a nerd.
But a
bad
nerd.
Bad nerds got things done. And right now the only thing she could
think of was kissing this man’s socks off.

Better watch out Mr. Prince. Tia Morrison,
bad nerd that she was, planned to prowl. Just as soon as she
figured out what that meant.

Chapter
3

Aleksi savored the brief moment of euphoria
at accomplishing his goal. He had actually convinced Tia to
accompany him to his home. It proved more difficult than he ever
expected. She had been... what was the American term? Yes, that was
it, hardnosed. A quality he never anticipated. He suspected she had
many qualities he hadn’t encountered yet, but he was certainly
looking forward to discovering them.

Such as – he had never suspected that the
environment in which she worked was so stinky. None of the strange
and unappealing odors of her lab clung to her, thankfully. He
glanced around and saw lots of lab equipment he couldn’t identify,
but at the moment, that didn’t matter.

So long as she could tell him what was wrong
with his wells, he would be a happy man. And stealing a few kisses
before convincing her she’d love to settle in his homeland... That
would have to wait. Right now he had succeeded in convincing her to
come home with him. That was enough. For now.

Could Tia handle him and his country?

***

“I can’t believe I just accepted advice from
a six-year-old,” Tia said with a groan. She clutched the phone and
flopped back onto her couch, wondering what in the world she was
thinking.

“Starla isn’t just any
six-year-old, and she’ll be seven soon,” Macy answered in a
soothing tone. Tia imagined her sister-in-law was probably making
supper, folding laundry, studying for an exam, and talking to her
all at the same time. Ever since she accepted the nanny job for
Nick’s four kids, she had taken over the household. Since then, she
and Nick married and Macy now attended vet school. A dream of hers
for years. [
Macy’s Parade
– Book 6 – The Morrison Family
Series
]

“She’s still a kid, and I’m taking advice
from her.”

“You know, I’m not sure Starla is a kid.
She’s more like an adult trapped in a kid’s body.”

Tia thought about that. “Yes, that’s true.
She does know how to play the male of the species.”

“That she does. So she advised you to go to
Rurikstan?”

“She did. Savannah agreed with her.” Tia
stared at the dust coating her bookshelf.

“And are you?”

“I told him I’d come. His wells need
me.”

“What about him?”

Tia frowned. “What about him?”

“Does he need you?”

Tia frowned even as her heart leapt at that
possibility. “I wish.” Why couldn’t Starla and Savannah offer an
acceptable answer for that colossal question?

“I can’t imagine a prince needing me,” Macy
said.

Tia laughed. “You’re married and have four
kids.”

“Yes, my life is quite a bit different than
yours.”

“And you’re attending vet school. How’s that
going, by the way?”

“I love it. Of course, we’re only a few
weeks into the semester, but I think it’s going to work.”

“The housekeeper is working out?”

“Oh yes. I couldn’t do this without her. So,
you see, Tia, things do work out. This prince begging you to come
to his country isn’t a bad thing.” Macy’s voice was droll.

Tia entertained visions of Aleksi begging
her for things besides fixing his wells. Her girls started cheering
again, complete with pom poms and she scowled at the phone
receiver.

“Knock it off,” she scolded.

“What?” Macy sounded distracted, which was
good, because Tia didn’t want to explain her over-anxious and
over-stimulated hormones to her sister-in-law.

“Talking to myself,” she mumbled, in the
hopes Macy didn’t press for details.

“Oh, we have a lot of that around here.”

“Yes, I know. I’ve visited the Nick Morrison
household. I swore never to do so again,” Tia vowed.

Macy laughed. “Chicken.”

“I think I’ll go wrestle with the handsome
prince.” Tia wished for things she couldn’t have.

“Wrestle? That involves full body contact.”
Macy’s voice took on a silky quality.

Tia’s body temperature rose to alarming
heights. “That’s not funny,” Tia all but snarled. But Macy howled
and soon Riley their Malamute, joined in. Tia rested her forehead
in her palm, wondering if she should just crawl into some
convenient closet somewhere and stay there until the world became a
friendly place again.

***

The embodiment of his princess, Tia
Morrison, sat opposite him, flipping through a huge tome, one of
several she lugged on the flight. She’d been engrossed in them
since before the plane took off. Not so much as a word had she
spoken since they boarded. A shame, because he liked her voice.

Aleksi thought maybe someone had harassed
her before she arrived because she looked a bit frazzled when the
flight attendant showed her to her seat. Not that looking a little
worn around the edges had done anything to detract from her beauty.
Not at all. He couldn’t imagine a more beautiful woman.

“Did someone give you trouble about
accompanying me?” He couldn’t stand not knowing.

She glanced up from the book open on her lap
with glazed eyes. “Pardon?”

He repeated the question.

Tia shrugged and shut the book with a snap.
“I wouldn’t say trouble, but some family members didn’t seem to
think it was a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know,” she said and stared at the
ceiling. She shrugged again. “I told them I knew you from college,
and that appeased my mother.”

“What about your father?”

“I told him you needed me to figure out
what’s wrong with your wells.”

He raised an eyebrow. “That eased his
mind?”

“Once he figured out this is just a
consulting job, if you will, he was fine with my leaving.”

Aleksi didn’t like the idea of that. She
wasn’t on a mere consulting trip. Of course, he hadn’t offered that
information yet. He didn’t intend to until after he had her firmly
ensconced in his home. And then only after a few days. Or a week,
perhaps.

Then he’d tell her he had other plans for
her besides his wells. Yes, he needed her to figure out what
infected the water, but he also had that pesky little heir problem,
too.

“Do you have siblings?”

One side of her mouth lifted. “Yes. Three
older brothers. My sister-in-law and two nieces advised me to
come.”

He liked those three ladies already.

“Your brothers are a... trial?”

Tia gave a delicate, lady-like snort. “You
could say that. The Apes have tormented me from the time I was
born.”

“The Apes?” he echoed. The
image in his head wasn’t comforting, as they had a national zoo and
picturing the huge,
human-
like animals as members of Tia’s
family was disconcerting.

“My nickname for my brothers.”

Ah, that made sense. Sort of. “You have
three brothers you call The Apes?”

She pursed her lips and nodded.

“Do you like these men?” he ventured.

Her lips curled up into a semblance of a
smile. “Sometimes.”

“What do they do to you that you do not
appreciate?”

Tia rolled her eyes in his direction, the
beautiful orbs larger than normal and filled with disbelief.
“Aleksi, they rarely do anything I appreciate.”

“I see,” he murmured, although he was pretty
certain he didn’t. Why would brothers go to such lengths to bother
their only sister?

“I doubt it, but that’s okay.” Tia’s voice
was dry. She dug in her purse, a huge bag that for some reason
scared him more than all of his contaminated wells together. Soon,
she extracted her phone. After a few swipes she announced, “Here
are some pictures.”

When she handed the device to him, Aleksi
was grateful for the wicked idea that formed in his brain. “Perhaps
you could point out each family member?” He moved over in the large
seat to make room for her.

Her eyes darkened with an emotion he didn’t
recognize, but that filled him with hope. Was she as affected by
him as he was by her?

Because he definitely wanted something more
from this woman than he’d ever wanted from another. The feelings
might have been quietly growing since their university days.
Perhaps that was the explanation for the explosion of need and
desire he had experienced when she plowed into him at the
microbiology conference. A conference he attended solely to locate
a skilled microbiologist to save his water wells.

To have run into Tia Morrison had been a
fantasy of his. He’d thought of her throughout the years, but had
been too busy learning to run his principality from his father.
Keeping the nation together after his father’s descent into
senility all the while maintaining silence about the Prince’s
illness had also been difficult.