Bad Nerd Rising (6 page)

His mother hated leaving the palace in the
summer time because their summer home on an island they owned
didn’t have reliable air conditioning. The servants, native folks
from the island, weren’t concerned about such things as showing up
for work regularly, cleaning, and making meals three times a day.
His mother loathed it. His father hadn’t been able to sell the
island during his growing up years, which made Aleksi happy,
because he liked the ambience.

Right now, he couldn’t think of a better
place for her. She made a sound of disgust and abruptly stood.
“Well,” she said, in a hurt and contrived voice. Aleksi wasn’t
moved. He was tired of her actions. “I’m finished here,” she said
with one of her patented sniffs and stalked out of the room, her
back poker straight.

“How many people work in
the lab?” Tia’s question cut in, which was probably fortunate.
Since he also considered sending his mother to Siberia.
One way
.

“
There were five, although
I believe two of them transferred back to the hospital laboratory.
They have great need there as well.”

Tia frowned, a cute little pleat between her
eyebrows. He wanted to kiss the lines away. “So the personnel are
from the hospital?”

“As far as I know, yes. Is that a
problem?”

“I’m not certain. I’ll have to assess their
skills.” All she required was that they know some microbiology. She
could teach any other needed skills.

He nodded. “Anything you need, please don’t
hesitate to ask someone.”

“I’ll do that.” She sent him a bright smile
that caused his breath to stall in his windpipe. Sputtering and
gasping for air would be very unprincely, so Aleksi worked to keep
his reactions to himself. Nothing like making a fool of oneself in
front of the most beautiful woman on earth. Thank goodness his
mother had already left.

“How long do you believe it will take
you?”

“To find the solution?” She bit into a
breakfast roll, then chewed. Even chewing looked gorgeous on
her.

“Yes.” He hoped his voice didn’t sound
tight.

“It will likely take a week before we can
collect conclusive test results. There are some quick results, but
they’re simply not as reliable as the older tried and true
methods.”

His heart fell. “A
week
?” Aleksi wasn’t
certain his people had another week.

“At least a week to identify the problem.
Mainly because that’s when the plates will really show us what we
might be dealing with. The problem might not be that easy to
detect, though,” she said, biting her lip.

“So this could take a month?” While he hated
the thought of his people suffering that long, still his heart
jumped at the thought of keeping Tia here for an entire month. He
could accomplish a lot in that timeframe. Yet his heart deflated
because his people would suffer an additional thirty days and that
wasn’t acceptable.

“It could. We’ll have to see. I don’t know
anything yet, but I plan to spend the day reading the lab reports
and notebooks and some of the patient charts, if they’re
available?”

“I believe we can make
anything available you need,” he said.
Including me.
But he didn’t say that
aloud. Right now, he needed to work on containing himself. Plan A
required first that she be given all necessary equipment and help
to discover the problems involved with their wells. The second part
of Plan A involved her marrying him, then wrapped around him, so he
could fulfill his obligation to provide the principality with an
heir.

Easy.

Not so
easy
, as he wanted to complete the second
part of the plan first. Never had a woman come close to becoming
more important than his people. That was not acceptable. Never had
a woman become more important than anything else in his life. He
wanted to sit and stare at her all day.

That was entirely out of the realm of
possibilities, because he had piles of work on his desk. They were
scheduled to host several dignitaries soon, and their poor water
quality had put a spanner in using the plumbing.

Aleksi moved the meeting with the palace
plumbers to the top of his list of things that required his
attention. Making certain their guests could use their showers was
now a top priority.

His eyes slanted to Tia. She had looked so
cute last evening, toting her shower things and pajamas to the
ornate water closet down the hall. Her feet had been bare, and even
later with her head wrapped in a towel, she’d been kissable.

He had been informed early this morning that
most of the palace staff adored her already. Aleksi figured her
smile and laughing eyes had probably cast a spell over the entire
staff. Emerson, his palace controller, had mentioned how Tia helped
haul water. Apparently this had impressed the servants, because
normally the household guests expected others to do for them. Not
Tia. She had gladly helped haul water, even joking with the staff,
Emerson had informed him.

Emerson heard things no one else in the
palace knew. Aleksi had trusted the man for years. How he knew all
that happened, no one could understand, but if you wanted to hear
the deepest, darkest workings of the palace, Emerson was the
proverbial fount of knowledge.

If only he could tell Aleksi when to make
his move on his princess-to-be, Tia.

“I’m ready when you are,” Tia announced. She
set her napkin beside her plate and stared at him with eagerness on
her face.

He nearly swallowed his tongue. Before he
realized she meant she was ready to visit the lab, not make heirs
with him.

Too bad.

Tia shoved her chair back and followed
Aleksi from the breakfast room. This was it, the day of reckoning,
so to speak. She fervently hoped as they traversed the expansive
hallways that the people in the lab would be more welcoming than
Virulent Gracia. Maybe even glad to see her.

She nearly snorted at that
thought.
Yeah, right
.

At least more pleased with her presence than
Aleksi’s mother had been. Apparently still was. Only Aleksi’s
warning, and she was certain it was a warning, had stopped the
venom.

“Are you nervous?” His eyes shone bright in
the morning sunlight.

She nodded. “Yes.”

“There’s no need to be. The individuals
you’ll be working with have been trying to combat this for a month.
They’ll be thankful for fresh ideas.”

“I hope so,” she said weakly, hoping all of
her fresh ideas remained in the lab. Not a good idea to get fresh
with a prince.

Especially when said
prince didn’t have the time of day for you back in
school
, she reminded herself. Like he would
look at her, anyway. She was allergic to makeup and tended to wear
comfortable clothing that wrinkled.

Not princess
material
. And she honestly hated the color
pink. Pink was all wrong for her. Chances were also good she didn’t
wave right, and didn’t know which fork to use when. She was happy
at family functions if her mom provided a clean fork for
dessert.

Her family background did not make for
princess material either. Tia cringed at the thought of her
brothers visiting this country.

Aleksi’s mother
would
beg
to visit
their island.

Tia would probably beg to join the viper
woman. The Apes here in Rurikstan would not be a pretty sight.
Riots, chaos, and anarchy would ensue. The poor people here had
suffered enough.

“Here is our laboratory,” Aleksi said and
shoved open a door three fourths of the way down the hall.

Tia swallowed as she preceded him through
the door. She stopped just inside the door to peer around at the
equipment. The space wasn’t one she’d ever entered before, but she
knew the room. Or perhaps her familiarity with the instruments and
apparatus lining the benches brought about the relaxing of her
spine. Tia smiled and when Aleksi placed a hand at the small of her
back, she didn’t cringe or brake when he led her toward a smiling
older gentleman.

“Jorge, this is Dr. Tia Morrison. She’s here
to help us figure out what’s wrong with our wells,” he said. Jorge
reminded her of a grandfather. White beard, neatly trimmed hair,
and twinkling brown eyes, he offered a capable looking hand for her
to shake.

Which she whole-heartedly did. She smiled at
him. “I’m happy to be here. I can’t wait to get started,” she told
him honestly.

“We’ve been anticipating your arrival, Dr.
Morrison.” He spoke in an even toned, pleasant voice. “We have some
basic microbiology skills, but we’re lab technicians at the
hospital.”

Her spine relaxed even more. “Tia,” she
corrected. A woman glided up behind Jorge, and as she stepped
around him, Tia nearly gasped. The woman possessed the most
beautiful face she’d ever seen. Her light brown skin glowed.
“You’re a scientist?” Her brunette hair was shiny and thick, and
her eyes sparkled a clear emerald green. Her facial structure was
perfect symmetry.

The woman laughed. “People ask me that all
the time. I’m beginning to get a complex,” she said in a friendly
voice, her accent definitely Rurikstanian.

“I’m Tia.”

“I’m Helena,” the woman said. Tia
laughed.

Helena arched a perfect brow.

“Wasn’t Helena the face that launched a
thousand ships?”

“Many wars were fought over her,” Aleksi
agreed, his lips quirking to the side in the most delightful
manner. Tia was afraid her insides would melt and embarrass her by
pooling at his feet. Probably not a good impression if she ruined
the man’s shoes.

“I tend to stay in the lab,” Helena said
dryly.

Tia laughed. “Me, too, but then I’m more
nerd than beautiful.”

“You’re beautiful,” Helena said. “In fact,
you could be a model.” Her eyes swept up and down Tia’s body in a
casual survey. She nodded.

Tia shook her head vehemently. “You haven’t
spoken with the Apes.”

“The apes?” Jorge repeated.

She turned to smile at him, but couldn’t
help rolling her eyes. “My brothers.”

“Ah,” Helena said. “I have a sister, but no
brothers. How many do you have?”

“Three,” Tia said. Already liking this woman
very much.

Helena laughed, the sound merry and sweet.
She saw Aleksi’s eyes settle on Helena, but she didn’t receive the
impression that he had the hots for her. Rather Tia picked up that
they were good friends, but nothing more.

How strange. How could he not be interested
in the gorgeous woman?

Another woman floated over to them, this one
of a similar age to her mother. She was trim, smaller than Tia or
Helena. Her hair was a curly cloud of champagne and her eyes so
bright a blue, Tia decided they couldn’t possibly be real.

“What is this? The beauty pageant lab?” she
burst out.

Fortunately, everyone laughed, rather than
called her on the near blunder.

“I’m Maria,” the last woman said, her voice
husky and sultry. Tia thought of her niece Starla. The pair would
become fast friends. Both were obviously cast from the femme fatale
mold.

“I’m Tia,” she answered and shook the
woman’s hand. Maria exhibited an elegant grace that Tia envied, but
her eyes were welcoming, her manner easy.

“We’re very pleased you’re here, and you do
add to the pageant lab,” Jorge said, his brown eyes twinkling with
good will and mischief.

“I can’t wait to get started. You three have
a lot of fun, don’t you?” Even as she said it, Tia realized this
might even be fun. More tension leaked out of her shoulders.

“That we do.” Maria sent a happy smile to
her lab mates. “Although remember we’re hospital technicians, not
microbiologists.”

“I love coming to work here in the morning
though,” Helena said, her voice husky with honesty. Tia liked how
Jorge and Maria nodded and shared a secret smile with her.

“Now if we could only discover what is
causing our people to sicken,” Jorge said, his eyes suddenly
downcast.

His statement sobered the women, but Tia
nodded and placed a hand over his. “We will.” Tia’s voice was firm
with resolve. “We’ll find out what’s causing the problem. And I
would go so far as to say we’re going to have fun doing so.”

Her statement eased the lines around the
three lab technician’s mouths. Tia glanced around the room, and
located a row of lab coats. She sauntered over and expertly
selected one. By donning the coat, she felt immediately at
home.

This space was her domain. She understood
how each piece of equipment worked. She knew what all the various
tools scattered across the bench tops did. None of the apparatus
lining the walls was unfamiliar.

Her gaze slid to Aleksi. Unlike a certain
prince, where she had absolutely no idea how he worked, or what to
do with him.

Well, she had a pretty good idea what she
wanted to do with him, but those thoughts would never see the light
of day. Besides, other than thinking of her as a scientist, he had
no idea she was a woman.

Remember how he didn’t
even know she existed during school?
Tia
wondered if she should record that sentence and play it back every
other minute she was in his presence.

She had work to do. Work that didn’t involve
Prince Aleksi, gorgeous though he was.

Oh to be princess material.

Too bad a woman had to like the color pink.
And wear makeup. Tia shuddered.

Being a nerd wasn’t so bad.
At least she was comfortable.
Really
.

Chapter
6