Bad Nerd Rising (5 page)

Aleksi’s mother,
Gracia
, Tia snorted to
herself again, eyed Tia like she’d just crawled out of a sewer. Tia
was sure she didn’t smell that bad. She entertained herself briefly
with naming a few of the bacteria responsible for the sewer
stench.

The princess didn’t offer her hand but
nodded her head oh so briefly in Tia’s direction. “Nice to meet
you, I’m sure,” she drawled with a very proper, quite European
accent.

Tia was rather surprised the woman’s lip
didn’t curl up in disgust. “I’m sure, but don’t worry, we probably
won’t spend much time together,” Tia murmured.

The woman looked offended. “Why ever would
you say that?”

“I came here to fix a problem, so I imagine
I’ll be spending a lot of time in the lab.” Tia’s mother would
never treat a guest this way. Of course, if your house spanned
three city blocks and you had more servants than sense, maybe you
could get away with poor manners.

With a mental shrug, Tia glanced at Aleksi,
who stood glaring at his mother. “Perhaps we could freshen up now?
I’m feeling the long trip and would dearly love a shower.”

He winced. “We haven’t rigged the system yet
in order to shower.”

“What?” She stared at him, not
comprehending.

“Because we know the water is a problem, we
have to boil all the water we use. That’s been true for washing, as
well as cooking and drinking.” His cheeks took on a faint tinge of
red.

“Maybe I’d better skip supper and head right
to the lab,” she said, frowning at him. A wave of sympathy washed
through her as she stared at his obvious discomfort. To live in a
place you loved, with people who were your responsibility and not
know how to protect them had to be a terrible burden regardless of
your position.

“There’s no need for that. Our plumbers are
planning to install filters that should eliminate most of the
palace problems.” Aleksi’s voice was more confident now. “In the
meantime I’ll have someone bring water to your room.”

“Someone has to carry water to my room?”

“We do have indoor plumbing, of course, but
we cannot use it until the filters are in place,” Gracia said. She
all but sniffed.

Tia thought about ignoring her. The woman
was definitely not going to improve her stay in Rurikstan.

And here she thought Aleksi himself would
prove to be her main problem. Really though, she didn’t intend to
spend a lot of time with either of them. Right now she figured she
had a job to do. The sooner she finished the job, the sooner she
could race home to the ignominious comfort of the Apes. It was her
turn to wince. The rest of her family was quite nice and they would
welcome her home.

“We fully expect you to dine with us,”
Aleksi said firmly. “There will be plenty of time for you to become
acquainted with the lab tomorrow. Besides, no one will be there at
this hour. You need to clean up and eat.”

“Are you telling me I’m stinky?” Her voice
held plenty of teasing notes. She hoped he figured that out. She
wrinkled her nose for effect.

“Not at all,” he said, but the lines around
his mouth relaxed, like he appreciated her light heartedness.

“That’s good. I will feel better after
cleaning up.”

***

Aleksi tugged off his tie and tossed it on a
hook in his closet. He glared at the tie rack, thinking back to
that awful conversation between his mother and Tia. He should have
known his mother wouldn’t cooperate. She’d gone from being a mother
to a complex, nasty woman during the past year.

He frowned as he thought of
her most unfriendly welcome to Tia.
What
must Tia think of his family?
And he
couldn’t even provide her with a decent shower. No, they had slid
back into medieval times and had to bathe. Granted the tubs they
all used dated back nearly six hundred years and were works of art.
Still, it didn’t compare with the thoroughly modern shower with
excellent water pressure from modern times.

He’d been impressed with the easy way Tia
accepted their circumstances. Not a spoiled princess by any means.
He would certainly like to make her one. Random thoughts of kissing
her enticing lips distracted him and he kept sneaking glances at
her during their meeting with his mother. Glances his parent had
correctly intercepted.

A knock sounded on his bedroom door, and
pretty sure who had arrived to bother him, Aleksi opened the panel.
His mother sailed through; acting like a bee had flown up her
skirt.

“What are you thinking?” she hissed.

He blinked at her, because he certainly
didn’t plan to tell her about the kisses he’d like to exchange with
Tia. Or his daydreams about pressing her delectable self against
him. Or the way he fantasized about running his hands through her
hair. Such topics didn’t seem appropriate to discuss with one’s
mother.

So he stared at her in confusion instead.
“What?”

“Bringing that woman here,” she started.

“That woman, as you describe her, acted with
manners. That is more than I can say for you. Mother, if you can’t
behave yourself, I’m sending you away until we fix this well
problem.” He used the tone that indicated he meant business, one
she recognized because she recoiled.

“Send me away? Surely you can’t be serious?”
She tried to convince him she was hurt with the sorrowful looks she
sent. Aleksi wasn’t deceived.

“Mother, you were an
embarrassment,” he said firmly. He wasn’t going to mince words. She
was a princess – that meant she had to be gracious, even if it
killed her. Instead she’d been the epitome of unfriendliness. What
was that American term he’d heard?
Snarky
, yes, that fit his mother’s
behavior perfectly.

She gasped and clapped a hand to her breast,
like she couldn’t believe he spoke to her in such a manner. He
didn’t give her time to refute what he said. “You’re a princess.
You represent the royal family. But you acted like a spoiled brat
to Tia.”

His mother must have grasped that he was
angry with her because not even she could fake the paleness to her
cheeks or the slight trembling in her hands as she groped for a
chair behind her.

“I had no idea,” she said faintly.

Not even her paleness would
save her from this conversation. He leveled her with a firm look.
“I cannot believe you would treat a guest, one who came to
help
us, as you did.
Father would have been utterly appalled. I am appalled.”

“Well she is American,” his mother said,
some of her old spirit reviving.

“Americans are a great lot of people. They
have their problems just like any nationality, but I don’t
understand what you have against them. The years I spent in America
were some of my best.”

“They have deplorable manners.”

He stared at her, his jaw open. “What?”

“I said—”

“I heard what you said.” Aleksi cut her off,
not believing what came out of the woman’s mouth. “But it wasn’t
Tia, the American, who showed poor manners just ten minutes ago. It
was you, who is supposed to be of noble birth.”

Another gasp, another hurt look. But he
didn’t give in to her passive aggressive behavior. She’d become the
queen of such behavior lately, and he wasn’t about to allow her to
run Tia off.

Not that he received the impression Tia was
easy to intimidate. He’d seen her eyeing his mother like she was
sizing her up and figured his parent was likely to come up on the
losing end should anything occur. Apparently they built them tough
in America. And Tia had three older brothers. Something told him
not to discount that fact.

“I would do nothing to hinder our image as a
noble family.” His mother sent him a patronizing look.

“You already did. I expect you to be kind to
our guest.”

“Kind?” She sounded like she was
choking.

“You’re a princess. Act like one,” he said,
keeping his voice severe.

“I was.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Not like a spoiled
rotten brat princess as you did. But like a woman of noble birth,
which you did not.”

What was that American
statement?
And pigs would
fly
.

Chapter
5

The sun filtering through sheer curtains and
peeking around heavy drapes she didn’t recognize woke Tia. Startled
she sat up in bed and glanced around the room. This definitely
wasn’t her condo bedroom.

The furniture was too heavy and looked
old-world. The room was huge and filled with what appeared to be
national treasures, not the hand-me-down furniture from her
Morrison relatives.

Memory returned as her brain engaged and Tia
realized she’d have to eat breakfast with Mommy Dearest, or the
Wicked Witch of the West. She hadn’t decided on the title for
Aleksi’s mother yet.

She’d have to eat breakfast with him, too.
That meant she needed to converse in a semi-intelligent manner.
Frowning, she hoped she had managed that feat last night. Because
due to the utter weariness of travel she couldn’t remember much
after the dessert course had been served. Except that she’d been
relaxed, despite the demon mother’s presence, and the fact that her
mild crush on Aleksi hadn’t quite disappeared, like she previously
believed.

Darn the man.

Why did he have to be sexy?

Why did he have to care so much about his
people? Why did he have to stare all through the meal at her like
he wanted to sample her?

Tia’s eyes snapped
wider.
Where had that ridiculous thought
come from?
She was a nerd in nerd’s
clothes. Easily identified. No man, especially a hot prince, would
fall for her.

No way.

Not going to happen.

But said nerd could
definitely fall for the hot prince,
a snide
little voice chimed in. Tia scowled as she threw off the covers and
silk sheets. Silk sheets. She was pretty sure her sheets at home
were one hundred and fifty count. Maybe two hundred if she was
lucky. But here in Rurikstan, she slept on pure silk
sheets.

Nerd in silk
sheets
.

Maybe they’d make a movie about her. Rolling
her eyes at her foolishness, Tia padded into the bathroom. The
toilets worked like they were supposed to, but she again heaved a
lusty sigh at the gorgeous shower stall in her bathroom. Big enough
to fit her and several guests, the tile that lined the walls looked
expensive, although she couldn’t identify what it was. The shower
was a hedonists dream with twenty levers and ten heads, all at
various levels from the floor up.

The top nozzle even cleared her head by
nearly a foot. Unheard of in her condo shower. But then she wasn’t
in her place, so she touched the main lever sadly, caressed it and
then turned away to take care of nature’s call.

If she was going to
breakfast with a prince and his virulent (ooh – an excellent
descriptive word for
Princess
Gracia) mother, she better look presentable. Plus,
she was supposed to meet her lab staff today. Probably a good idea
to look the part.

Which did not include being
Aleksi’s girlfriend, or princess-to-be. Nerd princesses were
imaginary. Like a fairy tale on too much chocolate.
Mmm, chocolate
.

Tia’s stomach growled, so she set about
dressing and fighting with her hair. A nerd’s work never ended.

***

Aleksi’s heart tripped a beat before
throbbing almost painfully in his chest when Tia stepped into the
breakfast room. She looked like she was ready for the lab, but
something about her sent him into teenaged boy overdrive.

Why did the woman have to be so beautiful?
Why did she have to walk the way she did? And how could a gesture
so simple as tucking her hair behind her ear be so enticing?

“Good morning,” she said breezily. She
strolled into the room and sent an impartial hello round the room,
which included him and his mother.

Apparently Tia didn’t hold bad manners
against people. Or maybe she didn’t hold grudges. There was no
doubt his mother had been out of line. Hopefully she wouldn’t do
anything that needed to be added to that list.

“Good morning,” he replied and glanced at
his mother.

He nudged her under the table.

“Good morning,” she echoed, but sent him a
scowl.

Tia picked up a plate and helped herself to
the buffet set against the far wall. He watched as she made her
selections, wishing she’d select him.

When she sat down and shook out her napkin
she finally looked at him. “When will we go to the lab?”

He blinked. What had he
been expecting?
Will you marry me?
Aleksi reined himself in and tried to refocus on
what she’d asked. Ah, yes, the lab.

“We can visit there directly after breakfast
if you wish?”

“Yes, I do. The sooner I acquaint myself
with the lab and the people who work there, the sooner we can fix
this water problem.”

“Do you have any ideas yet what it could
be?” He thought his voice sounded hopeful.

She shook her head. “I’ll have to look over
the records, discover the various symptoms, and probably run some
tests.”

“Doesn’t sound like she knows quite what
she’s doing,” his mother inserted silkily. “Perhaps it would be
better to hire someone who is older.”

Tia looked up at his mother who had one
perfect eyebrow arched in disdain. “You’re welcome to figure out
the problem.” Tia’s voice remained polite.

Again, Tia showed better manners than his
parent.

“Tia is the most qualified microbiologist we
could want,” he said and glared at his mother. “Perhaps you’d like
to summer elsewhere. Like on our island,” he added. Renewing his
threat from yesterday’s conversation.