Bad Nerd Rising (20 page)

Oh, no, he’s
beautiful
, the irrational, and
unfortunately, larger part of her oozed.

No, we are not doing this.
He doesn’t even like us
her rational side
reminded the new, unfamiliar, and obviously crazy side.

He likes us, he even
kissed us. Several times, and it was fantastic
, the irrational, brand new femme fatale part of her
drawled.

Where did
you
come
from
? Tia yelped to herself. Maybe she’d
been watching Starla and Maria closer than was wise.

He not only likes us, he
wants us
. The newly discovered, unwelcome,
unreasonable part of herself purred.

We are
not
kissing him
again
, the rational, friendly,
loyal
side
contested.

Oh, yes we are. And we’re
going to enjoy every moment
, the
treacherous, absurd, fickle side of her refuted, confidence flowing
from her sensual self.

Tia almost groaned out
loud. She had always prided herself on being a normal if geeky
individual. Now she had to contend with having a split personality.
Would her new split personality throw her into the fire? Try to
drown her?

She sneaked a glance at
Aleksi, calmly eating the rest of his supper, totally unaware of
the war waging on the other side of the table. A war she feared
losing.

That one glance scared her
more than seeing all three of her brothers converge on her at once.
Because staring at him now, she understood.

Half of her new split
personality intended her to not only go up in flames but also drown
in the liquid warmth of Aleksi’s eyes.
Oh
no
.

The poor man had no idea
she’d discovered the sleeping femme fatale. Since this character
type was totally new and utterly alien, she might mess up his
seduction.
Just don’t let me trip and
break my nose
, she begged.

That disloyal, sexy side
of her snorted, making it sound, well...sexy.
We don’t trip. We snag our man.

Excuse me, you’re
inhabiting
my
body. This is Tia Morrison. Tia Morrison trips and breaks her
nose.

We’ll take care of
it,
the insane, cool, foreign part of her
said. Upon closer inspection it really wasn’t that unfriendly. If
that side of her, newly discovered or not, netted her another kiss
from Aleksi, she wouldn’t complain.

She would probably purr for
him. Or with him. Shoot, what did women normally do in this
situation?

“Why are you scowling at me?”

Tia’s eyes snapped wide
open. “Oh, nothing. I was just thinking.”

His lips slid to the side.
“Do you always scowl when you are thinking?”

Her new side took over. A
knowing smile curled her lips and her head tipped to the side in a
come-hither manner. “I’ve never seen myself thinking, so I wouldn’t
know the answer to that question, would I?” Her voice sounded husky
and flirty
. Oh goodness.

Tia wrestled with this
crazy half of herself, trying to reclaim the real Tia Morrison. She
had to be rational about this. All would be lost otherwise. If the
femme fatale won, she’d be in big trouble.

Visions of pink, high
heels, and makeup all danced threateningly in her mind and she used
that fear to subdue the femme fatale. Sort of.

“I suppose you never have.
But I have,” he said, and leaned forward.

Rational or irrational, it
was like a thread connected them, and pulled her forward as well.
Oh no.
Hershey, we have a
problem
. This man was too dangerous by
half.

“You have?” At least this
conversation made sense to her, so she hoped she could conduct her
end in an intelligent manner.

“Yes. During class. You
don’t scowl, but your face is very serious.” He slid his face into
a serious mien that must depict what she looked like in class and
Tia couldn’t quell the peals of laughter.

“I do not do that!”

He grinned. “Yes, you do. I
have witnessed it, and you have not. So I’m right.” Aleksi forked
up more of his dinner and wiggled his brows at her.

She scowled at him. “Quit that.”

“What?” Now his features smoothed into
innocence.

Her lip curled up in
disgust. “Innocence and you do not work well together.”

He tried to affect a hurt
countenance but she shook her head. “Nope, sorry, not working
either.” She smiled.

This man was the limit.

Limits she’d like to push.

He interrupted her
unwelcome thoughts by removing her dinner plate and offered her an
empty dessert one. Tia had no recollection of anything she ate. She
took the new plate, more out of habit than anything
else.

When he removed the lid of
the last dish on the cart, Tia began to drool. “Oh, chocolate
cheesecake.” She moaned.

“You like?”

“I do,” she purred, and
blinked at herself.
Stop
that
, she reprimanded. She got no
response, but when she glanced at Aleksi she saw a pained look on
his face.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said, but his voice sounded
tight.

Alarmed, Tia burst to her
feet and raced around the table to place a hand on his forehead. If
he was ill, she’d better make certain she found him
help.

He did feel hot, but his
hand reached up and latched around her wrist. With one tug, he
tumbled her into his lap. She gasped and by the time she righted
her spinning senses, the sneaky man had already plunged a hand into
her hair, and taken her lips in a kiss that made one of her shoes
drop to the floor.

“Oh,” she moaned again. The
femme fatale part of her new split personality kissed him back with
vigor and feminine might. Tia couldn’t believe herself.

She even heard a moan
escape his throat and knew the femme fatale was satisfied.
That’s how we do it
, the
crazy, helpful part of her said sagely.

Tia wrapped her arms around
his neck and plunged into that fire, uncaring that the rational
part of her shrieked about consequences and
repercussions.

She wanted the fire, and
ice, and passion flowing between them. There was a symphony playing
somewhere in the background, with cymbals crashing and horns
trumpeting. The passion nearly drowned her.

Tia yanked him
closer.

Something kept buzzing and
Aleksi tried to shove the annoying sound away. He had Tia Morrison
in his arms again, on his lap, in fact, kissing her, with her
kissing him back like tomorrow might not dawn.
Not now
, he demanded in the back of
his mind.

Whatever the annoyance was
quit, and Aleksi returned his full attention to exploring her
mouth. Even that wasn’t enough. Their mouths separated and she
kissed his cheeks, his chin, and down his throat. Just like he was
doing to her. He couldn’t kiss enough of her.

Her fervor and passion
fueled his and Aleksi... The buzzing returned. She stiffened and in
desperation he tried to reclaim her lips. But she avoided his lips
and frowned at his side.

“You’re ringing,” she
announced through thoroughly kissed lips and stared at him in
bemusement. He really liked the disappointment he read on her
face.

“We must ignore
this.”

“No, it doesn’t sound like
whoever is phoning wants to be ignored,” she responded, regret
echoing through her tone. He liked how she stared at his lips. Like
she wanted to kiss them again.

Anytime she
wished...

The buzzing began anew,
growing louder and louder in the small space of her office. With a
jerk, Aleksi yanked his phone from the holster and took the call.
He failed to glance at the screen to see who called.

Risky.

“Aleksi, what took you so
long to answer your mobile?” his mother demanded.

He all but groaned. Tia
must have heard his mother’s voice because with a sigh of what he
hoped was regret she slid off his lap and landed awkwardly. He
frowned until he saw her coax her shoe back on. Then she
straightened and glided back to the other side of the
table.

She plunked into the
chair, propped her chin on a fist, and stared at him with puppy dog
blue-green eyes.
I understand, my
love,
he wanted to reassure her. Instead,
he had to listen to his mother’s ramblings and orders. He was
pretty sure he hadn’t said a word other than his greeting since
answering.

He used his head to
indicate the cheesecake and she brightened. She scooped up a slice
for him, her movements graceful and delicate, and then a slice for
herself.

Figuring they might as well
eat, he picked up his fork. His mother wouldn’t know he was eating
since she was too busy prattling on about London. It was nice to
hear she was enjoying herself. He had been a minute ago, right here
in Rurikstan.

When he lifted his eyes
from his plate it was to catch Tia lift a forkful of cheesecake to
her mouth. Her eyes fluttered as her lips closed over the dessert.
“Mmm,” she moaned, and she licked the rest of the chocolate
confection from the tongs.

He nearly lost it. His
composure, his senses, his common sense all overloaded. Then he had
to wait for his brain to reboot because the surge of power shut
down his circuits.
All of
them
. That had never happened
before.

“Is that
American
still there?”
the venom in his mother’s voice caught his attention and something
in Aleksi snapped. She spoke in their native tongue, but out of
courtesy for Tia, he responded in English.

“Mother, your manners are
deplorable. Since you obviously have not remembered how to treat
people, especially our
guests
, I intend to hang up now.”
And Aleksi disconnected the call, despite her protests. He didn’t
need his mother’s nasty comments poisoning his brain.

Not after such a fantastic
kiss from that
American
. He looked down at the cheesecake still on his plate, but
got sidetracked when Tia forked up another mouthful. Watching her
could become his new favorite pastime. After kissing
her.

He’d never seen a woman
enjoy food more. “Do you fancy the cheesecake?” he asked, already
knowing the answer.

But he wanted what he got.
Her eyes opened languidly and she stared at him with heavy,
satisfied eyes. “Mm-hmm.” She smiled at him. A sensual, mysterious
smile all women seem to know how to use to their best
advantage.

His hormones kicked up a
fuss and he shushed them, trying to be a gentleman. It was too
early to explain his plans to her. She was only just beginning to
relax in his presence.

The phone buzzed again, and
Aleksi frowned at it. He had the good sense to glance at the screen
this time. A smiling picture of his Aunt Loletta popped
up.

“I must take this call,” he
said, in regret.

“That’s okay. If your
cheesecake is gone, don’t be surprised,” she warned in a husky purr
that made him want to drop the phone and smother her with more
kisses.

The summons of the phone
reminded him he needed to answer the device or his aunt would
contact Emerson. Who would come searching for him... Emerson
here...
not a good idea
.

Aleksi left the room and
answered his ringing phone.

“Did you just hang up on
your mother?” Loletta’s voice didn’t exactly sound accusing. She
also spoke in their native tongue, which he reverted to, since Tia
couldn’t hear him.

“Yes. I despise her venom.
She sounded so nasty, and I’m tired of it. She’s in London, she’s
having a good time. There is no need for her to act like
that.”

“No, there isn’t, and I
told her I would have done the same thing. She doesn’t need to act
like a spoiled child, but she does.”

“Is she still behaving like that regularly
with you?”

“Yes,” his aunt sighed.
“I’ve never seen her like this.”

“What did the therapist
say?”

“That’s just it. We’ve seen
her twice now. And she says she thinks your mother is hiding
something.”

“Oh?” Aleksi went on alert.
“My theory...”

“I did mention that there were some family
fears about that.”

“Great, now she thinks I’m paranoid,” he
groused.

“I’m her family as
well.”

He sighed. “But I’m the
paranoid one.”

“True. And I’m not saying
she isn’t capable of murder. Because I believe she is. I just want
to be certain we keep all avenues opened.”

“And what did the therapist say?”

“She doesn’t believe it’s out of the realm
that your mother could have killed your father, but she doesn’t
believe that’s true.”