Bad Nerd Falling (3 page)

He turned to her and his
eyes crinkled in that way she especially liked. His dark brown eyes
warmed another notch and it was suddenly a little too hot in
here.
Uh oh
.

“
Helena.” His voice was
too delicious saying her name like that.

“
Vlad.” She managed not to
squeak, mostly.

“
It is good to see you
again.” He took her hand and raised it to his lips to kiss the back
of it. It was quick, because a man should not linger over any hand
that worked in a microbiology lab while said hand was
still
in said
lab.

“
That’s
dangerous.”

His teeth slashed white against his
lips as his grin turned a bit wolfish. “I am not unaccustomed to
danger.”

She rolled her eyes and delighted in
his chuckle. He still hadn’t returned her hand. Not that she
intended to protest. What did that say about her?

Obviously this man was far
too gorgeous for any mere mortal woman, especially a nerd like her.
Really, he
should
be illegal.

“
So this is where you all
work. I have wondered.” He glanced around the room where she and
his mother spent so much time.

“
This is it.” It wasn’t
only her glancing around with pride. All of her lab mates joined
her.

“
We enjoy working here.”
Jorge grinned. “I especially enjoy working in the Beauty Pageant
lab.”

Another delighted chuckle from Vlad.
“You do have excellent working conditions.”

“
We are not the Beaut—”
Tia protested.

Jorge sent her a knowing look as he
cut her off. “Tia’s first day here, she caught sight of Helena and
your mother and blurted about the Beauty Pageant lab.”

“
She’s right, and she only
adds to it.” Vlad’s eyes appreciative as he stared between her and
Tia.

Maria wrapped her arm around Vlad’s
waist. She couldn’t seem to stop touching him. “We need to call
your father. He’ll want to see you…”

She trailed off when he shook his
head. “I must see Aleksi.”

“
But honey, your father
will want to see you…”

“
I understand and I want
to see him. But I’m here on business. So Prince Aleksi
first.”

Something in his voice penetrated the
urgency in Maria.

“
When do you believe
you’ll be finished?”

Vlad’s lips firmed. “I don’t know.”
Maria deflated a bit as he wrapped his arm around her.

“
I just wanted your father
to know you’re home.”

“
I know Mom, and I will
see him. I only stopped in here first because I wanted to see all
of you.” His eyes lingered on Helena, and warmth burst through her.
He came to see her as well. His family
and
her.

His extensive military
training had kept him from Rurikstan, and his family, all these
years. While serving in the armed forces, he hadn’t been able to
choose leave. His visits had always been only a day or two and
often she only learned of them
after
he left.

Vlad broke into her thoughts as he
bent down to kiss his mother goodbye. He nodded to both Jorge and
Tia then made for the door. Since he retained hold of her hand he
hauled her with him. “Vlad.” Her protest bordered on
weak.

Once they were in the
hallway, he tugged her close and laid an amazing, spine melting
kiss on her.
Their
first
. “Oh.” Spectacular lips of a
spectacular man, on her lips.
Oh
yes
.

“
Thanks, I needed that.”
He trailed a possessive hand down her face.

“
Yes.” She craved another
kiss.

Except Emerson chose that moment to
pass. “Vlad.” He sounded surprised.

Vlad’s face closed off as he
straightened and carefully shoveled her back into the lab.
“Emerson.” Vlad’s greeting was stiff, formal. Curious, since she
was a scientist, she leaned out to watch the two men walk
away.

“
What brings you here?” He
made it sound like Vlad brought the plague along to
share.

“
I must speak with
Aleksi.”

“
The prince is in…” By
that time they had moved out of her range, so she couldn’t
eavesdrop.

When she turned her attention back to
the lab, Maria was standing right in front of her, hands on hips,
wearing a militant expression.

“
Why didn’t you mention
you had seen Vlad?”

Her brain was still on that wonderful
kiss. “What?”

“
You’ve seen him before
today,” Maria accused.

She took a deep breath before nodding.
Maria gasped. She glared at her. “Do you want to hear this or not?”
It wasn’t like the woman hadn’t seen him. She knew he made an
effort to see his family.

“
Yes.” Maria at least had
the grace to look a little chagrined.

It was then she noticed both Tia and
Jorge were unabashedly listening. She turned her glare on them. “Do
you two mind?”

They looked at each other and shook
their heads. “No.” Their answers were simultaneous. Both of the
miscreants settled in for the discussion.

“
Speak, Helena.” When
Maria demanded, you obeyed.

“
Remember when I went on
that trip about five months ago?”

“
Yes,” Maria and Jorge
answered.

“
You know I went to
Italy?”

“
Of course.”

“
While I was there I
bumped into Vlad.” Literally. She didn’t go into the embarrassing
details of trying to escape a lecherous mugger who seemed to want
more than her wallet. She successfully fought him off for a while,
but as she grew tired and he grew some friends, her wallet and her
virtue had both been in question.

At about that time her hero, Vlad,
showed up. He wasn’t there one moment but suddenly was the next. It
was amazing how him stepping into the fracas scattered her
attackers. He hadn’t even said anything, although she was certain
she heard him growl.

Then he took her to task for being on
a street in the middle of Italy and she had quite embarrassingly
burst into tears. The entire situation sounded much nicer with the
cleaned up version she offered everyone at home. How two old
acquaintances from Rurikstan bumped into each other and spent some
time together.

She honestly hadn’t even known he was
in Europe, much less Italy at the time. Although she was still
grateful he showed up when he did. During her embarrassing bout of
tears, he did draw her into his arms and held her tight until the
weeping passed. It wasn’t in the least bit romantic. The holiday
turned sour the first day since she started a cold, endured a nasty
bout of food poisoning the third and fourth days, and then got
mugged/almost raped the sixth.

It had been a trying time to say the
least. This was to be her last excursion into the quaint Italian
streets before she scurried home.

After meeting up with Vlad, she
canceled her plans to return home a week early and stayed in the
magical city with him. He took a room next to hers and they spent
the next week together.

“
You’ve been seeing him
ever since then?” Maria displayed aghast well. “Five
months
you’ve known he
was home?”

“
I’m not certain if he is
home.” That was all too true.

“
Why didn’t you at least
tell me he was back in contact with someone from Rurikstan? Why
didn’t you tell me you were dating Vlad?”

“
Because that news had to come from him. When he
was ready.” She exhaled a huge gust. “Besides, I’m not certain we
are dating.”

Chapter 4

He took a deep breath as he left the
lab with Emerson. It was obvious by the way Emerson carried himself
he was confident. And well he should be. The man enjoyed a
long-standing friendship with the prince. It was a well known fact
that Emerson ran Aleksi’s life; and got away with it.

“
Hello, Vlad. Come to see
your mother and Helena?” Emerson’s voice was as friendly as ever
and he didn’t pick up from his tone that Emerson didn’t trust him.
It seemed he had taken a
let’s-wait-and-see
attitude. It
wasn’t that Emerson didn’t trust him, but he also didn’t seem to be
of the mind to give Vlad free run of the palace.

Too bad Emerson had no idea of his
skills.

“
I did. Now I’m off to see
the prince.”

Emerson’s brows bounced. “I’m certain
Prince Aleksi will be delighted to see you.”

That earned him a droll look.
“Delighted?”

Emerson winced. “I didn’t just use the
word delighted.”

“
I’m sure that’s what I
heard.”

“
I’m turning into
a…”

“
Nineteenth century
English butler.”

“
Thank you. You’ve cheered
me up, as usual.”

“
I try.” As they sparred,
he strode down the palace hallway to Aleksi’s office. He had
finished his pre-mission tasks and knew where the prince ate,
slept, worked, played, and even where all the toilets were. There
wasn’t much he didn’t know about their prince these days. He had
also run extensive checks on every bodyguard and security officer
with direct and indirect access to Aleksi.

The problem was that the prince didn’t
know this, much less anything about Vlad, and that all needed to
change.

Lethal
was the first word that popped into Aleksi’s mind while
watching Vlad cross the expanse of his office. That wasn’t unusual.
Vlad had always been dangerous, even as a child. He could sneak up
on anyone, could handle his toy sword, guns, bow and arrow, any
play weapon better than him, Maks, and Emerson—combined. It was
like Vlad had been born to be an assassin.

All in all, a little scary.

Now he stared at this man who hadn’t
been a friend, just someone whose name and parents he knew. But
Emerson was right. There was something different about Vlad. It
took him a little while to figure out what.

The resentment and anger that
smoldered beneath the surface all those years ago weren’t present
now. Vlad’s animosity had seemingly vanished. It was nice to see
there was a person underneath all that antagonism.

He still didn’t want this man within a
restraining order distance of Helena.

Not that he had the power to decree
that. Not without losing his head. Because he was certain Vlad
would sic Helena on him and… he decided not to go there. Although
he didn’t have an actual sibling, Helena was one he thought of as a
little sister.

Still, it was refreshing to see Vlad
looking so comfortable in his own skin. That worked because it did
appear that Maks’ younger brother, they couldn’t use the word
little, because Vlad had never been small, made peace with himself
through the years. Even looking for it, he almost missed the
amiable side of Vlad. That lethal edge was still there, only it
appeared to have been honed to precision sharpness. And it outshone
the friendlier facet to the extent one could quite easily miss the
more sociable part.

He was happy Emerson got stuck vetting
Vlad before him and Maks. Emerson was the nicest of the three of
them. He tended to take people at face value before he dug deeper.
One trait Emerson had in abundance was the ability to read people.
He was also a great judge of character.

He sincerely hoped that Vlad was on
their side.

And why did Helena like scary,
dangerous men?

Vlad stopped in front of his desk. He
didn’t look sheepish or uncomfortable. Instead he looked like a man
on a mission.

“
What can I do for you?”
Aleksi wished Emerson had stayed.

Vlad reached into his pocket. “Your
father wanted me to give you this.” He appreciated when Vlad
stopped, his hand curling for a moment, and then swallowed hard
before handing over a small, rectangular item. “In the event he
wasn’t here.” His voice sounded thick.

“
Thank you.” He accepted
the object. “It’s a USB drive.”

“
Yes.”

“
What’s on it?”

“
I don’t know. He just
asked me to give you this if he wasn’t here.”

“
No
instructions?”

Vlad shook his head. “He must have
assumed you would know what to do with it.”

“
Do you have any ideas?”
He raised the drive to peer at it.

“
I imagine it’ll tell you
what to expect in the event of a terrorist attack.”

Certain he wasn’t going to get more
info out of Vlad, he nodded. “Fair enough. Admiral O’Riley warned
me to not assume terrorists weren’t interested in us.”

“
Don’t assume that,” Vlad
agreed. “O’Riley knows what he’s talking about.”

“
You know Admiral
O’Riley?”

“
Took some training with
him.” Vlad shook his hand. “Nice to see you again, Prince Aleksi.”
With a final nod, he turned and left the room so silently he would
have never noticed he left the room if he didn’t watch Vlad cross
the room, open the door, and exit.