Nerds Are From Mars

by Vicki Thompson

  “Nope. I’ll be there.”

  “Then we’ll see you two later.” Nolan took the liberty of putting his hand on Darcie’s shoulder so he could steer her through the crowd. “Starbucks might be our best bet.”

  “That works. I could use a jolt of caffeine.”

  He’d thought he did, too, before she’d arrived, but now he was high on Darcie Ingram and didn’t need any artificial stimulants. “I’m really sorry you got stuck in traffic. I hope whatever you drove home for was worth it.”

  “It was. How well do you know Aaron Blackstone?”

  “Pretty well. He both went to Stanford. We connected some then, and we’ve been in contact over the years since. We keep bumping into each other at events like this. He’s a talented scientist. Well, that’s obvious. Thaddeus Sterling wouldn’t have hired him otherwise.”

  “So you trust him?”

  “Scientifically, you bet. I wouldn’t trust him for two minutes around you, though.” Once they reached the hallway he dropped his arm from her shoulder. Walking to Starbucks hand-in-hand didn’t project a professional tone for either of them. He wished they could be alone instead of in the middle of the conference crowd, but that wasn’t possible now. Later, though, after the banquet . . . .

  “Don’t worry. I can take care of myself when it comes to men like Aaron Blackstone. I know his type.”

  Nolan sighed. “Me, too. At lunch he mentioned that he used to date one of my team members. She’s a great person, highly intelligent, but not wildly attractive. Somebody like Blackstone could use her insecurities to get her into bed, use her for sex and discard her without a second thought.”

  “Yeah, I picked up on those tendencies. Is she here?”

  “No, thankfully. She had another obligation. I’m happy about that. I want to like Blackstone, and watching him prey on somebody like Jan would make liking him tough.”

  “Why do you want to like him?”

  “Because he’s a good scientist and we’re working toward the same goal. If Harcourt and Sterling would allow it, we could share our research and be way ahead of the game.”

  “Would he be okay with sharing his research?”

  “Oh, yeah, definitely. So would I. We’ve talked about the ridiculous rivalry and how it’s only getting in the way of scientific progress. That’s why we’re staging our own little rebellion tonight.”

  “Then I’m glad to be a part of it.”

  “I can’t imagine going without you.” He glanced down at her. “I’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you, too.” She touched his arm briefly.

  That single touch meant more to him than if she’d hauled him into a corner and kissed the breath out of him. She understood that they shouldn’t be openly affectionate on the conference floor, but she apparently craved a physical connection as much as he did.

  Luckily Starbucks wasn’t busy. Most of the lunch crowd had left and the mid-afternoon caffeine seekers hadn’t arrived yet. They stood in line together, bodies brushing as if by accident, but Nolan knew now that it was no accident. He was in heaven. His agitation during lunch seemed like a silly overreaction.

  He bought Darcie a sandwich and ordered flavored coffee drinks for both of them. Their same cozy corner was available. As they sat down, he thought of how different the relationship had become in a little more than twenty-four hours. As Einstein had believed, time really was relative.

  Because he thought Darcie must be hungry, he coaxed her into eating half of her sandwich before she showed him what she’d brought from Ojai. Now that she was here, he could wait to find out why she’d made the trip.

  But after eating that first half of her sandwich, she blotted her lips with a napkin, took another drink of her coffee, and reached in her purse. “I don’t want to worry you, but I sense negative influences around you and I want you to take some steps to counteract them.” She pulled out a small purple drawstring bag.

  Yesterday he would have been suspicious of what she might have in it. Eye of newt? Toe of frog? But he’d evolved since then and now he was only curious. And maybe a little nervous. He had some evolving yet to do.

  But whatever she had in that bag had been important enough that she’d driven four hours and suffered through a major traffic jam to bring it to him. If she believed that was necessary, then he’d do his best to understand why. He was honored that she considered his well-being worth going through all that.

  She lowered her voice. “Like I said, I don’t want you to panic or anything but I’m afraid you’re in danger. I’m not sure if the danger is physical or psychic, but I’m prepared to help you protect yourself, whichever it is.”

  Holy shit. He could either laugh at the absurdity of that, or he could believe her and accept her help. He’d only known her, really known her, for twenty-four hours, but his instincts told him not to laugh. He was a man of science, but in this case, he decided to follow his instincts. “I trust you, Darcie. I’ll do whatever you think is necessary.”

  Chapter Nine

  Darcie sighed in relief. If Nolan had balked at all, she’d have a much harder time trying to keep him safe. She pulled a smooth black stone out of her pouch. It fit neatly into the curve of her palm, a perfect size for clasping as a stone of protection. “I want you to carry this in your pocket.”

  “What is it?”

  “Polished hematite. It’s a powerful stone. I searched through my collection and finally decided on this. I didn’t want to load you down with a bunch of crystals. This one’s a real protection workhorse and it should go nicely in your pocket.”

  He rubbed the stone between his fingers. “It’s pretty. Almost like someone took a small puddle of oil and made it solid.”

  “I personally love hematite.” She was gratified that he’d responded to the stone in an instinctive, sensual way. “I have a necklace made of it, but something told me you wouldn’t wear a necklace.”

  “Thanks.” His gaze met hers. “I’m willing to bend a lot, but wearing a hematite necklace to the panel discussion this afternoon might be more than I could deal with.”

  “Yeah, I figured.”

  “It feels warm.”

  “That’s a good sign. It means I probably picked the right stone for you. Ideally you would go to a metaphysical store and choose the hematite that called to you.”

  He coughed. “Um, I’m trying to roll with the concept, but the idea of talking stones is . . . fantasy territory.”

  She couldn’t help laughing. “Sorry. You’re so willing to listen to what I’m saying that I keep forgetting I’m dealing with a Ph.D. in astrophysics who is extremely literal. I don’t mean that the stones in the shop plead with you. They don’t seductively murmur take me, take me.”

  “Good to know. If I thought they did, I’d avoid every rock shop in the country. I have enough trouble with horror movies where the dolls talk. I don’t need talking stones, too.”

  She sat there for a minute absorbing his sweetness and wry humor. She wondered how she’d ever managed without this connection to Dr. Nolan Bradbury. He was like a cuddly blanket on the porch swing during a crisp fall day. But she didn’t forget that he could be like a lightning bolt in a dark sky, filled with power and sensuality. What a great combination.

  He deserved her A game, so she tried a different tack. “What I meant to say, what I should have said in the beginning, is that ideally you walk into a store filled with various stones and choose the one that you’re most drawn to. Inevitably that’s the one you need. But we didn’t have that luxury, so I went home and sorted through what I had.”

  He held the hematite up to the light. “Did this one call to you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is it some sort of fickle hussy that calls to you and then snuggles up to me and gets all warm when I hold it?”

  She smiled and shook her head. “Think of it as a loving kitten that came home with me but is perfectly willing to curl up in your lap and give you love, too. That’s not being fickle. It�
��s being generous with a gift.”

  “Wow. All that from a shiny black stone.”

  “So you’ll carry it?”

  “I will.” He slid it deftly into the right pocket of his slacks. “Thank you. What else did you bring?”

  “A smooth clear crystal for your hotel room, and to take with you when you travel. You should rinse it off periodically with water to dispel the negative energy it picks up. The same thing is true of the hematite.”

  “These stones require care and feeding?”

  “Just detoxing, to get rid of the negative energy. You should know about that. It’s essentially a decontamination process, like NASA has for astronauts. You can also put the stones outside under a full moon, but I thought rinsing with water would appeal to you more.”

  “You thought right. As I said, I’m working hard to keep an open mind, but I don’t see myself arranging crystals under a full moon. Besides, we have several days before a full moon is an option.”

  “I’m aware of that. I keep close track of the phases of the moon.”

  “So do I.”

  “See? Our professions overlap.”

  He nodded. “I’m willing to admit that they do. Progress, right?”

  “A lot of progress.” She was vastly encouraged by his response to her stones.

  “What else did you bring? The magic bag doesn’t look empty yet.”

  “This is for tonight, after the banquet.” She took out a thick smudging stick about six inches long.

  He stared at it. “I don’t know what to say. It looks distinctly phallic, but unless there’s a battery hidden in there, I don’t know what it’s for. And even if there is a battery, that looks sort of rough and uncomfortable. I can’t imagine you’d want to play around with –”

  “Stop!” She got the giggles. “This has nothing to do with sex.” She was so used to her sage smudging sticks that she’d never dreamed he’d see it as a sex toy. Good Lord. “We’re going to light it.”

  He held up both hands. “Sorry. Never smoked pot. Wait, I did once, and a single puff was all I needed to decide it was not for me. If you’re smokin’ then I’m . . . what are you laughing about?”

  “It’s sage, not pot. I swear, Nolan, are you actually from California? I can’t believe you’ve lived in the land of New Agers and yet you’ve never heard of using smudging sticks to clear the air of negativity.”

  “My dad’s a biologist,” he said as if that explained everything.

  “So you’ve never seen a smudging stick.”

  “Let me look at it.”

  She handed it over and watched him examine it from all angles like Sherlock Holmes inspecting a piece of evidence. Finally he handed it back to her. “Nope. Never seen something like this in my life.”

  “Then you’ve led a sheltered existence.”

  “Probably. So you’re proposing to light that thing in my hotel room? It’ll set off the smoke alarm.”

  “We’ll open the windows.”

  “And it’ll smell like pot, and we’ll be raided. I can see it, now – Astrophysicist gives up on Mars, decides weed is a faster route to getting high.”

  “We won’t do it for very long, but you had a toxic presence in your room last night and we need to get rid of the negative vibes. How did you sleep?”

  “Not well, but that had nothing to do with the negative vibes from the toxic presence. It had to do with my . . .” He paused and red crept up from the collar of his dress shirt.

  “Your what?”

  He held up the smudge stick. “See this?”

  “Yes.”

  “Picture me dealing with something much stiffer than that. For hours.”

  She clapped a hand to her mouth.

  “Hang on. I didn’t mean dealing with it. I didn’t resort to that. I thought about it, but decided that was beneath me. I probably should have resorted to it, now that I think about it, because I tossed and turned for a long time.”

  “Oh, Nolan, you are too adorable for words.”

  He met her gaze with a challenge of his own. “So how did you sleep?”

  “Not much better than you.” She hesitated, not sure if she had the courage to be honest. “At least not until I –” She paused and let him fill in the rest. “Then I slept like a baby.”

  He flopped back into his easy chair. “That proves it. Women are smarter than men. I’ve always suspected that you were, but look at the evidence. There we were, both in the same fix, and I, thinking I was making some noble sacrifice, chose to suffer, which means I didn’t sleep hardly at all. You, on the other hand, being far smarter and more practical, took matters into your own hands.”

  Poor guy. Poor adorable guy. “You must be a bundle of nerves.”

  “I was earlier, but now that you’re here, I’m a heck of a lot calmer.” He took out his phone and looked at the screen. “Yikes. I’m supposed to sit on a panel and sound intelligent in less than ten minutes. I have to go.”

  “I’ll go with you.”

  “That’s okay.” He stood and hooked the strap of his laptop case over his shoulder. “You still have half a sandwich and the rest of your coffee.”

  “And you’ll make better progress without me. Go ahead. I’ll slip in later.”

  “Thanks.” He gave her a quick smile. “I could tell you not to bother, but I’d love to have you there. See you soon.” He walked briskly out of the coffee shop.

  Polishing off her coffee, she picked up the remains of her sandwich and took it over to the trash. Even though she wasn’t hungry anymore, she hated to waste it because he’d bought it for her. But using valuable time to eat it would mean being even later to his panel discussion, and she planned to stick close for the rest of the weekend.

  This morning she also had taken a few minutes to consult a tarot spread concerning Nolan’s immediate situation. The cards had confirmed what she’d felt ever since learning about the person breaking into his room. Nolan had made an enemy, a potentially dangerous one.

  As she worked to help him figure out who might mean him harm, she had to move cautiously. She didn’t like Aaron Blackstone and would love to pin the blame for these pranks on him. But just because he made her jaw clench didn’t mean he was dangerous to Nolan. Although her instincts were good, her psychic abilities could be distorted by an aversion to someone.

  Blackstone possessed the traits she most disliked in the male of the species, although he covered his arrogance with a veneer of humility and used his physical appeal so casually that it seemed as if he didn’t care about his blond good looks. But he cared. His charm was smooth and deadly. Beneath his affable exterior lurked a predator. That made him dangerous to women’s hearts and their self-esteem, but it didn’t make him Nolan’s enemy.

  Nolan clearly admired the guy’s scientific expertise and they might be colleagues for a long time. If she ended up with Nolan, which her research said was quite possible and her heart knew was very likely, she’d be coming in contact with Blackstone often over the years. Rather than suspect him of evil deeds, she’d do better to practice tolerance.

  Holding that thought, she consulted her program and headed for the panel discussion. The doors were closed, so she made a stealthy entrance in hopes she wouldn’t disturb the presentation. Blackstone happened to be talking, which was a good thing because Nolan’s gaze instantly met hers.

  If he’d been presenting when she’d walked in, she would have thrown him off. She knew that as surely as she knew her own name. He wouldn’t be able to help himself. Their relationship was too new for him to be blasé about her presence in a room.

  She’d have to be careful of that. He’d been nervous during yesterday morning’s talk, too, and apparently that had been her doing. When she’d decided to come to this conference, she hadn’t intended to distract him. Knowing she affected him was flattering, but he couldn’t afford to be distracted while someone was plotting to hurt him, either professionally or physically or both.

  That left her with an in
teresting problem. She was a liability when she caused him to lose focus, and an asset because she had a sixth sense for danger that could protect him from harm. Being with him would be a constant balancing act, and she couldn’t ever totally relax until the harassment stopped or the culprit was identified.

  Was it Blackstone? She worked to clear her mind of preconceptions as she concentrated on him. He was glib and artificially modest. But he managed to work in references to his team’s accomplishments and slyly suggest that they would leave Nolan’s team in the dust. If he really believed in collaboration as Nolan thought, he wouldn’t be subtly sabotaging the Harcourt team’s efforts in a public forum.

  As she studied him, she felt a darkness coming from him. Was she projecting that because she disliked him so much? That was entirely possible. She might be reading his threat to women as a threat to everyone else, including Nolan. Damn.

  Then he looked directly at her, and she felt a blast of evil so strong that she gasped. Even worse, he was smiling as if convinced he’d charmed her with that penetrating glance. He wouldn’t dream that she’d picked up his creepy psychic vibes. He didn’t respect women, and he most certainly didn’t respect women astrologers.

  Secure in the mask he’d presented to the world for years, he’d merely think his dazzling smile had swept her into the net of his other conquests. He’d probably interpreted her little gasp as one of admiration. Yet could she really say he was a threat to Nolan?

  He wasn’t the cooperative colleague Nolan thought he was, but she couldn’t make the leap from uncooperative to menacing without a lot more information. What she really needed was his exact date and place of birth. He was easily flattered. She didn’t know if she could get the information from him without irritating the heck out of Nolan, though. What a sticky situation.

  Blackstone finally sat down after taking more than his share of time. Nolan was up next. She settled back, prepared to enjoy watching him do his thing.

  His talk the previous day had been centered on the colonization program, which included housing, farming, and social interactions. Today he discussed rocketry. Or at least he attempted to. Blackstone kept interrupting him.