Chapter 4

LIA COULD HARDLY RIP HER GAZE AWAY FROM NICK’S SCULPTED chest. How was it possible that someone that hot could be teaching at the Academy? It didn’t make sense. Nor did his abhorrence to her. Lia knew that she wasn’t traditionally gorgeous, but she was pretty.

A girl didn’t make it to twenty-five these days without some indication of how the male species felt about her. Granted she believed that she might be the only twenty-fiveyear-old virgin on the planet but that was beside the point.

She had her older brother Benedict to be thankful for that little gem. He always had someone on the lookout for Lia if he wasn’t there himself. The one night he left her on her own she just happened to get hammered and ended up dancing topless on a table.

Just one night! But the rest was history. Now she found herself being marched unceremoniously back to the castle in an athletic shirt that was strangely appealing despite the fact that it smelled of cologne, sweat and him.

Nick, what was it about that man that just wedged itself under her skin? Was it the condescending way that he spoke to Lia? Because she didn’t like it, at all. Nor did she care for the way he was acting like an angry…

“Wait a minute,” Lia stopped abruptly causing Nick to run into her.

“Damn it, woman, what is it now?” he demanded crossly.

Lia had turned and was just catching sight of those sixpack abs, scrumptious.

“Lia!”

Her eyes snapped to his blazing ones, “What?”

Nick looked like he wanted to wring her neck, “Why in the bloody hell did you stop?”

“Oh,” Lia brightened as she remembered and then scowled, “Why are you acting like an angry older brother?

Are you friends with Benedict?”

Nick was looking like a deer in the headlights.

“I knew it! I knew that he wouldn’t trust me to come here on my own.”

She started off down the path again not waiting for Nick to follow. But looking down she realized that she still had his shirt on. Angrily she yanked it over her head and threw it at him.

“I don’t need you or my brother’s help!” Lia demanded hotly and then turned and began to run.

Nick grabbed his shirt that had landed in a tree rather than where Lia had intended and started after her. He was rather surprised at how fast the chit could run.

“Lia, stop it this instant!”

Lia scoffed to herself as she broke out in a faster speed. There was no way that she was going to do anything that Professor Leham wanted her to. Damn it, why didn’t Benedict trust her? It was bad enough that her father, the king, felt she was a screw-up.

Lia had always been rather good at running. And at top-speed, few could catch her. She was just starting to see the castle come into view when she felt him gaining ground.

“Not today,” she muttered under her breath and put in a final burst of energy. There were students in the corridor that stopped what they were doing to stare at their new teachers racing at top speed.

Whatever conversation had been going on was silenced at the appearance of Princess Amelia racing into the gardens in nothing more than a sports bra carrying a bloody garment.

Not far behind her was Professor Leham who was also topless. The female students nearly swooned at the sight of his sculpted body and heaving pecs. This was indeed not something that they had been used to seeing from the previous faculty members.

“And another thing,” Lia whipped around to shout at Nick. “I don’t need your help, your shirt, or your babysitting. You can tell Benedict that as well!”

Nick was murderous, not only had that little termagant outran him, but she just humiliated him in front of half the students at the Academy. He felt some of the stares at his body and remembered too late that he hadn’t put his shirt back on yet.

Jerking it over his head, Nick stalked through the students not speaking to any of them. Lia’s eyes widened when she saw his face. With a squeak, she raced into the castle taking the stairs two at a time. She was almost to the top when her toe caught on the rim of the stairs and she went sprawling forward.

Nick, hot on her heels, didn’t have time to stop himself and he fell directly on top of her.

Lia cried out as her shins smacked the stone steps.

Nick was careful not to hit her head, but the impact had

to hurt regardless. Nick rolled to the side and looked down to see the Dean staring in horror at the debacle.

“I say,” Professor Whitten, a rather nice-looking man in his mid-thirties was standing at the top of the stairs. He motioned to the students that were gawking at the scene.

The Dean seemed to come to life at that moment and started ushering them away. Lia was moaning softly, still facing down on the steps. Nick got to his feet somewhat steadily and plucked Lia up and into his arms.

He would be damned if Professor Whitten was to get an unobstructed view of Lia in her sports bra.

Professor Whitten reached out a hand, “I can help.”

But Nick’s arms tightened, “No need, I have her.”

“What were you two running from?”

Nick had always felt that honesty was the best policy, however, he also could see that revealing his cards at this point might not be best for either himself or Lia.

“There was a bee in Princess Amelia’s shirt,” Nick lied through his teeth. “She is deathly allergic.”

Professor Whitten blinked stupidly as the Dean came blustering up the steps, “A bee? Are you telling me that you both were nearly splattered all over the steps for a bee?”

Nick drew himself up to his full height, ignoring the way that Lia was shivering in his arms. He had a sneaking suspicion that she was laughing at him.

“Would you like to explain to King Vicenza about her daughter's death? I know I would rather want to avoid that conversation.”

The Dean swallowed nervously knowing full well that the Academy existed through the sole patronage of the King.

He began to backpedal, “Of course, it was an emergency. You were only doing your duty.”

Professor Whitten didn’t look as impressed, “Don’t they have medicine that one can give if they are stung?”

Nick glared at the man. Not only was he standing entirely too close, but he was eyeing Lia’s naked midriff rather lecherously.

“Does it look like she has her epinephrine on her?” Nick said icily.

Professor Whitten backed up a step, “No, I don’t suppose she did. Rather careless of her, I should think.”

Nick felt his dislike of the man soar at his criticism of Lia’s supposed lack of response to her imaginary allergy.

The Dean stepped in, “I hate to be a bother, but it doesn’t look quite right for you to be holding her like that on the stairs. Are you okay, Princess Amelia?”

Lia’s face was buried in Nick’s neck and if the truth were to be told she was reveling at the nearness of the man. He was hard angles and smooth muscles. So very different from her smaller form that she wasn’t about to move from his embrace.

She moaned softly, “Just take me to my room.”

Nick gave the men a curt nod and then walked down the hallway to the end of the facility corridor and straight to her bedroom. Turning the knob which she obviously had forgotten to lock he marched inside and dumped her unceremoniously on the bed.

Lia squealed before turning to glare at him, “That wasn’t nice!”

“Neither was playing possum out there,” he retorted. His eyes locked on the bruises starting to form on her shins.

“Damn it, woman, you are a walking hazard area.” Lia looked down and winced at the purple flesh.

“Let me see your arm,” Nick demanded.

Lia flinched, “No, you have helped enough, thank you.”

Nick had far enough of this woman to last him a lifetime, “Fine, if you decide to bleed out please put a shirt on. I don’t want to have to save you again in your underwear!”

Lia threw her bloody t-shirt at him, but it only made it as far as the foot of the bed, “I don’t need your help, and I didn’t ask for it!”

Nick turned on his heel and proceeded to her door, “Bloody ingrate!”

“High handed pig!” she screamed back just as he slammed her door.

She glanced down at her arm, it really did hurt—and somehow she just knew that it was all his fault. So when he marched back into the room and grabbed her by the shoulders she was completely speechless.

As his lips crashed into hers, angrily kissing her and easily giving Lia the best snog of her life she really wasn’t sure what was going on. Just as she was beginning to kiss him back he broke the kiss and clamoured out of the room as if the hounds of hell were after him.

Lia’s hand went to her lips and she felt how swollen they were. Had that just happened?