Covalent Bonds Read online

  Covalent Bonds

  Covalent bonds aren’t just about atoms sharing electron pairs anymore—it’s about the electricity that happens when you pair two geeks together. This anthology celebrates geeks of all kinds (enthusiasts, be it for comics, Dr. Who, movies, gaming, computers, or even grammar), and allows them to step out of their traditional supporting roles and into the shoes of the romantic lead. Forget the old stereotypes: geeks are sexy.

  Featuring nine stories ranging from sweet to hot, by authors G.G. Andrew, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, Tellulah Darling, Mara Malins, Jeremiah Murphy, Marie Piper, Charlotte M. Ray, Wendy Sparrow, and Cori Vidae, Covalent Bonds is a chance for geeks get their noses out of the books, and instead to be the book.

  Praise for Covalent Bonds

  “…those who appreciate both [science fiction and romance] will find this a rare chance to enjoy two of their favorite subjects in one fun collection.”

  —Publisher’s Weekly

  “Romance? Geekiness? Yes, please! I was very excited to get my grubby mits on this one. It didn’t disappoint. The stories range from sweet to steamy, and cover a wide array of geekery… it drives home the point that I have known all along: Nerds are sexy, ya’ll!”

  —Em Shotwell, author of Blackbird Summer

  “Very geek chic, Covalent Bonds explores a variety of nerdoms and romantic entanglements from horror movies to video games, from innocent to delightfully dirty. I’ll say one thing for misfit men: they sure are full of sexy snark.”

  —Sara Dobie Bauer, author of Bite Somebody

  “Every story in this anthology is well written, and interesting. Each story brings something different to the table, and is full of well-rounded and likeable characters. Some of the stories are pretty steamy, while others are on the sweeter side. As a self-proclaimed geek (and proud of it) I really enjoyed this book.”

  —Hollie Ohs Book Reviews

  Covalent Bonds

  A Red Moon Anthology

  Edited by Trysh Thompson

  World Weaver Press

  Copyright Notice

  No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of World Weaver Press.

  COVALENT BONDS

  Copyright © 2017 Trysh Thompson

  All rights reserved.

  Published by World Weaver Press

  Albuquerque, New Mexico

  www.WorldWeaverPress.com

  Cover layout and design by Sarena Ulibarri

  Cover images used under license from Shutterstock.com and DepositPhotos.com

  First edition: February 2017

  Also available in paperback - ISBN-13: 978-0-997788822

  ASIN (mobi): 2940153537122

  B&N (ePub): 1125098225

  Kobo (ePub): 1230001418309

  This anthology contains works of fiction; all characters and events are either fictitious or used fictitiously.

  Please respect the rights of the authors and the hard work they’ve put into writing and editing the stories of this anthology: Do not copy. Do not distribute. Do not post or share online. If you like this book and want to share it with a friend, please consider buying an additional copy.

  Dedication

  To my geeky other half. Thank you for loving the geek I am and putting up with my crazy self (and for cleaning the house while I meet deadlines).

  Contents

  The Hacked Match

  Wendy Sparrow

  Infiltrate and negotiate. All FBI consultant Aubrey Lowen has to do is covertly get a retired hacker’s attention at a conference, maybe throw a few of her nonexistent feminine wiles at him, and get him to do a little thing for the government—the same type of hack that got him slapped in his heyday. Hah! She is so screwed. Seth Lawrence once had the internet at his feet as Savage Lynx but he won’t pass up the chance to have a sweet geek seduce him into compliance, even if she doesn’t believe she can do it. The toughest hack might be the way into her heart. Time to come out of retirement.

  Issues

  Jeremiah Murphy

  It’s comic convention time, which, for Emma means digging through stacks of comic books and peddling her hopes and dreams as an artist. While there she’ll be able to escape her neighbor’s cheesy pick-up lines and bravado—so she’s less-than-thrilled to run into him, supposedly working. Her biggest problem isn’t that he’s there, but that she just can’t keep her hands off him.

  Addie-cted

  Charlotte M. Ray

  Gaming livestreamer Addie wants only for the marathon-weekend’s raids to go well. However, an important team-member’s graphics card breaks, and the only way to salvage her plans is to invite him over to use her computer.

  What Addie was not prepared for is how Trent makes her feel, and how well their flirtatious online friendship translates to real life. But can she risk her heart—and more—for the man who doesn’t notice her limp and isn’t deterred by her totally un-sexy onesies?

  Spoilers

  Marie Piper

  All Mike wants is to go to the theater and see a classic camp horror movie. He really didn’t ask for much, unless he counted the begging he had to do to get someone to cover his shift, and he didn’t. When the gorgeous redhead in line ahead of him commits a movie sin with her accidental spoilers, he finds himself drawn to her instead of being mad. Could this be a match made in camp horror history?

  Rogue Trip

  Laura VanArendonk Baugh

  Tabletop gamer Cassandra made a promise. A life-or-death dying-wish promise. But a truck’s flat tire three states over is going to make her break it.

  Adam is so very close to achieving game-writing fame and fortune, until a social media rumor threatens to undo all he’s accomplished.

  Their only hope to salvage their separate goals is a mad cross-country race against the clock, driving shifts with the person they both hate most: each other.

  Critical Hit

  Cori Vidae

  Hallie has had a crush on Terrance for months and hasn’t had the courage to do anything about it but at last she has a plan. Can a very special game of Dungeons and Dragons empower Hallie’s character to do what she hasn’t the courage for?

  Classification of Nerd

  Mara Malins

  After a bitter divorce, Emily tries to regain her independence and release her inner geek by working for gaming company, Tester.com. But when her new boss Jack takes an instant dislike to her, Emily is both frustrated and relieved. Her plan to keep him at a distance is thwarted when they are both sent on a work trip together, a trip where Emily learns the difference between nerd and geek.

  Better Than Chocolate

  Tellulah Darling

  Sadie Lipovsky wants to jettison her ex into deep space and eat her body weight in chocolate, but a clash over M&M’s with a former high school bad boy leaves her frustrated in more ways than one. Niccolò Rossi wants to escape his travesty of a night but this mouthy geek girl is screwing up his peaceful equilibrium. Despite Sadie’s and Nic’s sparks, their judgmental assumptions and the mother of all thwarted hook-ups may make this a night to remember in all the worst ways.

  Or it might be the sweetest thing to ever hit them.

  Girl Meets Grammarian

  G.G. Andrew

  Poet Eliza Stein is trying to establish herself as a new professor at a prestigious university. But when she meets and quarrels with the older Dr. Kunal Narang over sentence diagramming, she realizes it’s going to be more difficult to stake out her place than she expected. If only Kunal wasn’t so infuriating, so infuriatingly charmi
ng—or so good with his hands.

  Covalent Bonds

  The Hacked Match

  Wendy Sparrow

  Chapter One

  Aubrey tapped the solar-powered Jack Skellington bobble head, making him nod. If she was closer to anything resembling a window in this building, the thing would be nodding like she did during meetings with her boss. As it was, the few chin dips it managed alarmed her—the archaic fluorescent lighting was probably giving her a tumor or would eventually make her eyeballs bleed. On migraine days, she wore shades inside, even if she got teased for attempting a Men in Black look.

  “Lowen!” her boss bellowed, sticking his head out of his office. “I need you. In here.”

  She blinked. He needed her? Why didn’t he just email her? She pushed to her feet, trying to calm the fluttering of her heart. Be cool. Be cool.

  The truth was that her boss, Carter Wilson, intimidated her. Anyone visualizing an FBI agent would picture her boss. Her flats sounded like sandpaper as she shuffled toward his office, dragging her feet slightly. Shoosh. Shoosh. Shoosh. Aubrey picked up her feet, striving for a more commanding walk.

  He was waiting behind his desk and nodded toward a chair in front of him with a “shut the door.”

  Swallowing, she shut the door. This was serious. The chair squeaked and slid as she dropped into it. Clearing her throat, she sat ramrod straight.

  Agent Wilson leaned forward. “What I’m about to say doesn’t leave this room.”

  Her eyes widened. Holy freak! She inhaled a shaky breath. “Okay.”

  “Your government needs you, Ms. Lowen.” His sharp eyes softened. “Aubrey.”

  “But I’m just a consultant.” She couldn’t pass the agency’s Physical Fitness Test because of her asthma. If they’d let her swim the distance, she would kick ass on it. Though most chases didn’t take place in water. Besides, she’d much prefer to be working here in the office due to her kick-ass brain anyway.

  “You’re the perfect person for the job.” He pulled a photo from a file and dropped it on the desk facedown. He cleared his throat. “I need a single female in her twenties with a history as what one might call a ‘geek.’”

  She shrugged. “Well, so far, you’ve got the right person. But if you need that person to shoot a gun or chase a fugitive…”

  He shook his head. “It’s nothing like that.” He flipped the picture over. “Recognize this guy?”

  Her mouth went dry as her eyes widened. If only… He was hot in a chiseled sort of way. His jaw and body looked like it’d been carved from granite, and the three-piece suit couldn’t hide that. The glare he’d aimed at the camera didn’t detract from his appeal. Hell, it added to it. He looked like a warrior. Actually, he looked like Link from The Legend of Zelda… only all grown up—and pissed for chasing the same girl and going on pointless quests. “No. Should I? Is he like a hit man for the mob or something?” He could be that. He could just as easily fit in Assassin’s Creed.

  Her boss smiled. “No. Not at all. This is Seth Lawrence. You probably know him better as Savage Lynx.”

  Oh, now he was really hot. “That’s Savage Lynx? The Savage Lynx!”

  He nodded. “Of course he hasn’t gone by that for well over a decade.”

  Whoa. The Savage Lynx. Right there. “You know, no one knows the number of sites he actually hacked and didn’t claim. But everyone suspects he shut some nasty backdoors for the Department of Defense and other government agencies. And, for that, he got slapped with six years on probation?”

  Carter shrugged. “He did hack into places and break laws. And it was dropped to four years for good behavior.”

  “But he also helped. He actually helped us—the good guys. Before and after he was caught.”

  “Which kept him out of jail.”

  She sighed. “He wouldn’t have even been caught if his girlfriend hadn’t turned him in after she’d copied files from his hard drive.”

  Her boss smiled. “You sound like you’re on his side.”

  “Four years with no computer, no phone, and no internet for a guy like him? You might as well have cut off an arm. Or both arms and a leg.” Okay, so she was on his side. It was probably inappropriate to admit it though. Aubrey swallowed. “Wait, if he’s back into hacking, you’re going to need a lot more than me to take him down.”

  Carter shook his head. “He was never completely out of it, but he does computer security now. He’s made a fortune at it because he’s got the credentials due to his notoriety. So, to some extent, he owes us.”

  Aubrey snorted before she could stop it. “I bet he doesn’t see it that way.”

  “That’s where you come in.” Her boss sat back in his chair and gave her a shrewd look.

  She squirmed under his perusal and her face flushed hot.

  “We need you to convince him to help us get into the network of a company specializing in weapons systems and poke around.”

  “What makes you think he can get in?”

  “He did before.” Her boss grinned. “That’s what we busted him for.”

  She closed her eyes. This was so bad. So very bad. With a deep breath, she opened them. “You want him to get into a network that he got years of probation for breaking into last time?”

  Shrugging, her boss slumped in his chair. “Power shifts. Allegiances change. We suspect someone near the top is leaking information to outside parties.”

  “So, why don’t you just go to him and ask him?”

  “We thought it’d be easier to get his assistance if we had someone he already knew ask… nicely.”

  She blinked and waited for him to go on. Finally, she said, “So do that.”

  “We’re trying. That’s why we need you.” He flipped open the file and slid it toward her. “He’s going to be at a small convention for computer security in Las Vegas this weekend as a guest speaker, and he’s agreed to do some one-on-one consulting.” He pulled two papers out of the file. “I got you a fifteen minute consult. Here’s the problem you want him to consult on.”

  She was already shaking her head. “I’m not a field agent.”

  “You don’t need to be. You get to be yourself. This is even a legitimate problem.” He pointed at the papers. “We need to update this system but the program is giving us fits on making it secure for outside users.”

  She didn’t stop shaking her head. “But that’s not what you want me to do. Why not just hire him for that problem and then get his help on the other problem?”

  “It’ll sound better coming from you. You go in. You go to his lectures. Fangirl him a little during the consult. You’re staying in the same hotel. I even got you the next room over from him. Maybe you bump into him in the hallway. Find a way to mention you live in the Bay Area too. Bam. You’re in like Flynn.”

  She winced. This was awful. Then, she narrowed her eyes. “In like Flynn?”

  Her boss smiled. “This will work.”

  She went back to shaking her head. “It won’t. It can’t. You don’t understand—I don’t date. I’m bad at it. I’m too shy and guys think I’m a huge nerd.”

  Carter gestured down at the file on his desk. “That’s the beauty of it. He is too! You’re exactly his type.”

  Aubrey slumped in her seat. Right. A guy like that was dying to spend time with a quiet brunette who spent her Friday nights watching Firefly over and over again. This was going to blow. “I’m taking my lucky Mal Pop! figure.”

  “I don’t know what that means, but he probably is too.”

  Chapter Two

  If there was a plausible reason to have the woman on the second row kicked out of the meeting room, he might have considered it. He could make a case for her being disruptive… but only to himself… and through no fault of her own. Well, she was staring at him, but, aside from that, she was simply sitting there.

  This particular panel had drawn ninety-five percent males. She was the only woman in the room and she was looking at him as if he’d hung the moon and like sh
e really wanted to know how he’d done it. He wasn’t used to being regarded by a woman with something almost resembling hero worship. The only time she wasn’t watching him, she was taking notes. She was even taking notes! He couldn’t have her thrown out. It was all he could do to not look directly at her. Why was she watching him?

  The panel’s moderator leaned over and nudged him. Again. “Uhh, Seth?”

  He blinked. “I’m sorry. What was the question?”

  Ignoring the quiet chuckling, he focused on the question with a quick glance at the clock. Ten more minutes. Answer the question, Seth, and ignore the girl. She probably wasn’t his type anyway. Hot didn’t go for him.

  Suddenly, her head snapped to the side and focused on another presenter who’d said… something… about something. He really ought to be paying attention. Her hand shot up with such vehemence that she startled the guys on either side of her. Everyone already seemed aware of her presence but now they were as focused on her as he was.

  “Yes?” The moderator pointed at her.

  “Wouldn’t you be able to leverage that to create a buffer overflow? They’d be leaving themselves stupidly vulnerable and bam! You’re in like Flynn.” She blinked and bit her lip before clearing her throat. “I mean, someone could get in.”

  All eyes turned to the panelist who’d last spoken, including Seth’s. What had the guy said? And why had the woman in the second row become exponentially hotter? She was not only paying attention, but she’d asked a valid question if the thoughtful silence in the room was anything to go on, and in a voice that was deeper than he’d expected her to have. Why couldn’t she have a high, tinny, annoying voice?

  The other panelist stammered but recovered enough to answer her question. Poorly.

  The guy beside the moderator covered his mic and whispered, “Who is she?”