Conquered Bride (Belaya Bratva 1)

CHAPTER 31

Naomi

I leaned over the toilet bowl again, nausea churning in my gut. Gavril hadn’t been gone long, and I had wanted to lounge in bed until he came back. But the impending need to puke up my guts had gotten me out of bed in a hurry.

But nothing would come, and it was highly annoying.

Sliding back on the floor, I pressed my hand to my forehead, searching for a fever of some kind that would explain my nausea. Maybe it was the stomach virus. After all, I had done nothing but eat since we had come back from Russia.

Maybe I’d picked up something in Russia? I’d heard that it was possible, even with the finest foods. The body just needed time to adjust.

I rubbed a hand over my face. I didn’t feel odd other than the nausea, and nothing on my body was falling off, so I didn’t think it was something that I ate.

That only left one thing.

Quickly, I tried to calculate the last time I had my period and couldn’t come up with the date at all. Had it been before the wedding?

Realization slapped me in the face like a bolt of lightning.

Oh God. What if I was pregnant? Gavril and I certainly had been having enough sex to make it happen this quickly. He had been adamant that there be no protection used. And he certainly made it a point to never pull out.

My hand strayed to my stomach, and I felt nothing different there, but one look in the mirror and I realized that what I had seen on the plane wasn’t just lust.

My breasts were bigger. My hair looked fuller. And my skin had a glow to it that I had mistaken for a lustful blush.

Oh God.

That would explain the eating and nausea, the almost excessive emotions that had flashed through me over the last few weeks. I had chalked it all up to exhaustion and stress. But maybe…

There was only one way for me to find out.

I picked myself off the floor and dressed quickly, making sure I was presentable before walking downstairs for the first time in three days. While I should have felt embarrassed about the sex fest that had been going on upstairs, I wasn’t. It had been nice to see Gavril laugh, grin, and just be himself. We had watched movies and eaten like pigs, and only a few times had he checked his phone, firing off a few texts before coming right back to me.

As for me…Well, I didn’t know what to think, really. It was a new side of him that I liked a lot, maybe even loved more.

Vera met me in the hallway, and I tried not to shy back from her as she did so. This woman could be perfect for the FBI with the way she always seemed to be everywhere at once.

“I need something,” I told her, giving her a little smile.

“Of course, mistress,” she stated in her same bored tone. “What is it that you require?”

I tucked my hair behind my ear, a dull flush coming over my face. “I need a pregnancy test.”

Vera’s eyes widened just a hair before flickering down to my stomach. “Well.”

I looked around, hoping that no one else was around for this conversation. “Please. I would like to keep this quiet.”

She gave me a quick nod, her normally hard gaze softening just a hair. “I will go get it myself. Do you need something for the nausea too?”

“Is it that obvious?” I asked.

To my surprise, she actually smiled. “I will also pick up some saltines and ginger ale for you just in case.”

I was shocked, and it took me a few moments to recover. “Thank you, Vera. That is very nice of you.”

The smile disappeared and she walked off before I could say anything else, leaving me standing in the hallway. Not quite a breakthrough with the hard-nosed woman, but something had happened between us, and I had very little concern about her saying anything about my request either.

Half an hour later, she returned. I took the paper bag from her and raced upstairs to the bathroom, finding that she had bought me a variety of tests for me to choose from.

Just to be sure.

I chose the one that would give out the words instead of those stupid lines, and once I was finished, I laid it on the counter, my arms wrapped around my waist while I waited.

If I was pregnant, then Gavril would be ecstatic. After all, that was why he had married me in the first place.

But what would that mean about our relationship? I felt like we had turned a corner over the last few days, and he was letting me in.

But the pregnancy would force us to take three steps back.