NaomiI couldn’t help it. When he made reference to me being his wife, it did something to me. There was no one around right now, no reason for him to pretend, but I felt like Gavril was looking at me as Naomi, not Sveta, and that thrilled me to no end.After weeks of him being cold and distant, I didn’t feel it right now. He was warm, teasing even. And I wanted to freeze time for moments like this.Gavril’s lips were on my neck, lightly sucking on the sensitive spot right below my ear, and I shivered. “You like that,” he murmured against my skin, his hand now flattened against my side. “Don’t you?”I played with the slightly curling ends of his hair at the nape of his neck, angling my neck to give him better access. “I like a lot of things you do, Mr. Kirilenko.”His hand roamed up my side underneath my shirt, finding the lace edging of my bra. “Do you now?” he asked. “Care to share?”I gasped as his hand moved to the front of my chest, cupping my breast. “How about I tell you when y

NaomiI 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

NaomiMoments beforeThe car moved quickly through the streets, and I tried to tamp down the excitement that had been building inside me since I climbed in. I still couldn’t believe that I was pregnant. I knew it was the plan all along. But now that it was here and real, I really didn’t know what to do or say about it.One thing was for sure: I wanted it to be a happy occasion, to see Gavril’s face light up because I was carrying his child and not because the last piece of his plan had clicked into place.Biting my lower lip, I let my hand rest on my still-flat stomach as I mulled over the reaction I thought that Gavril might have. After the last few days, I hoped that he would pick me up in his arms and tell me that he was happy, that I had made him happy with the news.Then we could go back to the mansion and celebrate together, maybe with a nice dinner and plans for what was to come.The problem was, I couldn’t picture any of it. Somehow, fear started to take the place of my happin

JonI tacked up the photos I had taken earlier and then stood back to admire my masterpiece. Before me was a careful catalog of what I liked to call Naomi’s wall, years in the making. Every movement she’d ever made in the last year was up there. The places she liked to eat. The clubs she frequented. The paths she took day in and day out. When she went to the gym. Where she went to the gym.Everything.It turned out that my quiet, submissive Naomi was quite the popular person when it came to places I thought she had given up, places that I had scoured for months after our breakup, only to find her nowhere to be found. She hid from me, kept her distance, and whenever I got too close, I was forced to back off because she threw herself into the wind again.Every time she did, I would spend months tracking her down. Why she ran, I didn’t know. It did her no good whatsoever.I always found her and always would.Scratching my chin, I turned my attention back to the photos on the wall, each c

GavrilI speared the asparagus on my plate with my fork and broke off the head, popping it into my mouth. The rich flavors burst on my tongue and I chewed slowly, savoring every bite of my victory dinner.At least that was what I thought of it as. Today had been a big step in the right direction. I was on the right track. All my plans, all my actions up until this moment, were paying off, and while I reveled in my successes, I was cautiously waiting for the other shoe to drop. One did not have success in one area without things falling apart in another.In my line of business, things could turn on their head in an instant.For now, I felt like the merger had been successful. The brigadiers seemed satisfied for now with the shipments. And though I knew some were skeptical that I could lead them, it was only a matter of time before they realized I was stronger than Orlov ever hoped to be.I wasn’t one who lived in the past, who relied on old-world connections to reach my goals.I was fu