Page 116 of Emerald Vices

Unfortunately, Shura doesn’t seem to have reached the same conclusion.

“Katya, I know you feel you need to do this for Nat’s sake, but trust me: she wouldn’t want you putting yourself in this position for her.” He gets on one knee in front of her and grabs her hands. “Please, I’m begging you—this has gone on long enough. You need to get out while you still can.”

There’s a beat of silence.

Then: “Okay.”

Shura’s jaw drops. “E-excuse me?”

Another tear falls down Katya’s cheek. She turns to me. “Andrey, I think it’s best for me to get out now. Is that okay?”

I can only nod. “Yes. Especially now.”

Shura turns to me with a frown. “What does that mean? ‘Especially now’?”

Katya touches his face, drawing his eyes back to her. “Shura… I’m pregnant.”

If the man wasn’t already on his knees, he would be now. He’s speechless.

“Things have been so hectic lately that I didn’t even notice that my period was late. But then the last few days… the morning sickness…”

His jaw tightens. “Is it?—”

“If you ask me if the baby is yours, I will kick you in the nuts so hard that this will be your first and last child. Do you understand me, Shura Federov?”

A dumbfounded smile spreads slowly across his lips. He rises, grabs Kat with a hand on either side of her face, and smashes his lips against hers.

I turn away to give them some privacy.

“Idiot,” Kat murmurs through a bubble of laughter.

Shura hugs her close, grinning like a fool over the top of her head.

But the second his eyes meet mine, his smile melts away. His eyes are cold and hard. “I’m going to be a father, ‘Drey. I’m going to… Fuck. We have to end this,” he breathes. “For all of our children.”

49

NATALIA

“I cannot wait for my doctor’s appointment.”

“That’s not something I ever thought I’d hear from you,” Kat teases.

I pull myself out of the pool and slip onto the empty chair between the girls. “It’s been six weeks and this might be the day I get cleared to start working out as normal.”

“Oh. Of course. ‘Working out.’” Kat bites back a giggle as she nods not-at-all seriously. “I know how serious you are about working out.”

Mila cackles. “Yes, I too get excited about healthy, vigorous physical exercise. Preferably of the horizontal variety.”

“That’s not what I meant, assholes.” As both my friends throw me skeptical glares, I toss my hands up. “Oh, alright—that is what I meant. It’s been almost two months of no sex and I’m ready?—”

“To get plowed?” Katya offers.

“For the no-pants dance?”

I wrinkle my nose. “Crude, but… not inaccurate.”

I felt ready to go a couple weeks ago, but Andrey is a stickler for the rules where my health is concerned. He won’t lay a finger on me until the doctor gives us the green light. His concern for me was touching at first, but now, I’d prefer a very different kind of touching.

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