Royal Runaway Bride (Royal Matchmaker Book 3) by Mckenna James

Author:Mckenna James [James, Mckenna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-11-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

ARIANA

I don’t see much of Damien for the entire week. He’s too busy conducting thorough interviews with every single member of the palace’s staff. It’s effectively a manhunt, though I’m not sure if Damien knows exactly who he’s looking for.

When I do see him, he’s increasingly irritable.

Much to my surprise, it’s never with me.

It’s with the chef who’s prepared my food for forgetting to have a tester eat it first. Or one of my lady’s maids for carelessly leaving my things out that I could trip over. Or with Larry for accidentally messing up the schedule and leaving a ten minute window where I’m totally unattended by a guard, even though I was in the bathroom so it really didn’t matter much.

Damien’s actually been surprisingly sweet. It stands in stark contrast to how he’d been behaving before. There’s still space between us, but when we’re in the room together, I get the sense that he wants to stay. We chit-chat about little things. The weather. How our morning rides were. If dinner the day before was to each other’s liking. It might not seem like a big deal to some, but it is to me.

I don’t know whether that’s sad or not.

I choose not to dwell on it.

It’s a brisk Sunday morning. The sun is just peeking up over the horizon, spilling orange and pink against the calm skies. There are still a few stars in view, and the moon is a tiny silver crescent above us, slowly fading from view as the sun outshines it. I’m normally never up this early, but my internal clock has me up and wide awake.

That, and my stomach feels iffy as hell.

It feels simultaneously full and empty. Queasy. Like I’ve just stepped off the bow of a rocking ship, and now I have to grow accustomed to being on dry land. Everything feels off, but I can’t explain it. I’m warm, but not feverish. I’m bloated, but I haven’t eaten anything yet. My body feels heavy, but I’m not exhausted.

A wave of nausea smacks me right across the back of the head.

I rush to the bathroom and hurl.

My stomach is empty, but I don’t feel the slightest bit better. It’s an awful feeling, but it doesn’t stop. There’s a pressure in my head, a sinking feeling in my gut. I’m OK, but I’m most certainly not OK. I’m stuck in an in-between again, knowing that I’m perfectly healthy, and yet unable to come up with an explanation as to why I’m about to hurl again.

As I sit on the cold tile of the bathroom floor, arms wrapped around the toilet bowl like it’s a life preserver, a sudden thought occurs to me. I do some mental math. If my calculations are correct, I could be…

What if I’m pregnant?

My cycles have always been really irregular, which is why the thought hadn’t occurred to me sooner. Even more so since all of the stress I’ve been under as of late. I didn’t think twice when I was late by a couple of days.

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