Where The Ice Gives Way (Charlotte and Blake) novel Chapter 179

Where The Ice Gives Way

Chapter 179 I Will Wait a Lifetime

Theo

Theo. Theo. Theoooooooooooo. Theo!

I blink awake with Blake’s voice yelling through my skull and a heavy, obsessive knocking rattling against the hotel room door. The room is dim behind the curtains, and the knocking just keeps on going.

What? I grumble through the link, and the knocking stops.

Oh good, you’re awake, Blake answers, sounding far too lively for someone who definitely spent the night tangled with his mate. Breakfast

in ten. Get up.

I shove my face deeper into the pillow and close my eyes.

Is Emily okay?

My eyes open again as reality crashes down on me. I am not alone. I realise now that Emily is tucked against me, her back pressed completely to my front. One of my arms is curled around her waist, and her hand is resting over my wrist. Her long brown hair is loose across the pillow, and my face is all but buried in it, surrounded by that soft sunflower scent.

Theo? Blake asks again, a little more impatient now.

Yeah, I answer quickly, trying not to move, trying not to breathe too hard, trying not to wake her. Yeah. She’s good. All good. We’ll be down

at breakfast soon.

Then Blake says, If she needs anything, tell Charlotte.

I know.

And Theo?

Yeah?

Don’t be stupid.

I stare at the ceiling. Fair enough.

Clearly, at some point during the show we binge–watched, we fell asleep. At some point after that, she moved, or I moved, or we both moved, and the bond did what the bond does. Either way, here we are…Cuddling. I let myself have one second. Just one. I let my body relax around hers and commit the feeling to memory. The soft weight of her against me. The warmth of her hand over my wrist. The steady rise and fall of her breathing. The way Yelen lies silent inside me, utterly still, as if even he knows this is too precious to disturb.

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15:13 Mon, Jul 13

Chapter 179 I Will Wait a Lifetime

That was the best sleep of my life. The best way to wake up. I want this. Always.

Not only the bed or the warmth or the way she fits against me, but the quiet trust of it. The peace of waking with her close and knowing she stayed through the night. Knowing some part of her felt safe enough to sleep this deeply beside me. But I want it willingly. I want her to choose this. I want Emily to choose me with her eyes open, with all her memories, fears, and broken pieces. I would wait a lifetime for that, if that is what she needs.

Slowly, carefully, I ease my arm away from her waist. Emily makes a sleepy sound, and every muscle in my body locks. I would rather tear off my own skin than be the thing that scares her awake. She settles again, and I release a breath. Then I roll out of bed as quietly as possible and sit on the edge with my feet on the carpet, rubbing both hands down my face. I stand, stretching my shoulders, and turn back toward the bed. Emily is awake. How long has she been awake?

She lies on her side, hair messy around her face, one cheek pressed to the pillow, watching me with soft, sleepy eyes. Shit. Is she going to panic? Then she yawns and stretches her arms above her head like a cat.

“Charlotte is softly yelling at me in my head to wake up,” she says.

My chest loosens so bloody hard I laugh. “Blake went with the less soft option.”

Her mouth curves as she sits up slowly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“I slept really well,” she says quietly and heat crawls up my neck.

“Yeah? Good. Yeah…” Nice words, human. Yelen says sarcastically.

She laughs under her breath and climbs out of bed, crossing to her suitcase. She pulls out soft green pants and a grey hoodie, then turns toward me with her clothes gathered in her arms.

“Did you want the shower this morning?”

My brain chooses that moment to remember she is about to change.

“Yeah,” I say, too fast. “Yeah, probably should.”

She nods and steps back from her suitcase, giving me room, and I grab clothes from my own bag. I make it into the bathroom, and the second the door closes behind me, I lean back against it and tip my head to the wall.

I close my eyes. My hand still remembers the warmth of her waist beneath it. My chest still feels shaped around the space where she slept against me. Yelen presses quietly inside me, no jokes now, no dramatic demands, just a deep, steady certainty. Mate.

I let out a slow breath. “I will wait a lifetime,” I whisper to myself.

Then I turn on the shower and step under the water before my heart can climb out of my ribs and embarrass us both.

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15:13 Mon, Jul 13

Chapter 179 I Will Wait a Lifetime

When I come back out, dressed and slightly more human, Emily is sitting on the edge of the bed with her sunflower gloves beside her and her hair brushed over one shoulder. “Do you think breakfast will have pancakes?” she asks.

1 blink and fight to ignore Yelen, who wants to demand they make pancakes even if they don’t normally. “If this hotel has any sense, yes.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“Then we riot.”

Her eyebrows lift. “We?”

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