Page 93 of Broken Ice
Emilio wasn’t currently in the kind of physical pain that Beau’s heats wrought, but Beau could only imagine how shaken and desperate and fearful he was without Beau there.
An image of Emilio after that one terrible heat, shaking and clutching Beau after having been forced away, flashed in Beau’s mind. To think that Emilio was feeling anything like that right now—it curdled his stomach.
“I’m okay. Baby, I’m totally safe, okay? I’m gonna book the next flight to Örnsköldsvik.”
There was heavy panting on the other side of the line. “I’m sorry,” Emilio whispered as though this were all his fault. Like he had failed Beau somehow.
“Hey, no—remember, we planned it out? So the plan didn’t work, that’s not your fault. Just—listen to my voice, okay? I’m gonna keep talking while I book this flight.”
Beau dictated what he was doing in the calmest voice he could manage. The next flight was at 1:30pm, which wasn’t too bad. The plane went to Umeå, which was about an hour away from Örnsköldsvik.
“Okay, the train to Örnsköldsvik is like one hour, so…oh, but the layover from landing to when the train leaves is two and a half hours. I’ll rent a car instead, okay? I’ll be there in a flash.” More like in seventeen hours if everything went perfectly, but he wasn’t going to say that out loud.
“Beau,” Emilio said desperately, and Beau wanted to rip his skin off, wanted to explode in billions of little pieces and transport himself to Emilio’s side.
“I’m okay. Lie down, babe, okay? I’m gonna keep talking to you the whole way. I’m right there with you. Be good and trust me, okay?”
Emilio’s breath evened out somewhat. Beau counted it as a win.
They stayed on the phone as long as possible, Beau assuring Emilio that everything was going to be fine as the plane started taking off.
“Trust me, okay? That’s all you’ve got to do. You just have to trust me.”
“Okay,” Emilio said, voice shuddering. “Okay.”
The Internet onboard was too shitty to call on WhatsApp, but Beau texted regularly, making sure Emilio didn’t lose his mind or go into shock.
It was torture for Beau, too, imagining Emilio suffering alone, pacing his apartment like a caged animal, every bit of his body and every bit of his soul longing for Beau.
The drive there from Umeå felt excruciatingly long, but he stayed close to the speed limit at Emilio’s insistence. As tired as he was, the last thing he needed was to get into an accident and give Emilio a heart attack.
Beau followed the GPS to a cosy house on a tree-lined road. He turned into the driveway, chest spasming as Emilio flung the front door open and stepped out. He was pale, hair in disarray, shirt off and ratty sweats hanging low on his hips. His bare feet looked achingly vulnerable out there in the open.
Beau stumbled out of the car and into Emilio’s arms, only realising how desperate he’d been to scent him as the musk hit his nose.
Emilio dragged him inside, closing and locking the door. “Are you okay?” he asked frantically, hands patting him down as if searching for an injury.
“I’m okay. Look.” Beau stilled Emilio’s hands in his, pressing them to his cheeks. “Look. I’m okay. I’m safe.”
Emilio made a noise as if he’d just come up for air, a desperate intake of oxygen as he pulled Beau close. “I was…you were…”
“I’m here now,” Beau said, shushing him softly. “I’m here now.”
Emilio sank into Beau’s neck, sliding his nose there as if assuring himself that what Beau said was true.
The first place Emilio guided him to with insistent hands was the kitchen. He gave Beau water fresh from the fridge, watching him drink it like he was supervising the act. He grabbed some provisions and took Beau to the bedroom.
A large, messy bed greeted them. It was covered in sheets and blankets and pillows in an approximation of a nest.
“I didn’t know how…” Emilio made a sound of frustration, and it made Beau ache, the thought of Emilio rearranging materials in an attempt to offer Beau a safe place to lie.
“It’s okay. We can do it together, yeah?”
With the confidence of someone who had made many, many nests in his life, Beau moved things so that the structure was more secure, using his nose to know which scented materials should go where so it flowed well. He instructed Emilio where to put different things, the Alpha obeying eagerly until it was done.
“There. Absolutely perfect,” Beau complimented, and his heart practically stopped as Emilio beamed, the acrid edge to his intense scent dissipating slightly, letting the sun shine through.
Emilio turned that attention to Beau, undressing him with sure hands and then pulling him into the nest.
