Page 60 of The Mobster's Mate

After rousing Caden from where he’d fallen asleep on his desk the night before, they’d stumbled up to bed together and fallen asleep. Everything had seemed so perfect.

But when Caden had woken up and reached for his mate, the other side of the bed had been cold.

It wasn’t completely unheard of for Quinten to get up without waking him, though he usually did when he gave him a kiss before heading down to his office, and Caden just fell back to sleep after.

Ignoring the stone growing in his gut, he’d gone down to find Quinten wasn’t actually in the house. Nero had told him that he and Dare had gone to meet with someone and would be back later.

It had been harder to ignore the pitying look on the vampire’s face.

Well after he’d eaten dinner alone, Robbie still off having fun with his friends, Quinten finally came home, but he’d brushed Caden off, heading into his office with his phone pressed to his ear.

Caden had stared after him, heart in his stomach.

An hour ago, Nero had found him in the library and told him he needed to pack. He’d smiled, calling it a surprise trip to see Quinten’s brother, but there had been a sour edge of dishonesty in his scent.

But when he’d gotten into the SUV and found Quinten, he’d asked where they were going, and he’d said the same thing: “Going to see my brother. You’ll like him.”

There had been no lie in his scent or heartbeat, so Caden had told himself he’d imagined it with Nero. Except… Quinten hadn’t said much else to him during the ride to the private airfield, and when he’d asked Nero how long they’d be gone for, Nero had looked away and told him he wasn’t sure. To just pack everything he had.

Everything he had. For a last-minute, surprise trip to Kansas to visit Quinten’s brother.

Nope, nothing disconcerting about that at all.

The fact that Quinten had been in the car when Caden had climbed inside had been a little bit of a surprise, and he felt terrible about it. He’d had himself convinced that Quinten had gotten so freaked-out by what Caden had said the night before that he was shipping him off somewhere.

He’d been ridiculously relieved to see him sitting there in his pristine suit, salt-and-pepper hair neat and pushed back from his face.

Of course, he wasn’t going to just ship him off.

Sure, Quentin hadn’t said he loved him back, but he’d called Caden his. He’d called him his and bitten him right where a shifter would to bond them together. That had to mean something.

Maybe it was too fast by human standards, and he wasn’t ready to say it back, but Caden knew Quinten cared about him. Things had been incredible between them the last couple of weeks.

And yet… Quinten wouldn’t even look at him now.

Yeah, he’d definitely fucked things up. He just hoped Quinten would get over his freak-out soon.

He chanced another quick glance over at Quentin. If he was… done with Caden, would he be taking a trip with him, introducing him to his family?

Maybe he just didn’t know how to express his feelings. He’d overheard him tell his brother that he loved him, but he’d known Liam since he was a child. Maybe he didn’t know how to tell a partner.

They both knew of plenty of mate pairings that were made up of parahumans and humans, so he couldn’t imagine that was the issue. And they’d gotten past the whole “taking advantage” thing weeks ago.

They’d been happy.

He was sure of it.

When Quentin had gone into the city the week before, he’d come back less than thirty-six hours after he left. Yet when he’d come into their bedroom, he’d been ravenous, grabbing ahold of Caden and kissing him like they’d been separated for months and not hours.

He couldn’t imagine how that didn’t mean what he thought it meant.

Quinten would figure out they were made for one another. He just needed to be patient.

The private airfield was small, with only a couple of hangars, and there didn’t seem to be anybody else around. As they pulled up to a waiting jet, their driver, Alan, stepped out of the SUV, going around toward the back.

Caden put his hand on the door handle, prepared to exit as well, but Quentin hadn’t moved. Dare was in the front passenger seat, and he glanced back for a second, but he didn’t say anything before climbing out.

Frustrated, Caden said, “Are you going to stare at your phone this whole trip, or will I be getting the pleasure of your company at some point?”

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