Captive Mate BL-Chapter 534: + - +

Silvia returned to Angelo’s room after getting ready. She hoped he was awake because she would hate to have to wake him up if he wasn’t.

She poked her head into his room like she often did, only to find him stepping out of the bathroom, wrapped up in a bathrobe.

"Good thing you’re up," She smiled, stepping fully into his room.

Angelo paused and stared blankly at Silvia. If her face weren’t so familiar to him at that point, he wouldn’t have recognized her.

"What happened to you?" He had to ask, with genuine concern in his tone.

Silvia glanced down at her outfit, frowning slightly. "It doesn’t look nice?"

"You look like you’re about to go pick your kids up."

Silvia snorted at Angelo’s description, "Dinner with Asher is in a few hours. I wanted to be on my best behaviour." She explained shortly, "That’s why I came over, can you get dressed in half an hour?"

"I can," Angelo agreed easily, heading to his wardrobe.

"Great, I’ll go get the car ready," Silvia said over her shoulder, already heading out.

Angelo glanced over, watching her leave, he couldn’t help but think that Silvia was uncharacteristically nervous about dinner.

He peered into his wardrobe, wondering what to wear. He had never been invited to dinner before, even if his first dinner was with a Mafia King.

He instinctively followed in Silvia’s footsteps, she had worn light blue jeans and a thin sweater in pale pink. He hadn’t even known that she had those colors in her wardrobe.

His colors weren’t as light, he wore one of the dark colored sweaters Silvia got him, it was what he wore almost all the time. He didn’t think he had any jeans, and it was no surprise that he didn’t.

He wore a dark green sweater and black tactical pants, wandering out of his room to search for Silvia with a hairbrush in his hand. Having to deal with his hair day after day got tiring, but Silvia was delighted helping him to brush his hair, so he took advantage of that often.

He found her in the living room with her secretary, who stayed out of sight even though he lived in the house as well.

Silvia turned to him with a smile when he stepped in, "Done already, Angelo? That was quick."

Cain quickly made himself scarce as soon as he appeared, sparking Angelo’s curiosity.

"Cain isn’t coming along?" He asked as he walked closer, noting for the first time that Silvia had even tamed her wild hair into a delicate knot.

"Caspian doesn’t have a very family-friendly image of him, it’s better if he doesn’t." She muttered sheepishly, taking the hairbrush that was wordlessly offered to her.

She guided Angelo to take a seat, "He also doesn’t like lateness to dinner, so it wouldn’t hurt to go earlier."

Angelo looked over his shoulder at Silvia, who was concentrated on brushing his dark hair. "You look nervous."

Silvia flinched, an unnatural smile on her face. "Do I?"

Angelo didn’t give a response, lost in thought. Having dinner with a Mafia King and his mate unwittingly made him think about Nikolai, well, if he was being honest, everything made him think of Nikolai.

"All done," Silvia said a short while later with a gentle pat on his hair.

Angelo placed a hand on his hair, noting the meticulous braid that Silvia had done for him. These days, he usually brushed out his hair and ignored it, it didn’t matter if he went through the trouble of putting it in a braid, there was no one to constantly undo it and get on his nerves.

"Thanks." He murmured, getting to his feet and following after Silvia, who headed for the door.

-+-

Jael poked his head into Patty’s study, a hopeful expression in his dark eyes. "You didn’t happen to keep any mini tacos for me, did you?"

Patty shot him a look over her laptop, looking completely unsurprised by this outcome. "There’s some in that basket," She directed him to a harmless-looking, little picnic basket on a shelf."

The kitchen’s bias towards Rosie was pretty obvious, she knew that as soon as her friend showed up, Katya would take the lead in offering her every snack and treat available.

"I owe you one," Jael said with a grin, going to rifle through the basket. "Still busy?" He walked closer to peer over her shoulder, stuffing an entire mini taco in his mouth.

Patty had worn a focused expression, but when Jael looked at her laptop screen, a colorful puzzle game was spread out instead of spreadsheets and records.

"Seems like you are," Jael answered his own question, nodding seriously.

"Want to play?" Patty offered with a smile.

"Move over," Jael accepted, keeping his basket of tacos close.

He barely got started on the game before a head full of fiery head was poking through the door, Rosie eyeing them both with suspicion.

"What are the two of you scheming?" She accused.

"I’m helping Patty balance books," Jael lied with ease, well on his way to beating her high score.

So Patty wore a dark expression, starting to regret asking Jael to play for a bit.

"Oh," Rosie murmured, believing them. "That’s boring, I’m going to rifle through the fridge."

Patty glared daggers at Jael as he easily beat her high score and kept playing, making mental notes not to hide food for him anymore.

Rosie was back in no time, wearing a crushed expression. "Caspian found me," She reported, trudging in. "He said I shouldn’t snack before dinner," She kept mumbling as she approached, "He didn’t understand when I told him those are two separate things..."

She trailed off when she got close enough to see what Jael and Patty were so focused on, her sadness morphing into betrayal and surprise. "You were scheming!" She announced her disbelief.

While Rosie was distracted by the game on the laptop, Jael shoved the last of the taco into his mouth, losing his lengthy winning streak.

"I want to play too," Rosie pouted, wedging herself between them, forcing the three of them to share two chairs.

Patty wasn’t as open to sharing her game anymore after how far Jael had gotten, but Rosie had already taken control of the laptop. Her reluctance quickly changed into schadenfreude when Rosie failed right off the bat.

She even got up to grab an extra seat so she could comfortably watch Rosie’s losing streak grow almost as long as Jael’s win.