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Chapter One

Caleb

Caleb Cohen-Williams was suffocating. Gagging, even. The thick miasma of expensive perfumes and colognes mixed with the fog of artificial social niceties to become a caustic cloud of torture that made him choke. Despite that, he put on his practiced mask of charm and stood solidly beside his husband, champagne flute in hand and crooked smile in place. Fundraising events were diabolical on a good day. The guest list made this one particularly heinous. Fake smiles and sidelong glances followed them through the overly glitzy ballroom as they mingled and conversed with friends . With the exception of a few familiar faces, Caleb used the term friend with as much disenchantment as the entire farce inspired. They'd encountered way too many plastic personalities dressed in Armani and Dior, the luxury brands being the only authentic thing about most of the politicians, donors, and socialites they'd been forced to play nice with.

“Baby doll,” Caleb whispered behind his flute, leaning in closer to be heard. “I'm feeling stabby. Tell me not to get stabby.”

“Dig deeper. Our favorite person is taking the stage soon.” Elias pressed back, his weight and warmth the only thing keeping Caleb’s homicidal rage in check. He emphatically refused to let the evening be ruined. Unfortunately, as President Adelaide Montgomery took the stage in a stunning Dior gown looking all the part of perfect presidential poise, he felt his composure slipping. What he wouldn't give to tar and feather the woman on the spot. Barbaric and messy, but oh so fitting.

With his attention split between the woman he loved to hate and the man he loved to love, Caleb kept his expression unrevealing, even as her speech continued to inspire thoughts of murder in his psyche. The words felt too personal—claims of rising above the in-fighting, assertions of a unified front despite naysayers and those who would doubt her, and thinly-veiled accusations of being blocked by those she thought had her back all caused a tick in his cheek muscles that was mirrored in the tight set of Elias’ deliciously chiseled jawline.

The biggest blow came at the end of her eloquent, pretentious, but admittedly well-written speech. Neither of them were surprised by the announcement, but it still pissed him off to no end. Bedazzled pitchforks danced in his head as the crowd chanted her cursed name and sang her undeserved praises. Adelaide Montgomery intended to run for a second term. Her plea to the Democratic Party for their nomination felt like a slap across the face that Caleb took personally. Addy was a walking disaster in a designer dress. Not only was she a shitty President, but her entire personality was more than a few dollars short of what he would call winning. Add in the dirty laundry behind the scenes and Caleb was seeing red.

“The actual audacity,” he hissed, leaning more of his weight into his partner’s side.

“We knew this was coming.” Elias’ hand slid under the back of Caleb’s tuxedo jacket, pressing firmly against his spine and likely prepared to grab on tight lest Caleb give into the murder-shaped intrusive thoughts.

“It's still a joke. Girly pop is the last person I'd vote for. The absolute last person on earth. God, I want to… to throw something. At her. Preferably something heavy and unbreakable to crush her thick skull.”

“Cay, babe.” Elias leaned down to brush his lips over the whorls of Caleb’s ear. Despite his anger, he shivered top to toe over the contact. Elias would always be his kryptonite. “Please refrain from letting your inside thoughts become outside words when the Secret Service is within earshot.”

“Hmph. I'd bet my entire Marc Jacobs collection that half of them feel the same way. I'm comfortable with those odds.”

“Inside thoughts.” Elias pressed a kiss to Caleb’s temple, doing a poor job of hiding his smile.

“As you wish, Bossman.” Caleb snuck out his hand to goose his husband’s adorable ass. “Be warned; I will have so much frustration to work through later.”

“Christ, Cay. May I remind you how tight you tailored these slacks?”

“An intentional choice. For my pleasure. Yes, I'm self-serving. You love me for it.”

“That I do,” Elias replied with a faint chuckle, his posture still tense but his smile genuine as a friendly face approached through the shark-infested waters of the ballroom venue. “Matt, good to see you. Thank you for the invitation tonight.”

“Elias, Caleb! I'm glad you could make it. I knew it would be a hard sell, but I also know, deep down, politics runs in your veins.” Senator Matthew Dresdon, their closest ally in the Senate, reached out a hand with a brilliant smile. He and Elias shook before the same hand was extended toward Caleb.

“Of course we came. It's like watching a car crash in slow motion—horrific but I am unable to look away.” They shook with a firm grip and shifted positions to look out at the crowds around them while still conversing, a bubble of loyalty amid a bloat of greed and cutthroat arrogance. “Where’s my Cynthia?”

“With her ladies. I lost her before we even crossed the threshold.”

“She does wear the delectably tailored pants in your relationship,” Caleb quipped with a lopsided grin.

“Pot, kettle.” Matthew winked, his elbow nudging Caleb's before he turned his gaze toward Elias. Caleb silently groused over his height making it easy for them to talk right over his head. “So, when are we going to see your name on the nomination ticket, Elias?”

“I don't know, Matt. I'm not convinced yet.”

“Pssh. He's convinced. I did lots of convincing.” Caleb lifted his chin with a smug smirk. “So, so much convincing.”

Elias shot him a warning glance that didn't do a damn thing to lessen the blush on his cheeks or the twitch of a shy smile. Matt’s laugh rang out over the din of the crowd in response.

“Good show. I'm serious. We need people like you in the Castle. We’re going to discuss this. Dinner this weekend at the Maryland house?”

“Sold. Tiny quiches please.” Caleb shifted closer to Elias and looped an arm around his waist. “Incoming, ten o’clock. Remind me to play nice.”

Their close proximity made it easy for Caleb to feel the immediate tension course through his partner’s body. The last thing any of them wanted to do was deal with Adelaide fucking Montgomery’s fake smile for the cameras. Unfortunately, she stalked closer by the second, her too-high heels clicking ominously on the parquet floor with her approach.

“Elias, how wonderful you could make it. I planned on having my office send a message after the event, but it's so much better knowing you were here to hear the announcement in person.” She invaded Elias’ space and brushed her lips over his cheek, a pretend kiss for the sole benefit of the reporters lurking in her shadow. Caleb hated every damn second of it.

“Interesting choice, for sure.” Elias’ voice was just this side of sardonic and inspired a smirk in Caleb.

“How’s the family, Eli?” Adelaide glanced toward Caleb with a faker than fake smile.

“You don't get to ask that.”

Shots fired. Caleb had to work extra, extra hard to refrain from shouting, “Burn!”

“Don't be like that.”

“Except it's exactly like that, Madam President.” Elias’ body was rigid beneath the mask of his tux. With a gentle tug, Caleb pulled him closer and interjected.

“I'm curious to hear your talking points. How much of the campaign promise will you borrow from the original one Elias wrote for you?” Caleb reveled in the brief narrowing of Adelaide’s eyes as she turned her focus toward him.

“You'll have to make a point to tune in for the speeches, Caleb.”

“Mn, yeah. I'll pencil it in. Best of luck, Addy!” He lifted his hand and fluttered his fingertips against the side of his champagne flute. “Excuse us, people to do, things to see, drinks to refill.”

Matt muffled a snicker and Elias fought back a grin as Adelaide schooled the scowl from her expression and put on a winning smile. Naturally, it was just in time to catch the nearest flash of a prime time news reporter’s camera. The perfectly timed picture of fake smiles and the pretense of being unified with the president despite the fact that they were anything but unified made Caleb’s blood boil. Her team had done a brilliant job on the optics—Caleb and Elias’ resignation from the Chief of Staff office was painted as the most amicable parting of the ways, completely glossing over the months of fighting and the complete deterioration of what had once been a close friendship between Addy and Elias. No one knew the half of it, especially when it came to the truth of the matter. Adelaide had turned her back on everyone. Friends, the country, even her own damn family. His stabbiness took on a new level of intensity as he watched her disappear into the crowd of deluded supporters who still thought she was a decent person and the best option for the country's leadership.

“So. Much. Violence.”

“Cay,” Elias warned under his breath.

“I've gutted her thirteen times in my head, for the record.”

“Man, you still have the spark, Caleb.” Matthew clapped a hand to Caleb's shoulder with a laugh. “This is why the country needs you both.”

“Sign me up. I have a proposal for bringing back the use of public shaming. Stocks. Cages. Rotten tomatoes. Tarring and feathering, maybe?” Caleb squeezed his husband’s waist and tried to bring levity to the moment with his antics.

“We’ll talk more this weekend.” Elias’ brush off came with another alarming movement. Caleb's focus immediately switched toward his partner, noticing the press of his knuckles to the center of his chest, there and gone in a flash. He’d been doing it more and more often, always writing it off as indigestion or heartburn. Caleb narrowed his eyes and left the admonishing words unspoken as Elias sighed and turned his gaze away.

“I'm fine, Cay.”

“Let's get some water and air.” Caleb turned an apologetic glance toward Matthew. “I'll talk to your better half about our weekend plans.”

“See that you do. I have some ideas I'd like to throw at you both.”

They all shook again, sharing genuine well wishes and more promises to talk soon. Caleb's skin crawled the longer they spent in the ballroom, and he suddenly had a much better understanding of why their Theo was a hermit of the highest order. If this level of social anxiety was only a portion of the way Theo felt, he understood completely. The damn walls were closing in around him and he didn't even want to think about what the stress sweating would do to the silk blend button-down beneath his tux.

Progress toward the exit was slow and monotonous as people stopped them far too often with sweet platitudes and pretend posturing. The whole lot of them were nothing more than shallow puddles of greed and self-serving ignorance. Nevertheless, he played his part, supporting his partner and putting on the power couple show of force that had carried them this far. Sometimes, he still struggled with niggling doubts and a whole lot of feelings of inadequacy, but that was his secret. Nothing if not a showman, he put on the confident, effusive mask and stood rock solid beside the indomitable force that was his husband.

They were home free with their sights set on the bright red beacon of the exit sign when Elias stopped short and froze in place. Startled, Caleb stumbled to a stand still and tracked the icy cold glare of Elias’ silvery blue eyes until he found the source of his abrupt stop. Aaron Evans. The biggest threat of them all. Also the greatest inspiration for Caleb’s new-found obsession with murder mystery and true crime shows.

“He really has such a punchable face, Baby Doll.”

“Mn.” Elias released a ragged breath and shook his head in disapproval as they watched Adelaide sidle closer to her secret fiancé. The fact that they had managed to keep that news quiet so far was a true testament to the subversive nature of the government they once swore to protect and preserve.

“Next time, use a left hook. His nose isn't crooked enough.” Caleb gently urged his partner to resume their egress strategy. “Let’s get you home. I promised lots of good things in your future, remember?”

“That you did, love.” Elias finally relaxed, his body melting from the tense posture he'd carried all night and his smile softening to the one he reserved just for Caleb. “Thank you for tonight.”

“Thank you for everything. Now move your fine as fuck ass before I take matters into my own hands.”

Residual tension clouded the car as they drove, silence pervasive and thick enough to drown out the whirr of tires on asphalt as Elias drove the BMW toward their sanctuary. It had been an exhausting night of internal rage screaming for them both and Caleb was eager to get home and try to shake the rest of the fog from his husband’s mind. He had plans. His plans always worked when it came to resetting his overburdened lover’s mind. They had agreed to take time off after leaving the White House Chief of Staff office. Unfortunately, the downtime weighed heavily on Elias. The man was plotting. They both were. Elias just had to admit out loud that he was about to make the choice they both knew was already made in his heart.

The massive house was too quiet as they entered, the atmosphere still thick with unspoken words and lingering tension. Parting in the foyer, Caleb rushed to use the restroom and change out of the stifling tux, but his inner alarm bells started ringing the second he returned to the bedroom to discover Elias seated on the edge of the bed with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

“El, baby?” Caleb dropped the hanger holding his tux and rushed forward. “Hey, what's wrong?”

“Cay, I don't know if this is the right move.” Elias sat up a little straighter, wrapping Caleb's waist in his arms before burying his face against his chest. “This feels like a mistake.”

Caleb sifted his fingertips through Elias’ salt and pepper hair, exactly how he always did when his partner needed soothing. “I'm not going to twist your arm, and you know I'll support you in whatever you decide, but I think—correct me if I'm wrong—you want this more than you are willing to admit and your concerns are about all the logistics and not the actual decision.”

“It's a lot. We saw it first hand. I'm worried about what it'll do to our family, Cay. You honestly have to have similar concerns.” Elias’ shoulders sagged as his beleaguered sigh warmed Caleb’s chest through the t-shirt.

“I'm really not. You aren't like her. You would never let anything destroy your family. That's why I am not even a little bit worried about that. We're rock solid and we always will be. Look at me, Baby Doll.” Caleb eased back and gently turned Elias’ face upward by the chin. Once he made eye contact, Caleb continued. “You're the best father, best husband, best weird uncle-brother-father figure, and you'll be the best president this country could ever hope for. Let’s give them hell, but after I have my wicked way with you. Priorities, remember?”

“Christ, I love you.” Elias shifted with Caleb’s movements, easing backward to flop on the mattress with a breathy laugh as Caleb finagled his way onto the bed to straddle his husband’s lap. The atmosphere shifted and became electric as he leaned forward to pin Elias’ hands over his head.

“And I love you, future Mr. President. Now, hold on tight. I've got a list of dirty things to do to your body and time’s ticking. Parker’ll be home by eight in the morning and I need to optimize every second we have in order to accomplish what I need to do.”

“You really think you're going to need eight hours? Should I have put more Gatorade in the fridge?” Elias bucked his hips as a playful smile teased the corner of his mouth.

“Alas. You’ll have to deal with room temp electrolytes.” Caleb nipped at the line of Elias' jaw before nuzzling his goatee. “You knew my devious plans. It's your own fault.”

“What am I going to do with you?” Elias melted more and more with each ministration until he was writhing and pliant beneath Caleb's body.

“Love me forever.”

“Done. Easy.”

And with that, it was Caleb’s turn to melt into a sappy puddle. He had no worries at all. Regardless of what their future held, he had absolutely zero concerns when it came to their relationship. The Devil himself couldn't tear them apart. That, Caleb was sure of.