Page 3 of Hard

It had taken him years to find Caleb and it had since taken every ounce of his willpower not to chain the younger man to their home.

Wolf reached over and slapped the button on the elevator to get it moving again. The blinking red light and insistent buzzing indicated that the hotel had probably called maintenance by now.

“We have some talking to do,” he growled and placed a hand on the wall when the elevator lurched with a grind and dropped downward.

“Fat chance!”

Wolf gave Caleb a wolfish grin and the younger man rolled his eyes.

Caleb jerked his coat closed and gripped the elevator railing when the car lurched. He grappled with what Wolf had told him. His husband hadn’t taken the job? Why was that?

“We need to work on our communication skills.”

Wolf scowled at him. “I wasn’t the one who left.”

“I wasn’t going to be gone more than three days,” Caleb said.

“Three days? Why?” His husband glared, oh, he hadn’t liked that answer.

“Three days was the amount of time you were going to be gone,” Caleb said.

“Three?” Wolf squinted, mulling that over. It didn’t surprise him that Caleb had found out how long the Central America job was supposed to be. His husband was tricky and also had close friends in Phoenix, like Seth and Jordan, who were both techie geniuses. “That doesn’t include travel time,” Wolf murmured, earning a glare from Caleb.

When the elevator stopped, it did so with a slight bang on the second floor. The doors popped open to reveal several women waiting. They all got on and squished Caleb and Wolf into the back corner.

When Wolf stepped closer, the familiar rush of being near his husband swept over Caleb. A few of the women gave themknowing glances and he noticed the name badges some of them wore were of a writers’ convention.

Bang!

Everyone jumped, including him, when the elevator’s door slammed shut.

Oops. The doors had been fine before he’d shoved Wolf into them.

“Oh, my gawd. That scared me,” one woman said and others laughed.

“Sounds just like the landing of my plane earlier,” another one chimed in—causing more laughter.

Caleb snickered and Wolf snorted.

“Are you two enjoying the convention?” one woman turned toward him and Wolf.

Caleb caught the scowl on Wolf’s face and elbowed him. “Yes, very much. You?”

“Oh yes, it’s going to be so much fun.” She smiled and then her eyes swept to the matching rings on their hands. “Married long?”

“Six months,” Caleb admitted.

The elevator saved him from responding further when they reached the first floor—rather than stop efficiently, it landed with a slight slam. Some of the women made sounds and others just stood with calculating gazes.

“It’s possessed,” a person said.

“A ghost at midnight!” another one claimed.

No, Caleb wanted to respond, it was just me and my husband making out against it. But he only smiled and imagined how broken the doors would be if he’d done what he’d wanted, like rip off Wolf’s clothes and have sex against that door so he could watch in the mirror.

Bad, bad thoughts, Caleb, he silently admonished. Jumping his husband’s bones right then wasn’t an option. They had stuff to figure out, but he was sure he had made his point.

He just had one more thing to do to get it into Wolf’s head that coddling him and leaving him out was no longer going to be an option.

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