Ellis Parker is a lucky man: he escaped his persecuting family, survived his tour of duty, and met Maxwell Clark in the city of New Amsterdam. Clark showed Ellis more than the ropes: Clark helped Ellis figure out who he is -- a gay submissive with a massive fixation on a beautiful, mysterious ballet dancer named Bryn Rothe. Ellis knows a Good Man when he sees one, and he wants nothing more than to score a first date with Bryn.<br><br>Little does Ellis know that Bryn has a violent past that is crawling out of shallow graves to haunt him. Even his hectic schedule and beloved stage aren’t enough to distract him. It’s impossible for Bryn to figure out how he feels about Ellis with his demons between them, but when Ellis saves Bryn not once but twice, Bryn is forced to admit that there’s something about Ellis that Bryn might not merely want but need.<br><br>Together, they journey to the scene of Bryn’s original crime -- Charles Towne, South Carolina. There they will dig up secrets that might explain Bryn’s tortured life but might also be his -- and Ellis’s -- undoing.

Earthquakes

The man dressed like money too. As Ellis went to the door to unlock it and Bryn—the man, the mystery, the daydream, himself—climbed out of the car, Ellis took in Bryn and the day’s ensemble.


Bryn was a couple of inches shorter than Ellis’s five feet ten. But where Ellis was broad and rounded out with farm-bred muscle, Bryn was long and lean and solid, even in clothes. With his neck straight and his chin held high, Bryn carried an air about him. Not arrogance, exactly. Not even confidence.


Chapter 3