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

Bryn wasn’t keen on the idea of going out again with Medea, hunting for warm bodies with willing orifices. Every time he did, she pushed him and his boundaries to the point of breaking. Or fucking, as the case might be. Bryn wasn’t about to sleep with anyone at the Bel. He’d made the rookie mistake of fucking corps boys back in the day. That led to drama and screaming fits in the wings during rehearsals.


So that meant he’d have to come up with some other way to cope. He could hit up a random bar, find a guy and a convenient bathroom stall, or log in to one of the dozen apps he had on his phone. None of the prospects sounded good.


Damn Medea, damn boys, and damn him. He didn’t have time for this shit.


“Better?” Rachel asked, finishing up.


“Much,” Bryn lied. “Thank you.”


Chapter 13