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

“Sorry, Sarge. Got lost thinking about what you might have in mind.”


Clark was silent for a beat too long, and Ellis winced. Clark always knew when someone wasn’t telling the truth and nothing but the truth, so help them God. He had a way of summing people up to the whole of their secrets, and Ellis was far from exempt. “I was thinking dinner,” Clark said. “Heavy on the appetizers.”


“Hey, I do a mean can of SpaghettiOs.”


“It’s not nearly as good as your protein drinks.”


“Watch your mouth, soldier, or that’s all you’ll be getting.”


“Oh, I can drink those down all night long, Sarge.”


Yeah, hard. Ellis was definitely hard. He squirmed on the stool and adjusted his nuts. “Promise?” he asked and didn’t mean for the words to sound quite so breathy.


Chapter 18