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

For Clark, slow and sensual was the way, and Daniel worked him masterfully. Daniel kept a pace that drove Ellis crazy on Clark’s behalf, and Clark clawed at the floor, at Ellis, and at himself.


“Ah, fuck. Christ…Daniel…” Clark’s sounds of undiluted bliss grew louder and louder, and his voice went higher in pitch and grew richer with need. Daniel planted a hand on Ellis’s neck, guiding him, choking him on Clark, and Ellis went lax in the hold.


“Close,” Clark warned, and Daniel yanked Ellis off Clark.


“No,” Daniel said. “Not yet, love.”


Chapter 25