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

“I’m fine,” Bryn answered Jules with a smile. “Crowds. They’re harder every year.”


“I know. Unless I’m on stage in front of them, I hate it.”


“How about this: we’ll make one more round down the stairs and through the lobby, and then sneak out back for a smoke and grab a taxi out of here.”


“I thought you’d quit,” Jules said slyly.


Jules giggled. “All right, you’ve got a deal. But if we run into Medea, you’re on your own.”


“Fair enough.” Jules and Medea didn’t get along for obvious reasons. Medea was a predator, and Jules was prey. If Bryn knew Medea, she’d already gathered a crowd of male admirers and was deciding which one to drag into the women’s restroom and fuck first. Bryn covered Jules’s hand with his. “Shall we?”


Chapter 30