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 repressed his urge to run. He refused to look at Lucian, focusing instead on the redhead. The hair reminded him of the gun-range boy, of course. Actually, this redhead looked stunningly like Ellis, really. Same build, same short curls, and same broad shoulders. As the pair drew closer, the redhead flashed a smile at Bryn, almost shyly, and recognition struck Bryn square between the eyes.


Bryn didn’t get the chance to explain. Lucian swept to a stop next to them on the stairway, and he took Jules’s hand to kiss it. “Miss Sommers,” he said in his slow voice. “It is a delight to see you.”


“You too,” Jules said breathlessly.


“And how fortunate for me to run into you so early in the evening,” Lucian continued without letting go of Jules’s hand. “I had thought I’d need to suffer through endless banal conversations until I managed to unite with the Bel’s most beautiful star.”


Chapter 31