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

Medea punched Bryn in the arm. It hurt. In a sobering kind of way. “Stop screaming like a bitch,” Medea said. “Do you want every reporter in town to hear your meltdown?”


Bryn rubbed his arm, felt ill, and fell backward against the side of the building. “How do you know about…about them?”


“Idiot. You leave your bag around wide open for anybody to look through and take what they want.”


“Well, how else is somebody supposed to get to know you?”


Ellis laughed. It was a nice sound. “I’ve got a guy you should probably meet sometime.”


“Oh yeah?” Medea asked archly. “Most men are guys I should probably meet.”


“Fuck off,” Bryn said. And when had the ground gotten so close to his face? He didn’t remember sinking onto it. And fuck, it was cold against his ass. “Fuck off, all two of you. Don’t need…”


Chapter 34