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

“You look nice,” Ellis said, eyeing what was left of Bryn’s costume.


Bryn made a derisive sound. “Sure I do.”


“Well, the brace is a little awkward.”


“What, you think it doesn’t go with the doublet?”


“Not so much, no.” Ellis smiled. “Let’s get you to a pharmacy and home, yeah?”


“I suppose there’s no telling you to go away?”


Ellis paused, hands clasped in front of his groin and stance suspiciously military. “You can, sure.”


“What are you, a sucker for assholes?”


Ellis made a face. “That’s like…The imagery there is just—”


“You know what I mean,” Bryn said, exasperated.


Ellis sighed. “No. At least, I don’t think so.”


“Then what? Tell me you don’t do this with everybody you blow.”


Ellis appeared wounded. “I would do this for anyone I blew, sure, because I’d care about them.”


The man made Bryn’s head hurt. “I’m a douche. Trust me. Trust Lucian Gray, okay?”


Chapter 45