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 walked over to the wall next to the bay window. He leaned his crutch against the closed bathroom door, testing his weight on his knee.


Bryn didn’t pay any attention. He touched the wallpaper. “I used to have posters and pictures everywhere.”


“Mmm. Dancers. Men, women. My mother hated it. She tried to ban me from putting anything on the walls. I never listened. One day, she came in and tore everything down. I went to the gas station down the road and bought every dirty magazine I could find. Pussy and dicks were flying off the walls the next day.” Bryn chuckled. He spied his suitcase and scowled. He hobble-stalked past Ellis and leaned out the doorway. “Where are my boyfriend’s bags?”


The shy maid appeared, materializing from behind a white doorway farther down the hall. She didn’t speak. She pointed to another room.


Chapter 65