First Kiss Friday: The Jade Prince

Then Jin wasn't Jin any more. Maybe if Cal hadn't been so desperate, so close, and holding his friend's gaze in the only means of help he could offer, maybe if he had even blinked at the wrong time he wouldn't have seen. But he'd seen the moment in crystal clear detail, the exact second when his best friend's clear brown eyes had changed. The round human look disappeared, shifting to the green slitted eyes of an animal, a reptile. The look in those eyes was not even one bit Jin. The being looking back at him was wild and in pain. Haunted and well past deranged.

The question "Who are you?" hovered on Cal's lips, but before he could ask it out loud, the green-eyed demon spoke in a cracked whisper.

"Jade is free? Finally... free?" Despite the hesitations, the voice was smooth like Jin, but deeper.

It said Jade like a name. "Jade?"

The thing's gaze focused on Cal's face. It drew its breath in through Jin's nose as if scenting the air. Then its lips spread into a grin that promised no good will at all. "You smell tasty. Even the other thinks so."

"Who are you? What happened to Jin?"

"Jin? Oh, the other." His grin turned sneaky. "I ate him and I'll eat you, too." Jin's body jerked fiercely, rolling them from the sofa and onto the floor with a bone rattling crash. The thing controlling Jin's body pinned Cal to the floor. Its face, Jin's face, leered close. It licked along Cal's jaw, sending ripples of confused reactions skittering across Cal's skin.

He twisted and bucked but couldn't dislodge Jin's smaller body. Damn it, his job was to protect Jin, but how the hell could he protect him from whatever this thing was or intended to do?

Those green snake eyes sparkled with some devious plot. With a sudden motion, it slammed their lips together. The pressure bloomed into an explosion of heat.

Cal twisted his mouth free. "Don't." He gasped through a surprising swell of excitement. "Get a hold of yourself, Jin!"

It laughed, and the rasping sound sawed through Cal's soul. This thing wasn't Jin. That single truth ripped him apart inside. Jin, his best friend... More than that. He had always wanted to kiss Jin, to show him far more than friendship. But that had never been. Jin was straight and he wasn't. Things like that didn't change. He'd accepted it would be a one-sided love story pretty much from the beginning.

But this thing, it somehow knew his weakness, knew his secret and offered him the one temptation he had accepted would never be realized.

This First Kiss Friday is from The Jade Prince. Now available with Amber Allure/Amber Quill Press. 


ABOUT THE BOOK

Cal has loved his best friend forever but since Jin is straight, the relationship has no hope of ever being fulfilled. Or at least that was what he thought until the day he accidentally binds Jin to the spirit of an insane dragon. Now Cal will do anything, even offer his flesh and grab hold of a twisted form of his most desperate desire in order to keep the jade dragon from using Jin's body to rampage through the city.

 
Want to know a little more about The Jade Prince? You can find excerpts and related books here. Don't forget to check out my other First Kiss Friday posts. Or just stop back in every Friday.

Shannon
www.lshannon.net