The ABCs of Romance: J is for Jekyll and Hyde
by Kimber Vale
It may sound odd for romance, but hear me out. Think about
the books you’ve read, romance and otherwise. One key element in writing a
novel is that your characters need to undergo a change. No one wants them to be
the same person they were at the beginning of the book. They have to grow and
develop; hopefully improve, but I suppose they could become worse. It probably
won’t be a romance, though. Once in a Halley’s Comet, a main character will not
change, but will be the instigator of change in others. That’s rare, but the
end result is still movement and progression in some form. Anyway, change is
imperative.
Imagine Romeo and Juliet still just sneaking around behind
their parents’ backs at the end of the play instead of dead on the floor. Lame.
What if Allie had stayed a stuck-up rich girl in The
Notebook? What if she didn’t lose her memory over time? How much of the
poignancy of that story would be lost?
Imagine Marianne of Sense and Sensibility continuing to favor
emotion over good sense and marrying Willoughby instead of Colonel Brandon.
Okay, maybe a lot of people would have liked that ending better, but Marianne
wouldn’t have shown any growth and maturity in that scenario. Characters are not
meant to be static from beginning to end.
Imagine if Bella Swan was still the same…oh, forget it, I’ve
got enough examples.
Anyway, there is a certain amount of Jekyll and Hydiness in
nearly all characters (Yeah, I said Hydiness. What of it?). I don’t mean that
they’re all in need of medication to stabilize their constantly vacillating
moods, but for the most part they change for the better because that’s what the
audience wants to see. We are all changed by our environment, by stressors, by
time, and by other people. It’s real for characters to do the same. And if
characters aren’t real to us, we don’t care about them or their romance.
Do Kyrie and Greg, the MCs in my newest release Hard Act to
Follow, change over the course of the book? They sure do. But you’ll have to
read it to find out how.
Excerpt:
“Beer!” Kyrie came from Greg’s small kitchen with two fists
full of Sierra Nevada IPA. “Last two— You need to do better, buddy.”
“I try not to keep a
ton of alcohol—”
“Yeah, yeah. But this is why we never hang here.” Kyrie
turned around, arms spread, still laden with pale ale.
“And this…” He spun
around. “Is so much classier than my dump. Game nights would be sweet over on
the swanky side of town, bro.”
“I let you and the other riffraff over here every other week,
and the swanky side of town just took a turn for the worse.”
Liar. You let Kyrie over here and he’ll drink too
much and pass out on your bed. That’s why you avoid this shit—because you can
always leave his place with your blue balls and your pathetic fantasies. But Kyrie
here is a live hand grenade. Duck and cover.
“Catch!” Kyrie tossed the beer underhand, and Greg barely
managed to grab it with uncoordinated fingers.
“Watch it!” Greg bent to set the beer on his glass coffee
table, heart thumping for a thousand reasons.
“You deserve an
exploded brew for that comment.” Kyrie popped his bottle cap with a keychain
opener that screamed arrest me. He
dropped his keys on the table beside Greg’s beer while looking up at him with
an intense stare. “Is that why you’ve been avoiding me lately? Tired of playing
with the riffraff across town?”
Kyrie smirked, but pain touched his voice and
eyes.
“No, man. You know I’m busy as hell. I didn’t mean that about
game night…”
“You totally did.” He narrowed his amber gaze at Greg.
“Kilborne’s a slob, and he and Liv would lick your fridge clean. Their combined
eating forces are the stuff of legend.”
“It’s weird. She does have an amazing appetite for a girl her
size.”
“It’s her thyroid, lucky bitch. Big eyes and a stick figure.
She looks like a freakin’ anime.”
Greg grinned, reaching for his beer as he sat heavily on the
couch. He recalled its tumultuous state and set it back on the table.
Kyrie plopped down next to him, his knee brushing Greg’s
despite the vacant cushion to the guy’s left. “Here. I said I was gonna get you
good and drunk.” He took a quick tug and then pushed his bottle into Greg’s
hand.
“I really don’t need it. I’m there.”
“You need something. To relax. Chill out. Live a freakin’
little. Something.” Kyrie knocked his knee into Greg’s and his hand slipped off
the beer and fell onto Greg’s thigh.
“I’m… relaxed.” But the buzz was suddenly scattered by
apprehension. Kyrie couldn’t be this close—touching him. Rubbing the
inside of my goddamn thigh!
“Chug it.” Kyrie leaned over, his breath hoppy and sweet, his
top lip still glistening from the last sip he’d taken. Greg sucked in a
wavering inhalation.
The hand on his leg inched higher and squeezed while Kyrie
grasped the glass over Greg’s fingers and led it to his lips.
“Drink up.”
Greg opened his mouth and managed to take a sip without
choking, miracle of miracles.
“Good dog.” Kyrie grinned wickedly less than a foot from
Greg’s face. He took the beer back and brought it to his own lips, the tip of
his pink tongue darting out to lick the glass where Greg’s mouth had just been.
Greg almost whimpered as Kyrie sucked back a mouthful, his
gaze glued to Greg’s the whole while.
Like porn when the chick maintains eye contact
while giving head. Wonder if guys do that in gay movies.
Despite the strange sexual attraction simmering inside him—the one that had him
jerking off to visions of Kyrie way too often—Greg hadn’t had the balls to look
for gay stroke films. He wasn’t even sure he’d find them appealing. He’d never
even considered sleeping with men until Kyrie came along and flipped his world
over like a sore loser tossing a board game.
All he knew was Kyrie’s puckered lower lip wrapped erotically
around the bottle top. Paired with his gorgeous, almost challenging
golden-brown stare, it sent a surge of blood to Greg’s dick so hot and fast it
made him lightheaded.
“What are you looking at?” It was too close to Greg’s dream.
Way too fucking close. And so was Kyrie. But instead of Greg reaching out and
grasping nothing but ghost, Kyrie’s hand on his thigh pressed hard, real and
reassuring. Instigating. It slid slowly inside and up while Kyrie lifted his
eyebrows in question, his sweet mouth forming a tiny O that made Greg desperate
to kiss him.
Greg tried to swallow, but the lump in the back of his throat
didn’t move—wouldn’t allow for speech. He took a shallow breath that caught
when Kyrie’s pinky wisped over his bulging cockhead. Kyrie placed the beer on
the coffee table with his free hand while that little finger flirted over Greg’s
ridge like it was reading braille. Reading Greg’s perverted mind through his
khakis.
“Kyr—” he croaked.
“Shhh.” Kyrie leaned closer, a full hand stroking up Greg’s
hard-on. “Don’t.” His lips skimmed across Greg’s, warm, soft, and tremor
inducing. Greg inhaled sharply, maybe to work out a final cry for reason, but
any remaining resistance fell away as Kyrie’s familiar scent overwhelmed him.
Instead, he groaned as that knowledgeable hand squeezed him through his pants,
and those seductive lips, a bare hint of stubble peppered above the upper one,
touched down again to ply and cajole without words.
Blurb:
Kyrie is an actor with a physical aversion to telling lies, a
one-eyed cat, and horrible taste in men. His ex-brother-in-law and best friend,
Greg, harbors a secret crush he can’t shake. After denying his feelings for
Kyrie for too long, Greg finally gives in to desire one drunken night. Come the
morning, the facts get twisted. Kyrie pretends he doesn’t remember a thing—a
lie that eats him alive—and Greg can’t stop thinking about how he screwed up
the best thing in his life.
Before they can clear the air, Kyrie follows his dreams to
New York City, but could he also be running away?
A mistake from Kyrie’s past detonates their silence, and Greg
is forced to confront the man he loves. Is their new truth strong enough to
support a relationship, or are they doomed to crumble under old fears? Their
friendship could evolve into something a million times stronger, but maybe
Kyrie’s act is just too hard for Greg to follow.
Bio:
K. Vale writes erotic romance of all stripes, from hot hetero
to mouthwatering manlove. Find her MF work published under Kimber Vale. Come
for the sex. Stay for the story. Stalk Kimber on Facebook and Twitter
@KimberVale, and check her site for updates, new releases, and freebies at http://www.authorkimbervale.com. The
blog: http://www.kimbervale.me.
Buy links:
Kobo
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