The Concubine

The Concubine
Jade Lee

Requirements for being a royal consort:1) Exemplify purity. 2) Pass all demanding tests. 3) Gracefully withstand petty backstabbing. 4) Be chaste. Very chaste. Check to all! Chen Ji Yue is on her way to empress superstardom in nineteenth-century China. She only has to vanquish 300 rivals to bring her family great honor.Oh, and she may not find the deliciously sexy Sun Bo Tao—the emperor's best friend—at all delicious. Or sexy. Damn. Ji Yue is in big trouble. Because Bo Tao is definitely very sexy. . . . And Ji Yue is about to discover that chastity is overrated. . . .

“You must undress,” he said

Ji Yue recoiled in shock, her heart beating triple time. It was one thing to be the woman caressing Bo Tao, bringing him to a place where he had no control over his body. It was quite another to remove her own attire.

“If you wish to know how to seduce a man,” Bo Tao said softly. “It begins with your body. And your body is very beautiful to me, Ji Yue.” She saw honesty in his eyes, and her heart broke. How had she come to this?

But if her future was in a harem—many women to one man—she would take whatever memories she could. So she put her hands on her buttons and began to pull off her clothes.

“No. Not like you are at a dressmaker’s,” he said. “Slowly, shyly. But with a hunger in your eyes.”

As a virgin, she should not know what he meant, but she felt a longing and a building excitement in what she did. And in what they risked together. She looked at him, letting him see her desire, her fears and her desperate wish….

“My heaven…” he murmured. And if she doubted the desire in his voice, all she had to do was look down. His jade stem was making an appearance….

Dear Reader,

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that network television did not invent contests for finding a mate. I mean, sure, there was Cinderella, but that was just a fairy tale. Who knew that in 1851 the Emperor of China truly did advertise for all the eligible young women in the land to apply to become his new empress? Of course, he wasn’t looking for just one wife. One lucky winner would become his empress, four became primary concubines and then he had two levels of harems below that for when he got bored. Lucky him! And lucky me, too, because I got to explore all the drama, the fear and the excitement vicariously through my heroine.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I had to change certain historical facts to make it more dramatic. If you’re curious, I’ve put a brief article up on my Web site about the changes I’ve made. Check it out at www.jadeleeauthor.com. But don’t let reality spoil your fun!

Step now into the sensuous, exotic world of China’s Forbidden City, where the women are beautiful, the men are usually cut and the emperor rules over everything with absolute power. Then see if you can pick the winner in a game of power and love!

Enjoy!

Jade Lee

www.jadeleeauthor.com

Jade Lee

THE CONCUBINE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Children of mixed races have their own set of rules. As the daughter of a Shanghai native and a staunch Indiana Hoosier, USA TODAY bestselling author Jade Lee struggled to find her own identity somewhere between the U.S.A. and China. In the end, she found her answers in writing fiction about the amazing power of love.

Books by Jade Lee

HARLEQUIN BLAZE

374—THE TAO OF SEX

Thank you, Brenda, editor extraordinaire, for inviting me to explore the sexuality of China.

I had so much fun with this, I feel like I won something way better than the title of Empress!

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Epilogue

Prologue