First, let me thank the ladies here at Silken Sheets and Seduction for inviting me over to play today! I love the topics discussed here, and couldn’t wait to talk to you about how I try to slip my readers between the sheets <grin> with my characters.
With several erotic romances under my belt, I’m no stranger to writing sex scenes. It comes with the territory. The concept is simple, insert Tab A into Slot B, but it’s not always that easy. Amend that – it’s never that easy! Readers don’t want to read an instruction manual. They don’t want to stop reading while they try to work out what’s going in the scene. They want to be drawn in so seamlessly that they can visualize how everything fits together with no effort. And, they want to be right there in the room, if not the bed, with the characters.
This is a tall challenge for an author. How to slip our reader in so they can see everything, without them knowing the writer is there making it all happen?
I try to do it with emotion. It’s not enough for me to put my characters into sexual encounters without good reason. Sex for the sake of physical gratification is sometimes part of a relationship, but rarely is it something I need to show my readers. I’m sure they can figure out that the characters are probably having more sex than I’m writing about. I don’t need to tell them that, or show them. What I do need to show them are the encounters that change the relationship. The ones where emotions are involved.
The reader needs to be emotionally invested in the characters. They must like them, love them, or hate them. They need to identify with the characters in some way, whether they remind them of themselves, or someone they know, or whether they are someone the reader would like to be. My goal is to create that bond between the reader and my characters. Once the reader has a bond with the characters, it’s much easier to ease them into the bedroom, and right between the sheets. If I’ve done my job, the reader sees the heroine through the hero’s eyes, or vice-versa, and my character’s wants and desires become the reader’s wants and desires.
This is where I have to write the mechanics of lovemaking. But now that I’ve got the reader emotionally invested in the characters, she’s less likely to notice the infrastructure (all that tab and slot stuff). Her brain will process the intricacies of their movements, but instead of seeing a diagramed list of instructions, she’ll see lovers giving and receiving pleasure. She’ll see love expressed through physical communion, and she’ll feel. And when she’s through reading, she’ll know that something has changed between the characters, for good, or for bad.
The following excerpt is the opening scene in FOUR OF HEARTS, the fourth book in my Lothario series out now from Red Sage Publishing. There’s not much time to get the reader emotionally involved with the characters, but with a little luck, after you read this passage you’ll feel something for Ryan and Candace, and you’ll see the subtle shift within their relationship – the one that will test the strength of their love.
Excerpt –
Ryan froze with his lips against the pulse in Candace’s neck. His erection surged with new vigor against her stomach. Why couldn’t his wife ask for something easy for their anniversary? Something like diamonds, a villa in France, hell, even an expedition to the North Pole. The image in his brain coalesced, and he knew he would give her whatever she wanted.
“You want me to tie you up?” he asked as soon as he found his voice.
“Don’t even try to tell me it doesn’t excite you.” Candace wiggled her soft mound against his cock. “I felt that.”
He had no intention of denying his interest. Only a fool would, and Ryan Callahan was no fool. He continued his exploration of his wife’s creamy soft skin, all the while forming and reforming the new image in his head. His lips left her neck, slipped to her shoulder where he tasted every inch of skin, before angling lower toward the perfect swell of her breasts. His hands held hers pinned flat on either side of her head. He’d tied her hands once, when he’d spirited her away from the Lothario and onto the Vixen, but that had been role-playing more than anything else. He was pretty sure she had something more in mind. He hoped to God she did.
Her request shouldn’t have been a surprise. She’d spent a lot of time lately talking to his best friend’s wife. Rope bondage was Fallon’s new research topic, and a passion shared with her husband Richard. Ryan inched his way lower, and teased one nipple to a marble hard peak with his tongue, before taking it in his mouth. Candace drew in a sharp breath and arched her back, encouraging him to suck harder. He obliged his wife.
His wife. The moniker still sent a thrill through his body every time he thought, or said the word. Candace Callahan. His wife. God, what a wondrous thing that was. For nearly a year, she’d been his constant companion, his lover, his…everything. Before he met Candace, he’d been lost and alone, searching for something he couldn’t name. Now it had a name. Love.
“Well?” Candace prodded on a gasp as Ryan switched breasts, sucking the poor, neglected one in his mouth without preamble.
Surely, she knew the answer. He couldn’t deny her anything. Still, he made her wait for his reply. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t given it any thought himself. There wasn’t much he hadn’t imagined doing with Candace.
He released her hands and slid lower until he lay pillowed between her thighs. He brushed his thumbs over the neatly trimmed auburn triangle that drew him like a compass needle to magnetic north. The scent of her arousal filled his nostrils and fueled a primal need. He swept his tongue through her juices. She ground her swollen flesh against his face, and he knew she’d forgotten everything but this. He dedicated himself to keeping the status quo for the foreseeable future.
About Roz Lee –
Roz Lee has been married to her best friend, and high school sweetheart, for over three decades. These days she splits her time between their home in rural New Jersey, and Southern California, where her husband works. Even though she’s lived on both coasts, her heart lies in between, in Texas. A Texan by birth, she can trace her family back to the Republic of Texas. With roots that deep, she says, “You can’t ever really leave.”
Roz and her husband have two grown daughters they couldn’t be more proud of, and are currently raising a eleven-year-old Labrador Retriever, Betty Boop, who isn’t aware of her canine heritage.
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Buy link – FOUR OF HEARTS
This weekend, the husband and I celebrated five years of marriage and ten solid years of being in a committed, loving relationship. It’s crazy how fast time flies! Heck, I can’t believe that my ten year high school reunion was just two weeks ago. It’s wild how easy it is to lose track of time.
Biology
Sadly, not so much. Especially not for real men. There is such a thing as refractory period, and real men need it. As they get older, they need more of it. Of course, we all know there are exceptions to every rule if you are one or your SO is, then bless you!
