Silk & Shadows

I loved all the examples of sexy scenes this week! It’s no surprise! The Silk & Shadows authors have skills in that department!

What do I find exciting as far as love scenes go? That moment when two people break past whatever walls are keeping them apart. Sometimes a hero and heroine are attracted to one another, but because of the conflicts between them, it’s almost impossible to bring them together to act out their desires.

Just as in real life, humor can break the ice…

For those of you new to my books, I write Victorian-set paranormals featuring Immortals known as Shadow Guards who belong to an ancient order of warriors who hunt down the most exceedingly wicked mortals on earth–ones so completely evil they approach a dangerous supernatural state known as Transcension. Selene and Rourke, featured in the following scene from DARKER THAN NIGHT, are two such immortals (slightly edited to bring the rating from R to G!) Oh, and one note — Mrs. Hazelgreaves is Selene’s pet snake. :

A knock sounded on Selene’s door. She straightened from scrubbing her face at the basin. They’d returned from the circus only a half hour ago. It was late and everyone prepared for bed. She had already undressed and put on her robe.

Drying her face with a towel, she crossed the room and opened the door.

“What in the hell is this?” demanded Rourke. He stood bare of chest, wearing only a pair of loose flannel trousers. He raised her snake and wiggled it beside his head. He wasn’t referring to Mrs. Hazelgreaves, who at last check, remained nested in the wall outside, but rather the automaton serpent that Mr. Silverwest had purchased in the pagoda tent and in turn—gifted to her.

“It’s a toy,” Selene answered coolly, snatching it out of his hand. “I told Nathan he could play with it, but I said nothing about you.”

She tried to shut the door, but he elbowed inside.

“It’s not a toy,” he growled. “It’s a bloody self mechanized automaton and it would be very expensive to purchase.”

She shrugged. “I wouldn’t know.”

She placed the snake on the end of the bed.

“You shouldn’t have accepted such an extravagant gift,” he said.
Her shoulders stiffened and she turned back to him. “And why not? Mr. Silverwest is attentive and polite and—”

When she stood close to him like this, singing the praises of another man, Rourke couldn’t think straight. He wanted to touch her, to remind her of the hot attraction between them. Instead, he caught her wrist, a bit too roughly.

“You should not have accepted the gift,” he murmured harshly. “That’s all I’m trying to say. What do you think Mr. Silverwest expects in return? Men don’t just buy expensive things for women, for no reason at all.”

When she had disappeared inside the tiny circus tent with their handsome neighbor, his jealousy, and the memory of their prior, only half satisfied intimacy, had driven him almost insane.

She stared down at where he held her arm. “He had already purchased the snake—I had no idea he intended to give the thing to me. It would have been rude of me to decline.” The spark of anger he had incited in her eyes moments before now turned into a full blown flame. “Besides, call me a fool, but in that moment, his attentions pleased me.”

The last thin vestiges of his self control disintegrated.

“Damn snake, it gives me the woolies.” He lunged past her and seized the metal serpent from the bed. She reached for it, attempting to get it back, but he held it high over her head.
He chuckled evilly. “I think I shall throw it into the ocean where it will sink and rust into tiny bits.”

He whirled toward his own room. Unexpectedly, her body slammed against his back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her bare legs around his waist. He grinned, her physical reaction to his thievery of the snake even better than he expected. He growled in pleasure at the feel of her full breasts against his back.

Avoiding her outspread arms and grasping hands, he tossed the snake onto his bed. Releasing him, she dropped to the floor and ran—
With a sideways kick of his foot, he tripped her.

He stepped over her only to have her hands seize his ankle. Caught off balance, he staggered. Reaching, his hand struck the snake. The metallic serpent flew off the mattress to slide across the floor. With a laugh of delight, she crawled past him. Enough.

Snaring her ankle with his hand, he easily dragged her back. He grasped her wrists, and with his knees between hers, spread her against the carpet.

She kicked, struggled. In the process her dressing gown parted, revealing one long, deliciously shaped leg.

He froze, staring down. She squirmed, which only revealed more.

“Rourke,” she whispered, her voice thick and distant.
“Don’t move.”

She ceased all movement. With a firm press of his leg, he widened hers.

“Rourke,” she repeated. “Stop.”

His gaze lifted to hers. His eyes conveyed determined mischief. His cheeks were flushed ruddy and dark. “Do you mean ‘stop’, or do you mean, ‘we shouldn’t, but let’s do it anyway’?”

Selene swallowed. Her eyes widened. “Let’s do it anyway.”

****

So I find humor sexy in the sometimes awkard moments when a man and woman make love for the first time. What about you? What do you, as a reader, find to be the sexiest elements of a love scene — or more importantly, what takes a scene from hot to “blech!” in two seconds flat?