I'll have to agree with pretty much everything Sierra said - sex for sex's sake is great, but it's sort of like no-sugar-added dessert: ultimately unfulfilling. The first scene in a book by another author that jumps into my mind is from Joey W. Hill's Rough Canvas. It's a m/m BDSM story in her Nature of Desire series - my first m/m, my first BDSM, and still one of my favorite books ever. At the very beginning the characters have a confrontation - Thomas left Marcus to care for his family, and Marcus has come to, er, retrieve him.; As they argue, Marcus slams Thomas into a corner between the barn and fence and the sensation of Marcus' body against his, the scent of his lover's skin, the sheer power of his love for Marcus, which he'd thought was buried, slams Thomas into a violent orgasm. The intensity of the moment, driven almost exclusively by the intensity of the men's emotions, hits me in the solar plexus every time.
It's funny, when I read Sierra's post, I knew EXACTLY which scene exemplifies - for me anyway - the impact emotion has on our sex scenes. We've told the story many times of how Daniel's Surrender was the first book we finished together, and to this day it remains my favorite of our stories. I think that each and every love scene in the novel is emotion-driven - from the lust and denial in Daniel and Matty's first few encounters, to the healing power of Shannon's touch on both men.
For me it's the actions of a character, every bit as much as their words, that reveal their emotions. In this excerpt, Daniel is emotionally raw. He's just begun to realize that what started out as a menage fling has grown into something much, much more. Hard on the heels of that terrifying revelation, Matthew is critically injured in a car accident. In this scene Daniel is reeling - swamped by more emotion than he knows how to deal with, and Shannon is trying to sooth him the best way she knows how:
EXCERPT:
Abruptly, she knew how she wanted him. In a way he’d never given himself to her.
Deftly she slipped out of his grasp, easing to her back on the bed next to him. She had to smile at his raised eyebrows.
“You might be done,” his voice had a sleepy, sexy rasp that she could get used to hearing first thing every morning. “But I’m just getting started.”
She smiled and reached a hand out to him.“Oh, I’m not done,” she knew her eyes glowed almost gold. She could see their reflection in his. “Come here, then.”
Daniel hesitated before he let Shannon draw his body over hers. For all the exotic, mind-blowing sex they’d had, they’d never done straight missionary alone with just the two of them. Somehow, heart to heart, eye to eye, it seemed so much more intimate than any of the things they’d done, alone or with Matt.
Now she lay under him, like some sort of feast. She was so tiny, dwarfed by his larger frame. Her fragility was a bigger turn-on than he’d ever have guessed.
Moving more gently than he’d planned to, he crooked his knee under one of hers, bending his leg to draw her thigh up and open. When she was open enough, he fitted his hips into the cradle of hers. He slowly slid his throbbing erection over her slippery folds as he automatically reached for a condom, only to swear viciously when he remembered that they were in his bed. He didn’t have sex in his bed. Thus, no condoms in the room.
He started to lift off of her, but her soft hands on his cheeks stopped him.
“You’re clean,” she whispered. “You showed me your blood tests.”
Of course he had. Any responsible, respectful lover would be sure to reassure their partners of their health.
“I’m on the pill.” He stiffened as he suddenly realized where she was going with this.
“Oh, no,” he’d seen Matt take her bareback, but had never ever imagined doing so himself. One did not do that with a temporary lover.But fuck, it was tempting.
“Daniel,” she continued to hold him captive with tiny hands and enormous eyes. Her lower body arched, undulating over his straining cock relentlessly. She was painting him with the moisture of her lust, and he felt all his scruples beginning to melt beneath the flow. “I need you in me,” he shuddered out a low groan in response. “I need to feel you,” with a mind of its own, his bare, burning cock tunneled deeper between her folds. “And I can’t think of anything sexier than feeling you shoot inside me,” his hips jerked involuntarily. She was unraveling him with nothing but her words. “I need to feel how much you want me.”
That did it. With a deep grunt of excruciating pleasure, he plunged fully into her steamy depths.
“Fuck,” he’d never done it bare before. Now he wondered how he’d ever do it any other way.
It was too much, too intense. He couldn’t form words. Hell, he couldn’t form coherent thoughts. He couldn’t do anything but drive all the way in, until he didn’t know where he ended and she began.
She wriggled against him, but he braced on one arm and used the other to hold her hips still.
“No, let me,” he panted. “Let me take it slow.” He had to take it slow. He’d never feel this again, and he wanted to savor every second of it.
*
She felt so full. So incredibly surrounded. So cherished. Having him over her, in her like this, was beyond anything. She could feel every ridge, every pulsing vein on his cock rasping her sensitive tissues. It was fricking amazing.
He continued to power in, in, in, and then so slowly back out. Each thrust touched her deeper, until he was touching her very heart. Her soul.
Suddenly, unexpectedly, those laser blue eyes connected with hers. She’d never seen them so open. So vulnerable. God, if he was touching her soul, she was looking into his. And it was beautiful.
The sight ratcheted her pleasure even higher. She could feel her body drawing tighter, the deceptively strong muscles of her sheath clutching at his cock as he kept his relentlessly slow rhythm. She knew she was about to come, and she thought, from the way his breath jerked from his chest, he might be too.
“Daniel,” her voice was ragged and broken. Her heart was in her voice and in her words. “My Daniel.” He closed his eyes, tipping his head back. He pushed up on his hands, on straight arms so she could look down and see him working that enormous, gorgeous cock into her.
Her jagged whimper brought his eyes back to hers, and finally the words she’d kept bottled inside for so many weeks broke free.
“God, I love you Daniel,” his body jerked tight and his cock seemed to swell even bigger as his eyes widened in shock. “I love you so much,” she knew there were tears in her eyes and in her voice. She thought there might be tears in his, too.
“You own me,” now that she’d started, she couldn’t hold anything back. “You own Matt and me both.” With each word his hips pistoned faster, driving her implacably closer to release.
Suddenly he slammed into her, seating himself to the hilt and grinding his pubic bone against her straining clit.
She came with a shriek that was his name.
*
What the fuck.
He’d never heard those words from a lover before. In fact, he’d specifically chosen lovers that would never say such a thing, even in the heat of passion.
He’d like to believe it was the orgasm talking, but he knew better. Shannon had shown her love in so many ways since the first time they’d met. And now, hearing those dreaded words, all he could think was that he wanted to hear them again.
It terrified him that it didn’t terrify him. It terrified him that he wanted to say it back.
Fuck.
He felt himself swell, her sweet honey anointing his aching flesh. He felt her shudder her release under him as her pussy rippled over him. His Angel wasn’t normally a screamer, and when she screamed his name it was like music to his ears. He choked back the words that stopped up in his chest.
Fuck.
He had to do something to regain his balance. And fast.
In a lightning fast move he pulled out, ignoring her wail of protest. Grabbing a pillow with one hand, he used the other to flip her to her stomach. He jammed the pillow under her stomach, pointing that delicious bubble-butt in the air as he crouched behind her, like the animal he felt like.
Before she could brace herself, he’d poised his cock at her wet, ruby red opening and was driving in.
This was better. All the pleasure, and fuck she felt good on his bare skin, with none of the longing looks and terrifying intimacy.
Finally, his control slipped its leash. He pounded into her almost brutally, drinking in each of her gasps, savoring her grunts as he drove her into the mattress. He was swelling, swelling, and then he came.
It felt like he came for hours, for years. Her body soaked in his scalding release, and with the first spurt he felt her pussy seize up again, clutching him in yet another powerful climax.
When the storm passed, he meant to get up. To go shower. To regroup. Instead he collapsed against her, only barely managing to direct the bulk of his weight to her side before sleep claimed him.
What works for you? What sex scenes have you read that take your breath away no matter how many times you re-read them?
