Remember, you have to post to win!

A note from Tina:

I’m offering a scavenger hunt at all three places and my site to celebrate the release of my newest erotic romance Lush Velvet Nights. I’ll be posting four questions throughout the day on my blog – answers found on my site – the lucky winner will get her choice of one of the following:

Adored – 4 stars Romantic Times – Second Place Winner NEC RWA contest2
Deep, Dark, Delicious – nominated for Book of the Week Whipped Cream
Reviews
Close to Perfect – 4 stars Romantic Times – “A walk on the wild side for romance readers”
Bad Boys with Red Roses – an erotic anthology with my novella “Tempt Me, Tease Me,
Thrill Me”
Take My Breath Away – 4 ½ stars Romantic Times – an RT Top Pick – Booklist wrote: “Fans of Lori Foster will enjoy Donahue’s light, sexy romp.”

So please join me today at Delilah’s, Book Junkie and at my site!!!

What makes for a satisfying sex scene?

Those who don’t read erotic romances would probably answer by saying the author should create vivid imagery. The passion should be obvious between the hero and heroine. The reader should be able to smell, feel, taste their lust.

While that’s certainly true, it’s not even the beginning of what makes for a satisfying sex scene. Before an author’s characters slip beneath the sheets there needs to be an intense build up of emotions so that the reader is sitting on the edge of her seat murmuring, ‘Now, now, now!! Dammit, now!’

You don’t reach that kind of intensity if your characters barely know each other but succumb to desire because they think their partner is hot. That’s physical attraction. And as we all know, great sex begins in the mind.

In my latest release Lush Velvet Nights, I wanted to draw out the sexual tension of each scene, to build anticipation in the minds of my fans and new readers. Just as importantly, I wanted to give the characters a bit of time to know and like each other, to be playful.

Here’s an excerpt to illustrate what I mean: In this scene, Nathan and Adriana are delaying their return to LA after a three-day erotic weekend at his mountain estate. After some heavy-duty sex scenes, I needed a fresh approach for their next encounter and came upon this. Adriana’s just hurled several snowballs at Nathan, catching him off guard and now he’s after her. . .

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Nathan grabbed her right foot. Shrieking, Adriana kicked at him. Her boot came off in his hand thanks to Hayley having wider feet than she did. She plowed through the snow with no real direction in mind. It wasn’t as if the neighbors were going to help her. Hell, they probably stood at their windows watching, waiting for Nathan to strip her bare and fuck her out here until she turned blue from the cold.

“No!” she cried. He’d grabbed the edge of the ski pants that came above her ankles, thanks to Hayley being several inches shorter than her. Adriana kicked as hard as she could and finally hit something solid.

Nathan bellowed like a gored bull.

Oh shit. Had she hit him in the balls? Rolling onto her back, Adriana gaped at his broad grin. He’d been pretending pain? Jerk. She gave him the finger and seesawed her legs so he couldn’t grab them.

Nathan rolled his eyes and sat back on his heels, away from her flailing feet, waiting until she wore herself out. Didn’t take long. Adriana lay panting in the snow, sweating from her exertions, too weary to swear.

Like a lion ready for the kill, Nathan crawled to her side and unfolded his body over hers.

She emptied her lungs in a bone-rattling scream.

“Holy fuck,” he barked, “stop that!”

Like hell. On another wail, her mouth hung open, which he promptly filled with his tongue. Adriana wiggled, partly in instinct to keep fighting, mostly in pleasure at the scrape of his bristly chin and cheeks against her skin. He muted her moans until she fell quiet again, her lips bumping his with her faltering breaths.

Lifting his head, Nathan inhaled deeply, his chest and belly pressing into hers. He wrapped his fingers around her wrists to keep her arms from moving and shifted his legs to trap hers. “No more screaming,” he growled, “I mean it.”

“Or what?” she countered, defiance and arousal heating her blood. Rarely had she felt more alive or eager to tempt. “You’ll call the cops? What if I tell them about your neighbor’s kinky parties?”

“You mean the ones the officers always attend?”

“You’re lying.”

“You’re keeping quiet from here on out. You’re going to do exactly as I say.”

Bravado and a desire to have him do his absolute worst got the better of her. “Oh yeah? Or you’ll do what exactly?”

He moved faster than Adriana would have guessed and certainly swifter than the snow should have allowed. On his feet, he reached down, grabbed her arms and pulled her to a standing position. She turned to flee. Hauling her back, he slung her over his shoulder, wrapped one arm around her legs and placed his free hand firmly on her ass.

Not to be outdone, she pulled up his parka and slid her gloved hands over and between his firm cheeks to stroke his balls through his jeans’ denim. His raspy gasps stopped, followed by a full body shiver that stole her breath. Emboldened by the power she wielded over him, Adriana taunted, “Gonna tie me to your bed now and take pictures with your cell phone so you can send them to your neighbors? Or are you going to tape us in the act and broadcast it via webcam to everyone in this neighborhood?”

He hefted her higher on his shoulder and trudged through the thick snow. “You’re nuts.”

No, he was. Adriana stared at the back of his place as his steps took them farther from it. They weren’t going inside? Good God, they couldn’t be going to his neighbor’s house, could they? Squirming, she tried to look over her shoulder and determine their destination.

His hand came down hard on her ass several times in punishment. “Quit wiggling or I’ll drop you right here.”

“You do that. I do not want to go to your neighbor’s house, Nathan. I refuse.”

His head moved from side to side. “You’re nuts.”

Why? Just because he had a good time at their weirdo gatherings didn’t mean she would. Adriana didn’t want to share him with anyone else, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to let another man touch her. After this weekend, she wasn’t certain she’d be able to date again even if a really nice guy asked her. “Put me down. Now. I mean it.”

“Whatever you say.”

She gasped. They’d reached the edge of the water. With today’s cloud cover the lake appeared murky and black, seemingly bottomless. “No!” She gripped his parka so tightly, she’d haul him with her if he tossed her into the lake.

“No what?” he asked, calmly.

“I won’t scream anymore, I swear.”

Unimpressed, he stepped closer to the inky mass.

She tried to swallow and could not. Her heart walloped at his remembered promise that she wouldn’t know what to expect from moment to moment. She recalled his comment about liking to be reckless. Enough to follow her into the water?

Her goose pimples got goose pimples at the thought. “I’ll be good,” she promised.

“How good?” he asked. His calm baritone held a hint of wickedness.

Her eyes closed. She trembled in renewed arousal. Her passion for him, her beginning love defeated everything else, even the hopelessness of these minutes together, which she knew wouldn’t last. “I’ll do anything you say. Whatever you want me to do.”

He brought her inside, stripping her in a room she hadn’t seen before. A large Jacuzzi dominated the space. Puffs of steam rose from the bubbling water, fogging the edges of the double glass doors, though not enough to obscure her view of the side yard or a neighbor’s gaze into here.

Nude, Nathan led her to the wall farthest from the water. Thick white towels hung from two gold circular rings spaced several feet apart. He tossed the rectangular cloths on the gold-leafed stone floor and grabbed her wrists. With her back against the smooth wall, he directed her arms through the rings.

Hands on her breasts, thumbs rubbing her nipples, he said, “Spread your legs.”

With them parted and her arms held out and supported by the rings, she became his prisoner, bound by her words and heart to do as he willed.

Nathan sat cross-legged between her feet with one hand on her ass to prevent her from pulling away and the other on the turgid petals between her legs. As he explored her clit with indolent strokes, she gritted her teeth but did not move.

His mouth replaced his hand. His tongue lapped her nub unhurriedly as his fingers slipped between her cheeks. He gained entrance into her anus with his forefinger, using the invasion to imprison her further. Adriana’s nostrils widened to allow her more air. Her forearms tightened with her clenching fists. What might have been enough for most men wasn’t for him. His other fingers traveled the length of her slit with two dipping into her opening.

Restrained and used, Adriana suffered the sweet torture, punishment for her previous disobedience. Hours seemed to pass as he worked her clit hard yet carefully so she wouldn’t come. Sweat shone on her face, throat and chest. Her legs quivered and her shoulders ached before he allowed her climax.

On her final cry, he pulled his fingers from her and pushed to his feet. Her breasts shook with her convulsive breaths. Through slitted lids, Adriana watched him pad to the other side of the Jacuzzi and sit on the edge, his long legs sinking into the steamy water.

His eyes met hers. “Don’t move,” he ordered.

The wait is what makes the sex worthwhile. 

Lush Velvet Nights is available now from Ellora’s Cave.