The Art of Seduction

As an erotic romance author, one plot element I face in every manuscript is how to bring my hero and heroine together--and how to get them interested in each other once they've made contact. That second part frequently involves some of the age old techniques of seduction.

Are they forced to work as a team for a common goal? Matt and Lena are thrown together under less than opportune circumstances--a forbidden sexual rite to mend the shattered environment-- in Nature's Pentacle, my March 25 release with Loose Id. They find their way into each other's arms before they've even been introduced, and then they're forced to stay together to outrun a rogue witch. But even so, winning each other's love takes everything from conversation, to gentle kisses, to a wild, all-out menage with a mutual friend and love interest.

When characters aren't thrown together through adverse circumstances or forced proximity, chances are you'll find even more elements of seduction. One person usually likes the other just a little bit more. In my most recent work, Stange Sabbats, coming soon from Loose Id, two of the characters win the love and affection of their partners using comfort, conversation--and every bit of sexual chemistry they can summon to get their love interests into bed with them.

So what forms of seduction work for you, as a reader or author? Candles and wine and elaborate feasts? Dancing? Talking? Sexy clothes--or lingerie? Shared interests? Explosive chemistry (a longtime favorite of erotic romance authors)? Taking risks? Breaking taboos? Kink? Walks in the park holding hands? A date to a sexy movie?

The sky's the limit here, so tell me about some of your favorite--or least favorite--seduction scenes from fiction, or your own experience!

My husband won my affection way back in 1984, with long conversations about art during our senior high art seminar. Better yet, on our first date to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, we admired an exhibit of a spectacular room with tapestries, thick rugs, every shade of red and crimson you could imagine, and front and center, a bed fit for kings to seduce their queens. We leaned together, whispering about what people could do in a bed like that. He touched my arm, I brushed my hand across his back. You get the idea. And all these years later, I remember every detail. Because the best seduction scenes, even ones as innocent as our high school romance, are unforgetable.