The more romance novels you read, the more you become a connoisseur of sex scenes. And while the romantic ones can be scintillating, more often it’s the knock-down, drag-out sex that borders on a fight that garners a scene a permanent slot in the memory bank.
Something special happens when the gentleness falls away and passion takes over. Frequently we see characters who are angry at one another because they want to protect their lover. The challenge gets pushed and pushed, until it’s either throw a punch or fist their hair and devour their mouth.
When the H&H team started talking about our favorite angry sex moments around the virtual water cooler (OK, it was Twitter), I immediately said my unequivocal favorite is the beloved tunnel scene in Stacia Kane’s City of Ghosts. I’m going to tell you what happens and what makes it so hot, but as it’s in the third book of the series, some people will consider it a spoiler. Consider yourselves officially warned.
Terrible, the novel’s hero, has been giving Chess, the heroine, the silent treatment. He laid his heart out for her and she blew it. She wasn’t ready then, but now wants nothing more than to get back that connection to him. They’re working together, which makes his refusal to make conversation all the more piercing. As they trudge through a tunnel, Chess decides she’s done. She demands that he give her some kind of reaction.
She invites him to hit her. If kicking her ass will make him feel better, put them on more level ground, then she’s in. She just wants something. Some proof he feels. When he finally lets go, it’s in the way of a forceful kiss. The kind that bruises. Biting and grabbing and the like follow in quick succession as these two let out aggression via violent sex in a dank tunnel. I promise, you’ll never look at those water runoff tunnels again. Ever.
Does the fury-fueled fornication fix everything? Of course not, but it does change things and put them on a road to admitting being together wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
I asked a few of my fellow H&H bloggers for their favorite angry sex scenes. Here are their suggestions:
Laurie Gold flagged the favorites Eve and Roarke for one of her favorite volatile sex scenes. Specifically, these two don’t pull punches when they shed clothes in J.D. Robb’s Judgment in Death.
Megan Mulry says the entirety of Christine Monson’s Stormfire is angry sex. (And, yes, I did add it to my to-read list on that tidbit alone. Who needs book blurbs with promises of that kind of heat?)
Keira Gillett says Carolyn Jewel’s Scandal brings serious intensity. When the hero and heroine hit the bed after their wedding, she’s screaming her hatred of him in between moans. Yep. I hate you so much, but don’t stop.
Janet Webb promises Mary Balogh’s Christmas Promise brings the anger. The couple’s first time is full of anger and distrust. Janet told me it’s “really quite disturbing.” Whenever the emotions are too much to express any other way that can happen.
And, while not literary, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include Buffy and Spike’s supernatural-powered throw-down of a sex session. When these two finally gave in, it was half-battle, half sex and the blend of powerful blows and thrusts, the vampire and the slayer brought down the roof, literally. Some people break beds—these two broke a whole building.
Now, the real question: What’s your all-time favorite angry sex scene? Leave them in the comments, and we can all expand our to-read lists.
While Chelsea Mueller runs Vampire Book Club, she won’t turn down a sexy werewolf, demon or faerie. (Her husband often reminds her that she’s taken.)
