Watch out, this is one naughty post from author of everything sexy romantic suspense, Jill Sorenson!
Hello KB! I had so much fun talking about lady flavors the last time I visited that I couldn’t wait to come back with a related topic. Today I’m focusing on oral pleasure for him. What makes a blowjob scene hot—or not? Which authors excel at writing them?
I was shocked when I first encountered a “real” blowjob scene in a mainstream romance novel. Thank you, Lori Foster. The heroine went down on the hero in the shower and didn’t stop until he climaxed. Since then I’ve read plenty of similar scenes, and even written a few myself. This particular act can be difficult to romanticize. We want to read about generous heroes who prefer to give, rather than take. When the heroine is the one doing the pleasuring, I have to believe she’s really into it. Nobody likes a ho-hum hummer.
Victoria Dahl takes going down to a whole new level in Talk Me Down. I love how Molly uses nonverbal cues to let Ben know exactly what she wants:
“Mmm,” she hummed against his skin, then she parted her lips and took him inside her, slow at first, then as deep as she could.
He was a heavy, pulsing weight against her tongue. Perfect, just like she’d always wanted. She took him deeper than she’d taken any man and heard him groan her name. Licking, sucking, she felt him grow even bigger, just for her. His fingers tangled in her hair.
Tension wound through her belly and squeezed her sex tight. She’d masturbated to this fantasy so many times, she knew she’d hardly even need to touch herself to come. Her body had memorized him long ago in her dreams.
When his hand tightened in her hair, she moaned her approval, but he didn’t play along. Ben was far too much a gentleman to be more aggressive than that. How could he know she didn’t want tenderness? She hoped he could take a hint.
Molly eased off him, offering playful licks and kisses inside of the deep-throated ones he wanted. She teased and tortured him until his fingers tightened and pulled her the slightest bit closer. She obliged, just until the pressure stopped, then she teased some more. They played through the cycle two more times until he finally gave in.
His hand spread across the nape of her neck, his fingers closed around her hair, and he guided her over his dick, pressing her deep, setting the rhythm he wanted.
Oh, God. Her clit felt tight as a bullet, sending out shards of pleasure each time her thighs rubbed together. Molly squeezed the muscles of her sex, keeping rhythm with Ben’s dick sliding into her mouth.
When that wasn’t enough, she slipped her hand into her panties and touched herself, groaning her ecstasy into his cock…
Whew! Hot stuff, right? It’s also a brilliant piece of characterization. We see that Molly is a take-charge kind of girl, eager to act on her desires. She isn’t afraid to communicate her sexual needs to Ben. There’s nothing weak or submissive about her character, despite the fact that she’s on her knees, begging to be dominated.
Although the scene is in Molly’s POV, we also know that Ben is a gentleman because of his actions. I loved his initial reluctance to get aggressive and his eventual capitulation.
Dahl’s scene is my favorite of all time (best BJ friends 4-ever!) but there are several others that spring to mind. Beth Kery writes sizzling erotic romance with exquisitely graphic sex scenes. I was wowed by the blowjob in Wicked Burn. If I remember correctly, the hero wraps the heroine’s pearl necklace around the base of his shaft. He rolls the beads up and down…while she’s going down.
Some of the scenes that stand out in my memory have a harder edge. In the roughest BDSM romance I’ve read, One Breath at a Time by Gwen Masters, the heroine gets deep-throated so completely that she can’t breathe. I also remember a dirty man-on-man BJ from LB Gregg’s Happy Ending. The hero comes on his lover’s face, which I might have found offensive in m/f. In this story I thought it was pretty hot, not to mention true to the characters and appropriate for the tone of their encounter.
For me, a successful oral sex scene isn’t simply a detailed account of the act itself. It’s not about how well-endowed the hero is, or how much the heroine can swallow. It’s more about the interaction between the characters, their deepening connection, and the way they express themselves physically.
I wouldn’t say that any of my scenes compare to the examples I’ve given, but I thought I’d include a snippet anyway. The Edge of Night has a secondary romance between the hero’s younger sister and a troubled gang member. Here they are in the passenger seat of Eric’s car. Bon apetit!
Coming from Bantam Dell on April 5th
She slid down to the floorboards, kneeling between his splayed knees. “Plenty of room here.”
A muscle in his jaw jumped as he took another glance out the back window, checking the deserted parking lot. “We’re going to get caught,” he murmured, but it was a token protest. He wanted this. When she took off her bra, his eyes glazed over.
Smiling, she pressed her lips to his abdomen. “No one can see me.”
He started at her mouth, swallowing hard.
Delighting in her feminine power, Meghan unbuckled his belt and lowered his zipper. “Tell me what you like.”
He said something in Spanish, more a curse than an instruction.
She tugged down the front of his boxer shorts and circled her hand around him, squeezing and stroking. He watched her tentative motions, mesmerized. When she bent her head to him, tasting the hot skin, he shuddered. Emboldened by his response, she swirled her tongue around the blunt tip.
“Fuck,” he choked, threading his fingers through her short hair. “Open your mouth.”
Would you like to win a copy? Let me know in the comments by Friday April 1st. This is also open internationally.
What do you think about oral sex scenes? Do you have a favorite or least favorite? Is this act too graphic for mainstream romance? When it comes to BJs, is crude behavior and rough handling acceptable?
17 comments:
Well, I like oral scenes in books waaaay better than porn. LOL I get bored. I think that as a girl I have no clue how supposedly great it is for the guy so I don't quite get the fascination. Sure, giving someone pleasure is good in and of itself, but it's not the same as being able to imagine what that feels like.
I read only m/m romance so BJs are pretty much like handshakes. LOL Nice to meet you, unzip please. So I'm already out of the mainstream but I think in 2011 anyone who is shocked to read that in a romance is from another era. And because I read m/m I think there can be a level of agression and crude behaviour that maybe would not go over so well in m/f as it would seem to man-handly.
That is quite the picture. LOL
My favorite BJ scene is in the very beginning of Laid Bare by Lauren Dane. The heroine is into BDSM and the hero is fighting his BDSM desires. He doesn't think it is acceptable behavior for a gentleman. She quickly gets him to explore the rougher side of his nature when she gives him the first BJ.
I think it is perfectly acceptable to have oral sex in mainstream romances.
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I quite like oral sex scenes when they're done in the right way as you described above. When, as a reader, you can feel that it isn't just about sex but about giving pleasure to a loved one, it's done right in my opinion. I just read one of Lorelei James' Rough Rider books and, man, can she write blowjobs!
I had to laugh when you described your "shock" about your first blowjob in a mainstream book. I absoluteley felt the same! I only thought, no she isn't doing it, is she? But I was quite fascinated as well. lol
I've never read a book by Victoria Dahl, but I surely will now. ;)
I think its acceptable in mainstream romances. But its a fine line between tasteful and overally graphic which is where I think many get confused.
It depends on the scene and the characters for me. I think there are some authors that hit the nail in the head with their bj scenes and really make the pages steam and others that make you grimace.
On the top of my list for amazing scenes is Maya Banks, Lori Foster, Lora Leigh..
I don't think it is to graphic for mainstream so long as it fits the characters and the scene. I do think that there are times when sex does call for crude language and rough handling especially if it is raw sex.
I don't think oral sex scenes are too graphic for mainstream romance at all! I mean, these books are supposed to be the more realistic of the genre, right? Closer to real-life? Well, people definitel give BJs in real life!
And I don't think I would go so far as to saying "Oh I love reading BJ scenes!" because sometimes, I don't. It's all how it's written. I want the intimacy, not a D/s feel. That's not my thing. I want some love with my lovin' :-)
I would love to win a copy of your book!
Tam, you little whippersnapper! It was probably about 15 years ago when I read that Lori Foster book. So, yes, I'm from a different era. *gets cane and hobbles away*
By "mainstream" romance, I mean not erotic romance. But the lines are often blurred, as KB said in another thread.
StacieDM, I enjoyed that scene in Laid Bare. Reluctant Dom characters are good for me.
ClaudiGC, I've never read James but I've been meaning to. Sounds like hot stuff.
It seems to me that they're popping up everywhere nowadays in mainstream romances. It appears that if the author doesn't close the curtains right as the hero/heroine hit the bed, then we'll be reading some oral thrown in with the main dish. It almost feels obligatory.
In fact, I was just reading a new author today and after the first two times in the sack and there was no oral action, I was kinda surprised, but then it came later on and it read like it wasn't a big deal. So, perhaps we're very used to it now. Maybe even expecting it in all our love scenes?
I've seen them done in very vague and flowery terms, but it feels like no matter how you jazz it up with metaphorical terms, the reader gets the full picture of what's going on down there.
As for crude behavior or rough handling...it's acceptable (and hot!) when done correctly. The characters need to match the tone of the scene and the words of description (and even conversation) that the author chooses definitely needs to coincide with any rough handling. And of course, it always helps to know that even though it's rough, there's tenderness behind the act.
donnas, I think that line is different for every reader, author, book, etc. Even with this post I might have crossed the line for some people. I guess I'd rather go too far than not far enough. :)
Chelsea B, I agree about the love and connection between the characters. Without real feelings the hottest scene can fall flat.
sharon, I've come to expect it also. Sometimes sex without foreplay is hot and fits the scene (especially in rom suspense) but other times I question how good a lover the hero is if he doesn't care about a warm-up! LOL. Loving partners should want to please each other. In many ways. ;)
Of the examples I cited above, Every Breath You Take is the least tender. I found that scene intense and disturbing. I'd say those characters were obsessed with each other--not sure about love.
Why am I blanking out on BJ's in Lori Foster's books? I can only think of scenes where the hero gives than receives.
I have to admit I do enjoy the ones where the virginal heroines get a taste of the hero in historicals. The hero's reaction always cracks me up.
I don't think BJ's should be in the mainstream but on occasions only. Reason being?
Well, I am afraid they will lose their naughtiness, their element of surprise to me or whomever the reader will be, to be taken off balance from a sense of unexpected urgency.
If it becomes mainstream, it will become expected, normal, humdrum and it will lose it's thrust of surprise. That is why I don't want to see it in the mainstream, but placed in the category where one must search it out for its pleasures, for its' unexpected somethin'. Crude language, rough handling, raw sex, BDSM, they know where they should be in our books and our categories.
So I say, No, No, NO! I don't want to expect it, I want to be surprised by it whether it happens or not, surprise! I mean really in real life speaking for oneself, this stuff is not happening in every single sex act, that would get boring, quickly. So, I don't want to come to expect it, I don't want to read blase sex routines, I want to be aroused by them. That is why I read these books. I want something a little more than the usual.
Even though the scene is in Molly’s POV, we as well recognize that Ben is a gentleman because of his proceedings. I loved his initial disinclination to get antagonistic and his eventual admission of defeat.
I have no problem with oral scenes as long as the author does them right and they fit the story. Please enter me in contest. Tore923@aol.com
Great topic! Jill, I remember reading about oral sex in Bertrice Small's O'Malley's saga with all the harem girls and she was very explicit for my age, so I do understand the shock. Yes for me anything is fair in sex scenes when they are written well. I more concentrate on both parties feelings and sensations than on the act itself, otherwise it loses its charm.
I think just about anything is acceptable as long as the author makes us believe it is acceptable. Just found you - would love to win one of your books. :-)
MrsB. I totally agree! When the shock factor is gone, so is the thrill. There is a certain draw in reading something taboo or illicit.
Kara, I remember reading an old-school Bertrice Small with buttsex (omg!) which proves that shocking scenes aren't exactly a new thing. Some authors have been doing it dirty for a long time! LOL.
The random winner is #13 Tore! Please contact me at jillsoren1@aol.com
Thanks everyone!!
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