Perhaps this makes me a masculine brute, but I often read romantic fantasy books wishing they were more explicit. It's not just wanting sex. I just enjoy learning details about the bed pleasures of fictional couples I like. Sometimes it's that the author did such a marvelous job in building up the tension between them, and I feel cheated in not getting to witness the culmination of all those sparks flying. In the case of Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay, I remember being perplexed at random sex scenes between random characters (who weren't even emotionally attached), when a heartbreakingly beautiful couple in the book never got one (on-screen).
I don't think I'll ever be able to write erotica. I can't get that raw with my words, to the point where the reader is caught up in the physicality of it all. I'm too fond of my metaphors and I think I overemphasize the non-romatic plot. But I'm frank about my sex life in real life, because I think it's a natural intimacy to share with people you're attracted to and care about, and I like to acknowledge it among my characters who feel that way. It's not an insignificant step to take, but it's not (in my stories) earth-shattering. It may not be the best sex they've ever had, and they may not be each other's One True Loves. Just an expected development of a relationship which can manifest itself in a lovely medium of hands and mouths and, well, other parts.
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