One of the major themes in my coauthored novel A Little Night Music is control: Having it, losing it, needing it, and needing to let it go. In the first sex scene, there’s a minor back-and-forth exchange of control. Hannah, the heroine, swore nine years previously, as a teenager, that she’d have a night of passion with her rock star crush, Nate. Now she’s working for him, and she plans to wait to have that night until after her job is done. Her plan goes awry when he makes it clear that he’s just as interested in her, and they agree to “get it out of their systems” so they can work together effectively. (Yeah, right, like anybody believes that will work!)
Buoyed by the heady knowledge that he wants her, she’s confident and flirty. She takes the lead, he takes it back—they’re equal, sharing the roles of seducer and seduced. But by the end of the scene, he’s reduced her to a puddle of lust—and it makes sense. He’s the rock god, she’s the adoring fan.
There’s a sharp contrast between that scene and one at about the midpoint of the book. Nate, a recovering addict, has successfully resisted an offer of drugs, but wakes up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, hammered by nightmares. The only thought he can cling to is that he wants Hannah.
This scene is short and not as graphic as many others in the book. She’s half-asleep, he’s half-desperate. There’s little foreplay; it’s right into the action, the need. It’s less about the sex itself and more about how this scene reflects Nate’s emotional change. He can allow himself to lose control when he’s with her, because it’s a safe place for him. His craving for her outstrips his craving for drugs, and (as he later realizes) his love for her gives him the strength to resist temptation.
Throughout the book, Nate encourages Hannah to take control. There’s never any hardcore BDSM; he simply finds it erotic when she’s on top, and he also knows that although she’s sexy and self-assured, she’s still questions whether she can compete with the starlets and supermodels of his past. Taking control boosts her confidence.
The final scene I want to mention is one that happens soon after the first of a series of dark moments for the heroine. As in every romance, there’s a point where it looks as though the two can’t be together, and Hannah has decided that’s true. She hasn’t told Nate yet, though, and she wants them to have one more incredible night together before she leaves.
We chose, however, to write the scene from Nate’s point of view. Without his urging, Hannah takes control. She’s powerful, wicked, seductive. All he knows is what she wants him to know: an incredible night.
But the reader knows there’s more to it than that, that it’s the last bright moment before darkness. Writing it from Hannah’s point of view wouldn’t have worked, because it would have been too sad, too focused on the knowledge of what daylight will bring. Ideally the reader will be swept away in Nate’s point of view, enjoying the eroticism, but still knowing what Hannah’s trying herself to ignore: That it’s a goodbye.
What it comes to is this: Know your characters. Know the theme. Know what changes for them when their lips meet, and their hands start to roam. Know how they’ll be different afterwards when they’re lying sated and sweaty.
Or just start writing, and watch all that develop.
A Little Night Music is available on Amazon.
Read an excerpt from A Little Night Music.