I had fun playing around with the steps of intimacy in my soon to be released book, Temptation of the Warrior. The hero (Merrick MacLochlainn) suffers a head injury almost immediately after meeting the heroine (Jenny Keating), and he loses consciousness. When he awakens, he’s got a terrible headache, and doesn’t know where he is. Nothing is familiar … which is true in every way. Merrick is from a magical world and has traveled 1,000 years into the future to pursue an important mission for his people. But in addition to his unfamiliarity with our world, he also suffers from a temporary amnesia due to the head injury.

While he is unconscious, a band of gypsies happen upon him and Jenny, and take them in. So Merrick awakens in a strange place with a woman he does not recognize. He doesn’t know it, but when the gypsies assumed they were man and wife, Jenny let them continue believing it, for safety’s sake. She has just escaped from a terrible situation, and does not want to be dropped into it again.

Since Merrick believes he and Jenny are married., the usual progression of intimacy is thrown out. Here are the usual steps:

1: eye to body
2: eye to eye
3: voice to voice
4: hand to hand
5: hand to shoulder
6: hand to waist
7: face to face
8: hand to head
9: hand to body
10: mouth to body
11: touching below the waist
12: intercourse

Since Merrick thinks Jenny is his wife, he mistakenly figures they’ve already hit number twelve. In spite of that, she seems very shy, so Merrick decides they must not have been married for very long. She confirms this, and he assumes her reticence is due to the fact that he does not recognize her, which makes her uncomfortable.

The bottom line for Merrick is that he must seduce her all over again. Since he “knows” he’s already been intimate with her, he progresses to numbers 4, 5, and 6 very quickly. They get to number 10 before she knows what’s hit her.

Needless to say, he manages to win her, but not without a few twists and turns of the plot. I hope you’ll watch for this book when it comes out late in March. Next week, I’ll post an excerpt on my website. I’ll give you the link here.