Some great romances begin with the hero in bed with another woman.
I am in the middle of the wonderful Beast, by Judith Ivory. When the novel opens, the hero is in bed with his lover, the married Pia.
She’s selfish, sulky and vain, and I suspect she is going to do something awful to our hero and or heroine before the end.
It occurs to me that, in my experience, when romances open with heroes in bed with their lovers, these lovers are usually stupid, ridiculous, or vain.
For example, in Loretta Chases’ Your Scandalous Ways, James is in bed with Marta Fazi, who is “immoral and ruthless”. She also happens to possess some emeralds James is about to steal. The scene ends with her yelling to her henchmen: “Break his knees!” Later, Fazi tries to kill the heroine out of jealousy and insane rage.
In Karen Marie Moning’s Beyond the Highland Mist, Hawk is in bed with Esmerelda, but she notices something amiss:
She’d whimpered beneath him in the greatest ecstasy she’d ever experienced and he’d been looking out the window—as if no one else was there with him.
It wouldn’t do for the hero to actually be in love with his mistress, and this establishes that Esmerelda is irrelevant to Hawk.
Esmerelda is also bad. We learn right away she’s the jealous type: “Am I better than my sister?” she asks. Later, she tries to kill the heroine.
Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm opens with Christian in bed with his pregnant and married lover, Eydie. This character ends up being quite important to the story, and she turns out to be selfish and materialistic, but she’s pretty nondescript in this opening scene.
In each case, this early bedrooms scene sets up some very significant future conflict, albeit sometimes in surprising ways (Christian ends up getting caught by Eydie’s husband, dueling him, and having the stroke that brings him into close contact with the heroine, Maddy).
I can’t help but think that there must be counter examples, though. Cases in which the hero is in bed with an ok woman. She may not be the heroine, but she’s not eeeeeevil. Can you think of any?
Haha! I loved this post! I would add Julia London’s Highlander in Love to this list, but the woman was a prostitute and wasn’t at all evil, just disappointed. Also the hero went to her about the middle of the book when the heroine’s love was proving to be the last thing the hero could ever hope to have.
The novella I’m writing right now has the hero dragging a woman off to an empty room at a wedding reception (not his wedding) to have meaningless sex with her. She has no name in the story, never appears again, and isn’t bad, just sort of the type of woman who looks for the best guy (ie looks and money) to get involved with. It’s called The Wise Guy and will be out in February as part of the Child of the Week anthology from Noble Romance.
Keira from LoveRomancePassion wrote:
She fits the bill in terms of having zero claim on the hero’s affections, but since she’s not eeeeevil, it sounds like a good counterexample to me!
Lex wrote:
Wait … define “dragging”…
But otherwise, this also fits the bill. Thanks!
There’s at least one erotic romance that opens with the hero at a brothel. I’ll try to think of a title.
Here’s your definition. LOL
Her long slender fingers were damned talented though, he admitted to himself as she stroked him. He lifted the bottle of champagne to his mouth and drank deeply, knowing that the action appeared careless and arrogant to her. His head spun a little. He’d had way too much alcohol on an empty stomach which was probably why he was acting so out of character.
Setting the half empty bottle down, Rand let out a soft belch in the redhead’s ear. “C’mon, there’s gotta be a broom closet around here somewhere,” he muttered. Pulling her fingers out of his pants, he led her out of the huge room where the reception was being held.
©2008 Lex Valentine
So glad you are loving Beast! It is one of my favorite romances in all of creation.
I have always thought that the book’s one weak spot was that it didn’t seem consistent that a man as otherwise discerning as Charles would be involved with someone as unappealing as Pia.
I actually have a book in mind which I would love to write someday that starts with the hero in bed with a woman other than the heroine, who is not really a bad person, just the wrong person for him. I would love to write a book about this other woman, too. But first, I have to get my current WIP finished! And who knows if by the time I get to the other book it will have the same opening.
Lex Valentine wrote:
Hey, that sounds intriguing, belch and all.
Janine wrote:
Well, I did enroll in the Crash Course in Great Romance by Professor Janine. Didn’t you check your class roster?
I would love to read your WhIM (Work in Mind)or your WIP, but I can’t read either until they are WIMSLH (works in my sweaty little hands) so get cracking!
Well, if you haven’t already, you’ll have to check out Black Silk by Ivory as well. The hero’s sex scenes with his non-heroine lover continue well into the book and present her as a likeable if flawed character. Very unusual book.
Is there anyone who doesn’t adore Judith Ivory?
Wow, what an interesting run-through. I’ve actually been thinking about this a little bit recently but it’s entirely self-serving…my WIP (which I term a romance but not a romance novel, if that makes any sense, largely because it doesn’t particularly follow the genre “constraints” I suppose) has the female main character embarking on a nice little affair with a man who’s not the one she ends up in love with. The man is not a bad guy, just a guy she’s known forever and turns out to be a close friend even after their affair ends. I think one of the main reasons I disqualify my own WIP from being considered a romance novel is because of this affair, which doesn’t fit anywhere into any other romance novels I’ve read.
I do find it really interesting that I can’t think of many romances that have the sex outside the hero/heroine. To be fair I don’t get a wide range read, but that’s interesting. If someone knows of one where the “third wheel” is not evil – and more so, a main or solid secondary character – I’d love to read it. (And thanks for letting me talk about myself for a minute. I must go back to being Midwestern humble now.)
Well, that’d be the one I’m working on.
Both hero and heroine are in relationships. Hero’s engaged and heroine’s got a long-term “friend with benefits.” Neither of the “other” people are bad/horrible/rotten and all breakups are handled amicably and with a great deal of common sense.
I know. Weird, huh?
Yeah, who’da thunk that romance novel people can be real people?
I want to read it…whenever.
Actually, I can think of one, but I am not sure whether it fits the category of romance: Megan Hart’s Broken.
The plot is: Sadie, whose husband is a paraplegic, and Joe, serious man whore, meet for lunch monthly, during which Joe recounts his affairs. Sadie also has sex with her husband. All of these encounters are graphically described … not really “off stage”, although technically the reader is not “witnessing” Joe’s sexcapades, but rather picturing them through the heroine’s imagination.
Still, there’s an extenuating circumstance: the husband’s disability.
Probably the most egregiously irritating example I can think of is Loretta Chase’s Your Scandalous Ways. The heroine is a PROSTITUTE, yet we never see her with any other man, nor even read about past lovers, even prior to her dalliances with the hero. she’s the most virginal prostitute in all of romance fiction.
@ Tumperkin: Yes, that’s on my list. And I am finding that there are some people who think Judith Ivory is overrated.
The Virginal Prostitute…isn’t that a Harlequin?
I coincidentally just read a book that fits – Once Upon a Scandal by Barbara Dawson Smith. The hero is introduced in bed with his mistress and she encourages him to return to his wife. Perhaps he was a lousy lay.
Catherine Coulter also wrote a number of heart-of-gold mistresses who try to repair marriages.