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So apparently I did a shocking thing.  In my new book, COLD AS ICE, my hero, an undercover agent, had sex with men in the past, as part of his job.  This seemed entirely reasonable to me – when you’re undercover, you’re undercover, and there’s no need to be persnickety about it. 

And trust me, my heroes are never persnickety.  Cold, deadly, gorgeous, amoral by most people’s standards (though they do have a twisted morality of their own), the heroes of my ICE series wouldn’t hesitate about anything.  Bastien, the hero in BLACK ICE, stands by as the heroine, an inconvenient innocent, is almost tortured to death by one of the myriad bad guys.  It takes him almost as long to rescue her as it took Darth Vader to jump in and save Luke in Return of the Jedi.  And yet oddly enough people are more ready to forgive such cold-blooded practicality than Peter Jensen’s sexual flexibility (as Publisher’s Weekly called it) in my new book.  Assassination if fine, just keep your hands out of another man’s pants.

In truth, I didn’t plan to write about a sexually open-minded hero.  He was a strong supporting character in BLACK ICE, working undercover as the lover of a male arms dealer, and I had no intention of writing a sequel.  But when it came time to write another book I couldn’t let that world go, and beautiful, cold Peter was the only one available for hero duty.

I half expected my editors to try and make me tone it down, which would have ended up with an interesting battle. I don’t set out to shock people, but I don’t shy away from it if the story calls for it.  And really, what’s so shocking about a man who’s had physical encounters with another man, in the line of duty or not?

I’ve gotten my first horrified reaction – a review at Amazon reviling me for Peter’s past choices.  What do you think?  Is sex with another man a deal-breaker for you in a hero?  Or is it (gasp)a turn on?

Outside the romance world people are astonished that something like that would shock readers.  (In the erotica world they’re going “oooh, yeah!”).  But the bottom line is my books are intense.  You pay a high price for that happy ending.  But the more you have to go through, the sweeter the triumph.

Peter and Genevieve go through a hell of a lot, and a few odd sexual encounters in his past are the least of their worries.  Genevieve is understandably much more upset by his habit of killing people, no matter how wicked they are, than his offbeat sexual history.

It makes perfect sense to me.  I’m of the “make love, not war” generation and yet my heroes kill.  There’s something about the appeal of a man who can break the greatest taboo—not sex with another man, but to end a human life.  I abhor violence and war, and yet I’m fascinated by soldiers and assassins and killers, as are many readers.  If any of you have a theory about it I’d love to hear it.

Peter’s a killer, an expert at all sorts of manipulative sex who finally learns how to make love.  And that’s worth all the trouble he went through, no matter how much I piss off my more squeamish readers.

Because, when it comes right down to it, a hero’s gotta do what a hero’s gotta do.  Even if some people really wish he wouldn’t.

[A note From Eloisa:  Anne’s going to give away two copies of COLD AS ICE this evening, chosen from the commentators, so be sure to check back and see whether your name is announced!]