This book. *fans self*
Captive Desire is the second in Robin Lovett's Planet of Desire series of erotic sci-fi romances. Each book stands alone and I can confirm that I really enjoyed this one without having yet read the first, Toxic Desire. The premise is that a ship of rebel humans has been shot down and crash-landed on a sex planet. Yes, there's a toxin in the air that makes everyone need to have sex. Without an antidote, the toxin will eventually kill them.
On the planet are two groups, the Fellamana and the Ssedez. The Fellamana are native to the sex planet and have very fluid attitudes toward sex and desire and intimacy. The Ssedez are not so open, in large part because they have what they call "The Attachment," their version of fated mates.
The hero of this novel, Gahnin, lost his mate 100 years ago when humans killed her and their child. The mourning period is set at 200 years, so he's still in morning when the book begins. The heroine, Assura, is a human who's worked for years as a professional torturer for the human general, Dargrule. (We find out later that she took on the job so she could help the people she was assigned to torture, it's complicated.) True enemies-to-lovers.
Anyway, they meet up and she's taken prisoner for a short period. Then she and Gahnin fight, which breaks the Fellamana nonviolence laws. Their punishment? They have to participate in the sex games. By this point, the hero and heroine have already been engaging in all manner of sex-planet-induced shenanigans, and their "display" is intense. There's a lot of sex in this book, some of it rather inventive.
While this is an erotic romance, it's still definitely a romance. The two are reluctant to open their hearts, but all of the sex is enthusiastically consensual. There are repeated check-ins and it doesn't feel coercive like some sci-fi romances I've read.
There's also a substantial plot involving the spaceship that Assura and the rebels broke off from. I won't spoil it for you, but it was definitely rewarding. My one complaint is that I wanted the book to be a bit longer, with more of an emotional payoff for the central couple. There's absolutely an HEA, but Gahnin gives in to the Attachment pretty swiftly.
I have the first book on my Kobo and I plan to dig in this weekend. These are intense (and excellent) books, which means I read until around 2 am and that's not a weeknight activity!
