Sweet heat
Tender, affectionate intimacy. Explicit or not, the warmth is the point.
Glossary
Spice types, defined.
Heat level says how explicit. Spice type says what kind. Nothing here sits above anything else on the list.
Tone and pacing
Slow burn payoff
Long build, delayed contact, and a first payoff that earns the wait.
Instalust
Attraction lands on page one and the book never pretends otherwise.
Comfort spice
Low-stakes, safe, repeat-read intimacy. No dread attached.
Dark
Morally grey or villain leads, real violence, power imbalance. Tone, not consent.
On the shelf guide: Haunting Adeline
Angst-heavy
Emotional wreckage runs through the intimacy, not just around it.
Humiliation play
Embarrassment used deliberately as part of the charge.
On the shelf guide: Losers: Part I
Power and dynamic
Power exchange
One partner deliberately hands over control, on page and by agreement.
On the shelf guide: Haunting Adeline, Den of Vipers, Losers: Part I
BDSM
Bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism, masochism — negotiated kink practice.
On the shelf guide: Losers: Part I
Dom / sub
A named dominant and submissive dynamic that shapes the whole relationship.
Brat taming
The sub pushes back on purpose; the dom answers it. Mouthiness is the foreplay.
Service submission
Devotion expressed through care and attendance rather than pain.
Praise kink
Verbal approval — good girl, good boy — as the primary charge.
Degradation
Consensual verbal debasement used as arousal, not as cruelty.
Primal / chase
Hunt-and-catch energy. Running, pinning, teeth.
On the shelf guide: Haunting Adeline, Den of Vipers
Sadism / masochism
Giving or receiving pain deliberately, as pleasure rather than punishment.
Ownership / collaring
Belonging made explicit through marks, collars, contracts, or claim.
Corruption
One character deliberately leads the other past their own line.
Consent framing
Enthusiastic consent
Consent is clear, spoken, and part of the heat itself.
Negotiated kink
Limits, safewords, and aftercare appear on page.
Dubcon
Consent is present but murky — coerced, pressured, or clouded.
Non-con
Consent is absent in the scene as written.
Consensual non-consent
A pre-agreed scene played as if consent were absent.
Free use
Standing, pre-agreed access between partners.
Taboo
Taboo
The relationship itself is forbidden by role, rule, or setting.
Age gap
A significant age difference is central to the dynamic.
Stepcest
Step-family relationships, no blood relation.
Forbidden authority
Boss, teacher, guardian, priest — a power role that makes it off limits.
Cheating
Infidelity happens on page and isn't tidied away.
Somnophilia
Contact while one partner is asleep or waking.
On the shelf guide: Haunting Adeline
Voyeurism
Arousal from watching, or being aware of being watched.
On the shelf guide: Haunting Adeline
Exhibitionism
Arousal from the risk or fact of being seen.
Body and sensation
Breeding
Conception talk or intent used as the charge, pregnancy optional.
Size difference
Physical scale between partners is part of the appeal.
Knotting
Non-human anatomy that locks partners together.
Blood play
Blood, biting, or feeding used erotically.
On the shelf guide: Den of Vipers
Knife play
Blades used for sensation and threat, usually without real injury.
On the shelf guide: Den of Vipers
Impact play
Spanking, flogging, striking — pain as sensation.
On the shelf guide: Losers: Part I
Bondage
Restraint by rope, cuffs, or hands. Movement taken away on purpose.
Sensory play
Blindfolds, temperature, wax, texture — senses cut or flooded.
Edging / denial
Release delayed or withheld deliberately.
Overstimulation
Past the point of enough, and kept there.
Marking
Bruises, bites, scratches left as evidence.
Aftercare
The come-down is written with as much care as the scene.
Configuration
Why choose
She keeps all of them. No love triangle resolution.
On the shelf guide: Den of Vipers, Losers: Part I
Menage
Three partners together, on page.
Polyamory
An ongoing relationship structure with more than two people.
On the shelf guide: Losers: Part I
Sharing
One partner deliberately offers the other to someone else.
Touch her and die
Possessive protection carried to the point of violence.
Not quite human
Monster romance
A non-human partner whose body and instincts stay non-human.
Shifter
Animal instinct, scenting, ruts, and claiming.
Vampire
Blood, hunger, and centuries of practice.
Demon / fae
Bargains, bindings, and inhuman rules of desire.
Tentacles
Exactly what it says, and usually more than two.
Alien
Off-world partners and unfamiliar anatomy.
Your vocabulary, your record.
Heat, spice type, tropes and content notes — kept as separate, honest layers.
Track how you actually tag it