Romance Versus Reality

Most of what I write takes place in the future and/or on other worlds and/or with otherworldly creatures. So sometimes in my sex scenes the hero doesn't use a condom because a) he's a vampire and either can't transmit (or contract) diseases and/or get the heroine pregnant, or b) it's futuristic and STDs have been eradicated and injections keep those randy little sperm under control.

Another Ellora's Cave author, Lorie O'Clare, asked the question on her blog (check it out here) "What's the most unrealistic scene you've read in a book?" I checked out the reader responses, and quite a few seemed to have a problem with the non-use of condoms. Which I understand--it's too risky these days to have unprotected sex unless you know--and I mean absolutely, positively, chiseled-in-stone, saw-the-original-blood-test-results KNOW--that your partner is clean. (By the way, my current work in progress is a contemporary menage. One of the heroes just had sex with the heroine and, by golly, he wore a condom.)

So here's my question. How realistic should romance be? Where does the line between squick and still hot land?



"A little bad test is like a nice dash of paprika." ~Dorothy Parker