SPEAKING OF TEMPERATURE

Most obviously, there's the weather. Be it a sultry June day in the city or a hot afternoon spent nearly naked on a beach full of sweaty men, there's no doubt that summer spells lust for a lot of us. And when it comes to hot and wet, a steaming Jacuzzi for two, hard dicks bobbing just below the surface, is steamy indeed. Not everyone's crazy for heat, though.

"Heat makes me feel slow and dumb," says one August-hater. "I like the winter, chilly and crisp outside, so I can snuggle under the covers in a warm bedroom with an, excuse the pun, hot guy."

On the other end of the thermometer, there's heat. Though some men enjoy very intense heat and fire scenes, it's really an area for experts. But more gentle heat can add sweaty special effects to any sex scene. Body rubs that warm the skin are widely available, and can be used in erotic massage or to warm through nipples as they're being played with. They can also be used on the most sensitive parts of the body - dick, balls, butthole. (Oddly, many of these heat-up sex rubs actually warm up when you exhale on them, a hot blow job indeed.)

One bottom who was fucked by a dildo spread with Vick VapoRub says, "It kinda made my hole feel like it was stretched twice as far as it was, but it didn't hurt. Paradoxically, it felt, like, cold." But here's where things get tricky. The heat of these rubs can increase gradually, possibly harming the delicate membranes of the anal lining or dick before anything feels wrong. And, of course, you want to keep Algi Pan and his cousins out of eyes and mouths.

For real sensation hogs, there's the thrill of contrast. A bottom whose bottom has been spanked into a red heat can be sent through the roof with a trickle of ice water dribbled onto his burning buttocks. Or an eager nipple can be swiped with an ice cube before hot wax is (carefully, please) dripped from a tilted candle. This all may seem a bit kinky for someone whose idea of a good time is to get hot and sweaty in the back garden before the boyfriend soaks his clothes down with the garden hose, but the principle's the same. And, frosty or hot, the fun's erotic.

So whether the weather is snowy or sunny, the mercury going up or down can make your hard-on rise. Just be sure to wear a raincoat.

Simon Sheppard

San Francisco artist and activist Simon Sheppard is best known for his contributions to the erotic literary scene. He wrote hundreds of stories that appeared in S/M magazines; erotic anthologies; and over twenty editions of Best Gay Erotica and Best American Erotica. His Sextalk column has appeared on OutUK for more than 20 years. You can find out more about Simon Sheppard in this OutUK feature and tribute, or take a look at some of his many books that are still available:

       

Looking for something very sexy and just as smart? Man on Man collects the best and hottest gay sex writing by Simon, who is also co-editor of Rough Stuff: Tales of Gay Men, Sex, and Power as well as a collection of gay erotica called Hotter Than Hell.

In KINKORAMA : Dispatches from the Front Lines of Perversion he takes readers behind the unmarked doors and black vinyl curtains that lead to the sometimes shocking, often hilarious, relentlessly arousing scenarios of extreme sex. There are also stories of bears in Tales from the Bear Cult: Beat Bear Stories from the Best Magazines.