Do nice guys finish last?

There’s no denying the appeal of the bad boy in romance. He’s broody and tough. He’s sexy and commanding. Whether he’s a rock star covered in tattoos or a CEO in an expensive three-piece suit, he knows what he wants and he doesn’t and he doesn’t take no for an answer.

But there’s another kind of hero in romance that’s just as sexy–the good guy.

In fact, that’s the kind of hero I prefer. Give me a hot K-9 officer or a small town single dad or a gruff mechanic with a heart of gold over a cruel billionaire any day. Guys who are close to their families and friends. Guys who make you laugh. Guys who want to behave but struggle to keep their hands to themselves when the heroine comes around. Not just because those guys feel so much more real to me, but because I love exploring the side of them that they don’t show to everyone else.

Maybe they have a filthy mouth. Or a secret bondage kink. Or they’re into role play in the bedroom. Because behind that bedroom door–or on the kitchen floor, dining room table, or front seat of their truck–that hero gets to shed his “good guy” persona right along with his jeans and T-shirt and let his deepest alpha desires take over. And the heroine–lucky girl–she gets to see him the way no one else does. (And hear him. And taste him. And feel him. I’ll stop there. But he smells good too. Like so, so good.)

And of course, that physical intimacy, that “reveal” of his secret alpha self, leads to emotional intimacy. He will fight it just like a bad boy would–he guards his heart just as closely, and he’ll make mistakes and say things he doesn’t mean–because even the good guys have scars and trust issues and fears about being vulnerable. But I love that about them. They’re so heartbreakingly real, and you know they want to be a good man, the kind of man that deserves the love of an amazing woman like the heroine.

This doesn’t mean they’re weak or lacking in brawny, big-shouldered, unrealistic-eight-pack-abs appeal. On the contrary, good guy heroes have just as many broad chests, rippling stomachs, chiseled jaws, smoldering eyes, and massively oversized throbbing, um, hearts as the bullies do. Their minds are just as dirty. Their sexual skills are just as honed. In fact, I like to think that the good guys work even harder to please a woman between the sheets, since they aren’t conditioned to feel entitled to everything they want.

So maybe it’s true–nice guys do finish last.

Because they make sure their women finish first.

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Melanie Harlow likes her martinis dry, her heels high, and her history with the naughty bits left in. Her stories are about modern couples falling in old-fashioned love, and even though romance is a fantasy, her heroes and heroines are everyday people with real problems who stumble on their way to happily ever after. She lifts her glass to readers and writers from her home near Detroit, MI, where she lives with her husband and two daughters.

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