“Bodice rippers”
One of the most cleverly disguised rape-and-lace scene containing book series I’ve ever read was written by a man, written in the first person with a male narrator and not a romance series-Jack Whyte’s Camulod Chronicles-most of it is battle scenes and strategy, and the sex is more geared toward the male reader with graphic descriptions of stuff like voyerism, group sex, etc but the tender moments between the main male characters and their wives and mistresses are rather romantic, and the men aren’t complete brutes.
Some of Bernard Cornwell’s “Saxon Chronicle” novels also have some unexpectedly romantic and emotional moments between the characters amid the more graphic scenes of sex and battle as well.
Sweet Savage Love........a classic.
;^)