The Danny and Michelle scenes on Monday's Guiding Light -- exploring the palace (ha! more like exploring each other) -- were unlike any I can recall ever seeing on a soap before. It wasn't the innuendo. We've seen that part a thousand times. It wasn't the atmosphere. We've seen that same kind of lusty haze of sexuality pervade many a scene (including theirs in times past). It wasn't the randy fun of the scenes' sexuality either.

While they did have all of the above in plenty, Monday's scenes had something more. It was the physicality. The actual actions, body movements, hand placements (in and out of the camera's view) that made these scenes different for me. I've often said that there are certain actors who just walk into a scene and you automatically think "S-E-X." I have never seen the like with a couple.

Until now.

Monday's scenes introduced that S-E-X like a lightning bolt. As Tracee wrote in "I Saw Your Tongue, It Licked My Heart," it doesn't really matter that they didn't have sex. What they said, and did (especially what they did) was more sexually charged than any soap love scene I've ever seen before. As I mentioned before, it was the actions more than anything else that made the scenes stand out - on both Stewart and Lenz's part (especially -- and prepare for a shock -- on Joie Lenz's part.)

I first noticed this particular body motion of hers in the pre-Shower scenes. Thursday's episode ended with a kiss. Friday's began with more passionate kisses, plus Danny lowering Michelle to the bed. What Lenz did was raise her body, specifically her hips and press herself against Stewart as he was laying her down. It was as if she were trying to get as close to him as possible . . . as if trying to satiate a burning need, an action described quite often in so many romance novels and one that certainly fit with Michelle's (drunken) state of mind.

When she did that, it was the first time I'd ever actually seen that particular motion filmed on daytime. The same motion happened time and time again in Monday's scenes. Recall the scene: the second scene with the two of them alone. Danny was leaning her against the desk, one hand below the camera's eye (we'll get to that later) and just about every time that he placed a kiss against her -- either her mouth, her face, her throat, shoulders, chest -- her hips would rise, pressing against, well, I'm sure you can figure out just exactly *where* she was pressing . . . . Or should I say *what* she was pressing against.

It was extremely titillating and spoke more of sexual intimacy than any number of staged love scenes could. Then, in their final scene as she was leading/pushing him towards the couch, Danny's hands were all over her (again, we'll get to that later), but her stance is what especially struck me. Her right leg was curved ever so slightly and raised just a tad, allowing a snug contact between those lower regions again.

Yeah, titillating is a good word.

Finally, I love how Lenz kisses his throat all the time. You don't often see women kiss their men the way a man kisses a woman all over on daytime (or even prime time and movies for that matter), and it's nice how she makes Michelle as enamored physically of Danny as he is of her.

Now, as for Paul Anthony Stewart . . . those hands and eyes and lips of his were just everywhere today, now weren't they? Let's start with the eyes - can we get anymore obvious (or salacious) than those roving eyes over her body as he noted the fact that she was no longer nine? 'Nuff said.

The kisses pressed all over her face, her neck, her shoulders, her chest. The bodice of Lenz's dress gave her an extra oomph! up top and those lips of his were all over her chest, including the upper swell of her breasts. And that kiss! You all know which kiss I'm referring to . . . well, may I just quote Drew from that long ago second wedding and say "Whew!" while fanning myself.

Now, the hands. Ahh, the hands . . . curved about her waist, his fingers resting against her ribcage, one finger pressed ever so slightly (or just laying in the air above) the underside of her breast. And in the final scene as Michelle was pushing him towards the couch, those hands were wandering all over her derriere and not just one hand, mind you, but both.

And then there was the unseen hand. We normally see his hands about her face, on her neck, etc., but while leaning her against the desk, one hand was out of the camera's range and taking in the position of their bodies, one kinda had to assume that that hand of his was a little busy below. An assumption, the director at least, had to have known gutter-minded viewer's would have (and this one certainly did.)

As I watched these scenes I had to wonder if Stewart and Lenz actually sit down and stage how they are going to do these, or if they just naturally go for it. If it's the former, then these two are incredibly 'free' actors. If it's the latter, well, one tends to think that there may be a sexual attraction between the two actors (not saying anything other than an attraction!) that translates completely onto the screen in an incredibly natural way.

Watching these two interact in any kind of setting, including sexually-charged ones, they look so natural, so free with one another, so like a couple madly in love, madly in lust that they can't get enough of one another. It sometimes feels a bit voyeuristic watching some of their scenes. It's as if these two are straight out of The Truman Show, real people, a real couple completely unaware of the millions of viewers watching and reveling in their every word, every touch, every kiss.

Kudos to Paul Anthony Stewart and Joie Lenz who make Danny and Michelle so believable in every way.

I also loved the dialogue - The images that Danny put in Michelle's heads (and ours!) of a tad bit more risqu� palace fantasies. Michelle's proclamation regarding her husband's amazing service to her 'needs.' Danny's assertion that Edmund was cool and so wouldn't mind their doing the deed in his office and his sidelong look at the couch and question, "how 'bout right here?"

Loved it ALL! And the dialogue . . . shall we throw in another "whew!" Fabulous verbal foreplay, racy and just this side the edge of indecent. And the topper was the delicious grins and smirks on Stewart and Lenz's faces and the naughty gleam in their eyes. I honestly can't recall a couple ever whose entire appearance in an episode was only in the contemplation of having sex in a less than socially acceptable place.

Plus, the writers hit jackpot with one of the lamest plot contrivances in story-telling history and actually made it work. Reva is right there on the monitor screen, all they had to do was focus on something other than each other and their needs for two seconds and they would have seen her. However, because of how Stewart and Lenz played it and because of how the scenes were written, the fact that they didn't concentrate on anything other than each other made absolutely perfect sense. I never once thought, 'you idiots! Look up! You're having a conversation and Reva is locked in that room, right before your eyes' because the two of them truly had eyes for only each other.

Considering their conversation, can anyone blame them? Of course not.

They are, after all, on their "hooonnnneeeeeymoon."

Jennifer H.