This is really interesting topic. I think "athletic" can work in the right context- but it’s hard to make it not sound silly, it makes you giggle more than blush. It definitely doesn’t work in the context of the Cheesemonger storyline, and I would probably agree with you about it being the most poorly written. For context:
[quote=]
Catherine is quite a beauty. Surely the best place for persuading her to join the Game is a private chamber. You wouldn’t want to be interrupted.
[Persuasion Success>]
Well, that was exhilarating. And athletic. No one as young as Catherine should know all those things.
Catherine smokes a cigarillo while you laze on a divan. It occurs to you that you were seduced as much as she. And she is carefully bringing the conversation around to matters of intrigue… [story stuff continues from here][/quote]
I think I understand the genre trope they’re going for, villainous spy seduces innocent into the world of backstabbing and intrigue, with the twist of her attempting a simultaneous seduction, trying to get into the life on purpose? But the crux of that trope is in the relationship between the two characters, and like you say, the description makes no effort to try and capture the complex and difficult emotions, and instead opts for the most blasé possible description of two people having sex with one another (It was exciting! Our bodies moved!) and then uh… a line I’m not sure I understand the point of. Hmm.
Also, I don’t know about best, but the Genial Magician probably has my favorite erotic scenes. I like how each one is presented with the structure of a kind of performance or magic trick, the focus on changing colors and flashes of different sensations, and on the heightened emotional state. I like the Urbane Magician’s the most, honestly, because it totally pivots to cold colors and electricity and sharp scratches and rustling scales, which are so exciting and so unlike the kind of descriptions in the trysts with other versions of the magician, while still using the same language.