Heather Little-White, Ph.D., Contributor

It is sweltering, humid and hot! Summer is here and it invites hot, steamy sex. Experts claim that warm temperatures contribute to passionate, sweaty lovemaking. Summer, the most sensual and erotic time of the year, facilitates flings and short-lived love affairs, as people move about in the outdoors, eating, having fun and relaxing.

The summer mood is conducive to being led astray to engage in lovemaking. Sex could be considered summer's fatal attraction.

According to the Journal of Couple and Relationship, men are more vulnerable to temptation, citing that 50 to 60 per cent of married men engage in extramarital affairs. Men are easily stimulated bysexy visual images and more flesh is out in the summer. With today's value systems, men and women will engage in sex for physical gratification without any lingering emotion and attachment.

Infidelity

For a summer sex fling, men will pick younger, less-serious women, and women will cheat on older, attractive men who can afford to spoil them. In this regard, women are inching up on the infidelity scale as the journal puts married women who engage in infidelity at 45 to 55 per cent. Many partners use summer as a time to go on separate vacations and outings with persons of the same gender. The woman may plan a girls' day at the beach and the men may go fishing or plan some bogus business conference, creating opportunities to carouse with the 'boys'.

Warm temperatures have an effect on hormones. Body temperature and hormone levels are higher as the day progresses than first thing in the morning. The sex hormones create feelings of sexiness when temperatures are high outside. This is why lovers will feel sexy when they go to the beach in the sun. Sex feels great in the water as the body is weightless. You feel light and buoyant and in the mood for sex. Engaging in outdoor sex in water guarantees everything is clean and fresh. With the smell of salt and the sea and the sound of water lapping (along with your partner) other senses are stimulated.

Libidos rise

A leisurely drive-out in the country also lends itself to memorable summer sex. Water is a sensual agent and can make sex hotter. Imagine that you are in the middle of nowhere and suddenly you get an 'I'm so happy to be alive!' rush, because it's just the two of you and Mother Nature.

If you're under the shelter of a tree or in a tent, a menacing storm or copious rain only makes outdoor sex even more cozy and intimate. Libidos rise when you are outside. Fresh air makes you feel energised and healthy and the child in you associates being outdoors with freedom.

While you are in the great outdoors, you may find that you are standing in front of or in a place you've been desperate to go to your whole life. There is enormous emotional significance attached to the moment. Having sex in, near or looking at a longed-for destination or landmark can turn an amazing experience into an out-of-this-world one. You're still not truly convinced you're there, so everything seems surreal and in slow motion. And even if the sex wasn't technically that great, it gets stored in the 'sex experiences never to be forgotten' category because you're fulfilling a lifelong fantasy.

Heat-stroke

To prevent heat-stroke, make plans to keep cool before engaging in torrid sex. One way to escape the summer heat is to dive into a pool, especially one in a shaded area. Rubber 'duckies' and other waterproof toys can add to the fun. Other ways to keep cool include using frozen water, which is made at home and then packed for travel. Showers are refreshing and stimulate the pores, making you feel sensuous.

It is believed that as the temperature rises, sex crimes also increase. For rapists, exhibitionists and those preoccupied with sex, this is their most beneficial time of year. Men flock to parks, shopping malls, festivals and places of pleasure to get erotic fantasies from women who wear shorts and skimpy clothing. Even on the bus, men will drool over young girls and women who dress scantily and sexy. According to one elderly man, "When they are standing in front of you on the bus, everything is in your face with the short shorts printing out everything ... their breasts hang out of their clothes and is in your face, only put a man in trouble ... "

Skimpy clothing

Several teenagers and women enjoy dressing skimpily. Joanna, who is 17, says she enjoys wearing skimpy clothes as she feels sexy and when men call to her, she feels that she is sexy and this makes her feel good about herself. Fashion designers make skirts and tops shorter and shorter, and that's fashion. Joanna feels that if you are not in the 'bling' and fashion no one will notice you. She adds, "I like when the men look, give a compliment, but don't pester me ..."

Joanna's friend, Kim, was not as lucky, as she was raped while making her way home from a music festival. She was dressed in her usual skimpy style - spaghetti straps, bare stomach and short skirt. Her rapist was not the stereotypical scary man with a knife, but her schoolmate who lived in her neighbourhood. He confessed that he had always admired Kim's body, especially her legs, and fantasised about making love to her one day. So, that early morning when he saw her walking down the lane, he knew his time had come for fulfil his dream. He had already had a couple of alcoholic beverages at the nearby bar, so he was ready for the 'kill'. As a muscular youth, he was able to overpower her, hold down her petite body and penetrate her, despite her pleas to be spared.

The prospects for sex increase in the summer months, but despite the temptation to give in to the 'heat of the moment', safe sex practices should be adopted.

Names changed for privacy.