"Wickedness is a myth invented by good people

to account for the curious attractiveness of others."

-Oscar Wilde

It probably wouldn't  surprise you to learn that despite a middling command of (and a mountain of time spent reading) the works of Oscar Wilde, I actually found this quotation in the work of one of my favorite romance writers, Judith Ivory. 

Because, really - isn't this the founding principle of the romance genre?