Character (C) + Emotion (E) > Plot Thrust (PT)
Although it could probably just as easily be expressed as C + PT > E, but that's probably another story and certainly another post. What I'm trying to get at is the interplay between your character's feelings and their actions, and the excitement and intensity which that can generate for the reader.
To show you what I mean, here is a quotation from Adam Phillips' book Monogamy, always a source for inspirational ideas. He says, "Suspicion is a philosophy of hope. It makes us believe that there is something to know and worth knowing...In this sense, sexual jealousy is a form of optimism." In his wonderfully dry way, Phillips is inviting us to examine the many and varied constituents of sexual jealousy, always a ripe theme for fiction. A character in the grip of a strong emotion can behave in intensely dramatic ways, which can only be a benefit in terms of sending your plot veering off in unexpected directions, which in turn helps to maintain narrative tension.
Suspicion is sometimes the impulse that makes you want to look through the keyhole of a closed door. This one would be perfect for a bit of Italian Renaissance-style skulduggery...
If you are looking for inspiration of the darker kind on this sunny day, why not write a short story which has sexual jealousy and suspicion as its main engine, and see to what extremes it can take you....
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