She further said the sentiment reflected in the song is "exactly what her girls are apt to shout behind closed doors" and that the lyrics are meant to reflect a woman's many moods and shifting desires: "I write from a female perspective, but I'm also telling men what women are really thinking and feeling about them. I don't want to be held and caressed every night. I'm talking about one man in the relationship. I'm not talking about being a slut and a whore." As stated by Scott Shetler of AOL Radio and Matthew Horton of BBC, the song features an aggressive tone, and dizzying percussion and electro elements create a "frenzied pace that Hilson matches with an intense vocal delivery." During the bridge and the chorus, she utters gasps and groans, like 'oohs and aahs' while singing the lyrics. As the first verse begins, Hilson sings: "Ooh ahh, baby don't stop / You know how I like it Daddy when you hit the spot / Ooh ahh, baby don't stop / Imma take control when I climb up on top". As the song progresses, Hilson sings that she is "so good, I'll make you think the bed is my workplace [...] Yeah, it's me, that's where you wanna be / I got the kind of pussy that'll keep you out the streets" just before Ross's verse begins, seemingly summing up the image Hilson is going for: "She looks like an angel, but she's sexy as hell." As a whole, the lyrical arrangements are about sexual desire and not holding back. The clean version of "The Way You Love Me" garnered generally positive reviews from music critics who noted the effective melding of the intense vocal delivery of Hilson with the rapid pace and banging beat of the song. Caroline Sullivan of "The Guardian" said that all the five songs Hilson penned for "No Boys Allowed", with the exception of the "frantic electronic firework 'The Way You Love Me', are too featureless to make an impression." Ben Hatliff of "The New York Times" commented that Hilson "gets a certain energy out of bossiness" on "The Way You Love Me" which according to him, goes far for a mainstream female singer in its boasting and sexual hunger. He also added that "it sometimes seems as if it were not a man at all she wants to boss around but Rihanna." Spence D. of IGN Music commented that Hilson moves "to a gritted-teeth half-rapped, half-sung approach" for "The Way You Love Me".