The song's black-and-white music video was directed by Keir McFarlane, and features Jackson visually inspired by actress Dorothy Dandridge, living the glamorous Hollywood life.

[3] As Jackson's contract with Virgin included a clause giving her the option to leave the label during this time, she returned to A&M in order to release Design of a Decade: 1986–1996, her first compilation album.

According to A&M president Al Cafaro, no new songs would be released, but "Runaway" and "Twenty Foreplay" were included as new tracks, being both recorded in July and August 1995 with Jackson's longtime collaborators Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

Instrumentation on the song includes guitar by Mike Scott, drums by Stokley, violins by Caroline Daws, Brenda Mickens, Helen Foli, Dick Massman, Laurie Hippen, Julia Persitz, Andrea Een, and Liz Sobieski, viola by Alice Preves and Hasan Sumen, cello by Josh Koestenbaum and Laura Sewell, bass by Greg Hippen, flute by Ken Holmen, and strings arranged and conducted by Lee Blaske.

[15] On the liner notes of Design of a Decade: 1986–1996, biographer David Ritz wrote that the track "infuses the melody with a lethal combination of carnal heat and emotional sensitivity".

[18] Gil L. Robertson IV from Cashbox named it Pick of the Week, noting that the song "aptly showcase[s] Jackson's continued evolution as a strong and highly-focused adult performer".

[19] On the liner notes of Design of a Decade: 1986-1996, David Ritz called "Twenty Foreplay" a "smoldering ballad, one of those Janet Jackson lovemaking rhapsodies that seem to stop the hands of time".

[20] On a contrary note, Billboard's Paul Verna felt that the inclusion of both tracks on the compilation "gives the collection extra sizzle, and suggests that Jackson's already lofty star is still on the rise".

[21] Paul Marsh from The San Francisco Examiner wrote that "Runaway" and "Twenty Foreplay" were not "that adventurous, but they're solid", complementing "if they were white of more bohemian, Jackson-Jam-Lewis might have been a hot modern rock band".

Jim Farber of the New York Daily News pointed out that Jackson had never "gone for the high-toned glamour she apes here", and felt she "glows like Marilyn Monroe at her leggy peak", writing that "her efforts to be seen as timeless couldn't be more transparent.

Analyzing Jackson's voice during the performance, he deemed it strong, although not "always the most layered of instruments, but it has a softness and a lilting sweetness that she managed to emphasize while still projecting well enough to cut through the clatter".