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Drawing on recent claims in the study of relationships, attachment, and emotion, the authors hypothesized that romantic love serves a commitment-related function and sexual desire a reproduction-related function.
...we define romantic love as a motivational state associated with feelings of attachment and the inclination to seek commitment with one partner, and we define sexual desire as a motivational state that leads the individual to seek opportunities for sexual activity.

Is there evidence that differentiates brief occurrences of romantic love from those of sexual desire? To our knowledge, the answer is no.

Romantic Love and Sexual Desire in Close Relationships. Gian C.Gonzaga, et al. Emotion. Vol 6. No. 2, 163–179.

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In Study 1, we found that the momentary experiences of romantic
love and sexual desire were distinct in their experiential correlates,
expressive behavior, and relationship outcomes. In terms of
experience, love and desire correlated with different emotions.
Love related most strongly to happiness, an approach-related state,
whereas desire was more strongly correlated with arousal andstates, such as fear and concern, that enhance attention to others. In
terms of expression, self-reports of love—but not desire, happiness,
or arousal—were related to affiliation cue displays (e.g.,
Duchenne smiles, gesticulation), whereas self-reports of desire—
but not love, happiness, or arousal—were related to sexual cue
displays (e.g., lip bites, touching the lips). In terms of relationship
outcomes, love was correlated with a variety of measures of
increased commitment. Desire but not love correlated with measures
of sexual satisfaction and behavior. We observed the relationships
between love and measures of commitment and between
sexual desire and measures of sexual behavior across different
ethnic backgrounds, attachment styles, and lengths of relationship,
which suggests some degree of universality in the markers of
momentary romantic love and sexual desire.