On friday, me and my boyfriend discovered we both love choking, as in I love to be submissive to him, and he loves being dominant, and we feel like this through him choking me while we have sex... It feels very intimate to me, we look into each others eyes and he knows he is in control, but we both know the level of trust we need to have for eachother to be able to do that, and both enjoy it...
There is passion and intimacy when we do this.
He too, kisses my neck and feels kind of bad thinking he has hurt me, which shows he doesn't do it to get a kick out of hurting me.
So yes, if with the right person, rough sex can be very intimate.