Every week, Amanda from On a Book Bender, Christi from Smitten with Reading,and Felicia from Geeky Blogger’s Book Blog want to see those Top Off covers that grab your attention! Please play along and tell us your favorites (old, new, or not yet released). Button made by Missie at The Unread Reader and Diana at Book of Secrets.

Every once in a while there are covers that just make you say Oh My! Sometimes it is good, sometimes it is bad, and sometimes it is head scratching. The point of Top Off Tuesday is to show you the ones with their Tops Off!

Summary

My name is Liz, and I’ve always had a thing for dominant men. But I’ve never met anyone I felt comfortable enough with to explore that side of myself, so I’m not even sure if it’s a real need or if it’s just the idea of being dominated that gets me hot.
Then I laid eyes on Master Gareth, and I knew he’d be the one to show me. Not only is this my chance to see if I really am a submissive, but there’s something more in the way he looks at me. Something dangerous, forbidden. For one glorious night, I’ll be his to control completely. At his mercy, bowing to his every desire-and I can only hope he’ll make all my fantasies come true.
My only fear? That I won’t want to return to reality when the night’s done . . . even though I know I can’t stay.

Excerpt

An Excerpt From: DOM FOR SALE

Copyright © CHRISTINE D’ABO, 2012

All Rights Reserved, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.

Chapter One

I’m still not entirely sure what possessed me to say yes when Connie asked me to attend in the charity auction at her BDSM club. I mean, this was all so new to me still and I really didn’t have a fucking clue about the lifestyle or if I actually wanted what I thought I wanted. But all of the proceeds were going to support suicide hotline, which she damn well knew I would say yes to. And really, it was the best chance I had to give this a go, yank my fantasies into the daylight. Or spotlight, in this particular instance.

Buy a Dom for a night.

Rent a man and get him to take control in the bedroom, all in the safe confines of a club with people who knew what they were doing.

A hard chance to pass up.

And yet, I had to question myself about what the hell was I thinking? It’s not like I knew who any of these people were, or what was truly expected of me. How could I honestly walk in there and offer myself up like the proverbial lamb to a man who I didn’t know the first thing about? The plan in my head was to go and watch. What harm was there in watching.

But in typical Connie fashion, she wasn’t about to let me sit on the sidelines. I should have anticipated my best friend’s need to meddle.

Connie had told me there wasn’t a dress code. No, you don’t have to get all fancy. Not really. Go as you are and you’ll be fine. Just shave and pluck, put on some of that nice jasmine vanilla cream of yours and the men will eat you up. Maybe wear the new Diesel jeans, they show off your ass. I have no doubt she thought she was being comforting, supportive even. What she did was make me even more nervous about going than I was in the first place.

I did put on the Diesels and a midnight-blue corset I’d picked up a few months ago. The coloring went well with my blonde hair and pulled in my slightly thick waist. I hoped the outfit would be enough for me to blend into the crowd. I didn’t want to stick out like the obvious newbie I was. Connie had emerged from her room wearing PVC and stilettos high enough to have my calves screaming for relief. She looked like a Dom’s wet dream. I’m surprised Stephen let her out in public without him, looking like that. It also served to remind me how completely out of my element I was about to be.

Before I’d been able to turn tail and hide in a corner of our apartment, she grabbed my arm and hauled me to the club.

Arriving at the Tail Whip was a bit of a shock to the system. There were lines and lists and bouncers to get through first. The club was closed to only members and guests, which I found reassuring. Even with our names on the list and our invitation in hand, I have to say the third degree that the bouncer put us through would have chased me away under normal circumstances.

Not that it killed my nervous excitement in the least.

The club building was pretty much a converted warehouse. The rafters were exposed and long chains dangled lights from their ends. The walls were concrete blocks, painted in an array of blues, grays and blacks. I knew there wasn’t any alcohol served, but I was surprised to still see a bar tucked off in the corner. The main area had a large stage, and it looked like the organizers had thrown up some makeshift curtains to hide the participants.

The majority of the patrons had on even less than Connie. You’d think it was the people in the crowd up for bid and not those on the stage. I would have fit in better if I’d hauled off my corset and put electrical tape over my nipples like that woman over there. Damn, that was going to hurt coming off. Maybe.

“You’re a bitch,” I hissed as she pulled me toward the front. “I look like an idiot.”

“You look fine, Liz. It’s not like you’re a member yet. Besides, some of the Doms like the understated image. More than a few, in fact.” I should have known then that she’d been planning something. She had that wild look in her eyes that she’d get when Stephen was about to come over to play. My normal cue to leave for a few hours.

“Not that it will matter.” I tugged up the top of my corset before rocking up on the tips of my boots to see over the naked shoulder of the man standing in front of me. “I can’t see me getting a Dom. Not a good one with what I can afford.” My luck I’d end up with a first-time Dom and the two of us would do nothing but stand around and stare at each other.

I only had limited money to spend on things that weren’t bills. The new job was, well, still new and I had student loans to pay back and a future house to save for. Shelling out a couple of hundred dollars for essentially amounted to a rent-a-date seemed pretty irresponsible. And desperate. I wasn’t desperate.

Well, maybe sort of.

Wiping my hands down the front of my jeans, I hoped I didn’t look as nervous as I felt. I didn’t think Doms would necessarily want someone who they thought would freak out at the first sign of a whip.

“I told you, I’ll chip in. You’ll win one of them tonight. Trust me.” There it was again, that glint that told me Connie was up to no good.

She was my best friend in the whole wide world, and the only person I knew who was a sexual submissive. It was one of the things that had caught my attention at college, how she would home in on particular men, sometimes the ones I wouldn’t expect, and take them home. It wasn’t until we became roommates during our second year that I realized exactly what she did with them once she got them home.

I’d bought earplugs early on. I quickly misplaced them.

I’d masturbated so many nights listening to Connie and her Doms. When she’d eventually settled down with Stephen, things changed with her. It was fascinating to watch Connie change from the wild girl looking for a hot time, to the devoted girlfriend who got off on having her man spank her ass.

What I could never be sure was if it was the spankings that were so appealing, or the idea of finally having someone I loved do something so intimate with me.

The crowd around us continued to buzz with excitement, growing in noise and size as we got closer to go live time. I tried hard not to stare at the press of bodies around me. Most were in varying degrees of nakedness and all seemed aroused. There were a few people who I assumed were Doms scattered throughout. It was surprisingly easy to pick them out and not because of the clothing they wore. They had an air to them that was unmistakable. A confidence, bordering on arrogance in some cases that rolled off them in waves.

Those were the ones I looked at, studied with my sidelong glances. The women looked powerful, like they could be running a large corporation, or be cops, anything that required power and control. My gaze didn’t linger as long on them. I was straight, well, for the most part. I wouldn’t kick a beautiful woman out of bed, but I didn’t think I was ready for something like that.

No, my eyes were on the guys.