Top to Bottom by @deldryden Virtual Tour | Spotlight, Excerpt, Guest Post & #giveaway #LGBTreads @RiptideBooks

Drusilla Stasevich wants to leave the past behind and start the next chapter of her life. Returning to her hometown to open her dream kink club, Escape, seems like the perfect solution. But it can be tricky making dreams come true—especially when the person you want to share them with isn’t around anymore. 

Amie Templeton is no stranger to tough times. She’s learned to make it on her own, and doesn’t do relationships outside the kink world. When her ex Dru moves back to town, old feelings surface. But that’s fine, right, since Dru has just opened the hottest new kink club in town?

Dru and Amie want to get the distracting spark between them out of their systems. Instead, their intense play sessions fan that spark into a flame. As if Dru didn’t have enough on her plate, an anonymous saboteur threatens to push her new club out of business. It will take the help of everybody at Escape to set things right again, and a lot of trust for Dru and Amie to start working toward a new life together.

Buy links: Riptide Publishing | Amazon 

Excerpt from Top to Bottom...

Once upon a time, she’d loved this crowd. This energy. Not this particular club—it was great that St. Andrews had a kink club at all, but Onyx had never been the most shining example of the species—but the community in general. She’d belonged. Now, though, the place was crawling with pierced youngsters trying too hard to impress. Half of them didn’t even seem interested in kink, more in drinking and dancing and decoratively hanging out in a place that looked dark and forbidden. And the club was members-only, which made it even more mysterious and intriguing.

Amie was only thirty. Way too young to feel old in a club. She forced herself to scan the crowd with a more critical eye, studying the people lingering near each station to see if she could spot any likely unattached subs.

From the sea of black leather, Lurex, and skin, a face shone out. Sweet, round, cherubic, under an artful tousle of blond curls. Fluttering eyelashes. The club lighting hid the blush Amie knew was probably heating those apple cheeks as the sub caught her gaze for a second, then glanced toward the ground with a hesitant smile.

He was good at the game. And he wasn’t her first choice, but he would do.

She shifted her toy bag higher on her shoulder, then unclipped her riding crop from the D-ring on the hip of her corset. She drew the leather through her fingers as she strode across the club, letting the anticipation build until she stopped in front of her willing prey.

She gave him a slow look, top to toes, then up again. Sighed. Forced the name out, even though she always felt like an idiot saying it. “Pookiebear.”

“Mistress Amie.” He put his hands behind his back, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “It’s nice to see you, ma’am.”

“You’re here alone tonight?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Well, then.” She slid her eyes around the room one more time. It was either Pookiebear or the Boot Worm. “And here’s an empty bench. What are you waiting for, Fluffy? Let’s get ’er done!”

He practically tripped over himself scooting toward the bench. By the time Amie had dropped her bag and started rooting through it for her favorite cane, Pookiebear was draped over the broad leather support, his legs spread, his rounded ass perfectly displayed in the backless vinyl shorts he sported.

If she were at work, Amie would be setting Pookiebear up for a world of hurt right now. He came to her classes sometimes—she tried to pretend that kind of overlap between her worlds didn’t throw her—and while he didn’t look as fit as some of the participants, he always worked hard and she could tell he stretched out and practiced at home, too. That was all she required; that earned her respect. But at the gym, she’d have had him doing roll-ups until he cried. Here at Onyx, Pookiebear got to sprawl on a bench and let Amie do all the work. And here, his soft, lily-white butt was literally his biggest asset.

“Get that rear up,” Amie chirped, slicing one palm across the unblemished, creamy surface. The skin paled, then flushed a delicate rose pink. She made a fist, holding in the heat that grew from the moment of contact. Pookiebear wiggled his hips higher, eager and adorable as a puppy. “Let’s see what we can get done. The usual, I take it?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Anything new I should know about?”

“No, ma’am. Well, I have to watch my left knee right now, but it’s fine. I’ll let you know if I need to move.”

“Oh no. ACL again?”

He nodded, shrugged. “I did something to it on that mud run last weekend.”

“You should stick to low impact,” she chided him. “Except for this kinda impact, obviously.” She whipped the slender cane through the air, letting him hear it.

“At least it’s easy on the knees, ma’am.”

“But it’s a bitch on the ass. Okay, let’s do this!”

Twenty minutes later, the cross-hatching of red on Pookiebear’s ass and upper thighs had melted into a glowing field of visible pain. Pookiebear squirmed and whimpered, looking close to tapping out. He kept trying to glance over his shoulder at her, following her with his eyes, as if seeing the swing before the impact would help. He wasn’t thinking about anything other than his momentary Mistress and the cane she was nearly breaking over his butt with each stroke. Smooth, easy, perfect. Right when she never wanted it to end, that was usually the time to stop. Amie made the last stroke count—she didn’t break the cane, but she nearly broke Pookiebear’s tender skin, high on his cheeks where he would feel it but still be able to sit down at work.

“Donesies,” she announced.

For more information on this book or the Author, visit Riptide Publishing.

Guest post with Author Delphine Dryden...

My girlfriend is awesome.

When I was casting about for blog ideas for this blog tour, my girlfriend (romance blogger Elisabeth Blackwell, AKA Duke Duke Goose) said, “You should write about how your girlfriend is awesome.” So I decided to do just that, because she is awesome!

So, we just moved in together (really just did this, like, this past weekend). For a lot of relationships, a move is like a crucible, testing the mettle of the connection. Tension and emotions running high, everyone stressed about change, lots of ways for things not to go smoothly. Added to that, on our big moving day itself, I met her parents for pretty much the first time except for a very brief hello/handshake a few months ago. And our two families also met for the first time. It could have been awful.

But things went great! The move went pretty much without a hitch. Everybody pitched in and worked together, everything got done, and we finished the day with a great dinner at a Brazilian steak house (hot, high-quality meat on a stick makes every day better). It was super, and my girlfriend is amazeballs! I don’t think these things are unrelated.

Mainly, the thing about my gf is that she isn’t afraid to communicate, to express her love and affection. She’s supportive and open, and she also looks fantastic in a retro-vibe outfit with a bold lip. She is not only hot and funny, she knows all the best podcasts and I feel like just being around her makes me smarter (Stuff You Missed in History Class, y’all... it’s the best).

In the akcnowledgments for TOP TO BOTTOM, I thank Elisabeth for being my lesbian sex muse. She inspires me, and being happy with her has helped me find my writing voice again. It’s no coincidence that one of my comeback books—and the one I thanked her for inspiring—happens to be an f/f. She’s an awesome girlfriend, an amazing muse, and I couldn’t be happier that every time I do any promo for TOP TO BOTTOM, I think of her and smile J. 

Delphine Dryden  probably should have gone ahead and  become an English professor like she planned. Instead, she took a detour through law school, another detour through the wonderful world of working in special education, and took an extra fifteen years to end up where she belonged: writing kinky romances.

Del's writing has earned an Award of Excellence and Reviewers’ Choice Award from Romantic Times Book Reviews, an EPIC Award, and a Colorado Romance Writers’ Award of Excellence.  When not writing or editing, she can be found binge-watching television shows with her girlfriend, playing tabletop games, and tweeting to excess.

Connect with Delphine:

• Website: www.delphinedryden.com
• Twitter: twitter.com/deldryden
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/DelphineDryden
• Tumblr: deldryden.tumblr.com/
• Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/deldryden/
• Instagram: instagram.com/deldryden/

To celebrate the release of Top to Bottom, one lucky person will win an ebook package of Dom Around the Corner and The Unicorn, plus a $5 Amazon gift certificate. Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on July 23, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info.

For the duration of the tour, Del is also giving away paperback copies of her steampunk books Scarlet Devices and Gilded Lily. Contact her via her website’s contact page, put your favorite mythical beast in the subject line and your name and address in the body. Limit to 20 people total, or until the tour ends.

Don't forget, EVERY comment on the blog gets entered into a comment giveaway at the end of the month!