Welcome to She's on Top and He's on Top

Here are the introductions and tables of contents to She's on Top and He's on Top. Click on the covers below to purchase.



You can also read excerpts from some of the stories:

"Feeder" by Adelaide Clark ("food porn" at its best)

"By a Firm Hand" by Debra Hyde (in which a wife punishes her husband's transgressions in the hottest way possible.

And do add She's on Top as your MySpace friend!

If anyone would like a free (U.S. only) She's on Top postcard, email me at rachelkramerbussel at gmail.com with "postcard" in the subject line and yourname and mailing address in the body.

She's on Top: Erotic Stories of Female Dominance and Male Submission
edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel

Introduction: The Perfect Power Trip by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Suit and Tie by Donna George Storey
By a Firm Hand by Debra Hyde
The Mistress Meets Her Match by Kristina Wright
Waiting for Me by MinaRose
The Inner Vixen by Saskia Walker
Victoria's Hand by Lisette Ashton
Mark of Ownership by Teresa Noelle Roberts
Pinch by Tara Alton
His Just Rewards by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Why Can't I Be You? by Alison Tyler
Room 2201 by N. T. Morley
Working Late by Andrea Dale
Ottoman Empress by Noelle Keely
City Lights by Kathleen Bradean
Feeder by Adelaide Clark
Penelope the Punisher by Stan Kent
Shades of Red by Lisabet Sarai
The Queening Chair by Kate Dominic

Introduction: The Perfect Power Trip

The image of a strong, powerful woman hovering over a cowering man is enough to stop us in our tracks. Turning the tables on traditional gender roles, women who seize control over their adoring male subjects claim a power that threatens to knock us all down a notch. When a woman gets on top, whether literally or figuratively, she exudes an alluring confidence, an Amazonian stature that can make even the fiercest of men long to submit. Getting a man to willingly cede control and offer his body up to her becomes her goal, and she will do anything to get it. He, by contrast, is grateful for the chance to shed some of the macho mask he must wear day in and day out, to snivel and quake and proffer himself to her, whether to earn praise and a pat on the head or a powerful spanking or heavenly beating. He wants her to tie him up, shove her breasts in his face, and tease his cock until he's ready to explode. He longs to kneel at her feet, lick her boots, and worship her in every sense of the word, but he keeps quiet; she will decide when and how she wants to have her way with him.

I know from my own experiences that male submission can be a beautiful thing. It can suffuse the woman in charge with the kind of power that she can only experience within this ritualistic dynamic—power freely given, all to her. It's extravaluable because, in their daily lives, these women may not have all that much actual power, but can play with it and feel the thrill of overtaking a man in such an all-consuming way. The women of She's on Top don't take their power trips lightly. They know exactly what they're doing, taking the gift of their male followers and turning it into something overwhelmingly erotic. Whether it's the temp who puts her boss in his place in Donna George Storey's "Suit and Tie" or the "firm hand" employed by Debra Hyde's protagonist, there's a wink-wink quality to their naughty play. In MinaRose's "Waiting for Me," the vision of the protagonist's docile husband clamoring to be punished is enough to get her through the day. Kate Dominic summons up her character's regal poise as she sits in "The Queening Chair" and gets serviced by three men while her husband listens in.

The way these authors describe their characters' dominance demonstrates the many reasons that women enter into such relationships. Sometimes they don't even realize quite how much pleasure they derive from their position, perhaps having been conditioned to think that dominance doesn't belong in their most intimate encounters. What Saskia Walker calls "The Inner Vixen" can feel like a calling, a special pleasure these women are predestined to enjoy, once they get around to figuring out their true desire. Kristina Wright's professional dominatrix "meets her match" in a man who bares his body to give her the high she can only get from topping, one she thought she'd left at the dungeon but that has become a part of her very soul. In Teresa Noelle Roberts's bittersweet "Mark of Ownership," a cutting is a symbolic and deeply felt ritual between two lovers about to part, one in which each derives so much more than an erotic thrill. Their entire dynamic feeds off her control over him, which she exerts in a final gift of mercy by setting him free. Pushing men right up to and sometimes beyond their limits, testing and tormenting them, having the satisfaction of knowing what they want before even they do—are all the tasks of a good domme. For Caroline, the mistress in N. T. Morley's "Room 2201," this means directing a bisexual encounter that's as much for her pleasure as it is her virginal male sub's. And in Lisabet Sarai's "Shades of Red," a young visitor to Amsterdam makes good use of the city's red-light district to test out her whip hand, and see just how brave she is when it comes to realizing her kinky fantasy.

Another role of a good top is to be prepared, setting the stage for a scene that they're both desperate to play out, even though both players may know it's a game. The wife in Andrea Dale's "Working Late" doesn't want her husband to get fired, but if he thinks he might be breaking the rules, it adds a rush to his on-demand office wanking. The reverence these dommes show for their underlings lets you know just how much love and affection they share while enacting these kinky scenes. "Oh, is he sweet. He is my angel. My lover. My sweet young thing in a floral dress and tie-up espadrilles, so ready and willing to get fucked against some back-alley wall," writes Alison Tyler in "Why Can't I Be You?" Her narrator demonstrates perfectly what the real meaning of penis envy is, and the rewards are great for her and her lover as they trade places for one night.

She's on Top, along with its companion volume, He's on Top, is not about seizing power by any means necessary. It's about the erotic dance between top and bottom, between one who gets off on controlling another and one whose greatest fantasy is to give it up to a powerful other. The look of awe and adoration in a sub's eyes as he gazes up at his mistress, "like a devotee," in Walker's words, ready to do whatever is asked⎯or ordered⎯of him, can provoke a high like no other. The beauty of that interplay shines from these pages, in which you'll find demanding mistresses, powerful wives, first-time dominants feeling out their newfound roles, and other bitch goddesses who reign supreme over their dominions. These women not only enjoy the ultimate of power trips; they also give their men, like the lucky fiancé in "Victoria's Hand," exactly what they most desire.

Whether you're a woman who already wields the whip (or the paddle or hairbrush or wooden spoon) in your household, a man who caters to a beautiful domme's every wish, or someone who simply gets off on seeing a woman step out of her frilly femininity to claim womanpower of another kind, you're in for a treat with this kinky, edgy, daring collection. Make that eighteen of them⎯and make sure you pay homage to the woman on top in your life when you're done.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City
August 2006

He's on Top: Erotic Stories of Male Dominance and Female Submission
edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel

Introduction: Tender Tops and Sensual Sadism

Not Until Dawn by N. T. Morley
Incurable Romantic by Lisabet Sarai
Seizing Monica by Debra Hyde
Confession by Gwen Masters
Yes by Donna George Storey
In Control by M. Christian
A Good Reference by Mackenzie Cross
Boardroom Etiquette by Lee Ash
The Sun Is an Ordinary Star by Shanna Germain
On the Twelfth Day… by Andrea Dale
Thrill Ride by Matt Conklin
Catherine When She Begs by Jason Rubis
Brianna's Fire by Amanda Earl
Christmas with Suzy and Mary by Mike Kimera
Reclaiming by Teresa Noelle Roberts
Late for a Spanking by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Schoolgirl and Angel by Thomas Roche


Introduction: Tender Tops and Sensual Sadism

Dominant men get a bad rap in our society, being lumped in with so many scary, dangerous examples of male lust gone awry that there's little space for the ones who, like James Spader's character in Secretary, simply get off on having a hot girl submit to their will. When I conceived of He's on Top and its companion volume, She's on Top, I wanted to pay homage to the power—physical, mental, and emotional—that goes into being a true top. Not one who's simply going through the motions, but one who cares about the context of their kinky actions.

I wanted to see creative kinksters devising scenes that would challenge their participants. I wanted to go beyond simple name-calling and into a place where power exchange matters, where the interaction between top and bottom could be treated with all the reverence and complexity it deserved. I wanted to show vanilla readers that S/M isn't all about whips and chains (though those can be plenty of fun, too), but also about mind games that truly fuck with your head. I wanted kinky readers to see themselves reflected in these pages, to feel that same thrill they do when a luscious bottom bends over, bows, offers their wrists to be bound, scurries to do your bidding. I wanted these stories to embody all that it means to be a top, whether a full-time one or an occasional visitor to dom(me)landia.

Perhaps not surprisingly, putting together He's on Top was altogether a more challenging prospect than assembling She's on Top. For one thing, though I've been a top and a bottom, I've never been a man, and I wanted this volume to do justice to dominant men in all their glory. For another, many of the submissions I received started out with some variation on the theme of "Get over here, bitch," betraying a sexism that was the complete opposite of the spirit of this book. I was dismayed to see that some people interpreted "man on top" as somehow condoning cruelty or meanness, because that's not what I consider to be sexy in any way.

Thankfully, the fabulous writers collected here, both male and female, show a more nuanced, and infinitely sexier, version of BDSM. They understand that erotic power play is not about taking power from someone, but rather about exchanging and exulting in power that's freely given. These tops get off on watching their women writhe, moan, and beg as they get spanked, teased, taunted, and tied up. They know what they like, and have found ways to incorporate it into their erotic scenes to enhance their pleasure, and that of their partners. One without the other simply cannot exist. These men need to play, need to top, need to control, just as much as their women need to submit, surrender, and obey. These powerful guys understand the true gift they're being given every time a woman offers herself up for their perusal or makes herself into an object for them to command and control.

Mike Kimera explores this phenomenon brilliantly in his tag-team topping story "Christmas with Suzy and Mary," in which his protagonist proclaims , "The first time I hit Mary, I was in a kind of trance. She was bent over a chair, naked, butt in the air, an improvised gag in her mouth, and she wanted me to hurt her.… It was as if I'd jumped off a cliff, and instead of falling, had discovered I could fly. I felt powerful and purposeful and connected to Mary more intimately than I would have thought possible." Exactly. Without Mary's wanting it, his joy would have dissipated.

It's this exquisite erotic thrill that you'll find time and again in this anthology, as masters, doms, tops, and other manly men find ways to make the women in their lives surrender not only their bodies, but some other part of themselves, as well. Often these are strong-willed, powerful women, such as Kirsty in Lee Ash's "Boardroom Etiquette," who's torn between her innate submissive nature and her willful personality. Both collide as she tangles with her coworker in a feisty match between equals.

What surprised me is how proficient female authors are in the art of writing about male dominance. They rose to the occasion and produced stories that get deep inside the male mind. Some of the stories you'll read in He's on Top, such as Shanna Germains's "The Sun Is an Ordinary Star," powerfully capture the ways in which dominance and masculine identity intertwine. Her hero's struggle to express his love for his wife is challenged by a pair of nipple clamps, as well as by the idea that, for her, submission and masochism are a way out of the other kinds of pain she's experiencing. He feels guilty for wanting her in that stubbornly sadistic way he still does, and yet he cannot stop. "Although he tried to think of other things, his mind was all Stella, Stella in nipple clamps, her ass beneath the flat of his hand." Thankfully, he doesn't have to relinquish BDSM, and their dance of dominance and submission relieves both of them of some of the stress they each carry around.

Other female authors show us that these tops want to rocket their subs off into space, then soothe them back down to Earth. There's a tender mercy to their sadism; being always on the lookout for her pleasure, they know it's the key to unlocking their own. As Donna George Storey writes in "Yes," "You can push her over the edge and catch her at the bottom, soft and safe in your arms. You can watch her dance and be inside her all at the same time, because you are the music she's dancing to now, faster and faster." As she explores a man offering his lover to a visiting friend, watching and overhearing, waiting to see what will happen, she gives a glimpse into a relationship charged with the intensity of two partners bent on exploring their deepest fantasies with one another, giving and taking, forging a life together that neither could achieve apart. It's this intimately twisted dance, where one step forward by the top necessitates a step back by the bottom, that flows through her tale. And in Lisabet Sarai's "Incurable Romantic," a top who from the outside might appear to be dominance incarnated lets us in on his own fears and doubts, offering up a touching vision that will make you question who's really got the other wrapped around their finger. Because even though these are tops' tales, the pleasure and needs of their bottoms are never far behind.

Please join me, and these authors, on the journey these men take to get to the top. While their paths are varied, they all share the desire to give equal parts pain and pleasure, to control even as their lust threatens to undo them, to master even as they become beholden to their wily, naughty, bratty, beautiful bottoms. Seeing how they get there—and what they do once they arrive—is enough to leave me breathless, and I hope these stories do the same for you.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City
August 2006