An Anthropology Professor

Just as Marian was about to make her final rounds of the evening, she was approached by an older man, clearly a professor. He was in his early forties, with a angular commanding face and compelling dark eyes.

"Hello, how may I help you?", she asked in her sweet voice. He came closer, a smile quirking the corner of his mouth, his eyes searching her face. She felt a little flutter in her belly at his gaze, and bit her lip nervously for a moment.

"I am John Paulhan, professor of Anthropology," he said, his voice holding the barest trace of an accent. French perhaps? Or Spanish? Marian couldn't tell, but found the hint of foreignness intriguing. "I am seeking a book, and since I see you are closing soon, perhaps we can expedite matters if you showed me where to find it. It is Histoire d'O, although the title is often translated as The Story of O. Do you have it?"

"Is it a history book?" Marian asked, then blushed as the professor gave a condescending chuckle.

"No, at least not in the sense you mean. A novel. By Pauline Réage. Do you have it?"

"I don't know," she replied, her belly still fluttering. "We can look...I can look it up..." She gestured to her work station and the computer terminal.

"Perhaps we can just look on the shelves," he said, nodding towards the stacks. "I like to dispense with technology when human intelligence is available. Particularly when such intelligence is wrapped in such a charming package." He smile was white and vulpine, and her belly fluttered harder as she nodded agreement, leading him up the stairs to the fiction section.