The Billionaire's Librarian Harem

Chapter 3: The Phallus Tree

REBECCA

I gape at Jace as his question sinks in.

How does he know I'm from Madison? It's not listed anywhere on my resume.

I must look confused, because Jace's eyebrows furrow as he looks at me. "Is there something on my face?" He rubs a hand over his forehead. "I thought for sure I got rid of any traces of the coffee you threw on me earlier."

He grins, and I can't help but smile, my shoulders relaxing.

Even if he is a creepy stalker, at least he has a sense of humor. He's also hot as fuck. Just look at his eyes—

Feeling myself getting sucked into his all-too powerful orbit once again, I glance away, focusing on the magnificent bookshelves lining the room. Sweat collects under my armpits as I begin to ramble.

"I was a lit major as an undergrad, and while writing a paper on Sappho I came across some erotic imagery in the margins in one of her books of poetry. I had no idea where it came from or when, but I was taken by how well it complemented the text itself. It was like the saucy internet forum of ancient Greece."

Jace chuckles, the rich timbre of his laughter sending a bolt of desire straight to my core.

"I wanted to learn more about it," I continue, "so I decided to study it in grad school."

"What's an example of one of the images? Describe it for me."

I tap my chin, thinking back to the book of Sappho poems that I keep on my nightstand. I'd been so fascinated by the marginalia that I asked the librarian if I could purchase the book. Fortunately, she gave it to me for free, pointing out I was one of the few students to take out the book in decades.

"There was a drawing of a nun picking phalluses from a phallus tree," I reply.

"A phallus tree?" Jace blinks. "Is that the scientific name botanists use for a certain kind of evergreen?"

Biting back a laugh, I shake my head. "No, it was literally a drawing of a regular tree, only the fruit were all...dicks."

He lifts an eyebrow. "And the nun was okay with that?"

"The expression on her face was totally like, 'Oh, how nice. Dicks are now in bloom.'"

His shoulders bounce as he throws his head back and laughs. "That's incredible. I can see why that whet your appetite for more."

"It really did. And through my research, I came to realize that many of the images are a lot like graffiti you might see on a bathroom wall. Some are just as crude, but the majority are rich and beautiful. In a way, erotic marginalia connects us through the ages. We're the same as we were back in 1500 BC."

"Even then, all we wanted was to get laid," Jace says with a smile.

"Exactly. This is who we are, and always have been. Eroticism is something we only discuss in private, if at all. But sex is a fundamental part of being human."

I swallow, hoping I'm not coming across as a fraud. After all, I've never even experienced an orgasm with another person in the room, yet here I am talking about the history of human eroticism like I'm some kind of sexpert.

Jace leans in. "Would you say erotica is just as valuable as any other form of literature?"

"Without a doubt!" I exclaim before reminding myself to take it down a few notches.

Not everyone is excited by this subject as I am.

"It's a shame that it's not given its proper weight in academia," I explain, "and I want to change that. Hence why this research is so important to me. It'd be an asset for not only the culture at large, but women especially. Society has conditioned us to fear or doubt our own sexuality, but history shows that women have always been fascinated by it."