A Study in Black and White (closed)

[slut_in_white]

Eve White was hopelessly lost. She'd her dorm room 20 minutes ago, and it wasn't as though campus was particularly sprawling. She should have arrived at her classroom with 10 minutes to spare, but she'd gotten herself turned around trying to take a short-cut through the physics building and she'd only just made it to the Arts quad. To make matters worse, she was coming into the English building from an unfamiliar direction, so she wasn't entirely certain which hallway running off the main artery was the right one.

She was a new PhD student, with a particular interest in literature. The focus of her studies was actually to be erotic literature, something many people didn't think worth studying, so when she found a position at Gralley University that would allow her to follow her interests, she was ecstatic.

She paused at an intersection of halls, pushing long, black hair out of her face. She was dressed in a simple v-neck t-shirt and shorts, which she was thankful for since she'd ended up practically running through most of the Arts quad in a hopeless attempt to recover lost time. At barely 5 feet tall, Eve wasn't exactly the fastest girl in the world - though she was quite fit, fitness didn't make up for having legs several inches shorter than everyone else's.

Looking down the halls, wondering which of the cookie-cutter hallways was the right one, she tugged absently on the hem of her shorts, which were cut high enough up her thigh that she'd have been sent home from high school last year for wearing them to class. She'd never really understood why - she thought she was plain looking. It wasn't as though her legs were going to distract anyone, or so she thought. Of course, she would have been wrong. Her legs were creamy and smooth, an expanse of toned muscle and soft skin. Her hips rolled sensuously and gracefully when she walked, like the steps of a dancer.

In fact, Eve had no real concept of just how tempting a figure she was at that particular moment. Her legs were tensed, ready to jog to the next hall, showing off just how shapely they were. Her chest was heaving slightly from the exertion of running across the quad, pushing a rather generous chest up and out, made only more apparent by the deep cut of her v-neck shirt. Her cheeks were flushed, her blue eyes bright and curious, as she often looked when trying to solve a problem (even if it was just the problem of being a little lost). She was bouncing back and forth on the balls of her feet, ready to move once she got her bearings, which made her hips swing back and forth in a tempting figure-8 motion.

She was about to move on to the next hallway when a man stepped out of one of the classrooms. She recognized him - Dr. Black. She'd seen his photo on the school website when she was looking up his email address, anxious to ask him personally for a chance to join his class. His photo really didn't do him justice; he was a fit man, well-toned muscles visible in a few places under his shirt, with a handsome face and kind, intelligent eyes. She approached him, smiling sheepishly and ducking her head, not quite able to mask her embarrassment. "I'm, um, I'm Eve. I'm really sorry for my lateness. I got lost in the science quad."

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Dr. Evan Black waited in the classroom after one of his lectures for the day. He had a new grad student prospect coming by to meet him and thought it might be better to meet here rather than having the student rush up the sizable faculty building to find his office tucked away in one of the upper floors. He looked at the clock on the wall then his own iWatch to verify the time. Shaking his head, he was more than a little disappointed. This new student, one Eve White, had been very fervent in her request to see him about joining his research project. It never occurred to him that she might flake and ditch meeting after pursuing it so hard.

With a shrug, he stood and slung his satchel over his shoulder, heading for the door. As he turned to make sure the door closed, he heard the screeching of sneakers on the tile behind him. Turning, he saw a rather out of breath co-ed running as hard as her legs could carry her toward him. He didn't have to look long to notice the figure on this petite beauty. He breasts threatened to leap from her deep v-neck with each bounding step toward him. Her shorts were cut so that he could admire her creamy legs as they flexed and curled, trying to close the distance to him as he stood there.

Evan was no stranger to the track. He had been a competitor as an undergrad on several long distance races, having raced at the national championships a few times. He wasn't in his peak runner's condition, but had filled out significantly as he had time to build up the rest of his body in his personal time. He wondered if this newly arriving student had the same sort of athletic background given her shape.

"I'm, um, I'm Eve. I'm really sorry for my lateness. I got lost in the science quad."

"Oh... so YOU'RE Eve...." He said with a bemused smile. "I was worried you'd balked at the chance of being my grad student. And don't worry. I think the Science quad is laid out like that as an IQ test for the engineers and scientists to mentally construct an optimal foot path through the buildings. I'd go around on the sidewalks in the future."

With that, he started walking, figuring that his interviewee wouldn't mind talking on the move. "My class ended a little bit ago and I missed lunch as a result. I hope you don't mind a lunch interview then." He looked over. "Don't worry, my treat; I know how tight the purse strings can be."

Walking over to the Union with its sprawling cafeteria style restaurant in the basement, Evan started in with the small talk questions: where she was from, any siblings, what her parents did, etc. After meeting up and paying for their lunches, Evan sat them both at a somewhat private table or as close to such as the Union could provide.

"So why me?" He asked, figuring it was the question that mattered. Either she was turned down by all the other professors or it was something about the paper he wrote as his final Thesis that drew her eye: "Comparative examination of Early Erotic Literature from Egyptian, Sumerian and Proto-Chinese Civilizations." It had been the most fun he'd had as a student. He'd traveled the world to read the original texts of some of the oldest civilizations in the world. He wanted to make sure that this aspect of those civilizations weren't lost to history. Since it was a paper about historical literature, Gralley had offered him a professorship in their Literature department. Even so, Evan wasn't so sure he belonged there. His PhD was in Ancient Literature, but he always thought of himself as a historian more than anything. This was why he was very careful about picking his students.

 

[slut_in_white]

Eve followed along easily as Dr Black led her towards the student union building. She was so glad he hadn't decided to deny her the interview because of her lateness. She wouldn't have blamed him if he had.

As they walked she answered each of his question amicably, explaining that she was from Bozeman which was best described as a small chunk of Portland transplanted into the middle of Montana. She was an only child, which left her a lot of time to read when she was little, hence her love of literature. Her parents were both professors, which was why she was so comfortable in academia - she'd grown up surrounded by it.

And then... he asked why him. And she found herself blushing. "Um. Because everyone else laughs at me when I say I want to study erotic literature." She stabbed at her food with a fork, a faint frown causing her brow to furrow. "It's as if it's less valid because there's sex. Or more sex than they would like. But sex is a natural part of the human condition. It deserves exploration, and our silly taboos shouldn't prevent that." Then she paused, her blush deepening when she realized she'd gone on a bit of a rant, and that she had no real guarantee that he didn't agree with the established line that erotica was somehow less worthy. It seemed unlikely, given his PhD thesis but... still. It'd be bad if she'd accidentally just insulted her new professor.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Evan put his fork down in his half-eaten salad and folded his hands over it as he looked across at Eve. Her pale skin showed off even the slightest blush which was a give-away about one of his deepest fears. "If you really want to study erotic literature, why are you blushing? If your interests are academic, why are you shy?" He said, letting the silence stretch on to let her think about her answer. When she tried to give it, he put his hand up to indicate he wasn't looking for her to answer yet.

"If you want people to take you seriously, you can't give them the window to think this is all an excuse for titillation or a means to scratch your kink. If you can't be professional, no one will take you seriously. Now... is this a passion or a hobby? I don't want someone coming in here and wasting their time in this institution so they can enjoy reading stories they were denied as a kid. What do you want the world to know about this subject? Why must you spend such time, effort and money to be here to study this material with me? Why?" When Evan finished, he realized he wasn't talking to Eve. He was talking to all the people that threw roadblocks in his way when he was a grad student. This was why he had so many degrees; his road to his PhD had so many twists that it took him nearly 5 years after finishing University.

Evan sat back and sipped his drink. "Sorry, you didn't deserve that... but that doesn't mean my questions were off base. How serious are you about this? It's one thing to say you want to do it; it's quite another to become a professional about it. Is this about becoming a writer or an academic? I need to know these things before we get started... if we get started." He asked, looking across at her. He hoped she had the right answers; he was getting pressure to take a grad student from the Dean. He hadn't found one that was serious about being one, however.

 

[slut_in_white]

Eve was shocked by the bluntness of his suggestion that she was studying erotic literature to "scratch a kink" and that she was blushing because she was embarrassed about the content of her work.

His apology came at the perfect time, because she'd reddened further, but this time it was in anger and she was going to snap at him. Instead, his apology cooled her boiling blood and she took a deep breath.

"First, I wasn't blushing about the content of the work. It was because I realized my rant was a little bit forward of me and I didn't know your position on the matter. And given how many times I've had people laugh at me for my work, I was concerned that you might agree with the academic line that erotic literature is less worthy of exploration, and that I might have offended you." His insult still smarted, though, and she found herself snapping at him nonetheless, even if it was milder than it would have been - "If it were a kink, I'd be reading smutty novels at home in my panties, not paying an absurd amount of money and facing ridicule at every turn in an attempt to make other people take my work seriously," she told him sharply, unable to keep the barb out of her voice. "I intend to pursue this academically. The pipe dream is to prove that there are erotic works worthy of respect and not just derision. It's foolish that every other field with it's own form of exploitative work, and no one derides the entire genre as a result. Science fiction is respected, despite the number of green women who exist only for mental masturbation. War is a respected topic, even though so much of it is thinly veil machismo. Sex is fundamental to humanity. It must be given the same respect."

 

[such_a_bad_man]

As Evan listened, he rubbed his upper lip thoughtfully. At least, that's how it looked. In reality, he was hiding his smile with his hand as Eve explained why she was serious about studying this subject. He found his grad student... finally. He put his hands down and leaned in.

"That's what I'd hoped you'd say. I know the struggle for serious academic consideration all too well. You can't imagine the fight I had with my peer review board. There are a shortage of people like us, Eve. I think we'll have a very successful relationship. I'd be happy to take you on this year." He extended his hand across the table, offering it to seal the deal.

Once sealed, he continued. "We'll do weekly meetings. If you're a fast reader, we can step them up to biweekly or every other day if you prefer. I have some ideas for you to get started, but we can wait to start fresh on Monday or whenever we settle on a time early next week." Evan was already flipping through his calendar on his phone as he looked for a time slot. "Hmmm, how about 1:30 Monday?"

The rest of lunch was talking about her undergrad coursework and other reading. It wasn't going to be easy, but it had a lot of potential. Evan could see that already in her excitement.

 

[slut_in_white]

Eve relaxed, even smiled, at Evan's response. She was beginning to realize, belatedly, that he'd been testing her rather than legitimately questioning the validity of her chosen field. She returned to her chattier, friendlier self as they continued their conversation. She was very happy to meet him on Monday.

"Weekly readings sound good to start, but I expect I'll be wanting to go up to biweekly soon enough. I'll see you on Monday!"

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Evan smiled as Eve finally got up from the table at the end of lunch. He was glad to see her so excited. She was going to do really well in the years to come. He just hoped she could maintain her enthusiasm. He remembered his own near burn out after Year 2 of his own PhD. Still, he knew the signs and he'd be able to help her through it.

During the next few days, Evan went through his own books, looking for good books for Eve to start with. By the time the weekend hit, he had a stack of about 10-15 books on his desk for when she came for her meeting on Monday. On his way home, he thought back to his first image of her, running towards him down the hall. She was going to be a real problem if he couldn't get her out of his head like this. Shaking the picture away, he went home and spent the weekend unwinding.

Monday was the usual bank of morning meetings before lunch. Then, when 1:30 rolled around, he was back in his office, leafing through some of his books. As he looked them over, he realized he had the original language versions of a lot of these books. He'd gathered them during his research and forgot that they weren't in English. He frowned and set those aside. He'd have to find English language ones for Eve to use.

Sliding behind his desk, he heard the knock on his door. "Come in." he called to the door as he sat down, looking toward the door, expecting Eve. He just hoped she was a little more conservatively dressed today. He'd hate to be distracted in their first meeting.

 

[slut_in_white]

Sadly, Evan would not get his wish. Eve, with the sometimes odd weather patterns that came of living in Montana, had learned many years ago to take full advantage of the warm weather when she could. And the weather on campus was gorgeous and warm, and she intended to dress for the weather. She'd gone to a high school with a rather conservative dress code and had hated sweating away in the summer in long skirts and pants because there didn't exist shorts for girls long enough to meet the requirements. She was going to take full advantage of the fact that the college had no such dress-code, too. Besides, she really, honestly had no thought to the idea that she might cause distraction. She had never bought into the idea that girls should dress a certain way to avoid distracting boys anyway, but on top of that, she didn't think there was anything much to be distracted by when it came to her own body.

Thus, when she arrived at his office on Monday afternoon, she was dressed in a cute, short summery sun-dress, in a lovely shade of turquoise that was light, comfortable, and feel barely halfway down her thighs. She smiled when she walked in, her eyes lighting up at the sight of the pile of books. "Are those for me?" She sounded eager.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Evan looked up and froze for a moment, watching Eve bounce into the room enthusiastically. Her small sundress barely hung down her thigh and he didn't see any bra straps peeking from beneath the thin sun dress. Oh yes, Eve was going to be a problem all summer...

He cleared his throat and stood again, sitting on the front edge of his desk. Placing his hand on one of the stacks, he nodded in answer to her question. "I thought these would be a good start to introduce you to other works done by other academics. You might find a lot of resources in these that will point you to other pieces of literature. As I wasn't sure you area of interest or possible statement for your thesis, I didn't want to steer you towards specific literature without showing you what has already been examined by your fellow colleagues."

As Evan continued to talk, he couldn't help but notice how far down her chest he could see as she leaned in, craning to see the titles in the stack. With a swallow he wrenched his eyes away to the books on his desk. "The other stack isn't in English. I don't know your foreign language background so I pulled them aside. If your interests are international, they are here, but they will require translating by you or the language lab. A lot of them are pieces I used in my paper. If it made you curious, they are here as well."

He looked back and he kept his eyes low. That didn't help any as he wound up with an eyeful of her creamy, lithe legs. Eve wasn't that much younger than he was; he put her in her mid-20's and he wasn't much older at 36. The shrunken age gap made it hard for him to push her away. With the undergrad students, it was easy to say they would have nothing in common and push them from his thoughts. With Eve, it may not be that easy.

 

[slut_in_white]

Eve, meanwhile, was utterly entranced by the huge pile of books and completely oblivious to the way Evan was checking her out. "Thank you so much, Dr Black!" She looked up at him, grinning. "I can read French, and I'm passable at German, so I could probably read a thesis in that if I have a readily accessible German-English dictionary. I'd be happy to take those, as well. Assuming there are any works in those languages in your other pile, I mean."

She took a seat, getting out a series of papers. "I wrote down some admittedly meandering thoughts on the topic of my thesis. I'm not entirely certain that I know what I want to write about, but there are a couple of topics of interest that I keep coming back to. Namely the fact that modern literature has seen an explosion for female-written and read erotica in a way that we generally don't see in other erotic media. I've also been looking for connections to the relationships between the treatment of sex in so-called high literature and the context in which the works were written. I mean, I suspect that were Oedipus Rex written today, it would be tossed aside as being trashy instead of becoming a major work that would come to shape future cultures. It might be interesting to consider why such works are accepted sometimes, but rejected resoundingly in other eras." She picked over the titles of the books in the pile, chewing her lip in thought. "I wouldn't consider them to be firm choices, yet. I'd like to read what you have and perhaps start working from there." She smiled up at him. "Thank you, Doctor Black. This is incredibly helpful." Then she paused, that light flush crossing her cheeks again. "And... would you mind terribly giving me a copy of your thesis as well?" She wanted to see what he'd written, so she could get an idea of what sort of person she was working with. But beyond that... she wanted to know more about him too, and wrote it off as the natural inclination to get to know someone she'd be working with for the next 4 years.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Evan frowned slightly as she listed her capable languages. He leafed through his stack of foreign language texts and shook his head. "No... I got all of these while I was working on my paper so they are heavy on Arabic, written by local archaeologists that found some of these ancient texts. I don't have any of the pieces from China as I couldn't manage to get them out of the country. I think I still have the photocopies in a binder in my house somewhere. I think there is an account of the Egyptian pieces done by a 19th century historian from France in the library somewhere.... Henri Dusomme, I believe was his name. Not sure if it's a translated book or not, but that might by a go-between for some of these."

Evan took her notes in hand, seeing she'd been brainstorming about this already. He nodded in approval of her idea and felt the wheels turning as he come up with some initial impressions about it. "I was say that we accept stories like that BECAUSE it's from an ancient culture. In the mind of the modern academic, it is easy to say that the work is from a different culture with a different morality from our own. It's easy to not even think of them as humans like us given the ocean of time that separates us. Accepting a work like that from a modern author confronts the reader with the reality that this came from someone like them. In such a case, they are confronted with the notion that they might be like the author or the character and that is difficult for most to accept that train of thought. This is why such work might be marginalized. Such a work may be ready-made to be dismissed out of hand."

He chuckled slightly. "Sorry, I hit upon a thread and I just had to keep pulling on it until it unraveled."

Looking through his stack he pulled out a thicker book. "This might be a placce to start if that is the direction you're curious about pursuing." The title on the front read "Morality, Sex, and Decorum: The Triangle of Culture". "I think the author makes some interesting points about dividing civilizations along those 3 lines. It's a bit dry so I don't expect you to get through it by next week, but it might help shape your idea further." Moving around his desk, he pulled a drawer open and pulled out a magazine. "As for my paper, here you go." He handed it over and hoped that she wasn't too struck my the National Geographic cover staring back at her. "Page 24. And don't worry you can keep it." He held the drawer open and made sure she could see the stack he still had. "I wiped out a new stand when it came out."

"Any questions or is this a good start?"

 

[slut_in_white]

Crap. Eve could very much not speak Arabic. Well, she supposed she'd have to be satisfied with what she had available to her in English. And if worse came to worse? Maybe she'd learn Arabic. Or maybe she could get someone to translate for her.

She looked up when he began to voice his thoughts about her questions on why some eras seem more readily accepting of erotic literature, and listened carefully. "Ah, I meant more that it strikes me as odd that certain eras allow such works to be valued, even at the time they were written. Oedipus was recognized as a valued work at the time it was written, when there is no longer the explanation of that ocean of time to justify why it might be considered a valued work now. Some eras are clearly much more capable of allowing erotic works - including those being written at the time - to be lifted to a position of respect, while other eras are not." She didn't expect a response right away. It was simply a question that had been roiling in her head for a while.

She blinked when he handed her the copy of National Geographic and grinned. "Fantastic! I had no idea your thesis was published like this!" It was certainly not going to be the full text - even the shortest dissertations were at least 100 pages long, and many, particularly in the field of history, were much, much longer. Still, it was a good place to start, and it would give her the jumping point she needed to be able to find and read the rest of the text.

"This is perfect, thank you doctor! I can definitely get a good start with what you've gathered here!"

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Evan nodded. "Well, they published the abstract then listed how to track down the actual paper at the end. I guess they found some value in my hypotheses and the points I set out to make in the body of the full paper. Personally, I think they just wanted an excuse to add some of the pictures I included of the original artwork that accompanied some of the works I studied." Evan smiled at his little joke as he took in how radiant Eve seemed since she arrived. She was practically glowing with excitement and energy for tackling the reading for this week.

"I hope that it will give you the start to our time together that you need." He said smiling down at her, still trying so hard not to look down the front of her dress. "If you have questions during the week or you have an idea that needs discussion, my door is open to you. I'll be here most every day when I'm not in class." Evan got stuck with some of the freshman composition classes; it was the price he paid for being low man on the totem pole in the faculty. He hadn't even gained tenure yet. He knew he had to pay his dues however so he put his head down and tried to power through it.

"Anything else you want to ask before you disappear on me for the next few days?"

 

[slut_in_white]

"I don't think so. But if I think of anything, I'll drop you an email, or maybe just drop by your office," Eve answered, smiling. She got to her feet, smoothing her dress down over her body in a motion that was clearly instinctual - she didn't even notice she was doing it - but subtly tempting in the way it made the fabric cling to her curves.

Then, she gathered up her chosen books - plus the copy of National Geographic - and shot him another sunshine smile. She really was very excited to begin her work! "Thank again! I'll see you next Monday at the very latest!"

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Evan followed her hands as she smoothed her dress out, flattening it against her stomach and tightening it around her curves a little. He swallowed a lump of lust again as he helped her gather her books for the week. He jsut nodded as she smiled and headed for the door. Evan chided himself for checking out her ass as she left, but he couldn't help himself.

For the rest of the afternoon, Evan was on his computer in his office, tracking down English versions of the other books. Hopefully they didn't lose much in translation; there was a lot of subtlety to what had been written. By the time he left for the night, there were a number of books heading his way from Amazon. He hoped they'd get there before Monday.

That night was a relaxing one. He didn't get one e-mail from a student about homework or reading assignments. He got to ease into his year this time, it seemed. He went to bed slightly disappointed that Eve hadn't written him right away; maybe she hadn't started reading yet, he told himself as he went to sleep that night.

 

[slut_in_white]

Evan was incorrect - in fact, not only had Eve started reading, she'd completely devoured the NatGeo article and went immediately searching for the rest of his dissertation and got so absorbed in what she was doing that it didn't even occur to her to contact him to ask about it. Instead, she turned to Google, where she found something... rather unexpected.

She searched up Evan Black, which turned up a lot of articles about his professorship - she had no idea he'd only taken his position so recently! - and a few references to studies and articles he'd published. There were a few other mentions of his name from pretentious assholes who wanted to disparage his work by the nature of his chosen topic rather than by actually considering what he had to say, which set a little fire of irritation in her chest, driving her to close the tab before she convinced herself to send the pretentious assholes in question scathing emails detailing just how pretentious and ignorant they were - she was certain that she'd regret it if she did that.

And then... mentions of his name on a forum about erotica? Interesting. She supposed that there might have been people there who were interested in his dissertation, so she clicked and began to read. At first, she was confused, largely because they'd be talking about him, but then immediately switch to talking about someone else, with no other indication that they were changing topic. And it was always the same person - some E.V. Elliot. It took her a painfully long time to realize that Evan was E.V. Elliot. Or, at least, the people on the forum thought so. It was a discussion about Elliot and the fact that the name was an alias used by a writer. An erotica writer. And Evan was their primary candidate for his real identity.

Their reasoning was quite solid, too. Elliot was an unusually talented writer. It was without question that erotica - particularly online erotica - was chock full of people who wanted to use their work exclusively as a means of getting themselves off. Which wasn't strictly a bad thing - it just tended not to produce the best works. Elliot was apparently highly unusual in that his works tended to be proper novels. If one took out the sex-scenes, the general consensus was that they'd still be worth reading, something highly unusual for the genre. His works tended to draw inspiration from the same works Evan used in his studies, but none of them rehashed anything that had been written before. They were unexpectedly unique - something that was almost certainly the result of long-term study of the genre rather than simple luck. One had to be aware of the cliches in order to avoid them, after all. And many of the positive characteristics of erotica that Evan lauded in his studies shone through in an unmistakable way. More, the works published by Elliot seemed to follow the same patterns as Evan's studies. When Evan was studying ancient Arabic works, Elliot's works "mysteriously" began to deal with themes and tone commonly found in those same works.

Eve found herself frowning at the screen in annoyance. And Evan had the gall to ask her if she was studying this to satisfy a kink? She had a lot more claim to accusing him of that than he did her.

She was going to write him an email then, confronting him about it, but there was another instinct that was warring for her attention - the desire to give into her curiosity and read his works. Some of Elliot's stuff was published professionally, but a lot of it was simply posted for free online. And it was that instinct that won over.

She was up until 2am. His characters were enthralling, their relationships deep and relatable. The plots had purpose and dimension. The other forum-posters hadn't been kidding when they said that he had written erotic fiction so good that she'd still love it even if the sex scenes were removed. Not that she wanted them removed, because they were all at once tender and heart-touching, while simultaneously somehow primally arousing. Eve found, more than once, that there was a warm heat gathering between her legs as she read, and she caught herself chewing her lip to contain a few soft sighs and moans as her imagination ran away from her and she found herself imagining that she was the heroine of the book, being pleasured so exquisitely.

Okay, so even though she was still kind of pissed that Evan had tried to call her out on having more than an academic interest in the topic, she couldn't be that angry. Not when the result of his own "extracurricular" interests ended up bringing her twice to orgasm over the course of the evening.

She went to bed that night both exhausted and thoroughly sated. And already forming a plan in her mind of how to confront him about his work.

----------

Monday rolled around again, and Eve had planned to have "Morality, Sex, and Decorum: The Triangle of Culture" finished by then, but she'd gotten distracted much too often reading Evan's own erotic writings. She was half-finished, though, and it had certainly managed to ignite her imagination about what she wanted to study for her dissertation.

But she had something else to do, first.

She arrived, wearing similarly summery clothing - this time, a tank-top and more of her scandalously short shorts - with the NatGeo magazine, a copy of "Morality, Sex, and Decorum: The Triangle of Culture," and a copy of E.V. Elliot's latest novel, sitting on the top. She pushed open the door to Evan's office, eager to see his reaction to her book. What she hadn't expected was her own reaction to him.

There was something about teachers that, in Eve's mind, prevented them from being sexual beings. She knew, of course, that they were as human as anyone else, with desires of their own, but she never saw them in that light because she simply couldn't. But something about knowing what Evan had written - about the erotica he wrote and thus the things he seemed to desire - had broken that barrier. And god, did she ever notice him now.

How had she not realized how attractive he was. He was young, fit, with broad shoulders and dark hair. He shifted with the motions of a man near the prime of his life, who was strong and confident in himself. And he smiled when she walked in, and she suddenly found herself quite unable to speak, unable to do much of anything but blush and smile back.

In her curiosity, and then in her arousal as she read more of his work, she had inadvertently given herself a crush on her mentor. One which was now simply being solidified with the sudden realization that he was good-looking on top of being brilliant, witty, understanding and quite kind.

Oh. This was very bad.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Evan was already getting up from his desk when Eve walked in. He bit his lip as he took in her outfit again this week. He wasn't sure where she was buying her shorts, but he swore these ones were painted on. Her tank top didn't do him any favors eaither as he was treated to a sumptuous view of her cleavage. Eve was curvy in all the best possible ways and it made Evan weak in the knees every time he saw her. He was reminded of how he described one of the heroines from one of his early works.

His extensive study of the field of erotic literature wasn't purely academic. He hated that people that reviewed his work could tell of his passion for erotica. It nearly cost him his professorship, but the school didn't seem to mind if he wrote under a pen name. Either that or they didn't know that he was still writing. It didn't take long after he put his work on Inkshares for the offers from literary agents to come rolling in. His best friend was in IT so Evan had several layers of addresses to help keep his real identity a secret. He didn't want a repeat of an incident when he was still a grad student when the dean found him and thumped a printed out copy of everything he had written online under his own name.

Writing under a pen name gave him indescribable freedom, both in his choice of themes and his characterization. He could make anyone a main character as no one could give him grief over a lack of experience as that sort of person. No one could make that call as no one knew who E. V. Elliot was. So when he wrote about a merchant's daughter and her navigation through the layers of society in Ancient Sumeria, no one accused him of appropriation or mischaracterization of the heroine. Evan thought back often about the story of Ninsun and wished he could give her another book, but he tied up her story so well that he didn't have a vector for entry.

As for other new books, the order from Amazon had arrived before the weekend and he had a fresh stack on his desk for Eve. He was about to tell her about it, but he saw her seemingly frozen in the door. Tilting his head he looked over at her as he stood up. "Everything okay, Eve? You're not interrupting so please, come in and sit down." He guided as he sat on the front of his desk.

As he looked her over, he saw an extra book in her arms. Maybe she had tracked down that book from the French historian he mentioned at their last meeting. If so, he was glad she was taking that sort of initiative. With that sort of energy, maybe she could take some of the books he had ordered for her. "Good news, I have English language versions for some of the pieces I used for my paper. There are some things that just don't translate and the authors have gone into detail for some of these works. When you finish up with the other books on erotic literature as a whole, feel free to take these if you think they will work for your subject." Evan put his hand on the new stack on his desk. He still had the now smaller stack of books on the subject beside him as well.

Eve still seemed unable to speak. In fact, her cheeks were reddening as he spoke. "Eve? Everything okay?"

 

[slut_in_white]

At his question, Eve blinked and gave her head a quick shake to clear the stunned realization of her sudden crush from her mind. She would need to forget about it - or at least put it aside - if she was to have kind of kind chance at working successfully with him. And so, forcibly trying to ignore the way her heart pattered in her chest when he smiled at her, she took a seat across from him and put the pile of books down on his desk, momentarily forgetting that the top book in the pile was the erotic novel he'd written.

"Sorry, I just kind of spaced out there for a moment." Which was a lie, but it would have to do. "Thanks for finding these translations. I'm afraid my Arabic isn't particularly good." She grinned. "I'm almost finished Morality, Sexuality and Decorum. You weren't kidding about it being a slog, but it's been incredibly helpful in my attempts clarify my topic and thoughts on the matter. I am definitely planning on writing my dissertation about the treatment of erotica as literature throughout history. I'm considering relating it to the treatment of other sexual taboos. I'd like to do some research and see if there's a relationship between taboos and erotica. I have a suspicion that I might discover patterns, and I'd like to take some time to explore it further and see if there's anything there."

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Evan listened nodding along as Eve started to give shape to her plan for the next few years. Sexual taboos and erotica could have a correlated history as attitudes towards sex in general change and adapt as societies change. There could be significant meat on the bone for her to tackle such a subject. There was one problem that weighed on his mind, however.

"I think you're off on the right foot. you've found your direction, but I worry that it might be too wide a scope. That's something we can work on tightening as you progress in your research. You might come upon something that grabs your interest and pulls you one way. Now, for discussions about taboos, there is a book I had set aside as I thought it might be good to look at as a parallel work. It's not so much about literature, but...."

Evan's words halted in mid-stream as he was turning to reach for the book and his eyes saw the book on top of Eve's pile. He bit his lip and looked back at her. He didn't want to say anything; he might give something away if she didn't know. He didn't want to play dumb either as he wasn't that great of a liar and worried she'd see right through him. So there he sat in tense silence as he picked up the book from the top of her stack and just showed it to her. "What's this?" he asked, trying not to give too much away either way.

 

[slut_in_white]

Eve recognized and agreed immediately with Evan's point that the topic was too broad. Her original intent had actually been to pick one single taboo and compare it with erotica through the ages. It was just that she wanted to do a little general research first so she could figure out which taboo to focus in on.

She was about to explain as much when Evan stopped speaking abruptly, his eyes zeroing in on the book on the top of her pile... and Eve blushed. She'd forgotten about her intention to confront him about it. The problem was, now that she realized how much it had impacted her view of him, she wasn't entirely certain it was the right approach anymore. But now her hand was being forced.

He asked her what it was, and she squirmed, looking faintly uncomfortable. "It's a book," she answered lamely. Frowning, she reached out and took it from him, knowing her answer had been stupid. "I... I came across it while searching the internet the night after our first meeting," she said slowly. That was true. She could tell him most of the truth, and see what his reaction was before she informed him that she knew it was his. "I was on a forum, and the users were raving about this E.V. Elliot guy. I don't normally take forum users at their word when it comes to this sort of thing, but they were quite insistent that his work was the pinnacle of modern erotica. They were literary masterpieces about and including sex. I grew, um, curious. And I read some of what he wrote online, and then, a few days ago, I went out and bought a copy of one of his published works." She paused and licked her lips, wondering how he might respond. She hadn't pushed him or made any accusations on purpose. She had, originally, wanted to call him out for his own accusations of being interested in the topic for kink purposes. Now? She wasn't so sure she wanted to push him like that. After all, it felt somewhat disingenuous to make those kinds of accusations when she herself had practically inhaled (and gotten off on) most of his online library already.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Evan had to be careful now. Part of the reason he wrote under a pen name was due to the school. The other part was his need for privacy and he had a few fan girls show up at his door when he started writing as a grad student. It was a little surprising, but his persona shielded him from that now. It seemed an unlikely coincidence that Eve would pick his book from the entirety of the possible erotica available. He had a feeling it was more deliberate than that. He kept an eye on the forum she probably visited and his fans were getting annoyingly close to revealing his real identity. For now it was all conjecture, but some people were honing in on real evidence of his authorship. That's why he had to be very careful now.

"Did you do any research on the author or were you more interested in the prose without knowing anything that might cloud your enjoyment of the work?" He didn't chastise her for looking at it; in fact, it was in her interest to be exposed to as much erotica as she could. The choice of the author was what troubled him more than anything.

 

[slut_in_white]

There was a long pause, while Eve decided what to say. She didn't like the idea of lying to him, and doing so was certainly not going to encourage a particularly positive relationship with him over the next little while. And so, she stayed quiet for a moment as she tried to decide how best to reveal her knowledge to him.

"A-actually, I found the book via the author, rather than the other way around." She let the sentence hang in the air for a moment. The tension was getting to be too much, though, and before she could stop herself, she blurted out, "I found Elliot while trying to look up your dissertation. There was a thread detailing one user's theory that you're E.V. Elliot."

Another long, thick pause. Eve looked up at him, a flush on her cheeks, looking like a child caught doing something she wasn't supposed to. "Is that true?"

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Evan put the book down on top of her others and hung his head a little, his hands on the desk on either side of him. After a few tense moments, he pushed himself up onto his feet and walked across the room. He didn't walk to Eve; he walked to the door and glanced outside, curious if anyone was waiting in the hall. Once it was checked, he came back in and locked the door behind himself. As he passed Eve again, he held up one finger, telling her to hold whatever comment or question that was sure to come.

Sitting at his desk again, he turned on his music app and turned up the speakers in his room. Once he had the background noise he needed, Evan motioned her over. With just enough volume for her to hear him as she leaned in, he spoke. "It is me..."

The sentence hung in the air between them as the strains of Beethoven filled the room. Evan leaned back, curious about whether or not she would say anything. Given his display, he was sure that he didn't need to tell her the necessity of discretion with this information. It felt right to tell her as she was his student and their working relationship had to be built on trust. He was worried he was setting a precedent for his future students after Eve, but he would deal with that in time.

He waited and watched her face for her reaction to this revelation.

 

[slut_in_white]

For the most part, Eve was just... confused. He was behaving as if he were giving away some kind of dangerous secret. Locking the door. Even turning on music to make sure there was no way anyone could hear the answer through the cinderblock walls of the building. Insanity! Or was it? She didn't know him well, but she had a difficult time imagining him as paranoid.

She was leaning toward him as well, her brow furrowed slightly. She was concerned that she'd upset him, but he seemed simply worried about being overheard. So she had to ask: "Is it really that dangerous if someone overhears?" she asked softly. Surely it shouldn't come as a surprise that a man studying erotic literature would dabble in it himself. Right? And surely, if they allowed him to study the topic they wouldn't turn around and judge him harshly for engaging in it... would they?

She wasn't particularly surprised to hear that he actually was E.V. Elliot. The evidence put forth by the user on that forum had been convincing. And Eve had found Evan's dissertation, and compared it to his fiction writing, and found that there was a similar cadence to the writing. She'd been looking for confirmation, yes, but she'd already been near-certain. And she wasn't going to judge him for writing it - after all, she found it entirely reasonable to suspect that he would be. All she was was faintly annoyed that he'd accused her of mixing study with pleasure, in a manner of speaking, when he was doing it himself.

She bit her lip, frowning. "How can you justify interrogating me about my intentions the way you did when you have been mixing your academic interest with your kinks for years?" Her voice was soft, but demanding. Clearly, she wasn't going to give up on this topic without a satisfying answer.