At first the footsteps near her barely registered. Even the sound of the study room door opening failed to penetrate Mina's focus.
"Wilhelmina Cooper?"
Her name did it. She looked up startled, and tried not to look guilty. The person who'd spoken was looking at her, waiting for a response. Mina nodded.
"Mina, but, um, yeah." She tried to casually lay an arm across the book she'd been reading.
"I've been looking at your library records, Mina." The -librarian?- smiled, but there was no warmth in it. Instead her dark eyes looked intent, almost hungry.
Mina's stomach churned. "Um, ok? I've been returning things on time. Did I lose something?"
Another smile that failed to reach her eyes. "No, you've been very prompt. It looks like you go right through most of the books you check out. What I wanted to discuss was your choice of subject matter." She slid a piece of paper over to Mina, who looked at it.
It was a list of everything she'd checked out in the last two semesters. Highlighted. Green was books for classes. Blue was scholarly works on sexuality and psychology. Yellow was... less scholarly works on sexuality. There was some blue, and less green. Most of the list was yellow.
"I, um, is there a problem?" Mina shifted in her chair.
"No, no problem. It's more that I think we can help each other. You see, Mina, I'm between partners at the moment, and based on what you've been reading, and what you're reading right now-" She swiftly pulled the book from under Mina's arms. Mina had to let go or risk ripping it. The librarian eyed the book, one of the middle ones in Mina's favorite series. "Yes, I think you'll do nicely for now."
Mina flushed. The cover showed a woman kneeling, another woman's hand wrapped in her hair and pulling her head back. It was artistically done, and tasteful drapery covered any skin that might have been considered salacious. But the woman's face, a mixture of pain and longing, spoke volumes.
"I bet you're wondering how I'll help you. Yes?"
Mina nodded hesitantly. She hadn't actually gotten that far in her reasoning, but now that the librarian mentioned it...
"You've been looking up some interesting topics lately. I thought you might have some interest in making sure none of your professors get ahold of your reading list. Or maybe your parents? I'm sure we have contact information somewhere."
Mina felt very hot, then very cold. She sputtered. "You can't, that's- it's private! You can't do that!" Her stomach was tying itself up in knots as she tried to think of facing her professors once they knew she'd read "His pet, Her plaything" in two days, and then checked it out again a month later. Most of them probably wouldn't care that much, but just knowing that they knew, and her parents, dear god... She thrust a fist against her stomach and tried to quell the nausea, to think. This couldn't be happening to her. Nice girls didn't get blackmailed because they'd been reading dirty books.
She raised her head and met the librarian's eyes. "You can't do that. It's confidential information. If you tell anyone you'll lose your job." She hoped she was right.
The librarian smirked at her. "You're assuming I work here. I'm just a work study, a student like you. At most I'd get a slap on the wrist and lose my hours. And that's assuming they believe you and not me, when I tell them I turned you down for a date and you cooked up this ridiculous plot to get me kicked out of school. After all, I'm not even supposed to have access to this kind of information." She waved a hand at the incriminating list.
Mina shook her head again. There had to be a way out, there had to.
The woman who was apparently not a librarian put a hand on Mina's. "You have two choices here. You can do what I want, and no one needs to find out about this. I'd prefer not to have to tell anyone what kind of girl you really are. Or, you can have everyone find out what kind of filth you like to read, and try to go on with your life. I'm sure the fuss will die down eventually, or maybe you could switch schools. You'll eventually get back to being a nice young lady who works hard in school and has nice, boring sex with her boyfriend. You choice."
That last bit hit hard. Mina's second to last boyfriend claimed to be into domination. It turned out that meant ordering Mina to blow him, and then declaring that it wouldn't be very dominant of him to go down on her. He'd said if she were really submissive the only satisfaction she'd need would be pleasing him. Since the brief, lackluster sex had been even less satisfying than cleaning his apartment, Mina's only regret in leaving was that she hadn't kicked him in the balls on the way out.
Her most recent ex had been better. He was willing to try some kinky things with her, and that had been nice at first. He'd liked turning her over his knee and spanking her till her ass was pink. Then they'd kiss, and he'd tell her what a good girl she was, and they'd have sex. It was nice, but, well, it had only been nice. He'd resisted going farther, even when she begged him to hit her harder, or tie her up, or call her dirty names. One night she'd gotten him to spank her so hard it had hurt to sit down, and they'd had a fight afterwards. He told her what she wanted was sick, that he wasn't "the kind of bastard who would do that to a woman". She'd cried, they'd made up, and then they'd had nice, gentle sex while she secretly savored the way her sore ass rubbed against the sheets.
There had been other issues that ended that relationship, but the sex had been the final nail in the coffin. Mina had begun to wonder if it was a choice between an asshole who would hurt her like she wanted, or a nice boy who wouldn't. So no, she didn't want to be blackmailed into who-knows-what with a perfect stranger. But a tiny part of her mind was wondering where on the spectrum this not-librarian would fall.
"You're thinking about it, aren't you?" the stranger murmured.
Mina looked up at her and shook her head. Even if she was thinking about it, she shouldn't be.
The woman leaned forward till she could speak softly into Mina's ear. Her hand pressed into Mina's, holding it on the table. "I think you want this. I think you're stuck being a good girl, and what you really want is for someone who knows what they're doing to show you you're not. I think you'd like it if I bent you over this table and spanked you, and told you how dirty you are for liking it. I think you want that, knowing that you have to do what I say. After all, it's not your fault if I'm making you, is it?"
Mina shook her head again. She wasn't sure what she was saying no to now, only that it seemed very important to keep saying it.
"I'll make you a deal, Wilhelmina. Do what I say for the next ten minutes. If at the end of that you can honestly say you didn't like any of it, I'll let you go. Your reading habits will stay between you and me, and you won't hear from me again. But if you like it, we'll set up another time to meet, and I'll show you more of what you're missing. Deal?"
Mina shook her head slowly. She couldn't agree to this. She shouldn't. But she didn't really have a choice, did she? If she didn't like it, it was only ten minutes. If she did...
