"Bait at the Library"

While still an undergraduate at university, I conceived an idea that combined two my favorite turn-ons - erotic stories and the library. Here's how it "came about."

I had, over the previous two years, discovered (or re-discovered, really) that fabulous and trashy genre of literature known as the "letters" magazine. The classiest example, which most everyone knows, is Penthouse Magazine's various "Forum" columns and periodicals.

But there is a nearly infinite variety of "letters" mags, at least there was, back in the 80's when I was in college (nowadays, the fabulous internet has probably devastated their former high levels of circulation). They existed and flourished in every conceivable niche of the kinkosystem, from bondage to scat, from swinging to incest.

One day, I was leaving my downtown temp job, and decided to pick a few new bits of fodder for my overactive imagination at my favorite newsagent, just past where I would catch the bus. Having selected and made my purchases, I stowed my new loot in my backpack, and I caught the bus and psyched myself for the long ride home.

However, I suddenly remembered that that evening my housemates were going to be hosting a get-together at our house, and I realized I'd have little opportunity for privacy to enjoy my new purchases.

On an impulse, I realized that on a Friday night, the university library would be virtually vacant, and so at the last moment I jumped off the bus stop just past the library and walked back through the cold December wind.

Warmly ensconced in a remote study carrel in the immense library's basement, I carefully turned my back to the world and pulled out a few of my purchases.

I had long ago as a young teenager discovered the joy of "edging" (as I find it's called here - I always just thought of it as erotic procrastination, a perfect extension of my other personality traits) and so wasn't at all new to the joys of furtive, public self-stimulation. I'd stopped at the restroom and removed my tight undies, and the loose, commando feeling was very enjoyable and gave my unit maximum latitude for manual maneuvering. Except at work or giving class presentations, I always prefer to go commando.

I had my winter overcoat as cover, should I feel the need to hide the throbbing, turgid, fat, six inch cylinder that made a diagonal slash, pointing vaguely northeast, in the front of my beige Dockers.

I decided I'd read some nice letters and see how long I could go without breaking down and stroking myself. Utter, self-denying bliss.

So I read the nice letters for almost three hours (or it seemed like it, anyway). A particular story (I don't recall exactly what happened in it) involved someone spying on a couple in a library - how appropriate, I remember thinking - but stuff like that never happens to me.

But as I sat there pulsing and resisting the urge to pet my prod, I was struck by a moment of inspiration. Taking the mildest of the letters mags (that I'd just finished), it occurred to me - well, I'd probably just throw it out anyway - why not, um, share it around a bit?

Making sure nobody was observing me, I stood and placed the little 8 x 6 inch magazine-format text between two hefty volumes at the end of a waist-high shelf. Someone would be truly delighted (or disgusted) I supposed!

Having done a profoundly dirty deed, I decided to resume my journey home, perhaps to eventually fulfill my throbber's yearning for hugs and caresses, once tucked between the chilly sheets in my under heated room.

No, nothing exciting happened - not that first time. But it opened a new vista of possibilities.

After that, I always carried one or two "used" letters mags in a pocket in my backpack, ready to leave between two heavy volumes (or inside one) in some corner of a library. At first, I was always too self-conscious to stick around after making the "plant" - worried a library employee would discover me. Often, I'd return to find some text I'd planted on a previous visit still nestled in its spot. Other times, they'd have disappeared.

Once, I found that one had migrated several volumes westward over the course of about a week.

With time, I became braver (or more reckless) - I'd make my plant and stick around nearby (not too nearby, to avoid a possible accidental association). Sometimes, I'd be reading my own newer text while I waited, but most often, I'd be "legitimately" studying (if you could call my aimless wandering through only the optional, supplementary texts "studying"). Either way, I'd generally be terminally turgid - ah to be so young and, well, sturdy! Nowadays, I still edge myself for hours (even days) at a time, but I rarely stay so rigid so continuously ... it more rises and falls with a certain unsteady rhythm, driven by tides of circumstance and imagination.

Finally, I became impatient. I despaired of ever catching a "customer" as I liked to think of the chance recipients of my, er, largesse. I decided I needed to be more blatant, for I wanted nothing more than to watch some young thing (male or female didn't hardly matter!) discover my discarded text and witness their reaction. So, one brave or foolhardy evening near finals week, I placed a text in a study carrel and put myself several seats down.

Only to have a middle-aged library custodian sweep upon it some 30 minutes latter and place it with hardly a glance into her pile "re-shelves." Was she illiterate?! Was she frigid? Did she not see the almost-explicit, full-color pictures of fucking, frolicking lesbians on the cover? Or perhaps she just thought it a particularly alarming bit of recent, second-rate literary criticism?

Oh ... I was soo disappointed. I fled the library in self-pity.

But a few days later, hornier than ever, as spring finals week began in earnest, I gave it another try. About an hour or a little more later, an earnest, muscular asian guy in flip-flops and basketball shorts and a 700 kg backpack set up shop just one carrel down from my bait.

"Master-bait" I'd taken to calling it, in my head. Both heads.

I waited breathlessly. But alas, he didn't have the level of imagination necessary to wonder what might be in the carrel north or south of him. He studied studiously, like a gorilla doing calculus. And he was soo cute!

But suddenly, up came a spritelike, petite asian chick, to peck him on the cheek. Low murmurs that only intimate undergrads are capable of exchanging. And there she sat, beside him - in the carrel where I'd placed my...

"Oh my god!" I overheard. Then, "What's this?" in a soprano growl. Much more softly, again, "oh my god, you perv." Lower whispers I couldn't quite make out. She tossed it (I think - at his desktop). He called out to her. She flounced off. So quick? So final? Had I thwarted a perfect relationship? I felt guilty, and left as the young man brooded disconsolately - I didn't even wait to see if he kept the mag.

After that, I felt guilty for a while. But as summer session got into full swing, and I became immersed in trying to complete my senior thesis (which I should have finished in May but was too busy procrasturbating), once again the temptation to bait became too great. And so one Saturday afternoon, with library almost to myself, I placed my worst: a fabulous, long-treasured little collection of letters on one of my favorite fantasy subjects: incest.

Perhaps my audaciousness was smiled on by the fates - or perhaps the god Pan intervened. Having placed the little text on a corner carrel and seated myself opposite, with a clear view, it was only a matter of minutes this time. Not even long enough for me to dig out my own bit-o-missives.

She looked so young! Was I getting that old, at 21? Surely, a freshman. Yum! She moved to a carrel farther down the row than the one on the corner - about three in. Still in view, though. She put down her backpack, flipped her hair back. Brunette, possibly Latina. Not petite, tall, but athletic. Tiny breasts, infinite legs, high, slightly boyish butt. What the guys in the locker room alleged was the "virgin butt" - some occult theory that virgins had visibly "higher" butts than "fallen" girls. Ridiculous, of course, but charming to think about.

She pulled out some binders and books, took off a light sweater and hung it over the chair. Clearly setting up for a bit of conscientious studying. Then, as often happens with focused procrastinating college students, she immediately wandered off. To find a book? A friend? The restroom? Lunch? Sometimes it seemed the library basement was a campground up north in late morning, during hunting season. Lots of signs of occupancy, but no sign of occupants.

I toyed with the idea of getting up and "migrating" my bait down to her carrel, but I decided it would be too obvious - she might notice that it hadn't been there before, and get suspicious. Meanwhile, the dude in my pants was having trouble sitting still. I felt its coke-can girth twitching violently in it's commando space: a nice, loose-fitting pair of cargo pants.

Checking if the coast was clear, I dared to get up and make an elliptical orbit around the shelf behind my new neighbor's study spot. As I strolled past the corner carrel, I carefully slid the mag to near the edge of the desk, and made sure its garish cover was in fine contrast to the whitish Formica. A good enough compromise with putting it right on her seat. If only!