Science Fiction: Welcome to my Worlds

naked, exposed also in heart and mind. “How did you know?”
He smiled, and Calixte was surprised to see genuine warmth reflected there. He might be crazy, but she thought he wasn’t evil—exactly. “I search for the secrets of the human body child. I wouldn’t be much good at it if I couldn’t tell a girl from a boy, now would I?”

She decided to beg. “Please don’t tell the others, sir. This library… I need to be here…” She caught herself short of saying she would do anything. Most men would just ask for her virgin body, but this one might insist she inflict unspeakable horrors on others.

He put a finger to her lips. “I know. I see it in you. We are not so unlike, you and I. You feel the burning need to know as well. And some day, I think, you will find you are prepared to go further to satisfy that urge than you now think.”
She started to deny that she would ever go as far as he had in his quest, then stopped. The thought of killing this man, and his body guards, to keep her secret had occurred. That she had no idea how she might have done that was not relevant. It showed there might be more truth to what he was saying than she would like to believe.

Calixte noticed both of Herophilus’ body guards staring at her. One had a look of disgust on his face and the other open lust. She wasn’t worried by the lust, she’d seen that often enough before she was pretending to be a boy—and after too,