Page 111 of Monster Daddies
“What kind of things do you need to find the right headspace?” His question was logical, but it took my brain a few too many seconds to figure out an answer. He must’ve thought I was worried because his smile turned gentle again. “I like a younger headspace if that’s what you’re worried about, but if you’re not ready to talk about that part of your life, you just have to let me know.”
Swallowing hard, I sat straighter and tried to look like a functional adult even though I wasn’t one at the moment. “No. It’s not that. I’m just. I think it’s just taking my brain a bit to catch up with reality.”
Instead of being offended, which he’d have had every right to be, he raised one eyebrow and tried to look serious. “Never had a date with a Bigfoot before?”
Trying not to smile, I shook my head. “And I haven’t had a date with a Daddy in a long time either. I’ve been living in mostly human areas and that’s usually fine for making friends and casual situations, but it’s hard when it comes to dating. And… well… our world doesn’t have an overabundance of Daddies at the moment.”
That was one of the main reasons it’d taken me so long to approach the matchmaker. No matter what everyone had said about her, there weren’t that many Daddies in our world at the moment, and no matter how careful I was, human ones always ended up thinking I was a bit too weird in ways they couldn’t explain.
Chuckling, Malik shook his head. “So you’ve got a lot running through your head from every direction.”
That was an amazing understatement.
“How about I do my best to clarify some of the top things I think are on your mind and then we’ll settle into actually talking about date stuff?” He smiled as I gave him a tentative nod that I felt kind of bad about. “Alright, let’s see. General societal highlight. The name Bigfoot is not offensive, most of us find it funny and no one can pronounce the original name we called ourselves. Mostly because only scholars speak the language. I do. I’m scholars but that’s not the point.”
Well, that was good because I hadn’t seen the word since I was a kid.
“Okay, personal stuff. I have a real house.” Cocking his head, he got a thoughtful expression I thought was cute as he sorted through what he thought was important. “I was homeschooled in a small community, but a lot of it was through online courses, so I was able to get my master’s in ancient history. I know that’s weird, but it came easy to me with all the history that we have available to us.”
He must’ve run into people that thought it was odd, but it seemed logical to me. Humans might not keep up with their history very well, but the groups of others they shared the world with were more careful.
“I’m a professor for an online university that specializes in alternative species, but we actually have a variety of humans with special circumstances who don’t seem to realize most of their classmates aren’t human.” He shrugged like he couldn’t understand it. “I don’t know if it’s the human ability to justify odd things around them or just how we come across.”
“That sounds fascinating, but I can see that being a mix of both.” I’d seen more than one human make crazy assumptions to explain away anything out of the ordinary.
He must’ve liked what he heard or something about my expression because he looked lighter and continued. “The area where we live around here has been spelled to make sure regular humans don’t see us. The only times we’re caught on cameras is this sect that’s got a back-to-nature obsession and they’re constantly on the verge of getting outed because they don’t want to use magic and don’t believe in showers.”
Malik’s eye roll said what he thought of that.
“I’m not that social by nature but I’m not so much of an introvert that I can’t adapt if you need more people around than I do.” His head cocked as he paused, giving him an adorable thinking expression that did ridiculous things to me. “I don’thave that many traditional magic users in my family tree but I can sense it being used and can handle spelled objects.”
Frowning, he rested one elbow on the table and looked a bit like a professor I used to have in college. “I’m a Daddy. You already knew that, but it’s probably a good thing to confirm. I’m looking for a long-term partner and sub. I’m technically bi. Most of my species is, but I’m on the more gay side of the scale. I’m seriously monogamous and am not looking for any kind of poly situation.”
He was good at hitting the highlights.
“That I look human isn’t going to be an issue for you?” I’d been open to meeting a variety of different kinds of people, but I wasn’t sure if he’d been expecting something else or not. He hadn’t said what he’d asked the matchmaker for, and I was getting curious about it.
For the first time he got a sheepish expression and from what I could see I was pretty sure he was blushing. “I… I prefer human-looking partners, although I’m very flexible on their background and magical abilities.”
Interesting.
We were kind of cute in a helpless kind of way, so I could see that being a turn-on for a Dom.
“Well, I’m personally glad about that, but I think I’m missing something.” Was it considered taboo? “I’m not going to judge, but that made you uncomfortable?”
Why hadn’t I learned more about other cultures growing up?
I’d known there were people like Malik and vampires and all kinds of others, but no, I had to spend time learning how to speak Spanish because my mother thought that would be more useful.
He still looked slightly sheepish, but he didn’t hide from the answer. “In general, I like your size because… well… I can carryyou. You’re very different than I am so that might be part of it, but I find smooth skin very appealing.”
Different was always more fun.
“There’s a reason people say opposites attract.” And it was kind of nice that he wasn’t going to look down on me for not being able to grow a beard to save my life. “My family intermarried over the generations with several different human populations that don’t have much body hair… so… yeah…”
I was the one who was blushing that time, and his grin flashed almost predatory for a moment before it went back to being sweet as he responded. “That’s not a bad thing for me, so I’m glad to see we’re compatible in a variety of ways. Besides, it’s much harder keeping diaper areas healthy when there is an abundance of hair or fur.”
That definitely hadn’t been on my questionnaire, though if our compatibility was magically related, I wasn’t going to figure out how that worked. I was, however, going to thank the fates that he wasn’t going to look down on me the way some of my last dates had.
