Page 113 of Monster Daddies

“As long as you’ve made your limits very clear at that point, I have no objection to adjusting third date expectations to date two.” My answer was polite, but he blushed and squirmed like something about it turned him on.

Testing the waters with what little I knew about auras, I focused on my Dom side and thought about being his Daddy as I raised one eyebrow and lowered my voice slightly. “Can you be a good boy and make your limits clear?”

“Oh.” As his eyes went wide and he relaxed against the table, I realized that’d gone better than I’d anticipated. “That’s… I’m a good boy.”

Well, it looked like we weren’t going to have a problem finding his Little side. Aura plus Daddy voice equaled Little.

“Then we’ll make plans to have special private time after our second date.” When my carefully worded response got a serious nod and he didn’t think it was a silly way to phrase it, I knew I’d guessed right about his headspace. “And today we’ll talk and maybe find something to play?”

We hadn’t planned much beyond a first meeting but it wouldn’t be difficult to shift gears and do something his Little side would enjoy.

“I like playing.” Something about that had his head clearing and he blinked a few times before he straightened. “But we can talk and have our… our date first. I don’t want to… inconvenience you. We’re here to get to know each other not goof off.”

His dates somehow seemed to have gone worse than mine, and I wasn’t sure how that was possible considering one guy I’d met had a panic attack and a vampire I’d tried to date’s first words had been about not liking fur with his blood.

Rude.

It was technically hair and nothing I could do anything about so that date had ended quickly.

“You are not an inconvenience and neither are your wants and needs.” We had to get that spelled out right away. “If we decide to change plans because being Little is what you need in the moment, I have no problem with that. Especially when I was encouraging it to begin with.”

And that got me another blush.

Delightful.

It also earned me another wiggle as he stopped fighting his Little side. “I like being encouraged and your aura when you did it and how you sounded and you’ve got a nice accent and I like playing and it’s been a long time since I got to play and it’s been a long time since I got second date stuff too.”

A very long time, judging by the signals he was sending off and what he’d said.

Regular humans seemed to be able to push down their needs for an absurdly long time before they snapped or struggled seriously with the emotional consequences of it, but anyone withmagic seemed to have a much lower threshold when it came to getting those needs met.

It could literally be a need for Alton and not just something that helped him relax. He seemed to have spent so much time around humans he’d forgotten that fact.

Maybe he hadn’t known it to begin with?

Had he said who he was raised by?

“I’m glad you liked how I encouraged you. It made me happy too.” That made Littlish Alton smile and he rocked side to side before he rested his elbows on the table again. “The idea of playing with you also made me happy because I want to get to know all the different sides of you.”

That got a naughty giggle from the cute human-looking man. “The grown-up side too.”

“That’s right.” But I pretended to look serious and held up one finger. “But after our second date.”

More giggles escaped as he sat straight and returned my expression. “Yes. Second-date time.”

The fact that he was looking forward to it said I didn’t have to worry about our chemistry only going one way. “First date is for Little fun and talking.”

A snicker escaped before he remembered that he was pretending to be serious and gave me an adorable frown that he probably thought made him look grown-up. “Second dates are for big fun.”

I had no problem with that, so I nodded but did my best not to dwell on it yet. I wasn’t sure what desire would do to my aura and I didn’t want that distracting my new little friend. “That’s right. But for our first date how about we walk over to a playground?”

Alton scrunched up his face and looked around at what seemed to be a small rural rest stop next to a state park entrance. “Where?”

Time to test what he could sense.

“How many paths do you see?” I pointed to the other side of the green space where I’d come from. “It’s okay if you only see one.”

“Three.” He sat up, pleased with himself and waved his hand toward the different paths. “One. Two. Three.”