Page 99 of Monster Daddies

There was a long moment of silence, and then, “I suppose. If that’s what you prefer.” There was a note of disappointment there, and she didn’t need to ask why.

She wouldn’t like it if people only wanted to see her in costume either. “I’m just asking for science. This whole thing is incredibly interesting.” It wasn’t entirely a scholarly question though. After her reaction to seeing him fully, she wasn’t entirely sure she could handle the real him.

“Well, it will still be me underneath and the disguise is iffy on the other senses, especially touch. So even if you were seeing me as strictly human, it would be hard to maintain the illusion if you’re touching me… like you’re doing right now.”

Her fingers, without her realizing it, had been playing in the fur, sliding through it to massage the muscles underneath. Her face heated and she pulled her hand back. “Sorry.”

“Don’t ever be sorry for touching me, Ellie.” He paused and then asked, “Are you ready to see more? This next part might be harder.”

“Harder?” Her eyes dropped to his crotch, and only after did she realize he was talking about his head.

“Um, my eyes are up here, Ellie.” He sounded more than a little amused. “I thought my face would be the most difficult, so you should probably get used to that before I show you anything more X-rated.”

He was still wearing jeans so from the waist down he did look fairly normal, but his comment had just brought up a big question. If they were able to mate that had to mean his ‘parts’ were pretty close, right? She was suddenly very curious to see what he was wearing under his pants.

But he was right… she should probably see his real face first.

She took a deep breath, and then another, and then with the third she tilted her head back to look directly into Lium’s face.

Chapter Nine

There was a spike of dizziness, and a burst of adrenaline rushed through her body like a tidal wave. A scream caught in her throat and stayed there, because by the time her mouth had opened, the need passed. For a moment she’d been filled with terror as she looked into the face of something so alien that she couldn’t quite accept its existence. It was like looking under your bed and seeing that there really was a boogeyman there.

And then it passed.

Just like that the fear drained away to nothing and he was Lium again. Safe.

His appearance hadn’t changed. He hadn’t put his human disguise back on… it just stopped feeling so wrong and otherworldly. There was no way to explain how she’d gone from calm, to utter panic, and then right back to calm in a few seconds, but she had.

“Okay?” he asked. His mouth moved like a human’s would for the most part. The shape wasn’t quite right, and it was smaller, but it wasn’t so far off that forming words would have been hard.

“I think so. That was a wild rush. For a second I thought I was going to pass out.” Only after she said it, did she realize how rudeit must sound. “I don’t mean that you’re ugly or anything. You’re definitely not!” She was surprised to find that she meant it, as she gave him a once over to take in the whole package.

Lium was far from ugly. There was a strange preternatural beauty about the way all of his parts came together. His features were an odd mesh of human and not, but somehow, they just worked. His eyes, larger and rounder than any person she’d ever seen, weren’t glowing at the moment, but she could see the red in them. It was matte and muted now, and she wondered if he could control the glow.

“No offense taken, Ellie. The fear reaction isn’t because of how I look—although I guess seeing me unexpectedly would probably cause it anyway. It’s part of our self defense mechanism. It kicks in when you see our true appearance for the first time. It’s meant to make you want to run away, but it shouldn’t happen again.”

“That’s good to know.” It would have been nice to have had some warning, but she had a feeling this was all new to him as well. “You… you’re not as…” She wasn’t sure how to say it without insulting him.

“Not as monstrous as you expected?”

She felt her cheeks flush and ducked her head, but that didn’t help because now she was staring at his chest and that just made her want to play with the fur again. “No. No you’re not. The pictures, the statue… you don’t look anything like them.”

“Not really no, and before you ask, my ass isn’t that round either.” Lium snorted. “Uncle Steve is never going to live that statue down.”

Ellie couldn’t help laughing. “Pity… it is areallynice ass.”

“I suspect the artist has a kink.” He cleared his throat and shifted on the stool. “Do you have any questions now that you’ve seen everything?”

“Well, not everything,” she blurted. “I mean you still have your jeans on.”

“And they’re going to stay on for right now. I don’t put out on the first date, missy,” he said, chuckling.

His idea of a date was wildly different from hers, but she had to admit her kidnapper had a great sense of humor. “I’m only curious because you talked about being mates. And I uh-I was wondering how that would work.”

“Out of all the questions I expected you to ask, ‘What’s yer dick like?’ probably wasn’t on the list. I might be offended.” The amusement in his voice said otherwise. “I’m guessing you have a lot of questions about the whole mate thing, and I don’t blame you. It wasn’t something I intended to discuss tonight, or for a while. Things sort of got away from me.”

“First kidnapping?” she asked with a droll tilt to the words.