Though I suspected there might be some overlapping there. Especially for Katerina and even Allison who had no trouble with the idea of a stranger not only just touching them but fucking them. I might have to resist that. Their personalities and comfort level might want it, but to do it would make them suspicious or weirded out because it was against social rules of society. I’d have to see, and I could resist it. I had a focused mind and wasn’t a weak willed man, and I was stubbornly determined to get a handle on it all. Just because it wouldn’t be easy didn’t mean I couldn’t do it, or that it wouldn’t be worthwhile. That I gave in for Hali, and would for future family, didn’t make me weak, it just made sense. Those were the appropriate and purposeful reasons for even having the power, after all.

  There was a lot more of course, several ideas and changes to the house to make it warmer occurred to me, and I could also feel Hali missed the ocean. At the same time, she’d never give me up for that, and she was obviously more joyful and content at my side and wanted to be there with me. So, it was a discomfort she was stuck with outside of going for an occasional swim down the river. Nothing in life was perfect after all, not for any of us, and that need wasn’t addressable, so it was like an itch I couldn’t scratch. I literally wanted to go back for her, but that wasn’t feasible. On the good side, it was something to practice resisting with my will simply because I had little choice, which wasn’t easy.

  When we got into the car to head for the fitness center and workout, I took Hali’s hand. Nothing new in that, but it’d never felt so right to do before.

  “Hey, baby. You look fantastic.”

  I’d dressed her in a tight light blue halter top that was heavy enough the nipples were only mostly obvious, and a pair short stretchy shorts and running shoes for our workout. The shirt was just tight enough to keep the swaying to a minimum, and to prevent wild bouncing.

  Her lushly toned body looked delectable in it. While that was true, it was the sense she’d needed a compliment and my attention that inspired me to say it. Little things like that hit me almost constantly, and for that one and touching her by holding her hand, I’d went with it.

  She grinned, “Thanks. You dressed me you know.”

  I snorted, “It’s what’s under the clothes, love.”

  She giggled as I started the car and pulled down the long driveway. Then I pulled out on the road, the place wasn’t all that far away.

  “I love you, master.”

  “Love you too, sweet naughty vixen.”

  She grinned, “Another massage today?”

  I shrugged, “Monday. I can’t do that every day, even if it is tempting. It’d get expensive, and that money won’t last forever. Plus, I think it’d look a bit desperate, and like I was stalking her. I will say hello to everyone on our way out, so we can chat them up a bit on the ally side, which will partially disguise operation seduce Katerina into our mating bed.”

  It wasn’t deceptive exactly, or at least not a verbal lie, anyway. I had a feeling she’d resist every step of the way, no doubt she’d been hurt by trying to make friends before. That’d been made clear to me yesterday, when Hali had pointed out men don’t really do well with friends with benefits when their friend was riding every pole in sight. I imagined she had just as many lost friendships from that as from men getting clingy and demanding.

  I knew I’d struggle with it too. It was the hope that she’d shift that and become one of my faithful mates that I’d be able to deal with that in the interim. Faithful to me and our other mates only, and to whoever else I brought to our mating bed. I suspected even that acceptance had a short shelf life. Eventually, I would get jealous, and feel resentment that she hadn’t gotten a clue yet that we were made for each other. Not pretty, and nothing to take pride in, but very much human nature.

  I’d never judge her, being a sexual creature was who she was. That negative reaction would be my failing, and human instinct.

  She snickered, “Good to know.”

  “Just don’t share that with anyone. She’s definitely not ready even if she’s close to that, and it’ll just ruin it if she figures out the extent of my hopes. She’ll shut down hard if we aren’t patient. I got the idea Ginny and Levi weren’t going to tell her we were compatible save for her current form of worshipping the goddess. They probably know if they did that, she’d run the other way as fast as she could. Plus, that’s only best case, I’m not assuming, and I will accept friendship alone if she’s not ready for more.”

  She nodded, “I know, I wouldn’t. It’s just the funny embarrassing stuff I’ll be telling.”

  I glared, and she winked.

  “Be reasonable, master,” she said warmly with a lilt of teasing, “I’ve got to earn my spankings somehow.”

  I sighed, “Cheeky sweet naughty vixen.”

  I was fairly sure she was joking, but not entirely.

  She giggled and squeezed my hand.

  I said, “She is pretty amazing though, tough like you, stubborn of mind and heart but also generous.”

  We pulled into the parking lot, and I took a spot near the door, and just sat there for a moment. The place was busier than yesterday, with two classes and several people working out. The amount of information buffeting my mind was intense.

  “Just give me a moment to get a handle on this.”

  If I couldn’t, we’d have to go home and train it, which I really didn’t want to do.

  It was quickly obvious to me that I had to take the same route I did when I’d learned how to deal with and control my receptive empathy. If I tried to resist and fight the flow of information, then I’d go fucking batshit insane after a while. At first, with my empathy I’d fought and tried to control the incoming emotions, to stand like a brick wall and resist them, and it was a miserable thing. Over time, and with Hali’s encouragement, I’d learned how to relax and just let all those emotions wash over me without overly effecting my own emotional state. A focus of serenity to a certain extent, in part.

  It was a difficult thing, to accept all that emotional input, to embrace it instead of fighting it with my mind, but at the same time preventing myself from being swept away by the emotions of others.

  This blessing would work better if I went that route, trying to stand strong against the flow of intuitive information would backfire and make my life miserable. Not to mention the blessing would be worthless if I fought it every step of the way, and it’d also defeat the purpose of having it. The danger in embracing and accepting that flow of intuitive information of the blessing of course, is that my subconscious would prompt and change my actions if I was too receptive.

  In short for that part, it’d become a habit to just act on it without thought, which couldn’t be allowed.

  The trick of it would be to relax my mind and to take the information in as background noise, and just let my subconscious mind which was much more powerful deal with the input. At the same time, I’d have to focus on not letting those needs for comfort, hearth and home to influence my actions subconsciously. Which of course, was impossible to do fully, but I thought it was still the best path.

  Be an open mind as far as reception, and not focus on that information at all. Similar to the din of conversation in a bar, or a stadium, ignore it as background noise but it would still inform me to a certain extent, and I could focus on singular conversations. Or in the case of the blessing I could focus on specific individuals or groups of individuals for their needs.

  So, instead of putting my focus on the input, I’d have to focus on my actions and ensure I didn’t take actions without running it through my conscious filters first. It would be difficult at first, and I’d also probably be acting a little stilted as I trained my mind to deal with it. It would take time and a lot of effort, similar to my empathy training. At least three weeks to solidly train my mind and embed those as habit and normal.

  But it’d be worth the effort. I was stubborn, and I’d much rather master the blessing and the information it gave me, instead of constantly pulling it inside me to give my overwhelmed mind a break. No doubt, I’d be doing that at times as well. It would take conscious effort to train my mind that way, and the mind had limits and I’d need breaks before it was mastered. That was just realistic, I wasn’t going to master this blessing overnight.

  Also noteworthy, all that had nothing to do with resisting being taken advantage of by strangers. That would be an additional step when I focused on what actions the relaxed acceptance of information was prompting me to take.

  In short, it’d be difficult on multiple levels, not just in resisting, but once I had my mind trained and got used to the process, it’d become second nature. I hoped my estimate of three weeks to master the blessing was realistic, if not it was going to suck even worse than I thought. Once it was mastered, then the only pitfall would be that last, the possibility of being taken advantage of by strangers, and that would never go away and would need to be constantly guarded against. For the rest of my life.

  The first part though, being open to the information, wouldn’t take long at all. It’s the filtering process that would be difficult and plodding in the beginning. Though I’d no doubt start resisting at some point and have to reestablish that mindset often in the beginning, as my mind would no doubt want to reject the new input. Those expectations came easily from my empathy training, which had been a miserable four months, but in that case, I’d fought it every step of the way.

  “Give me a kiss, woman.”

  She grinned, and kissed me lingeringly, and I bit her lip after, but her green eyes were bright with the smile she fought back.

  “Mermaid,” she corrected.

  I snickered, and we got out of the car and headed inside to work out. We went into the right entrance, and we got started on it. As I’d said earlier, we’d swing by the desk in the center building on the way out. It’d also give me time to work through several false starts as I tried to let the information flow through me without focusing on it with my conscious mind. If it was too difficult, I could always suppress it for the few minutes I was chatting with Katerina, Allison, and Carmen.

  It was difficult to say the least, as my mind was pulled in multiple directions. Not just trying to relax and absorb the information without any particular focus, but also the desire to help out a few people that were obviously having troubles. Then there was that other side effect, I’d noticed last time I’d drawn more than my share of looks from other females last time, the humans around me, but it was more apparent that second day.

  Hestia had told me people would instinctively trust me and want to open up because of the aura of the blessing. That knowledge had been accepted by me as truth last night, but there was nothing like actual experience. That trust imparted in others also seemed to bleed over to non-comfort and hearth related things. Specifically, that engendered trust made the ladies much less subtle about checking me out. It wasn’t lost on me that with a minimum of effort I could cut a wide swath through the hot ladies working out in this place.

  At the same time, Hestia had been right, I could never abuse that trust. I could feel what they needed, and they didn’t need some asshole picking them up and discarding them after hot sex. Not that I’d have done that before. I was happy with Hali and wanted more mates, not empty sex. I’d learned better, and I’d mentioned more than once before that it was thanks to my thorough education on empty sex and in pleasuring women from the Nereids.

  Still, point was, it was a little startling.

  So I worked on that, feeling the flow and letting it wash over me without focus, while at the same time focusing on the impulses to act on it and rejecting almost all of it. No one came to work out their bodies to work out their problems after all, social situations were still pertinent. Though I knew at times my blessing would facilitate a blurring of those lines.

  I also did a little of trying to focus on one person to feel their needs consciously, but that didn’t go so well on that first day. I had to take short steps, and to get comfortable with ignoring the background noise first. Trying to focus on one person that first day brought it all into sharp and overwhelming focus.

  Not unlike the first time someone walks into a club and their mind is overwhelmed by all the people, loud sounds, and bright flashing lights. Focusing on a single thing is almost impossible. After a while, the mind filters that out, and it feels normal. I was still on the proverbial doorstep, it’d take time.

  I also of course, enjoyed all the eye candy, including Hali. I was after all, just twenty-one, and there was nothing wrong with enjoying the view. There was a lot of delightful feminine flesh to subtly enjoy. Thanks to Hali being naked for five years I also knew how to do so using peripheral vision so it wasn’t a creepy thing.

  It was maybe a half hour in, when Levi stopped by. That time he had Nicole pasted to his side, and she looked thrilled to be there.

  “Hey, everything good?”

  I nodded, “Yes. Trying to get used to Hestia’s blessing.”

  He grinned, “Congrats. So you took Ginny’s advice?”

  “It was good advice. What time tomorrow?”

  Levi replied, “Come around two, expect to stay the afternoon and early evening, unless you have other plans to get to.”

  Nicole whispered in his ear.

  He tilted his head in thought, then asked, “I don’t suppose you’d consider teaching martial arts here? Carmen told me you were accomplished.”

  I paused in thought for a second, because I felt like I needed to say yes. Which made me really want to say no just to be contrary. It was… weird. I also assumed Carmen knew my prowess in martial arts because my Hali had been bragging on me while I was getting that massage.

  “I enjoy martial arts, and I’m advanced enough to teach it, as is Hali. What’s going on?”

  He replied, “Shifting priorities. Janice wants to spend more time at home with the kids. She won’t give up teaching her self-defense classes for women that need that, but I think she’d give up the regular classes in a heartbeat. The trick is finding someone we trust that’s reliable.”

  “And that person is me?” I asked, a little surprised.

  He grinned, “Sure, becoming Hestia’s champion just made you Janice’s default ally as a daughter and champion herself. It also says a lot about you that she asked you to become her champion so quickly. It’s two classes in the morning, and one in early afternoon. She’d still come in for her self-defense class at the end of the day, but otherwise be free to make our home and watch after the kids which is where her heart lies. The night classes are covered by someone else already.”

  It was then that Hestia’s seemingly odd and disconnected advice rang like a bell in my mind. She’d said not to hesitate to take a temporary position that would help me with friend, ally, and family advancement. It seemed too perfect a fit for that advice. It would have me here six hours a day, where I could deepen Hali’s and my connection to my new allies, deepen our friendships, and it would afford me more time and a reasonable reason to spend time chatting with Katerina in pursuing her as a mate.

  Not to mention it’d earn money, and I could preserve the nest egg my father had provided.

  Ironically, despite all that my first inclination would’ve been to say no. Because I wanted to find a job or career to share with my family, and we couldn’t all work for Levi. But it wouldn’t be a permanent thing. I’d just have to continue to do it until they found a replacement once I was ready to move on and had my family built and strong ally ties.

  It’d also be good practice for my blessing management. Most of the needs in the classes would be situational centric to learning to defend themselves, which I wouldn’t have to fight at all, while I fought all the smaller disparate stuff and mental need baggage that they’d no doubt come in with as well. Of course, I wouldn’t ignore it all, the difficulty would be in finding that balance, because there’d be a joy and contentment for me in serving others now. In a lot of ways, it was my calling.

  Blessing training boot camp, of sorts.

  Point being of all that, was that I might’ve begged off without that advice from my goddess, merely to be contrary and out of fear Levi was trying to take advantage of me on his mate’s behalf. But that suspicion was ungrounded to any real facts, and with Hestia’s advice the choice seemed like a no brainer, given everything I’d just gone over in my mind.

  I’d just have to get up an hour earlier, so I could get in sparring practice, breakfast, and a quick workout before my first class.

  “Monday through Friday?”

  He nodded, “None of us work the weekends, so yes. You’d just be taking her classes.”

  “What’s the catch?” I asked.

  I’d heard the tentativeness in his voice.

  He smiled, “We’ll have to convince Janice it’s a good idea. She wants it, but she’ll no doubt resist the idea and be worried about her classes. Don’t worry about running the staff, I can do that, and they know their jobs well.”

  “How will we do that?”

  Levi grinned, “Don’t let her kick your ass.”

  I laughed, “Oh, a try out for the position via sparring, you mean. Thirty minutes?”

  Levi nodded, “I’ll meet you over there. You’ll start on Monday if it all goes through, she’s already here for today.”

  I said, “Got it, and salary?”

  He said, “It’s fifteen hundred a week.”

  That’d cover my expenses and put a healthy addition into my bank account every week.

  “Alright, I’ll see you then.”