Laying in a pile of catgirls is undeniably the best start to my mornings, ever.

He didn't particularly want the day to begin. For a long time Meela had been getting up to cook breakfast before he woke up, and Reema would often have padded off to the other room to start working on her research. Seema could always be relied upon to sleep in with him, and caressing her silky skin was a morning routine that he could live with.

All the same he didn't want to feel like a slave-driver, and eventually he told them all to stay with him and get started on the day's work only if they really wanted to do it. The result had been later starts but definitely a more pleasurable routine.

But he wasn't fooled. He reached out and slapped Reema's bum.

"I know you're waiting on me," he said. "If you want to start work, I never meant you had to stay here no matter what."

Reema's head popped up over the curve of Meela's thigh.

"I'm happy here," she said. "But I've been sorting through Oort-linked businesses and working out our best approaches to start a discussion with someone."

"And you're anxious to get back to it? Really, don't let me stop you."

Instead she rested her chin on Meela's thigh and stared back at him.

"Do you know, I cannot find one instance of catgirls being sold directly to anyone from the Oort colonies?"

"I don't imagine they have many trillionaires."

"There are a few, and not all sales data is available. But for what I can track down, Earth and Luna have bought the majority, and the rest went to the Belt, with a dozen or so to Europa. None to Mars of course."

"There's all the missing ones. Maybe they went way out there."

She frowned.

"Maybe. But the sales pattern roughly tracks relations between Earth and those other territories. I'd expect the unknowns to follow about the same pattern. You could be right though, Master. I will think about it."

Mike gently pushed Seema over to one side. She grumbled and then sighed, stretching.

"I'm sure you can solve the mystery of the missing catgirls," Mike said. "Really it's kind of appropriate that DynCorp has one of its own catgirls giving it a critical eye and asking questions that they might not be comfortable with."

He looked down over the smooth curve of Meela's flank, and over at Reema curled up at her side, and briefly thought about delaying the morning for a little while longer. It was very tempting.

But then he sighed and did his own stretch.

"Seema," he said. "I think it's time we started the torture session."

He needed focus for the day, and much as he hated to admit it, letting Seema drag him into a morning workout routine had been a wise move. He was starting to see some progress, and some exercise first thing really did give him a clearer head with less stress.

It was something he knew he would never, ever do if he wasn't with the girls.

For Seema, it was probably her favorite part of the day. She transitioned to fully awake and ready to go instantly, leaping out of bed and standing over him naked and glorious. There was fire in her eyes.

"Alright you lazy bastard," she said sharply. "Haul your ass up and into the living room. Don't make me say it again."

Her tailed flashed back and forth impatiently, and her nipples and her ears stood at points.

I can't help feeling part of her really, really likes this mode.

"Yes ma'am," Mike said meekly and stood up, pulling himself away from Reema and Meela who both tried - not very hard - to pull him back into the bed again.

When he had asked Seema to be extra hard with him to make sure he didn't slack off, he'd kind of expected her to be worried about it. It seemed like the opposite of her catgirl nature. But he had been worried for nothing.

It's part of her acting talent, I guess.

When she was holding court with her adoring minions online, she had another completely different personality too. That one was engaged and active and giggly and silly. He thought back on what Aventine had said about them being flypaper for human affection. It was true. They all adapted to whatever role made people like them the hardest.

But for dragging his sorry ass out of bed in the morning, her drillmaster personality was great. Part of Mike responded to having someone else take on the disciplinary role that he lacked, at least as far as exercise was concerned.

She turned around and left, and Mike just barely managed to get some shorts on before she called out for him to hurry up.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Coming, coming!" he yelped. He knew Meela would be in the kitchen and cooking before they were done, so that was definitely something that helped him stay on task.

Thirty minutes later he was sore and sweating. Seema sat on his legs, forcing him to do sit-ups.

"Twenty nine..." she counted. Mike groaned and managed one more.

"Thirty!" she yelped.

He smiled through the pain.

"That's three times what I managed at the start."

"Outstanding progress, Master. I'm very impressed. You're solidly on the curve I have planned out. In six months you will be doing one hundred without even breaking a sweat."

Which would be more than a little amazing. Mike didn't think he'd done more than fifteen since high school. His weight was dropping as well - not dramatically yet, but with his permission she was watching what he ate like a hawk and she didn't hesitate to quote her ongoing calorie counts at him. It was exactly what he needed to take care of himself; something that was never a priority when he was working alone.

Reema was on the couch, watching.

"Master," she said. "I'd like to take us on an outing online soon. Would that be alright?"

It was unusual for her to come out with something like that on her own. She was obviously continuing their conversation from the bedroom.

"Doing what?"

"Have you heard of Charon Prospect?"

"Aha. Oort colony, right?"

She nodded.

She's really pushing this, he thought. It's important to her.

"It's more or less their embassy to the rest of the Solar System. They have a full simulation available for tour, and I thought it would be fun to take a look."

"For sure. Set it up."

She looked worried.

"I was hoping we could both go, but we would need to buy another immersion interface."

He waved it away.

"Do it," he said. "We're not hurting."

In fact the money the girls were bringing in was more than acceptable now. It covered upkeep on the place and then some, so that Mike was barely touching his savings. Strictly speaking they could borrow Seema's, but he didn't want to interfere with her work. They could afford to splurge.

For now, he realized. He was supposed to touch base with Aventine tomorrow evening. If she had a buyer lined up, that would change everything.

Cut down income by about a third for a start.

But he didn't fool himself at all, and so he announced that he was done with exercise for the day and went to have a shower and a think.

Toweled and dry, he grabbed the phone up off the couch and turned it on.

And there we go.

One message waiting.

Let's see what the move is.

NOT POSSIBLE TO SEND BY LEVEL ONE. LEVEL TWO LINK TO THE OWNER KEY IS HERE. CORP KEYS WILL TAKE MORE TIME.

He frowned and replied.

TIME LOW. NEED CONFIRMATION ASAP. NEED THE COUNTERKEYS.

He was about to put the phone down again, but another message came almost instantly.

They've been waiting for a reply.

WE ARE AWARE OF THE NEGOTIATIONS. URGE YOU TO RECONSIDER. WE ARE THEIR ONLY HOPE.

"Easy to say..." he muttered.

WHO ARE YOU?

The reply came instantly again.

THE ONLY ONES WHO GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THEM. APART FROM YOU MAYBE. IF YOU SELL THEM THEN NOT.

He sighed.

GET ME THE COUNTERKEYS AND WE CAN TALK.

Another instant reply.

WORKING ON IT. STAY CONNECTED.

As if.

WILL CHECK IN AT NOON.

He turned the phone off.

"Shit. It's always something."

"Master," said Meela from across the room where she was setting out breakfast. "Can I help you?"

He knew they would accept whatever he decided to do, but part of him felt a bit guilty about fessing up.

Nonsense. Get input.

He called them together and explained what he was doing.

"It's just a matter of keeping our options open," he explained. "But a level 2 connection is more risky. Someone with state level resources could zero in. If they were looking, at least."

Seema frowned hard.

"The owner key will give you more options for us, but is a bigger risk."

"This group already found us almost instantly when we went out in public," Meela said. "I worry about giving them a chance to geolocate us from network activity."

Mike nodded.

"If we grab the easy win, we get very little and we put our asses on the line. Reema, is what they said true? Could they not provide it on a level 1 message?"

He was pretty sure it was, but he trusted her expertise.

"Yes master," she said. "It will in fact be a series of signed keys. Impractical without a level 2 connection."

And I've also asked them for something they can't possibly do any other way, and they did it immediately.

"So we're either looking at a DynCorp, a state actor, or else someone unknown with inside connections," he said. "I'm not sure we're any further ahead."

Reema nodded again.

"If they can provide the corporate counterkeys, it is much less likely to be someone without very high-level internal access to DynCorp. So either the company itself, or someone they don't know about."

"Would the company give them to us, do you think?"

All three of them shook their heads.

"Very unlikely," Meela said.

"They would be opening some of their most protected intellectual property up to theft instantly," Reema said. "There would be no way to ensure its integrity if they did that."

"So..." Mike said. "We wait?"

Seema nodded.

"I believe we should wait, Master. There is no pressing reason to hurry."

The other two nodded emphatically.

No pressing reason. Except for tomorrow's deadline with Aventine's first buyer.

But he couldn't say that. He repressed the urge to swear in frustration and put the phone down on the table.

"It's the right call," he said. "We wait."