Bite Me, Too [sHarmony Shifters 2] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove)
Page 1
sHarmony Shifters 2
Jana Downs
The only thing that Evan enjoys is playing in a hacker hangout and chatting with a fellow computer expert, BlackJoy. Up to this point, he's avoided the matches made by sHarmony's "Love Experts," but he is ready to try just about anything to find his prince charming. Little does he know that fate has already set him up with his perfect match.
Brandon is very intrigued by the man he plays games with on Hackverse. Working as head of internal security at sHarmony, he recognizes some of the programming he's encountered in the system as WrightTrigger's handiwork. Once he finds out that Evan has a profile on sHarmony, it's all too easy to set them up on a date. He doesn’t know that the man who intrigues him is really the mate of his dreams.
As their courtship heats up, outside threats might put a permanent end to their courtship before it really has the chance to blossom into romance.
Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Contemporary, Paranormal, Shape-shifter
Length: 36,005 words
BITE ME, TOO
sHarmony Shifters 2
Jana Downs
EVERLASTING CLASSIC
MANLOVE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Everlasting Classic ManLove
BITE ME, TOO
Copyright © 2013 by Jana Downs
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62740-686-4
First E-book Publication: September 2013
Cover design by Sloan Winters
All art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Epilogue
About the Author
BITE ME, TOO
sHarmony Shifters 2
JANA DOWNS
Copyright © 2013
Chapter One
“Take that, bastard,” Evan muttered, making his last keystroke with a flourish. The guy he was dueling on Hackverse sent him a smiley face on the messenger.
“You think you’re hot shit,” BlackJoy typed.
“Confidence isn’t arrogant, sweet cheeks,” Evan replied. The online community where hackers the world over could come to test their skills was his favorite guilty pleasure. The players played on two monitors, one for hacks and the other for interaction and chitchat. He was more than confident in his ability to hack the system BlackJoy had set up. They’d been doing this every day for the past four weeks, smack talking and chatting until the early hours of the morning. He had a mad crush on BlackJoy’s skills, but he would never tell the other guy that. Well, he assumed it was a guy. He didn’t know many girls who talked about bros and football quite like BlackJoy did.
His play computer’s screen flickered, and fear started a low burn in his abdomen. “No way,” he said out loud. “No freaking way.”
“… Problems?” BlackJoy typed.
He went into his security defense on his play computer. BlackJoy had to have written a ricochet program for Evan’s virus. He tried to find how it had gotten through his firewall. “Dammit,” he growled. “Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.” The code he was looking at went wonky and fritzed. He had to find it before it—It was too late. The screen became bands of green ribbons and static.
“Well played, asshat,” Evan typed. Grudging respect filtered in. “Give me the root location so I can apply my doctor program.”
“Trash files.”
Evan rolled his eyes. Of course it was there. He should’ve looked there first. He dropped the antidote at the file location to delete the file and waited for his system to right itself. He sat back and looked at his conversation history with BlackJoy. He had to admit, playing with him had been fun.
“Same time tomorrow?” he typed.
“Oh right. You have a date tonight. Right? ;) Are they hot?”
He paused, straining to remember what his sHarmony date looked like. “They’re all hot. I mean, one is as attractive as another.”
“LOL! That’s romantic.”
“I dunno. I’m beginning to believe dating is a waste of time for a guy like me. Maybe I’m just not meant to have a mate.” They’d chatted about it before. Every date he’d been on in the past few weeks had been discussed in semidetail with BlackJoy.
BlackJoy was typing. “You’re dating shifters?”
“Yeah. Is that a problem?”
“Nah. I’m a shifter.” That was some new information. “I definitely don’t have a problem with a cute human trying to get with one of us.”
He rolled his eyes. “You don’t even know what I look like.”
“You have a beautiful mind. That’s all that counts anyway. So what service are you going through?”
There was no harm in telling what company. It wasn’t like B
lackJoy knew the region he was in. Hell, the guy didn’t even know his real name. His screen name was WrightTrigger07, and it had nothing to do with his real name. “sHarmony.”
“Cool. Have fun on your date.”
“I’ll try.”
He signed out and closed his laptop. He needed to grab a change of clothes and head to La Porta Descubrimiento, a Cuban restaurant down the street from Eclipse, the shifter club he and his friends liked to party at nowadays. Another blind date, another chance at a working relationship. He glanced at his printout. This guy had been one that he had requested a date for. He was a frog-shifter. Weird. At least he was hot. Maybe he’d just go with sHarmony’s picks next time if this didn’t work out. He obviously had no taste in men. He comforted himself with the knowledge that if it was a total fail, BlackJoy would be there to share in his self-mockery.
* * * *
Brandon Payne logged off his computer and sat back in his chair. His work day was just winding down, but monitoring the security systems at sHarmony wasn’t that difficult. However, since the company president had wanted to make sure their systems were monitored 24/7, Brandon had been hired to be one of the shift supervisors on the internal securities division. He’d really updated the system, rewritten the database, and made the division’s financial files more secure. Since he’d done all that, the whole network ran on its own for the most part. Other than minor security glitches, he had a lot of free time on his hands.
He’d discovered WrightTrigger during Hackverse’s annual free-for-all hacker tournament a few weeks back and had been playing with the guy ever since. He’d been surprised to find that his friend was on sHarmony’s site, but he was glad he wasn’t one of those weird humans that hated shifters. He had to admit he was curious about who was behind his hacker friend’s real persona, but he didn’t have enough information to look him up. Technically he could have tried to hack WrightTrigger’s personal computer for more info, but that violated the unwritten code to invade his friend’s privacy.
His phone alerted him that it was 7:00 p.m. Time for him to get off and time for WrightTrigger’s date. That was okay. He had time to kill before their next match, and a swim was on his list of things to do. The saltwater pool at his house sounded perfect. With a few keystrokes, he clocked out and grabbed his keys off of his desk. The next shift manager would be arriving in the next few minutes, so he left the report for his shift on the table. He slipped his personal laptop into his bag and hoisted it onto his shoulder.
Without preamble, he strode out of the room toward the front of sHarmony headquarters. “Hey, Quinn, you still here?” It was weird he wasn’t here. Quinn Harbison was his swimming buddy and usually was here until he left. The receptionist desk was empty.
The little sea horse’s head popped out from behind the counter. “Yeah! Sorry,” he said, beaming at him. “I was fixing my damn printer again. It keeps jamming up. I met the nicest human today. He was a new client and was so sweet.” He tended to talk a little fast and ramble, but it was just one of his cuter quirks in Brandon’s opinion. He would make someone an adorable mate one day.
“Glad you approved of the new client,” Brandon said, laughing. “You ready for a swim?”
Quinn practically vibrated with excitement. “Yes! I love your pool. It’s so nice.”
“I agree. Grab your stuff and let’s bounce.” Since they’d discovered the fact that they lived in the same neighborhood, they’d taken to commuting together.
The front waiting area was already darkened since the building technically closed an hour ago. Quinn had already tidied the front, put the magazines back on the corner tables, and moved the plush tan chairs back to their neat rows. sHarmony’s slogan was the only thing other than Quinn’s desk that was illuminated in the after-hours light. Creating love for life. Brandon scoffed a little at that. He wasn’t convinced that being matched by a service was the best way to meet a potential mate, but it seemed to work for a lot of people. He supposed he was just a bit traditional.
“I wrote his information on a piece of paper if you want it,” Quinn drawled slyly, shooting Brandon a look. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes but barely. Quinn apparently didn’t have his doubts about blind dates. The hopeless romantic of a shape-shifter was clearly intent on making Brandon the next person to get bitten by the love bug.
“Don’t worry about me. Worry about your own sad situation,” Brandon teased. “How did the date with what’s-his-face go?”
Quinn winced. “He was so boring it was painful. A nice guy but he was as dull as a butter knife. He didn’t feel the mate connection but wanted to go out again. I said no.”
“See? This is why I don’t do online dating.”
Quinn pushed open the door so Brandon could walk through it before locking it with his office key. The back entrance would be used for the rest of the night. “Aw hell, Brandon. You have to kiss a lot of frogs to get to the prince.”
Brandon chuckled. “Or fish, or cows, or primates.”
Quinn rolled his eyes. “Shut up, jerkface. You’re raining on my parade.” They took a right onto the sidewalk and headed to the parking garage Brandon had parked in. “Besides, I’m thinking of switching to the human division of sHarmony. They pair shifters and humans.”
“I heard about that from a friend. Is that safe? I mean, some humans kind of hate us.” It had been in the news just the other day. Shifter hate groups were nothing new, but now that public opinion was swaying more in favor of equal protection and treatment, they were getting nastier. That was one of the reasons he’d been called in to work the online security for sHarmony. After one of the clients had been targeted by one of those groups, the company had really cracked down on stuff dealing with client information.
Quinn just smiled. “They always do first dates in public areas that are shifter friendly. I think it’s as safe as going on a blind date can be. I’m pretty excited about my first human match. Humans lack expectations like most shifters.”
“I wish you luck then.”
They finally reached the parking garage, and Brandon pushed the button for the elevator. He always parked on the top deck because most people didn’t. His black Aston Martin Rapide deserved to be out of a scratch zone where other cars were parked. The car was the first thing he’d bought with his trust fund when he’d turned twenty-five.
That was another thing he and Quinn shared. They were both sons of pretty wealthy men who’d chosen not to follow Daddy’s chosen career path. Brandon’s dad was a closeted shifter congressman, and Quinn’s was a big corporate CEO in Atlanta. Since that made both of them familyless, they tended to stick together. Brandon technically didn’t even need to work with the stipend he got from his account, but he enjoyed the interaction.
“So how did your hacker thing go?” Quinn asked as the elevator door opened. “I know you were going against that guy you like playing.”
“I won,” Brandon declared with a grin. “Though I had to cheat with a ricochet program. He’s good.”
Quinn laughed. “He’s your freaking soul mate then. You are crazy good with computers.”
“Yeah, I’m a little in love with his skills, not going to lie.” It wasn’t just WrightTrigger’s skills, but he felt silly saying that he had a crush on someone he’d never even seen a picture of.
“Sure that’s the only thing you’re in l-o-v-e with?” Quinn drawled, teasing him again.
Brandon did roll his eyes then. “Oh hush.”
* * * *
“So you wanna get out of here?” Mr. I’m-gonna-grab-your-thigh-under-the-table-constantly said. Out of all the dates Evan had been on, this was by far the worst. I have the worst taste in men ever.
“Yeah. I’m pretty tired,” Evan said, motioning the waiter to bring the check.
His date grinned. “So my place or yours?”
Evan blinked. Was he serious? “Um, neither. I’m tired. I had fun, but I really have to get some sleep for work tomorrow.” He yawned to emphasize his po
int.
The shifter’s face fell. “Oh. Well, next time then.”
“Definitely.” Not in this life. Not in the next life. Not in any life ever.
After paying for their meal, which Evan had to cover, and a very awkward kiss, he was free. He’d never been so relieved to crawl into his 1972 Dodge Charger as he was right this second. He inserted his key and cranked the engine. The deep rumble soothed some of his frayed nerves. At least he could go home to his quiet studio apartment and spend the rest of the night eating pizza and playing on Hackverse. Collin would probably be on Skype later, too, so that was something. He stared at the steering wheel as the loneliness of his life creeped in. Hooking up had never been the problem. There were plenty of people willing to sleep with him. But he was beginning to doubt that he was worthy of a real relationship.
He shook off his melancholy as he put the car into reverse. He had just had a bad date. That was the only reason he was feeling so crappy. He pulled out of the parking space before shifting the car into gear. He couldn’t help but ponder the why of the situation though. Why was it if he had a hand in picking out his own dates that they ended up being slobbering jackasses? Mr. Grabby had certainly looked nice on his profile, and Evan had even made sure that the guy volunteered at charities in an attempt to break the pattern. No matter what he did, it never seemed to matter. If Evan had even phantasmal interest in someone, they were inevitably fatally flawed.
He took Rhodes Street to the highway and settled in for the fifteen-minute trek to his exit. Unlike his best friends, Collin and Jude, he hadn’t moved into fancier digs when the money started to roll in. He was content with his tiny studio apartment. In his mind, the only reason to change that would be if he had to share the space. Thus far, only two people had even made it to his place and those people were like family to him and not romantically inclined in the least. He might’ve told them that he’d stumbled onto sHarmony on accident and that signing up for the service was part joke and part good times, but the truth of the matter was that he’d been waffling for weeks on whether or not to try letting someone else set him up. sHarmony had seemed like a good fit, and he figured if the guy was a shifter, he’d know before Evan did whether or not they would work out. The mate bond was apparently a pretty final and determined thing. That was if he ever found that with one of his dates.