Mistle Tie Me (Shifting Hearts Dating App Book 1)
Praise for Erzabet Bishop
"If you love excitement and sexy wolf shifters! Then you will love this incredible storyline!
You will love this super exciting, thrilling, funny, suspenseful, and scorching hot shifter Romance! This is a five star plus story."
~ Roxie's Romance Reviews
"OH WOW! Suspense builds, a world different from anything is shown and love and death battle."
Praise for Erzabet Bishop
"I started reading and couldn't stop until I turned the last page. I really enjoyed the characters and thought there was the possibility for more stories with these characters. I thought this was a very entertaining story. This is the first book by this author that I have read, and it won't be my last."
~ Loves to Read (A Cozy Booknook)
"Fantastic story and read!!!"
Praise for Erzabet Bishop
"This is a must read for those who like a bite to their romance."
"What a fantastic read! I was so drawn in by this book that I couldn’t put it down until the very end. I love the connection that these two share and how they finally reach their HEA. I felt all of the emotions and cheered for them every step of the way. I can’t wait to read the next book."
Praise for Erzabet Bishop
"It's complicated, shifter style."
"For a shifter reverse harem to start off with a quote from Joseph Campbell, you know it's going to be smart and different."
"What an amazing book! Tormenting Her Mate is the third book of the My Wicked Mates series. And what a fantastic book it is!"
Praise for Erzabet Bishop
"I loved reading this book! A sweet and passionate romance with a happy ever after! Love it!"
"You will love this Awesome storyline with its BDSM theme. The characters are fantastic. This story will keep you glued to its pages."
"I loved reading this story. I opened the book and didn’t stop reading until the last page. I was swept into the story from the first page."
Praise for Erzabet Bishop
"WOW! Clover and Richard are great!! The chemistry incredible! This is a hot story with some suspense and drama."
"This book hooked me from the get go I just couldn't put it down I fell in love with these characters and omg what a story just a perfect read."
"This was a great story. I have never read anything by this author before but I will be from now on. I can't wait to read the rest of the series."
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
About
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
A Taste of Your Wolfish Heart
About
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Where to Find More of Erzabet Bishop
Also By Erzabet Bishop
About The Author
Mistle Tie Me
Shifting Hearts Dating App,
Book One
Copyright ©2019 Erzabet Bishop
ISBN: 978-1-77357-131-7
Published by Naughty Nights Press LLC
http://naughtynightspress.com/
Cover Art By Willsin Rowe
Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.
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Mistle Tie Me
Shifting Hearts Dating App,
Book One
Erzabet Bishop
About
Shifting Hearts Dating App…where goddess power meets technology in the quest for love.
At least that’s what Rafe Matheson is trying for when his sister and part owner of Shifting Hearts Dating Agency approaches him about creating an app that will take them into the next level of the dating stratosphere. There’s just one catch. It has to be ready for Valentine’s Day launch. Holy jingle bells!
Annoyed with her daughter’s annual trip to the Underworld, Demi decides to crash Hades’ party at the Elysian Club, but she finds out she’s not as immune to the hot, writhing bodies as she thought. Especially one body in particular…
Nick is a polar bear shifter on Hades’ indentured payroll. When he catches sight of a sexy goddess in the throng of festive nightclub goers, he knows this won’t be a holiday party he’ll soon forget.
Dedication
For Gina. Merry Christmas. Cause shifters need a bit of holiday fun and I just couldn’t resist a new spin off on Shifting Hearts.
For my husband and fur babies. I love you madly. Especially those moments of snuggly quiet, buried under mountains of blankets.
For Philip Pullman. Your stories have captured my imagination and your bears roam my dreamtime adventures.
“You speak of destiny as if it was fixed.”
― Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass
Chapter One
“You want me to do what?” Rafe Matheson raised an eyebrow at his sister Paige. He was buried deep in his web design project and struggling to hide his annoyed scowl at the interruption.
The door to his office had been closed and that usually meant he was off limits and in the zone. Not that it stopped his sister. Ever. He borrowed space for his web business in return for his being the sole tech support at Shifting Hearts Dating Agency. And with her partner, Sylvia’s Harry Dresden like computer jinxing skills, it was practically a full-time job. He’d lost count of how many new computers he’d installed since he came on board. And that didn’t even include the phones.
“Design an app. You know, for the agency.” Paige grinned. “I’ve been researching. Everyone has one now and it will be perfect to launch over Valentine’s Day.”
Of course, she had. That was his sister…never letting a sleeping cat lie. If anyone had ever embraced the online shopping craze, it was her, as evidenced by the parcels continually being dropped off by a certain grey van with a very familiar logo.
But he really shouldn’t comp
lain. If they didn’t have grocery and restaurant delivery options, he would most likely never eat again. It seemed like he never left his office these days, except to go home, sleep a couple of hours, wake up, gurgle some badly made k-cup coffee, and then he was out the door and back at the office.
Not sure which of them was the biggest taskmaster, he attributed their workaholic tendencies to remembering what it was like when they didn’t have a pot to piss in.
No. Too much work was better than no work at all. And Paige understood that. It also kept him from thinking about how empty his apartment was in those moments before he closed his eyes at night.
But he valued his freedom. Hell, he could never work this much if he had a mate at home. She’d never allow it.
He felt a little sorry for his sister’s mate, Tyler. Okay…no. He didn’t really. The guy was lucky to have her. But as Paige continued going on and on about the virtues of having an app in the big fish pond of finding mates for her prospective customers worldwide, he could barely resist rolling his eyes.
Leave it to his sister to find one more way to monetize the dating game. She and Sylvia had done well. Their respective talents had taken a fledgling idea to help shifters find each other, and hell…now they were even branching out to other sides of the spectrum. Last week, Sylvia had paired up a vampire and a banshee at one of their get togethers at the Cardiac Café. Go figure.
And now, she wanted world domination. Well…sure. It was Tuesday and he wasn’t doing anything…oh…for the next month. Christmas wasn’t really his thing. And after all this behind the scenes stuff, he would leave the dating antics to his sister. No, thank you.
When he first started his career, he designed scheduling programs, test lines at a local factory, and toyed around with cloud info structure, servers, and database contracting in his spare time. He didn’t stick with one thing…but each angle did give him specific skills to fall back on as the market folded in on itself. A year ago, if anyone had ever suggested he would be the invisible tech behind the crusade to aid the lovelorn, he’d have laughed in their face. But now here he was, hip deep in websites, and it seemed that was only the beginning.
He tapped his pen on the desk next to his gamer keyboard, the rainbow of lights the only illumination in the darkened office.
A dating app. That could work, actually. It would be a hell of a lot faster than going through emails to match compatible people. Tie it in with the website, geography, and a whole host of other variables, and it just might work.
His cat chuckled inside him. Even when they had been kids, their kitten sides had gotten them up to no good more than once. But entertaining his sister’s antics had been preferable to their mother’s insane politics. Now that Paige had a mate, he didn’t worry about her as much, at least. But that didn’t mean she didn’t exasperate the devil out of him on a daily basis.
Rafe stifled a groan. She wouldn’t know it, but he had already started incorporating app building into his small business and it was starting to take off, and big. At the rate he was going, he would be able to retire by the age of fifty and never have to worry about money again.
The only problem was, he had already contracted two new companies, and as it was, to do their projects right, it was going to take weeks. Gods. He ran a hand over his face and blinked at the screen in front of him. He was going to have to hire some help.
“Have you talked to Sylvia about this?”
His sister shuffled her booted feet and wrapped a strand of long, dark chestnut hair around her finger.
“Um, no?”
He let out a slow breath and tried not to think of things that involved murder.
“How about you let me finish this project and I’ll see what I can do? Meanwhile, you need to start advertising for some help.”
“What kind of help?”
“My kind. And someone to circumvent Sylvia’s determination to blow every bit of profits on new computer equipment.”
She slid a piece of paper onto his desk. “Here’s some of what I want to include. If you think it’s feasible.”
Rafe scanned her notes, pen still tapping.
Yeah. That would work. Excitement thrummed in his veins when he thought about the symmetry of it all.
“Okay.”
Paige blinked, a smile spreading across her lips. “So, you’ll do it? We’ll have our very own app by Valentine’s Day?”
He pulled out a piece of paper and started jotting down job requirements. “Here. Post this. See what you get back. Make sure you’re clear they have to be flexible with their hours.”
Paige squealed and gave him a hug that sent him into a coughing fit. “You won’t regret this. I promise. And if it works, you’ll get a bonus.”
Rafe sighed. Her excitement was infectious. He could do it. If he pulled a few all nighters. It would be fine.
***
“We’re hiring someone?” Sylvia tore her gaze from the computer screen and swiveled in her chair. She met Paige’s sparkling eyes and she sucked in a breath.
Could they afford it?
“Two someone’s. At least, I think so.”
“What?”
Paige lowered herself onto the side of the desk and slapped a tablet of legal paper down in front of her.
Smart.
The woman had learned not to let her touch her computer or anything else digital. It was safer that way and a hell of a lot less costly.
“Look. Rafe is going to need some help working on a special project for us and with him tied up, we’re going to need someone who can handle stuff around here.”
“Have you run the numbers?”
“Yup.” Paige grinned. “With what we’ve cleared in the last month, we can afford to have someone part time in the office for tech support.”
Sylvia’s gaze swept over the columns of numbers. This was good. The amount of money they would save on computer equipment alone if she had help would more than pay for someone part time.
“What project is he working on?”
“A dating app.”
“What?” Sylvia blinked. She didn’t really understand this new world of computers and phones. Having them combust in her face didn’t exactly help, either.
“We need more than just a website. And emails. More and more people are using apps these days. So, I asked Rafe to build us one.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah,” Paige gushed. “And he thinks he can have it up and running by Valentine’s Day. Won’t that be amazing! We can have a launch party and really market the heck out of it. What do you think?”
“Hmmm.” It sounded good. It really did. And if Rafe was in, then there would be no problems. She had utter faith in the man’s technical savvy. After all, he’d rescued her more times than she could count.
“How would the app work?”
“I don’t want to go through all the specifics now until I have something to show you, but it would help facilitate the pairing process. A little goddess magic. A little technology. Some really great matches… It could work.”
Sylvia nodded, intrigued in spite of herself. She’d seen commercials on television and wondered how they managed to take off on a global level. An excited butterfly lit through her belly as she realized they were about to do the same thing. It wouldn’t just be here in Cypress Creek, Texas. It would be all over the world. Email had helped with that. After all, goddess energy wasn’t limited to geography. But this…this was a grander scheme of things and Sylvia couldn’t help but be excited at the possibilities.
An email pinged through and Sylvia grabbed the nearest pencil, jabbing at the keyboard with the eraser. There were ways around her computer killing touch. She just had to be tricky about it. Goddess power was good for some things, but keeping computers alive wasn’t one of them.
“What is it?” Paige sidled around the desk and peered over her shoulder.
“Oh. Wow.”
“I know. Right?” Sylvia snorted, scanning the email. Being a descenden
t of a goddess could be a good thing after all.
Her fingertips began to tingle and a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Maybe Christmas was going to be a little more fun than she originally thought.
It was time for some long overdue goddess magic. And she had just the right match…
Chapter Two
“Thanks, guys. Have a great Christmas.” Demi wiped her hands on her apron and turned back to the register as the last customers of the day left with an armload of poinsettias, a fern, and three gift-sized aloe plants.
The door chimed as it shut and she quickly turned her attention to shutting down the register.
Demi’s Arbor was closed for the night and she couldn’t help but give a relieved sigh. It was tough running the greenhouse without Persephone, especially during the holidays. As it was, she still had a half dozen poinsettias to repot.
She eyed her selection of stuffed polar bears and smiled. At least they would keep her company, even if nobody else would.