Page 1 of Cyber Match

Chapter 1

Matthew strolled into his office,sat down at his oversized glass desk, and rolled his hand over the mouse to wake his larger-than-life computer screen. Being the owner of the largest sex chat website made for some rather interesting things on his display in the morning, but the past week business had been bad. Sometimes it seemed, people wanted more than just sexual compatibility and despite never having a bad review, business was waning.

Three years ago Matthew started his own company after being fired from an online dating site for tampering with matchmaker results. Never mind that everything he did was always a far better pairing, and he had just as high of a success rate as the twits that punched in numbers and ran compatibility tests. No, all his boss saw was someone breaking the rules and out he’d gone.

Two years ago, Cyber Room LLC was born after a series of late nights, bottles of booze, and too many terrible one-night stands. Much like a dating website, his company matched people based on their compatibility, but Cyber Room took sexual desires into account, not just personality traits. Matthew firmly believed good sex was a part of strong relationships – if you weren’t feeling pleasure with a person, everything else could fall apart. That’s not to say he believed sex was the only thing that mattered, just that he knew it was important while forming connections.

Couples too shy to meet in the real world could interact their greatest fantasies online with another single person. Matthew ran the sex site of the dating world, or so the papers often referred to it. When his site first launched, applications poured in. He’d had so many Matthew was forced to hire an assistant to help him slush through pile and run the formula. By formula, he really meant checking who had what sexual fantasies and placing them with people who were like-minded. The dating site algorithm worked great, and he just went in and performed some needed alignments after.

Business was at a virtual standstill. “No pun intended,” Matthew grumbled as he scanned through the only two new applicants from the weekend. His hands ran over the small stubble on his face as he leaned back with a sigh. If he didn’t do something to shake up the promotions and pull in more clients he would be looking at a dead business before the New Year. With three days to Halloween, he had enough time to pull it off but only if he could get innovative enough.

His entire marketing plan hinged on two pivotal screws—literally and figuratively—cybersex and curious people. The idea of a virtual cybersex website had people panting initially. He’d had his fair share of freaks, but that’s why he required government issued ID’s, to run background checks. Cyber Room went international six months ago, and it had made things considerably harder to verify. The other part had been that the point was to socially mingle online and then take it offline and find their happily ever after based on a sexual match that lead to more—the opposite approach of the stuffy dating websites. He wanted his clients to indulge their fantasies and see what could grow from it.

Matthew was pretty damn good at it.

Even if he couldn’t find his own sexual partner to save himself.

Women who weren’t interested in his site found him disgusting. The women who were, well, he didn’t mix business with pleasure. In the last two years Matthew received over one hundred and seventeen emails about happily married couples from his site and couldn’t get himself laid. More than once he’d contemplated breaking his no monitoring the room policy and reading couple’s deviant playtimes to get himself off. His assistant had frowned and quit, leaving him running the company by himself. There were measure in place to catch trigger words to keep people safe, but ghosting around a room was unethical.

Using the tips of his toes, Matthew rolled his office chair back and forth as he pulled open the various things he needed to check for both applicants. Monday mornings were as un-stimulating as they were at any job. First, he had to check on active customer’s payment accounts. Then he had to do a stroll through the private chat rooms and make sure that information from the previous couples had been successfully wiped when the clients left.

“Monotonous. I run a cybersex site and my time is spent playing check up on the most ridiculous things.” He spoke to no one but heard the familiar meow of his cat, Gallie, who was aptly named for his secret love of Doctor Who. She was a holdover from his latest failed relationship. Three years of his life spent with a woman, and he found her logged into his system as a client. He kept the cat, and she had been served with a lawsuit. He couldn’t even remember what for but his shiny lawyers had gotten a decent check off of her. Which meant aside from having his heart shattered to bits, he supposed it all worked out in the end.

“Let’s check on our newest applicants,” he said to Gallie, and turned back to the computer. A quick grab of their ID numbers and Matthew dumped them into the preliminary background check and got up to grab a cup of coffee while it ran, Gallie tagging close behind.

“Think we can make a match this week girl?” he asked as he walked back into his home office. He only had two new applicants, but he had a pool of almost fifty people waiting in the wings for a match. “What sexual deviant do we have in our midst today?” Gallie purred as if responding as he scanned the names.

Loraine Mathers and Virginia L. Quark. Pulling open the photos he wondered if users manipulated them as frequently as dating site users did. Their photos were private, but he used them as a secondary verification process to ensure online predators had no place at Cyber Room. Still, every time he looked the person looked perfectly manicured and far too attractive to be single. Loriane’s photo lined up to her driver’s license which according to the report was a valid Tennessee one. He took a sip of coffee and flipped to Virginia’s photo and almost spit his coffee out.

She was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. And he’d seen a lot checking over applications. Her hair was such a dark black it almost shined blue in the photo and her unique eyes were such a dark mix of brown and black they nearly gleamed purple. He loved small, slightly turned up noses, but it was her full lips drawing him in. She was almost enchanted looking. Matthew couldn’t ignore the jolt of lust that had blood rushing to his dick.

He’d come across his fair share of attractive women applying. None who ever caused such a knee-jerk response in him though. Virginia L. Quark had most certainly turned his head.

He reached a finger out and almost traced it down her face on the screen before realizing what he was supposed to be doing. Shaking his head, Matthew snapped his arm down and matched the photo to the license and the number on it to the state.

Coffee sprayed across the screen, and he almost choked.

Miss Quark lived in Atlanta. Almost six blocks from his brownstone. Where he was sitting right this very moment. “Stop it, Matthew. You don’t snipe the applicants. Rule number one.”

Sighing, he grabbed a cleaning cloth and used it to sop up the coffee both off the screen and the desk where it dripped. The problem with trying to ignore his overwhelming urge to match Virginia with himself was the simple fact that he promised clients a twenty-four-hour turn around on approvals. So he would have to look into her profile to see if she was someone who could even find a relationship at his company. That was hard to do when he just wanted to send her an email of intent right off the bat. Not that he had a profile to do it from.

Leaning back, Matthew took a second to adjust his pants because they were now uncomfortably tight in the crotch. “Just read it like it’s a business.” Yeah, because that’s going to help, thinking about how she’d do in a sexual situation. “Maybe you should just reject her from the site and ask her out.” He snorted. “Right, because she’s going to want to date a thirty-three-year-old computer nerd known for pairing up people based on their sexual pleasures and not be offended I didn’t let her use the system like she clearly wants.”

Shaking his head, he double-clicked on the application questionnaire and read over her details. She was a thirty-two-year-old defense attorney at the DA’s office. One son, five. So a misses not a miss then. Intrigued, he continued on down the lines. Widowed from a car accident for three years. His eyes continued to scan down the information and try not to acknowledge how many things they shared in common. Matthew didn’t bother to hide his swallowed response to the word “adventurous” under sexual preferences. His hips shifted trying to wish away the erection he had just from reading over her profile.

“You will not violate every ethical thing you stand for. Her profile is perfect Cyber Room, and you will not get in the way of her attempt at finding a happily ever after.”

Gallie must have concurred because she walked in front of the computer screen and rubbed against it once before jumping down from the desk.

Matthew pushed up his glasses and opened the acceptance letter. A few keystrokes and her name was added to the contract. He huffed as he dragged and dropped the attachment into the email. “Welcome to Cyber Room, Virginia.”

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