Seduction in Session by Shayla Black, Lexi Blake

with mischief. “I think I look best with a princess cut, but no blood diamonds. You have to make sure you don’t buy conflict gemstones. We’re going to be an earth-kindness home.”
    He held up a hand to stop that line of thought right there. “Hey, slow down, princess. This isn’t real and we’ll just say we’ve been talking over the Internet.”
    “Yeah, L. How are you going to explain this to your real boyfriend?” Tom sounded a little like a six-year-old on the playground. “How’s Niall going to take it?”
    He watched her flush again, but this time any anger or mischief was gone. In its place was something he feared. Guilt. Shame.
    Fuck it all, she thought she was really in love with Niall Smith. Niall Smith, who didn’t actually exist. Niall Smith—Connor’s own creation—was likely going to keep him out of Lara’s bed.
    “I’ll talk to him tonight. I’m going to see if I can get him on the phone. I don’t want him to think this is real at all.” The words came out in a rush.
    Lara’s hand drifted restlessly over the dog. Lincoln, as though sensing his mistress’s deep distress, settled down and rubbed against her.
    “How serious is this thing with you and Niall?” Connor asked.
    “We’re friends, but we’ve talked about trying to be more. You know what a great guy he is,” Lara said.
    “You know you’ve got a whole country between you.” She had to see that it couldn’t work.
    “That’s what I told her,” Tom explained.
    He hated being on the same side as Tom, but this was a problem he should have thought of. All his careful planning could go up in smoke. He reflected on everything and realized he’d played Niall far too well. He’d constructed the guy to be a savior of endangered animals, her intellectual equal, and a sensitive activist. In short, her fantasy. Niall seemed a little like a walking vagina to Connor. If he didn’t work this angle correctly, his imaginary creation could screw up everything.
    Fantasies always beat out reality. He needed Lara to trust him, to turn to him. Deep Throat was coming back, and Connor wanted Lara to tell him everything because he was important to her.
    He couldn’t be as long as Niall was in the picture.
    “Who knows,” Lara said with a wistful smile on her face that lethim know she’d been thinking about this for a while. “He might like D.C.”
    Connor shook his head. “No. That is one California boy. He won’t ever leave.”
    “Then maybe I’ll like California.” She stood. “I should go and make dinner. Isn’t your package going to be here soon? I assume you had them deliver something that previously had a face and a mother who probably loved it very much before she was brutally murdered for her meat.”
    Niall was a vegan. Another point for him. Shit. He should have sucked it up and eaten whatever she put in front of him. He gave her a wink because there was nothing to do now but brazen through. “You know the secret ingredient to any burger is love.”
    She frowned and flounced away, her ugly dog in her arms, likely dreaming of a man who didn’t exist and who would have to prove himself to be all too human very soon.
    Tom leaned over, his eyes wide. “Please tell me you ordered enough for all of us because I heard her talking about tofu tacos. I can’t do that. Have you ever tried to pass vegan cheese through your digestive tract?”
    Kiki shook her head. “Men. I’ll go help Lara while you two plan your next kill.”
    “I don’t kill it,” Tom called out. “It just shows up in a nice plastic wrapper at the grocery store. It could have died a natural death. We’ll never know.”
    Kiki stopped in front of Connor. “If you like my friend, you should know that Niall is going to be an issue for her. I think he’s too good to be true and I don’t trust anyone I meet on the Internet, but she’s spent weeks building some serious picket-fence dreams around him. And I’ve seen his picture. He is a very cute