Page 24 of Token

Oh hush, you. Drawing comparisons helps no one.

Nate scowled. “Don’t. Don’t do that.”

“Don’t do what?”

“Don’t talk as if what happened between us meant nothing.”

Kennedy stared at him, unable or perhaps unwilling to believe what she was hearing. Tiptoeing up to the invisible line she’d drawn and had done her best not to cross, she asked, “Are you saying it meant something to you?”

He smoothly sidestepped her question with one of his own. “Are you saying it didn’t meananythingto you? It was just sex?”

Nope. Not going there. That is a field littered with emotional land mines.

“Can we not talk about this now?” Or ever. “I mean, why did you even bring it up? It happened eons ago. We’ve both moved on.”

Ancient history. She’d be celebrating her thirtieth birthday at the end of the year, and at a doddering thirty-four, wasn’t it about time he started losing his hair? But looking at his mussed dark blond locks, she reluctantly concluded that his hairline wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, if at all. His father still had a full head of hair, and he was in his sixties.

Nate blew out an exasperated breath. “Jesus Christ, Kennedy, why is everything with you a battle?”

“It’s not. I just don’t understand why you had to bring it up.” As if she needed a reminder of just how far down the Nate hole she’d gone before having to violently pull herself back to reality. She wasn’t Cinderella and he wasn’t her prince. “Clearly, it’s not something I want to talk about.” Especially withhim.

Although, it was something she’d never be able to forget.

A woman never forgot her first.

Nate’s eyes narrowed as silence gained a foothold in the room. She dreaded what he would say next. Worried about how she’d respond. If today had taught her anything, it was that as much as she’d wanted to close that chapter in her life, her feelings for him weren’t anything close to resolved.

“You’re right and I’m sorry. I should never have asked for your help. This isn’t your problem, it’s mine, and it was selfish of me to ask you to break the rules for me.”

Kennedy blinked.Wait—what just happened?

Shoving back his chair, he came abruptly to his feet.

“I—I—” She was too disoriented by his sudden change to form a coherent sentence.

He stayed her attempted protest with a decisive shake of his head. “No, you don’t have to say anything. I’m just going to get out of your hair so you can get back to work.” He flashed her a wooden smile.

Kennedy stared at him, feeling utterly helpless. Despite her refusal, this wasn’t how she wanted to leave things between them. And it wasn’t that she didn’t want to help him. She did. If only—

A perfunctory knock interrupted her thoughts. Before Kennedy could respond, her office door swung open, and Aurora, hair done up in a pretty French braid ponytail, and summery in a blue polka-dot blouse and slim ankle pants, breezed right on in.

“Good morning,” she said, although her singsong salutation didn’t match the warning glint in her eyes. “You can imagine my surprise when Jonathan informed me that my darling brother washereand not in Paris, where he was the last time I spoke to him—oh, let me see—” head tilted, she touched a contemplative finger to her chin “—the day before yesterday.” She fixed him with a pointed look, appearing every inch the aggrieved baby sister. Then her gaze turned faintly accusing when it swung in Kennedy’s direction. “Then I find you two locked in here together.”

Kennedy huffed at the gross exaggeration. “We weren’t locked behind closed doors.”

“Are you saying the door wasn’t closed?” Aurora asked, gesturing at it.

“Yes, but not locked. Big difference.”

“Is that the greeting I get?” Nate regarded his sister fondly, her arrival eliciting the first genuine smile Kennedy had yet to see on his face today.

Aurora would not be swayed—at least, not easily—crossing her arms over her chest. “What kind of greeting did you expect when you sneak into the country without a single word to me and then beat me to my office in the morning? Who does that?”

Grinning, Nate easily closed the distance between them and tugged her into his arms with a gruff, “Come here, brat. Give your brother a hug.”

Aurora quickly abandoned the petulant-little-sister act and threw her arms around his neck, giggling as she returned his embrace. “Oh my god, it’s so good to see you.”

He planted a kiss on her cheek. “It’s good to see you too.”

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