Page 42 of Token

“Nope, it wasn’t me.” Kennedy regarded him with a knowing smile.

“What does it matter who told me? What’s important is that you’re here, and hopefully, everything will be to your satisfaction.” The company above all else.

“Well, however you found out, I’m surprised you remembered.” There was something coy in the way she looked at him. “Should I be flattered?”

“I don’t know—you tell me. Does it flatter you to know there isn’t a thing I’ve forgotten about you?” he asked.

Heat flooded Kennedy’s face. She briefly averted her gaze.

Was it her or was Nate doing that mixed-signal thing again? Sometimes it was hard to tell if flirting with her was purely reflexive. An instinct born from his good looks and how most women responded to him. Or was his interest real? And she wasn’t talking about sex. He’d been there and sampled that. It had lasted four weeks and then he’d wanted them to be “friends.”

How’s that a blow to the ego?

“Is that because you have an amazing memory? Aurora told me it’s practically photographic.”

Oh wonderful, she was playing her own game ofJeopardy! Stupid questions for five hundred, Alex.

Nate chuckled as if he were in on the game. “My memory is good, but it’s nowhere near photographic. I do tend to remember things that are important to me, though.”

This time Kennedy met his gaze squarely. “Are you flirting with me?” she asked baldly.

“If telling the truth is a form of flirting, I guess I am.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Then don’t.”

“Tell the truth?”

Argh.He was being deliberately obtuse. “No, I meant don’t flirt with me. I’m doing this as a friend.” There was that word again. “It wouldn’t be good if either of us got the wrong idea, don’t you agree?” And by either of them, she meant her.

“What idea would that be?” he asked, his gaze dropping to her mouth.

Lowering her voice, she leaned forward and said, “Stop playing games. You know exactly what I mean.”

Something flashed in his eyes. “You don’t want to play games, fine, I won’t. You can start by telling me why you refused to speak to me after we stopped sleeping together.”

Where the hell did that come from?With only seconds to recover from the second full-on assault of their time together in as many days, she responded with the only arrow in her quiver. “I distinctly remember you saying we didn’t do a whole lotta sleeping.”

The self-satisfaction she felt at her quick-witted comeback was a thing of beauty. She couldn’t pat herself on the back enough.

Nate glanced around as if to make a point, his gaze idly touring the room full of patrons, before leaning over and whispering in her ear. “I didn’t think you’d appreciate me using that kind of language in public. However, if Iremember correctly, you liked when I said it when I was actually fucking you.”

Kennedy’s face went up in flames, burning away her momentary smugness.Okay, then.The man did have effective tools in his arsenal to render her silent and he wasn’t afraid to use them.

He continued to regard her, brows raised, his expression as guileless as a card cheat. “Well?”

Oh wow, he seriously wanted to know. As if he couldn’t have guessed the answer himself a long time ago.

“I didn’t stop talking to you.”

Suddenly, a shadow fell over the table. Kennedy looked up to find a smiling young man, who vaguely reminded her of the latest actor to play Spider-Man, clad in the requisite black-and-white server’s uniform.

“Hi, my name is Rodney and I’ll be your server for the evening. Can I start you folks off with a drink?”

Smiling, he handed each a dinner and dessert menu before taking their drink orders. At her request for a virgin piña colada, Nate’s mouth gave a discernible twitch. Kennedy studiously ignored him. She certainly wasn’t about to explain to him, of all people, that in dealing with him, complete sobriety was a must. He ordered a whiskey neat.

When their waiter left, Nate continued as if they hadn’t been interrupted. “You did when you told me not to call.”

Kennedy audibly exhaled. She’d told him he didn’thaveto call. Big difference. “What was the point? I mean, what was there to talk about? You told me to go to school, live it up, and have a good time. Well, that’s exactly what I was doing. Plus, it wasn’t as if we’d been in a relationship.”

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