Page 74 of Double or Nothing

Like hell, it isn’t.

Chapter 34

Kat

The man floored me when I walked into the restaurant, standing there, looking like a real-life, walking, talking sex god. If memory serves me correctly, he’s just that. The things he did to my body as a teenager far surpass anything any other man has done to it since. It’s as though he has an innate sex talent, which sounds stupid, but it’s true. He knew how to touch with reverence and fuck with aggression. How to be sweet and demanding. He made me bend to his will while always making sure I was more than satisfied.

So much history, so many memories, it’s hard to keep the good ones from pushing out the bad ones. Most days, I do it. Tonight, I don’t even want to try. I just want to enjoy this. Enjoy him. The man who shattered my heart, as much as I hate to admit it, is moving hell and high water to win it back.

Only this isn’t just a trip down memory lane or an apology. It’s him, trying to win me back. And the moment I realize my defenses go back up. However much I might want that—him—I can’t let that happen. I can’t put my heart on the line like that again… not even for him.

“Like hell, it isn’t.”

“What’s done is done. We’re two different people now.” He’s the rich, successful bad boy of rock, and I’m still the same girl. A little less shy and a lot more confident, but at my core, still the same.

“That isn’t true. I’m still the same person.” His voice is filled with frustration. “Fuck, this isn’t how I wanted this to go.”

“Sutton—”

“No. Just… stop.” He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “Can we just enjoy dinner? Talk about our lives? Get to know each other again? I want to get to know you again, Kat, find out what you’ve been doing for the past five years.”

I can see the anguish on his face, and as much as he hurt me five years ago, I can’t stand to be the reason he’s hurting, so I let him off the hook.

“As if you don’t already know,” I smirk, certain he’s been keeping tabs on me via Mac and my traitorous best friend.

“I don’t, I swear,” he says, holding up his hands in innocence. “Mac never so much as said your name until he used you to get me to come back here.”

“Used me to get you here? I thought he tricked you?”

“He did.” He leans back in his chair, grabs his napkin, and spreads it across his lap. “But when he told me about coming back here, he tried everything to convince me. When that didn’t work, he said your name, and that’s all it took.”

“I still can’t believe you let him trick you. Here I thought you were the sneaky one.”

I don’t mean to flirt or look like I’m enjoying myself. In fact, I’m trying to do everything to the contrary, but it’s proving to be more difficult than I thought. The effect Sutton Cole has on me is undeniable—pure and utter control, all without him even having to try.

“I was a little preoccupied, okay?” A soft smile plays on his lips.

My face falls. I don’t want him to see the effect that those words have on me, but I can’t control it. The idea of him with anyone else just… hurts.

Luckily, he doesn’t use the emotion against me and lets me off the hook.

“Video games, Kat. I was playing video games with Eli, the drummer.”

“Video games? So, your competitiveness overshadowed your ability to think clearly?”

“Doesn’t it always?” He rests his elbows on the table, and I can’t help but wonder what Grandma Virginia would say about the lack of manners in his current posture. “I promise you, Kitty Kat, after dinner, you can yell at me, hit me, throw the dessert I have set up for us in my room right in my face. I don’t care. I just…”

“Did you say dessert?” He nods his head. “What kind of dessert?”

The smile that creeps onto his face tells me all I need to know. Damn him and the intimate knowledge he has of every piece of me. Shouldn’t his memory have faded? At least dulled? He knows exactly what he’s doing by saying those words, and even worse, having dessert in his room.

“Let me just say that you, Kathryn, are not the only one who remembers things.”

He made that abundantly obvious with the flowers, but this?

“You didn’t. You couldn’t have.”

“It’s amazing what money can do.”

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