As far as I could tell, Rice never explicitly said he was intimate with Palin. Rice recalls Palin as being a "real sweetie" or some such thing and then going for the kill shot, McGinnis blindsides Rice with the question (not verbatim),

So, Sarah Palin didn't seem to feel bad about being with a black man."--or something like that.

There is no response from Rice, nor does he give any specifics. He merely uses the word "respectful".

As far as I can tell, Rice has yet to unambiguously say, "Yeah. It's true. We had sex." We have only been given a few snippets of conversation which terminates with a forced choice question that Rice apparently doesn't answer in the book.