Page 17 of Crazy Rich Cajuns

“You keep your hands off my crème brûlée,” Leo said.“You can have her Bananas Foster though.That’s pretty amazing, too.”

Sure.That would be great.

Except that he was allergic to bananas.

Of course, he was.

3

“It’s extortion.”

Maddie snorted.“No.It’s really not.”

Kennedy tossed a skirt—black, of course—into her suitcase the next morning.Of course it wasn’t extortion.“How is it not?”

“Hethreatened you?”Juliet asked.“If you didn’t go to Savannah with him, something bad would happen?”

Yeah, she might not get an orgasm from him for several more weeks.

Bennett was hardly forcing her to go.But she had to play this as if she wasn’t completely eager.She’d made a big deal of Bennettnotbeing the best thing since they’d invented peanut butter flavored whipped cream in a can, and she couldn’t let down her cool façade now.She had a reputation to uphold.

Truthfully though, the last time she’d been this excited had been when Gus, the river otter that lived near their docks, had showed up with a girlfriend.Seriously, beingthatexcited about an otter really meant Kennedy needed more in her life.A sexy trip to Savannah was a good start.

Kennedy shrugged.“He’s my boss.When your boss tells you that you have to do something, you have to do it, right?”

Maddie outright laughed at that.“You’ve never in your life done something one of your ‘bosses’”—she lifted her fingers in air quotes—“told you to do just because they said it.”

“Which means…youwantto go to Savannah with Bennett?”Juliet asked, looking between Maddie and Kennedy.

Juliet was the newer of the group of girlfriends and hadn’t been there when Bennett had first walked into the Boys of the Bayou office and knocked Kennedy’s world off-kilter.She also hadn’t known Kennedy long and didn’t know that she preferred blue-collar guys who got their hands dirty for a living.

Or that she insisted that was the case anyway.

Truth was, until Bennett, she’d basically believed it.

The bayou was her home.She didn’t know anything else.She didn’t really need to know anything else.Not everyone was made to live and work on the bayou, but this was where karma or God or the universe had put her down.Seemed like as good a reason as any to stay put.She loved it here.The heat and humidity and bugs and leftover dinosaurs they called alligators were all a pain in the ass, but at the same time, she couldn’t imagine leaving.She intended to grow old here alongside her crazy family.The guy who was next to her through it all would have to not only put up with said family, he’d also have to deal with the wildness of living here.All that considered, being able to fix the AC and ceiling fans, kill the bugs, and deal with those gators were definitely must-dos.

Then Bennett had walked in with his stupid tie and shiny shoes and expensive cologne and the smile that said I-can-make-your-panties-wet-and-never-lift-a-wrench, and she hadn’t known what the hell to think.

Kennedy tossed a pair of black boots into her suitcase and then crossed to her dresser.She opened her panty drawer and grinned.“Yeah, I want to go with him,” she told her friends.

“I knew it,” Maddie said.“He’s gotten to you.”

“Well, yeah,” Kennedy admitted, turning with a handful of panties and thongs in a variety of colors and prints.“He’s hot and funny and smart.And he seems to think that there’s something between us.”She tossed her panties into the suitcase in a silky pile and turned for her bra drawer.

“And you agree and want to pursue it?”Juliet asked.Her tone suggested she didn’t think that’s what Kennedy was saying.

She was right.That was not what Kennedy was saying.“I’m notpursuinganything except orgasms.It’s chemistry and a couple of people with enough sense of humor to find it entertaining that we’re attracted to one another when we have zero in common.”Kennedy turned back with her bras and tossed them in, too.They probably all matched up with some of the panties already in the suitcase, but she didn’t dress that way.She’d had more than her fill of matching things up and making everything perfect when she’d been doing beauty pageants as a kid.Now she just wore whatever she fucking felt like.

“Your senses of humor are what this is all about?”Juliet asked.

Kennedy nodded.“Sure.We like needling each other, seeing if we can make the other one blink—or get tongue-tied.It’s fun.But that’s really all it is.”

Maddie didn’t look convinced.“You sure you’re on the same page there?Bennett’s been spending more and more time down here.”

“Because he likes the fishing and the bromances he has going with Josh and Owen, plus Ellie’s cooking and Leo’s tall tales,” Kennedy said, waving that off.“I’m just a part of this bayou fantasy vacation package he’s got going on over the weekends.”

Maddie laughed and Juliet grinned.

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