Page 73 of Crazy Rich Cajuns

“I saw you last night.You were excited and energized about sharing ideas and lobbying for what you know are needs.”

“Yeah, but…”

He nodded when she trailed off.“Yep, that’s how government works, Ms.Landry.It’s made up of the people who just want to make where they live a place they’re happy and safe and proud to be.”

“I never thought about it that way.”Autre was already all of those things to her.But she damned well wanted to keep it that way.

“Well, think about it now.”He saluted her with his coffee cup and then turned and left the kitchen.

Bennett knockedon the door to Kennedy’s bedroom.The other houseguests were down having lunch or lounging by the pool.They’d said she’d been invited and had agreed to join them, but they hadn’t seen her for about three hours.

She didn’t answer his knock.Was she sick?Had she gone back to bed?

He tried the door and found it unlocked.He pushed it open and peeked inside, not sure if he should wake her.But really wanting to.Or maybe he’d just crawl in beside her.He’d had a late night, too.Though he’d had a lot less alcohol than she had.

But her bed was empty.And made.As if she hadn’t been in it at all.

He stepped into the room.She wasn’t there and the door to the connecting bathroom was open and the light off.

Where was she?

He headed for his room.He needed to shower and change at least.He’d shoot her a text and—

She was propped up in his bed, his laptop open on her thighs.

She looked up.“Hi.”She gave him a big, bright smile that stopped him in his tracks.

She was so damned beautiful, and she seemed sincerely happy to see him.

“Hi.”He stalked toward the bed with a frown.“Are you okay?”

She nodded.“Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

“The girls said you were going to meet them at the pool.”

Her gaze flew to the clock in the corner of the computer screen.“Oh, wow.I totally lost track of time.”

She shifted, and Bennett suddenly realized she was wrapped in a towel.There were black strings coming out of the towel that tied around her neck that he assumed were attached to a bathing suit.

He kicked off his shoes and stripped off his shirt and climbed up from the bottom of the bed to stretch out beside her.“What have you been doing that you completely forgot about swimming?”

Kennedy’s eyes tracked over his shoulders and chest, making his cock stir.

But she said, “I just wanted to look a few things up and then I got sucked into all this reading.I had no idea I’d been up here for so long.I kept thinking I’d just read one more page.”

“What are you reading about?”

“Well, it started with reading about your foundation, actually.Then that led to articles about the loss of land along the coast,” she said.“I knew a lot of that but just wanted to read more in depth.Then that led to the engineering along the Mississippi.And that led to looking up Grant Peterson’s company.And then I started reading about how Louisiana state government is set up.”

Bennett stared at her.Then he looked at the computer.Then back to her.Finally he asked, “What?”

Kennedy set the computer on the bedside table and shifted to face him, crossing her legs and leaning in on her knees.The move caused the towel to loosen and fall, revealing that the bathing suit was actually a bikini.And she looked fucking hotter than hell in it.

“Last night, Teddy and Charles and I were talking.And I was thinking about everything all morning.I remembered meeting Grant when he came for a swamp boat tour.He works in Missouri, up where the Missouri River meets the Mississippi.I was thinking that maybe we could talk to him.He knows a lot about the rivers and maybe, I don’t know, someone could come up with a way to pick up the sediment that’s getting dumped away from the barrier islands and bring it over.”

Bennett felt as if she was speaking German to him.Except that everything she was saying sounded like the stuff that he talked to people about all the time.The Mississippi.The sediment.The barrier islands.

But he just was having a hard time processing that he and Kennedy were talking about it.

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