Crazy Rich Cajuns

by Erin Nicholas

  “You already have the tents set up and caterers and music coming,” Bennett said.

  Kennedy elbowed him for that. This was getting unfunny.

  “For the friends and family cocktail party for your father’s retirement,” Maria said.

  “I’m happy to share. Dad can make his speech first and all of his friends can do their toasts. I’ll hit my knee after everyone’s gone through the buffet, how’s that?”

  “Oh, please do that,” Kennedy said. “I’d love to say hell no to marrying you in front of a big crowd.” She turned to Maria. “Will the party tomorrow night be even bigger? Can we wait until then? I’ll sleep on the couch tonight.”

  Bennett laughed. “There will be a ton of stuffed mushrooms tonight though,” he said. “By the time I ask you, you’ll be well fed and happy.”

  “Not even stuffed mushrooms can make me that happy,” Kennedy said.

  “How about the champagne?” he asked.

  “Nope.”

  “How about a chocolate fountain?”

  “N—” She stopped and frowned. “There will be a chocolate fountain?”

  “Yep. With strawberries to dip in it. And marshmallows.”

  “What about shortbread cookies?” She’d been to a wedding in New Orleans that had had a chocolate fountain at the reception. She’d wanted to take a bath in it.

  “I will personally guarantee shortbread cookies if needed,” Bennett said, looking into her eyes.

  Kennedy took a deep breath. “Dammit,” she said softly. She also made a quick note that this whole thing was a little romantic. He’d pay for that. She looked over at Maria. “Sorry. I’m going to be powerless at that point. It will be a definite yes.”

  Maria rolled her eyes. “Wonderful. You found a smart-ass just like you,” she said to Bennett.

  Kennedy considered that a compliment. She grinned up at him as she felt him squeeze her butt.

  “Oh no,” he told his mother. “She’s a way bigger smart-ass than I am.”

  Maria sighed. “I suppose Kennedy can take the room next to yours.”

  Damn right she could. Kennedy felt stupidly triumphant at that.

  “That’s probably the best choice,” Bennett said with a nod.

  “And, of course, exactly how you expected this to turn out,” Maria said.

  “Pretty much.”

  “I’ll, of course, have some gowns sent over for you,” Maria said, looking at Kennedy.

  “Oh, that’s not necessary,” Bennett said. “Kennedy is fine.”

  Kennedy frowned up at him. She most certainly was not fine.

  “You never once said the word ‘gown’ to me, Baxter,” Kennedy told him. “I’m not fine.”

  “You don’t have to wear a gown,” Bennett said. “For God’s sake, the party is in the garden.”

  “Well, tonight’s gown is more of a dress,” Maria conceded. “But tomorrow the party is in the ballroom.”

  There was a ballroom here. Awesome.

  “I could definitely use some help with wardrobe,” Kennedy told her. “Bennett kind of sprung this trip on me, too.”

  Maria gave her son a look that said clearly his plan had been stupid, and he wasn’t getting points with any of the women involved. “I’m happy to.”

  “Kennedy, how you usually dress…your dresses and things…are fine,” Bennett told her.

  Oh, she was sure they were. If Bennett was trying to make a point to his mother that he was…going in a different direction with his sex life. But she wasn’t here to play games with his family and their friends, and she wasn’t here to be a pawn in his games. “I trust that you’ll let your mother put the new gowns on your credit card?” she asked him.

  He sighed. “Of course.”

  Kennedy nodded. “Yeah, I’m going to Pretty Woman the hell out of this. Prepare yourself.”

  “I should probably see that movie sometime.”

  “It’s probably too late to do you any good,” Kennedy told him honestly.

  Bennett gave her butt a little pinch. “I’ll just skip to the end.”

  The very romantic, grand gesture ending of the Cinderella-esque story where the guy overcame his fears to climb the fire escape to rescue the prostitute-turned-love-of-his-life? Yeah, no. The last thing she needed was him getting any ideas about the happily ever after stuff. Chocolate fountain or not. “I’ll summarize it for you,” Kennedy said.

  “Okay.” He looked vastly amused.

  “He gives her anything she wants. And she gives him…”

  One eyebrow went up and the corner of his mouth curled.

  “…some really great advice that makes him a better person.”

  Bennett chuckled. “Can’t wait to have all your…advice.”

  Maria cleared her throat. “Do you need Chester to help with the bags?”

  She also gave a little stink eye to Kennedy’s suitcase and Kennedy rolled the bag closer to her leg. “Oh, I don’t trust anyone but myself and Bennett to carry this,” she said.

  Maria arched a brow. “Oh?”

  “Well, this—” Kennedy swept her hand down her body. “Doesn’t happen accidentally or easily, you know.”

  “Yes, well…” Maria clearly didn’t know how to finish that sentence.

  Bennett grabbed Kennedy’s bag and his own and then tipped his head toward the staircase to the left. Kennedy headed up in front of him.

  “Take a right,” he said at the top.

  She did and started across the space that overlooked the foyer below then became a hallway that led to what appeared to be six rooms. “Good lord.”

  Bennett chuckled. “Our rooms are the last two.”

  “Where’s the bathroom?” she asked as she headed in that direction. The ceiling in the hallway was a good twelve feet high, and the walls were decorated with gorgeous art pieces and painted a soft green.

  “We’ll have a bathroom to share that joins our rooms.”

  She looked back at him. “Is that right?”

  He nodded. “Doors lock from both sides. You’ll only have company if you want it.”

  “Big shower?”

  “Huge.”

  “What’s the showerhead situation?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Is it detachable or what?” she asked.

  He gave her a wink. “No. But there are like six, maybe eight, different ones mounted all around.”

  “Oh yeah,” she said. “I’m not gonna need your company with that setup.”

  He laughed. “Well, at least let me watch.”

  She sent him a sly smile. “Maybe as torture for not telling your mother that I was even going to be here. And not telling me that she didn’t know.”

  “Uh, yeah. Sorry about that. But it’s kind of a…thing with her and I.”

  “You showing up with girls she’s not expecting to see?”

  He stopped in front of one of the doors. He set the bags down and opened the door. “This one’s yours.”

  Kennedy stepped through the doorway and into the room that looked exactly as she’d been expecting it to look. The room was done in a soft blue and cream with deep navy accents. There was a four-poster bed, a thick duvet, a cream-colored armchair with an ottoman that had a throw blanket draped over it and a reading lamp beside it. There was also a huge fireplace and an honest-to-god armoire. Which was really cool. The wood matched the rest of the woodwork in the room from the moldings to the fireplace mantel, and the front had an elaborate painted design that used the blue and cream of the room. But the best part of the room, the part that made Kennedy almost forget that Bennett had brought her here as a surprise, to both her and his mother, was the dressing table.

  She actually gasped when she saw it.

  It took up nearly the entire portion of the wall across from the bed and just to the left of the door.

  It was painted cream as well and had gorgeous spindle legs, a huge middle surface with other shelves at varying heights, a multitude of drawers, and a gigantic
round mirror hanging over the center.

  “I’m never leaving this room,” she said, turning to face Bennett.

  “I can sneak some stuffed mushrooms up here, but I’m not sure about the chocolate fountain.”

  “Hey, that reminds me,” she said, stepping close to him, tipping her head back to look up at him. “You’re in trouble.”

  “I am?”

  “You brought me here to shock your mother.”

  “I don’t—”

  “That’s not cool, Bennett.”

  “That’s not why I brought you, Kennedy.”

  “You brought me here to prove a point to your mother.”

  He took a deep breath. “Yes.”

  “You love your mother.”

  “I do. But I don’t want to live a high society life in Savannah, rubbing elbows with millionaires and politicians and CEOs. I want to live with real people and do real things. Work every day doing something that matters.”

  “You want to live in Autre and work with Boys of the Bayou,” Kennedy summarized.

  “Yes,” Bennett confessed. “I don’t know if I’m tour guide material, but expanding the business and working on conservation efforts and finding ways to keep the coastline from eroding and fighting the big companies that are encroaching on the natural habitats are all things I’m passionate about.”

  She looked up at him and sighed. He can’t rotate your tires, Ken, she told herself. But the thing was, he could learn. It wasn’t brain surgery. And hell, she could do that herself while he was off saving the swamp frogs or whatever the hell he wanted to do. He just had to be hot and love the bayou, didn’t he?

  But did he really belong on the bayou long-term? She did not want to be stuck madly in love with him and unable to let go when he decided to leave.

  And she did not want to live in Savannah.

  “Well, if you have a problem with your mother, you need to tell her. I don’t want to be this little pawn in your game of you-can’t-tell-me-what-to-do.”

  “That’s not why I brought you here,” he repeated. “I wanted my mother to meet you because I knew that she’d take my feelings about you and the bayou more seriously if I brought you to this party. But,” he continued before she could speak. “That’s certainly not the whole reason I wanted you here.”

  “Oh?”

  “I like being with you.”

  “You don’t know me very well.”

  “I want to get to know you better.”

  “I’ve warned you about the romance stuff,” she said.

  “And I brought you here because of this.” He put his hand at the back of her neck and brought her forward.

  He kissed her, his lips meeting hers firmly but gently. At first.

  When she gave a little moan, he moved in, splayed a hand on her lower back to press her into him, and opened his mouth. He tipped her head to the side and deepened the kiss and Kennedy let him. In fact, she gripped his belt with both hands and arched closer. Next to the chocolate fountain and stuffed mushrooms, this was also a huge part of what she’d been hoping for this weekend.

  Okay, this was most of it. Even without the hors d’oeuvres. She’d expected to have a fun, sexy time with this guy. And to get him, this, out of her system.

  Bennett turned her and backed her up against the wall next to the door. He kicked the door shut and as it thudded closed, he pressed into her. She could feel how hard he was and she was suddenly hot and aching.

  Kennedy let her head tip back, thunking against the wall, and Bennett dragged his mouth down the side of her neck, making heat lick down her arm and into her belly. She swallowed. “Now if we could combine this with that chocolate fountain, I’d probably forgive you for anything.”

  He chuckled against her collarbone. “You say that as if you think I don’t have the means or motivation.” He ran his hand up her side to cup a breast, running his thumb over her nipple.

  She sucked in a quick breath.

  “And I believe you said something about someone getting fingered?”

  She would have sucked in another breath, but that first one was still lodged in her chest. “That—” She coughed. “That was after I ran around panty-less all night because you’d been too sweet.”

  “Take them off.”

  Kennedy felt her stomach flip. Bennett Baxter had this thing where he could be laid-back and friendly with her family and the people in Ellie’s bar, even a little goofy when it came to playing around with fishing tackle. But then he’d turn his attention on her and he’d get this deep voice, this I’m-in-charge tone, and her panties would just say, “well, we’re clearly not needed here.”

  “I think that you—”

  He took her nipple between his thumb and finger and squeezed. “Take them off, Kennedy.”

  Fuck, yes.

  Nearly panting, she reached up under her skirt and caught the top of her panties with her thumb.

  “Pull your skirt up.”

  She made the mistake of looking up at him. His eyes were swirling with heat that made her wobble slightly and she had to grab onto his belt to keep herself up. “Damn, you think you’re going to get to be bossy like that?” she asked him.

  “Push me away,” he challenged.

  Yeah, she wasn’t going to do that.

  “I’ll let go if you really want me to,” he told her.

  She knew that. Even if he didn’t know that her brothers could easily feed him to the alligators deep in the bayou and no one would ever find a trace—and hell, that her grandfather, grandmother, and everyone else in her family could, too—Bennett wouldn’t mess with her if he wasn’t certain she wasn’t fully on board.

  “I know you will,” she told him honestly, wanting him to know she understood that. There was a time for flippant and sassy and a time for him to know that they were absolutely on the same page.

  This page. They were absolutely on this page together.

  “Do you want me to let go?”

  She wet her lips. “If you do, I will fill your bed with fire ants.”

  See? That was a moment where sassy was better than being totally sincere. Because sincere would have sounded like, If you don’t touch me right now, I’m going to cry and beg and maybe tell my grandma on you.

  “I definitely don’t want that to happen.”

  “Good.”

  “So pull your skirt up and lose the panties.”

  She took a deep breath and did both. She tossed the bright purple thong to the side, her skin tingly as Bennett’s eyes tracked from her ankles, up her legs, and right to the spot that ached for him. His gaze lingered on the rose bloom that did, indeed, spread its petals toward her pussy.

  “Damn, you’re gorgeous,” he said gruffly. He reached out and ran the pads of his first three fingers over the ink. “Bet this rose smells pretty fucking sweet.”

  How did this suit-wearing, science-loving rich kid make her want to do such naughty things to him? For him? That was the weirdest thing. She wasn’t really the “yes, sir” kind of girl. But for Bennett? She was starting to think she could be.

  “I’m flexible, but maybe not quite that flexible,” she said, moving her feet apart slightly. The move hiked the skirt a little higher, baring her completely. “Why don’t you tell me?”

  Bennett’s jaw tightened for just a moment, then the hand holding her head tightened in her hair and he brought her forward for a deep kiss. He stroked his tongue along hers, firmly, possessively, and Kennedy’s clit begged for the same attention.

  “Put your hands on the wall behind you. And don’t move them,” he said, tearing his mouth away.

  She did. Without even thinking. Damn, the guy was good. Don’t move them? Seriously? But then he went to his knees and put his nose against the rose tattoo, breathing in deeply, and Kennedy not only planted her palms flat on the wall behind her, she wished she could dig into it and hang on.

  “Ben—”

  He dragged his tongue over the rose as he lifted her leg and propped her
knee over his shoulder. The position opened her thighs fully, right in front of his face.

  And her clit didn’t go without attention for long. He ran his tongue over every swirl of the tattoo, making Kennedy whimper and lean hard into the wall to stay upright. But he worked his way toward the crease of her hip, over to her mound, then down to the nub that was aching and throbbing. He licked, then sucked. Her hips bucked, pressing closer and her eyes slid shut.

  “Watch me,” he growled, barely lifting his mouth away from her.

  Heat washing through her, Kennedy looked down, watching as he tongued her, feeling and seeing the licks, the sucks, even the nips of his teeth as her climax tightened, deep in her pelvis. A spot so deep she didn’t think she’d ever felt it before began to pulse. Her whole body tingled. She lifted a hand to her breast, squeezing one of her nipples.

  “Fuck yes,” Bennett encouraged, looking up, his eyes heavy with lust. “Pull your top up.”

  “I moved my hands.”

  “Pull your fucking top up and play with your nipples.”

  She shivered. Oh, she loved this dominant Bennett. Damn. Too much, maybe.

  She did without any more teasing. She needed to be bare. To be exposed. She wanted him to see her, she wanted to touch herself, she wanted every bit of stimulation she could get.

  As she pulled the fitted top up and the cups of her bra down, her breasts and nearly painfully hard nipples now fully on display for him, he slid a finger into her.

  She hissed out a breath, pinching her nipple, as he moved the finger in and out.

  This was so good. Why was this so good? She’d figure it out later. For now, she really wanted that orgasm that was right there, nearly within her grasp.

  She arched her back, pressing closer to him and he took her clit in his mouth, thankfully not taking the chance to tease or even talk dirty. He just sucked on her, exactly as she needed him to, while sliding a second finger deep into her pussy.

  Yes, right there. That was almost exactly what she needed.

  She tugged on her nipple. “Harder,” she begged.

  He complied. He sucked harder and picked up the pace of his fingers. He kept pushing her closer and closer to the crest. Then he said, “When I lean in to kiss another woman on the cheek tonight, she’ll be able to smell you on my skin.”