Bennett chuckled. “All good points.”
“And Kennedy is saving your mom’s ass. That’s going to get her huge points.”
“I don’t care if she has points,” Bennett said with a frown.
Duke laughed. “Liar.”
“I want Kennedy, no matter how Mom feels about her.”
“Okay,” Duke agreed. “But it definitely makes it all easier if she likes the mother of her grandchildren.”
Bennett felt everything in him react to that and couldn’t reply immediately. He had no idea if Kennedy wanted to have kids, and it wouldn’t matter if she didn’t. He wanted her. Everything that came with that was just icing on the cake. But, yes, he did care a little about how his mother felt about her. Not just because it would make his life easier if the two main women in it got along, but because he’d like to think that his mom would trust him to know what was right for him. In the woman he spent his life with. In the career he spent his life on.
“If my mom doesn’t like Kennedy, that’s on her. Not Kennedy,” Bennett told his oldest friend. “She’s the most genuine, warm, funny, sure of herself woman I know.” She got it from her grandmother. Bennett had heard everything Kennedy had said about feeling bad about how Leo had stuck around and put up with a lot from Ellie. But Bennett got it. Women like them were rare and once you had one, letting go was impossible.
“Kennedy’s awesome,” Duke agreed. “And Maria might be imposing and particular, but she’s also smart. She won’t want to lose you over this. Not now.”
“Not now? What’s that mean?”
“Now that she’s seen that Kennedy really does have your back and will do whatever she can to make things work for you.”
Bennett nodded. “Yeah. She will have my back.” Kennedy definitely seemed to have his back. She was downright enthusiastic about the politics and his foundation. She wanted him to do even more than he was doing. And with her there pushing, encouraging, and being turned on by it all, he might just find himself with a political campaign after all.
Kennedy Landry was a little imposing, too.
Everything had turned out perfectly.
Well, perfect was in the eye of the beholder, Kennedy knew. But this was a damned good crawfish boil. The people attending might not think that dinner table centerpieces should be metal buckets with crawfish painted on the sides or that the air should smell like cayenne, garlic, and lemon.
But they’d be wrong.
Kennedy stood to the side of the serving table where people could help themselves to salads and bread before taking their seats at the picnic tables laden with crawfish, sausage, corn, and potatoes.
Of course, she’d had to tell them all that they were to serve themselves before sitting. Apparently this crowd didn’t do buffets.
While her usual crowd would have died seeing the actual glass plates being used in the yard and the rolled-up, lemon scented hand towels for washing up. The Landrys and their guests used paper plates and a garden hose.
But the point of the evening was truly the same as all the parties at Ellie’s. Great food, good friends, laughter, and memories.
Kennedy had definitely rolled her eyes at the group she was feeding tonight, but she had to grin watching them. Several of them were trying to use their forks for the crawfish, and she’d had to open the tops of the beer bottles for two of the women, but three of the men had realized they needed to get rid of their jackets and their ties, and two of the women had gone to find ponytail holders to hold their hair back while they ate. They were catching on quickly. They’d all donned their bibs without complaint, and it had only taken one bite for them to all be enthusiastically digging in.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake!”
Kennedy swung around as Maria Baxter rose from the head of the table.
“You all are ridiculous,” she told her guests.
Then she kicked her shoes off. The expensive Louis Vuittons fell into the grass, the white bright against the deep green. Sure, the grass was expensive, too—at least the landscaping and upkeep of it—but it was still grass.
Kennedy’s eyebrows rose as everyone stopped eating and sat up straighter, focusing on their hostess.
“You don’t eat crawfish with a fork,” Maria informed them. “And this isn’t lobster.” She shot a look at William Ray, Georgia’s Governor, who was sitting just to her right.
“You gonna show them how to twist and suck, honey?”
This came from Preston Baxter and Kennedy felt her eyes widen. Teasing? Flirting with his wife? In front of esteemed guests? And acting laid-back and happy about eating crawfish in his backyard?
Damn, it was possible that she’d underestimated Bennett’s father as well. He was, after all, one of the men who’d tossed his jacket and tie onto the patio furniture before grabbing his plate.
“You know it,” Maria said, giving him a grin.
Kennedy found Bennett. He was standing a few feet away, also observing the party rather than partaking just yet. She’d learned from Ellie and Cora that you always made sure your guests were served and happy before sitting down yourself. It looked like Bennett was doing the same thing. She loved the idea that he felt like this was their party. She gave him a smile and he gave her a wink.
He looked so hot tonight. He was wearing a black button-down dress shirt, open at the collar and no tie, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. With that, he had on black dress pants and black shoes. That were shiny, even in the dusky evening illuminated by the setting sun, candles, and twinkle lights. He was also wearing his glasses. Kennedy could only assume he’d put those on and given his shoes an extra few buffs to torment her.
It was working.
But her attention was quickly pulled back to the hot science nerd’s mother.
Maria held a crawfish up. “Okay, first step—twist the tail.” She did. “Peel the tail.” She did, tossing the remnants into the bucket in front of her. “Eat the tail.” She also did that after dipping it into some of the special sauce Kennedy had made. “Then,” she said, holding up the rest of the crawfish. “You suck.” She did, sucking the juice and some of the remaining meat out of the shell. Then she tossed that into the bucket as well.
Kennedy gave a little shudder. She wasn’t a crawfish sucker. But the rest of her family loved it.
Maria held up her messy hands. “If you don’t want to get dirty tonight, you’re in the wrong place.”
There was a beat of silence, during which Kennedy assumed everyone else was thinking who is this woman and where is Maria Baxter? Just like Kennedy was.
But then Preston gave a low whistle, and the rest of the table applauded.
Maria gave them a smile—the biggest Kennedy had seen so far—and took her seat. Somehow, even having just sucked a crawfish and with juice all over her hands, looking like a queen.
Kennedy watched as the rest of the guests dug into the food, with their hands, and conversation and laughter started bubbling up. It was stupid, but for just a second, Kennedy had to blink her eyes rapidly.
“I need to talk to you.”
Suddenly Bennett was beside her, grabbing her hand, and starting around the side of the house.
She hurried over the grass with him. “Bennett, what’s going on?”
But he didn’t reply until he had her around the corner and backed up against the bricks. He braced his forearm on the side of the house and settled his other big hand on her hip. “You did something romantic,” he said, running his palm up and down over the fabric of the second dress Maria had bought for her. “So I have to do something dirty.”
His gaze was intense and with his big, hot body so close, Kennedy felt her breathing quicken. “I thought that was just my thing. To punish you.”
“Guess not.” He slid his hand up and down. “It’s our thing.”
Kennedy felt her heart thump at that. They had a thing. She liked that. A lot.
“Wait, I did something romantic? That doesn’t sound like me.” Yep, a little b
reathless-sounding.
“Stepping up to help with this party? Helping my mom out when she hasn’t exactly been sweet and friendly to you?” He leaned in until their noses were almost touching. “And knowing that you actually did it all for me? That’s romantic.”
“Huh.” Her hands were flat on the bricks behind her, but her whole body felt like it was arching into his. This guy had an incredible effect on her. One she wasn’t sure she was ever going to get used to.
“And,” he told her, brushing his lips over hers. “Watching you out there? The way you were watching everyone else, clearly hoping that they not only liked the food, but that they were also having a good time? And then the way you smiled when my mom kicked her shoes off and twisted the tail off the crawfish? You like them.”
He ran his hand up to cup her face. “And you’re fitting in. Without even really trying. You just…do. You came to a strange place, so unlike your world, sat down with people so unlike you, and you made them smile, you made them feel comfortable, you took care of them.”
Brushing his thumb over her bottom lip, he looked into her eyes. “You helped make last night fun for my cousins, you nursed Charles’ hangover, you made my mom grits like she had when she was a little girl, you learned everything you could about my foundation, you stuck up for Autre and the tour company with the governor, and tonight you fussed over everything from the candles to the desserts. You touched every single thing here and made it warm and delightful and—” He dragged his lips to her cheek. “—delicious.”
His thumb skimmed over her cheek and then he lifted it to his mouth. Clearly, she’d had a smear of something there.
“Sweet. You are so fucking sweet even when you’re being sassy and smart-assed. I’ll never get enough of you.”
Kennedy managed to drag in a deep breath even as her chest tightened and her heart pounded. Holy crap. This guy. He saw her and he appreciated her. And vice versa. She’d never had this before. This mutual respect and affection that went along with the good times and hot sex. This was…everything.
She had to blink fast again as emotions threatened to overcome her. “And you haven’t even tasted my Bananas Foster yet.”
“No.” He paused. “Can’t.”
“Can’t?”
“I’m allergic to bananas.”
Kennedy shook her head. “What? Then why did you ask me to make it?”
“Because I knew you could do more than pralines. I want you to always do everything you’re capable of.”
Whoa. She blinked again. What was with all of this emotion swirling around inside of her? “Well, just so you know for the future, I make a kick-ass crème brûlée. You should ask for that next time.”
He gave her a funny little smile with an expression that was full of emotions she couldn’t name. He nodded. “I’ll do that.”
“And now you’re the one being romantic,” she told him, sliding her arms up and around his neck and pressing close to him.
“Huh. So we’re going to have to do dirty things to each other,” he said. He ran his hand down to her hip again.
Then lower to her thigh, rubbing over the soft fabric of her skirt.
This skirt was also longer, probably to help cover her leg tattoo. But she didn’t blame Maria. Eventually, she’d come around. Or she wouldn’t. Kennedy could wear longer dresses when she was here in Georgia with Bennett’s family. What she wore wasn’t who she was. She’d used her black clothing, tattoos, and piercings to make a statement after her years as a pageant queen. And she loved her combat boots. And tattoos. But she’d already realized this weekend that who she was could best be expressed in conversation and with ideas and with actions. She was a smart, passionate woman, who knew a lot about the bayou, loved Louisiana, and who could make people listen to her. She was also a woman who would step up and do what needed to be done even if the person she was helping didn’t deserve it right at that very moment.
Bennett started gathering her skirt up and Kennedy reached to help him.
He gave her a wicked grin as his hand found bare skin. He ran it up her thigh to her hip.
Where he discovered that no matter what her dress looked like and who picked it out, she was still going to do whatever she wanted deep down.
“No panties?” he asked, his voice a little growly.
Her nipples beaded at that tone and the look on his face. “Oh, oops.”
“Oops, my ass,” he said, definitely growly this time, just before he took her mouth in a hot, deep kiss.
As his tongue stroked hers and she lifted on tiptoe to get more fully against him, he slid his hand to cup her, sliding a finger deep, with no warning. Not that she needed any. She was already wet and needed that finger right there. He pumped deep, then rubbed the pad of his thumb over her clit. She gripped the sleeves of his shirt and took a quick deep breath.
When she had her bearings again, kind of, Kennedy slid her hands down his sides, feeling the hard planes of his torso behind the expensive fabric of his black dress shirt. She ran one hand down over the front of his fly, relishing the hard steel of his cock behind the black dress pants, too. Sliding her hand up and down, she breathed in deeply of his cologne, and though she couldn’t see them with her eyes closed and his mouth doing delicious things to hers, she pictured the black shoes. The shiny black shoes.
“You should know better than to wear dress clothes to a crawfish boil,” she told him, as he slid his mouth to her neck and she unbuckled his belt, unzipped his pants, and slid her hand in against hot, hard man.
“These are my backyard party dress clothes,” he teased.
“I’ve seen you in jeans and T-shirts,” she told him, ending with a little gasp as he curled his finger just right. “I know you can pull that off.”
“Well, this is a pretty fancy dress you’ve got on, too,” he told her.
“Yeah, if you tell my family I wore this to eat crawfish, I’ll deny it. And make you pay.”
He chuckled, rubbing a lazy circle over her clit. “We’ll keep each other’s secret then, okay?”
She lifted her head from where it had tipped back against the bricks and met his eye. “We’ve got each other’s backs.”
“We do,” he agreed sincerely.
“Great.” She squeezed his cock and then gave it a long stroke. “Now get me off so I can get back to the party.”
He groaned. And did exactly as she asked. She came hard and fast as he whispered dirty, romantic things in her ear. She reciprocated. And then covered for him when he slipped into the house to change his pants.
Fortunately, like any good, nerdy politician, he had plenty of black dress pants in his closet.
“I honestly don’t know how any of you keep getting elected.”
Everyone at their end of the table, that was now devoid of crawfish and instead set with plates that had only remnants of the peach pie and Bananas Foster, looked at Kennedy.
She was sitting back in her chair next to Bennett. Their fingers were linked between them and she couldn’t remember a time she’d felt so contented. Even in Autre. That was home and she always felt contentment sitting around with her family by the water after a great meal. But this was different somehow. Being with her family, who loved her unconditionally, was one thing but being accepted into a new group that was just getting to know her, was something else. It gave her a sense of accomplishment. Or something. That wasn’t quite the right word, but she felt like a success here. These people didn’t have to like her or listen to her. But they did and were.
The man across from her and Bennett was Michael Elbert, the Mayor of Savannah. He laughed. “What do you mean?”
“I’m just sitting here listening to you all talk and you have almost nothing in common with the people who elect you and who you represent,” Kennedy said, lifting her shoulder. “I don’t understand why they keep voting for you all. I mean, you’re nice enough,” she added quickly. “You’re clearly smart and, I assume, you actually want to do good things for your c
ities and states.” She glanced around the table. She wasn’t just referring to Mayor Elbert with this observation. Somehow all of the politicians in the group, along with Teddy, had ended up down here. “But you have no idea what it’s like to just be a normal person.”
“So what’s it like to be a normal person in the small towns on the bayou?” Governor Ray asked.
“Why don’t you come down and find out?” she asked him.
He nodded. “Maybe I will.”
“You should. That’s the best way to see what’s really going on.”
“We do go out to our communities,” Charles piped up from across the table and down. “We go to local events, hold town halls. We want to hear from people and see those towns.”
Kennedy shrugged. “I’m sure you do. But you’re my governor, Charles, and I’ve never seen your face in person until I came here.”
He lifted a brow. “I can’t make you come to my town halls.”
“But I didn’t even know you had one near me,” she said.
Charles glanced at Teddy. Teddy just grinned and lifted his beer bottle.
She felt Bennett lift her hand and press a kiss on the back of it. She gave him a smile.
“Bedtime,” he mouthed.
The conversation continued around her and she felt her body stir. But she shook her head. “Not yet,” she mouthed back.
Did she want to go upstairs with Bennett to the bedroom with that big bed with the silk sheets and the attached magical shower? Of course. But she didn’t feel quite done down here.
He lifted a brow. “No?” he asked softly.
“Just not yet,” she whispered. “I’m enjoying this.”
He looked around the table. He seemed bored. But he probably heard this type of conversation all the time. When he looked back at her, he sighed. “Okay.”
She grinned. “You can go up without me. And send me texts trying to tempt me up there while I hang out a little longer.”
He gave her a slow grin. “That sounds like fun.”
“It does.”
He stretched to his feet, slowly letting his fingers slide through hers. Then he leaned over and gave her a kiss. “See you soon.”
Crazy Rich Cajuns Page 20
