Cajun Spice: A Red Hot Cajun Nights Story

By Desiree Holt

Daisy Kerr’s life has reached the edge of the cliff and fallen off. Her so-called fiancé Craig Myers has embezzled millions from the investment firm where they both work and left her holding the bag. The FBI thinks she’s somehow involved, she’s been fired from her job and the condo she lives in belongs to Craig. Heartsick and depressed, she decides to use the tickets Craig had bought for their trip to Mardi Gras and see if she can “Let eh good times roll” in New Orleans. For a few days she can party and forget about her troubles. Maybe even meet a sexy Cajun man to take her mind of her troubles. A fling sounds really good to her right about now.

Leaving the airport she meets Marc Doucet, a Louisiana native now living in New York. He tells her he’s in town on business but he’d love to show her the ropes of Mardi Gras. And a whole lot more. It’s not long before he’s really putting some Cajun spice in her life and then some. Sex had never been so good or made her feel so special. Maybe they might even see each other back in New York if she can straighten out the mess her life is.

But what Daisy doesn’t know is Marc is an FBI agent sent to ferret out any knowledge she might have of Craig’s scheme. His plan was to romance her, until romance landed in their laps for real. When Daisy overhears him in a phone conversation with his boss she feels betrayed once again and can’t get out of town fast enough. It will take a grand gesture on Marc’s part to get past the new walls around her heart and convince her what they have is real.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Desiree Holt
• Release date: Jan 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311728418

Desiree Holt

A multi-published, award winning, Amazon and USA Today best-selling author, Desiree Holt has produced more than 200 titles and won many awards. She has received an EPIC E-Book Award, the Holt Medallion and many others including Author After Dark’s Author of the Year. She has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning and in The Village Voice, The Daily Beast, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The London Daily Mail. She lives in Florida with her cats who insist they help her write her books, and is addicted to football.

Book preview

Cajun Spice

A Red Hot Cajun Nights Story

By

Desiree Holt

Smashwords Edition

Cajun Spice

Copyright 2015 by Desiree Holt

Published by Desiree Holt

Copyright 2015 Cover Art by Carey Abbott

Editing and Formatting Services by Wizards in Publishing

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Chapter One

Daisy Karr rolled her suitcase out of the terminal at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, her jaw set, her stride determined. It was Mardi Gras time in New Orleans, a city she’d always loved, and disaster was not going to ruin it for her. She’d been looking forward to this trip for weeks. All the reservations were made. A fiancé who’d betrayed her and turned out to be a crook wasn’t going to ruin it for her. In fact, she’d brought along the credit card they’d shared, figuring if it hadn’t been cancelled, she’d use that to cover everything on the trip. It would serve him right, wherever he was.

That was another part of the problem. Her erstwhile fiancé, Craig Myers, the man she shared a condo with and expected to marry, had disappeared barely ahead of the federal agents who’d showed up. Yesterday—a day of blackness—he was still at their condo when she’d left early in the morning. She’d assumed she’d see him at the investment firm where they both worked before too long. What a shock she’d been in for. Craig never showed up but the FBI did, to arrest him. Arrest him? And were they ever pissed off because he wasn’t there or at home. He’d told her he had a stop to make on the way to work, and she said she’d see him later. Ha! That was the last she saw or heard of him. He never called her, never even texted. The closed-door session in the senior partner’s office where she’d been grilled at length by the feds then given the axe by her boss had been the frosting on the cake. After all, they’d said, she worked there as an accountant, so of course she’d know how to siphon off money and move it around. And who better to do it for than her supposed fiancé?

Well, damn it all, she was the injured party here. She’d sat in their condo—no, his condo—all night, trying to process everything that happened. Wondering where she’d live now? The condo was in his name. We don’t need to pay for two places, Daisy. And mine is so much more in line with our goals. I’ll take care of you, Daisy. Yeah, some taking care of. Well, finding a place to live was one more thing she’d have to worry about, right after she tried to get another job.

She’d stared for a long time at the tickets for New Orleans and the Mardi Gras brochure. Craig had been enthusiastic about it. He said he’d been to the city a number of times, never got tired of its charm, and wanted to show her the excitement of the famous celebration. But he had split one day before their scheduled trip, and by dawn, she’d made up her mind to take the trip alone. She deserved something for all this misery and humiliation he was putting her through. The sick feeling at the way her life had turned upside down rode on the plane with her all the way from New York. She needed to get away from this mess and try to figure out what to do with the rest of her life.

Making her way up the jetway, she’d decided for the moment not to waste her time obsessing over what happened. She’d been a fool and an idiot, now without a job and maybe homeless, but Daisy had never been one to let life defeat her. Her first order of business was to put everything behind her, or at least as much as she could. When she got back, hopefully in a better frame of mind after a few days of Mardi Gras, she’d assess her situation and make some decisions.

As she progressed through the terminal, with every stride, her determination grew. It was Mardi Gras time, the biggest party in the world. Mardi Gras! She’d been looking forward to this for so long. Her life might be in the toilet, but right now, she planned to stuff it all in a closet and try to have some fun.

She’d been so sure Craig, with his starched shirts and three-piece suits, had been the answer to stability for her. Hadn’t he gotten her the position at his firm? Moved her into his condo? Paraded her around as his fiancée—although he had yet to give her anything more than promises. What a fool she’d been. It was all so much window dressing. She’d pinned her future on a fraud and a crook, and she was so angry with herself she could spit.

The only person she’d confided in was her friend Jocelyn who told her to go to New Orleans and find herself a sexy stranger, someone nothing at all like Craig, who could help her get the jackass out of her brain. Someone who could make her forget the disaster her life had turned into. Some spicy Cajun man she could have a fling with. Even if she wasn’t the flinging type, going a little wild might be exactly what she needed. Following the rules hadn’t gotten her anything except betrayed, dumped, and fired.

She thought about taking Jocelyn’s advice. Maybe she’d go to Pat O’Brien’s and have one of their famous Hurricanes. Maybe she’d even have three or four, get herself a little blitzed, and meet some spicy Cajun man. Throw caution to the winds for a few days.

First order of business, however, was to catch a cab to the hotel, change into something comfortable, and wander through the French Quarter. The curb was jammed with people there to celebrate Mardi Gras. Daisy managed to squeeze herself into a space and waited for the next taxi in line to roll up to her.

Montmartre Hotel, she told the driver as he got out to grab her suitcase.

"Mind if we share the ride, chere?" The voice behind her was deep and hot, rolling over her like warm melted chocolate.

Daisy turned to see who it was and there he was, as if she’d conjured him up. Her spicy Cajun male. Sexy for sure, he was tall and lean, with a thick shock of black hair and startling blue eyes. She couldn’t stop staring at him.

"Uh, excuse me, chere. Do you still want the cab?"

What? Oh! She realized she was standing there like an idiot. Oh, yes.

"Well, I heard you say you were goin’ to the Montmartre Hotel. So happens