by Maria Luis
I want you, Louisa.
Her first inclination was to stammer and pull away and retreat back to her safe space. But that was the opposite of what Chase wanted, and Louisa wanted more, too. She wanted to show him the independent female she was at the museum. She wanted to show him that she wasn’t always the woman who hid from her shadow when a good-looking guy approached.
“You make me nervous, Chase,” she started, refusing to look away from his face. “You make me tongue-tied and a little uncertain, because you’re just so you”—she waved a hand at his big body—“and I’m me.”
“Gorgeous.”
She blinked. “What?”
“You’re gorgeous,” Chase repeated, and his hand fell to the nape of her neck. “In your dress slacks or in your pirate costume, dressed up like The Sparrow, you’re gorgeous. And I’ve been waiting years to tell you that.”
Louisa swallowed, hard. “I-I don’t understand.”
Blue eyes slanted down at her lips, as though he couldn’t bear to turn away. “I like you, Louisa, I really like you. Haven’t you noticed the way that I constantly volunteer at the Pirate Museum?”
“I mean, honestly, I thought you just had a fascination with pirates.”
Firm, full lips widened into a sexy smile. “I have a fascination with you, sweetheart. It started when we were ten years old and someone dared me to kiss you in the back of that school bus. I hated that the other kids made fun of us, and I spent years wondering about how I could get another kiss from you.”
“You made me nervous even then.”
He gave her a slow, considering glance. “And so I’ll ask you again, is there something I can do to make the nerves go away?”
This was it. He was giving her an opportunity to take what she wanted and make a move, and Louisa wasn’t so inept with men that she couldn’t tell what he was asking about.
A kiss.
With Chase Trevor.
Oh boy, it was time to remember that breathing was a necessity to life.
“Maybe a kiss?” When he lifted a brow, Louisa hurried to continue, “I mean, if you made me nervous the first time you kissed me, maybe the nerves will unlock with a second kiss?”
“Hmmm.” His hands skirted down over her shoulders to her hips, his left avoiding the awful fanny pack. “I could do that,” he murmured, “or, I could make you wait.”
Wait. What?
Eyes wide, she stared at him. “I thought that—”
He surprised her, then, with a kiss to her forehead. It was sweet and lovely and yet so not everything that she wanted from him. “I know what you thought,” he whispered, his mouth just next to her ear, “but there’s something I’ve got to do first.”
“You’re playing games, Chase Trevor.”
He didn’t deny it. “I’m playing the only game that matters, Louisa Trevor. Come back down to the pier in two days. Five o’clock.”
But two days from now was the Sailing into the Blue/Pirate Museum event. “Is there something else you’re not telling me? Like, I don’t know, that the placement for the fundraiser has been moved?”
“Was it? I deleted your email, if you remember.”
Louisa slipped from his hold and set her hands on her hips. “You can’t just go about changing plans, Chase, and you certainly can’t mess with my job, no matter how hot you are.”
He laughed, openly and deeply. “That’s more like it, sweetheart.”
Her eyes narrowed. “More like what?”
“Ditching the nerves and bringing the fire.”
And with that, he turned away to bend down and grab a set of lights before moving back to the side of the boat again. “I’ll see you in two days, Louisa. Just trust me.”
She eyed the pier and then glanced back. “Are you going to give me a leg up onto the dock again or is it your plan to see me fall into the bay?”
That snapped his back straight, and with a half-laugh, he neared her. His cheeks were red and his smile more than a little strained, and with a boost of confidence, Louisa planted her hands on his shoulders when he set his on her hips, and asked, “Maybe I’m not the only one who gets nervous around here?”
His fingers tightened their hold on her hips. “Let’s keep that one between us, shall we?”
And then he hoisted her up onto the pier, without a kiss but with the promise of so much more.
Two days later, nothing could hold back Louisa’s good mood.
Except, of course, the realization that all of the kids had arrived at the museum for the fundraiser, and the teacher had grossly miscounted their numbers.
As in, there were ten students milling about the museum in their regular clothes, demanding to be dressed up like their friends.
It was a nightmare in the making, and she had no idea what to do with them all.
She opened her mouth. “Can you just . . .”
A fourth grader threw her hands up in the air and shrieked, “I want to be a pirate!”
Which started an almost Gregorian-worthy chant of “Pirate! Pirate! Pirate!” as the kids went nuts and Louisa about lost her mind.
The teacher, Mrs. Midler, approached warily. “Miss Trevor, we’re supposed to be down at Sea Dog Pier in fifteen minutes. It’s almost five.”
Almost five. In other words, the precise time that Chase had asked for her to come down to the pier, as well. This was so not good, no matter which way she looked at it.
“Give me a sword!” a kid shouted, lunging forward as though to plow his poor buddy with a rapier. “Give me a sword!”
A sword . . .
A sword! Oh, thank God.
Louisa twisted around and, without a word to Mrs. Midler, darted off to the back of the museum. In the storage closet, she found a plastic container filled with last year’s Halloween decorations—including a dozen plastic swords they’d strung up throughout the museum. It was perfect.
Hauling the bucket into her arms, she stumbled her way back out into the main area of the museum. “All right, everyone, those of you who aren’t decked out like pirates already . . . you get a sword.”
Boo-yahs echoed in the small space, and Louisa couldn’t help but wonder if she was about to regret everything.
Turns out, they gathered a crowd along the way to Sea Dog Pier.
The students with the swords plunged them upward, splicing the sky with their exuberant sword-thrusts and pirate-yells. Then, Louisa spotted some locals joining in, mimicking the battle cry and all-in-out proving that in Fortune’s Bay, everyone got into the pirate spirit.
When they passed the statue of Anastasia “The Sparrow” Roberts in the town center, everyone paused to offer a salute to the founder of Fortune’s Bay, who had met the love of her life right here with her enemy pirate, Finn Morgan.
By the time they arrived at Sea Dog Pier, they were so dreadfully late that the sun had set, and Louisa had a sneaking suspicion that she’d never hear the end of it.
Then they turned the corner and stepped onto the wooden planks, and there was Chase’s sailboat all lit up like Christmastime. And then she looked down, and she saw that there were miniature sailboats lining the pier itself, all the way to the end.
Miniature sailboats with . . . electric candles seated atop the stern of the boat?
“Pretty, aren’t they?” Mrs. Midler asked from Louisa’s right. “When Mr. Trevor—I mean, not you . . . Mr. Chase Trevor, I mean.”
Here they went again. “I know what you mean.”
“Ah, right.” Mrs. Midler huffed a little. “In any case, I was just surprised when Mr. Trevor called the school and asked if we minded changing things up a little bit. The board wanted sailboats, and he had another idea entirely . . . one that he thought the town would love with all the holiday spirit.”
While nerves pushed her down the pier toward Chase, there was also a thread of excitement dogging her heels.
The shouting of “pirate” from behind her helped, too.
And then, like a pirate himself, Chase stoo
d on the end of the dock. A black head scarf was wrapped around his head, a la Johnny Depp from Pirates of the Caribbean, and he wore a white lawn shirt and black pants. Black boots completed his take on a pirate’s outfit.
It was the glimmer of joy in his blue eyes that did Louisa in, however.
When she stood less than a foot away from him, she murmured, “You’ve been busy, Mr. Trevor.”
He grinned. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”
Do not get nervous. Be you, Louisa.
With that as a self-motivator, she folded her hands over her chest. “How long?”
He recognized his own question being thrown back at him, and he stepped forward. “A long time, Miss Trevor, a very long time. Long enough that when I saw you on a date with someone else last Winterfest, you threw a major wrench into my plans.”
A date? She bit her lip. “You waited an entire year to make your next move?”
“You aren’t the only one around here who gets nervous, sweetheart. Trust me on that.”
Mrs. Midler let out a tinkling laugh. “Oh, Mr. Trevor, do you really get nervous, though?”
He gave a sage nod. “Around Louisa, I do. But I think we’re both ready to stop being nervous, aren’t we?”
Blue eyes landed on her face, and Louisa took another leap of faith. She stepped forward, lifted her hands onto his shoulders, and said, “I expected to be carried like a lady onto your pirate ship, Chase.”
“You can expect to be kidnapped, milady,” he returned, “like the proper she-pirate you so desperately want to be.”
And then he was picking her up and jumping onto the sailboat, and it was with a stroke of good fortune that he didn’t send them falling into the bay. The plank, she noticed, was currently missing.
The gathering crowd cheered, egging them on, and there was still the chant of “Pirate! Pirate! Pirate!” that had yet to quiet, thanks to the forty-something elementary schoolers meandering about.
“Will you starve me, too?” Louisa teased when her feet touched the wooden planks of the boat. “Go for full historical accuracy?”
Chase gave her a grin that warmed her heart and melted away all of the nerves. “No, my historian, I’m going to go for the Disney movie version of pirates and kidnapping, and finally kiss you.”
And so he did.
His lips came down on hers, and it was everything she’d ever hoped it would be. Sweet and just a little hot, with enough spice to send a tingle of want down the pearls of her spine.
When he pulled back to press forehead to hers, he whispered, “Do you remember where we were going on that bus back in the fifth grade?”
To be honest, she couldn’t think of anything but the heat of his mouth right now. “If I say no, will I seem terribly unromantic?”
He gave a husky laugh. “We were on our way to visit the Pirate Museum,” he told her after another brush of his lips against hers, “and I have a feeling that Destiny O’Hara has spent the last twenty or so years trying to get us together.”
Oh, he was a romantic one. She loved it.
“I suppose she got her wish,” Louisa said.
“And I got mine.”
She stole another kiss from his mouth. “Did you?”
“I did.” He nipped at her bottom lip. “At the risk of you playing mutiny, I’ll just say that I planned this entire night, fundraiser and all, and I can’t wait for more adventures with you, Louisa Trevor.”
And then there was no more talking. Against the backdrop of Christmas lights and shouts of pirates from the crowd while also being dressed as pirates, Louisa was kissed by the very man who’d been her first kiss, and if that wasn’t a strike of destiny, she didn’t know what was.
More Fortune’s Bay Stories!
Don’t miss the other stories from Fortune’s Bay. Each is a standalone novella and they don’t have to be read in order.
Love Sparkles in Fortune’s Bay - by Julie Archer
A Dash of Destiny in Fortune’s Bay - by Jenni M Rose
A Brush with Love in Fortune’s Bay - by Roberta Capizzi
Secrets of the Heart in Fortune’s Bay - by Sidney Valentine
Love Letters in Fortune’s Bay - by Maria Luis
Lovestruck in Fortune’s Bay - by Joslyn Westbrook
A Map to Destiny in Fortune’s Bay - by Nicole Ellis
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Acknowledgements
Daisy and Reese wouldn’t exist without the amazing authors behind Fortune’s Bay - Julie, Jenni, Roberta, Sidney, Joslyn and Nicole. I can’t imagine writing the world of Fortune’s Bay with anyone else. From creating maps of our lovely little coastal town to even creating the logo for the series, this last year has been an experience that I won’t soon forget. Love you, girls!
To Kathy Bosman—there is not a book that I want to write without your feedback and support. I don’t know how I got so lucky to find you, but as I’ve promised…my shirt, “What Would Kathy Say?” is actually going to happen and I hope you’ll wear it with pride.
To Najla Qamber—you never fail to amaze me with the most beautiful covers that you create! Each one makes me drool a little, and this one for Love Letters had me grinning from the first moment I saw it. I’m convinced, truly, that your designs are unicorn magic…just in book form.
To Viper & Brenda—you two are the best beta readers I could ever ask for! Thank you for always having my back but giving it to my real when you want something more from the characters than I’ve given them. I love you guys!
To Tandy—my books would not sparkle without you. Thank you for always making sure that my t’s are crossed and my I’s are dotted.
To my VIP team—I owe y’all everything. With every review that you write, with every review that you share with the world, my dreams come true. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to read my work. I couldn’t do this without you.
To my amazing readers in Book Boyfriends Anonymous—I LOVE YOU. No, that’s not an exaggeration. Every day your enthusiasm for my books makes me feel a million feet tall. This journey would be a lot quieter (and lonelier) without y’all. Thank you for being a part of my family, and for giving me a place to be me behind the books and the words.
And, finally, to you, Dear Reader. Thank you for picking up Love Letters and for giving my words a chance. Love Letters was a challenge I accepted with great vigor—no cursing, no sexy times. The focus remained on Daisy & Reese, and, boy, do I love them. I hope that they captured your heart as they did to mine.
Did you enjoy Lizzie & Gage Harvey? Surprise! Lizzie & Gage have their own story to tell in Tempt Me With Forever, which is available now on Amazon/Kindle Unlimited. It’s a love story very close to my heart, with ample sexual tension, laugh out loud moments, and a group of friends who would truly move mountains to help each other.
You can find more information here!
Also by Maria Luis
NOLA Heart
Say You’ll Be Mine
Take A Chance On Me
Dare You To Love Me
Tempt Me With Forever
Blades Hockey
Power Play
Sin Bin
Hat Trick
A Love Serial
Breathless
Standalones
Love Letters in Fortune’s Bay
About the Author
Maria Luis is the author of the sexy NOLA Heart and Blades Hockey series.
Historian by day and romance novelist by night, Maria lives in New Orleans, and loves bringing the city's cultural flair into her books. When Maria isn't frantically typing with coffee in hand, she can be found binging on reality TV, going on adventures with her other half and two pups, or plotting her next flirty romance.
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