Oh god, the taste of him as his lips burned into hers; his scent was all over her, his hard body against hers. His lips were so soft and she moaned when his tongue slid into her mouth. She ran her hands round the back of his neck, fingering his soft curls at the nape of his neck. He let out a soft moan of need and slid his hands down to her bum, lifting her. Instinctively she wrapped her legs round his hips and a second later he had her pinned against the wall with his glorious weight.

Desire and passion and need erupted in her, a longing so fierce that it was almost painful. If he started to make love to her against the wall of her office there was not a single bone in her body that would have stopped him. She clung to him tight and as the kiss continued she could feel how much he wanted this too.

The kiss suddenly slowed, becoming tender and softer than the fierce passion that had consumed them both. He pulled away slightly, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead, then he leaned his head against hers as he steadied his breathing.

‘Crap. That wasn’t supposed to happen,’ Isaac whispered, kissing her on the forehead again before he lowered her legs to the floor. ‘I lose all sense of control when I’m around you.’

‘I’m really glad it did happen,’ Bella said, leaning her head against his chest. She was gratified to hear his heart pounding against his chest as hard as hers was.

He pulled back slightly, holding her around the waist to make sure she could stand on her own.

‘I’m your boss Bella, this can’t happen between us.’

She reached up to stroke his face. ‘I understand.’

‘You do?’

‘I’m disappointed but I do get it. I was once involved in a work romance myself and it all went wrong. And you’re the boss; it’s so much more difficult for you.’

He stared at her in confusion. ‘I just pinned you to the wall of your office and kissed you on your first day of work. Then told you that it can’t happen again. I feel you’re letting me off very lightly.’

She smiled. ‘I’m not going to slap a sexual harassment suit on you, if that’s what you’re worried about. Look, this thing between us is obviously just passion and lust. It’s not love.’

He frowned slightly. ‘No, I don’t suppose it is.’

‘Of course it isn’t, we barely know each other. Besides, if it was, you wouldn’t be willing to walk away from it so easily. If it was love you wouldn’t let something as small as us being work colleagues get in the way. You’d grab onto it with both hands and never let it go. But it’s not. It’s chemistry, nothing more. There’s no point letting it get all weird between us at work just for the sake of a quick roll in the sack. So let’s just leave it as it is. We can be friends and we’ll both agree that it doesn’t go any further than this amazing kiss.’

He nodded, though as he took a step back, she couldn’t help notice how disappointed he looked.

He took another step away. ‘Just so you know, if we did, there’d be nothing quick about it.’

She laughed. ‘Don’t worry, in my fantasies, I won’t sell you short.’

He groaned and walked to the door. ‘Get on with your work, Miss Roussel. I’m not paying you to stand around enjoying yourself all day.’

‘I promise, I won’t enjoy myself for the rest of the day.’

He smiled and walked out, closing the door behind him.

Bella stayed leaning against the wall for a few seconds, her heart still banging against her chest. That kiss had been incredible and she couldn’t help wonder if he kissed like that, what it would be like to make love to him. But at least now she understood how he felt. It was the right thing really because if they did end up having a whirlwind passionate affair, when it inevitably ended it would leave them with a whole load of awkwardness to deal with. This was for the best. She would just ignore the niggling doubt in her head that said she shouldn’t walk away from this kind of connection so easily.

She sat down at her desk and stared at her screen. A few minutes later, there was a soft knock on the door and Elsie poked her head inside.

‘Are you OK? Mr Scott seemed really angry when he walked in here?’

Bella smiled. ‘I’m fine. But let’s just say I won’t be stepping out of line with him in future. Not if I want to keep my job.’

There was more truth to that than she could say.

Elsie nodded, sympathetically. ‘He can come across a bit bullish sometimes but he’s a very fair man.’

Bella nodded.

‘I’ll make us some tea, it’ll make you feel better,’ Elsie said, ducking back out of the office.

Bella turned her attention back to the computer though she knew she wasn’t really seeing it. It was going to take a bit more than a cup of tea to make her feel better because after that wonderful kiss all she was left feeling was incredibly frustrated.

* * *

Isaac left his house and let Rocket run on ahead up the little path that led to the fields and meadow behind his house. Dark damson rain clouds were rolling in over the hills but the sun was still shining over his little cottage as he looked back at it. The place had been a complete state when he had bought it a few months before but slowly it was becoming more homely. The outside walls had been repaired and repainted and the only thing that needed doing to the outside was having a new thatched roof fitted. The garden had all been landscaped and there was a proper driveway round the front too.

Inside was almost completely done as well. He had slowly made his way through each room, plastered, painted, new carpets, new ceiling in some cases. The kitchen and bathroom had been gutted and renovated and he couldn’t be prouder of how it had turned out.

His favourite part of the new development was the summerhouse, which had large windows overlooking the bay, comfy sofas and a fire pit outside. It was the perfect place to spend the long summer evenings and it would be even better if he had that perfect someone to share those evenings with.

He left the house behind and walked up the hill, his thoughts immediately going to Bella.

Life in London had felt claustrophobic and the people that flocked round him, especially the women, did so because of his money. He couldn’t move on the streets, or attend a party or an event, without someone coming up to him because of what he could offer them. They all wanted something. His life had taken him in a direction he hadn’t wanted to go and he wanted to reclaim some of that. His other companies were now in a position where they mostly ran themselves. As Bella said, he had good people that he could trust in charge up in London and he was increasingly taking more and more steps back.

When the charity had started to take off, he had deliberately decided to open the head office on Hope Island instead of London with smaller offices in a few other major cities. He’d wanted a new start and returning to the place where he had grown up had seemed like a good place to do it. He had such fond memories of the island and it would be the perfect place to settle down and maybe one day start a family. He knew part of that was to find someone to share that life with. And although he had been back and forth to London a lot over the last few months during the transition, which meant that he hadn’t yet met a lot of people on the island, among those he had met there was no one he’d felt such an affinity for as he had for Bella.

Would it be really wrong to start something with her?

Rocket ran full pelt back towards him and turned and dashed off to the top of the hill, her little black curly ears bouncing as she ran.

He shoved his hands in his pockets and followed her up the hill.

Carter, his ex-partner at BlazeStar, had had an affair with his assistant and everyone in the company had known about it. Jennie had been young and naïve and she’d bought everything that Carter fed her about him and his wife agreeing to split, that they lived apart during the week and that he only went home at weekends just to see the kids. None of which was true. The staff there had not been kind about Jennie, laying the blame for the affair entirely at her feet. Thankfully most of the comments about her had been made behind her back and she’d been spared their animosity, but when, inevitably, the affair was discovered by the wife, life had not been easy for Jennie and she had eventually left the company. And although both he and Bella were single, Isaac knew that office gossips would still have plenty to say on the matter and he wanted to protect Bella from that.

There was such a vulnerability to her. He’d seen that today when she’d been so hurt over his blasé comment about the kiss. And when he’d found her crying in her office, he’d had such an overwhelming urge to bundle her into his arms and hold her there forever.

No, he couldn’t let anything happen between them. They would be friends and he would be absolutely fine seeing her at work every day knowing that he couldn’t touch her or be with her. Absolutely fine.

He heard yapping up ahead and quickened his step. Rocket suddenly dashed past him followed by a bigger dog he instantly recognised as Alfie. Rocket turned and leapt up at Alfie, tugging on his ears before dashing back up the hill and nearly knocking Bella over as she emerged at the top of the hill. Alfie gave chase, his tongue lolling from his mouth.

Despite his resolve, Isaac couldn’t help the huge smile from spreading across his face when he saw her.

She stood there, her wild tangle of red hair blowing in the wind, a big smile on her own face as she waved at him.

After that incredible kiss in her office, he had managed to successfully avoid her for the rest of the day. He had actually started working on her Easter egg hunt game, telling himself he was doing it because he wanted to, and it was nothing to do with her. Throughout the day, he had noticed that his diary had been updated with several events over the course of the year, and he had to smile when he saw that one of them was indeed a zombie run in London later on in the summer. There was also going to be a funfair on Hope Island and he loved that she was bringing that back to the island again. He hadn’t commented though and his message inbox had stayed resolutely empty of messages from her. He had waited until he knew she had left before he went home himself just so he wouldn’t accidentally see her in the lift again.

Yes, he was coping absolutely fine with working alongside her. And here she was now. He was never going to be able to avoid seeing her on an island the size of Hope Island. Even if he could actively avoid her at work, he would always see her around.

He took the last few steps so he was standing in front of her; because of the hill she momentarily had the height advantage.

‘Your dog is out of control, Miss Roussel.’

She laughed and on this chilly, grey evening, she was like a ray of sunshine.

‘I think it’s your dog that’s out of control. Alfie was walking quite respectably by my side until your dog came up and tormented him.’

‘That’s quite ironic when I was quite happy in my little life until you came along to torture me.’

To his surprise she fell in at his side and slipped her hand into his. ‘I think you’re torturing yourself.’

He stared down at their entwined fingers. How could something so wrong feel so completely utterly right? But as she continued to walk up the hill by his side, he made no attempt to remove his hand from hers.

‘So tell me, how come you were homeless when you were younger?’

It was not something he ever really discussed with anyone but for some reason he had no issue telling Bella.

‘As I told you, my dad died when I was seven and for a long while it was just me and my mum. We moved to St Mary’s and then, when I was fifteen, we moved to Twickenham in London. Mum started dating this absolute asshole. He was lovely to me in front of my mum but an absolute git to me when she wasn’t around. So I ran away. I’m not sure where I thought I would go or what I would do for money and food. I ended up in the centre of London and as I was fifteen I found it impossible to get work. I ended up sleeping rough for four weeks before I was found by the police. It wasn’t like I was properly homeless, I had somewhere to go back to, but my pride stopped me from going back to my mum. And the weather at that time was unseasonably hot, so I never froze on the streets. But I was sort of adopted by a small group of homeless people who looked after me and I’ve never forgotten that.’

‘I can’t even imagine what that must have been like, living on the streets and not feeling like you had any other place to turn to. Did you go back to live with your mum after the police found you?’

‘Yes, she was absolutely distraught that I’d run away. She guessed it was something to do with Colin, her boyfriend, and she finished with him before I’d even been found. I felt like an ass for putting her through that.’

‘And you lived there in London ever since?’

‘Yes, well Mum moved to Australia with her new husband around five years ago, but until recently London was my home.’

‘Why did you come back here?’

He swept his arm out to encompass the sea that surrounded them on all sides, the curves of the emerald hills, the harbour with the little boats that looked like nothing more than toys from up here. Even with the darkening clouds it was an impressive sight.

Bella laughed. ‘It is pretty spectacular. I don’t think I could ever leave but I do sometimes wonder what it would be like to live in a big city. I’ve been to London a few times to see a show or to do the touristy stuff and the place scares me a little if I’m honest. Well actually a lot. People move so fast, heads down; no one talks to each other. They’re crammed into the underground trains like sardines in a can, there’s a constant stream of traffic, the buildings are so tall and it all just feels so—’

‘Claustrophobic. Yes, for me too. I yearned for the bright lights of a big city when I was growing up here and on St Mary’s but when I was there I couldn’t wait to get back. I missed the sea and I never realised how much until it was gone. But London does have its good side.’

Bella smiled as she looked up at him. ‘I bet it does, although I’ve never really appreciated it. What do you miss about London now you’re here?’

‘The food. You can get any food you want, Indian, Portuguese, Lebanese, Iranian, Italian, Australian, you name it, you can get it in London somewhere. I miss the entertainment, how you’d be walking down by the Thames and you’d see jugglers, fire breathers, a street artist drawing incredible landscapes on the floor with chalk. Everything is there, every culture, every walk of life, it’s a melting pot of every country in the world and I love that about London.’

‘I think I would love it too, but maybe just for a week or two.’

He laughed.

Thunder suddenly rumbled off out over the sea.

‘We’re going to get wet,’ he said.

‘Most of the storms don’t blow inland, they stay out there. And they take ages to build. I think we’ll be home by the time the rain starts.’

‘Your home or mine?’

She grinned. ‘I’ll be in mine, you’ll be in yours. We certainly don’t want a repeat of what happened the other night.’

He smiled. ‘No, we certainly don’t want that.’

‘So you live over there?’ Bella asked, pointing back in the direction they’d just come.

He pointed. ‘The little yellow house with the large chimney.’

‘That’s not where I pictured you living at all.’

‘Where did you picture me living?’

‘In one of those swanky penthouse suites in the apartments overlooking the harbour.’

‘Nice, but not really me.’

‘And a cute little farmhouse is?’

He shrugged. ‘It feels like home.’

‘So… just you and the crazy dog live there?’

He smiled at her not-so subtle digging. ‘Rocket,’ he gestured at the dog that was still chasing Alfie around the hills. ‘Yes, just me and her. I have a dog sitter who looks after Rocket for me if I’m out at meetings all day or sleeping on the sofa of a beautiful red-head but no wife, girlfriend, significant other, no children, no lodgers, if that’s what you’re asking.’

‘I kind of assumed there wasn’t anyone after the way you kissed me.’

He laughed in confusion. ‘I kissed you like I don’t have a wife?’

‘You kissed me like someone who hasn’t had sex in a while. Believe me, I should know.’

He smiled. She was so honest. And he loved that about her. ‘So the last guy you dated, was he the one that broke your heart at work?’

‘Ha. No. And Andrew never broke my heart, not even close. He did humiliate me at work. Told everyone what I was like in bed. But I wasn’t in love with him. At least I don’t think I was. I don’t think I’ve ever been in love actually.’

‘If you’d been in love, then you would know.’

‘Well in that case I’ve never been in love.’

Isaac thought about this for a moment. She was twenty-seven years old and she’d never been in love. That was slightly strange.

‘No teenage crushes, no childhood sweethearts, no crushes on sexy film stars that have bordered on the obsessive?’

Bella laughed. ‘Not really. I thought Orlando Bloom was pretty cute in Pirates of the Caribbean, but I can’t say I was ever in love with him. What about you? Ever been in love?’

‘Verity Forbes was my first.’

‘Your first? How many have there been?’

‘Five. Well, six technically if you count the twins.’

‘You were in love with twins?’

‘I couldn’t choose between them. Gaby used to let me catch her in every game of kiss chase. Grace never did but I loved her for that.’

Bella laughed. ‘Kiss chase? How old were you?’

‘Nine.’

‘And how old were you when you fell in love with Verity Forbes?’

‘Five. We were both fish monitors and we had to go and feed the fish outside the headteacher’s office every day. On the way back, we’d sneak into the cloakroom and kiss each other.’

‘At five?’ Her voice was high-pitched and incredulous.

‘Just a little peck on the lips.’

‘No wonder you’re so good at kissing, you’ve been practising for a lot longer than me.’

‘I thought she was marvellous. I gave her a chocolate heart on Valentine’s Day and she gave it to Billy Walker. She broke my heart.’

‘Oh you poor thing,’ Bella said, not sounding sympathetic at all. ‘Let me rephrase the question. Have you ever been in love since you turned eighteen?’

Isaac thought about this. There had been several women he had dated over the last fifteen years, some of them he had even dated for a few months. But there was not one that stood out in his mind, not one he had ever considered forever with, not one that had made him feel what he’d felt when he was kissing Bella.

Crap. That was a dangerous road to go down.

‘I don’t think so.’

‘A wise man once said to me: “If you’d been in love, then you would know.”’

He laughed. ‘Then no. Well maybe. Carly Beckett was pretty special. I dated her when I was at university. She was American so of course was super exotic for a small-town boy like myself. When she went back home, I was gutted.’

Light spots of rain splatted against their skin and he looked up at the slate grey clouds above them that were threatening to unleash their load.

‘What was special about her?’

He laughed awkwardly. ‘She was my first. You never forget your first.’

‘Oh.’

Bella was quiet for a moment and he wondered what was going on inside that head of hers.

‘I was pretty late on that side of things. All the other boys in my dorm had lost their virginity years before, or so they said. We all sat around one night and swapped stories of our first time. At that point I’d not even met Carly. I was mortified that I was the only virgin. I ended up making up some story about some beautiful red-head that was several years older than me and had taught me everything I needed to know. Looking back now, I imagine a lot of those boys made up their first-time stories too.’

‘A red-head?’

He eyed her wonderful red hair. ‘Yeah, it seemed like the kind of person I wanted my first time to be with. Wild, beautiful, rare.’

‘So Carly, she was a red-head?’

‘No, she was blonde.’

‘And she taught you everything you needed to know.’

She sounded jealous and he couldn’t help but smile. ‘I was her first too actually, so there wasn’t a lot of teaching.’

‘I bet you loved that. Isn’t that every man’s dream to sleep with a virgin?’

‘God no, I was terrified. You can never have a do-over on your first time and I wanted her to treasure it, to look back on it fondly. I knew she was going back to America and things would end between us but I didn’t want her to regret it. I didn’t want it to be a drunken shag in someone else’s bedroom at a party or a quick shag in the back of the car. She deserved more than that. I tried to make it special for her, even though I had no idea what I was doing myself. I lit candles, I brought her flowers, took her for dinner.’

She looked up at him and smiled. ‘You’re quite the gentleman really, aren’t you?’

‘Don’t tell anyone, you’ll ruin my reputation. So what about your first time? Was it memorable?’

She pulled a face. ‘Sadly memorable for all the wrong reasons. I was the drunken shag in someone else’s bedroom at a party cliché. I can’t even remember his last name. I was twenty-one so even later to that side of things than you were. I never wanted to let anyone get close to me so I pushed people away. Everyone at university was going out, getting drunk, sleeping with a different person each night, and there was me always going back to my room alone. I never really drank, didn’t like clubbing. I started to think there was something wrong with me. The other girls in the dorm began taking the piss so I started going out on dates when I’d have been much happier staying in my room reading a book. I’d been going out with Steve for a few weeks when we were invited to a party. He got raging drunk, took me upstairs and started kissing me and I thought let’s see what all the fuss was about. Sadly, he didn’t sell it for me. A few thrusts and then he fell asleep on top of me.’

His heart sank. ‘Oh Bella. That’s not how it should have been for you. I wish I had been your first time.’

She smiled up at him. ‘I wish you had too. In another life you could have been; had you stayed on the island, we’d have probably met, mixed in the same social circles, felt the same connection we do now. We’d probably have married, be living in your little yellow cottage by the sea and there would have been four screaming kids ruining your life round about now. Maybe it’s for the best that we didn’t.’

He looked out at the dark clouds churning and swirling over the sea. He could suddenly picture that life so vividly. Bella in his home. Bella in his bed. Bella pregnant with his child as she made cookies with the other children in his kitchen. He suddenly wanted that more than anything. He shook his head, pushing those random thoughts away. He’d clearly been watching too many cheesy Hallmark movies. He’d never really thought of his future like that. He’d thought that one day he would get married and have a child but he’d never imagined it in such a rose-tinted way before.

He turned back to her. Her hair was misted with the light rain in the air, tiny water droplets clinging to her long eyelashes and dusting her cheeks. He swallowed down the huge lump of emotion in his throat.

He quickly changed the subject from the scene of domestic bliss that was still playing in his head. ‘So please tell me that you’ve had better sexual experiences since then?’

Bella laughed. ‘Yes, not many, but a few lovely men who did indeed show me what I had been missing.’

Isaac pushed away the jealous thoughts of her being with other men.

Suddenly, the rain got harder.

Bella laughed, raising her face to the rain, but that laugh turned to a squeal as the rain began to come down with even more force, hammering down on top of them.

Still with his hand in hers, he ran towards the nearest tree, a towering oak that had probably been here before anyone else. He called for the dogs and they came running as he tugged Bella under the limited protection of the great boughs and pulled her in front of him.

Her little t-shirt was soaked through and she shivered against him, still giggling at getting caught in the rain.

‘Did your mum never teach you not to leave home without a jacket?’ Isaac said, shrugging out of his own. As soon as he said the words, he felt horribly guilty. Her mum had abandoned her when she was little. She had probably missed out on so much love and care from her life. ‘Sorry, that was insensitive.’

She smiled, reaching up to stroke his face. ‘Don’t be sorry. I have a brilliant mum who raised me and loved me even if she wasn’t my real mum. My aunt Lucy is a wonderful woman and, yes, she taught me the important life lesson of wearing a jacket which I obviously chose to ignore.’

He wrapped his jacket round her and she slipped her arms into the sleeves. It swamped her, her wet red curls cascading in waves down the front. He had never seen anyone look as beautiful as she did right then, cloaked in his jacket and looking up at him with her clover green eyes and wide smile.

He tugged the collar of the jacket closer together, pulling her into him at the same time.

The rain lashed down around them but there under the tree they were cocooned from the world. They were so close, her sweet coconut scent surrounding them both. The atmosphere changed between them, the world beyond the tree fading away.

Her eyes cast down to his lips for a second before she looked back up into his eyes. He ran his hands down her shoulders to her waist. They both knew what was going to happen next.

He bent his head down to hers, her eyes darkening with lust the only encouragement he needed.

‘I thought you said this wouldn’t happen again,’ Bella said, against his lips.

‘This doesn’t count, we’re not at work,’ he whispered as he kissed her.