Isaac watched Dougie sink yet another ball into the pocket of the pool table and glared at him, hoping that would be enough to stop Dougie’s marvellous winning streak.

Dougie just laughed off the scowl and lined up another shot. Isaac groaned as the yellow ball disappeared inside the pocket.

‘What’s wrong with you tonight? You normally play bad, but this is a new level of bad for you,’ Dougie said, as he lined up another shot. Thankfully the ball glanced off the edge of the pocket and he sat down next to Isaac and took a sip of beer.

‘Nothing’s wrong, just thinking about the future. I think things need to change. I want something different than what I have now.’

‘Does this new bright future include Bella?’ Dougie teased as Isaac got up and walked around the table.

‘I really hope so, but that’s not what I meant.’

‘Wait.’ The smile fell off Dougie’s face. ‘You’re really serious about Bella? I figured this was just a bit of fun for you.’

Isaac glanced up from his cue to look at Dougie. ‘Am I treading on some toes here, is there something between the two of you?’

‘No. Absolutely not. She’s family. Nothing has ever happened between us. I assure you there are no toes being trod on here. But I’ve never known you be serious about anyone before.’

‘Bella’s different.’

‘You’ve got that right.’

Isaac stood up, his arms folded across his chest. ‘What does that mean?’

Dougie was his friend, probably his only one, but if he said one bad word about Bella this would not end well for Dougie.

‘Whoa.’ Dougie obviously saw the look and understood what it meant. ‘I adore Bella, she’s one of my oldest friends. But she’s fragile. And I know that doesn’t come across with her – she’s feisty and has a hell of a temper on her when she gets mad – but underneath that prickly armour is this layer of finely spun glass. That glass was shattered a long time ago and I don’t think it will ever be fixed.’

‘I know all about her parents.’

‘Then you’ll know how badly that affected her. The kids round here were so cruel about it, mocking her for being so unlovable that even her parents dumped her. I know that had a massive impact on her too. Rome and I were like her bodyguards when we were growing up, surrounding her wherever we went, beating up anyone that dared to say anything, but she became so withdrawn. She pushed everyone away apart from us and Eden. I don’t think she ever really got over that. I stayed in contact with quite a few people here after I left. I know some of the guys she’s dated in the past. She never let them in. They said she was great fun but she was emotionally closed off. She pushes them away. She’s scared of love and I really don’t think this is going to end in the way you think it will.’

Isaac sighed. He knew how bruised Bella’s heart was but he had hoped he might be the one to be able to fix it. What if she never felt the same way he did? What if she always held him at arm’s length? Would it be enough for him to just have what they had now? But then he thought about it and he knew this was something different for her too.

‘What we have is special,’ Isaac said. ‘I think she’s falling for me too.’

Dougie looked even more horrified at this prospect. ‘If you are the lucky one to break down her barriers and she really does fall in love for the first time in her life, she will be devastated if it ends. Just be careful with her. I’d hate to have to beat the crap out of you for breaking her heart.’

Isaac laughed. ‘I promise that won’t be necessary.’

‘Phew. I don’t fancy my chances against you.’

Isaac resumed lining up his shot and watched with some satisfaction when his red ball disappeared into the pocket. ‘I wanted to talk to you actually about your new business. How’s it going?’

‘Good. Well I have more business than I can handle actually; I took a lot of clients with me when I left Poseidon Games. I thought it would be easy working for myself but now it looks like I might have to employ a team or at least take on a partner. Do you fancy it, Isaac? You were always a big gamer.’

Isaac took a shot at another ball but it bounced off the back cushion. ‘Actually, yes.’

Dougie stared at him. ‘I was kidding. Being a CEO of three companies not enough for you?’

‘It’s never been enough for me. I’ve never enjoyed my work for BlazeStar, or even SparkStar. My work for the Umbrella Foundation is at least more rewarding but I can’t say it’s enjoyable. I’ve been working on a game for Bella the last few days, a location-based augmented-reality game similar to Pokémon Go and I have loved it. I’ve forgotten how much I enjoy making games. You went on to live my dream, working for big gaming companies and now setting up your own gaming business. I went on to develop computer programs for big companies which made me a ton of money and made me bored as hell. Being with Bella has made me look at my life and what I want from it. I want to do more games. I’m already taking a giant step back from BlazeStar and SparkStar so I can focus on the Umbrella Foundation but I’m thinking I want to come away from the computer programming side altogether. Dawn and Matthew are doing a great job of managing the companies for me while I’m down here but I’m thinking of making them company directors. I’d still be a shareholder but the companies would be under their control. I want a new challenge and if you’re looking for a partner then I’d be very interested.’

Dougie stared at him for a moment. ‘I would love to work with you. It would be great to have someone with your skills and knowledge working on some of the projects. And if I did make the move back here, which is looking more and more likely, it would be great to work alongside you.’

‘But?’ Isaac could tell there was definitely a ‘but’ coming.

Dougie grinned at how easily Isaac had read him. He stood up and potted another ball without any kind of effort.

‘But, it has been my dream as far back as I can remember to own my own gaming company and now I’m finally doing it and I love it, but I’m just starting out and I want to see if I can make a success of it. I’m not ready to relinquish fifty percent of my company just yet.’

Isaac nodded. He could respect that. ‘How about twenty-five percent? It will take a while to completely hand over control of both Spark and Blaze and I’m committed to ensuring the Umbrella Foundation is funded from them for at least the next two years or until it is completely self-sufficient. I’m working hard to get them sponsorship and Bella is doing a great job with the fundraising so that might be sooner than two years but I certainly want to help them for as long as they need me. I wouldn’t be able to commit to working for you full time for a while yet. But once the handover of Blaze and Spark is taken care of, I could certainly commit to you for two days a week. You said you needed the help and I’d be happy to give it.’

‘Can your ego handle working for someone else?’

‘My ego can handle it fine,’ Isaac said.

Dougie grabbed his beer bottle and offered it up against Isaac’s. ‘Welcome aboard.’

Isaac grinned and chinked his bottle against Dougie’s. His working life was finally slotting together. He just needed his love life to work out now.

* * *

When Bella let herself in to Isaac’s hotel room later that night, Alfie and Rocket came over to greet her and she gave them fuss and attention before standing back up and looking around for Isaac. When she saw him she burst out laughing. He was lying on his side in the exact same position that she had laid in the night before, stark naked, clearly trying to be seductive. He had even gone so far as to have a rose between his teeth.

She wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes. ‘You look ridiculous.’

‘Does this not turn you on, baby?’ Isaac said, clearly trying not to laugh himself.

‘You look like something from an eighties porn film. Did I look that silly last night?’

‘You looked amazing. I’m quite affronted that this doesn’t do it for you.’

‘Ah, don’t be disappointed, I’ll still do you.’

‘I think that’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me,’ Isaac said, sitting up and wrapping a blanket round himself. ‘I’m glad you’re home actually, it was getting a bit chilly lying there naked.’

‘I’ve got the perfect thing to warm you up,’ Bella said, as she stripped off her own clothes.

When she was naked she sauntered over to him. He opened the blanket and she straddled him, before he enclosed her in the blanket again and hugged her close, kissing her forehead sweetly. She leaned her head against his shoulder and wrapped her arms around him.

They had progressed so quickly to this sweet, intimate stage in their relationship. She loved hugging him, holding him close. She’d never had this before with a man. He ran his fingers down her back but it wasn’t sexual at all. It was sweet and loving and he didn’t seem to want anything more than that.

She pulled back slightly to look at him. ‘Do you like hugging me, or do you do it because you know I like it?’

‘I love it. I can’t say I’ve ever been a big hugger, but since I’ve met you I have to say I can see the merits of it. It’s probably up there in my top five favourite things.’

She smiled. ‘Really?’

He nodded, brushing the hair back from her shoulders. ‘I mean making love to you is pretty high up there in that list too but hugging you is pretty special.’

She laughed; he was teasing her. ‘So if I was to say that tonight I didn’t want to make love, I just wanted to spend the night hugging, you’d be OK with that?’

‘Sure I would.’ His eyes shone with a mixture of amusement and sincerity. He cupped his hands round her neck, stroking her cheeks with his thumbs. ‘Just as long as I could hug you while I was buried inside you.’

Bella laughed. ‘That’s some kind of compromise.’

He ran his hands down her shoulders, skimming his thumbs over her breasts. She let out a little gasp. ‘And maybe I could hug you and touch you a little,’ Isaac said, his hands moving lower.

‘I think I’d be OK with that.’

He kissed her shoulder and then her breast, sliding his tongue across her nipple.

‘I’d definitely be OK with this,’ Bella said, her voice high with sudden need.

He grabbed a condom from the nearby table and slid it on. He lifted her hips slightly and slid carefully inside her.

‘Let’s see what else you’d be OK with,’ Isaac said.

As he layered gentle hot kisses down her throat to her collarbone, she thought she’d be OK with pretty much anything Isaac did to her.

* * *

Isaac woke the next day with Bella wrapped tightly in his arms, her head on his chest. It was Saturday so neither of them needed to work though he knew he would work on the egg hunt game before he handed it over to the team at SparkStar on Monday.

He glanced down and realised Bella was awake, staring out over the sea, her beautiful green eyes seemed very far away from here.

He was still half asleep but given the choice of going back to sleep and spending time with Bella, he knew which he wanted to do more.

He ran his hand through her hair and she blinked and looked up at him, flashing him that wonderful smile when she saw he was awake.

‘I need to go home today. I only brought a change of clothes for yesterday,’ Bella said.

Isaac nodded. ‘I need to pack ready for my trip to London tomorrow. And I need to find somewhere to store all this stuff I seemed to have accrued over the last few days. Claudia has been super-efficient making sure I have everything I might need delivered here but, without a home yet, I have nowhere to put all this stuff when I leave tomorrow.’

‘Have you not found anywhere to live yet?’

‘Claudia has found me this lovely little house down by the sea, but it won’t be ready until next week.’

‘Why don’t you stay at mine tonight, bring all this stuff with you and I’ll keep it there until you come back.’

‘If you’re sure? I probably won’t be back for two weeks.’

Bella’s face fell. ‘Wait, two weeks? I thought it was only a week?’

‘I have some stuff I need to take care of.’

‘But you’ll miss the funfair next weekend.’

‘I know, but as you quite rightly pointed out, I hired you to organise the fundraising events. I don’t need to be at every event when you are more than capable of representing the charity for me.’

He watched the disappointment wash across her face.

‘If you want help I can make sure there are other people from the charity there to help you.’

‘No, it’s not that. I can take care of it and Roger and Elsie have said they’ll come down and help too. The funfair will pretty much take care of itself; the company have done this many times before. I just thought it would be fun if we could go together. It’s OK, I understand. You have more important things to do.’

He frowned. ‘You’re important to me. I’m just trying to finish up my life in London properly so I can start my life here with you.’

That hadn’t come out right. If he had been more awake he would have said that differently.

Bella picked up on it straight away, panic flaring in her eyes. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I’m resigning as CEO of my technology companies. I’ll still be a shareholder but I have a brother and sister team that will take over as company directors. It’ll mean that my involvement with those companies will be reduced to next to nothing and I can stop travelling backwards and forwards to London all the time. Which will mean I have more time to spend with you.’

‘You’re doing all that for me?’

He recognised fear in her voice. What was the right answer here? ‘No, well, partly for you, mostly for me.’

‘We’ve known each other a week, you can’t start giving up everything for me. You love London.’

‘I love this place more. That part of my life is over now. I’ve worked at a job which I’ve hated for the last ten years and the worst thing was it was my company. I couldn’t just leave. But being with you over the last few days has made me reassess what I want in my life.’

Bella sat up, her eyes wide, and shook her head. ‘This thing between us, it’s been fun and I love spending time with you but you’re suddenly making it sound a lot more serious than it is. You can’t change your whole future, your whole life, because of one incredible week together. What happens when it ends?’

When? Not if but when it ends. That was a worrying distinction. In her mind she was expecting it to end. She didn’t see a future for them. It was too soon to start thinking about marriage and children, he knew that. It was way too soon to even think about living together, even though he had no home and they had spent every spare second in each other’s company since they’d met. But he did see a future with her and she was panicking because he was talking about that.

He sat up determined to diffuse the situation. There was no way he wanted to scare her off when she was only just getting used to the idea of being with him.

He rested his hands on her shoulders, sensing she was in flight mode. ‘Bella, I’m not doing this for you. I’m not changing my whole life because of you. This has been on the cards for a very long time. I started to plan my move to Hope Island many months ago before I’d even met you. I’ve been taking more and more steps back from Blaze and Spark partly because I wanted to focus on the charity for a while and partly because I wanted to do something else but I still held back from leaving them completely. They’re my companies, I built them from the ground up, and I’m proud of what I’ve achieved even if I don’t particularly enjoy it. It was what you said the other day that made me think that things in my life needed to change. You said that I’m doing something wrong if I haven’t got time to have fun. And that stuck with me. What’s the point of having all this money if I never have time to enjoy it? Do I really want to get to the end of my life and look back on it and say, “Yes I earned a hundred million pounds but I was bored out of my head my entire working life”? You said I need to delegate more. That I need to have people to take charge so I can do more things I enjoy, like making your game. And I do have excellent people in charge of my companies while I’m here and while I’m working with the charity, so why not let them take charge all the time? I have loved making your game over the last few days and I’d forgotten how much. I want to do more of that.’

He tucked a curl of red hair behind her ear. ‘When I said that being with you has made me reassess what I want in my life, I meant that what you said hit home for me. You inspire me to want more. I am doing this for me and if this thing between us ends tomorrow I would still be resigning as CEO of Blaze and Spark. I would still be moving here for good. This is not me proposing to you or buying a seven-bedroom house for you and our six kids. I am simply trying to build a better life for myself and I hope, in time, that you will want to be a part of that life, but if not, then that doesn’t change any of my plans.’

He could see his words had calmed her down. ‘OK.’

‘OK?’

‘Yes, sorry. I just didn’t want you to regret being with me.’

‘I could never regret that. If this ends between us, I would never regret this wonderful time we’ve spent together.’

‘I’d never regret it too.’

‘Good. Now let’s stop talking about the end of our relationship. I’m having way too much fun with you to even think about letting you go.’

She smiled and he leaned forward and kissed her. She hesitated for a moment then wrapped her hands round the back of his neck and kissed him back.

He wasn’t going to push any more now but it worried him that she didn’t see a future for them. Was this really just a bit of fun for her? Because if it was, then he needed to get out soon before he fell further in love with her.