Bella’s cheeks flamed red and hot, sweat prickling down the back of her neck. ‘Oh god no, did they hear me say I was touching my breasts?’

‘Yes, I think everyone in the conference room heard you.’

‘Everyone?’ she squeaked. ‘How many is everyone?’

‘Er, I think there’s twenty of us in here.’

‘No! Oh god no, I’m so sorry. I’m not even touching my breasts, I’m sitting here reading my emails and eating an orange. I can’t believe I told a room full of twenty people that I was touching my breasts.’

She wanted to curl up and die. She wanted a great big volcano to suddenly erupt off the coast of Hope Island and completely obliterate her from the surface of the earth. She was going to get the sack for this. It was all well and good that people knew she and Isaac were dating at work as long as it didn’t interfere with their jobs or they weren’t rubbing it in people’s faces. Telling a conference room of twenty people that she was sitting naked at her desk, touching her breasts as she thought of her boss, was about as in your face as it could possibly get.

She felt sick.

How was she supposed to come back from this?

‘Tell them I’m your wife,’ Bella blurted out. ‘It looks better if I’m your wife rather than just some random woman you’re shagging at work.’

There was silence from Isaac. Was he angry? Of course he was. This was a huge sponsorship opportunity for him and she had just ruined that.

In the background, she could suddenly hear laughter. It was a man but other people were laughing too.

‘Bella, I’m going to put you back on speakerphone,’ Isaac said.

She quickly took a drink of water, trying to get moisture back into her mouth. What was she going to say?

Should she just launch straight into her spiel and ignore the huge elephant in the room, just pretend that she hadn’t been talking about touching her breasts a few minutes before? Or should she make some reference to it, try to explain it away?

‘Well,’ the man said, laughing. ‘I’ve been to many of these sponsorship meetings and I’ve never had a company go to these lengths to get us on board.’

They found it funny. It was going to be OK. She should make some joke about it and clear the air.

‘Well we’re committed to getting your name out there at every event in any way we can,’ Bella said. ‘Even if that means tattooing your logo on my breasts.’

There was silence. Idiot. She’d made the situation ten times worse. She should have just apologised and skated over it.

But then laughter erupted in the room again and it went on for some time. Finally it quietened down.

‘Let me introduce Bella properly,’ Isaac said, and it was evident he was laughing too. ‘Bella is our fundraising events manager at the Umbrella Foundation and she is also my fiancée. We always joke with each other like this whenever I’m away from home. I can assure you that Bella is not naked and is currently sitting in a communal office with around thirty other people nearby so definitely not touching her breasts.’

‘It’s true,’ Bella said. ‘I’ve just eaten an egg and cress sandwich. There’s nothing sexy about that. I’m so sorry. I was expecting a call from my fiancé at two and I wasn’t expecting to talk to you guys until four and when I heard Isaac’s voice, I thought I would tease him as I always do. This is not standard practice for our charity, I can assure you.’

‘It’s OK, Bella,’ the man said. ‘Best laugh I’ve had in a long time.’

‘Bella, this is Graham Miller, he’s in charge of sponsorship at Oak and Acorn,’ Isaac explained. ‘Why don’t you tell him how his sponsorship would be integrated into our events?’

She could do this. They’d just explained it away, cleared the air. Now it was time to be professional. She could curl up with embarrassment later.

‘Do you have the PowerPoint to hand, Isaac?’

‘Yes it’s up on the whiteboard as we speak. Can you talk us through the slides?’

Bella quickly loaded the PowerPoint on her own computer. She started to launch into her presentation and knew that she would never ever live this down.

* * *

Isaac got in the back of his car and Marcus, his driver, pulled out into the traffic to take Isaac back to the hotel. It had been a busy day with several meetings but lots of good things had come out of it. Graham from Oak and Acorn had been very impressed with what Bella had come up with despite the fact that the meeting had started in such a strange way. Bella was charming and proficient and she had soon smoothed out the mistake. It had all but been forgotten by the time they got to the end of the meeting, though he knew it would be a long time before Bella forgot it.

He took his phone from his jacket and called her. She should have left work by now, though he wasn’t sure if she’d be at home.

It rang once before she answered.

‘I hate you, Isaac Scott,’ Bella answered.

He burst out laughing. ‘It’s not my fault.’

‘It so is your fault. You said you’d ring at two and you wanted me to think about how I wanted you to touch me.’

‘Bella, you’re on speakerphone,’ Isaac teased.

‘WHAT?!’ Bella squealed.

‘I’m kidding, I promise, I’m kidding. I’m sitting in the back of the car alone and no one can hear you but me.’

‘I hate you.’

He laughed. ‘No, you don’t, you love me really.’

‘We’re never having phone sex again.’

‘Why? You were so good at it.’

‘Shut up. I was not. I couldn’t be sexy if I tried.’

He smiled. ‘Believe me, you don’t have to try.’

‘Still never going to happen. While we’re at it, we’re never having proper sex again. That’s your punishment for getting me into trouble like that.’

‘I think that’s called cutting your nose off to spite your face.’

Bella laughed. ‘What? I won’t miss the sex. Not at all. Whereas you’ll be begging me for it as soon as you come back.’

‘I bet you’ll instigate sex before I do. You’re insatiable,’ Isaac said.

‘How much do you want to bet?’

Isaac looked out the window as they drove past a chocolate shop. ‘An Easter egg.’

‘OK.’

‘If you instigate sex first, you have to buy me a giant Yorkie egg.’

Bella laughed. ‘OK and if you instigate sex first you have to buy me a giant Crunchie one.’

‘I’ll agree to those terms. And remind me, where do the Godiva chocolate-covered strawberries come in?’

‘Those are separate. You have to buy me those to win my love, but the price has just gone up to two boxes because of today.’

‘That seems fair.’

The noise on the other end of the line changed and he got the sense that she had just gone indoors.

‘Where are you, Bella?’

‘Just got in from walking the dogs. I’m going to have dinner then probably go straight to bed. Being humiliated has taken its toll on me. What do you have planned for tonight?’

‘Dinner and bed too. Nothing exciting.’

‘Alone?’

He frowned. ‘Bella, I’m not going to bed with anyone else. What kind of asshole do you think I am? I know this is only a bit of fun for you, but regardless how you want to categorise it, I’m not going to be sleeping with anyone else behind your back. And I hope you won’t too.’

There was a silence from Bella. ‘I meant, are you having dinner alone, or would you be having dinner with people from work or Claudia? I didn’t think for one minute that you are up in London screwing around behind my back. I trust you.’

Isaac cringed. ‘Sorry.’

‘It’s OK. And… I don’t think this is just a bit of fun.’

He swallowed. ‘You don’t?’

‘No. It’s something more, we both know that.’

The car pulled up outside his hotel but he didn’t get out.

‘How much more?’

Bella didn’t answer.

‘How much more, Bella?’ he asked softly.

‘I like you.’

He smiled, this was like trying to get blood from a stone. ‘OK.’

‘I like you a bit more than like.’

‘I’ll take that,’ Isaac said.

‘It doesn’t mean I love you,’ Bella said, backtracking.

‘I know.’

‘Just that I care about you, I’m fond of you. That’s it.’

‘I adore you, Bella.’

‘Despite the fact that I completely embarrassed you today at work.’

‘Because of it. Because every single thing about you makes me adore you even more.’

‘I adore you too,’ Bella said, so quietly he barely heard it.

‘I so wish I was there to kiss you right now.’

‘Me too. If I wasn’t working at the funfair this weekend, I’d come up to London to see you.’

‘You don’t like London, it scares you.’

‘I know, but I’d brave it to see you.’

Isaac glanced out of the window and could see the doorman was getting irate about having their car parked outside when other cars were trying to unload their guests too. The doorman was gesturing to Marcus to move on. Marcus was unmoved by the angry glares.

‘Bella, I’d better go, but I’ll call you later. And I need to go shopping tomorrow to see if I can find a giant Crunchie egg.’

Bella laughed loudly. ‘You’re caving already.’

‘You bet I am.’

He said his goodbyes and hung up. Well that was definitely progress. He wouldn’t push for anything more from her and he certainly wouldn’t tell her he’d already fallen in love with her. She wasn’t ready to hear it yet. But this conversation had given him hope that she would get there eventually.

* * *

Bella plonked herself in the booth at Rosa’s the following night, sitting down opposite Rome and Dougie.

It had been another full-on day at work and she was exhausted. She would have quite liked to have gone home and gone to bed, but it was Eden’s birthday and she wouldn’t miss that for the world. She had spoken to Isaac several times that day, some of it about the egg hunt game, but most of it was just lovely little chats in between his meetings. No more phone sex though, she was not risking that again.

‘You look happy,’ Rome noted as he popped an olive in his mouth.

‘I am happy,’ Bella said. ‘Things are going well at work, people seem nice, I love my job, the plans for the upcoming funfair are all going smoothly. Life is good.’

‘And the fact that you’re shagging the boss might have something to do with that huge smile you were wearing when you came in here,’ Dougie said and she playfully smacked his hand away from the last slice of cheesy garlic bread.

Rome choked on his drink. ‘Do you mind, that’s my sister you’re talking about. I don’t need those images in my head.’

‘That might be a big reason why I’m smiling, yes,’ Bella said.

‘So it’s true?’ Rome’s eyebrows knitted together.

‘Yes, and you were going to trust my judgement on this, remember.’

Rome visibly tried to force his frown away and failed. ‘I’m just not sure it’s a good idea.’

‘It’s OK, I already gave him the big brother warning,’ Dougie said. ‘Told him if he hurts her, I’ll have to beat him up.’

‘Good, well at least he knows where he stands,’ Rome said, seriously.

Bella stared at them. ‘Are you kidding? We’re not in school any more. You don’t get to beat up people that are mean to me.’

‘Don’t see why not,’ Rome said.

‘Look, this is the last time we’re going to speak about this, whether it’s the right thing to do or not is down to me to decide, not anyone else. I am happier right now than I have ever been in my entire life and that’s all down to Isaac. If it ends, then it ends. Yes, I’ll be gutted but I would never regret this time with him. I adore him and, quite frankly, he’s the best thing that has ever happened to me. I’d really like it if you were happy for me instead of threatening to beat him up if he puts a foot wrong.’

Rome stared at her. ‘This is something serious for you, isn’t it?’

‘Yes I think it is.’

‘He said the same about you,’ Dougie said, softly. ‘He’s a good man, Rome. I mean sure he’s had his fair share of girlfriends, haven’t we all. But you know I’d never let some asshole go out with her.’

Rome nodded. ‘I am happy for you, Bella. If he makes you this happy then I promise I’ll say no more about it.’

Bella was saved from any more overprotective words of wisdom by the arrival of Eden and Freya.

Dougie immediately got up and hugged Eden, his arms wrapped tightly around her. Eden clearly couldn’t decide on an appropriate place to put her hands, so she opted for a quick pat on the back.

‘Happy birthday, buddy,’ Dougie said and then held her at arm’s length. ‘You look amazing.’

She did too, she was wearing a beautiful deep blue dress, which had tiny flowers and beads sewed around the top.

‘This is Freya’s present for me. She always has wonderful taste in clothes,’ Eden said.

Dougie tugged her down next to him in the booth before she had any ideas about sitting somewhere else. It was the strangest thing to watch her sister be equally elated at being in such close contact with Dougie and utterly miserable at the same time.

Wanting to distract her from her torment, Bella slid Eden’s present across the table. ‘Happy birthday.’

Eden smiled gratefully. ‘Thank you.’

She tore open the wrapping paper to reveal a thick book, an illustrated collection of fairy tales. Bella had seen it in a second-hand book store and fallen in love with the beautiful pictures and gold-edged pages. Eden was a massive fan of fairy tales and Bella knew she would appreciate it.

‘Oh wow, this is beautiful, thank you so much,’ Eden gushed, carefully flicking through the pages. ‘I love it.’

‘Open mine next,’ Dougie said, sliding her a tiny square present.

Eden ripped open the paper and stared at the little black velvet box before steeling herself to open it. They all knew it wasn’t a diamond ring, but Bella knew there was a tiny part of Eden that kind of hoped it would be.

Inside, nestled against the velvet, was a crystal star necklace.

‘Oh it’s lovely, thank you,’ Eden said, touching the sparkly surface.

‘It’s for all those wishes you used to make as a child. You’d wish on the first star you’d see each night, you’d wish on a falling star, you’d throw pennies into a well and make a wish, and I thought that perhaps this would give you one place to store all your wishes, until they came true. Instead of waiting for the stars to shine, you can wish on this at any time.’

‘This is very sweet,’ Eden said, sadly.

Dougie looked at her in confusion.

‘I just… don’t believe in wishes any more.’

‘Why not?’

Eden shrugged. ‘I learned a long time ago that wishes don’t come true.’

‘Some wishes take a little longer than others to come true,’ Dougie said.

‘I had one wish growing up; every time I wished upon a star or on the candles on my cake, it was always the same wish. It wasn’t even something ridiculous either, I never wished for a pony or a castle in the sky or a vault full of gold coins and fancy jewels. It was quite a simple wish really and it never came true. Made me realise that no matter how much you want something, doesn’t mean you’ll get it.’

Dougie stared at her and no one said anything for a moment.

‘It’s a beautiful necklace though.’ Eden forced a smile on her face as she clipped the star round her neck. ‘Thank you.’

Rome leaned round Dougie, trying to diffuse the tension. ‘Did Dougie tell you that he’s moving back to Hope Island?’

Eden looked at Dougie. ‘Are you?’

‘For a year or two. See how it works out. I love New York, but I’ve always considered this place my home. Now I own my own company I can work anywhere in the world. I have a lot of clients in America and I’m not sure how it will work out because of the time zones but Isaac is going to come and work with me too, so it kind of makes sense to move here. I thought I’d give it a try.’

Eden smiled. ‘It’ll be good to have you home.’

Rome raised his bottle of beer. ‘Maybe this really will be the year of new beginnings for all of us.’ He looked at Bella and smiled.

They all grabbed their glasses and raised them in the air. ‘To new beginnings.’

* * *

Bella collapsed into bed on Friday night, barely able to keep her eyes open. It had been non-stop all week and especially over the last few days as the funfair had arrived and started setting up for the grand opening tomorrow. Local radio stations on Hope Island and the other Scilly Isles had been advertising it all week. There were posters in every shop in town and everywhere she went people were talking about it. She only hoped that people would come.

She looked down at Isaac’s t-shirt she was wearing. She hadn’t spoken to Isaac since lunch, which was a bit strange. Normally he would call her as he left the office and then call her again to say goodnight. It was weird how quickly they had fallen into this routine, and how much she missed it when he didn’t call.

Bella switched off her lamp and closed her eyes, her mind drifted, and she soon fell asleep.

A noise stirred her from her sleep a few hours later and she opened one eye, not sure if the noise had come from outside the house or if the noise was Alfie or Rocket outside her bedroom door.

She heard a shuffling again and this time she knew it was inside her bedroom. She sat bolt upright in bed and saw a shadow move at the side of her bed.

She leapt out of bed the other side from the shadow, grabbed the nearest thing to hand, which happened to be an iron, and slammed the bedroom light on.

Isaac was standing there, his shirt undone, looking tired and deliciously sexy.

Her heart soared. He was here in her bedroom. He had come home. But he’d never said he was coming, she wasn’t expecting him until the end of the following week.

Suddenly it didn’t matter. She dropped the iron and leapt up onto the bed and threw herself into his open arms, wrapping her arms and legs around him and kissing him hard. He kissed her back, holding her tight against him, his tongue inside her mouth as he tasted her, devoured her as if he hadn’t eaten for a month. His hands were everywhere, trying to touch her in every place at once. She was wide awake now, suddenly wanting his body against hers. The kiss was so urgent, so needful that it quickly escalated into something more.

He tore his mouth from hers. ‘Wall or bed?’

‘Wall.’

He turned and pinned her against the wall with his weight. ‘Good choice.’

He kissed her again as she wrestled his shirt off his shoulders.

‘Nice t-shirt,’ he said, as he pulled it over her head then kissed her neck, his mouth travelling down to her breasts where his tongue licked against her flesh.

He yanked a condom from his jeans pocket, and then kicked his jeans off and a frustrating few seconds later he was buried deep inside her. He let out a groan that was pure relief. She clung to him, feeling the strength in the muscles across his back. His hands held her tight in the exact position that ensured that every thrust hit that sweet spot inside her. His mouth was on hers kissing her so hard she could barely breathe. He layered kisses across her shoulders and curved himself round her as his mouth travelled south. She arched against him and he placed a lingering kiss exactly where her heart was pounding furiously against her chest. It was this sweet gesture in the midst of all this urgent need that sent her tumbling over the edge, crying out his name as he quickly followed.

They clung to each other for a few minutes after, neither of them able to speak or move. Her heart was thundering against her chest and she could feel that Isaac’s was doing the same.

Eventually he moved, with her still wrapped round him, and carried her back to the bed, laying her down on the cool sheets. He quickly dealt with the condom and then climbed into bed next to her. Immediately he started kissing her again, but it was much slower this time, the urgency was over, his hands wandering over her body in a tender caress. She stroked her hands round the back of his neck, stroking down his arms and shoulders. He kissed her until every bone in her body had melted into his and only then did he stop, but only long enough to grab another condom from her drawer. He slid it on and captured her mouth with his as he moved carefully inside her. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and finally he drew breath to look at her.

‘Hi.’

She stroked a damp curl from his forehead. ‘Hello.’

‘I take it you’re pleased to see me,’ he said.

‘I could say the same about you.’

‘I bought you a Crunchie egg. I admit defeat.’

She giggled, which did wonderful things to her body in the place they were connected. ‘I bought you a Yorkie egg too. So let’s call this one a draw.’

He grinned and kissed her softly and briefly, moving slowly against her.

‘I even bought you Godiva chocolate-covered strawberries.’

She smiled, feeling her heart swell inside her chest for him. ‘You know what that means?’

‘I’m hoping it’ll mean that you’ll declare your undying love for me.’

‘It means, I’ll take you to the fair tomorrow and win you a giant teddy at the coconut shy.’

He laughed. ‘I only came back for that. Well that and your amazing hugs.’

He gathered her against him, one arm round her back and one hand round her bum, bringing him deeper inside her.

‘You’re pretty good at this hugging malarkey yourself,’ Bella said, her voice high with need as her climax started building inside her with every gentle thrust.

‘I’ll hug you forever if you let me, Bella Roussel.’

She looked up into his loving eyes and almost every fear slipped away.

‘I might just let you do that, Isaac Scott,’ Bella said and he smiled and kissed her.