Bella stormed up the street, anger and hate boiling through her veins. He’d made a fool out of her. She had trusted him, she had let him into her home and she had opened her heart to him. She had told him everything, from her parents abandoning her to her childhood dreams, and in return he had lied to her. It had all been part of a test.

She’d seen him naked and – god – he had seen her naked too. Her cheeks were burning with shame.

As the kids who had hassled Zach… Isaac … the night before, had said, was she really that desperate for company and for love that she would let the first person who showed her any interest sleep with her?

No, there had been a connection there; that was what she had fallen for. She shook her head. No, she had absolutely not fallen for the asshole that was Isaac Scott.

‘Bella, wait.’

His voice from behind her made the anger bubble over into a furious rage and she rounded on him, trying to hit everywhere she could reach but he captured her hands and held her close.

‘I’m sorry, listen—’

‘Get your hands off me. If you don’t let me go in five seconds I will slap a sexual harassment lawsuit on you and your company so fast you won’t know what hit you.’

‘Bella, please—’

‘Four.’

‘Let me explain—’

‘Three.’

He let her go and she stormed away from him again. He caught up with her, snagging her arm, but she flinched away from him.

‘You can stick your job, I don’t want it,’ Bella said, angry that tears had filled her eyes. God her head was pounding, her feet were killing her in these stupid shoes and after all the running, she just wanted to sit down and have five minutes to catch her breath and now this. This job had been perfect for her in every way and now it was tainted by the cretin that she had let into her home.

‘I’m sorry. I really am. This charity is so important to me and I’ve always tested the potential employees like this. I never saw anything wrong with doing it before. Until I met you.’

‘I shared my last bit of porridge with you. You saw I had no food and you took my last meal.’

‘I know, I felt bad about that.’

She stared at him in shock. He felt bad about it? Was that all he had to say?

She stepped closer to him and jabbed a finger into his chest.

‘Less than twenty-four hours ago, you had your hands on my breasts, your fingers between my thighs,’ she swallowed down the shame, tears burning the back of her throat. ‘And I let you, I let you touch me because… because I thought that what we had was real, and genuine, and none of it was.’

‘The kiss was real, Bella, I promise you that.’

‘Is that how you test all your future employees, see if they will go to bed with you? I couldn’t help but notice how many beautiful women were on your roll call of candidates in there. Is that how you operate? Employ people that you can sleep with any time you want? And then what? If I sleep with you I’ll get promotions and bonuses? Well if that’s part of the job offer you can stick the job where the sun don’t shine.’

‘I can assure you that nothing has ever happened between me and my employees.’

‘Of course you’d say that. You’ve probably slept with most of them. Everyone speaks so highly of you but it’s all a lie, isn’t it? You sleazy, disgusting—’

‘Why do you think people speak so highly of me and my companies? Why do you think so many people want to work for me? Why do you think I had over fifty people apply for this job on a tiny island on the furthest reaches of Cornwall? My companies have an excellent reputation because of the people that work there – and that includes me. If I was sleeping with all my staff, there would be rumours, allegations, complaints against me and you won’t find a single one, either online or if you speak to any member of my team. Don’t mix business and pleasure is the one rule I always stick to and I know with you it was definitely more about pleasure, but believe me when I say you are the only exception to that rule. If you were to take the job it would be strictly professional between us.’

‘Oh I can assure you of that too because if you ever touch me again, you will lose your hand.’ She shook her head and took a step away from him. ‘After what happened with my last job, I swore to myself that I wouldn’t trust people so easily. But yesterday afternoon, over lunch with my brother and sister, I promised myself that I wouldn’t guard my heart so fiercely, that I would take risks and if there was a chance of love then I would take it. What a completely gullible idiot I am.’

He had the good grace to look embarrassed and she walked away.

‘Bella, please.’ Isaac caught up with her. ‘I know what I did was wrong and I wanted to tell you the truth, but… Every woman I meet looks at me with pound signs in their eyes. For a while I got to be someone else, someone you talked to without any ulterior motive. It’s been a long time since I’ve had such a genuine conversation with someone. You had no idea who I was and I enjoyed being Zach. We were getting on so well and I was really enjoying your company. I’ve never had that connection with anyone before. I didn’t want to break that spell between us. Last night I honestly came over to tell you the truth but then I selfishly decided it would be best not to.’

‘It would be best not to? You thought you’d just let me carry on pouring out my heart to you without once offering me an ounce of truth in return?’

‘I want you for this job. You have so much passion for it. You are experienced and you really care. I have never met anyone as wonderful as you. This charity is close to my heart and it’s so important for me that I get the right person for this job and I know that person is you. This job was made for you and I want you here working for me.’

She stopped and stared at him. If she took the job, how often would she see Isaac Scott anyway? His other companies were in London, he’d be away a lot. As fundraising events manager she’d probably have very little to do with the CEO of the charity. God she wanted this job. Not just for the money but because she was perfect for it. Isaac Scott was a complete and utter arsehole but she wasn’t going to let him spoil this for her.

‘Come on Bella, don’t make me beg.’

She smiled triumphantly. Time for a little payback. ‘No, I’m going to make you beg for it.’

His eyes widened and then he cleared his throat. ‘Please Bella, I beg you—’

‘No, on your knees.’

‘You’re kidding.’

Bella walked off, wondering just how badly he wanted her. He had humiliated her and now it was his turn.

‘Bella, wait!’

She turned round to see Isaac getting down onto his knees. The floor was damp from the light rain they’d had the night before and she got some satisfaction from knowing when he got up he’d have damp patches on his knees. ‘Bella, I’m begging you, please will you come in for the interview.’

She walked back towards him. ‘You’ll get me some water, some paracetamols, some mints and a hair tie.’

He stood back up, nodding at the conditions.

‘And you’ll explain to the rest of the panel why I’m dressed like an eighties reject and why I look like the bride of Frankenstein’s monster.’

‘Yes of course.’

His eyes went to the cut on her head and he reached out to sweep her hair away from it but she slapped his hand away. ‘And you’ll never touch me again.’

She saw the brief flash of disappointment cross his face before he nodded again.

‘Then I’ll come for the interview. Though I’m still not sure if I’ll accept the job.’ She stormed past him. ‘And there better be some bloody pastries left by the time I get there.’

‘I’ll personally go and get some more if there isn’t.’

Bella suppressed her smirk and walked back into the building.

* * *

Isaac rested his head against the desk for a moment and banged it a few times as he groaned, ‘They’re all idiots.’ They had interviewed seven applicants so far and none reached his high standards. He was trying to decide if that was because none was Bella or just because they really were all idiots.

He sat up and watched Madge toss another application form into the bin which for dramatic purposes worked, but he knew he’d have to fish the application forms out of the bin later to give to Claudia so she could contact the unlucky applicants and let them know they had been unsuccessful.

‘They aren’t all bad,’ Eric said. ‘That Charlotte seemed to have her wits about her.’

Isaac looked at Eric in surprise. The guy was a dick. As HR manager, he seemed to do a good job in dealing with any staff issues, training and staff development. People were happy working for the charity, not just in this office but in the other three offices around the UK, and he knew Eric had a huge part to play in that. But his recruitment abilities were shocking, which was why Isaac had resorted to testing new employees in his unorthodox way. Several people had secured jobs with the charity just so they could get to Isaac and his other companies and he also strongly suspected that several of the girls who had been employed by Eric in the past had got in on looks alone.

Charlotte was beautiful, there was no denying that. But she lacked any kind of real events management skills and the experience she had referred to in her application had turned out to mean she had arranged a sale of her knitted stuffed animals and a sponsored walk in her last job, but nothing on a bigger scale. She had failed to answer many of the questions coherently and, although she seemed very nice, she was clearly on another planet, one that probably had fluffy puppies gambolling through flowers on a daily basis.

‘The girl had candyfloss for brains,’ Madge said, succinctly.

‘And when I’ve asked them what plans they have for fundraising events for the charity, every single one of them said cake sales,’ Isaac said, with some annoyance.

‘That’s not true,’ Madge said, dryly. ‘Angela suggested a coffee morning where they would sell tea, coffee and cakes.’

Isaac smirked and nodded to concede that. He liked Madge. He had no idea how old she was as she always looked ultra-smart and glamorous but he suspected she should have retired a long time ago.

‘And Matthew suggested a sponsored dog walk and a cake sale,’ Madge said, throwing another application form in the bin.

While Eric would employ anyone pretty if it meant he could go to lunch early, Madge was at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, always finding fault in everyone. She did a lot of the admin for the charity but somehow she always seemed to be involved in the recruitment process. Isaac didn’t dare say no to her but not a lot of people would meet her impossibly high standards.

‘Who’s next?’ Madge said.

‘Bella Roussel,’ Isaac said.

Eric groaned. ‘How on earth did she get selected for the interview process? I rejected her application myself.’

‘And why was that?’ Isaac said as he imagined picking up the thick pile of application forms, rolling them up into some kind of baton and smacking Eric round the face with them.

‘All that business with her charity embezzling funds. That’s not the kind of person we want working for us.’

‘Firstly, Magic Wishes was not her charity, she merely worked for them. She was investigated and cleared of all charges. Secondly, we are a charity that believes in second chances, that’s what we promote with the homeless people we work with. As you know, it’s not just about giving them food and clothes but about giving them work and a second chance in life. We don’t judge them on the life they led before but the people they are now, so we should have that same ethos with our own staff and not be judgemental about stuff that happened to her in the past. Her application was outstanding and I decided to judge her on that. Thirdly, having spent time with her when I was in disguise this weekend, I have absolutely no doubt that she is telling the truth when she says that she didn’t know about or have anything to do with the embezzlement. She is a remarkable woman and I think she would be perfect for this job.’

‘You’ve already made your mind up?’ Madge sniffed her disapproval.

‘No,’ Isaac lied. ‘I want to see her in this interview and compare her fairly to the other applicants and I will make my decision at the end of the day, but yes, from what I’ve seen so far, I’m impressed. Now last night while I was in disguise, there were some kids that started giving me a hard time and Bella came to my defence, which resulted in her head-butting a wall.’

Madge gasped. ‘They attacked her?’

‘No, she grabbed the bag they were trying to take from me and when they let it go she went flying. She was in hospital last night in St Mary’s and she didn’t have time to go home and change before the interview so I believe she ended up trying to get something smart from the charity shop near the harbour.’

‘Oh no, not that animal charity shop? There’s nothing in there from this century and probably not anything from the last century either. What on earth did she find that was suitable to wear in there?’ Madge said.

‘Well, I don’t think suitable is the word I’d use to describe what she is wearing but don’t judge her on it. Her face is a bit bruised and cut up too.’

‘Well, go and get her then,’ Madge said, looking through Bella’s application form. ‘Let’s see how much your golden girl shines.’

From that tone of voice, Isaac didn’t think she was going to be impressed by anyone today but he got up and went to the door.

Bella was sitting at one end of the waiting room and the other applicants were gathered at the other, as if they didn’t want to be associated with her and her hideous green dress. She didn’t seem that bothered though as she was curled up in an armchair, having kicked off her pink stilettos, reading a battered book that had obviously been abandoned in the room along with a few magazines.

‘Miss Roussel,’ he said and she looked up at him in confusion as he had clearly torn her from the world she had been immersed in. Her vivid clover green eyes blinked a few times before she remembered she was still mad at him and her face set into a furious scowl again. ‘We’re ready for you now.’

She stood up, grabbing a leaflet off the table to mark her place in the book, and then slipped her feet back into the stilettos and followed him into the office. He closed the door behind her. He saw Madge and Eric stare at her in shock as he introduced everyone.

He sat down and Bella sat in the chair opposite him but as she did so her dress slid down, exposing one of her breasts almost entirely. The dark areola around her left nipple was just poking out over the top of the dress. Thankfully the nipple was still hidden but it was only millimetres away from making an entrance too. As the puffy sleeves of the dress were fitted over the arms not the shoulders, he guessed she had been unable to wear a bra with it, although to be honest visible bra straps would have been the least offensive thing in this outfit. She crossed her legs and the dress slipped fractionally lower; clearly she had no idea.

He glanced over at Eric whose eyes were firmly on Bella’s assets, willing the dress to continue on its southbound journey, and Madge, who was sucking her lips together so tightly with disapproval that they’d practically vanished. Madge was firmly of the belief that women should not use their bodies to advance their careers and this accidental sexual provocation on Bella’s part was not going to go down well.

He tried to catch Bella’s eye to tell her but she was resolutely not looking at him. He cleared his throat but she didn’t even spare him a glance.

‘Miss Roussel,’ he said, hoping that at least would grab her attention, but she continued to focus on Madge and Eric. ‘Why did you apply for this job?’

She would look at him, she’d have to if she was going to answer the question properly. Interview rules 101, always make eye contact with the interviewer.

She forced herself to look at him for a second before she went back to addressing the rest of the panel with her answer. ‘I want to help people…’

He started making gestures with his hand, trying to attract her attention as subtly as he could, but she was still talking and what she was saying was the corporate line she had given him the other night about making a difference. Though he knew it was from the heart, he also knew that Eric and Madge would be less than impressed by it. He had to stop her but if he caught her attention for a few seconds should he tell her about her exposed breasts or try to get her to open up more with a personal answer? He knew he wouldn’t have time for both before she looked away again.

He coughed loudly and she looked at him and he made a snap decision. ‘From the heart,’ he mouthed, pointing to his heart.

She paused mid-sentence as if she understood perfectly what he was trying to tell her. But before he could warn her of her impending exposure she looked away again. She shifted in her chair, obviously feeling uncomfortable about what she was going to say, and as she did so her nipple peeked out over the top of the dress.

Crap.

‘I know what it’s like to need help,’ Bella said. ‘I had a difficult childhood and I was lucky that I had a very supportive family growing up. My aunt and uncle raised me and I always knew they were there for me and they still are. Things could have gone very differently for me had they not been there to look after me and I want to help other people in the way that they helped me. Events management—’

‘Miss Roussel,’ interrupted Madge. ‘In the spirit of helping people, let me give you a piece of advice. Put your breasts away. That is not acting in your favour at the moment.’

Bella looked down at herself and gasped with horror as she pulled her dress back up. Eric nearly groaned with disappointment and she flashed an accusatory glare at Isaac as if it was his fault.

‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise. This dress isn’t mine.’

‘We’re aware of the dress’s origins but you’re not the first person today that thought that flashing their breasts at Mr Scott would be a good idea.’

Isaac looked at Madge in confusion. Had there been someone else who had come in wearing revealing clothes? He hadn’t noticed and he knew that was because his mind had been on Bella all morning.

Bella blushed and sat up straighter. ‘I can assure you that Mr Scott is the last person I would want to expose myself to. He’s—’

‘You were talking about why events management in particular holds your interest,’ Isaac interrupted, not wanting to find out how she was going to finish her sentence about him.

Bella looked at him and then back towards Eric and Madge. ‘Events management is what I’ve always done. It was a huge part of my degree and I’ve had years of experience at it. I’m very good at it too, but it’s also something I love. The organisational side of events, pulling everything together to make something flawless, but more importantly it’s about creating something that is fun that appeals to a wide range of people.’

‘Isabella – may I call you that?’ Eric said, patronisingly.

‘No. That’s not my name. If you want to call me Bella instead of Miss Roussel then that’s fine but I wouldn’t call you Ernie as that isn’t your name either.’

Isaac nearly snorted.

‘Bella then,’ Eric said with some annoyance at being corrected. Clearly now the breasts were hidden away he was back to not approving of her again. ‘We know that you worked for Magic Wishes, a charity well known for its embezzlement. We understand that Isaac believes you had nothing to do with it. That you didn’t know what was going on. If that is the case—’

‘It is,’ Bella said, defiantly.

‘If that is the case, why should we employ someone who is so spectacularly unobservant?’

Christ. He had no right to talk to her like that.

‘Eric, that’s not—’ Isaac started but Bella just talked right over the top of him.

‘Because you are not employing me for my observational skills, Eric. Nowhere in the job description does it mention that I would need to be observant, or that I would be required to spy on the accounts of your company to make sure the same thing didn’t happen again – as that is what I would have had to have done at Magic Wishes to know that my boss was embezzling money. I did not see the money or how it was spent, that was not part of my job. As fundraising events manager, it was my job, as it will be here, to co-ordinate and organise fundraising events. If you are actually employing me to spy on the staff then you’ve got the wrong person.’

There was silence in the room then and Isaac had to suppress the big grin that threatened to emerge on his face. She really wasn’t going to take any crap.

Bella turned to Madge. ‘I’m honest and hardworking and I know you have no reason to believe me considering my past but if you give me a chance, then I’m not going to let you down.’

Madge looked down at her notes, clearly unmoved by Bella’s plea. ‘Do you have any experience leading a team of people?’

‘No, Magic Wishes was quite a small charity and I was the only person working in fundraising events management. But events management involves co-ordinating with large amounts of different teams and people. To organise a concert for example, I had to liaise with the council to gain permission to hold the event in the park, staging companies to arrange for stages, lights and electrics, different agents and artists to secure the talent, catering companies and food trucks to provide refreshments, ice cream vans and local pubs to put on drinks tents, car park attendants, ticketing companies, even companies that would provide Portaloos. The events I’ve arranged have been big and small but all require liaising and co-ordinating with other people so I have experience of that. Being in charge of a team of people isn’t that different.’

‘I beg to differ,’ Madge said. ‘Working with people outside of your organisation and actually having employees under you who you have to organise and be in charge of are two very different things. We already have a great team in charge of fundraising. Why should we put you in charge of them when you have no management experience?’

‘Well, I’m afraid I don’t agree that you have a great team in charge of fundraising. I’m sure they work really hard and are passionate about helping the homeless but the advert for this job said you needed someone with enthusiasm who could inject imagination and creativity into the fundraising team. I know I can be that person. This is something I’m passionate about. I looked at your last five fundraising events. Two sponsored walks, a sponsored run, a cake sale and a car boot sale. These are hardly events that are going to stay in people’s minds as a great day out. These kind of events are not going to put the Umbrella Foundation on the map when it comes to charities. I know the charity has only been running for a few years and I know that a lot of the funding for the brilliant initiatives to help the homeless has actually come from Mr Scott’s other companies, which is fantastic, but we can do a lot better than that. We can raise our own money and not be reliant on funding and handouts from Mr Scott. The kind of events I’m used to organising have thousands of participants, and have raised huge sums for the charity—’

‘Which was then embezzled,’ Eric muttered.

‘I can arrange the same kind of events for you here,’ Bella said, completely ignoring Eric’s barbed comment. ‘Events that will have people talking about them and wanting to take part. You want people to go to social media with how much fun they had at an Umbrella event. You want people queueing up to take part, to be shouting about it to all their friends. I can do that. And I can inspire the people in your fundraising team to aim bigger and better too.’

‘Give us an idea of what kind of events you would organise in order to raise money for our charity,’ Isaac said.

‘Well, we want something fun, something that people will want to join in with and not just to raise money for the charity but because it’s something different, a fun day out. Zombie runs are very popular in America and are becoming increasingly popular over here too. We create a relatively easy obstacle course – there are many providers that offer these things to companies for corporate team building – and then we charge people to become zombies for the day. Most people will make or buy their own costumes but we can add another charge if they want us to provide them with costumes and make-up. Then other people will pay to enter the obstacle course and be chased by zombies. It’s good fun. We then sell refreshments and we could even charge a small fee for spectators to come and watch. Something like fifty pence or a pound so they aren’t put off paying for it but lots of small spectator fees would soon add up. We’d have to hold it somewhere central and easy to get to, maybe London or Bristol or some of the other bigger cities. That’s important too. You don’t want to put people off with the expense of travelling somewhere really far, so we can offer a zombie event in London for example, and then if it proves popular we distribute the same event in cities across the whole of the UK.’

Silence fell over the room again. Never in his wildest dreams had he ever expected her to come out with something like that.

‘Zombie runs?’ Madge finally said.

‘Yes,’ Bella said, confidently. ‘People would love it.’

Silence again.

Eric cleared his throat. ‘Well, if you have nothing else to suggest—’

‘Oh believe me, I have a hundred more ideas where that came from,’ Bella said, excitedly. ‘Firstly…’

Isaac smiled as Bella rattled off her ideas, barely drawing breath as she explained how each event would raise money and how they would work and why people would want to take part. She asked to use his iPad at one stage and she then proceeded to show some examples of the things she was talking about on YouTube. She was so passionate, so inspired, and he was going to stop at nothing to get her to work for his company. If he had to pull rank as CEO to get her in, then he’d do it. Eric and Madge could shake their heads with disapproval as much as they wanted. Bella was going to work for their company whether they liked it or not.