Spring at Blueberry Bay: An utterly perfect feel good romantic comedy

by Holly Martin

  ‘I was distracted.’

  He moved to her side and looked down at her to see her cheeks were flushed, her eyes sparkling. ‘Well, I’ll see you in the meeting in half an hour. Try to keep your mind on the job.’

  She rolled her eyes and shook her head at him, smiling fondly as he left her alone in the lift.

  He had no idea what he was doing but he was enjoying every second.

  Bella’s nerves were shot to pieces, her heart was racing, her breathing was accelerated as if she’d just run a mile and all he had done was touch her back.

  She pressed the button in the lift to take her back down to her floor. As much as she was loving this build-up, what if he had no intention of taking this any further? What if he was just teasing her and that was it? She had never wanted anyone as badly as she wanted him right now and if it didn’t culminate in something more than kisses and comments soon she was going to spontaneously combust. The tension was unbearable and he was just making it worse.

  The doors pinged open on her floor and she stayed in the lift for a second, her heart suddenly thundering like rain as she made a decision. She jabbed the button that would take her back to his floor.

  A few seconds later she had arrived. Claudia wasn’t at her desk so she strolled past and knocked on his door.

  ‘Come in.’

  She opened the door and saw Isaac was alone sitting at his desk. He grinned when he saw her. She shut the door behind her.

  ‘I think we should sleep together.’

  The smile fell from his face.

  ‘You’ve already said you don’t want a relationship because it could get in the way of work but this thing between us is not just going to go away and you’re not exactly being restrained about not letting anything happen. I want you, you want me, so let’s just get this out of the way and then we can get on with just being friends or colleagues again.’

  There was a silence for a few seconds before a woman’s voice filled the room.

  ‘Oh my god Isaac, is that her, is that the girl you’ve been telling me about? I like her. Let me talk to her.’

  Isaac leaned over to his phone. ‘Mum, I’ll call you back.’

  ‘No, wait. If you don’t marry this girl—’

  Isaac slammed his hand down on a button and the voice was disconnected.

  Bella flushed. ‘That was your mum?’

  Isaac nodded, a smile playing on his lips.

  ‘And I just told you I want to sleep with you and she heard every word.’

  ‘Yes, she’ll dine out on this for weeks.’ He got out of his chair and walked towards her.

  Her heart was hammering; she knew her cheeks were burning red. She wanted to turn and run and hide under her desk at least for the rest of the week. He was her boss. She had just made things a hundred times worse. What was she thinking? She had never done something like that before, walking up to someone and demanding they sleep with her was way out of her comfort zone. She’d never even asked a guy out before. What was it about Isaac that made her do things she had never done before?

  ‘Well you got the mum seal of approval,’ Isaac said as he approached her.

  She swallowed. ‘You talked about me with her?’

  ‘Yes, I told her there was this thorn in my side that wouldn’t go away,’ Isaac said, before he captured her mouth with his own.

  All other words dried in her throat and she found her hands in his hair as he pinned her back against the door. There was something truly wonderful about being pinned to any surface by Isaac Scott. He was so big that he surrounded her and that was such a turn-on. His hard, muscular body against hers, his hot lips against her own. She could kiss this man forever and never get tired of it.

  No not forever. Love never lasted forever so there was no point in even thinking about going down that road. She would live for now, enjoy the moment, and at this very moment there was a gorgeous, sweet, sexy hunk of a man kissing her like his life depended on it.

  His hands swept up from her waist, cupping her head. It was so gentle and so sweet and so completely opposite to the way he was kissing her with a fierce need. She hooked her leg round him, pulling him closer, and he ran his hand up her thigh, sliding her dress up to her hip. For one wonderful and terrifying moment she thought he was going to make her wish come true right here against the door but then he pulled away slightly.

  ‘So you want me to make love to you?’

  Her cheeks flamed red again. How could she have asked him that? Normally she would date a man, dinner, the cinema, maybe a few drinks in a bar. They’d go for walks on the beach and it would be several weeks or sometimes even months before she would go to bed with them. But Isaac had made it very clear they couldn’t do that so where did that leave them other than lots of frustrating kisses that were never going to lead anywhere?

  ‘I think we should. Then maybe once it’s out of the way we can get on with our day at work without the need to maul each other.’

  ‘I don’t know, this mauling is fast becoming my favourite part of my day. Meetings, emails, reports, and then there’s you.’ He sighed, leaning his forehead against hers for a moment. ‘Come to my house for dinner tonight. I’ll cook for you, something that won’t go black and hard because I’m too busy kissing you.’

  She nodded. ‘And then after dinner?

  He kissed her briefly. ‘I’ll take you home. No sex. If we’re going to do this, we’ll do this properly.’

  Her heart leapt and soared. ‘That’s beginning to sound a bit like a date, Mr Scott.’

  ‘Oh it’s definitely a date. But it’s a first date, so we’ll eat and we’ll talk and we’ll probably kiss a lot. And I’ll have you home and tucked up in your bed by ten o’clock.’

  She laughed. ‘Will you be joining me in that bed?’

  ‘Don’t tempt me. Now go. I need to ring my mum back and reassure her that I haven’t just slept with one of my staff across my desk and I have to prepare for a meeting where I’ll be sitting next to this beautiful, wonderful woman and trying very hard not to grab her and maul her, as you so eloquently put it, in front of all my staff.’

  ‘Shit, the meeting. I was going to prepare some notes for you. And I have a PowerPoint half-finished on my computer downstairs.’

  ‘I’m sure whatever you bring to the table will be amazing, even if it’s just you.’ His eyes glanced down to where his hand was resting on the waistband of her knickers. ‘Dinner at my place at seven, wear this beautiful dress, and I’m going to spend the rest of the day trying not to think about the possibility of seeing your matching turquoise underwear later this evening.’

  Bella laughed.

  He stepped back and straightened her dress for her, then his hands moved to her hair and gently stroked that back into place too.

  She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek and left the office. Claudia was back at her desk and she looked over at Bella in confusion as she walked to the lift. Did Claudia have any idea that Bella had just been kissing her boss on the other side of that door? In a small office like this, it wouldn’t take long for people to know or at least to guess. But with the prospect of a hot date with this incredible man tonight, Bella was finding it hard to care.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Isaac flicked through some reports in the boardroom as he waited for the other staff to arrive. Claudia was at the back of the room, sorting out the teas, coffees and pastries. Brian and Tina from the finance team were looking through a report and talking quietly to each other at the far end of the table and Madge was sitting halfway down the table, busily writing notes. He was still waiting on several people to arrive, including the woman he had just agreed to have a date with that night.

  He should be nervous and worried about this. This broke every rule he had ever made. Don’t mix business and pleasure was one of the most important rules in all walks of life and he had done that several times since meeting Bella at the weekend. If things ended between them, it could be really difficult at work, and he
certainly didn’t want anyone there to find out but as the woman herself came strolling in, he couldn’t find it in himself to care.

  She was the most incredible woman he’d ever met and instead of thinking about what would happen if things ended between them, all he could think about was how he could make things last. He wanted to spend every day kissing her, talking to her, spending time with her and instead of being scared about that prospect, he was loving every minute.

  ‘Miss Roussel, I just wanted to talk to you about something before the meeting starts,’ Isaac said, indicating the seat next to him.

  Bella walked round the table hugging her clipboard to her chest and trying to look as if him asking her to sit next to him was the most normal, professional request in the world. She sat down and looked at him.

  He drew her attention to the minutes in front of him. As a few more people walked into the room laughing and talking and drew everyone’s attention on them, he shuffled closer to her so their knees were barely touching.

  ‘Are you OK to present a few minutes about forthcoming fundraising events?’ Isaac asked, quietly, knowing that she was fully prepared to do just that. He looked down at the minutes and wrote a brief note to her.

  You look so beautiful today in that dress.

  He watched her read the note and her pale cheeks flushed pink.

  ‘That’s fine, Mr Scott, I have a few notes prepared just in case,’ Bella said as she wrote her own reply.

  If you like the dress so much, I’ll let you take it off later.

  He grinned. As much as he was really tempted to do that, he didn’t want to rush things with her. If he had any chance of this working between them, he knew he had to take his time, build her trust. It had been a long time since he had properly dated someone but this time round he was going to do this right.

  Dinner only. And maybe a nice long goodnight kiss.

  She smiled at his note just as the last few people arrived. Thankfully there were quite a few people around the table now, which necessitated everyone sitting quite close to each other. So when Bella shuffled closer to him to make room for someone to sit next to her, it was quite innocent that she brushed arms with him.

  As everyone got themselves comfortable, concentrating on the drinks and pastries that were being passed around, he slipped his hand under the table and very briefly, very gently, stroked the inside of her knee before returning his hand back to the table top again.

  This was a dangerous game but he was loving it.

  He stood up and everyone went quiet.

  ‘Thanks for coming; we have quite a few reports to get through so I’ll keep this brief. We’ve had a good few months since the start of the year. Some of the reports will go into that in a bit more detail. We’ve continued to help several hundred homeless people in towns and cities across the UK but a lot of the funding for the projects has come from BlazeStar. This year I want to concentrate on creating our own funding with the goal of being a self-sufficient charity by the end of next year. And that’s where our new fundraising events manager comes in. This is Bella Roussel who brings with her a wealth of experience, knowledge and a load of enthusiasm for the role.’

  To his surprise and annoyance, there were a few whispers around the room, some of them were not good. Clearly people knew about the embezzlement at Magic Wishes and were surprised by her appointment.

  He glanced down at Bella and the bold confident person he had seen a few moments before had dimmed somewhat. Bella smiled and gave a little wave but it was quite obvious she didn’t like being the centre of attention or appreciate the judgement from some of the people in the room. He was going to ask her to talk a little about herself and her experience but, considering the company she had worked in before, perhaps he had better skip past that part.

  ‘Bella has a lot of passion for this role. She only started in the job yesterday so we haven’t created a lot of events just yet, but Bella, why don’t you give us a brief summary of some of the events that we are to look forward to in the coming months.’

  He sat down and Bella took a sip of water from the glass in front of her and stood up. She glanced at him and he gave her an encouraging smile.

  She looked down at her clipboard and back at the room.

  ‘Firstly, we are launching a nationwide Easter egg hunt but with a difference. This is going to be a game-based app very similar to Pokémon Go. For those of you who don’t know, people would have to travel around real-world locations to collect virtual eggs on their phone. The eggs will add up to points and the points can be swapped for real chocolate eggs. There will be in-app purchases as well, which is how we will raise money.

  ‘A week on Saturday, the start of the Easter school holidays, there will be a funfair right here on the island. As many of you know, we used to have a big funfair with rides and food and fireworks every year on the island until they stopped when the Harrison family moved away and this year we’re going to bring it back. We have already booked the fair but there are several other things we need to organise for the event to run smoothly, one of the main things being transporting the lorries onto the island.’

  Elsie put her hand up, unsure whether to interrupt Bella or not. Bella nodded encouragingly. ‘When the fair used to be held on the island, the Harrisons would organise landing crafts to bring the lorries over and the lorries would just drive straight onto Buttercup Beach and then into the park.’

  ‘Great idea. I’ll look into that. Thank you. In June we have a zombie run booked for Hyde Park in London…’

  Isaac sat watching her, absolutely mesmerised. This was where she was in control, this was what she was good at. She didn’t like standing up and talking in front of people, making speeches, but events management was her thing and the fact that she could talk so confidently when she didn’t like this kind of thing showed how brave she was.

  Bella talked about several other events that she had either booked already or was going to book and he was stunned with what she had achieved in just one day.

  He glanced around the room to see what other people’s reactions were. Eric still obviously wasn’t happy about her appointment to the position but a lot of the others seemed to be impressed by her. Maybe she could win them all over with her charm, dedication and passion for the role.

  He suddenly caught Claudia’s eye. She wasn’t watching Bella, she was watching him.

  Crap.

  Claudia knew him so well. She had been his PA for so many years now that he’d lost count. Thanks to a hefty bonus, she had moved down to Hope Island when he had made the move here, which he was glad for. She was so efficient, so organised and she knew him better than he knew himself.

  Had he been staring at Bella with adoration? Had Claudia seen him touch Bella or the way they had almost flirted when she’d first walked into the meeting room? He thought he was being subtle but the way Claudia was staring at him now, he knew something was up.

  He returned his attention to Bella and ensured that for the rest of her short speech his facial features were arranged in a much more professional expression. He even pretended to take some notes at one stage so he wasn’t staring at her the whole time she was speaking.

  Bella finally finished and sat down and Isaac passed the meeting over to the different departments for them to give their reports.

  Nicely done, Isaac wrote on the corner of his minutes.

  She smiled briefly and then turned her attention to the rest of the staff and, although she didn’t look at him again, her knee was pressed up against his throughout the whole meeting.

  Tonight couldn’t come soon enough.

  The meeting finally came to an end and everyone got up and left, some of them taking the remaining pastries with them. Bella hung back for a little while on the pretext of gathering her notes and the handouts together. It was quite clear she wanted to speak to him but Claudia wasn’t moving so Bella eventually took the hint and left.

  He stood up to leave himself but Claudia got up an
d closed the door and then rounded on him.

  ‘What’s going on with you and her?’

  ‘Nothing,’ Isaac said, way too quickly.

  ‘Don’t give me that, you were staring at her like a puppy would stare at a piece of chocolate cake. Don’t think that I didn’t see you touching her either. Do you want her to slap some kind of sexual harassment charge on you?’

  He sighed and sat back down

  ‘Bella wouldn’t do that.’

  ‘No, I don’t suppose she would. I saw the way she was looking at you too. Have you slept with her?’

  ‘That’s absolutely none of your business.’

  ‘I’ll take that as a yes.’

  ‘No, I haven’t actually.’ Though it had come close too many times so he could hardly take the moral high ground, especially as he had kissed Bella on her first day at work.

  ‘After the horrible mess that Carter left behind with his affair, I wouldn’t think you would risk an office romance yourself. You know so many people thought that you starting this charity was a big mistake, everyone said that you moving to the Scilly Isles when your head office for BlazeStar was in London was a big mistake. Everyone is going to be watching us, waiting for us to drop the ball, you don’t need any scandal. Why risk it just for a bit of fun?’

  Isaac stared down at the notes that he and Bella had written to each other throughout the course of the meeting. ‘She’s not just a bit of fun. I went to her house in disguise and she invited me in to stay the night. She had no idea who I was and she was prepared to share her last bowl of porridge with me. We chatted for hours. I’ve never had that with a woman before. And I left there Sunday morning knowing that I had just spent the night with this really remarkable, special person. I ended up going back there on Sunday night and we talked again and we ended up kissing. Well, she kissed me, but I damned well kissed her back.’

  Claudia stared at him in shock. ‘I’ve never seen you like this before. Not once in all the years I’ve known you have you ever looked at a woman from work. You’ve always kept that part of your life separate.’