Chapter 1

Chapter One

It's okay, it's okay, it's okay, Chloe Hardt kept thinking. Over and over, she told herself it just wasn't a real vacation without something going wrong. She was actually lucky, that's what this was. She was getting her wrong thing out of the way right from the very start. Which meant, from here on out, it was nothing but smooth sailing!

Right?

Try though as she did to stay positive, she'd never been stranded at an airport before. At least it was an airport in the States. And technically, she wasn't even stranded… yet. Just delayed. But as she stood at the check-in counter while the attendant searched the flight logs for another plane to take her where she was desperate to go, her anxiety worked overtime.

What if there weren't any more empty seats? What if she had to cancel her trip? Why, oh why hadn't she paid that extra fee for trip insurance? If she had to cancel now, her money would not be refunded. At least not in cash and definitely not within the next thirty days. She had no idea how she was going to eat until her next check. She doubted if her local grocery stores took big city airline vouchers.

"Got one," the attendant finally cheered, and Chloe cheered with her.

"Woo-hoo!"

The attendant winced. "Sadly, there will be a slight delay."

Chloe checked the time on her phone. She winced too. "How long?"

"Several hours. The plane doesn't leave until 4 am."

Shoulders slumping, Chloe checked the time again, doing the math in her mind. "I'll miss my charter bus." She sighed. This was definitely her vacation's wrong thing. But hey, at least she was getting it out of the way right from the beginning. She brightened. "It's okay. They'll have taxis."

The attendant grinned. "That's looking on the bright side."

She booked the ticket, printed it out, and handed it over to Chloe. "Thanks for not yelling at me."

"Thanks for helping me," Chloe returned with a sympathetic smile. In that moment she was glad life had set her on the path of being an artist. She would hate having to work a job where she was yelled at all day long.

Leaving the counter, she checked her new gate and plane number and started walking. Two-hour layover or not, the new gate was already crowded, and so were the gates all around it. She circled the waiting area twice before settling for a bank of six seats, five of which were currently being used by one man laid out across them, sleeping. The empty seat was by his black-booted feet.

He was tall and broad, his t-shirt stretched taut across his chest, and so burly she could see the veins standing out against his muscular forearms. He was handsome, in a rude sort of way. After all, what else could he be called when he was using up so many seats in a space as crowded as this?

Careful not to wake him, she eased into the vacant seat, setting her carry-on between her feet. Settling in, she pulled out her phone, opened her kindle app and, wishing she had a coffee but unwilling to leave her seat to get one, picked a book from her carry-on bag to read while she waited.

It was the best kind of book. A co-write between Pepper North and Becca Paige Micheals, it was all about cupcakes and Daddy Doms who made the sweetlings in each book feel loved and complete. Something Chloe had always wanted to find for herself. Of course, one had to leave the studio in order to do that, and Chloe was a painter, far too driven to produce her next portrait to do that.

This long-awaited vacation was her getting out of the house, she reminded herself. She'd always wanted to go to Scotland, but born and raised in New Mexico, she'd never seriously thought she'd make it there. But with the sales she'd made in her first-ever gallery showing, she'd talked herself into finally just doing it.

So, did she book herself to stay in a castle and do all the sightseeing that tourists customarily came to Scotland to see? Nope. She'd been a recluse too long to want to spend her first real vacation around people. She'd made her reservation in a remote fishing village and an even more remote B&B located four miles out of town. Something guaranteed to keep her as far away from others as she could get.

She'd never find the Daddy of her dreams this way. But she would get a lot of work done, and that was the important thing, right?

Right , she told herself firmly.

Daddy Doms in books weren't as fulfilling, but it was what she had, and before she knew it, the cacophony of the airport and all its guests soon faded into the background as the story pulled her in. The Little in this book was sweet and the Daddy Dom patient, understanding, and yet stern in all the right ways. Chloe's heart pitter-pattered in excitement as she read through a scolding that set her nethers on slow-throbbing fire. Her face felt hot. Was she blushing? She hoped not, but even the possibility of that physical reaction exposing what kind of book she was reading… in public, where everyone could see her squirming deliciously in her seat… it didn't stop her from continuing to read, moving on to the spanking that followed with particular relish. She jumped when the booted feet on the seat beside her suddenly extended, bumping her in the thigh just as the Daddy Dom in the story was delivering that first glorious slap.

Chloe's bottom erupted in a wave of tickling awareness. She yelped, her brain furiously trying to convince her she'd just been swatted herself, and the guy stretched out along the seats lifted his sleepy head to look at her.

"Och," he rumbled in a heavy Scottish brogue. "Sorry, lass."

Startlement turned to instant fascination as she basked in the glow of his sexy accent.

"You're Scottish!"

He lifted his head again, studying her from behind a pair of the greenest eyes she'd ever seen.

"You're American," he pointed out.

"No," Chloe said, then quickly corrected herself when he arched a dark eyebrow at her. "I mean, yes. But I meant, that's where I'm going. Scotland. My first-ever real vacation, and the first time I've ever traveled outside the States, and who do I run into at the airport? A man from the very place I'm headed!"

"Well, you certainly picked the best place to go." Closing his eyes, he laid back down.

"Where are you from?"

He snorted. "You wouldn't have heard of it."

"I'm going to St. Abbs," she continued happily.

This time both his eyebrows arched. "I stand corrected." As if sensing he wasn't going to get any more sleep, he sat up and scooted down to the middle seat, politely leaving one seat's space between them. Holding out his hand in greeting, he introduced himself. "Hamish MacDowell."

"Chloe." Grinning, she shook his hand. Her skin tingled at the contact, a sensation that went straight to her nipples. She really shouldn't have read that book.

"That wouldn't be Chloe Hardt now, would it?" he asked, bracing his hand on his knee in what her all-too-imaginative brain immediately tried to see as a disciplinary pose. Prime scolding position, that. He looked like he was ready to deliver a spanking, minus the stern look, that is.

"You've heard of me?" If he knew her from one of her paintings, she was going to do a full-on Snoopy happy dance, right here in the middle of the airport, god, and everyone.

Chuckling under his breath, he scrubbed a hand through his short brown hair. "I own the B&B you rented. It's why I cut my vacation short. So I can hand you the keys and answer any questions you might have regarding the area."

Her smile fell. "Oh. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I've been here two weeks already. My sister," he explained. "Her wee one decided he couldn't wait to join the world and came early. I've been helping with child care so she could get as much rest as possible."

"That's so nice of you."

"I'm not a baby kind of person. They cry all night. I don't think I've slept since I got here."

"I'm sorry," she said again, only to have a chill tickle up her spine when he shot her a side-eyed look. That look seemed almost disapproving, though she couldn't imagine why. Trying to school her wayward sensations so they wouldn't get worse, she brightened again. "Say what you will about babies, but I still think you're a wonderful brother for doing what you did. Did you do a little light housekeeping too?"

"I wouldn't call it light, but yes. Elspeth is a neat freak. I sincerely doubt she'll survive motherhood."

Chloe giggled. "Well, here's to hoping she doesn't stress too much."

He snorted again. "Amen." Groaning slightly, he pushed himself to stand. "I need coffee. Want one? I'll even fetch and carry it."

God, did she ever. Jumping at the offer, Chloe snatched her wallet out of her carry-on and dug out a five, but he refused to take it.

"It's on me if you'll let me sleep a little longer. Maybe even wake me if I don't hear the boarding call."

Tickled to be of help, maybe even more tickled to get a free coffee from this handsome man, she grinned and put her money away. "You got it."

Nodding, he headed for the nearest airport coffee shop, leaving Chloe practically bouncing in her seat. This right here was what vacations were all about: making new friends and experiencing all the new things Scotland had to offer. Maybe if she ran into him upon occasion, she could ask him to suggest a few places she could visit. In between working on her paintings, of course.

See what the power of positive thinking could do? Already her vacation was looking up.