Chapter 3
3
Margot
M argot knew that this country club wouldn’t be like the ones she’d visited in New York. Copper Creek was anything but scandalous, and even though this place offered an escape for people to come and dance away their troubles, she figured it would be as benign as a church dance.
Surrounded by people in their twenties and thirties, she watched as they moved to the upbeat music as if they didn’t have a care in the world. They probably didn’t. None of these people seemed to have the same issues that currently plagued her.
They probably all had jobs. They were clearly happy. If she had to bet, she would say that they likely were all in committed relationships and had found their purpose.
She sighed. It was hard watching everyone else succeed in life when hers had crumbled only a few months ago. Margot had made it to the top. She’d danced her way into the lead role of Swan Lake, and then she’d made one dumb mistake and lost it all.
“There you are.” A warm, sultry male voice murmured behind her ear. “You look like you could use a drink.”
She smiled, turning to her date. If there was one thing she was good at, it was playing pretend. She could put on a mask and act like she didn’t have a care in the world. Sometimes she played the role so well that she even fooled herself. Margot accepted the champagne flute and tossed back the contents before pushing it back to him. “Maybe next time, you should get something a little stronger.”
He grinned with understanding. “Unfortunately, they don’t really carry the hard stuff. But you’re in luck. I brought something extra special.” He withdrew a tiny bottle—the kind she might have seen on an airplane. After a cursory glance around them, her date poured the full contents into her champagne glass and handed it back to her.
Margot tossed back the contents with a grimace. The liquid burned her nose and her throat. She gasped with eyes shut as she held the glass out to him. “That’s strong.”
“I know,” he said, “but it’s going to make all your cares disappear.” He pushed the empty glass at someone passing by, then snaked his arm around her waist and led her to the dance floor just as a slow song started.
It didn’t take long at all for her head to buzz and everything around her to go blurry. He pulled her closer, murmuring things in her ear that she couldn’t even understand. Margot let out a flirtatious giggle.
This was why she used to drink. How easy it was for her to forget the troubles at home, the fact that she’d lost her only chance at being a professional ballerina, and that she was now stuck in a tiny town with only cows and sheep for company.
They swayed this way and that. He turned her out and then brought her back to him, causing her to collide with his hard chest. The last time she’d felt this drunk had been in her Julliard days. She’d been reckless then, not caring how much she drank or how she appeared to her peers.
One real drink.
That was all it took.
Her body wasn’t capable of holding its liquor anymore. A fleeting thought that she should be worried about what she’d done came, then left just as quickly. She deserved to let loose. She needed to feel that warmth of happiness again—the kind of happiness that she’d experienced when she’d landed the lead in the ballet.
Lights, sounds, and music crashed around her. Confusion swirled as she went from being in the middle of the dance floor to standing on a balcony that overlooked an expansive property. She leaned over the edge of the banister and let out a whoop.
Cool air brushed against her skin and tugged on the soft tendrils of hair she’d painstakingly put into an updo. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply before exhaling.
“You’re so beautiful,” her date whispered, his hands coming around from behind her. “I’ve never dated a ballerina before.”
Margot froze up immediately. She reached down to grasp his hands where they touched the skin at her waist. Her shirt barely reached the waistband of her jeans, and it wasn’t hard to push aside. Alarm bells rang in her head, and she found a moment of clarity. Frantically, she spun around in his grasp and gave him a push.
He stumbled back a step with a surprised laugh. “What did you do that for?”
He moved closer, but she held up a hand. “ Don’t .”
“Baby, I thought?—”
She made a disgusted face. “Don’t call me baby.”
The humor in his expression faded, and his hand reached out to take hers before he tugged her closer. “You can’t treat me like that. You’ve been flirting with me since the moment we met. Didn’t your mom teach you that it’s not nice to lead a guy on?”
Margot attempted to wrench her hand free of his, but his hold on her was too firm. She muffled a soft cry as he tightened his grasp. “Let go,” she said through gritted teeth. “Or I’ll scream.”
He scowled at her, then released her hand with a jerk. She didn’t waste any time in slapping him hard across the face. Unfortunately, she miscalculated what he was willing to do when he was upset, and he lunged for her. This time he held both of her wrists and lowered his voice to a hiss. “You’re going to be sorry you did that.”
Before she could utter a word, a new male voice intervened.
“Let her go.”
Her date swiveled his head around at the same time that she did. Liam stood five feet away. His arms were at his sides, hands clenched tight. She’d never heard him use such a strong voice before. The little Liam that she’d known was too well-mannered for that sort of tone.
The man who held her released her with a huff as Liam approached and put himself between the two of them.
“You should probably go,” Liam said in a measured tone.
Her date narrowed his eyes. He scowled at her and then let out an irritated huff. “She’s not worth it anyway. There are girls ten times as beautiful and ten times easier to please just inside these doors.”
Margot didn’t know what came over her. She lunged at him, but Liam was prepared. While she attempted to get at the jerk who had ruined her evening, Liam’s arms had stretched out at his sides.
Unfortunately, her energy dissipated. All the fire and adrenaline that had been flowing through her veins slipped away, and she had to use the banister behind her for support.
“Geez, Margot, you’re really pale. Are you sick?”
Her eyes lifted to meet Liam’s, but then she closed them as she rubbed her temples. “No. I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.” He hooked a finger beneath her chin and lifted it so he could see her better. “Have you eaten anything today?”
Margot shrugged. She’d had that piece of bacon. But after that, she’d lost her appetite. She didn’t feel like eating when all it did was remind her that she wasn’t capable of feeding herself.
“You need to get something in your stomach before you pass out.” He slipped his arm around her waist and let her lean on him as she limped beside him. “How much did you have to drink?”
“Just a glass of champagne,” she murmured.
He rolled his eyes. “My brother and sister were alcoholics, Margot. I know what liquor smells like.”
She frowned, and her skin flashed hot. “Fine. I had one drink. That bozo brought it.”
Liam shook his head. She could practically read his thoughts. He didn’t like what she’d done. He thought she was better than this. Well, maybe she wasn’t. Maybe she was the big mess that everyone thought she was.
The dance hall was warm—too warm. People and lights swam in front of her. The smell of perfumes and finger foods mingled together to make her stomach churn. If she wasn’t careful, she’d lose those two drinks she’d consumed before she made it out to the parking lot.
Margot closed her eyes tight and let Liam lead her from the country club and out to his truck. The sound of a car door opening was the first thing that stirred her from where she’d shut herself down. She glanced around a clean, well-kept, and yet older truck. There wasn’t a piece of garbage or a single crumb in the vehicle. “Man, your girlfriend must love how clean you are,” she slurred.
“I don’t have a girlfriend.”
She lifted her brows. “Really? A cute guy like you?” She made a move to pat his cheek, but she missed. Her empty stomach, that bottle of liquor, and the sugar in the champagne were the perfect recipe for disaster. She grimaced. “Maybe you’re right. I should get something to eat.”
He gave her one hard look before he closed the door and walked around the front of the truck. Her next moment of awareness was the realization that, at some point, he’d taken her to a fast-food restaurant. He insisted on getting her a chicken sandwich with extra garlic bread. The carbs in that meal alone would have lasted her for a full week back in New York.
Margot attempted to push him away, but he refused to take her home until she ate all of it.
It took about thirty minutes for the food to kick in and make a difference in how she was feeling. Between the chicken, toast, and the little bit of coffee she managed to drink, Margot started to feel more like herself.
She leaned back in her seat and stared out the window. The disgust she felt for herself came back in full force. This was why she felt like such a screwup. She’d managed to place herself in a position where she could have been seriously hurt.
“If you hadn’t been there…” she whispered.
“What?” Liam shifted in his seat, then glanced over at her.
“I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t there.”
“It’s nothing,” he said quietly.
“It’s not nothing, Liam. I really appreciate it.”
He didn’t respond. When she looked over at him, she found him staring out the front window, too. His jaw was set in a hard line. He looked about as mad as her father would have been, only he wasn’t the kind of guy to tear her down about it.
That was just as well. He didn’t have to do it because she was already doing it herself. “You can take me home now.”
Liam nodded as he shoved his key into the ignition and started his truck.