Heart of Stone (Rock Star Fairy Tales #1)

Chapter 2

C h apte r 2

Lessons Learned at Parties

Late Night, Wednesday, Febr uary 18 th at the Euphoria in Ke rva, Armav

M argot had been at the party for a total of ten minutes when she decided it was a terrible idea. Nik had disappeared, her cousin easily distracted by the catcalls and gestures of a group of women sprawled on the couches cleverly spaced along the VIP floor of the Euphoria nightclub. The bouncer had taken one look at her plain button-down green dress and black boots, and she knew he had been about to dismiss her, but a word from Nik had changed his mind.

“Go’s with the band,” Nik announced as he breezed through. “She gets everythin g we get.”

Margot watched the other women in the club for a moment, their high heels and slinky dresses, their dark smokey eye makeup and perfectly messy hair, then shook her head and headed for the bar, tugging out her ponytail and smoothing her mass of dark hair into a tight bun atop her head. The bun flopped forward, skewing to one side, and she paused to slowly redo it before she settled onto a stool.

The bartender wandered over, a tiny woman with short blonde spiky hair who gave Margot an expectant look. “What would you like?”

Margot considered the bottles lining the back of the bar. She wasn’t a drinker, but tonight seemed to call for something a little more than her usual soda water. “Rum and cola,” she told the bartender, hoping that she wouldn’t taste the rum too much. The woman nodded, turned around to grab a bottle from the shelf and filled a glass with ice. She topped off an alarming amount of amber liquid with a spray of cola from the hose, then slid the drink across the bar without a word. Margot wondered if she would ask her to pay, but the bartender headed down the line to help other c ustomers.

There were definitely some perks when traveling with ro ck stars.

She took a sip, winced, then took a deep breath and forced herself to swallow a third of the glass. Slamming the cup down with a thunk that disappeared into the background music, Margot paused, hearing the low electronic beat with eerie singing. She listened for a moment, trying to pick out the words. Was it a foreign language? It seemed familiar, but just out of reach, like something heard in a dream. She knew a few words of Armavian, the Ardon dialect not that different from her native Belsune, but it wa sn’t that.

“I didn’t think to find you at the bar, Margot.” The voice startled her back into the moment, and she turned around to smile at Timothy. His tone was kind, like his eyes, but as the oldest member of Stone Dragons, Timothy made Margot feel like she was ten years old again. Though he was only a few years older, certainly on her side of thirty, something about his bearing spoke of long experience—and Margot thought he always seemed slightly sad. Wist ful even.

She took another long sip, grimaced, and looked up at Timothy through teary eyes. “It’s that kind of day,” she said, trying to stop her gaze from drifting over to the cluster of couches that held Ash and Nik and their spellbound harem. Timothy followed her look and sighed, eyes coming back to rest on her with something like sympathy.

“Ash is young,” he said quietly. Despite the noise of the music and the crowd, Margot heard him easily, as if his words were for her ears alone. “He’ll learn better. Ev entually.”

“He’s not that much younger than you,” she snapped, the alcohol sharpening her tongue. “Did you lear n better?”

“Eventually,” Timothy said an d smiled.

Something in the way he said it made Margot pry in a way she normally wouldn’t. She could appreciate how handsome he was. Not for her, not her kind of man, but definitely a heartthrob for the right woman. That shaggy brown hair begged for fingers to twist through it, and his mouth promised a good time. He didn’t have the cool distance she found in Ash’s attention when they had a real conversation. She always felt Ash was listening to her intently, but that part of him was longing to get away from her—and he only stayed to be polite. She tried to keep her communication brief, her words pointed so he didn’t have to linger in her presence. But he did linger, asking more questions, probing her mind to get beneath the surface.

“Did you learn in time?” sh e probed.

Timothy’s smile devolved into a smirk, and he winked at her. “No. You think I’d be trekking around the world with you lot if I w as smart?”

“We’re not that awful,” Margot defended. “Are we?” She gave him her best ingratiati ng smile.

Timothy relented. “You are perfectly delightful, Margot. They—” he nodded over his shoulder at the group on the couch, “need po lishing.”

Margot saw that two women were currently jockeying for position to be behind Ash on the arm of the couch. Their movements were subtle, nothing obvious like elbowing the other aside, but Margot could feel the tension escalating between them. Ash, however, seemed to enjoy the competition, occasionally glancing at one or the other in encou ragement.

“So get to work,” she told Timothy. “Pol ish away!”

“Oh no,” Timothy laughed. “It’s not my help th ey need.”

He gave her a long appraising look, and Margot felt a whisper of something against her skin, not quite a chill, but not far off. She sniffed, rubbing her upper arms, and glanced around the bar, thinking she may be able to pinpoint the source. Her gaze skated over a tall man heading to the bar, paused, then settled on him. He was lovely—and Margot was surrounded by handsome men—slightly too long white-blond hair, pale skin, high cheekbones, and thin lips that curled into a charming smile as he step ped near.

Margot’s focus wasn’t so diverted that she didn’t see Timothy notice the direction of her gaze, seem about to say something, then shake his head, adjusting his jacket and scanning the room, as if keeping quiet track of who was in it. He always did that—Margot always assumed he was just paying attention—but part of her wondered if he was looking for someone specific.

“Be careful, little Margot,” he warned, a hand touching her shoulder for a moment and breaking her free from the spell of the newcomer. “You will attract a great deal of attention in th is place.”

“Maybe it’s time I had some attention,” she told him.

He glanced over at Ash quickly and shook his he ad again.

“You are right,” he agreed. “You deserve to have your own fun.” He paused, letting go of her shoulder. “Just be careful. These are dangerou s waters.”

“I can take care of myself,” she insisted, taking another long sip of her drink, steeling herself for a conversation with a sexy stranger.

“I have no doubt,” Timothy said and walked away, leaving her alone at the bar.

Margot finished her drink and slammed the ice-filled glass on the bar with more vigor than she intended.

“Want another?” a honey voice asked from b ehind her.

“Maybe,” she said, turning to face the stranger. He smelled nice, and her body responded to something unspoken between them. “Why don’t you have a seat and we can talk about it?”