Page 1 of Margo

Chapter One

December 25th

Margo

Margo didn’t think of herself as an overly sentimental person, but she couldn’t help but tear up as she watched her best friend Luna marry her Daddy and the love of her life, Baze Patrick, in a beautiful Christmas-night ceremony. She’d been sniffling throughout the ceremony, but when the officiant pronounced them man and wife, and Baze dipped Luna to hold her in his arms and kiss her, the waterworks started. Maybe it was the super romantic moment, or maybe it was her reflecting on how much their lives had all changed since the moment Baze and Luna met a few short months before.

Or maybe it was because Margo knew that everything, everything, was about to change, not just in Luna’s life but in hers as well. Because as soon as Baze took Luna in his arms, and Margo wiped her leaking eyes with the back of her hand, she caught the gaze of Knox Remington, the construction foreman who’d made the last-minute wedding possible by flying from Montana to Nevada to renovate a conference room into a chapel. He winked at her, and her tummy twisted into a whole acrobatic performance because she and Knox had made a deal, and that kiss Baze and Luna shared had sealed it up. Knox, whom she’d been flirting with and courting for the last six weeks, was now her Daddy.

And that meant… Well, Margo wasn’t entirely sure what exactly that meant, but she knew that at the very least, she’d agreed to submit to a spanking for spending weeks lying to him about being naughty and breaking rules when she wasn’t.

He locked eyes with her and held her gaze, the corners of his mouth turning up in a smirk. The kiss finally ended, and the wedding recessional music started.

Ahead of her, Baze and Luna locked arms and danced down the aisle as their friends and family looked on. Next, Baze’s best friend and best man, Alan Dukakis, locked arms with his wife, Lacy, who’d served as Luna’s matron of honor, and followed the bride and groom out of the chapel.

Derek, the owner of Rawhide Ranch, the BDSM resort in Montana where Baze had proposed to Luna and Margo had met Knox, followed, escorting Margo’s roommate Jilly, and her friend Jade. Baze’s brother Zane walked with twins Tessa and Ellie, and then it was Knox’s turn. He met Margo and Mariah in the center of the aisle and locked arms with each of them, Margo on his right side and Mariah on his left.

Margo plastered on a bright smile that was forced without being fake, and stared straight ahead, mentally willing Knox to be silent until they’d made it out of the chapel and it was just the two of them. Sure, Mariah, like all their other friends, knew about the terms of her arrangement with Knox, but that didn’t mean she needed an audience for those first moments.

Thankfully, the chapel was small and the aisle was short, and they were out in the hallway before she knew it, swept into a wave of well-wishers gathering around to congratulate Luna and Baze.

Margo was used to crowds and accustomed to getting swept up in throngs of people; she lived in Las Vegas for goodness sake, but her emotions were high. Anxiety rose in her chest and breathing became difficult as the crowd separated her from Knox and Mariah.

The people began to swim in front of her in a haze as her vision blurred. She balanced herself with a hand on each knee and bent at the waist, gasping for air.

Several people bumped into her and she almost fell over more than once, unable to cry out a word of warning.

Suddenly, a hand wrapped around the curve of her waist, and she went flying through the air, her legs coming out from under her as a strong arm folded around the backs of her knees. She gasped, and cried out, and then looked into the bright blue eyes of Knox Remington, the man who was now her Daddy.

If Santa ever wore a tux and dyed his beard red and shaved his head bald, Knox would be a dead ringer. His eyes sparkled as he stared into hers, and his red cheeks dimpled when he smiled. His belly wasn’t quite as big as the jolly old man’s, but it was big enough.

“Well, hello there, little one,” he said with a chuckle as he held her in his arms like a baby, tucked close to his broad chest. “You okay?”

Margo nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay.” And she was. The second she’d recognized that it was Knox’s arms that had swept her up, her heart had stopped pounding and her breathing had returned to normal.

Knox peered down at her beneath bushy, furrowed brows. “Are you sure? You didn’t look okay just a second ago.”

Margo blushed, lowering her gaze. “I was having a little bit of a panic attack, I think, but I’m okay now. You can put me down.”

He leveled her with a dubious stare and shook his head. “A panic attack, huh? What’s that about?”

“I don’t know. There was a lot of people, a lot of emotion… it was just… a lot.” She made a sweeping motion in the air with her hand. “It’s over now. I’m all right. You can put me down.”

Knox didn’t comply. Instead, he carried her through the now dispersing crowd, past the large meeting hall where the reception was being held, down a corridor and into the empty casino. He grabbed a chair from behind a machine, and sat, settling her in his lap in much the same fashion that a child would sit on Santa’s knee to tell him what she wanted for Christmas.

“I didn’t know you had panic attacks.” Knox’s voice was lower and more soothing than usual, like he was putting forth a concentrated effort not to spook her.

Margo rolled her eyes. “I don’t normally. I haven’t had one in a long time. Probably years.”

“Then why now?”

Margo shrugged. “I don’t know. There was just a lot of feelings and then a lot of people all around, crowding me, and my brain and body just went into overload.” Margo hoped he’d accept the explanation for what it was. She was embarrassed and didn’t really want to get into everything that had been going through her brain.

Knox, however, wasn’t really good at taking a hint or reading between the lines. The last six weeks had proven that in spades. Margo wasn’t really surprised when he missed the cue and pushed the issue.

“Tell Daddy what’s wrong, little one.” He pushed a stray curl out of her eyes and tucked it behind her ear, his knuckles grazing her cheek as he did so. Her heart started to pound and her palms went damp. She took a deep breath and willed herself not to hyperventilate or get too worked up.

Too late. Fear spilled from between her lips before she could even process the words coming out of her mouth. “It’s that. Everything is changing so fast. Now Baze and Luna are married, and… and… and…” she trailed off, cursing under her breath when a tear slipped down the side of her face, hot, sticky and unwelcome.