Read Online Dirty Little Secrets (Romantic Mystery) Book 1 in the J.J. Graves Series by Liliana Hart - Free Book Online

everything he knew. This was a practice that had worked since high school, so I figured there was no need to change things now.
    The snow I’d predicted earlier fell in soft, heavy flakes as I walked out my front door, six-pack in hand. I walked around the rotted boards of my porch, and jumped over the three sagging steps that led to the ground just in case today was the day I finally fell through. If I kept my eyes straight ahead, it was easy to ignore the eyesore that sulked behind me like a decrepit old woman, waiting for the right moment to wrap her arms around me and drag me kicking and screaming into the pit of homeowners’ hell—of which I’m sure is an actual place.
    By the time I maneuvered the Suburban around the metal cans the trash collectors had tossed in the street, the gentle fat flakes had turned into a vicious bitch of a blizzard. The wind blew with a cutting edge that sliced through the naked trees with a whistle and pushed against the Suburban as if was waging a war against the Michelin tire company in general.
    I flipped on my windshield wipers and crept along the single lane road, my heart thumping a staccato beat in my chest, and the chili dog I’d eaten for lunch churning in my stomach. It was me against the elements—and I was losing. Thin sheets of ice formed rapidly on the country road, and I cursed when I realized I hadn’t had time to put chains on the tires with all the excitement of the day.
    I heaved a sigh of relief as I pulled up in Jack’s driveway. At least I hoped it was Jack’s driveway. I unclenched my cramped fingers from around the steering wheel, and tried to bring some semblance of recognition to the structure in front of me. The lights flashing on and off in quick succession from inside the house was Jack’s way of letting me know I was in the right place.
    Jack lived in a two-story log cabin that looked as if it had been carved from the forest of trees surrounding it. A wide porch surrounded the entire house and a chimney of grey stone jutted from the steep roof. It had taken him three years to build it exactly as he wanted, and he’d done most of the work himself. The house described Jack to a tee—masculine, rugged and enduring.
    I was more than an hour early, and from the looks of the weather, poker night might be called off completely, but there was no way in hell I was going to turn around and brave the roads just so I could go back to a drafty house and a cold bed. Jack had dependable central heat, food and booze. I couldn’t ask for more.
    I sat in my car a few more minutes, hoping there would be a break in the weather long enough that I could get indoors with as little embarrassment as possible. I pushed against the car door until it finally flung open with a gust of wind, and the only thing that kept me in an upright position was the fact that my arm was still caught in the seatbelt. I held tight to the beer as horizontal sleet pelted my face until it tingled with the pinpricks of numbness, and I trudged, one foot in front of the other, to Jack’s front door.
    I didn’t bother to knock—neither of us ever did—and I almost wept in relief as heat cocooned my body the moment I stepped inside. Sharp pins stabbed into my skin, and I moaned in pain as feeling came back to my extremities.
    “Are you okay?” Jack asked.
    “Do I look okay to you?”
    “Nope, but I thought it would be polite to ask.” He pulled the cap from my head and rubbed my arms briskly to get the circulation moving. “You know, anyone with half a lick of sense would have stayed home tonight.”
    “Yeah, but then I’d have to wait until tomorrow to get any information from you. I figure it was worth the risk. And your house is better equipped to ride out the storm. We’re not just friends because you’re pretty.”
    “I feel so used,” Jack said. “What am I getting out of this relationship?”
    “Just the pleasure of knowing me. I am a doctor, after all.”
    “It’s hard to