Read Online Love Is the Drug by K. E. Saxon - Free Book Online Page A

truck. He came real close to slamming his car into reverse and high-tailing it back onto the farm-to-market road, but guilt—and, he admitted it, curiosity—curtailed that impulse. He whipped into the space—more weedy turf than gravel— next to the Merc and cut the engine. He was just getting out of his car when he heard the front door of the house slam and Nora Lee’s over-done Texas drawl descend upon him.
    “Why, Sugar, Julie was just sure you wouldn’t be back ‘til Sunday.”
    He looked past Nora Lee to Julie. Dressed in a sexy little short-cropped white tank and faded cutoff jeans, she stood on the porch, one hand wrapped around a blue post and the other resting along the top of the white picket banister that enclosed the porch on three sides of the farmhouse. She appeared to be a little lost and a whole lot confused as she stared back at him. He lifted his hand and cocked his head back briefly in silent salute to her before turning his attention to the near-blinding zebra-stripes and Insta-tanned cleavage coming toward him.
    “Hi, Nora Lee. Why are you here?” Okay, so maybe that was a little blunt, but really, why the hell was she here?? The only reasons he could come up with were not good. Not good at all.
    “I was just welcomin’ Julie back to town, is all.” When she was just a pace or two away from him, she dropped her voice a few decibels and said, “Are you sure you can trust her, Jason? I mean, what if this is just some ruse to get revenge on you for what you tried doin’ to her sister?”
    If Nora Lee were a man, he’d have slugged her. Instead, he clamped his jaw shut tight and narrowed his eyes at her.
    “Hey, Sugar, don’t get mad at me! ” she said, holding up both hands. “I’m just lookin’ out for your best interests.”
    “Go home, Nora Lee.” He took hold of her upper arm and ushered her, not too gently, around to the driver’s side of her Mercedes. This was getting way too common an occurrence as far as he was concerned. He opened the car door and waited for her to get inside.
    “Well! This is a fine how-do-you-do,” she said as she rammed the key into the ignition. She looked up at him then. “I was only tryin’ to help you, you know.”
    Jason felt a pang of guilt. Maybe he was being too hard on her. Maybe her intentions were purer than he was giving her credit for. “Look, Nora Lee. I appreciate it. I really do. But, for the record, I trust Julie. She’s a good kid—and honest. I’m sure you can see that, now that you’ve had a little more time to get to know her.”
    Nora Lee surprised him when she chuckled. It came from deep in her throat and kinda put his nerves on edge. “Honey, it’s the quiet, unaffected ones that you should trust the least.” The engine came to life then and with a trace of a wave, she peeled out of the space and gunned it down the drive, throwing dust and gravel in her wake.
    * * *
    “What was that all about?” Julie asked as Jason climbed the steps to the porch a couple of minutes later.
    “I was going to ask you the same thing,” he replied.
    Julie shrugged and looked back at the drive. “I don’t know really. She came knocking on the door about a half hour ago.” She shifted her gaze back to his. “It was strange. She was perfectly pleasant, but after I gave her a glass of iced tea, she kind of started grilling me.”
    “Shit.”
    “Pardon?”
    “Nothing.” He strode past her and opened the front door, holding it that way until she passed through. “What’d she ask you?” he said as he followed her inside.
    “Oh, you know,” she replied, walking toward the kitchen, “stuff like, ‘Wouldn’t your sister be angry at you for becoming partners with her abuser?’” At the kitchen island, she turned and faced him and rested her left hip up against it. “Essentially the same type of questions we were expecting from the whole town. And, since you and I had already prepared our story, I was able to take the wind out of