The Doctor's Medicine Woman Read Online Free Page A

landing on the blue carpeted aisle separating Travis’s and Diana’s seats. Automatically she reached down to pick it up. After quietly warning the boys to settle down, Travis turned back to her and took the straw from her.
    The pads of his fingers were warm as they gently brushed the backs of hers. A chill shimmied up her arm, churning up gooseflesh, and she shivered. She darted a glance at his strong hand, and then again at his handsome profile. Luckily Travis was in motion, swinging back around to speak to the twins, and he didn’t seem to notice her astonishing response to his touch.
    She curled her fingers into a fist and stuffed her hand into her lap. Reacting to Travis was the very last thing she wanted to do. She didn’t want to be affected by him. Men were the cause of too much pain. Too much humiliation. Her only goal on this trip was to spend time with Jared and Josh, to acquaint them with their heritage. If she could help assuage Travis’s doubts and fears about the adoption, she would. If she could help the boys feel more comfortablewith their new father, she’d do that, too. But she didn’t want any involvement with Travis other than what was necessary for the boys’ sake.
    Okay, so she found him handsome. Any woman would. His onyx eyes were appealingly intelligent, his long, neat hair glossy and inviting, his sexy mouth sent sensuous ideas flitting through her mind—
    She cut the thought to the quick. Her body was only reacting to his good looks. This was mere physiology. She was smart enough to know that.
    The steward ambled by, instructing passengers to return seats to the full, upright position and gathering used napkins and empty soda cans in preparation for landing. But Diana barely heard, so involved was she in her thoughts.
    The fact that she’d identified her attraction to Travis early was a good thing. She gave a mental nod. A very good thing. What she was experiencing was a completely natural response. Purely physical in nature…hence, totally controllable if she remained vigilantly cognizant of it.
    Diana glanced over at Travis, but saw only the back of his sleek, dark head, his broad shoulders and the full length of his back as he snapped young Jared’s seat belt securely into place.
    Controllable, she firmly thought. What I’m feeling is totally controllable.
    The boys were so excited. They had explored every inch of the house and yard as soon as they’d arrived home. Travis had been lucky several years ago in finding an old stone manor house on a largepiece of property thick with trees. A perfect setting in which to raise children, although he hadn’t had that in mind when he’d purchased it. The last thing Travis had thought he’d ever have was a family of his own. He was a dyed-in-the-wool bachelor. And quite naturally, as a man without a wife, he’d never contemplated having children.
    Until six months ago.
    During one of his visits with the twins—a visit planned only to check on their medical condition, take them out for a meal and buy them some clothes and a few toys—Travis had heard murmuring among the staff at the state home. Phrases like “getting beyond adoptable age” and “special needs children” and “undesirable” kept popping up.
    The orphanage administrator had told Travis they were even thinking of splitting the boys up in order to find them homes. That thought had disturbed Travis, and it had got him thinking…about becoming the boys’ daddy himself, about taking them into his own home.
    His friends and partners, Greg and Sloan, had thought he was crazy when he’d first voiced his idea of becoming an adoptive dad to the Native American twins. But Travis had prevailed. Something about the rambunctious boys, something about what seemed to be turning into a dire situation for them, kept calling to Travis. Wouldn’t leave him alone. He had been meant to raise these boys. He could feel it in the very pit of his gut. He might not have been able to find