Turner's Rainbow 2 - The Rainbow Promise Read Online Free Page A

Pleasure coursed out through her body, flooding her with heat and sharp, prickling tingles of enjoyment. She stayed taut for a moment, pulsing with the afterwaves of passion, then slowly, panting, she relaxed. Her breath came out in a broken sigh.
    Sarah opened her eyes and smiled up at her husband. Her face was flushed and loose with contentment, her eyes glowing. "Oh, Luke." She brushed her hand across his face and down the column of his neck. His skin was searing. "Thank you."
    "My pleasure."
    She started to get up, but he held her tightly against him. She glanced at him, puzzled. "Don't you want to go up to bed so we can—"
    "No." He shook his head. His voice was hoarse. "No. You remember what Doc Banks said."
    "But— "
    He laid his cheek against her hair, enveloping her with his unspent heat. "That was for you, sweetheart. Just for you."
    "Oh. Luke!" Sarah flung her arms around him, burying her face in his chest, love flooding her at his generosity. "You're so good, so kind."
    He chuckled. "Hardly, I just love you."
    She clung to him, and he rocked gently, holding her It seemed to him that he held the world in his arms.
    ❧
    James Banks walked his last patient to the door and opened it politely for the gray-haired woman. She smiled at him. "Thank you, Dr. Jim."
    He forced himself to smile back despite the fact that it was seven o'clock, he was tired and hungry, and this was the fourth time in two months that Mrs. Singleton had come in for an imaginary illness. Her husband had died six months ago, and her only son lived in Greenville. She came because she was lonely more than anything else. "It's no trouble, Mrs. Singleton."
    She patted his arm. "You always were a good boy. Your mother must be very proud of you."
    "I hope so." James watched Mrs, Singleton navigate the four shallow steps to the walk, then closed the door and pulled down the shade over the glass upper half of the door. He leaned back against it and closed his eyes, sighing. He was a handsome man, with thick black hair, warm, chocolate brown eyes, and even features; but tonight weariness blurred his looks, and he appeared older than his thirty-one years.
    It had been a long day, one that had begun at five o'clock this morning when he'd been called to the depot where a railroad worker had had his leg crashed uncoupling a car. James had managed to save the man's life, but not the leg.
    James opened his eyes and pushed away from the door. He walked down the hall past the examination rooms and through the door leading into the house.
    It was a large, elegant house. James had grown up here, and he knew every inch of it, just as he knew every nook and cranny of his father's office. He smiled to himself. He'd been here two years, and he still thought of it as his father's office; old habits died hard. He shrugged out of his suit jacket and hung it over the newel post of the staircase as he passed by, then continued into the kitchen, untying his string tie and unbuttoning his collar and cuffs as he went.
    Lurleen sat at the kitchen table with her daughter Dovie, chatting, and she rose to her feet when she saw James.
    "Well, I declare, it's about time. Dr. Jimmy."
    "I'm sorry, Lurleen. You shouldn't have waited for me. Hello, Dovie."
    "Hello, Dr. Jim." Dovie stood up, too, to help her mother serve the food she had kept warm in the oven. Dovie was a tall, slender woman, handsome to look at, with large dark eyes, well-modeled features, and smooth skin the color of coffee and cream. James wondered why a nice-looking woman like Dovie hadn't married by now, instead of living with her mother in the servants' quarters above the carriage house. But there was something very contained and controlled about Dovie that he guessed kept men at bay. She wore her thick, curly black hair pulled back from her face and subdued into a tight knot. Her dark skirt and white high-necked blouse were plain to the point of severity. Dovie carried herself ramrod straight, and her face was