Falling Again for the Brazilian Doc


 
 
 
 “You destroyed me when you left, and I haven’t forgiven you for what happened. And despite that, all I want to do in this moment is kiss you,” he said as he brushed his finger over her lips again, leaning in close enough so she could feel his breath on her face.
 “How do you do this to me?”
 “Salvador...” This time his name was not a chuckle, but a plea. And hearing Yara whisper his name was enough to untether the restraints he had put himself under—as a moment later he closed the gap between them and brushed his lips against hers in a kiss she had been imagining for almost all her life.
 
 
 Dear Reader,
 First let me say I’m excited you chose to pick up the story of Yara and Salvador, two once-upon-a-time sweethearts who found their way back into each other’s lives.
 This story was originally part of an ongoing series I had started to build in my head, but when it didn’t quite fit in with everything else I had imagined, I decided to take a step back and think about it. And I’m glad I did, because their story turned out so heartfelt and true in a way that wouldn’t have been possible with my original plan.
 As a bisexual woman myself, I really wanted to explore the dynamic of a couple who met and broke up when they both believed their sexuality to be a certain way and then bring them back together after things have changed. It also meant I could bring someone like me onto the page: a Latin queer person.
 I hope you enjoy reading their journey as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you want to connect with me, you can find me on Twitter, @ludarosabooks.
 Luana <3
 
 
 Falling Again for the Brazilian Doc
 Luana DaRosa
 
 
 
 Once at home in sunny Brazil, Luana DaRosa has since lived on three different continents, though her favorite romantic locations remain the tropical places of Latin America. When she’s not typing away at her latest romance novel or reading about love, Luana is either crocheting, buying yarn she doesn’t need or chasing her bunnies around her house. She lives with her partner in a cozy town in the south of England. Find her on Twitter under the handle @ludarosabooks.
 Books by Luana DaRosa
 Harlequin Medical Romance
 Falling for Her Off-Limits BossHer Secret Rio Baby
 Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.
 
 
 For Velo. I love you.
 
 
 Contents
 CHAPTER ONE
 CHAPTER TWO
 CHAPTER THREE
 CHAPTER FOUR
 CHAPTER FIVE
 CHAPTER SIX
 CHAPTER SEVEN
 CHAPTER EIGHT
 CHAPTER NINE
 CHAPTER TEN
 CHAPTER ELEVEN
 CHAPTER TWELVE
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN
 EXCERPT FROM THE NURSE’S PREGNANCY WISH BY CAROL MARINELLI
 
 
 CHAPTER ONE
 THE MOST UNUSUAL sensation had pooled inside Yara since she had stepped over the threshold of the hospital. Like a fiery liquid, it surrounded her stomach and filled her chest with every breath. It took a while for her to realise what that sensation was—nerves. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, Yara felt nervous.
 Salvador.
 Her heart pounded against her chest as she thought of the man she hadn’t seen in thirty years. Once they’d been inseparable—now she didn’t even know what he looked like or what had happened in the three decades since she left Brasília. It was by pure chance that she knew he worked at Centro Médico Juliana Amala, the hospital that had hired her to consult on a difficult case.
 Salvador Martins.
 Yara shifted in the chair she sat in, picking up the glass of water they had put in front of her without taking a sip. Her fingers traced along the condensation on the outside of the glass, picking up the tiny pearls of water until her fingertips were slick. She quickly put the glass back down, not trusting herself with such a fragile object.
 What on earth was wrong with her? Yara had spent the years since becoming a doctor making a name for herself as a top general surgeon and a sharp-minded diagnostician whom other doctors turned to when they were at the end of their rope with the diagnosis of a patient.
 Yara was at the Juliana Amala because she needed to help a team of doctors find out what was wrong with their patient. She should not be nervous—she wouldn’t be, were it not for Salvador and the host of ancient feelings his memory resurrected from the deep and dusty corners of her mind. Would he have realised it was her coming to consult on the case? Was he as nervous to see her as she was to see him?
 With the way she had left things with him, she doubted that. Their friendship had blossomed into something more serious when she had left for med school in Porto Alegre, far to the south of Brasília, her hometown. During her teenage years her parents had voiced their displeasure at the kind of company she chose to keep. When it came to Salvador, they hadn’t held back with their negative opinions, letting her know that, as their eldest daughter, she was expected to enter into a good marriage with a man from a good family that would be worthy of the Lopes name. Someone like Lawrence Silvia—the son of family friends, and her ex-husband of one year.
 They had begun to pressure her when they realised that they couldn’t dissuade her from being with Salvador, dangling the one thing in front of her they knew she couldn’t refuse—her tuition for medical school. Without their financial help her dream of becoming a doctor would have ended right there, along with the approval she so desperately craved from her parents.
 And for what? Once Yara had left her childhood home for good, neither of them had cared much what was going on in her life. Was their only motivation to push