‘… a very interesting medical romance because of a unique setting and really different medical situations.’
—HarlequinJunkie on A Kiss to Melt Her Heart
‘Maia?’
The rounded vowels of his English accent were instantly recognisable. No one else made her name sound like he did—sexy and desirable, full of promise and suggestion.
‘Maia?’
His voice repeated her name and this time she turned around. Three years evaporated in the blink of an eye as her past collided with her present.
Henry was standing in front of her.
He looked exactly the same. Tall, dark, and still the most beautiful man she’d ever seen. His features were faultlessly symmetrical. His square jaw was chiselled and his full lips were perfectly shaped. He looked just as she remembered. His hair was cut shorter than usual, his dark curls tamed, but he was otherwise unchanged. He was incredibly gorgeous and he was standing five feet away, when she’d thought he was on the other side of the world.
She wanted to reach out and touch him, to see if he really was real, to make sure it wasn’t her imagination playing tricks on her. If it was, it was extremely good. She resisted the temptation.
‘I’m back.’
Maia’s heart skipped a beat.
I have visited Christchurch on New Zealand’s South Island several times. It is a beautiful city, but one which experiences a phenomenal number of earthquakes each year, and between September 2010 and June 2011 the city was left devastated by three powerful quakes. I was there in October 2010, not long after the first quake, and saw for myself the damage that Mother Nature can wreak. But along with the heartache and tragedy there were amazing stories of courage, survival and resilience, and Christchurch and her people are slowly recovering.
This is Maia’s story, and it was inspired after talking to survivors of the quake: those who had chosen to stay and rebuild their city despite the dangers.
Maia thinks she’s happy with her life—until it’s turned upside down by two major upheavals. One is the return of her ex—a man who could once make her knees go weak with just a glance, and it seems as if nothing has changed in that respect. And the second is a devastating earthquake. These events force Maia to examine what she really wants out of life, but making a decision is difficult when she knows people are going to get hurt. Her head and her heart aren’t always in agreement, and she’s struggling to decide which one she should listen to. What if there’s more than one right answer?
But Maia has to make a decision—because if she waits too long she could lose everything.
Enjoy!
Emily
EMILY FORBES is an award-winning author of Medical Romances for Mills & Boon. She has written over 25 books, and has twice been a finalist in the Australian Romantic Book of the Year Award, which she won in 2013 for her novel Sydney Harbour Hospital: Bella’s Wishlist. You can get in touch with Emily at [email protected] or visit her website at emily-forbesauthor.com.
A Love Against All Odds
Emily Forbes
For my gorgeous nieces: Sophie, Lucy, Kate, Sophie, Grace, Zoe, Harriet, Portia, Lilly, Saskia, Henriette, Alexandra, Charlotte, Georgia and Adelaide, and in loving memory of Georgiana Rose.
Table of Contents
‘CHRISTCHURCH HAS BEEN rocked by the biggest earthquake we’ve had for some time. Just after five o’clock this morning a quake measuring seven-point-one on the Richter scale was recorded; its epicentre was forty kilometres west of the city and it occurred at a depth of eleven kilometres. Several old buildings have collapsed but, while there have been numerous injuries, there are no reported fatalities at this stage. Injuries have been caused by falling masonry and glass but—just repeating—there are no fatalities at present. We’re crossing live now to our reporter …’
Maia Tahana pulled the headphones out of her ears as she walked through the automatic doors of the emergency department of the Canterbury Children’s Hospital, cutting the radio journalist off midsentence. The story of the quake wasn’t news to her; she’d been woken by it, jolted out of a comfortable sleep by a deep bass rumble and the sound of breaking glass. Her heart had hammered in her chest as the house shook and the windows