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“This is no joke.” Andreas kept one hand firmly on the stick, the other adjusting various instruments. “We’re going down.”

Cat stared at Andreas’s broad shoulders, the chocolate-colored skin of his shaved head over the top of the seat. Since she sat directly behind him, she could not read his facial expression, but the tone of his voice sent a shiver of dread down her spine. She turned to Dave. As she watched, the blood drained from his face.

“What’s wrong?” Dave asked through thin, tight lips.

“Engine’s frozen.” Andreas leaned across the empty passenger seat beside him to turn the knob of a control. “Oil leak, maybe.”

“What can we do? How can we get it started again?” Dave was almost shouting.

“Oh my God,” Cat whispered into her headset. Terror overcame her. She couldn’t move. The wind whistled. The plane plummeted towards the earth. She couldn’t look out the window, but she knew what was down there. Miles upon miles of nothing but the vast, deep Caribbean ocean. There was no way they’d survive a crash on the open sea.

Cat looked down at her legs. Beneath the white satin skirt of her wedding dress, her knees knocked together in a steady rhythm, an uncontrollable reaction to her fear. Bump. Bump. Bump.

Andreas’s even voice broke through her panic. “Calm down. The engine is not going to start. I’m going to try to land without killing us.”

Cat riveted her gaze to the altimeter. They were at two thousand feet, descending fast.

The airplane banked, and she clutched Dave, pursing her lips so she wouldn’t scream. Andreas continued calmly. “I’m going to try to find a place to land on that island. Just sit tight. Make sure your shoulder harnesses are on securely.”

Cat wrenched her head to look out the window. A tiny macaroni-shaped blob shimmered green and brown in the middle of the sea. She saw no evidence of human life—no buildings, no roads. No runways.

Please let there be somewhere to land, she prayed.

She squeezed her eyes shut. Through her headset, she heard Dave’s harsh breaths. He held her hand in a bone-crushing grip.

When she gathered the courage to open her eyes, the island looked larger. She could see trees now, a scruffy jungle. Waves crashing on a coral reef. The vast ocean beyond.

They were close.

She forced herself to look at Dave. He was so gorgeous. She always thought she’d eventually marry someone of Latin descent, like herself, but when she’d met Dave, she had instantly known he was the one. Sexy, intelligent and assertive, he was the perfect all-American man for her. She fell in love with him on their first date. She had married him that morning in a big, Catholic wedding in Miami, attended by two hundred of her extended Puerto Rican family, most of whom she had never seen before, all of whom loved her tremendously. Thirty of Dave’s friends and family had come. He didn’t seem to mind the imbalance.

Tonight was her wedding night. She and Dave had special plans for it.

Blinking back tears, she brushed a strand of dark blond hair out of his eyes. God, she wanted to live.

He cupped her face in his hands. His eyes were the color of the ocean outside the window, but much more calming. “We’re going to be okay.”

She took her headset off. “I love you.”

“I love you too, babe.” He tossed his headset away and curved his hand around her neck.

Andreas was making a mayday call. “Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is Cherokee two-five-seven-one delta…”

The voice faded to the background as Cat pressed her lips against Dave’s. Pulling her in closer, he crushed his mouth to hers, thrusting his tongue inside, curling it and sweeping through. He had never kissed her with such urgency before. She threw her arms around him and tried to think only of Dave, of their love for one another. As if that would keep them alive.

“Hang on!” Andreas shouted. “Here we go.”