Tell Me a Fantasy

Chapter Nine

"You can do this."

I shook my head, tears streaming down my cheeks.

"Yes. You can."

Could I? My biggest fear was about to come true. We were as good as dead. I took a deep, shuddering breath. My jaw locked with terror. There was nothing I could do, really, other than follow directions. I wasn't able to control this situation.

Nothing I could do but let life happen. And, apparently, death.

"I can do this," I said, extricating myself from his embrace.

"That's right." Colin nodded, his blue eyes steady and unblinking.

I tightened my belt and leaned into the seat back, clasped my hands behind my skull and prayed. To my surprise, I'd stopped crying. I tried to breathe deep as the plane descended and dipped, making my stomach nauseous and my ears sear with a sharp, popping pain.

But the worst, the absolute worst, was the eerie silence in the cabin. No one cried or whimpered or yelled. Well, except for me.

With each bump, my stomach flip-flopped. The plane sliced through clouds, the rolling turbulence causing me to gasp and cry out. This was bad, much more terrifying than I'd ever imagined during any panic attack. The descent was minute after minute of total fear.

When the engine whirred with a distressing noise, I felt a big hand grip my thigh.

Colin.

Risking his own safety to touch me.

So I did the same, taking my arm off the seat in front of me. My hand found his and we held on, tight. His grip now matched mine.

And then—BAM!

We touched down hard.

I was shaking from head to toe, and Colin snatched me close. Somehow I felt safer back in his arms, although I knew any number of things still could happen. Maybe we had no brakes. Maybe the plane was on fire. Maybe the tail had fallen off.

But then, we stopped. The plane began to taxi, presumably to the gate, as if we landed normally. Out the corner of my eye, I could see the red lights of emergency vehicles flashing through the plane's windows.

Passengers clapped. I heard the vulgar guy yell some stupid line from the movie Airplane from the front of the cabin, and I laughed out of nervousness.

I eased out of Colin's arms, and we stared at each other. His blue eyes were almost overtaken by his dilated black irises. He was breathing nearly as hard as I was, and then he chuckled. My heart soared and beat hard for a reason other than fear. Maybe it was our near-death experience or maybe it was his sensual mouth or the way a hint of stubble seemed to have emerged on his jaw since we took off.

"We survived," I laughed, giddy.

"We survived," he replied, and people around us whooped in celebration.

His eyes landed on my mouth, and irrationally, I wanted his lips on mine. I hadn't been kissed in years, and now that I was good and alive, I wanted a kiss.

But the flight attendant's voice sliced through my thoughts.

"Welcome to Reykjavik, Iceland, where the local time is eight-thirty p.m. We'll have more instructions about rerouting you to London inside the terminal."

* * *

The Keflavik International Airport was miniscule. Nothing like London or Miami. But because we'd made an emergency landing, firefighters, paramedics, and police greeted us, all heaving sighs of relief as we walked in. One cluster of airline workers even clapped at our arrival.