His heavy weight crushed down on her until breathing became impossible. She swore she heard an animal growl next to her ear when the screams in the plane cut off after the horror of the initial impact. Maybe everyone has died, her dismayed mind considered.
The strong arms around her tightened even more as the plane violently bumped over the earth. An image flashed through her mind of them skidding across the ground, mimicking a sled from hell.
An explosion ripped through the cabin, deafening her with its intensity, a second before they were thrown sideways.
The man holding her didn’t let go, and his body must have hit something solid and unforgiving. The force of the impact reverberated through his body right into hers. He grunted loudly, as if he’d had the air forced from his lungs.
She didn’t know which direction was up or down anymore, just continued to experience swift movement and blinding terror until everything came to a lurching stop. Her back hit something soft before the man’s heavy weight squashed her once more.
Dusti couldn’t move. She was too stunned to do anything but wish for air while it sank in that she’d survived.
The stranger’s hand on her ass eased its bruising hold when he lifted off her a little. She heard him gasp in a breath and his upper chest pressed tight to hers when his lungs expanded. The second the pressure eased as he expelled the air, she gasped in her own lungful.
She slowly became aware of sensations. Her ass hurt from the man’s near-sadistic grip on it and her chest ached a little, probably from him crushing her a few times. She also realized one of her knees painfully throbbed.
Dusti took another deep breath and smelled the leather of the jacket under her nose. The texture of hair on her tongue made it apparent that either some of her long blonde hair or some of his shoulder-length black mane had ended up inside her mouth. She promptly spit it out, not caring who it belonged to, but just wanting it gone. His head lifted off hers.#p#分页标题#e#
Panic shot through her instantly as things came into focus and she glanced to the right. They were actually still in her seat—but the one next to hers no longer contained her sister or the spike-haired stranger.
Her mind refused to accept that Bat’s disappearance meant she hadn’t survived.
Her gaze lifted more to stare beyond that empty seat. She gaped as she saw the other side of the plane.
The cabin wall across the aisle had been torn completely open to reveal trees and blue sky, in place of windows and overhead bins with stored luggage. The jagged, torn metal of the fuselage was splayed obscenely to reveal the scenic view. Something had demolished that side of the plane.
The guy who still held Dusti slowly eased more of his weight off her when he leaned back a bit to look around too. Distress made her focus on him instead of the certainty that her sister had been thrown from the plane.
Blood marred the man’s face from a cut on one of his pronounced cheekbones, an injury a good inch long. He wasn’t classically handsome, too rugged and masculine to ever be considered a pretty boy with those dominant features. He needed a shave too, since stubble showed on his lower jawline, his chin, and shadowed his cheeks. His dark gaze swept across more of the plane than she could see while scrunched down inside the seat, where he still kept her pinned.
“KRAVEN?” He roared the word, his voice harsh.
“Fuck,” an equally cavernous male voice responded, sounding close. “We’re alive. Did yours make it?”
The stranger lowered his chin to peer into Dusti’s dazed stare. He studied her from face to chest, and finally locked gazes with her again. “She’s alive.”
“I hate flying.” Kraven sounded irritated. “I mentioned that, right?”
The man continued to watch Dusti and he actually smiled. “Several times, but we’re not flying anymore, are we? I don’t mind flying but I hated the crashing part. I bet you wish you were still in the air right now. Quit bitching and let’s see how bad the situation is. We survived. That’s all that counts in the end.”
“Get off me. You’re crushing me!”
Relief swept through Dusti at hearing her older sister’s aggravated voice and it tore her from her traumatized state. “Bat? Are you okay?”
“Dusti! Thank goodness you’re alive. Are you all right? Get off me, asshole! You weigh a thousand pounds. I need to check on my sister.”
“Maybe I would get off you if you weren’t gripping my dick. That’s not my thigh you’ve been clutching in terror, woman,” Kraven snarled. “Let go!”
“Ewww!” Bat squealed. “Get off me! My hand is trapped there, damn it.”