Xin closed his eyes and felt the hot, feminine body curl against him. The unfamiliar scent filled his nostrils. He suddenly remembered as he inhaled a breath. Mei, the crash, the jungle. His eyes immediately opened, and he saw that somewhere in the darkness, their bodies had sought not only the soft, leaf-covered ground, but also each other's.
Her gaze was drawn to him, and he took advantage of the morning light filtering through the trees to study her. He could effortlessly see why his brother had been so taken with her. She was gorgeous, with decadently thick lashes and a mouth that beckoned a man to explore its depths. His finger ached to touch her cheek, to brush against her full bottom lip….
He desired her. He'd wanted her for years, and in that eagerness had been his sin.
Mei Shei was and always would be his brother's woman.
Xin She was frustrated.
—--------------
He glanced quickly at the woman in the seat next to him as he sat in his single-engine Cessna, ready for departure. As the last of the day's light danced in through the windows, her russet hair glowed with rich features.
It had been almost a year since he'd seen her, but time hadn't blunted the intimate blue of her gaze or dulled the defined motion of her chin.
Mei Shei.
His brother's ex-wife.
She'd switched from her feminine, customised dress into pants, a T-shirt, and a sweatshirt before they left her apartment to combat the coolness of the early autumn evening.
The pants held tight to her long, thin legs, and the pale honeydew melon
The T-shirt reflected the colour of peaches onto her cheeks. He tried not to notice the thrust of her breasts against the cotton fabric.
She looked totally relaxed and self-possessed as they awaited takeoff. Then he spied her hands. They were clasped together in her lap, connected so tightly that her knuckles and fingers had turned white.
"You don't like to fly?" he asked, guessing at the cause of her obvious distress.
"Not particularly," she replied, her voice breathy with tension. "If I must fly, I prefer big commercial planes, not planes no bigger than my bathroom."
"Don't worry, I'm an excellent pilot," he said.
"Yeah, and the Titanic was unsinkable."
At that moment the tower gave him the okay for takeoff. He turned onto the runway and taxied to a high enough speed to begin his ascent.
He didn't say anything to her again until they were at altitude. "You can now unwind. From here to Branson, it should be smooth sailing."
Her hands unbuckled and she took a deep breath, able to hear above the engine's drone. "Do you fly frequently? "
"About on a regular basis," he replied. "As CEO of Shei Industries, there's always a meeting to join or some resolution to be done at one of our branch offices. I got tired of relying on airline work schedules, and I enjoy the freedom that comes with cruising my own plane."
He could say she was only quarter paying attention to him and knew her emotions would be on her nine-year-old son, Iam, and her ex-husband. "I wanted to tell you what was going through Loi's mind when he drew this newest stunt."
Xin gave a small smile from the corner of her lavish mouth.
squeezed his hold on the controls, ignoring how the expression lightened her features and made her more gorgeous than he'd imagined possible.
"You and I have never been particularly successful at second-guessing Loi and his stunts."
"An overused word," he agreed. He frowned and turned his gaze away from her. He had no clue what his younger brother had been up to. All he knew was that Loi had decided to pick up his son from school that afternoon without consulting Mei, on a weekend when he wasn't presumed to be there.
Mei had returned home from work to find a note on her kitchen table indicating that Loiwished her to accompany him to Twin Oaks, Missouri, a small town just outside Branson where Loi and Xin had spent their childhood.
Mei had started to call Xin to find out what was going on. Xin asserted on flying from Morning View, Kansas, to Kansas City. He'd picked Mei up from her apartment and they were on their way to Twin Oaks.
Xin suspected they were targets of his impulsive brother and one of his sudden tactless stunts, as was customary.
Mei shifted her posture next to him, and he caught a slight hint of her perfume. Subtle yet seductive. He remembered her wearing that aroma for as long as he could remember. She'd been wearing it since the first night he'd met her, when she and Loi Came to tell him she was pregnant and they were planning to get married.
Loi had appeared terrified, but Mei's blue eyes reflected back power and purpose, and Xin had felt a twinge of envy that his younger brother had found such a beautiful, strong young woman to assert as his own.
He'd been horrified by that fleeting stab of envy, and had purposefully distanced himself from her during her marriage to Loi. In fact, he'd been chilly and brusque with her on several occasions.
He'd hoped the attraction would fade, but after catching a whiff of her familiar fragrance, he was keenly aware of her presence next to him, as well as a tiny fire of heat that had sparked somewhere in the pit of his stomach.
He reminded himself that she was Richard's woman. Even though she and Loi Had been separated for a year, she would always be Loi's woman.
"I should be next to myself with rage at Lol For this," she interrupted him. "However, I've never been able to hold my rage against Loi For long."
This time, Xin's lips curled into a smile. "Yeah, I know what you mean." Despite his immaturity and carelessness, Loi had had an endearing quality about him that made it difficult to be truly angry with him. He was like a little boy who probably deserved a good beating but usually got away with a sigh of annoyance from the adults around him.
The smile on Xin's face faded, and he spoke thoughtfully. "However, he hasn't been himself in the last week."
"What exactly do you mean?"
Xin noticed her stare on him but did not turn to face her. He'd learned over time that staring at her was scary. It frequently led to inappropriate thoughts.
"I'm not sure... He's been unusually quiet, and when he does talk, all he talks about lately is our childhood...the past."
"At the age of twenty-seven, perhaps he's maturing. Is he still starting to work for you at Sei Industries? "
Xin gave a nod. "He's an excellent personnel manager. He gets along well with others."
Xin wondered if Loi was going to regret his divorce from Mei, and if this journey to Twin Oaks wasn't an attempt to mend fences.
Loi was probably surprised when Mei called his older brother. But she needed to find out if he realised what Lives up to.
It was Xin's idea to fly her to Branson, where they could hire a car and drive to Twin Oaks. She'd readily agreed, choosing an hour-long flight to a four-and-a-half-hour car ride.
He wondered if Mei would be willing to try the union again if Loi wanted to negotiate a settlement. Andrew would be overjoyed if this were to happen. Although he appeared to be coping well with the divorce, isn't it every child's dream to see his parents next to each other?
And all Xin had ever desired was for his brother to be delighted. He'd promised his father years ago that he'd do everything in his power to look after Loi.
As a shrill alarm screamed through the cockpit, he began.
"What exactly is it?
" Mei exclaimed.
Xin looked at the gas gauge in horror. It's almost empty. But that was unrealistic; he'd refuelled before leaving Morning View. We appear to be running out of fuel."
"But we're still miles away from Branson," Mei protested, a hysterical tone in her voice.
"Look out your screen and see if there's any space where I can set up."
"Are you kidding me?"
At that point, the plane's engine burped once and then shut down.
The only thing that could be heard was the rush of wind jolting the plane from side to side. "I'm not kidding," he said quietly.
"What's going on?
"
"The engine has stopped," Xin said as he worked to keep the small plane under regulation. With only seconds to radio for help, he slumped the microphone and kept his hands on the control system as the plane began to plunge far too quickly.
"What do you mean the engine has stopped?
" Her tone softened slightly.
"I mean, I'm not in command of this planet anymore."
"That's absurd!" " she sobbed. "You're in complete command of everything."
Her comment would have merited further discussion at another time, but at the moment, he needed all of his energy, all of his focus, to keep the plane in the air. And he was losing the battle.
"We're going down," he announced.
"I will never forgive you, Xin Shei!"
" she exclaimed as they approached the trees.
Mei had always assumed that there is a point in time before death when your entire life flickers before your eyes, and all of your delights and regrets merge into one shining moment of profound truth.
She was mistaken. As the plane fell from the sky, two thoughts raced through her mind: deep grief for her son and the shame of knowing she'd put on her most tattered pants that morning.
When they struck the trees, the sound was deafening. Metal squealed, glass shattered, and Mei didn't realise she was adding to the cacophonous sound by screaming at the top of her lungs for a moment.
As the fuselage wrecked from side to side, she clung to her seat. Her stomach heaved, as if she were on a roller coaster and had just descended the steepest drop. She vaguely noticed Xin adding a string of colourful oaths to the deafening noise.
The fuselage drifted steeply and flipped on its side without alerting. Something struck Mei on the side of her head, and she went black. Her final consciousness was that death was surprisingly uninteresting.
"Mei?"
A male voice broke through the black fog, disrupting her calm place of nothingness. The voice spoke again, annoying her with its seriousness.
"Mei! " She recognized the voice this time. Xin . How on earth had Xin Shei gained access to heaven?