MAYA

I was supposed to be doing my job.

One flight. One destination. Then I would return home to my husband and the life I’d built in Dubai.

Instead, our plane went down.

Stranded on an island with no way to contact the outside world, surrounded by death and fighting to keep the remaining survivors alive, I don’t have time to fall apart. As the senior surviving crew member, everyone is looking to me for answers I don’t have.

And then there’s Ryan Newman.

The infuriating passenger I pulled from the wreckage. The man who challenges me, protects me, and somehow sees through every wall I put between us.

I love my husband. I know where I belong.

So why does surviving become easier whenever Ryan is beside me?

And why does the thought of never seeing him again hurt almost as much as the thought of never making it home?

RYAN

I boarded that flight thinking about business.

I woke up on an island with an injured ankle, a burning aircraft behind me, and Maya Balani refusing to let me die.

She saves my life.

Then she does it again.

Maya is stubborn, selfless, maddeningly brave—and completely unavailable. The wedding ring on her finger should be enough to keep every thought about her firmly where it belongs.

It isn’t.

Every day we spend fighting to survive makes it harder to ignore whatever is growing between us.

If rescue comes, she goes back to her husband, and I go back to Boston.

Separate lives. Separate worlds.

That should be what I want.

So why does the thought of leaving Maya behind feel like losing something I was never supposed to have?

The island gave them every reason to hold on. Rescue will give them every reason to let go.