Staring at the monitor that shows her room, I watch as she sleeps.

If I’m honest with myself, I’ll admit the woman’s gotten under my skin. Everything about her makes me feel something. Attraction. Compassion… Protectiveness.

Protectiveness.

That’s something I’ve never felt toward a woman before.

My eyes drift over Ariana’s sleeping form as my thoughts turn to this evening's conversation. She didn’t take the news of Tao coming after her well. Then again, I have to remind myself she’s not from my world.

It’s going to destroy her when she finds out her own brother ordered the hit.

The thought has my hands fisting, and it only increases the protectiveness I feel toward her.

Ariana makes a restless sound and kicks the covers off her. Her breathing speeds up, and then she begins to toss and turn.

She’s probably having a nightmare.

About me killing her.

Getting up from the chair, I leave the security room and head to Ariana’s bedroom.

Just as I open the door, she mumbles fearfully, “No.No.No!”

I walk to the side of the bed, and leaning over Ariana, I shake her shoulder. “Ariana. Wake up.”

One of her hands flies out, connecting with my chest. I take in the terror etched into her face while strands of her hair stick to her clammy skin.

“Ariana, wake up,” I try again, shaking her a little harder.

A breath explodes over her lips as she shoots up, and I move back just in time, so she doesn’t slam into me. Her eyes open wide, and they only focus on me for a second before she scrambles away from me.

“You had a nightmare,” I say.

Ariana’s off the bed, and she doesn’t stop until her back slams into the wall.

The expression on her face grinds at me, and where it only annoyed me when I kidnapped her, it now upsets the fuck out of me.

I don’t want her looking at me with fear.

Before I can think things through, I move around the bed. Ariana makes a strangled noise when I get close to her, pushing her body hard against the wall as if she’s trying to escape through it.

Lifting my hands, I frame her face and say, “It was just a nightmare. You’re safe.”

Her eyes are feverish as they flit over my face. I watch as everything from terror to hopelessness flashes over her features.

“Shh… it’s okay,” I say, hoping to calm her down. Leaning into her, I lock eyes with her. “It was just a nightmare.”

She takes a couple of deep breaths, her expression wary, and then she whispers, “You-you stabbed me.”

I shake my head and gently brush the wild strands of her hair out of her face. “It was just a nightmare. You’re safe.”

For a moment, she just stares at me, and slowly the atmosphere begins to change from her terror tainting the air to something intimate growing between us.

Suddenly the trembling in her body begins to increase, and then she gives me a desperate look.