"Last night... Brian only did that in the heat of the moment, right?"

Although he was quite a bit of a bastard at times, Joanne was still willing to believe that he was not some kind of crazy, evil maniac.

As she let her thoughts drift away, images from last night flashed across her mind frame by frame, like a movie stuck on replay.

His scorching lips, the possessive way he had kissed her, his irresistible touches, and his hot breaths... Every moment from last night reappeared before her eyes vividly.

Luckily in the end...

Or else, she herself could not be sure what would ensue.

Joanne patted her cheeks, which had grown a little warm. She slipped into Brian's jacket, pulling it tight around her. Then, she stepped out. To her surprise, Brian was nowhere to be found in the bedroom. The door to the study was ajar and she could vaguely hear Brian's voice which came from the study.

Carefully, she walked towards the study. Just when she was at the door, she heard Brian's voice. "Go ahead and sleep first."

Huh? Was he talking to her?

Brian noticed the woman who was standing at the doorway with her hands clutching her clothes. He saw the blank look on her face. What he saw compelled him to put down the document he had been reading and walk out.

Joanne felt a shadow loom over her, causing her breaths to become unsteady...

At 167cm, she would not be considered short, but when Brian was near her, she would always feel his towering presence pressing down upon her. She was shorter than him by more than a head.

Right now, his sleeves were rolled up and the top two buttons of his shirt were undone. She could vaguely notice the beautiful lines of his forearms and his muscular chests. He looked both casual and formal at the same time, which she thought was sexy and enticing.

Brian perused Joanne, who looked like a lost rabbit. "I asked you to go to sleep first."

"What... about you?"

Brian detected fear in her eyes, so he thought she was thinking about what had happened yesterday. His eyes darkened slightly. "I'll sleep in the study. You have nothing to worry."

Panic flashed across Joanne's eyes. "That's not what I meant..." She felt her cheeks reddening. Taking a deep breath, she raised her head and stared straight at Brian. "I was asking when you're planning to sleep! I wasn't asking you to sleep in the study..."

Brian crossed his arms over his chest, half-smiling. "You're not worried that I might try something?"

"You won't be able to even if you want to!" Joanne said as she turned around, her lips downturned.

She took off Brian's jacket and hung it in the wardrobe. Then, she quickly crawled under the covers.

For a short while, Brian watched her, his lips curling up slightly as he did. He kept watching her until he received a text from Gavin reminding him that the conference call would begin in five minutes. He turned around and headed back into the study.

The conference call had been going on for over an hour. Just when the call was nearing its end, he suddenly heard noises coming from the bedroom. It was Joanne. This was exactly like yesterday.

A change flitted across his face. He abandoned the conference call and went into the bedroom. Joanne was indeed having another nightmare. She was wrapped up in the covers. A frown had formed between her brows and she was mumbling something inaudible. When he stepped closer, he could finally make out what she was saying. She was calling his name. In a low voice, she was pleading. "Brian... Brian... save me..." Her slender hands began to grasp and fumble on the bed's surface.

Brian held her hand. "Joanne."

Suddenly, her hand trembled. Then, her hand clutched Lu Buoyan's hand tightly, unwilling to let go. For a moment, she seemed slightly reassured, though she was still frowning and struggling.

Brian lay down and pulled her into his arms. He whispered her name, comforting her until she slowly calmed down. That was when he realized something. He realized that more than being afraid of what he might do to her, Joanne was even more afraid of sleeping alone.

Her abduction still haunted her. She had yet to put that incident behind her.

"Brian..."

Her voice diminished as if she was about to fall asleep. Brian stroked her back. "I'm here. I'm right here. Don't be scared."

The crease in Joanne's brows eased. Slowly, she opened her eyes. Half-asleep, she stared at Brian hazily as if she had no idea where she was right then.

"It's okay now," Brian said, kissing her forehead. His deep voice held the power to comfort and reassure. "Go back to sleep."

"Mm..."

Joanne could not tell whether this was reality or just a dream. All she knew was that one second ago, she had been in the hands of a murderous psychopath, but now, she was in Brian's arms.

He came for her, right? Then she would be fine.

She closed her eyes. Shortly after, her breaths began to even out. She had fallen back to sleep.

Brian's phone vibrated softly. It was a text from Gavin-

"Conference call?"

He typed two words in reply: Meeting dismissed

He tapped the send icon before turning off the phone.

The night fell into a silence. The only audible sounds were the breaths of the person in his arms. Her face was buried in his chest. His slender fingers grasped the front of his shirt while her slumbering face still held a tinge of fear.

Brian caressed the apple of her cheek. He was starting to feel drowsy too, so he closed his eyes. He fell asleep that way.

Joanne had been having frequent nightmares ever since her abduction. The nightmares all featured the same scene over and over again. In her dreams, she kept seeing the dark and evil eyes of the murderer. The murderer was slashing a knife across her body, carving her up, dismembering her.

Sometimes she would spring awake immediately. Other times, she would go back to sleep. The following day, Joanne felt the stickiness on her back when she woke up. Obviously, she had sweated a lot in her sleep.

She could count on one hand the number of nights she had had such peaceful sleep.

But that did not seem right either. Before her sleep turned peaceful, she seemed to recall she was having a nightmare.

Confused and dazed, Joanne opened her eyes and realized that it was already morning. She did not expect Brian to be the first thing she saw.

He was sleeping soundly. His breaths were shallow. His chest rose and fell slightly as he slept. Right then, she noticed that he had very long eyelashes.

Usually, her attention would be drawn to his gracile eyes, which held profound depths. When their eyes met, she would always turn away, not daring to look at him again. "Wow. Now I know that he's got pretty eyelashes," she thought.

But why was he still wearing yesterday's clothes? Then, she realized that she had been using his arm as a pillow. His other arm was wrapped around her waist. Her entire body was held snugly against his own. She was even holding on to his shirt...

"What on earth is this? Did we..."

In that instant, Joanne remembered. She did have a nightmare last night. Then, after that...

After that Brian had appeared suddenly and held her. In those few hazy seconds, it seemed to her that Brian had kissed her. Then, he told her that everything was alright before asking her to go back to sleep.

Because of his embrace and his words, she was able to sleep peacefully for the rest of the night.

At that moment, Brian had made her feel safe more than anyone else. If her eyes had not been playing tricks on her, she was pretty sure that his eyes, tone and movements had been gentle.

That type of gentleness would seriously have her addicted.

If that had all been just a dream, she was willing to close her eyes right this instant and sleep forever.

Subconsciously, she wished it had not been a dream. Greedily, she hoped that it had all been real.

Just when she was reaching out her hand to caress Brian's face, his eyelashes fluttered.

"He's waking up!" she thought.

For about 0.001 second, Joanne panicked. Then, she quickly closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep as if she had never woken up.

Brian's eyes opened. The first thing he did was to glance at the person in his arms. He did not see anything out of place, so he thought she was still fast asleep. He got out of bed silently before pulling the covers over her. While doing so, his movements paused, but just for a very brief moment. Then, he got back to the task as if nothing happened. After that, he walked into the bathroom.

When the sounds of Brian's footsteps became faint, Joanne finally opened her eyes. She heaved a sigh of relief under the blankets.

When Brian was adjusting the blankets on her, her entire body had grown stiff, so much so that she could barely move her toes.

"But everything from last night really did happen, didn't they?" she thought.

Lost in thought, Joanne turned to her side. All of a sudden, Brian's figure fell into her line of sight-he was standing by the bathroom door with both hands in his pockets. His slightly rumpled shirt and dress pants did nothing at all to curtail his breathtaking attractiveness. His lips curved into a half-smile. His eyes were profound and deep, as if he had already seen through everything.

Joanne gasped in surprise, her mind racing.

She could not let Brian find out that she had been pretending to be sleeping no matter what!

In a feat of quick-wittedness, she stretched her body. "Oh. When did you wake up?"

"A bit earlier than you."

"..." Joanne felt herself turning into stone right then and there. All of a sudden, her world seemed to be in total chaos.

The curve on Brian's lips widened. Seemingly in a good mood, he shut the bathroom door. Joanne bit down on the covers, regretting everything.

How did Brian even find out that she had been pretending? Surely her acting skills were not that bad!

"Idiot," Brian thought with a sigh as he brushed his teeth in the bathroom.

It was true that he had not noticed anything strange before he was adjusting the covers. But after that, her entire body had gone completely taut. Did she really think he would not notice?

He suddenly remembered their walk in the park last night. Her hand had grown stiff too when he held her hand.

Did his touches really make her that nervous?

That seemed a rather good thing.

Bright and early, Brian's mood had strangely improved.

During breakfast, Brian handed the morning paper to Joanne.

Joanne usually read magazines. She did not have a habit of reading the papers. She took the newspaper blankly. "What?"

"Read the legal section."

Joanne flipped to the legal section and saw the headline-Arlington's Psychopath Murder, He Tianming, Sentenced to Death.

Based on the article, the court had given He Tianming a death sentence. He Tianming did not make an appeal, so he would be executed after two months. The entire middle section consisted of an analysis of the reason behind He Tianming's psychopathic behavior. The article concluded with reports of He Tianming's recent encounters while he was in death row. When he first got into prison, he was surrounded and beaten by other inmates until he was severely injured. At the moment, he was bedridden and his body could no longer function normally. The number of people who cared about him was meager.

He had taken two innocent lives in cold blood. He had even taken two medical examiners hostage. There was not a single person who would show him an ounce of sympathy. This seemed to be the proverbial, 'karma'.

Joanne returned the paper to Brian. "Why have me read this?"

Brian answered with his own question. "Haven't you been having nightmares recently?"

"... Mm." Joanne felt a bit strange. "How did you know?" Even if Brian had accidentally found out about her nightmare last night, he could not have concluded that she had been having nightmares all this while.

"You've been having nightmares for two nights straight," Brian said. "You've studied human psychology before. Surely you know better than me that the nightmares were symptoms of PTSD."

"So, you asked me to read the article to let me know that the murderer is going to be executed soon?" Joanne asked. "You think that might help get rid of my nightmares?"

Brian sighed. "No. I'm just reminding you that the perp is in custody because of what you and Shawn had done to help the police. Right now, he's in jail and bedridden. He could barely carry out normal human functions. Two months from now, he will vanish from this world. He'll never be able to hurt you again.

That's why, Joanne, you don't have to be scared anymore."