Page 79 of Dearest Protector

And her new career was wildly successful.

Ariel didn’tneedme anymore for anything.

She was a woman who was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

“We need to talk,” I started grimly. “I should have insisted that we had this discussion before anything happened between the two of us, but I couldn’t fucking do it.”

She took a sip of her coffee as she met my eyes over the rim of the mug. “That sounds ominous,” she teased after she’d swallowed. “Talk. I don’t think there’s much of anything we can’t or haven’t discussed. I have to be honest, I kind of knew there was something bothering you. I figured you’d tell me eventually.”

Oh, there was something we hadn’t talked about, and I fucking hated myself for not mentioning it earlier.

Hell, Ariel knew me better than anyone ever would, so yeah, it didn’t surprise me that she sensed something was eating me alive.

I broke eye contact.

I couldn’t stare into those trusting, happy blue eyes and still tell her everything.

“I’ve had the same nightmare that I had on Friday night many times,” I said stoically, forcing the words out of my mouth. “It’s not something I made up in my imagination, Ariel. It’s exactly what happened the night that you got hit by that taxi. I reached for you as you started to walk in front of traffic, but I missed grasping your arm by a matter of inches.”

“I-I don’t understand, Ben,” she said, confused. “How can you possibly know exactly what happened? You weren’t there. How could you have…reached for me?”

I gripped the handle of my coffee mug until I was afraid that it was going to snap.

I waited, knowing she was rolling over what I’d said in her head.

Any time now she’d figure out the obvious.

“Unless,” she said hesitantly. “Unless youwerethere.”

I nodded. “Iwasthere. I was a total asshole. I came up next to you at the light while you were waiting for it. I was in a hurry, and I anticipated the light change. I stepped off the curb. I stopped before I walked into oncoming traffic. You didn’t. That’s why you stepped in front of that taxi, Ariel. You started going forward becauseI did. It was obvious you thought that the light had changed because I moved ahead. By the time I saw you going forward because I had, it was too damn late. You bolted, probably because you were worried about being late. I couldn’t grab you before that taxi plowed into you. The whole thing played out just a few feet in front of me. Funny thing was, I was in a hurry to get to the same event you were headed toward, and the only reason I wanted to get there was to meetyou.I never fucking noticed you were standing right next to me, and I didn’t immediately notice you started moving ahead because I had. Not until it was too late.”

“B-but we didn’t even know each other back then,” she stammered pensively, her tone completely bewildered.

I let out a frustrated breath.Christ!I knew I was doing a shitty job of explaining.

“I was at your premier earlier that night, Ariel. Generally, I’m not a huge ballet fan, but the business associate I was in New York to meet with had tickets, and he asked me to go with him. He’s one of the donors for the ballet company. I was thoroughly enchanted from the moment you took the stage. I knew that I had to meet you in person. Although I was thoroughly gutted when Chris told me that he had a relationship with the principal dancer.”

“Are you talking about Chris Longmont, the guy who was hosting the afterparty I was on my way to attend that night?” she asked.

“Yes. Chris was also a business associate of mine at the time. We weren’t friends, and I knew very little about his personal life.”

“He wasErik’spartner, the dancer who played themalelead,” she said. “He and I had no relationship except for friendship. It’s hard not to be friendly when two people spend that much time dancing together. I’d never even met Chris in person before.”

“That’s a little fact I didn’t know about until much later, after I discovered that you were back in Florida and my stepsister’s best friend,” I informed her. “But even though I thoughtyouwere exclusive with Chris at the time, that didn’t stop me from wanting to meet you, wanting to know if you were just as captivating in person as you were on stage.”

She was silent for a moment before she finally asked quietly, “Were you the guy who stayed to help me at the scene?”

“Yeah. Everything you told me that happened in your dream really did occur. After Ian’s accident, I got certified in CPR and took some first aid courses. I didn’t know a lot, but I did whatever I could to stop the bleeding and tried to keep you breathing and conscious until the paramedics arrived. I didn’t have a lot of medical knowledge, but I knew enough to know that you were in really bad shape.”

I had to force myself to dispel the image from my head of Ariel laying in the street, all of the blood pouring from her body because of her extensive injuries.

It was a picture I’d never been able to totally get out of my head.

“If what I dreamed is actually true, you helped a lot just by being there,” she told me, her tone matter-of-fact. “No wonder I felt so connected to you when we met here. Youweren’ta stranger. God, I sensed that, but I didn’t listen to my instincts. In my mind, it was impossible that we’d met before, but you were with me during the most traumatic event of my life. In my dream, I was absolutely terrified, and your voice was the only thing that made me want to try to breathe, which probably wasn’t easy considering my lung was collapsed. Did you really lie to the medics so you could ride with me to the hospital? That’s what I was told. A witness said that the guy who rode with me to the hospital said he was family.”

“I did,” I confessed. “I told them I was family. I promised you that I wouldn’t leave you, and I didn’t. Honestly, I couldn’t. Not when you were alone, and no one was there with you. I had to ride in the passenger seat, but I stayed with you. You lost consciousness on the ride to the hospital. After you arrived in the ER, I wasn’t allowed to go in with you because they had an entire trauma team that needed to be in that room. I waited in the waiting room until Chris and Erik arrived. Chris told me to leave, that he had everything covered and that he and Erik would stay there with you. I felt like Ihadto leave, even though my gut was telling me to stay. Chris knew that you and I had never met. Fuck! I thought he was yourboyfriend, and that he’d stay with you every moment that you were there in the hospital. Had I known that Chris wasn’t your significant other, and that he was only there because Erik was your friend, I never would have gone, Ariel. I would have stayed.”

“Even though I was a stranger to you?” she questioned.

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