Chapter 1

Tick ... Tock ... Tick ... Tock.

Hailey tucked her knees in against her ribs and arms curled over her head trying to force out the noise. It took her about 10 minutes of groggy irritability to remember she didn't have a tickling clock in her bedroom. When she shifted, where her usual cotton sheets would have crinkled, where the sheets she laid on swooshed. Her head jerked up sharply, her blurry eyes taking in her surroundings.

"Where'd my bed go?" She asked to no one in particular in a hoarse voice.

"Your old home." Came a deep, masculine voice from behind her.

That brought her sense to the forefront. She brought her head around and stared at the sexiest man she'd ever seen in her entire life staring at her with amusement in his deep eyes. "I gotta remember to stop eating cold pizza before bed." She muttered dropping her head again.

The chuckle that responded sent a chill down her spine. She ignored it, she'd wake up anytime soon, she was sure. She didn't even wanna try to see what could happen in this dream with that hunk, it would end before the good parts she was sure.

"Hailey..." The hunk spoke.

She squeezed her eyes closed. "This is real." He said.

"Yeah right." she chuckled.

"Look at me." He ordered.

She let out a groan and sat up again and looked at him. "What?"

"Do you really believe I'm a dream?"

"Of course not. That's absurd." She said clearly. "You're a figment of my imagination, which my subconscious took and plopped in my dream. That's science, you know."

He smirked. "Is it?" He chuckled again. "Think real hard. Concentrate. Is this a dream, really?"

She looked annoyed for a moment and then sat back to stare at him thoughtfully, obviously just trying to indulge her dream man. Then her eyes widened at him. "Crap!"

"See?" He grinned smugly. "How do you know I'm not a dream?"

"My dream people don't have faces. Well ... they do, but blurry, indistinct faces. Your face is very clear..." She rubbed at her eyes and stared harder at him. "Where am I!?" Her head swung around staring at the room she was in.

The room looked about centuries in the past, and in a different time zone in a millionaire's castle!

Her eyes swung around to the huge fireplace, to the four poster canopy bed, to the basin and vanity. It looked like she was on a movie set with no crew. She glanced down at the burgundy silk sheets to find herself naked to the waist and she let out a screech as she pulled the sheets around herself and glowered menacingly at her captor ... her very handsome captor.

"Why am I nude!?"

He wisely hid a grin. "Uh ... your clothes were ... destroyed on your journey here."

"What journey!? Where am I? Who are you? Am I dead?" Her barrage of questions came at him swiftly.

"The one that got you here. Esson. Cullen. And no."

She glared hard at him. "Why am I here?" she whimpered cowering back against the headboard.

His eyes softened a bit and when he took a step toward the bed she froze, making him hesitate before he perched on the edge. "Its all very difficult to explain, but know I'm not going to hurt you. I'm ... here to help you, okay?"

She seemed to search his eyes before nodding slightly. "Things like this don't happen to people like me. Are you sure this is real?" She whispered.