Style Block Comments being protected

Hi all, I'm finding that comment tags within style blocks in the page are protected and all styles between are removed.

Pasted in Source mode:

<style type="text/css">
<!--
p { 
        color: green;
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
   
}
-->
</style>

And the result after switching to WYSIWYG mode, then back to Source:

<p>
<style type="text/css">
<!--{cke_protected}{C}%3C!%2D%2D%0Ap%20%7B%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20color%3A%20green%3B%0A%09margin%3A%200%3B%0A%09padding%3A%200%3B%0A%09%0A%7D%0A%2D%2D%3E--></style>
</p>

I'm pulling what little hair I have left. Can someone help with a work-around for protecting styles in a style block? If I remove the comments, it saves the code, but I'd like to include them.
Thanks!
Joel