Chapter 138

It was a peaceful morning.

Christine lost all sense of time simply watching Adele sleep, her face buried against his chest. And at last he understood what the hunger was that he'd been feeling all along.

That emptiness that had never been filled, no matter how many countries he conquered, no matter how high he climbed.

But now, everything in him felt full.

The morning sunlight crept slowly across the wall and the bed, turning everything a languid orange.

Listening to Adele's steady, drowsy breathing against him, he let himself grow drunk on the sweet scent of her drifting through the bedroom.

If he had to put a name to this stillness, this languor, he thought "happiness" would be the right word for it.

If he could, he wanted to press this moment between the pages of a book like a bookmark, just as it was.

He wanted to go…