Body of a Man, Mind of Machine – Chapter Eight

This is a breezy, romantic chapter.

Chapter Eight

“Damn it, dude, you can’t be here!” the man yelled.

The two teens were standing in a dark basement, dimly illuminated by several computer screens. The walls were covered in posters and shelves of collectables, the floor was buried beneath dirty laundry, and in the corner was a bed. They were facing a fat man covered in acne and wearing a STAR WARS t-shirt. He looked like he had graduated from college, but it was impossible to tell with the thick layer of zits on his face.

“For shit’s sake, Lawrence, you said you were going to move out of your mom’s place,” Adrian muttered, looking around.

“So you’re the guy that makes fake IDs?” Jenny asked.

“Best in the tri-state area,” the man replied.

“Thanks to me. I’m the one who got you those laminating machines. You would need to rob a DMV to get the equipment I gave you.“ Adrian then began speaking to Jenny. “I’ve had him make more than a hundred fake identities for me. I like to try and keep a buffer between any illegal activities I might be doing and myself. He’s close to home, so I keep him on retainer.”

“And while I appreciate the business, I have to draw the line here! Your face is all over the news and the FBI could break down my door at any moment! I just do stuff for immigrants and kids who want to drink beer, not for serial killers!”

“Lawrence! Take out the trash!” a woman upstairs shrieked.

“Not now, Mom! I’m busy!”

Jenny and Adrian tried not to laugh.

“All I need is one more job. I need you to make at least ten IDs for her, including Social Security numbers and birth certificates. I already have plenty of my own with me. After that, you’ll never see either of us again.”

Lawrence took a moment to weigh his options. “I’m taking a lot of risk here. It would be bad enough if I was arrested for this stuff, but if I’m caught having anything to do with someone like you, I’ll never see the light of day again.”

“Don’t worry about the price. Just get it done quickly and hold the pizza grease.” Adrian then handed him a stack of hundred-dollar bills. “That’s ten grand right there, you’ll get another forty when we get what we want.”

Lawrence took the money and sighed, then turned to Jenny and handed her a digital scanner with a plastic pen to write on the screen. “When I tell you to, sign this with your chosen aliases.”

The scanner was hooked up to Lawrence’s computer and awaiting her signatures.

“All right, sign.”

Jenny took the pen and wrote down the first alias. It was recorded on the computer and then disappeared off the screen.

“Sign.”

Jenny wrote the next alias on the screen and it was recorded. The process was repeated eight more times.

“Ok, I have your signatures. Now just come over here,” he said as he got up and waddled over to a pull-down screen.

He turned on a bright projector and the light bounced off the white screen, illuminating the room. Next to Lawrence’s computer desk were the laminating machines Adrian mentioned, all of which were illegal to own unless by the DMV and licensed credit card companies.

“Ok, stand in front of the screen and I’ll take your picture. Ma’am, if you happen to be camera shy, imagine you’re at a Playboy photo shoot,” he said, turning on a camera set up on a tripod.

“Don’t push your luck,” Adrian warned.

“Can you blame me?”

“Honey, don’t get angry over a compliment,” Jenny hummed with a fake giggle. She then gave a pretty grin and Lawrence took her picture ten times.

“Ok, come back in four days and I’ll have them ready,” Lawrence said as he walked back to his computer

“I’ll throw in another ten grand if you can have them done by tomorrow.”

“Deal,” he called as they climbed up the stairs, hoping to get away before having to hear Lawrence’s mom shriek again.

“Wow, these are fantastic!” Jenny exclaimed as Lawrence handed her the IDs and paperwork. They were all perfect, down to the smallest detail. The cards looked like they had been made by the DMV and the paperwork looked completely authentic.

“Well done, here’s your $60,000,” Adrian said as he handed him the cash. With the cards collected, they left Lawrence’s home and got back in their car.

“IDs? Check. Car? Check. Stacks of cash? Big check. I think we’re ready for our vacation,” Jenny said with excitement.

The two lovers sped down the highway as fast as they wanted, only slowing down when they saw a place where a police officer could be hiding. They were traveling again and they both felt more alive than ever before. The windows were all open, so that they could feel the sunlight and breathe the fresh air. The radio was cranked up and they were both savoring the freedom of the open road. They had more money than they knew what to do with, a car, and the freedom to go anywhere. They could do whatever they wanted and they had all the time in the world. They wanted to enjoy their youth and live life to its fullest.

They were in New York, and like Every time they went out in public, they took a few minutes to alter their appearance. Adrian had already gotten a haircut he and Jenny would both wear glasses with fake lenses. Adrian had learned early on that his height wasn’t enough to fool people about his age, so he used a mixture of thin latex and makeup to give him the face of someone ten years older, and some slight padding in the shoulders. Jenny was doing the same, trying not to laugh as Adrian applied makeup to his face.

“What is that?” she asked when Adrian pulled out a metal case out of the glove compartment with several syringes and different chemical bottles. He filled up one of the syringes, and surprising Jenny, he injected it deep into his throat.

“This is a serum I invented for times like these.” His voice was much deeper now, but while sounding completely natural. “Unfortunately, even I can’t escape the scourge of puberty. If my voice were to crack when I’m speaking to someone who thinks I’m in my mid twenties, it would be disastrous. This is a sedative that weakens my vocal cords. It takes more effort to talk, but it deepens my voice.”

Standing at the top of the Empire State Building, the two teens absorbed the magnificent view. The sky above them was filled with dark storm clouds, struggling to hold in the summer rain.

“You know that old myth about how dropping a coin off the Empire State Building will give it enough force to kill someone?” Adrian asked.

“Yeah, the updrafts that surge up the sides of the building make that impossible.”

“I wonder what would happen if you threw in the proper arch. You know, give it enough distance from the building but throw it with a steep-enough curve so that it has plenty of time to fall straight with the maximum velocity.

“Honey, you know we only kill bad people, not even your aim is that good,” she teased, clinging to his arm.

Adrian looked up as a loud crack of thunder shocked the dark clouds above them. The hues of gray, blue, and purple were mixing together beautifully with the transient shifts of light and darkness. The sky was like a piece of art, crafted by a higher intelligence. There was a second crack and rain began to pour down in concurrent sheets of thick drops, without even the lightest drizzle preceding it.
“Come on, let’s head back inside,” Jenny said as the torrential rain poured down on them.

“Hold on, I want to enjoy this,” Adrian hummed.

Jenny looked at him with a twinkle in her eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Before I met you, there were very few things that stirred my Ankara bayan escort heart… machines and knowledge mostly. But one thing that I really loved was summer storms. The warmth of the rain, the perfume-like scent of the breeze, the artistic mural-like beauty of the clouds and sky, and the passionate energy that just fills the air. It’s almost like looking out across the entire universe, with every swirl of the clouds as a galaxy, every wave of rain as a nebula, and every flash of lightning as a supernova.”

Jenny tightened her hold on his arm and kissed him on the cheek. “Come on, Shakespeare, let’s go warm up with a nice hot pizza.”

Adrian and Jenny were sitting in a pair of lawn chairs on a beach at Martha’s Vineyard, enjoying the warmth of the sun. They were in their bathing suits and each holding a glass of wine. In the corner of his eye, Adrian was gazing at Jenny’s beautiful body, barely hidden by her skimpy bikini.

“I can hear your blood rushing,” she teased without opening her eyes.

“No, that’s just a wine and the sound of the waves.”

“Nice try, darling, but you can’t hide from me anymore,” she replied smugly while taking a sip from her glass.

“Yes dear,” Adrian sighed with a smile before emptying his own.

Adrian and Jenny sprinted out of the Boston Museum of Science with the security guards chasing them. They were leaving behind a trail of souvenirs as the paper bags were ripped to shreds in their hands. Police sirens could be heard in the distance as the cops drove as fast as they could in the hopes of catching them.

“Damn it, I can’t believe they recognized us!” Jenny swore as she jumped into their car.

“I know. I just wish we could have at least seen the planetarium first!” Adrian replied as he climbed in and they sped off.

They were in Washington DC, touring the museums. They made sure to not look directly at any cameras or security guards, always keeping their faces hidden behind sunglasses, hats, or cameras. After looking through the museums, they decided to stop off at the largest library on Earth.

“Ah, the Library of Congress, probably the only good thing that has anything to do with Congress,” Adrian sighed in bliss and political humor as they walked through the maze of bookshelves.

“You know, I was never really interested in coming here, but after you trained me to use my whole mind, I would love to read every book here.”

“Me too, I could spend an eternity here. But in a way, I don’t want to read any of it.”

“I know what you mean, I don’t know where to begin and I won’t even be able to put a dent in it, a part of me asks why I should bother.”

Adrian wrapped his arm around her. “Come on, let’s go see if we can start a riot between some democrats and republicans,” he suggested, making Jenny laugh.

“Come on, you need a tan,” Jenny said, trying to convince Adrian to step out of the shade of the palm tree.

They were on the Miami Beach with Jenny in her skimpy bikini and him mostly clothed.

“Darling, I don’t tan. I burn.”

“You tanned with me in Martha’s Vineyard.”

“Yeah, I can tolerate it in the Northeast, but I’d be reduced to a charred cinder down here in Miami.”

“Well don’t even try and gaze at any other women, I’ll know how long your eyes will stray.”

“Jenny, how can you even say that? I thought you knew me! It should be obvious that I won’t be able to resist all of those bronze beauties walking half-naked before me!” he joked.

“Right, like any of those “bronze beauties” could compare to this blonde goddess,” she laughed as she walked off towards the water, shaking her hips from side to side teasingly.

They were in a dark jazz club in Baton Rouge, eating fried shrimp and listening to the band up on stage.

“I’ve never been a real jazz fan, but to not listen to some live while in Louisiana is criminal,” Adrian said as he drank his Café Brûlot, savoring the taste of the coffee and brandy mix.

“The same for tasting a bit of shrimp,” Jenny said happily as she dropped another tail onto the graveyard that was her plate.

“I love it here,” Jenny purred as she stretched.

They were lying on a blanket in Yellowstone National Park, having a picnic. They were up on a hill, hiding from the summer sun with the shade of the trees above them, looking out across green pastures with the forest and mountains on the other side.

“Yeah, it is so beautiful.” Adrian replied as he emptied his glass of chardonnay wine.

Jenny placed her hand on the ground, digging her fingers into the soil. “Can you feel all of the magma underneath?” she asked, using her hand to pick up the vibrations from deep underground.

“I could feel it before I got out of the car. It’s both so faint that I can barely sense it, yet so steady that it feels like it’s just below the topsoil.”

“I hope Yellowstone doesn’t erupt during our lifetime, this place is like a piece of art,” Jenny yawned as she moved out of the thin shade and into the sunlight, taking in the warmth like a dozing cat.

“If it does erupt, America and much of the world will be buried in ash and there will be vast extinctions. But with that death will come rebirth, and new species will evolve to adapt to the new world. In time, the art that is life on Earth will be remade, as beautiful as before but much more different. Peace comes from pain in an endless cycle, with everything that has a beginning also having an end, and every end preceding a beginning.”

Jenny looked at him and smiled. “It’s a shame our life spans aren’t larger, because now I would love to see an end and a new beginning.”

“Isn’t that the very definition of our plan?”

“Why must you torment me? Honestly? You’re going to cause me an early death,” Adrian asked dryly.

Jenny’s smile did not waver. “Come on, just one picture.”

“You know I hate clichés, and just talking about this is making his organs fail.”

They were standing in Los Angeles and behind him was the Hollywood sign. Jenny was holding a camera and trying to get him to do something that Adrian loathed with an indescribable fury.

“It will just be one picture and I promise I won’t show it to anyone. Come on, please?” she asked, giving him the Bambi eyes.

Adrian gave a loud sigh. “As you wish,” he groaned.

He then held up his arms and Jenny took his picture. With the angle of the lens coupled with the position of his arms, the perspective of the picture made it look like Adrian was holding up the sign… one of the most unoriginal and hated clichés in his opinion. He dropped his arms the second the picture was taken and shook his head from side to side as if he were a dog trying to shake of a layer of mud.

“Are you ok?”

“I feel like I just siphoned gas and I need mouthwash. Come on, I need to purge my soul of that horrible act. Let’s get out of here.”

Jenny and Adrian surfaced from the steaming water, kissing passionately. They were in the Alvord Hot Springs in Oregon, making love in a remote and solitary pool. The lands around them were endless fields with the mountains lining the horizon. Steam was pouring from the ponds and rivers that stretched across the plains, with small shacks and walls built around certain few for privacy.

“I don’t know if that’s your hand or the water, but I love it,” Jenny groaned in bliss.

“I don’t even know where my hands are, the water is so warm that my sense of touch is warped.”

“I swear, I want to sleep in this water, it’s just so perfect.”

“That would be nice, but so would not drowning.”

“At Escort bayan Ankara least we could die happy,” She cooed as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him back under the hot depths.

Jenny and Adrian were sitting on a bench in front of Mt. Rushmore, tossing seeds onto the ground and feeding the birds. Beside them were bird watching books and other tourists were walking by without any idea as to the identity of the two teens.

The sights and sounds of the Vegas Strip were breathtaking to Jenny, with the two lovers constantly shifted their gaze to every flashing light and neon sign in view. She was like a cat following the dots of laser pointers. It was late in the evening, but with the artificial sun created by the combination of all of the lights blanketing each building, it was almost bright as day. They were driving down Las Vegas Boulevard with the windows wide open and Jenny snapping pictures. They passed by buildings like Fremont, which was covered in horizontal red lights, Paris Las Vegas, which had a huge hotel and a small-scale replica of the Eifel Tower, both of which were blanketed with yellow lights, the Luxor, which consisted of a large sphinx and a black-glass pyramid, and the iconic tower of the Stratosphere.

“You seem awfully calm. Nothing more than a small smile?” asked Jenny.

“Well this certainly isn’t my first time to Vegas. I own quite a few of these hotels and casinos.”

Their faces and clothes perfect, they stepped into the Bellagio Hotel. With a bellhop carrying their luggage, they made their way through the lobby, admiring the colorful glass flowers that covered the ceiling.

“How may I help you?” the woman behind the desk asked.

“We’d like to rent one of the guest suites, top floor if it’s not too much to ask,” Adrian said suavely. Jenny was standing beside him, clinging to his arm and wearing a beautiful smile.

The woman looked at the two of them with distrust, a small part of her brain telling her that they were minors, but their appearances making it difficult to create sufficient doubt. “May I please see a credit card and some ID?”

“Of course,” Adrian said, pulling out his wallet and taking out one of his fake IDs and a gold card.

Jenny did the same, taking her own ID out of a very expensive handbag. They handed the woman the IDs and she studied them closely, but was unable to find any sign that they were forgeries. “Welcome to the Bellagio, Mr. Carter and Ms. Valentine,” the woman said with a wide smile.

“Actually, it’s Mr. and Mrs. Carter. We’re on our honeymoon.”

Jenny elbowed him in the ribs ever so softly.

“Oh, congratulations! Here, this is your key to the Honeymoon Suite. It’s on the top floor, as per request,” she said, handing back their IDs, the credit card, and giving them the keycard to their room. “Enjoy your stay at the Bellagio!”

“Thank you,” Adrian replied as he, Jenny, and the bellhop walked away. Jenny and Adrian stepped into the elevator with the bellhop taking the next one. The instant the doors were closed, Jenny turned to him. “We’re on our honeymoon?” she laughed.

“I couldn’t resist.”

The elevator opened up at the top floor and they stepped out, with the bellhop coming out of the second elevator with their luggage. Their luggage bags were built with security in mind, having both a combination lock and tear-proof frame, making sure that no one could break into them. They walked down the well-lit hallway, eventually coming to the honeymoon suite with their room number. Adrian opened up the door with the keycard and they stepped inside. He tipped the bellhop and their luggage was brought in before they were given their privacy. Excited, they turned on the lights, gasping as they looked at the illuminated room.

They were facing a living room with several white relaxation chairs, two large velvet couches, a granite coffee table without a single ring or mark, a large flat-screen TV against the wall, beautiful art along the walls, and vases filled with different flowers and incense. They moved through the living room and into the dining room, where there was a long rosewood table with six chairs and ornate silverware, dishes, folded napkins, and silver candleholders. They stepped into the bedroom, which held a king-sized bed with the softest sheets either of them had ever touched, two oak bedside tables, two reclining chairs, and a flat screen TV. The bathroom walls, floor, and sink counter were made of flawless pearl marble, it had a heart-shaped hot tub surrounded by different soaps, oils, and flowers, the shower had several spouts on the ceiling and on the walls, and the toilet looked like it had never been used. The bedroom, the dining room, and the living room all had a vast window view of the Vegas Strip, with large curtains for privacy.

They wandered into the bedroom, when suddenly Jenny turned to Adrian and jumped up into his arms with a squealing laugh. He laughed as well as he fell onto the bed with her on top of him, kissing him passionately. She rolled off him and they both lied on their backs, staring at the ceiling.

“This is so incredible,” she gasped.

“I know,” he said, then turning to her. “But it wouldn’t be nearly as incredible without you.”

Adrian stood by the bedroom window, looking out over the Vegas Strip and the Bellagio fountains down bellow. He smiled as Jenny walked over to him, holding two glasses of Champaign. Adrian took one of the glasses and drank lightly, savoring the bittersweet taste. She looked absolutely gorgeous with the light of the Vegas Strip illuminating her beautiful face.

“Cheers, I thought we should have a little celebratory drink for getting to Vegas,” she said, clinking her glass against his. “And I wanted to try something new.”

Once their glasses were empty, she put her hands on his chest and slowly pushed him over to the bed. They both lied down, kissing each other and ripping off each other’s clothes. Adrian was on his back and Jenny was straddling him, smiling sweetly.

“So what did you have in mind?” he asked, running his hands over her smooth body.

“You’ll see. Just lie back and relax, baby, I’m going to take care of you.” she said slyly as she leaned forward and kissed him.

After licking every corner of his mouth, she began to move down, purposefully running her tongue and lips across every scar on his chest. Adrian knew what she was going to do, but he still took a shuddering breath when she reached his lap and took his manhood in her mouth. Her tongue and cheeks were soft beyond description, and the sound of the forming and breaking suction stirred his most primal lust. While he enjoyed it physically, he had yet to learn to look past the lewdness of the act. Jenny had done this at least two dozen times already and she had developed great skills for it. She stroked his cock with both hands while wiggling her tongue in the slit, she deep-throated him to the point where she would start to tear up, she spat on his cock and used it as lubricant to jack him off, and even used her tongue to play with his balls.

After several minutes, Jenny sat up and straddled his lap. “You’re going to love this, but it will take me some time to get used to it. Just be patient with me.”

Adrian was silent with a stony expression on his face as she gripped his manhood and guided it to her asshole.

“Stop,” he finally said before entering. Jenny stared at him with surprise. She climbed off me and he sat up, facing away from her. “I don’t want to do that.”

Behind him, Jenny wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned on him, with her breasts pressed Bayan escort Ankara against his back. “What’s wrong?” she whispered in his ear.

“When we do stuff like that… I can’t feel you. I was never comfortable with the idea of oral and anal sex, because it left the realm of making love and just became sex. I want us to be intimate for the emotional bliss, not the physical feeling. I don’t want us to just have meaningless sex like a pair of horny idiots. I want us to be intimate in way that has emotional individuality, but if we focus more on the physical feeling than the emotional connection, then we become just like everybody else and lose who we are.”

Jenny pressed her cheek against the back of his neck, and he rocked back and forth, sitting in silence.

“Should we just go to sleep?”

He could hear the sadness and disappointment in her voice, and it made his heart ache. “No, you said that you wanted to try something new, well I have an idea…”

The bathroom was filled steam as they stood in the shower, kissing passionately and enjoying the feeling of the hot water running down their bodies. As they kissed, Jenny moved her hands from his chest, to his shoulders, and finally to the back of his neck, sending him the signal that she was ready. Holding her close, he picked her up, with her legs wrapped around his waist and her arms around his neck for support.

Holding her up with one hand, he used his other hand to guide his manhood to her pussy, and then lowered her down onto it. Jenny released a trembling moan as it entered her and looked up, letting the hot water pour directly on her face. With him holding her entire body, he began lifting her up and down on his cock, sending it into the farthest corners of her pussy. Her insides were so loose and soft and he knew she wasn’t so hot and wet because of the shower.

With her bobbing up and down, Jenny ended their kiss and buried her face in the side of his neck, holding onto him for dear life. As she gave a continuous moan, Adrian let the hot water and the thick steam distort his senses, filling him with an eternal bliss. With the hot water running down every inch of his skin and Jenny pressed against him, he lost track of what his nerve endings were actually touching. His body was both numb and in a state of euphoria. He had to hold Jenny’s body with one arm and lean against the wall with his other, just to keep from falling.

Adrian was shaken from his daze as Jenny released a particularly loud and shrill moan. He could feel her pussy clamping around his manhood as she had one climax after another. The euphoria caused by the shower and grip of Jenny’s pussy on his cock triggered an orgasm for him as well, and he countered Jenny’s orgasms but firing thick streams of semen up into her.

Jenny leaned back against the wall of the shower, gasping for air. While her whole body was trembling, the vise-like grip of her arms and legs had not weakened. “I love you, Adrian, I love you so much,” she said, almost hysterically.

“I love you too,” he murmured, brushing back strands of her hair and running his fingertips along her soft cheek.

“Adrian, you misunderstood me in the bedroom. I didn’t want to do oral and anal for the physical feeling, I wanted to try them because I want to be close to you in every way possible. You said you didn’t want to try them because you felt like it separated us. On the contrary, my darling, it gives us another way in which we can be linked. If there is a way I can feel close to you, feel linked to you, and feel bound to you physically and emotionally, then I want to try it. I just want to feel you, my love, in every way possible. Every inch of my body belongs to you, and I want to feel you every way I can.”

Adrian could actually hear the frustration and desperation in her voice, she even sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

“That was beautiful, Jenny. And I promise, I will do anything to make you happy.”

Adrian pulled his still-erect manhood out of her pussy and pressed it between the cheeks of her flawless ass. He guided the head to her asshole and slowly pushed it in, as gently and carefully as possible. Jenny instantly released a shrill squeal as the head of his cock slowly entered her. Her arms and legs tightened around him and she even bit my shoulder.

“It’s ok, baby, it’s ok,” he whispered.

Inch by inch, he slowly pushed his dick in all the way, with Jenny’s body trembling more and more. Once it was in all the way, he held it there for a minute so that Jenny could become accustomed to it. Unlike her pussy, which acted almost as a slit between the muscles of her left and right side, her anus applied pressure from all sides like a ring, and while her asshole was lubricated enough for his manhood to move inside it, it wasn’t nearly as slippery as her pussy. The incredible tightness and friction make it very difficult to move inside her, but he had to admit that it also felt absolutely amazing.

Once her body became calm, Adrian slowly lifted her up and lowered her back down, driving his manhood up into her asshole. Jenny released a mix of a moan and shriek from the movement, but after the second and third time, she calmed down. He took his usual rhythm, using his arms to bob her up and down on the shaft of his cock. Jenny had let go of his neck and had her back against the wall of the shower, moaning like an opera singer as he drove his manhood up into her asshole over and over again.

At last, after five minutes, Adrian and Jenny had a simultaneous orgasm. He emptied the last of his semen reserves into her asshole, filling her up until she was overflowing. Pussy juice and semen from his first orgasm flowed from Jenny’s cunt from her climax, with both their juices running down their legs. They stood in the shower for several minutes, letting the hot water wash it all away.

At last, he turned off the shower and lowered Jenny to her feet, but she fell before she could even stand up. He crouched down, holding her hands.

“Jenny, are you ok?”

She just gave a sleepy smile. “Don’t worry, I’m fine. My whole body just feels like jelly. Could you grab me a robe?”

Adrian opened up the shower door and stepped out into the steam-filled bathroom. He walked over to the towel closet and opened it, finding two guest robes. He put one on and brought the other to Jenny, helping her put it on. With her unable to walk, he put one arm under her back and the other under her knees and picked her up.

Adrian stepped out of the bathroom with Jenny in his arms, the shower tapping out its last few drops. With her hand on the center of his chest and her face buried in the side of his neck, she was almost purring as he carried her to the bedroom. He gently laid her down on the bed and wrapped her in blankets, then climbed into the bed from the other side. He moved over and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close.

She rolled over and looked into his eyes, with her own eyes filled with love. “Adrian, this has been the most incredible year I have ever experienced. The night we first made love was the greatest day of my life, and every day after it has been better than the one before it. I’ve had so much fun traveling with you, fighting with you, and living with you as the center of my world. I love you, Adrian, and words can’t describe how happy you have made me.”

“I love you too. Before I met you, I didn’t know what it meant to be happy, I didn’t know what it meant to feel love, and I didn’t know what it meant to not be alone. I was just existing, but now I can actually live. You have brought me more happiness and peace than any enlightenment or strength could.”

“I love you,” they both said simultaneously. Then Jenny pressed herself against him, Adrian held her close, and they slowly began to fall asleep in each other’s arms.