The morning light filtered through the expansive windows of their penthouse in Manhattan, casting golden streaks across the marble floor. Sophia stirred beneath the Egyptian cotton sheets, her body instinctively seeking the warmth beside her.

But the bed was empty.

She reached across the mattress, finding the indent still warm from Julian's body. A smile played on her lips. Even after five years of waking up like this, there was something thrilling about those rare moments when she couldn't immediately find him. The anticipation of the hunt.

Wrapping herself in the silk robe draped across the foot of their bed, Sophia padded barefoot toward the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked Central...