What She Needs - Lacey Alexander [134]
She let Andre’s words sink in as they walked; she tried to analyze what they meant to her, right now. Wouldn’t living life, taking advantage of it all, mean enjoying the last fantasies Brent offered her? Wouldn’t it mean enjoying her last times with him, despite the hurt?
And yet, she simply didn’t think she could do that. Sometimes it was best to cut your losses and move on.
Still . . . somehow coming home from this—from Brent and the Hotel Erotique—and getting back to real life, sounded impossible. She knew it was smart to move on from this—she just wasn’t sure how to.
When Jenna returned to her room, she opened the door to find an envelope had been slid underneath. She leaned back her head with a sigh, then stooped to pick it up.
On Hotel Erotique stationery, she found a handwritten note from Brent.
Please don’t go yet. Come see me tomorrow. There will be no one else there, just you and I, Jenna. I just need to see you, talk to you. I’ll be waiting for you at 10 a.m. at the spot marked on the enclosed map. Please come.
Jenna looked at the map of the grounds and found the indicated spot was labeled GARDEN OF EDEN. She’d never even noticed it on the map before and the very name made her suck in her breath. So Brent wanted to meet her in paradise, huh?
She had no idea what he could want at this point.
Maybe to apologize?
If that was his intention—God, it would be embarrassing in a way, since she’d laid herself so bare before him, both literally and figuratively. And what happened today had proven that even if he cared for her, he surely didn’t care as much as she did for him. And she really shouldn’t see him again—it would only increase the gnawing ache she suffered in her chest, stomach, and between her thighs, every time he came to mind.
Still, if he wanted to tell her he was sorry . . . maybe she should let him. It would begin . . . the closure. She’d gotten some closure by going to his beach house this afternoon, but not as much as she’d hoped. And letting him say whatever he wanted to would be better than running away from him and everything she’d let happen here.
And so she would go. Tomorrow. Ten a.m.
As she lay down to sleep a few minutes later, Jenna found herself thinking back over all her experiences at the Hotel Erotique. From nipple rings to shaving her pussy, from stripper shoes to vibrators to orgies, Brent had . . . stripped down every sexual idea she’d had about herself and replaced it with something shocking and new.
And maybe Andre had been right—maybe such wildness had been hiding inside her all along. If it hadn’t, she surely couldn’t have done such things so easily, let herself go so completely. And despite her hurt, some of the encounters she’d had on this island had felt . . . glorious, at least at the time. And she had Brent to thank for that. So that was a reason to go see him tomorrow, too—another bit of closure.
Tomorrow she would say goodbye to him—then she would go home and begin finding out if this had changed her life for the better or the worse.
She barely slept. Too much had happened.
All that remained was recovering from it.
And seeing Brent one last time, of course.
The Garden of Eden appeared, on the map, to be at the far end of the island. So after a room service breakfast, Jenna dressed in the casual skirt and lace-edged tank she’d chosen to travel in and set off, following one of the many shrubbery-lined trails that seemed to crisscross the grounds.
Having seen only a handful of the Hotel Erotique’s fantasy settings, she could only imagine everything she’d missed, every other exotic or historic scenario the guides here created. No wonder Brent had retreated here from his heartbreak and never left. It was truly a fantasy world, where little was real. Despite knowing she wouldn’t want to live in a world this utterly kinky all the time, she could see the appeal of moving to an island where every day was a fantasy, where existence was