What She Needs - Lacey Alexander [138]
“Oh, Brent,” she said, touching his face now, too.
“I don’t like admitting this,” he went on, “but . . . I have been hiding here. It was easy, simple. And I never expected anyone to come along and call me on it, or make me suddenly start wanting something more, needing something more.” His eyes filled with more emotion than she’d ever seen in them. “I need you in my life, Jenna.”
“So now,” she said, stopping to draw his hand away from her cheek and kiss it, “it’s not about what I need—it’s about what you need.”
He nodded, completely contrite. “That’s right, sunshine. With you, I have needs.”
“I’ll meet them,” she promised.
He blinked. “Just like that? It’s that easy? I mean, you know I’ve lived a very different sort of life than you, so . . . I’d understand if you want to take some time to figure this out.”
Yet Jenna simply shook her head. “We’ll figure it out together, but I already know—I want to give you whatever you need, Brent. Because you gave that to me when I didn’t even know I needed it.”
He hadn’t given her the freedom to have casual sex with strangers, like she might have been seeking in the beginning. No, he’d given her something much more important—the freedom to have wild, uninhibited sex with the man she loved. And now he’d given her that love in return, too. What more could a girl need?
Epilogue
One year later
“So, what would I have to do to get the keys to the ship?” Kevin asked Jenna.
She simply rolled her eyes at him from her lounge chair next to the main pool. “It’s a ship. It doesn’t have keys. So I’m thinking you’d need to learn to sail before Brent would trust you with it.”
“So he knows how to sail, too?” Kevin asked, sounding a little jealous.
Jenna just shrugged. “What can I tell you? He’s a man of many talents.”
“Well, if I can’t have the ship, how am I gonna give Shannon her pirate fantasy?” He motioned to where Shannon floated on a raft in the pool in a lime green bikini.
“Let me talk to Brent,” Jenna said, taking mercy on him, “and we’ll see what we can work out.”
He grinned. “Thanks, Jenna.”
“I suppose it’s the least I can do,” she admitted. “Without your know-it-all interference, I wouldn’t be the happiest woman alive right now.”
“Damn straight,” he agreed, now that she’d reminded him.
And Jenna wasn’t exaggerating—she could barely believe all she had to be happy about.
Brent had decided to give up working at the Hotel Erotique, but he still retained partial ownership, including his beach bungalow. And that had allowed him to reunite with his family. It turned out his mother had been missing him deeply, and she and Jenna got along great. And it was clear to Jenna how much it meant to Brent to have his niece and nephew back in his life.
Brent had just started teaching a few psychology courses at a small Miami university, where he was also furthering his own education, pursuing other areas in the field. His hope was to earn a full professorial gig in a few years. Not only had he discovered he really enjoyed teaching, but his schedule left time to work on restoring the 1965 Mustang his dad had given him for college graduation—and it left summers free for island getaways. Although the Hotel Erotique was close enough to the mainland that even weekend trips were easy, like the one they were on now.
Fortunately, Jenna could write her historical biographies anywhere. Her current project focused on figures with notorious sexual pasts, such as the Marquis de Sade, Lady Godiva, and Caligula—and Brent was helping her with the psychological issues likely involved with each. She’d found it especially fulfilling to discover they worked together just as well as they played together.
Just then, Shannon came walking up the pool steps. “Is it time yet?”
Jenna checked her watch. Oh God, it was. “Yeah, come on, let’s go.”
The two of them were off to the spa for the afternoon. Afterward, they were having their hair done, and then they were going to a wedding: Jenna and Brent’s. Despite