Page 69 of The Bad Girl List

Normally, I clamp down whenever someone mentions Elle, but I keep talking. “I would have liked a small wedding, but Elle said we had way too many friends and family members to get married on a terrace the size of a tiny house. I didn’t mind. I loved her so much, I would have gone through a Drive-Thru Elvis chapel if she’d wanted.”

I gaze out over the vineyards. Sometimes, the life I had with Elle feels like it belonged to someone else in another dimension.

I surprise myself again by continuing to talk. “Elle was magnetic. She made friends instantly. I remember one day she told me she was going to have lunch with someone she met in the bread aisle at Safeway.” I chuckle at the memory. “I thought it was so weird, but that was Elle. She liked people. My parents wanted her to help me with wine sales after we got married.”

“She sounds like a dynamic person, like your dad. She probably would have been good at sales.”

“Yeah.” Pain spasms in my chest.

Dom sees it. “You okay?”

“I’m okay.” I take a seat on one of the benches, trying to sort out my thoughts.

I want Dom to know why I live by myself and spend all my time with my three-legged rescue dog. I want her to understand why my parents went crazy when I brought her here tonight, and I want her to understand just how broken I am.

“I’m sorry, Trevor.” Dom sits down next to me. “I shouldn’t have brought her up.”

“It’s fine, really. I want to be able to talk about her. She … died on a sales trip. That’s what I was thinking about.”

Dom takes my hand and squeezes it, giving me another soft smile. “I’m sorry you lost her, Trevor. She sounds like an amazing person.”

“It was hurricane season in Florida. I was with her and my Uncle Theo. It was the first time I’d gone on a sales trip without dad. He’s a bit of a control freak, in case you didn’t pick up on that.” Words gush out of me. I grip Dominique’s hand like it’s an anchor in a storm. “It had been about a year since Elle and I graduated college. Dad sent us with Uncle Theo to a meeting with a wine buyer for a big chain store in Florida. We aced the meeting.” I stare up at the moon, remembering the way Elle had laughed when I twirled her around in the parking lot. “Uncle Theo gave a vineyard presentation. He ran all the vineyard operations before he died. Elle and I had done a ton of research on this particular chain of stores, and we knew the buyer’s taste. By the end of the meeting, we had landed floor displays in every store in the entire state. It gave us the biggest rush. We couldn’t wait to tell Dad.”

It’s like a dam has opened up inside of me. Tears push at the back of my eyes, but I can’t stop.

“We knew a hurricane was coming, but we had spent months setting up this meeting. None of us wanted to cancel. We got caught in a rainstorm on the way home. Uncle Theo was driving. He lost control of the car and wrapped it around a palm tree.”

My chest heaves as emotion fights to be freed. “They both died that night. Elle and Uncle Theo. That was the last time I ever went on a sales trip for the family. I came back and took over the vineyard operations. Sometimes, I wish–God, I know it sounds awful and selfish, but sometimes I wish I’d died in that car with them.”

I don’t even realize I’m crying until a tear hits the back of my hand. I think about Elle’s dress with the blue butterflies, and how hot her blood had felt against my skin as she died. I think about the drenching storm and sizzling lightning and the sound the car made when it hit the palm tree.

Dom says nothing, her dark eyes large with compassion. In a smooth motion, she gets to her feet and stands in front of me, pulling me close. Tears break forth, rushing to my eyes.

I let Dom hold me, my face pressed into the swell of her breasts. This is the most I’ve ever said to anyone about the night of the accident. I haven’t cried this much since Elle’s funeral. I rest my hands on her hips, a cold shiver running through me as old grief flows out of me.

Her lips feather across my forehead in the softest kiss. She doesn’t tell me everything will be okay. She doesn’t tell me Elle would want me to find meaning without her. She doesn’t say anything. She just holds me, her hands running softly up and down my back, giving my grief space to do what it needs to do.

I look up and take her face between my hands, running my thumbs along her cheekbones. She smooths my hair back from my face. When I pull her down for a kiss, she doesn’t resist.

It’s a soft kiss at first, tender and gentle. Then I slide a hand around the back of her neck, pulling her closer and deepening the kiss. I swipe my tongue across her lips, tasting her. Her tongue meets mine.

I grab her hips and pull her down to sit on my lap. A soft moan escapes her mouth as her leg nestles over my erection.

The sound she makes short circuits my brain. For the second time in the span of a few minutes, Dominique breaks a dam inside me. Electricity arcs through me as I bring a hand down to cup her breast through her dress.

It’s not enough. I can’t stand the flimsy layer of fabric between us. I need to feel her, need to have her skin against mine.

I yank down the front of the sundress, exposing her to the moonlight. Her breasts are so fucking perfect. I lower my head and take one in my mouth, sucking greedily. I squeeze the other one with my hand, rolling her nipple between my fingers.

Our movements become frantic. She claws at my shirt, dragging it free from my jeans as she sucks on my neck. I push her dress all the way down past her belly button and slide my hands over her perfect skin. Her hands climb up the inside of my shirt and sizzle across my torso.

The desire I felt at Zeke’s that first night returns. My dick is throbbing and I can’t see anything beyond Dom’s face. My only coherent thought is that I want her, right here, right now, and I don’t give a flying fuck if our extended relations are all sipping Late Harvest a hundred yards behind us.

She tackles my fly, her fingers fumbling at the button. I growl in response and wad up the lower half of her dress, exposing a dainty cotton thong. It looks so perfect on her petite figure, but it’s the only thing standing between me and what I want.

I twist it between my fingers and tear. The panties fall away, revealing a dark triangle of hair. Blood pounds in my ears as Dom’s hand dives into my pants and pulls out my dick. I groan as she tightens her grip around me, hand pumping up and down.

“Fuck, that feels good.” I grab her hips and pull her closer. My breaths rasp in and out of my nose as she continues to stroke me. I pull her legs around and tilt her back just far enough so I have a perfect view of her glistening folds.

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