Without Law 4

by Eric Vall

  “Oh, just hand me the bottle and let me get my buzz on,” I laughed as I pulled the bottle away from her. I took a drink, wiped my mouth, and handed the bottle back.

  “I guess I’ll share,” she chuckled. “One of these days I am going to teach you how to taste wine though.”

  “I can taste it just fine,” I said.

  “No, I mean like really taste it,” she said. “There are all sorts of complex flavors and subtle undertones that one can learn to pick up on. It’s really not that hard, and it’s pretty fun.”

  “You know quite a bit about wine, don’t you?” I asked.

  “Yeah, my dad taught me,” she said. “It was one of the few things that we actually enjoyed doing together.”

  “It’s hard not to enjoy drinking,” I said.

  “Exactly,” Tara agreed. “At first that’s why I did it, but I actually really liked learning about wine.”

  “I bet your dad enjoyed getting to spend time with you too,” I said.

  “I don’t know about that,” Tara sighed. “I liked getting to spend time with him, but sometimes I felt like he brought me along just to keep up appearances. Like if I was there that showed his buddies that I wasn’t some screw up who was out causing trouble around town.”

  “I bet he enjoyed you being there way more than you think,” I said. “Sometimes it’s really hard to see just how much our parents care for us.”

  “I probably won’t see him again though,” Tara said quietly. She then let out another sigh, took a drink, and leaned into me. “Do you think there’s any chance my Dad’s still out there somewhere?”

  “Yeah, I bet he is doing just fine,” I said. “You said you guys had money right? Well that would have helped him get a headstart on this whole survival thing if the whole country was affected by the EMP.”

  “That’s true,” she said. “I kind of feel silly being so attached to my dad. I mean he wasn’t the greatest father, but so much of what I did was to try to gain his attention and acknowledgment.”

  “I bet he’d be proud of you now,” I said. “You’re a survivor, a warrior, and a quick learner. All of those are things for a parent to be proud of.”

  “I’m doing it all on my own too,” Tara said. “I can’t cheat my way through this course.”

  “Sleeping with the teacher doesn’t even up your grade,” I teased.

  “No, but it’s still worth doing,” she replied as she looked up at me and smiled.

  “I always make it worth your while,” I said.

  “Yeah, you do,” she sighed. “I’m still recovering from what you did to me earlier. Don’t worry, I’ll be ready for more later.” She winked at me and took another drink of wine.

  “I look forward to it,” I said with a smile

  For a while we just sat there on the couch and enjoyed the wine and the warmth of the fire roaring under the hearth. We were cozy despite the chill outside.

  “You never talk about your mom,” I said.

  Tara shrugged and stared into the fire.

  “I take it you two didn’t get along?” I asked.

  “She died a couple years ago,” she muttered.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said.

  “It’s not your fault,” Tara said. “She got cancer and not even my dad’s money could save her. It hit me harder than anyone else in my family though. My mom was one of my best friends, and I felt kinda lost without her. Of course, it didn’t help that my dad started to date almost immediately. I mean, it almost seemed like he was happy she was gone. At least then he could play the field again.”

  “Maybe it was his way of grieving,” I suggested.

  “Yeah, right,” Tara said as she rolled her eyes. “He found a skinny little whore not long after. This girl couldn’t have been more than five years older than me, and after they got married, she started trying to buddy up to me.”

  “How did that go?” I asked.

  “Not great,” Tara sighed. “It was like I was the only one who could see her for the gold digger she was. The more she tried to be my friend, the more I hated her.”

  “That sounds pretty rough,” I said.

  “It wasn’t all her fault really,” Tara said. “I was kind of a raging bitch.”

  “Come on, don’t say that about yourself,” I said.

  “No, I mean it,” she said as she looked at me. “The entire reason I ended up at this school was because one night, at one of my dad’s big parties, I got into a screaming match with his new wife. She tried to tell me how to live my life and I wasn’t having it. I called her a lot of really rude things, so my dad decided to send me to a nice secluded school where the only person I could embarrass was myself.”

  “Alright, that’s pretty bad,” I confessed.

  “That’s not the end of it though,” she said. “Last summer when I came home from school things were tense with this chick, but I was trying to make it work. I didn’t want to just be the rich bitch that everyone assumed I was so I was attempting to put my best foot forward.”

  “I take it that didn’t go well?” I asked.

  “No, it didn’t,” Tara said. “My dad threw this huge party at the end of the summer. Everyone he knew was there, and I was on my best behavior. I kept my drinking light and I tried to be pleasant, but then I found my dad’s new wife in another room with one of his business partners. She had the dude half undressed and was really working him over.”

  “Shit,” I groaned. “So, she was cheating on your dad?”

  “Yep,” Tara sighed. “I started to scream at her. She ran to my dad and I followed. Things got a little heated, and I ended up pulling her hair and pushing her onto the ground. I was just about to start swinging when a couple guys stepped in and held me back.”

  “Wow, that’s pretty intense,” I said.

  “Yeah….” Tara sighed.

  “It sounds like she had it coming though,” I said.

  “That’s what I thought too,” Tara said. “Turns out she was just helping my dad land some big deal by seducing this guy. I guess she was going to get his signature on some contract and then slip him a pill to knock him out before she did anything.”

  “That’s totally fucked up,” I said.

  “Yeah,” Tara sighed. “She said she was doing it for him, but he didn’t seem to know about it.”

  “You couldn’t have known about it,” I pointed out.

  “No, but I still should’ve handled it better,” she replied. “Sometimes my temper just gets the best of me. By this point my dad had enough, and he told me not to come home next time my school had a break so it wouldn’t upset her.”

  “That’s a bit harsh,” I said, “and a bit unfair.”

  “It is what it is,” Tara said. “I wish I could fix it, but it seems like it’s a little too late for that now.”

  “How would you have fixed it?” I asked.

  “I dunno,” she sighed and looked at the bottle in her hands. “Growing up we had a lot of money, and that really went to my head. I was a massive fucking snob for almost all of my life. If I could have been a better person, a better daughter, I might never have had to come to this college in the first place.”

  “Seems that worked out for the best, though,” I said.

  She looked at me and smiled. “I guess so, but I still wish I had been better. Maybe if I had changed sooner people would have liked me more.”

  “I like you, and so do the rest of the crew down on campus,” I said.

  “They do now, sure, but it wasn’t always that way,” Tara said. “Our first couple months together were rocky. I didn’t really start to make friends until shortly before you came along.”

  “It sounds like you just needed your chance to shine,” I said. “For all the bad that this EMP brought, it seems to have done at least a little good too.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” she said. “I have always kinda been afraid to put myself out there and try.”

  “How come?” I asked.

 
; “It was always hard to get people to take me seriously,” she said. “They always just saw me as the spoiled rich brat and assumed any attempt at sincerity was just a part of some selfish plan.”

  “It can be really difficult to change people’s perception,” I said with a nod. “It’s a shame too because you can do some truly great things when you put your mind to it.”

  “I know,” she said. “When I apply myself, I can actually get shit done, but most people don’t stick around long enough to see that. I didn’t help myself much with my previous behaviour at home, but even when I did try I always seemed to be an embarrassment.”

  “If only he could see you now,” I said. “I can’t speak for the others, but I know that I am pretty damn proud of all you have accomplished these past weeks.”

  “You’re more than a little responsible for who I have started to become,” Tara admitted. “You’re really good at bringing out the best in us.”

  “That’s just thanks to my military background,” I said. “I had my own team back when I was a Ranger, and part of being a good leader is knowing how to get the best out of those in your command.”

  “There’s like officer school and stuff to help with that, right?” Tara asked.

  “Yeah, but I never did any of that,” I said. “Instead I got given a team and had to learn through good old fashioned trial and error.”

  Tara was silent for a moment. She stared into the fire and took a sip of wine as if she needed to mull over my words.

  “To be honest, I’m still learning,” I said. “Working with you guys is a bit different from working with a team of guys all trained the same way you were.”

  “I hope we don’t make things too difficult,” Tara said.

  “No, not at all,” I said as I shook my head. “There’s just a learning curve to handling a new team. Especially one made up mostly of women.”

  “Oh, come on, we aren’t that bad,” Tara said.

  “That’s not what I meant,” I said. “You just think differently than soldiers.”

  “No duh,” Tara chuckled. “We still do good though, right?”

  “Yeah, you guys are doing really good,” I said with a nod. “You actually follow orders better than some guys I served with even.”

  “What can I say, I like doing what you say,” Tara said.

  I looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “Noted.”

  Tara took another large drink and then handed me the bottle. “I’m starting to feel the wine now.”

  “Is that why you suddenly got so talkative?” I asked.

  “No, you just have a comforting quality about you that makes me want to open up once in a while,” she replied with a shrug. “What about you? Do you ever talk about yourself or is being mysterious part of your personality?”

  “Not sure there’s much to say, really,” I said.

  “Well, none of us know a lot about you,” Tara started. “We know about your dad, and how you sorta drifted away from your mom, but that’s really about it.”

  “I’ve never been great at talking about myself,” I said.

  “Aw come on, do it for me,” Tara begged.

  “Well, what do you want to know?” I asked.

  “I dunno, where did you grow up?” she asked with a shrug.

  “Little town in Indiana called Plymouth,” I said. “I lived a few minutes out of town on a small chunk of land.”

  “That’s cool, did your family farm or anything?” Tara asked.

  “Nah,” I said as I shook my head. I stared into the fire and took another drink of wine. “I think my dad wanted to turn it into a farm when he bought it, but that never happened.”

  “I’m sorry,” Tara said.

  “It is what it is,” I said with a shrug. “I still had a good time out there. We had a lot of space so I ran around and managed to find enough trouble to keep me entertained.”

  “Is that why you’re so good at all of this survival stuff?” Tara asked.

  “I think it’s where my love for camping and survival started,” I said. “I didn’t really start to learn anything important until I was older though. A lot of it came from just going out and seeing what worked. Though I learned a lot in the military too. They had to make sure we were ready to stay alive in extreme climates and conditions.”

  “Well it’s sure come in handy,” Tara said. “I still can’t believe how lucky us girls got.”

  “I got lucky I found you guys,” I said. “I could have just as easily walked out of the woods into the middle of the biker camp or something.”

  “I guess that’s true,” Tara shrugged. “I still don’t quite get why you were in the woods at all.”

  “I needed some time to myself,” I said. “It had been a while since I had gotten to do some real wilderness survival so I took a small bit of gear and headed off into the wilds to unwind and figure out what to do with my future. Plus, I had just gotten done with my time in the Rangers so I needed the solitude to ease myself back into the civilian world. It’s a bit shocking how different being an active duty soldier is.”

  “Didn’t you want to catch up with family or anything?” Tara asked.

  “Don’t really have any left,” I explained. “Dad passed away a long time ago, and my Mother died while I was on my second tour of duty. I stopped by Indiana and paid my respects when I got home, but I have no one left out there.”

  “Why Vermont though?” Tara asked. “It gets pretty cold here in the winter, and hot in the summer. Wouldn’t you have rather chosen some place nicer?”

  “I wanted the challenge of extreme seasons,” I said. “To me that was always part of the fun. It’s not like I was ever really in much danger. I was only a couple days from civilization.”

  “That’s still a long way to go for help,” Tara said. “Did you ever manage to figure out your future?”

  “I had a few ideas, yeah,” I said with a smile. “The plan was to get back into town, grab a burger and a beer and weigh my options before going on with my life. I was thinking about either reenlisting or heading back to Indiana. I thought it might be fun to buy up my childhood home and actually turn it into a farm.”

  “Aw, that’s kinda cute,” Tara said with a smile.

  “Turns out my future was already planned, and I just didn’t know it yet,” I said.

  “Well, I’m glad things turned out the way they did,” Tara muttered quietly.

  “Me too,” I said with a smile. Then I relaxed back into the couch and stared into the roaring fire.

  Tara took a sip of wine, snuggled up to me, and stared into the fire as well. For a while we just sat there in silence and watched the flames flicker and dance around one another.

  “Well, thanks for sharing,” Tara said quietly.

  “Thanks for listening,” I said.

  “You’re welcome,” she said. She turned to me, smiled, and emptied what remained in the bottle into her mouth. “Would it be selfish of me to try to change the subject now?”

  “I don’t know, what did you have in mind?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow.

  “Mmmm, maybe it’s the alcohol talking, but I kinda want to open my legs for you right now,” she purred.

  “Have you recovered enough?” I asked with a smirk.

  “Guess you’ll have to find out,” she said as leaned back and spread her legs.

  Already her pink pussy glistened with a layer of moisture. She giggled and pulled off her high heels. She tossed them to the side and started to rub my crotch with her stocking covered feet.

  “Looks like I’m not the only one who’s a little excited,” Tara teased as she looked at the bulge in my pants.

  “Yeah, but I can’t do much with these pants on,” I said. “Think you could help me take them off.”

  Tara bit her lip, nodded, leaned forward, and unbuttoned my pants. She let out a delighted gasp as my cock sprang up and almost hit her in the face. She smiled and started to stroke it with one hand. “It still smells like me. I wonder if i
t tastes like me.” She opened her mouth wide and enveloped my cock between her pillowy lips.

  We spent the next hour teasing and making love to each other. The sounds of our enjoyment filled the spacious cabin until neither of us could take it anymore. I finished deep inside of her, and then we collapsed on the bed and struggled to catch our breath.

  “I think I am officially done for today,” Tara sighed as she absently ran her finger over her cum-filled pussy.

  “Aw, you too sore to go again?” I teased.

  “Hell yeah I am,” she replied. “You really put me through my paces today.”

  “What can I say, I love what I do,” I chuckled.

  “It shows,” she said. Tara covered her mouth and yawned.

  “You’re not tired already are you?” I teased.

  “Oh shut up,” she replied with a smile. “Think you can grab me a towel? You sorta left a mess inside of me.”

  “I suppose I can manage that,” I said as I hopped out of bed and headed for the bathroom.

  A moment later I stepped back into the room and tossed a soft white towel onto Tara. Then I plopped down on the bed beside her as she cleaned herself off.

  “Thanks for bringing me up here,” Tara said as she tossed the towel onto the floor.

  “Yeah, I hope it was a nice little vacation,” I said.

  “It was amazing,” Tara said. Then she rolled over, laid her head on my chest, and let out a contented sigh.

  “I’m glad,” I said. “Thanks for the good time.”

  “Anytime,” Tara said sleepily. She yawned again, closed her eyes, and nuzzled against me. “See you in the morning, Tav.”

  “Sounds good, Tara,” I said. “Sleep well.”

  “Yep,” she said. “Night night.”

  I smiled, ran a hand through her hair, and listened to my companion's gentle breathing until I slipped off to sleep.

  Chapter 6

  The next morning came way too soon. I woke up as the light of the morning sun shone on the snow-covered mountainside. As I opened my eyes, the intense light seared my vision, so I groaned and threw a hand up in front of my face.

  “Time to get up,” I said as I gently shook Tara awake.

  “I want to sleep,” Tara muttered, half awake.