Terror In The Snowstorm Ch 03

A further chapter in the story of the unlikely relationship between the beautiful blond heiress, Tara Hawthorne, and me, Seth Johnson, a poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks, during Christmas break in our sophomore year in college. At the time, Tara was nineteen, and I was twenty. You will have to read the first two parts of this story to understand this one. Warning: As is usually the case with my stories, this one is pretty long.

____________________

After I had gone soft in Tara's beautiful pussy, I reluctantly withdrew and cuddled up next to her on the lounge chair.

"Seth, do you believe in sudden love?" Tara asked.

"What do you mean by sudden love?"

"It's the only way I can express it. What I feel for you can't be called love at first sight, since I spent most of this past semester trying to ignore you because I didn't think you were good enough for me. We grew up in completely different economic and social situations."

"Go on," I said.

Tara continued, "My family is old-money rich, and my parents both earn enough money now to have this mansion, our staff, a yacht, and all the other trappings of wealth without touching even the interest from their investments and inheritances, let alone the principle. I could live in outlandish luxury for my entire life without ever earning a penny on my own.

"You, on the other hand, are lower working class. I took one look at that contrast between ourselves and dismissed you completely. I actually went out of my way to belittle you and to be mean to you. Even last night, when you found me in my wrecked car, I was really nasty to you when all you were trying to do was help me. I confess that I even enjoyed knowing that my attitude irritated you. It was my snobby bitch persona trying to convince me that I was better than you. After the last twenty-four hours, everything has completely changed. Suddenly, I think I'm falling in love with you."

I lay there, looking at her perfect face and her perfect nude body. I remembered everything about every encounter we had ever had, from the first time I saw her at the beginning of the semester, through our light flirtations during the first few days I knew her, the disdain she showed me after she found out we were different, the terror we had survived last night, the meetings with her parents, right up to this moment when her juices were drying on my face and my cock, and a small drip of my cum was leaking from her vaginal opening. I struggled to express myself.

"Tara, I don't know what to say. I've think I've always wanted to love you from the moment I first saw you. It was probably pretty obvious to you, since I don't have much of a poker face. When you shut me down, it hurt me pretty badly, but, as I already told you, that's in the past. I have never been one to live in the past, and I don't want to start doing that now."

Tara was smiling at me, looking deep in my eyes while lightly stroking my chest with her fingernails. I said, "Right at this second, I want to let myself fall in love with you, but I don't want to be hurt again. I told you how devastated I was this past summer when my ex-girlfriend cheated on me with a guy I had thought was a good friend. I'm not dwelling on that anymore, and I'm certainly not comparing you to her, because that would be unfair, and I'm not that sort of person."

At that point, Tara leaned in for a light kiss, and then pulled back to listen.

I said, "But, I have to ask myself if what we both seem to be feeling isn't colored by our relief at having survived our experience with Zeke. If that's all it is, and I hope it's not, these feelings will wear off. One or both of us will want to move on alone. It will be easier on both of us if we don't let our feelings get carried away too quickly. I don't ever want to hurt you, but I'm going to have to ask you to let us just live in the moment for now. I can't let myself tell you that I love you right now. Please, Tara, can we let our feelings flow and grow naturally? Can you deal with that without hating me?"

Tara smiled at me, then almost laughed. "Men! Now I know why my parents like you so much. You're so analytical and logical, just like my Dad. He never does anything without dissecting and examining it, mulling it over, formulating a plan of discovery and action, and then executing his plan meticulously. That's why he's so good at the practice of law. He makes intelligent, informed decisions about every case presented to him. He rejects the ones he doesn't think have merit, and then throws his entire being into the ones he believes can be won. He's never lost a case, you know. Never."

Tara continued, "In your own way, you're just like him. I love him completely. He is my hero, almost a god in my eyes. I can just imagine him saying the same things you just said. I agree with you. You're right. What we seem to be feeling may be sort of an adrenalin crash or something. A lot of me thinks there's way more to it than that, but if we want to be true to ourselves, we should just take this one day at a time. I don't like it, but I understand that it's for the best. At the very least, though, we'll always have today. If it never goes any farther, I can make myself accept that. I want you to know, though, that the last twenty-four hours have changed me for the better."

"How?" I asked.

"You've made me realize how selfish and immature I've been. My parents didn't raise me to be a snob. They tried to teach me by example to be generous and accepting of others. Remember what I told you about my volunteer work at the children's hospital. I really enjoyed that. I got to appreciate those poor, damaged, desperately ill kids. I learned to see beauty and love in them. Thank God I did, since that's the only reason I was able to see the basic, childlike good in poor Merle. He gave his life trying to save me, simply because I was nice to him and listened to him. The poor bastard didn't have two nickels to rub together, but he gave me the biggest, most valuable gift anyone could ever give."

It was my turn to give her a gentle kiss, and I did. She pulled away and continued talking. She said, "You, too, have shown me compassion and love I had almost allowed myself to forget existed. You insisted on rescuing me from the blizzard, even though I had tried for months to hate you for being 'lower class.' You tried to fight off Zeke, knowing full well you were going to lose. You tried to find a way for me to escape being raped by him, and to save my life. You would have had a much better chance of your own survival if you had turned your back on me or if you had joined him in humiliating and raping me. But your soul is too pure and full of love to let you do that. You're like my parents. You give of yourself. You're protecting me even now, by forcing me not to rush my romantic feelings for you.

"I see now that my sorority sisters almost ruined me. I let them become role models for me. They are all shallow, materialistic, spoiled princesses. I have the money to be accepted by them, and I allowed them to re-shape my personality in their image. They made me forget what's really important in the world -- love, compassion, sharing, and family."

"Speaking of family," I said, "I need to call mine. And we need to get cleaned up and dressed for dinner with yours." Reluctantly, we got dressed. Watching Tara put her clothes on was almost as erotic for me as it had been watching her take them off.

"Dinner is at 7:30," Tara said. We'll shower and dress. I'll meet you at 6:00 in the great room and you can make your phone call. We'll just hang out and talk afterwards until dinner is ready."

"Sounds good to me," I replied.

"After dinner, I'll give you a complete tour of the house. I'll even show you a way to get to my apartment that you can use without anyone seeing you, if you like. I'd really like to repeat what we just did, in love or not."

Obviously, I agreed!

At precisely 6:00, Tara found me in the great room. I was dressed in one of my new suits, and she was wearing a beautiful, simple, knee-length cocktail dress that complemented, but didn't flaunt, her beautiful body. At the same time, we looked at each other and said, "Wow, you look great!" Then we laughed. Sara said, "Look, Seth, your tie matches my dress. That Lawrence! He knows this is one of my favorite dinner dresses. It's no accident that your tie matches."

"You think he planned this?"

"Of course he did. He does that to Dad all the time. He finds out what Mom is going to wear when they go out, and he chooses Dad's wardrobe for him to be certain that their colors work together. He's an incurable romantic. Suzette told me that he thinks we make a beautiful couple."

"Oh boy," I groaned. "Now the serving staff is plotting my moves with you."

"Yeah, you're pretty much doomed. Anyhow, what are you going to say to your parents?" Tara asked.

"I don't think I want to tell them everything that happened last night on the phone. I'll just give them enough information to try to satisfy their curiosity. I'm going to try to get them to come here for Christmas. I think they'll be OK with that, since we have no living relatives other than each other. Christmas is a pretty simple affair at my house. Since it's the day after tomorrow, I'm going to try to get them to let me stay here until then, if you think that will be OK with your folks."

"It's definitely OK," Tara said. She took my hand and led me into a small room off the great room where there was a telephone. "Do you want to be alone to call them?"

"No, I wish you would stay," I answered.

"Do I have to keep my hands to myself? Do I have to keep my clothes on?" Tara asked.

"For the moment, yes. I need to be able to form coherent sentences, and you would make that impossible."

My Mom answered on the second ring. "Seth, honey, are you OK? We've been worried sick about you. A man called early this morning and told us you were staying at a friend's house, and then her father called and talked to your Dad and said you were fine, but we really wanted to hear your voice."

"I'm fine, Mom. It's just been a really crazy time since I left school to come home yesterday. The storm up there was a lot worse than it was here. There was a big pile-up on the interstate, so I had to come home by all back roads. I knew my way from having hunted in the woods there, but the roads were awful, with deep snow and lots of drifting. I found my friend, Tara, from school, stranded in the middle of nowhere. She was OK, but she had skidded off the road and totaled her car. She wanted to call her folks to come and get her, but her cell phone had no signal, so I brought her here to her place. We didn't get here until about 5 this morning. Her folks put me up and fed me lunch. We're going to have dinner in a little bit."

My Mom, said, "Seth, Mr. Hawthorne invited us to come over there for Christmas. Was he serious?"

"Yeah, Mom, he and his wife are really cool. They really want you to come. I really like both of them, and I'd like to stay here for Christmas with them, but only if you and Dad will come here, of course."

"Oh, your father just came in from work," Mom said. "Tom, it's Seth on the phone. He wants us to go to his girlfriend's house for Christmas. Do you want to talk to him?"

"Hi, Son," my father's voice boomed into the phone. "Your mother and I were really worried when we heard about the roads you were on yesterday. A guy named Lawrence called early this morning and said you were staying with the guy he works for, a guy named Joshua Hawthorne III. Is that that big-shot lawyer Hawthorne?"

"Yes, Dad, he's a lawyer, and his wife is a doctor. They're really nice people."

"And his daughter, is she your girlfriend? You never mentioned a new girlfriend," Dad said.

"Well, I'm not sure you could call her my girlfriend, but I met her at the beginning of school this year. She's in one of my classes, and recently we've gotten pretty close. You'll just have to meet her. I know you'll approve," I said.

"Oh, that means she's cute." I could almost hear the twinkle in his eye. I know my Dad pretty well.

"She's way more than cute, Dad. She's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, except of course for Mom."

Dad laughed. "Seth, I don't know where you got your velvet tongue from, but your mother heard that, and she's actually blushing. Good job, son."

"Dad," I continued, "I really want you and Mom to meet her family. They're really great people. Very down-to-earth, very giving. Our family has never associated with any rich people, but I know you'll like them. Will you guys please come here for Christmas?"

Mom got back on the phone. "Seth, if they're rich, I don't know how we'd fit in. I mean, what should I wear? What should I bring as a hostess gift? I think we'd be a little awkward."

Tara was leaning close to me, and could hear both sides of the phone call. She grabbed the phone out of my hands. "Mrs. Johnson? This is Tara Hawthorne, Seth's friend. My parents and I really would like you to be our guests at Christmas. I really like Seth, and I'd really love to meet you both. My parents are very taken with Seth, and they just want us to all get together so they can meet the family of the man who saved my life last night. I'm not exaggerating when I say I would have died out there in the woods if your son had not helped me out. My parents are really big on re-paying debts of kindness, and they want to share Christmas with you to try to show that. Please say you'll come."

"Tara, that's so sweet of you all. Tell your parents we'll be there. But what should we wear? How do we get there? And what should be bring?"

Tara replied, "Are you and your husband going to be home tonight? OK, give me your address. Lawrence, who you've already talked to, and his wife Suzette will come over tonight around 8:00, if that's all right. They both work for my Mom and Dad. Lawrence used to own a men's shop and his wife has a great fashion sense. They'll get you new outfits and have them delivered tomorrow. Don't worry about any gifts. My parents and I would never expect you to put yourselves out on such short notice. And don't worry about finding our place. We'll send a car to get you. Lawrence and Suzette will fill you in on all the details. My parents and I really want to do this. It would mean a lot to us. And, please, don't worry about anything. I was sitting close enough to Seth to hear a lot of what you and your husband said on the phone. We're actually just ordinary people. We may be a little better-off than some, but inside we're pretty much the same as everyone else. From the little I've learned about you and your husband, I know you'll like my parents and they'll like you. OK?"

My Mom seemed a little flustered, but she said, "Well, all right, Tara. That's pretty over-whelming to me, but if it will make you and your parents happy, we'd be thrilled to come for Christmas. We'll see Lawrence and Suzette around 8:00."

"Great!" Tara exclaimed. "Seth and I will call you tomorrow. Bye!"

After Tara hung up the phone, I said, "You didn't have to do that, you know."

"Yes, I did. Weren't you paying attention at lunch? Mom and Dad made it clear earlier today that they wanted to do this. They feel they owe your folks for bringing you into this world so you could save me. They always pay their debts. Plus, they really like you. They admire you. They think you're a great guy, which you are. Besides, they can see how much I love, I mean, like you, and they want to do this for me too. You're going to have to learn, if you continue to hang out with me, to accept what's given to you. You've always worked very hard for what you get, which is great, and you should always continue to do that, but accept a gift once in a while!"

"You're an amazing girl, Tara," I said.

"I should certainly hope so. I come from amazing parents. Please, Seth, let them get to know you. I know how they are. They're very genuine, loving people. They always wanted a son, but Mom couldn't have any more children after me. Having a young man around is a big thrill for both of them, I can tell."

We went back into the great room and sat on a sofa. Since we were pretty much on public display to anyone who may have happened by, we resisted our impulses and simply sat there, talking and holding hands. Tara paged Lawrence and told him what she had promised that he and Suzette would do for my folks. He seemed very pleased to have the opportunity to do this, and hurried off to talk to his wife. As 7:30 approached, we made our way to the family dining room. We took the same chairs we had occupied at lunch. Tara's parents came in shortly afterward. I stood, and her Mom hugged me and gave me a peck on the cheek. Her Dad leaned over Tara and kissed her forehead. They then changed positions, so her Mom could kiss Tara's cheek while her Dad shook my hand warmly, and pulled me into a brief "guy hug."

"It's really good to see you again, son," he said as we all took our seats.

"Thank you, sir. I'm honored to be here," I said.

Tara's Mom asked, "Did you call your parents?"

Before I could answer, Tara interrupted excitedly. "They're coming here for Christmas! Isn't that great?"

Her Mom said, "Tara, please, let him answer for himself. Seth, tell me all about the call."

"Well, Dr Hawthorne...," I began.

Tara's Dad interrupted this time. "Seth, a ground rule. Please don't call us sir or ma'am, or Mr. and Dr. We're Joshua and Amanda to you. My wife and I have talked about you a lot since we met you this morning, and we both really like you very much. We want you to treat us like friends, and we hope you let us earn that title."

"Josh," Amanda said, "you're as bad as Tara with the interruptions. Seth, please go on."

"I called my folks at 6 this evening. I didn't tell them much about what happened to Tara and me last night. I'd rather do that in person. I just said that the roads were horrible, I found Tara in her wrecked car, and I brought her here. I told them that we didn't get here until about 5am and that you put me up in the guest room. I said that we had lunch together and that we'd be having dinner too. They said that Lawrence and Mr. Hawthorne, I mean Joshua, had called them to assure them that I was safe and that your husband had invited me to stay for Christmas and that you wanted them to come, too. My Mom was really concerned about imposing on you and about fitting in with you. That's when Tara took the phone and talked to my Mom."

"Yes, Mom," Tara said. "She sounded really nice on the phone, but she was really reluctant to come here with the 'rich people.' I tried to assure her that we were really OK people and that you and Dad just wanted to meet them to say thank you for what Seth did for me last night. She asked me what to wear, what to bring, and how to get here. I told her we didn't want them to bring anything. As far as clothing is concerned, I told her we would have Lawrence and Suzette go over there tonight, get their measurements, and bring them new outfits tomorrow. I also said we'd send a car to get them on Christmas. I think I sort of blew her away, but she finally agreed."

"Well done, sweetheart," Joshua said. "It's good to see that your rich-bitch college friends haven't ruined you completely."

"Daddy, they almost did. Seth and I talked about that this afternoon. As horrible as last night was, it reminded me of what you guys always tried to teach me. People need to give of themselves to help other people. Whatever you have, you need to share with others. Poor Merle did that for me, just because I was nice to him. He had nothing to give but his life, so he gave that. Seth could have wound up paying the same price, since he chose to do for me what he thought was right, even though I had been awful to him. My college friends would never get that. I wanted to fit in with them, so I turned my back on that basic moral teaching you tried to instill in me. I became a conceited, mean-spirited rich bitch. I feel so ashamed, but now I remember the difference between right and wrong."