Diana Maitland watched John Wayne's face as he stared at her. She was sitting in his lap in a chair in front of a large window with the moonlight streaming in, bathing them in a soft glow along with the firelight beside and slightly behind them. She was still wearing his shirt, unbuttoned, and her underwear, and he was in nothing but his boxer shorts. It looked like he was thinking about a thousand different thingsāall having to do with her! When he finally grinned devilishly, she thought, "What the hell is he thinking now?"
He stopped grinning and put a mock look of hurt on his face as he took his arms from around her and folded them across his chest and started talking with a low, sexy voice that sounded slightly petulant, "You said it was ridiculous for me to feel like a 'dirty old man' for seducing a little girl like you! Well, I think you got it completely backward; you're a sexy, young goddess who has seduced a poor, aging movie idol who is starving for affection and yearns for a loving wife. And all you want from me is just to fuck you with my big cock! You're taking advantage of me...and I'm not going to fuck you any more until you say you'll marry me!"
She sat there, not quite knowing whether she wanted to laugh...or hit him! The look on his face was like that of a pouty little boy, but the tone of his voice sounded more sexy than petulant; and he threatened to withhold sex unless she agrees to MARRY HIM?! She decided to hit him; she leaned back and balled her right hand into a fist and punched him as hard as she could on his left upper arm.
"Owwww!" he yelled, as he frowned and looked at her and rubbed his upper arm with his right hand. He yelled again, "What the hell was that for? And where the hell did you learn to hit like that?!!" as he continued to frown, but with a wary look on his face as well.
She had clasped her hand to her mouth and her eyes went wide when she heard him yell; she didn't think she'd hit him that hard! She said a muffled "I'm sorry!" behind her hand with a slight laugh. Then she took her hand away from her mouth and frowned worriedly as she looked at him and asked, "Did that really hurt?" He nodded yes very quickly with his eyebrows raised and his forehead tightly wrinkled from still trying to frown at the same time. She said she was sorry again and moved his right hand away so she could look at his arm; there was a slightly pinkish area on his skin where she had punched him.
He asked her again, "How the hell did you learn to throw a punch like that?" He wasn't going to ask her again why she did it...he already knew why...because he'd tried to push marriage on her. It just dawned on him that he'd just tried to force Diana to agree to marry him when just two days ago he had been thinking of marrying someone else...oh God, he'd completely forgotten about Pilar! Thank God he'd already been frowning because his arm hurt, so Diana couldn't have seen on his face what had just popped into his mind.
She leaned down and kissed his arm softly where she hit him, then brought her right hand up to rub it softly as she said, "I told you that all the kids in my neighborhood teased and picked on me because I was one of the youngest and smallest. Well, my youngest brother took me aside when I was 7 and he was 17 and taught me how throw a really good first punch, so that if I got tired of someone who just wouldn't leave me alone, I could hit them really hard so they'd, hopefully, leave me alone and also think really hard about trying to hit me back! I can throw a few good, hard punches, but I'd be no match for someone any bigger than me for very longāI'd still get my ass kicked! But I did manage to scare off a couple of bullying boys who just wouldn't leave me alone!" she finished, grinning at him.
He was still frowning slightly, but with a slight grin on his face as well as he thought, "She still manages to surprise me...just when I'm beginning to think I know everything about her!" Then he thought, "Damn it! This 'turning the tables on her' thing just doesn't workāshe's too smart!" He laughed softly and shook his head as he said, "You know, maybe the reason boys weren't interested in you back then was because those bullies you punched told all the other boys they'd better not mess with you because you'd hurt them! Your brother taught you well; was he a boxer or something?" he asked as he rubbed the sore spot on his arm again.
She'd started to laugh slightly when he made his first comment, then raised her eyebrows and answered, "No. He was the youngest kid for a while, too, and he never liked anyone picking on him, and fighting just sort of came naturally to him as a way to make people leave him alone. He would never pick on anyone else or start fights, but he sure as hell finished them whenever anyone started anything with him. He's a big guy now, so nobody messes with him any more, but he'll still stand up for other people if anyone starts trying to pick a fight for no good reason. He kind of reminds me of your movie characters in that sense...I've always liked the idea of strong men who don't look for trouble, but they'll sure as hell try to keep anyone else from causing it!"
She glanced at his arm again and noticed that his skin was a darker pink than before, and she frowned and groaned, and said, "Oh, I hope I didn't leave a bruise on you! I guess I should be relieved you didn't hit me back!"
He frowned at her and said, "Why would you think I would hit you back? You should know me better than that! I'll admit I've had to smack a woman a couple times because she was trying to beat on me or shoot at me...but I'd never just haul off and punch a womanāno matter how badly she deserved it!"
She looked at him grinning and laughing softly as she asked, "Did you think I deserved it for punching you so hard for no good reason?"